Urukanachukwu Final Draft 2

A NATION
IN
TRANSITION
Preface
Acknowledgement
Dedication
Foreword
An Introduction
CONTENTS
PART 1: THE GATHERING STORM AND AVOIDABLE SHIPWRECK
Chapter 1: Nigeria: An Experiment in Nation Building
1. Introduction
2. Nigeria: Challenges Before a Bewildered Nation
 The Challenge from our History
 The Challenge of Socio-economic inequalities
 The Challenges of an appropriate constitutional
arrangement
 The Challenge of Building Democratic and
Developmental Institutions
 The Challenge of Leadership
 Challenges from Spirituality and Mysteries in
Governance in Nigeria: A Recapitulation
3. Inter-Governmental Relations in Nigeria: The
Increasing Dependency of the State Governments on
the Federal Government.
 Federal Supremacy (Increased Centralisation and
Consolidation of National Authority)
 Constitutional and Political Relations
 Administrative Relations
 Fiscal (Financial) Relations
 Adjustment of States to Federal Supremacy
 Federal – State Relationship: What It Should Be
4. Conclusion
5. References
Chapter 2: Historical Perspective of Hatred across Ethnic Nationalities of

Nigerian Union
(1) Background Studies

(2) Nigeria’s Geo-Political Tripod: The Syllabus of Errors
(a) The Igbos: A History of Ethnic Tension and Resentment
(b) The Yoruba: The Black Sheep of Nigerian Union?
(c) The Hausa/Fulani: The Troublers of Nigeria and the Reason the
Union is writhing in Blood, Turmoil and State Failure?
(3) Cries of the Children of a “Lesser God”?
(a) The Middle Belt Region
(b) South – South Minorities
(4) The Price of Conquest
(5) REFERENCES
Chapter 3: Nigerian Union Disputes and Dialogue: Impact and Significance of

Constitutional Force Majeure
(1) Background Studies

(2) Democracy versus Sharia: Which Way Nigeria?
(3) Insecurity in Nigeria: Full Text of Christian Elders’ Letter to the British
Parliament.
(4) Issues of Concern
 Disregard for Orders of Courts
 The Politics of Company and Allied Matters Acts (CAMA) 2020;
Hate Speech
 Caging the Social Media
 Kaduna State Religious Bill
 Rampage of the Fulani Herdsmen
 Grazing Reserve for Cattle
 Inconsistencies in Governmental Policies
(5) The 1999 Constitution and the Rise of Ethnic Nationalism in Nigeria:
What Next?
(6) Nigeria: Will Insecurity be contained via Constitutional Force Majeure?
(7) References
PART TWO: A CONSPIRACY TO ENSLAVEMENT AND

PROGRAMMED GENERATIONAL POVERTY OF THE NIGERIAN
PEOPLE
CHAPTER 4: Nigeria in the Belly of the Vulture
1. An Introduction
2. Where Vultures Feast: Nigeria
(i) “Criminal Crude” otherwise called Oil Theft in Nigeria
(ii) Oil Theft in Nigeria from 2009 – 2018: NEITI Reports
(iii) Illegal Gold Mining in Nigeria
(iv) Nigerian Politicians with the Acquired Vulture Virus
Syndrome (Treasury Looters Exposed)
(v) Some Convicted Government Top Officials Caught with
Corruption and Abuse of Office.
(vi) Some High Profile Corruption Cases under Buhari
Administration.
 Ibrahim Magu’s Alleged Loots: Facts on Alleged Re-
Looting of Recovered Funds, Magu’s Alleged Dubai
Properties; Sales of 157 Oil Tankers.
 Crisis in Niger Delta Development Commission
(NDDC): Alleged Financial Recklessness.
 Corruption in the Oil Sector.
 Alleged Scam at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
under Godwin Emefiele.
 Fiscal Governance in Nigeria and the Bastardization of
the “Federation Account”.
(vii) Executive cum Legislative Conspiracy: The Unholy Political
Matrimony
(viii) Nigerians: Villains by Necessity, Fools by Heavenly
Compulsion?
3. Conclusion
4. References
CHAPTER 5: The Cost of Politics and Governance in Nigeria
1. Background Studies
2. The Three Arms of Government: A Democratic Burden
 The Legislative (Legislating to Steal)
 The Executive
 The Judiciary
3. Cost of Politics and Politicking in Nigeria
 Conducts of National Elections in Nigeria: A Democratic Deficit!
 2019 Elections: Nigeria’s Most Expensive Elections Ever.
4. Rise and Rise of Elections Cost
5. Recommendation and Conclusion
6. References
CHAPTER 6: Nigeria in the Belly of the Vampire
1. A Preliminary Statement
2. Is the All Progressive Congress (APC) the Direct Sponsor of Terrorism in
Nigeria?
 Muhammadu Buhari, the APC and Terrorism in Nigeria: Matters
Arising!
3. Sharia and Nigeria under Buhari: The Demise of Secular Union
 The Drivers of Terrorism and Insecurity in Nigeria
 Islamization Likened to a Football Game with One Goal Mouth
4. #EndSARS#: A Metaphor for Complete Disenchantment with the
Excesses of the Nigeria Government and Its Officials
 SARS, The Licensed Killing Squad of Nigeria Police Force
5. Nigeria: How to Destroy a Country by Electing a Buhari
 Background Studies
 Nigeria: Stolen from the Mind of the Fulani
 Nepotistic Tendencies of the Buhari Administration: Matters
Arising!
 Full List of Army Officers Compulsorily Retired in 2016
6. Muhammadu Buhari, the Northern Nigeria Fulani Oligarchs and the
wider network of Fulani in Sub-Saharan Africa.
7. References
Chapter 7: Renegotiating a New Nigeria
(1) An Introduction
(2) Understanding Restructuring: The Basis
(3) Pathway to a New Nigeria
(i) Is the Unity of Nigeria not Negotiable?
(ii) The North-South Dimension of the Nigeria Question.
(iii) The North-South Question and a History of Grievances
(iv) The North-South Question – A Political Trajectory
(4) An Attempt at Restructuring Nigeria at Aburi Conference
 Background to Aburi Meeting
 The Constitutional Debate
 Bad Faith of Lt. Col. Gowon
 Aburi Conference: A Constitution in Waiting.
(5) Restructuring through the Prism of Nigeria’s Ethnic Nationalities
 Ohaneze Ndigbo’s South-East Summit on Restructuring Nigeria
 Yoruba Position on Restructuring Nigeria
 Arewa’s Position on Restructuring Nigeria
(6) The Road to Freedom – Movement for New/No Nigeria (MNN) and
Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination
(NINAS).
 MNN and NINAS – Who are they?
 Correcting the Mistake of 1914
(7) References
PART THREE: “FULANISATION” OF NIGERIA AND

“ISLAMIZATION” OF BLACK AFRICA
Chapter 8: TERRORISM IN NIGERIA (The rise of Islamic Fundamentalism in
Nigeria)
2. Understanding the Boko Haram
3. Timeline on Boko Haram Insurgency
4. Counter-Terrorism Measures
 Patterns of Operation
 Boko Haram: Collapse, Amnesty or Assimilation?
 Conclusion
5. Fulani Herders: Terrorism or Manifestation of a Failed State?
 The Gulf between Fulani rulers and herders
 Timeline on Activities of the Fulani Herdsmen
 Fulani Herders: Timeline on Attacks in Benue State between 2013
and 2016.
6. Banditry in Nigeria: A Brief History of a Long War
 Bandits, State Actors and Non-State Actors
7. References
PART FOUR: MORAL OBLIGATION TO RESIST COLLECTIVE EVIL
Chapter 9: Stride towards Freedom
(i) Background Studies

(ii)Politics of Protection in Nigeria
(iii) Nigeria Armed Forces: A National Institution or Army of the North
with a Regional Islamic Agenda?
 A Preliminary Statement
(iv) Formation of Regional Security Network
 “Operation Amotekun”: The Western Nigeria Security Network
 The Formation of Eastern Security Network (ESN)
 “Operation Shege-ka-Fasa” The Politics of Northern Regional
Security Outfit
(v) References
PART FIVE: WHEN TYRANNY BECOMES A LAW, REBELLION

BECOMES A DUTY
Chapter 10: BIAFRA: The Struggle for Freedom
2. Biafra Secession and the Rights and Limits of Self-
Determination
 The Biafran Claim for Self-Determination and Its Critics
 Self-Determination and the Dilemma of the Post-Colonial
State
3. 50 Years On, Biafra’s Pain Still Fresh
4. Shocking Adoption of IPOB Leader – the Extra-ordinary
Rendition, the Looming Chaos
 A Disgrace to the Rule of Law
5. References
Chapter 11: Genocide in Nigeria: Calling It What It Is
1) Background Studies
2) Is Genocide Happening in Nigeria as the World Turns a Blind Eye?
3) Is Genocide against Christians Silently Unfolding in Nigeria?
4) History of Igbo Massacre
5) The Biafra Genocide and Its Aftermath: The Tragedy of Africa’s
Unlearned Lessons
 What ‘Internal Affairs’? Whose’ ‘Internal Affairs’?
6) The New and Emerging Genocide against an Indigenous People
 Background Studies
 The Unfolding Genocide
 An Appraisal
 “Dot in a Circle” and/or “Dot Nation”: How the Presidency Goofed
7).References
_____________________________________________________________
________
Countries are not great just because of the presence of Infrastructure or natural resources
but for the presence of great people who have made great sacrifices, discoveries and choices
to provide great solutions and sacrifices in times of need. – IJIGBAN OKETA (National
Coordinator Arise Nigeria Global Mission)
“Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that
people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders … and millions have been killed
because of this obedience… Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full
of petty thieves … (and) the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem”. –
Howard Zinn, author of People’s History of the United States, 1492 – President.
“…it is mass suicide for a population to become generally sheepish and unquestioning …
Historically, the most terrible things – war, genocide and slavery – have resulted not from
disobedience but from obedience.” – Howard Zinn, author of People’s History of the
United States, 1492 - President
PREFACE
I’m not too sure that I willingly chose to write again about Nigeria. It was
providence I want to believe that chose me! And, in yielding to that choice,
three emotions were at work in me – honour, humility and trepidation.
I am honoured and humbled to write about Africa’s supposedly most important

and most populous nation, generously called “the Giant of Africa” because of
her richness in human and natural resources. But her foundation, barely 6 years
after independence, has been tested and shaken by strong winds of civil war,
ethnic insurrections, militancy, and religious crisis. Those foundations have
been buffeted by the gale of terrorism, by the floods of mass kidnappings and
by the disruptive hurricane of criminal herdsmen and cattle rustlers and for the
periods of six decades or so, those foundations have been compromised and
compounded by the tsunami of corruption.1
I’m also expected to shed light on every dark corners of our national life so that
darkness be exposed, and possibly checkmated while suggesting a way forward.
This is the basis of my trepidation. I therefore crave your indulgence as I
attempt to paint a few strokes on a canvass that is almost “impossible to fill up”.
Like the proverbial six blind men touching the elephant, each of us can only tell
a small part of what we experienced of this supposedly great nation standing on
bended knees.
While it is, indeed, a good thing to be proud of one’s country – which I struggle
most of the time to be – but I am menaciously confronted with unassailable
evidences, spanning a century of Nigeria’s history that evokes not pride but
shame if I don’t want to be economical with the truth.
In appreciating the times we are in, Senator Adeyeye while addressing his
colleagues on the floor of the Senate said: “I stand before you today fully
cognizant, as are many of you in this audience, that these days are not the best
for Nigeria. At the risk of being called prophets of doom, we really have no
choice than to admit that our country, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, lies in
the paths of sundry tornadoes, hurricanes, cyclones, storms, superstorms,
whirlwinds, and typhoons all of which are rushing towards our Republic with
deadly speeds and their concomitant devastating momentum.”2
Granted that we cannot perfectly predict what the future holds. Nonetheless, we
can examine, assess and calibrate past and present events in order to reasonably
predict events of the future, thereby preparing against and averting preventable
disasters and crisis. In practical terms, patriots have the responsibility to seek
and say the truth about their country even if doing so results in being perceived,
rightly or wrongly, either as the apostles of hope or as the harbingers of doom.
Fortunately, (or rather unfortunately for Nigerians), we no longer need to

predict the approach of any gales for our republic. “The gales of doom have not
only approached our doors; they gustily and ferociously bang on them!” 3 Today,
the realities on ground suggest that Nigeria is not a life to be lived. It is not even
a story to pass on! Unfortunately and regrettably too, lamentations have become
not only the House of Nigeria, but also the people of Nigeria – the government
of the day is lamenting, the governors and the governed are all lamenting. As
humans, we let our emotions out by way of lamentations. But lamentations are a
small sacrifice to make, a small price to pay for restoration of things.
It is most unfortunate and sad reality that Nigerians have the unenviable
distinction of being the only humans on earth who carry a passport of a nation
but who indeed is not really regarded and treated as citizens of the nation. Those
that rule Nigeria today are complete strangers, who are untouched by its pains –
they don’t use the same hospitals as ordinary Nigerians use; they and their
family members go abroad for medical check-ups and medical holidays, their
children are studying abroad because there are no quality schools in the land
where their fathers and uncles are presidents and governors. Even some of them
who work in Nigeria have their doctors not in Nigeria, etc. Our present
leadership is such a resounding failure that one could no longer gloss over the
systemic rot, the complete collapse of the Nigeria-state as it were. It is so
evident that no one could successfully argue it or rationalise its existence.
We have a governance (leadership) crisis and our political system has made
nonsense of knowledge. All the ethnic nationalities have their share of
grievances and none appear to have an exclusive monopoly of it nor has the
capacity to shoot their way into grievances or out of it. Crocodiles have been
smiling in some parts of Nigeria and pythons have been dancing to the delight
of those beating the drum. Some Nigerians have been made to drink mud
(potopoto) waters and executed extra-judicially, and human organs have been
harvested and there were no consequences, even as millions and billions of local
and foreign currencies are spent to rehabilitate and pay ransom to criminals and
terrorists; and at the same time expending our meagre resources in building
refineries and railways in a desert country while Nigeria is left to rot. Nigerians
have been gratuitously injured to the extent that no reasonable Nigerian would
be in doubt that her government is a moral hazard through and through.
As I’m penning down this point, information is reaching us about Nigeria’s

economy and the controversial printing of NGN 60 billion by the Central Bank
of Nigeria without recourse to fiscal due process in order to top-up distributable
monies and this only help to reinforce the moral bankruptcy and the moral
burden the government has become. With this illegal printing of Nigeria’s
currency, our total debt standing, as at today, is about NGN 16 trillion. And, just
few days ago, the Buhari government has borrowed some NGN 722 billion for
capital expenditure of 2021 fiscal year. Nigerians believe that most of these
funds ultimately find permanent residence in corrupt private pockets. Where do
we go from here?
A cross-fertilization of ideas among Nigerians have revealed that most

aggrieved people regard referendum as the magic bullet that will carve out their
utopian republics out of the evil empire that Nigeria truly is. But there appears
to be a lacuna here! Some critics have argued that “citizenship” and
“referendum” are products of democracy and not until we’ve been able to
secure true democracy in Nigeria, it would be absurd to demand “citizenship
rights”. Even the Constitution has no place for a referendum, this group
submits.
According to them, this is one of the major reasons why votes of Nigerians do
not really count because they are not yet treated as citizens. It is therefore
germane and fundamental to ask: if we cannot hold ‘common’ councillorship
elections in Nigeria, how on earth can you have a genuine referendum to break
up Nigeria even when the government is a major stake holder? They have
argued that ours is a “national problem” not tribal, not religious but a class and
that when we reduce it to secession or nothing, it distracts us from what we
should rightly be focused on. They have argued that even if most people want
secession, it is important to establish the citizenship rights of the average
Nigerians before asking for a referendum. It is the citizenship rights that acquire
the electoral rights to a referendum. The advocates of these views have opined
that a referendum is not achievable within the objective reality in the absence of
war and that the binary vision that leads us to think that Nigeria need to break
will only lead us to the road of Mogadishu.
Consequently, some others have argued that what we really need now is a
“ground sweeping” national revolution most likely a bloody one that neutralises
and equalises all things and all persons. They argue that in a nation where
elections are not credible to effect a desired change when necessary, a nation
that the Courts decide and determine election victory instead of the electorates
(citing the case of the incumbent Imo State governor who came 4th in the 2019
gubernatorial election but was declared the winner by the Supreme Court of
Nigeria in what appeared a judicial coup), a state where you cannot even protest
and ventilate your grievances because the State will unleash her mad dogs after
you as was the case of the #EndSARS# protests; a state that fetes with criminal
elements to achieve whatever objectives she is driving at – the only reasonable
option left is to rebel and revolutionize. They argue that a nation worth dying
for must be one that is worth living for, thus can only be achieved if and when a
surgical operation is done to extract the common criminals (and these defy
tribes) from the Nigeria scene permanently for life.
However, twelve years ago, the American Intelligence apparatchiks predicted

that Nigeria would disintegrate before or not too long after 2015. Mixed
reactions greeted the CIA message. Nevertheless, Nigeria is yet to disintegrate
despite two decades preceding that prediction by the CIA, even though
numerous countries of the world had failed, crumbled and disintegrated under
the crushing weight of their own internal contradictions!
If the truth must be told, the Nigeria nation creaks and moans from the battering
gales that precariously dangle us on the precipice of disintegration. The
American prediction has not come true yet. But as Senator Adeyeye rightly
pointed out: “… we would be suffering from delusion-induced astigmatism,
cataracts, myopia, glaucoma and macular degeneration if we fail to see that it is
not too late for the prediction to be fulfilled”.4
Problems, whether of nations or individuals, are not solved by denying that they
exist. Even so, what is most important is not our recognition that ferocious
challenges buffet Nigeria. Instead, it is our willingness to stem and avert these
gales and their centrifugal forces that perennially jolt and weaken the threads
holding the seams of Nigeria.5
For a start, perhaps, let’s be generous enough to first convince ourselves that
keeping Nigeria from disintegration is a worthwhile goal if only we are
prepared to make it work.
Our once beloved but presently, seemingly and increasingly unjust, iniquitous,
wicked, and evil God-forsaking nation could be likened to the proverbial farmer
searching for his black goat. He has to do it with a sense of urgency because
darkness is setting in as the sun quickly recedes. “Nigeria has become one huge
waste land, huge debris of the deceit, lies, treachery, double dealing and
duplicity. Nigerian politics has become a huge Trojan horse, a hoax, a hall of
guile and dissimulation. The levels of frustration are rising by the day and we
can see all this in the cumulative rise in domestic violence and intercommunal
conflicts. A combination of all these has turned us unto a nation at war with
itself.” 7
We have a national crisis of values dressed in hypocrisy. National values

systems are principles, standards of behaviour and judgement of what is
acceptable by all within a nation. A national value then is a representation of
what the people generally consider and strictly adhere to as very integral to its
national success. In many ways, this attitude reflects in peoples’ daily practice.
“A British Lieutenant General Sir Fredrick Stanley Maude was tasked to conquer
Baghdad in 1917.
Upon arrival to Iraq, he came across a shepherd and his herd in a field. He asked his
translator to offer a shilling to the shepherd and ask him to slaughter his dog.
A dog is very important companion to a shepherd. It warns him of all impeding
dangers and guards the herd from wolves and thieves, but at that time, with a shilling
one could buy half a herd…..
The shepherd agreed to the deal, grabbed his dog and slaughtered it at the feet of the
General.
General Maude said to the shepherd;”I’ll give you an additional shilling to skin the
dog!
The shepherd took the shilling and skinned the dog. Then the General offered the
third shilling to cut the dog into quarters.
The shepherd took the shilling and chopped the dog. Now the shepherd told the
General that for a fourth Shilling, he would eat the dog, to which the General
answered: “I wanted to learn about your values in this country, and I discovered that
you slaughtered, skinned and chopped your most trusted friend and companions for
three shillings!
You were even ready to eat it for an additional one….That’s all I needed to learn
about your Country!”
Then he addressed his soldiers and said, “As long as this kind of mentality prevails in
this country and you can buy anyone, don’t fear anything and no one!’ Since that time
and till our days, in that part of the world, officials have sold their countries, their
people, their friends, their honour and their principles for a house in Europe and
bank account in Switzerland.
Are you any different from that Shepherd?”(“A Country with No Values”,
https://www.bitsofnaija.com.ng/2021/06/15/a-country-with-no-values/)
Are you in this category? Are Nigerian shepherds different from those in
Baghdad, Iraq and other parts of the corrupt and selfish world? Isn’t it about
time we changed the face of our country?
It therefore presupposes that our decisions – both as individuals and/or as a

nation – often reflect the values we espouse. Very often our behaviour, what we
say and do, is influenced by our “values”. It is the currency of life which
influences the relationship between our “leaders” and the rest of us. A society
that repeatedly fails to evolve an unambiguous moral and ethical code in which
vice in all its forms and no matter its end-product is abhorred and condemned,
some individuals will emerge who offer themselves as “leaders” but whose real
aim is to exploit the climate of moral and ethical ambiguity for their selfish
ends.
We seem to have lost our ways because we seem to have lost the wisdom of
governance and the wisdom of service as well as the wisdom that flows from
spirituality that undergirds both. We need to interrogate how the failure of
politics and of faith has compromised the unravelling of the Nigerian project.
There is something fundamentally wrong in the relationship between religion
and politics in Nigeria. On the one hand, Nigeria has suffered, is suffering huge
and massive human and governance tragedy resulting from the religious
insurgency of Boko Haram and the Fulani herders. On the other hand and
simultaneously, the social dimension of Nigeria’s religiosity provides a
shocking direct proportionality between the proliferation of churches and
mosques and a thriving corruption mentality in Nigerian society and public life.
The moral hazard of the Buhari government was brought to the fore when the
US government listed the name of Nigeria’s minister of Communications and
Digital Economy – Isa Pantami – on the terrorist list. Reports said Pantami had
been placed on the watch list of the United States of America over alleged link
with the leadership of terrorist group operating in the North East, Boko Haram.
Isa Panama did express views sympathetic to groups such as al-Qaeda, Taliban
and Boko Haram. Pantami whom critics have rated as the real symbol (or thrust)
of Buhari administration was perceived as an extremist, an Islamist and a
jihadist and therefore Nigerians have queried why such a character should be
allowed to serve as a minister of the federal republic of Nigeria, a supposedly
multi-ethnic, multi-religious Secular state.
As Nigerians were still flabbergasted about the “Pantami conundrum”, enters

the “Malami-gate” in his insensitive comparison of spare parts dealers (in the
North) with the Fulani herders. Taking to his social media, a Biafra-born
distinguished legal luminary, Chidi Odinkalu was so appalled by Malami’s
reckless utterances that he wrote: “Of the many misadventures that define the
regime of @Mbuhari, his Attorney-General, @MalamiSan, takes the cake. He is
a special piece of wilful nuisance. It takes considered intent to be so illiterate as
Attorney-General”.
Nigerians complain that the country is full of Churches and Mosques and yet
they cannot find the values of these religions in everyday life. “We sin at home
by stealing the nation’s resources but we seek repentance and forgiveness in
Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem in the guise of lesser or higher pilgrimages. We
make money from abandoning projects duly paid for by governments without
genuine accountability and retribution; it is as if we have adopted
“Contractocracy” as a governance mechanism. We are allowing others to use
our money to develop their own infrastructure.” 8 Our elites all assembled in
Dubai and Europe for Christmas and also to welcome the New Year.
It is therefore in this important sense that one argues that nations, just like
individuals, sleep on whatever bed they had laid. The pervasive dysfunction and
decay in our national institutions are the creations of Nigerians, not God or
Satan. We can pray for as long as we wish in our churches and mosques. We
can tarry in our endless camps and so-called vigils. As virtue recedes into the
sunset in our country, there is an urgent need for us to pause and take stock of
what is required to save our country.9
In African world view, all life is thought to be created, recreated, preserved and
affirmed by the Supreme God. Hence, the chief functions of human is to create,
recreate, preserve and affirm life in communion with God and all of God’s
spiritual associates which include not only sub-divinities and ancestral spirits,
but all leaders, institutions and movements serving the wellbeing of their
people.10-11
The relevance of the above to our central theme stems from the fact that an
average Nigerian is already a product of a worldview which he wears as a
spectacle through which he views life. It is then a fact of life that an average
Nigerian – Christian, Moslem, Traditionalist, Animists and even atheists –
pursues and interrogates life from a point of view of bias, a guidance or
foreknowledge which influences his position relatively to one or more of the
innumerable points of life’s compass.
One is therefore not surprise as we are all living witnesses how Nigeria’s
Lagos-Ibadan Expressway probably hosts the highest concentration of sectarian
zealots in the world. It would not be an over-statement to also posit that it has
the distinction of being the only federal expressway in the world where trucks
are parked anywhere that suits the insanity of their drivers. Certainly, God sees
it all. He probably smiles at it all! 12
Instead of us challenging the vicissitudes and concatenations of aggravated and

enabling conditions which have threatened our lives, standing between us and
living a good and quality life on earth, we resort to praying and fasting even as
we are suffering and smiling as Fela Anikulapo-Kuti once sang. Truth be told,
when The Bible authoritatively asserts that righteousness exalts a nation
(Proverbs 14:34), the Judeo-Christian holy book never envisaged, I want to
believe, the endless religious jamborees and superstitious abracadabra on the
Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. It is neither the responsibility of Jesus nor that of
Mohammed to give jobs and make the quality of lives of the people of Nigeria
better; it is those of their government.
I am yet to understand how Japan (majority of the Japanese are Buddhists) who
neither worship Jesus Christ as the Son of God nor pay obeisance to
Mohammed as God’s prophet could be so blessed that they lead a good quality
life on earth unencumbered and free from all unreasonable encumbrances
having all the necessities that life requires. The opposite is the case in
comparison with his Nigerian counterpart. And yet, because of its endless
Buddhist temples, Japan might be classified by Nigerians as a nation of infidels!
Furthermore, the natural resources of Nigeria by far exceed those of Japan. Yet,
see what the Japanese have made of their nation.13
Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia and countries predominated by

Christians are all doing well. Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan,
Kuwait, the UAE all of which have Muslims as the majority are all doing well.
Even Israel, the only country in the world whose majority subscribe to Judaism,
is doing well. Japan is doing well with its Shinto and Buddhism. Needless to
say, China and Russia, both of which are pre-dominated by atheists are doing
marvellous. This kaleidoscopic array of countries that are doing well show that
progress and well-being of nations are not exclusively fostered by just one
theology! 14
About 79,000 Nigerian Muslims spent $5,000 each to go to Saudi Arabia to

“kill” the Devil with stone. That is some $395,000,000 from a poor
undeveloped country like Nigeria, only from Muslim pilgrim faithful’s.
Obviously, the economy of Saudi Arabia is growing through tourism.
Simultaneously, some 50,000 Christians went to Israel to kiss Jesus statute and
attach JP to their names. Some $250,000,000 – $645,000,000 was reportedly
expended. And, this happens two times a year ($1.3bn).15 Yet, we have no single
well-equipped world-standard hospital anywhere in Nigeria, our roads are death
traps, no good water to drink, nothing! We prefer building cathedrals and
worship centres that worth millions of dollars instead of building industries,
factories and supporting agro-based businesses. We prefer to be asking Jesus
and Allah to provide us with good health and heal our wounds and attend to our
numerous and innumerable needs and wants instead of asking and demanding
from our government to fulfil her fundamental objective and derivative
principles of state as enshrined in the constitution and insisting that it be made
justiciable. And, it might interest you to know that over £400 billion have been
illegally stashed away from Nigeria and kept in Europe, America and Asia
continents by those calling the name of Jesus and those killing for Allah. Where
is the life we’ve lost in living? What is really wrong with the brain of Africans
(Nigerians)?
Let me tell us the blunt truth now. It isn’t the fornication you are committing
that is causing the killings going on in Nigeria. Neither is it punishment from
God. Any man of God telling you that it is the sins of Nigerians that are causing
the evil going on in Nigeria is economical with the truth. Why didn’t same sins
stop him from living extravagant lifestyle? They ask us to have faith in the
miraculous works of God for our salvation. While I may have some believe in
some miracles, I want to say that the miraculous is only a periodic intervention
of divinity in the affairs of humanity when humanity is helpless and confused. It
cannot and will never take the place of strategic planning and activating sound
economic principles and values that represents the cornerstone of raising the
common man to some reasonable standard and basis of livelihood.
I want to believe that God (including His Son Jesus Christ and perhaps His
prophet Mohammed) is not and should not be an option in our lives but a
necessity. But it is important to understand that God did not send Jesus or
Mohammed on the grounds of erasing poverty of Nigerians, any people. People
were rich before Jesus and Mohammed came and dwelled among us. And
people are rich after their departure. There are many rich and prosperous people
who do not believe in Christ or Mohammed. Some of them do not even believe
in God, as it were! Nigerians do not necessarily need Jesus or Mohammed to
live a good quality lives the way our preachers want us believe. We should not
allow preachers to begin to preach and lure us into believing and demanding on
God what government and politics can and should rather give us, what
medicine, engineering, etc. can and should provide us and then stop us from
looking for that thing that perhaps only Jesus Himself can give us and without it
every other thing is useless. That thing that is more fundamental is now
relegated to the background and we are busy pursuing what we should rightly
get from elsewhere while forgetting the only thing which we cannot get from
anywhere else – our salvation (salvation from sin, self and Satan). The
demands for better life does not reckon with praying and fasting but with
rigorous political, financial (fiscal), socio-cultural and economic exercises.
And so, while our political space is presently on life-support, only “surviving”
with oxygen of corruption, our religious and cultural institutions do not fare any
better. Is there anything whatsoever that can inspire an average Nigerian to
“die” for his country? It is only what inspires us that we can perspire and be
inspired and perspired to acquire. Until we organize our values aright, ‘life will
not organize around us’. We appear too confused and warped as a nation to ask:
Nigerian pastors, religious leaders, politicians and witches: which of them drank
our blood and jeopardize our destinies?
Questions will definitely be asked by posterity about what this generation of

Nigerians have done with their past and the present. It appears, I want to
believe, that there is no country on earth where leaders and political elites
behave as irresponsible as they do in this present Nigeria. They denied us job
and we became self-employed; denied us water, and we dug our borehole. They
denied us light and we bought generators… denied us good road and we created
paths. They denied us security but we formed vigilantes. They stole and raped
us blind and there were no consequences for their sins. Evidently, they stole our
yesterday, have their filthy hands on our today and their rapacious eyes are
fixated at our tomorrow, “Haba! Mba nu!!” And, yet at sixty, we say we are
proud Nigerians. Are we not proud idiots?
However, it is germane and fundamental to appreciate the fact that no society

has ever fully solved the problems associated with great diversities of modern
life – religious, ethnic, social and cultural diversities. As Nigerians are
struggling with theirs, they should also have a look towards others who have
travelled similar routes and survived. It is indeed a formidable challenge.
Nigerians must be free, and indeed, honest in order to find answers to the
diversities of culture, religion, ethnicity, etc.
No doubt, decades of misrule and deprivation have indeed made our religious
and ethnic divisions deeper. Nobody can wave a hand and make the problems
go away. We ought to have found honourable ways to reconcile our differences
on common ground. But unfortunately, we are simply piling new grievances on
old ones. Yet, the overwhelming fact of modern life everywhere appears to be
our growing inter-dependence.
Nigeria is be-devilled by humanities oldest problem – the fear of the other

people who are different from us. And it is such a short step from being afraid
of someone to distrusting them, to disliking them, to hating them, to oppressing
them, to using violence against them. It is a slippery, slippery slope.16
Nigerians, especially our leaders must appreciate the fact that every Nigerian
counts, no matter his station in life; no matter his ethnic, religious, or political
affiliations and orientation. Every Nigerian deserves a chance at life and we all
do better when we help each other and when we find a way for everyone to
follow his or her path through life, guided by their own lights and their own
faith. After all Nigeria is greater than any of its parts. 17
Today, the ruling elites over the years have failed woefully to manage the
diversity of this great country. Nigerians know that people of highly
questionable moral and spiritual characters have captured political power. Toxic
politics fuelled and produced much hatred which destroyed the dreams and
moral vision of our founding fathers. Today, Nigeria has come to characterise
some of the out layers of the Inferno.18 Today Nigeria is a tale of two peoples –
the core north and the rest of us.
We appear to have completely lost, or rather fixated in linguistic in exactitudes

between the two words: “complete” and “finished”. To some bewildered
average Nigerians, there is no difference between the two; but to others, there
is: When we were operating a fiscal federal arrangement of pre-1966 when the
regions were truly autonomous and autochthonous, Nigeria was said to be
“complete”. When the military interfered and interrogated our democratic
process in 1966, Nigeria was (and still is) said to be “finished”! When the
people decided to vote in “an agent of destabilization, ethnic bigot, and religious
fanatic” disguising as a corruption Czar and a messiah sent to salvage Nigeria
from the mess past administrations had left her, Nigeria is said to be
“completely finished”! And when this “messiah” appears to have been trapped
in the consuming blindness of his messianic hugeness and never perceives
himself in a transient emergency of a democratic process but proclaims his role
in the salvaging inevitability of a god to change the demography of Nigeria by
stealthily and surreptitiously creating a country for his wanderers tribe at the
expense of the indigenous ethnic nationalities that are stakeholders in the
project “one Nigeria”, then Nigeria is said to have “finished completely”. No
wonder why they built refineries in the desert and want to build “cow
settlements” in the lands from where the oil comes.
The foundation of Nigeria appears (manifestly) fraudulent. Is Nigeria as it is
presently constituted a “legal entity”? Put differently, in what important sense
can Nigeria presently be said to be truly a legal entity? It suffices that every
relationship is governed by an agreement. The last time, it appears, Nigeria had
an agreement was in the 1963 Republican Constitution when Nigerian people
expressed their wishes and Will to write a Constitution that can rightly have
such appellation as “We the people …”)
The 1999 Constitution appears to be the most blatantly fraudulent document

ever. Nigeria is the only country on earth that has two conflicting and
irreconcilable ideologies – democracy and Islam – conspicuously embedded in
her 1999 Rogue Constitution! The 12 core Northern Sharia states, acting
simultaneously, exercised their rights to self-determination – the right to exit the
secular Union when they declared their states as Sharia states. This “Apartheid
Constitution” is perceived by major stake-holders as being compromised to the
extent that it has clearly become an existential threat. A section of Nigeria has
declared war on the rest of us. And for 21 years after the adoption of the so-
called 1999 Constitution, self-determination is now activated.
“Because Nigeria has perennially malfunctioned in recent years and decades, we do
not need to be geniuses to conclude that our societal malfunctions are the
inescapable manifestations of constitutive defects in the structure. It behoves us to
diligently and dispassionately pinpoint these defects, remove or redress them, and
thereby terminates the debilitating malfunctions that result in inefficiency, corruption,
malaise, disorder, and underdevelopment.
No President, king or emperor will make Nigeria work until we evolve a truly federal
system...” 19
It would therefore be safe to conveniently state that the problems of Nigeria can
never be resolved by personnel changes only. The system is designed with
impunity guarding it and therefore can never deliver anything positive to the
Nigerian peoples. Every Nigerian, in a way, is rendered “stateless” by the 1999
Constitution. It is an iniquitous, wicked and evil document that has nothing
good for Nigerian people. We cannot continue to build on top of lies and
propaganda. For, as long as justice is missing in a place, you will continue to
have strife. The closest we can have to return to normalcy in Nigeria is to have a
return to the Original Agreement that founded the country. Those agreements
are fundamental. But if we chose to become a nation of lies and propaganda
ready to accept every lie sold to us, peace would continue to elude us.
The most attacked object in life whether as individuals or nations is purpose.
What purpose do the framers of the so-called 1999 Constitution of Nigeria
intend to pursue by marrying two strange bed-fellows? This Constitution is the
greatest undoing that underpins and instigates the chain-reactions of other
misfortunes rocking the boat of the bewildered nation. It generously undermines
and denies the country ‘her best behaviour’. It could be likened to the fact that
the devil preserves a mad man only to constantly remind the family members of
the pain of a destroyed destiny.
The attitude of the Buhari-led APC-controlled Federal Republic of Nigeria

towards the dreaded Boko Haram terrorist group and the murderous Fulani
herders reminds me of the Theatre of the Absurd in the literary world. The term
was coined by Martin Esslin which describes aspects of drama that emphasizes
the illogicality and meaninglessness in human actions. Martin Esslin gave
credence to the work of Albert Camus, “The Myth of Sisyphus” which
underscores man’s laborious commitment and lack of focus. The illogical, futile
and meaningless praxis of the absurdist tradition correlates and collaborates
with Buhari government’s responses to Boko Haram members and Fulani
herders and their activities.20
In 2015, the world body ranked Fulani militants masquerading as herders as the
fourth most lethal terrorist group in the world — behind only Boko Haram, ISIS
and al-Shabaab. Why have they not be declared and treated as terrorists despite
mountain of evidences and confessions authenticating their culpability in
terrorism-related crimes and other crimes against humanity including ethnic
cleansing? But those seeking for self-determination through a referendum were
promptly tagged terrorists and visited with all the forces and venom the state
could garner, including forcing them to drink mud waters with all manner of
human right abuses and extra-judicial killings that go with it.
And suddenly, some northern governors and government officials have turned
kidnapping into huge business, using abductions by Bandits as a source of
siphoning public funds. These criminals in government advocate a policy of
dialogue with the criminal elements and troublers of the nation by espousing
amnesty and unconditional pardon and settlement of Bandits with cash running
in millions and billions of local and foreign currencies. Oh no! That should not
be. Is it not the same crime that “Evans the Kidnapper” committed and was
committed to the prison that those bandits from the north are committing daily
but were rewarded with ransom supported by their political and religious
leaders? Instead, they (Bandits) must be degraded and decimated to a state of
unconditional submission to constitutional authority if the government do not
intend to undermine her moral ontology of existence.21
It is therefore germane and fundamental to pause and ask as one of my mentors,

Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah did: where have all the good men in Nigeria
gone to? Where did it all begin to go wrong for us as a people? Where did the
building blocks of trust begin to collapse on us? Why has sin and sinfulness
enveloped our once beloved nation? Why has our sun set at midday? Are
ordinary Nigerians really “citizens” or are they indeed “captives” of systemic
slavery, “colonized” and systematically misappropriated by the political elites?
How did the milk of humanity become the blood of death in Nigeria? Is it in the
stars? Are the gods to blame? If Nigeria is inexorably locked onto the current
trajectory, can it survive till 2023? Will Buhari become the last president of a
‘united’ Nigeria?
I am not a prophet, giving a prophecy in the order of ‘thus says the Lord’. Jesus
made reference to this practice as quoted in Matthew 16:1–3 (NKJV): “Then the
Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show
them a sign from heaven. He answered and said to them, “When it is evening
you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; and in the morning, ‘It will
be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You
know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the
times.”22 But are the signs not there for Nigerians to see? If we can predict the
weather, would it not be hypocritical to feign ignorance regarding the
foreboding state of the nation? Can we not see the clouds gathering ahead of a
major storm?
Warning! There is too much turbulence ahead! A competent helmsman knows

not to sail in such a situation instead of ignoring the weather forecast only to
subsequently shipwreck, kill himself, the crew and the passengers, as well as
destroy the ship and cargo! Is Nigeria not sliding into avoidable genocide?
History reveals that all governments, empires and kingdoms of men, no matter
how grand, no matter how powerful, ultimately fall. It happened to ancient
Egypt, Assyria and Babylon. Even Rome was not exempt; though it dominated
much of Europe, Northern Africa, the Middle East and parts of the Near East,
and lasted for 500 years, the Roman Empire ultimately fell.
There is an old and popular saying: “Rome was not built in a day.” Likewise,
the Roman Empire did not fall in one night; its decline was gradual. Not long
after it rose to world dominance, several factors were already at work
contributing to the empire’s ultimate demise.
Similarly, these factors are at work among the nationalities of the Nigerian
peoples—and serve as warning signs of a nation destined to fall.
It was therefore in this important sense that Nigeria’s Vice President, Prof.
Yemi Osinbajo, has proposed an increased number of new tribe of Nigerians
that would be committed to a country run on high values of integrity, hard work,
justice and love of country.23
Going by the peculiar circumstances in which we find ourselves the real issue is
the fact that if Nigeria must remain one, indivisible, indissoluble political entity,
then she needs to restructure, first and foremost before any further elections in
the country otherwise it would be continuity in the oblivion. This is the position
of some well-meaning Nigerians who still believe in a “united” Nigeria.
Otherwise, we might even woke up one day and discover that Nigeria is no
more.
Those at the driver’s seat in Aso Rock appear to have completely lost the sense
of history. Let this message go forth from here to uttermost nooks and crannies
of this earth: there is a new Biafra who was not born in 1966 and neither knows
nor cares about Nzeogwu or Ojukwu. There are Igbo men on the streets who are
never “Biafra’s”. They were born “Nigerians”, are “Nigerians” but suffer
because of the actions of earlier generations.24
They have decided that it is better to fight their own “war” and perhaps may
find an honourable peace than dwelling in this contemptible state of denials,
marginalization, subjugation and complete exclusion from the scheme of things
in perpetuity in this seemingly increasingly God-forsaking nation called
Nigeria. They are prepared to take their destinies in their hands and the powers
that be would only take them for granted at their own perils.
A referendum or a Plebiscite is necessary for the indigenous peoples of Nigeria

to decide their political destinies. Czechoslovakia presents a good example. The
mutual separation of Czechoslovakia has been highly commended and hailed
and this was popularly referred to as the “Velvet divorce”. Nigeria, indeed, the
whole world has an important lesson to learn and emulate.
There were other great and important nations that have travelled similar route.
Nations like the former USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – Sixteen
Republics in all) have broken up. In the same manner did Czechoslovakia,
India, and the Sudan broken up. If other nations broke up successfully, why
would the Fulani’s think Nigeria’s case is etched in stone? Here are some other
successful secessions – Algeria broke away from France. East Timor seceded
from Indonesia. Eritrea left Ethiopia. Bangladesh broke away from Pakistan.
Uruguay left Brazil. Greece and Serbia left Ottoman Empire. South Sudan left
Sudan. And Panama left Colombia. Let’s go there if that is what the people
want!
It suffices that as far as human associations are concern these break-ups do

occur and will continue to do so. Civilizations do emerge and sometimes
disappear. Empires rise and fall. With the nation, as with the individual and
other living things, a Hero can perish, and even Sparrow may fall. But the world
moves on ad infinitum. There is hardly anything new under the sun.25
In September 2014, the people of SCOTLAND went for a referendum in which

they voted whether to remain with or break up from the United Kingdom – a
Union that was entered in July 1708 (some 313 years ago). Although they
eventually voted against break-up, but the lesson to draw from it is that even
UK that forcefully united Nigeria can break-up. Even now, the Scottish is
pushing for another referendum. Separation appears to be the trend of the
modern world.
United Kingdom was embroiled for years by the Brexit conundrum. The British
people elected to exit the European Union through a referendum organized by
the British government under Prime Minister David Cameroon – a union
entered into some years ago – the result to which the British authorities must
respect, for the people have spoken! And today, Britain has successfully exited
the European Union.
And so, after many years’ experience, these countries must have found out that
human beings joining together by CHEMISTRY what God has put asunder do
not work out satisfactorily. In such unions, there is truly no common vision, no
common interest and no common objective. Within the nationalities making up
the Union, there is common interest, vision and objective. But within the Union
itself as an entity, interests are diverse and divided. And that is truly the case of
Nigeria. 26
In 1966 former Military Head of State Lt. Col. Gowon (as he then was) said that
the basis for unity in Nigeria does not exist. He was right. For many Nigerians
today and as it relates to Nigeria, unity is an illusory concept.27
I am yet to understand why our founding fathers – Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief
Obafemi Awolowo and Sir Ahmadu Bello – failed to undertake some crucial
initial political tasks of holding a National Conference to determine: 28
A. Whether to go their separate ways – Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe to the East, Sir
Ahmadu Bello to the North and Chief Obafemi Awolowo to the West.
Instructively, that type of arrangement was made for South West and
North West parts of Cameroon which were part of Nigeria. In 1961 (one
year after Nigeria’s independence) a plebiscite was held to decide
whether they will remain in Nigeria or join the French-speaking Republic
of Cameroon. The uncertainty surrounding what will be the outcome of
the plebiscite caused the people of both countries ominous feelings. The
result of the plebiscite was as follows:
 The North-Western part of Cameroon opted to remain in Nigeria
(within the Northern part of the Northern Region of Nigeria);
 The South-Western part of Cameroon opted out of the Eastern
region of Nigeria.
Consequently, this situation allegedly created population imbalance between the

North and the South of Nigeria. And this significantly reduced the population of
the Eastern region of Nigeria.
I am yet to understand why Sir Ahmadu Bello on his part did not take a
proactive step in the interest of the Northern territory. It suffices that the
Northern territory and the Southern territory were never one country until the
amalgamation of 1914. Also, very clear was the fact that the Northern territory
had embraced ISLAM as its Religion long before Amalgamation and the
Southern territory had also embraced CHRISTIANITY long before the
Amalgamation. I had expected that Sir Ahmadu Bello would have borrowed the
precedent set by India:
“Before the 14th of August, 1947 the country, INDIA consisted of PAKISTAN,
BANGLADESH and INDIA. These three countries made up what was INDIA before
14th August, 1947.
The North-Western part of INDIA was predominantly MOSLEMS while the rest of
the Country was predominantly HINDUS.
There were several other smaller groups. The Moslem North Western part led by
Muhammad Ali JINNAH demanded from the British government that independence
be granted to them separately as an ISLAMIC Country. The demand was granted.
On the 14th of August, 1947, independence was granted to the North-Western part of
PAKISTAN while the rest of INDIA had their independence the next day 15 th of
August 1947.
Had Sir Ahmadu Bello, knowing that the Northern territory was predominantly
Moslem, and knowing that the Northern territory and the Southern territory were
never one country any way, borrowed the precedent set by INDIA which had their
independence from the same British government thirteen (13) years before Nigeria
(1960) the British government would have granted it. It would have amounted to a
mere de-amalgamation of the 1914 amalgamation. Had this been done, there would
have been no need for the 2014 Nigeria National Conference. There would have
been no need for Boko Haram whose desire is to establish an Islamic Republic of
Northern Nigeria in line with what late Colonel Gaddafi of Libya had always
advocated…”29
Consequently, it presupposes that our Founding Fathers chose not to go their

separate ways after independence on October 1st, 1960. And Sir Ahmadu Bello,
on his part, did not demand independence separately for the Northern territory
of Nigeria.
It is therefore rational to assume that there must have been an implied voluntary
CONSENT to stay together in the spirit of the SOCIAL CONTRACT theory
which is based on the understanding that individuals or groups in a polity
voluntarily agree to give up their rights and freedom to the Ruler or the State in
return for Protection to be given them by the Ruler or the State. But to the
extent and degree to which various ethnic nationalities that make up Nigeria, or
at least one of the major ethnic groups have demonstrated, are demonstrating a
vote of no confidence and lack of faith, and justifiably so, in the political entity
called Nigeria and constantly and continuously questioning the so-called
“implied consent of the founding fathers” to stay together in the spirit of the
“Social Contract Theory”, to that extent, the prevailing Nigeria government
should do the needful to allow a referendum or a plebiscite for such group or
ethnic nationality to decide their political destiny. This is the honourable path a
responsible government should take. And by the way, how could the
government conclude that the result of the referendum must favour the
separatists?
Given the fact that the decision to stay together was by implied voluntary
consent and not under duress or coercion it means that the Ethnic nationalities
that formed Nigeria or any part thereof could advocate for self-determination if
they are not satisfied with the union. More importantly, the United Nations
Charter and the African Union Charter provide for self-determination.
Interestingly, Nigeria is also a signatory to both Charters. Groups could seek
self-determination under United Nations Resolutions 1514 and 1541.30
Evidently, some countries make provisions in their Constitution for any of its
constituent part to opt out from the Union if dissatisfied. Ethiopia presents a
very good example. But, regrettably, for Nigeria, the people of Nigeria have
never made a Constitution for themselves, save, perhaps the 1963 Republican
Constitution. The Nigerian government has always made a Constitution for the
people.31 That is very wrong!
Unless we find the courage to engage the true cause of the disasters enveloping
and overwhelming Nigeria, it is only a matter of time for Nigeria to die from its
self-inflicted injuries. Nigeria’s political sickness is a Dangerous one and
requires a Dangerous medicine to treat it. A doctor will not treat an Ebola virus
patient with Panadol, and he will not treat a Breast Cancer with Aspirin – unless
of course the doctor’s intention is to let the patient die! Those who are treating
Nigeria’s political sickness with Panadol and Aspirin want Nigeria to die.
Time is of the essence and a stitch in time saves nine, they say!
ENDNOTES
1. Pastor Tunde Bakare is known for his statement and criticism of

the political situation in the country. He is one of the most
politically vocal religious leaders in Nigeria. So, what are the
contents of his messages, especially about President Buhari? Read
more: https://www.legit.ng/1149888-pastor-tunde-bakares-
messages-get.html. Pastor Tunde Bakare was quoted in Charles
Akujieze (2019), “Nigeria: An Experiment in Nation Building”,
London: Author House Publishers.
2. Senator (Prof.) Sola Adeyeye, Chief Whip – Senate of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, pointedly spotlights three gales that Nigeria
must quickly terminate if the country must leap out of current
underdevelopment. See Sola Adeyeye, “Averting the Approaching
Gales”, Lower Niger Congress, USA.
7. Sermon by the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most Rev. Dr
Matthew Hassan Kukah at the Wake Keep Mass for His Grace,
Arch Bishop Peter Jatau at St. Joseph Cathedral, Kaduna of
January 5th, 2021. See www.pmnewsnigeria.com
8. Garba Shehu, Media spokeman to President Buhari made this
comment.
9. Dr. Peter J. Paris, “The Spirituality of African Peoples”, a Lecture
prepared for delivery at Dalhouse University, Halifax, March 9,
1993, and at York University, Toronto, March 10, 1993 to
commence the program of the James Robinson Johnson claims in
Black Canadian Studies.
10.Dr. Peter J. Paris, “The Spirituality of African Peoples”, a Lecture
prepared for delivery at Dalhouse University, Halifax, March 9,
1993, and at York University, Toronto, March 10, 1993 to
commence the program of the James Robinson Johnson claims in
Black Canadian Studies.
11.Senator (Prof.) Sola Adeyeye, Chief Whip – Senate of the Federal
14. Adebayo Muideen Adetayo, counsellor, mentor, motivator. See
https://ng.linked.com.
15.Charles Akujieze (2007), “Nigeria: Challenges Before A
Bewildered Nation”, Madrid: MFC, Fuenlabrada.
16.Charles Akujieze (2007), “Nigeria: Challenges Before A
Bewildered Nation”, Madrid: MFC, Fuenlabrada.
17.Sermon by the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most Rev. Dr
underdevelopement. See Sola Adeyeye, “Averting the
Approaching Gales”, Lower Niger Congress, USA.
19.Dr. Promise Adiele, “Boko Haram: Nigeria’s Absurd Conditions”,
The Sun, 26th of February, 2020.
20.Murtala Adewale, “Northern governors accused of turning
kidnapping to money-spinner”, The Guardian, 4 March, 2021.
21.Sermon by the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most Rev. Dr
22.See Matthew 16: 1-3 (NKJV).
23.Kingsley Omonobi, et al, “At Tinubu’s Colloquium: Why We Must
Avoid War – Buhari”, Vanguard, 30 March, 2021.
24.Sanusi Lamido Sanusi in A Paper Presented At The “National
Conference On The 1999 Constitution”, Jointly Organized By the
Network For Justice And The Vision Trust Foundation, At The
Arewa House, Kaduna From 11th - 12th September, 1999, the
emir of Kano unequivocally supported a statement credited to
Balarabe Musa, Sanusi had revealed that the Yoruba political
leadership over the years has shown itself to be incapable of rising
above narrow tribal interests and reciprocating goodwill from other
sections of the country by treating others with respect. See also
“Afenifere: Syllabus of Errors” published by This Day (The
Sunday Newspaper) on Sept 27, 1998.
25.Charles Akujieze (2007), Nigeria: Challenges Before a Bewildered
Nation: Spain (Madrid): MFC Art Graficas, SL., pp. See also
Nigeria: An Experiment in Nation Building (2019), London:
Author House Publishers, pp. lxviii – lxx.
26.Ibid
27.Ibid
28.Ibid
29.Ibid
30.Ibid
31.Ibid
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The literary world appears to be God's signature upon my life, the driver's seat
upon which my destiny is seated.
Charles Emmanuel Nnaemeka Akujieze is nothing but a divine “project” that

cannot be abandoned! It is therefore germane and fundamental to appreciate
honour and worship this God, in the content and the intent and the concept and
the context of whom He really is and how He actually manifests Himself to me
and through me. I join the Igbo gospel singers to acknowledge and call Him,
“Oke Muo!” (Great Spirit!).
I wish to acknowledge the onerous contributions of my parents – Late Chief
Fredrick Akujieze (Urukanachi Abagana) and my industrious mother Mrs. Mary
Akujieze. They denied themselves some of the luxuries and necessities of life in
order to educate their children and give them an opportunity to excel in life. I
love my parents dearly!
I highly appreciate unreservedly and unapologetically, my beloved wife Juliet

for all her contributions in making, not just the publication of this book
possible, but moving my life positively.
To Shekinah, Shalom, Fortune and David my children – you inspire me to

become a better dad and a better person. Thank you for making us a godly
family!
To my brothers and sisters, your contributions, advise, prayers, and solidarity

are second to none. May God be kind to you all and grant you helpers even
before any need arise!
To my mother-in-law, Mrs. Justina Okafor “Akwuete!” you are lifted! All your
contributions towards lifting my family are highly appreciated!
My good, and faithful friends – Cosmos Udechukwu and Christopher Anuforo,

I highly appreciate your contributions in my life. And, specifically, to my
beloved friend and brother, Cyriacus Nnaji a consummate intellectual for
accepting to write Foreword to this book, I say thank you.
I am absolutely nothing except the breath of the Creator in me. If there is

anything of value in me, it is something that flows essentially from a sense of
what I consider the pursuit of my place in the nature of being a human being.
Our common humanity – human solidarity and shared humanity – is the most
valuable asset that man possesses and to lose it is to lose everything! And, as a
writer, my chief objective is to enrich the heritage of humanity through the
frontier of knowledge.
Each son or daughter of a given nation has a responsibility. Writing about

Nigeria, exponentially could be likened to serving in a house of many lies.
While it is, indeed, a good thing to be proud of one’s country – which I struggle
most of the time to be – but I am menaciously confronted with unassailable
evidences, spanning a century of Nigeria’s history that evokes not pride but
shame.
Caution: I don’t write to provoke. I write because our time on Earth is too short.
Each moment that we are not our truest selves, each moment we pretend to be
what we are not because we want to be politically correct, each moment we say
what we do not mean because we imagine that is what somebody wants us to
say, then we are wasting our time on Earth!
Patriots are duty-bound to seek and say the truth about their country even if
doing so results in being perceived, rightly or wrongly, either as the apostles of
hope or as the harbingers of doom.
I admit that I am a part of this generation and the failure of my generation is

also my personal failure. Let us, therefore, cover our faces in shame since we
have all decided to keep silent in the face of tyranny. But I will continue to
write, if not for anything, for self-defence, to protect myself from straying into
the unchartered territory of insanity which the nation is driving us into.
Warning: A society whose young people are asleep will never rise; such a
society can never fulfil its potentials. The attitude of an average Nigerian,
especially the youth is: "siddon look!" Are Nigerians fundamentally different
from any other people in the world? Where is the life we've lost in living?
We're afraid of death! Rubbish, as if we are living a "life"! In the long run of
eternity, should it really matter whether we live long or short on earth, since
eternity is but a passing moment? What really matter, and should matter, is
everything what stewardship we give of the days at our disposal. Whether we
are today suffering pain or enjoying pleasurable health will make little
difference a thousand years from now. But how our pain and pleasure, weakness
or health is related to faith and love will make all the difference. After all, as the
popular saying goes: “If you talk, you die; if you don’t, you still die. Why not
talk and die”.
Listen: If Nigerians must be free, we must stop cooperating with an evil system.
It is only a feeble expression of one's desire that right should prevail. It is
wisdom for Nigerians not to leave the right to chance nor wish it to prevail
through the power of majority.
Through this book, I would probably receive both insults and praises. But
insults and praises are just peoples’ opinion about me. They are not necessarily
my reality. If I am not angry when I’m being praised, must I necessarily be
angry when insulted? Even to my detractors, I say: May their journey in life not
is like that of Nigeria! May Nigeria never happen to them!! Dalu nu!
DEDICATION
To all the innocent victims of our collective madness called Nigeria
FOREWORD
The day I received the message requesting me to write a foreword to Charles

Akujieze’s latest book, A Nation in Transition, I asked myself, why me? This
reaction no matter how surprising it might sound to so many, for me, is normal
knowing effusively who the man Akujieze is, a sound intellectual per
excellence, a no nonsense scholar and writer who takes nothing less for
standard.
Since our days as school mates at the former Federal School of Arts & Science
(FEDSAS) Aba; calm, diligent, coordinated, concentrated, unassuming, a
patriot of unquantifiable dimension, Charles have written several books that
crisscross politics, social, economy, juxtaposing his contents with humanitarian
and egalitarian view points for the benefits of society.
A careful perusal of Akujieze’s books would clearly reveal an intrinsic Nigerian

and African allure, appeal and bent, focusing most especially on the need to
ensure equal justice for all, fairness for all and equity for all. His innermost
mind battling for rule of law and constitutionalism in a country where both
government and people now live in relativism, practicing the law according to
how it favours them, is that of a patriot fighting a lone battle for reinvention of a
peaceful and equitable society.
The writer of the book though living outside the shores of Nigeria, obviously for
greener pastures, has never taken his eyes off the happenings in Nigeria as the
book exemplified: His viewpoints demonstrate currency, detail, vision, focus
and propensity for truth.
Charles Alujieze in his books especially the latest, a 550 page-book, appears to
be saying no to archaism, retrogression, neo-colonialism, injustice, inequity,
abysmal absence of constitutionalism, deception, impunity, ethnic jingoism,
nepotism, leadership ineptitude, rudderlessness and all the unprintable
adjectives for describing evil for which the nation Nigeria has appeared to be
associated with.
The book segmented into five parts and captured in 11 chapters: Nigeria: An
Experiment in Nation Building ; Historical Perspective of Hatred across Ethnic
Nationalities of Nigerian Union; The Two Conflicting Ideologies in Nigeria;
Nigeria in the Belly of the Vulture and The Cost of Governance and Politics in
Nigeria.
Other chapters are Nigeria in the Belly of the Vampire; Renegotiating a New
Nigeria; Terrorism in Nigeria (The rise of Islamic Fundamentalism in Nigeria);
Stride Towards Freedom; BIAFRA: The Struggle for Freedom; and Genocide in
Nigeria: Calling it What It Is.
Of course, with experience garnered over the years living in the White man’s
land, where there is rule of law, constitutionalism, equity and justice which have
also facilitated cordiality, friendship, enabling environment for individuals,
organisations and government organs to leverage on and contribute their various
quotas in the development efforts of their society, indeed A Nation in Transition
is a clarion call for sanity to prevail in Nigeria, for the right things to be done, to
jettison hidden agenda.
What else can I say, the contents of the book is the whole truth and nothing but
the truth. The book is a compendium of well researched work on the country
Nigeria; it is an analysis of a nation to know the truth; in deed it is a diagnosis
of the state of the nation with the sole objective of prescribing the right
medicine to tackle seemingly intractable maladies.
I recommend the book to every person living or residing in Nigeria, and

beyond. No matter the volume, A Nation in Transition is an unputdownable
masterpiece for all to read.
Cyriacus Nnaji is a Senior Editor at the AUTHORITY Newspapers Limited,

and a Lead Consultant for News Aura International Magazine, Lagos, Nigeria.
AN INTRODUCTION
“Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that
people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders … and millions have been killed
because of this obedience… Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full
of petty thieves … (and) the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem”. –
Howard Zinn, author of People’s History of the United States, 1492 – President.
“…it is mass suicide for a population to become generally sheepish and unquestioning …
Historically, the most terrible things – war, genocide and slavery – have resulted not from
disobedience but from obedience.” – Howard Zinn, author of People’s History of the
United States, 1492 - President
Politics, economy, military and religion – these forces, likened to the four winds
of the earth, result in the troubling or change of governmental orders. And
depending on the dispositions of the leaders and the led, these forces could be
channelled to either the making or ruining of nations.
In one important sense, these “four winds of the earth” have served in ushering
nations into seasons of genuine or perceived transformation. For instance, the
formation of the United States of America was brought forth by the stirring of
the combined winds of religion, economy, politics and military in Europe as
well as in America. It suffices that many of the colonies that comprises the
United States were created by settlers who fled religious persecution in Europe.
This quest for religious freedom and the discipline that characterized the puritan
migrants became the energizing power for the highly profitable agricultural and
commercial activities that led to economic prosperity in the colonies. The
political wind blew when the colonies declared independence and this
declaration was accompanied by war of independence upon which was laid the
foundation of a prosperous nation that has come to become the most powerful
country on earth today.
In the same vein, the formation of the Islamic kingdoms, the largest of which
was the Ottoman Empire that later metamorphosed to modern day Turkey under
the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatkurk was inspired by this interplay of the
four winds of the earth. Other cases in point include the economic miracle of the
Asian Tigers – Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore as well as the
Asian giant, China.1
On the other hand and unfortunately too, these four winds lead to national ruin
resulting in many African states with the emergence of tyrants after
independence – the likes of Idi Amin Dada of Uganda, Mobutu Sese Seko of
Democratic Republic of Congo, Jean Bedel Bokassa of Central African
Republic, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, Generals
Sani Abacha and Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, and many other ambitious
men whose dreams, drives and delusions unleashed a devastating storm into the
political space of their respective nations. This political storm resulted, or has
resulted, as the case may be, in economic ruin as these men enriched themselves
and/or pursue exclusively private agenda at the expense of their respective
nations.2
At some point in Uganda, for instance, currency was printed just to satisfy the
whims and caprices of Idi Amin without recourse to any principle of monetary
policy management. Mobutu, on his part, amazed so much wealth through
corruption that he was reportedly richer than his country had. General Sani
Abacha became the most brutal dictator in the history of Nigeria, eliminating
perceived opponents by means of a deadly killing squad, stashing away over $3
billion of public monies into foreign accounts. Obiang, still the current president
of Equatorial Guinea, is reportedly worth $600 million. He is said to have taken
full control of his country’s national treasury and deposited more than half a
billion dollars into accounts controlled by himself and his family claiming that
he did this to prevent civil servants from being tempted to engage in corrupt
practices. 3 And Muhammadu Buhari became the first Nigerian ruler to attempt
to change the demography of his country through his perceived satanic policies
geared towards an agenda of “fulanization” of Nigeria and “Islamization” of
West Africa, thus making his presidency a Trojan horse and Nigeria a nation at
war with itself.
It would be observed that the emergence of these African dictators was as a
result of the invasion of the military wind manifesting principally through coup
d’états or civil wars which, in some cases, resulted in counter-coups or extended
civil wars. In more recent times, especially since the turn of the century, the
wind of religion and the wind of military have been unleashed upon the
continent and upon the nations of the earth like a genie in a bottle, manifesting
in the form of terrorist organisation from Boko Haram and Fulani herders in
Nigeria to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Al-Shabab in the
Horn of Africa from Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda to the Islamic State of Iraq
and Syria (ISIS); and from Hezbollah in Lebanon to Hamas in Palestine. 4
 Nigeria and the Four Winds of the Earth

Let us now bring this back home by taking a brief look at the interplay of
political, economic, military and religious winds in the journey of the Nigerian
nation so far. Our pre-independence history saw the emergence of empires,
kingdoms, fiefdoms and communal political arrangements whose rise and fall,
according to Tunde Bakare, were driven by military expeditions motivated by
economic interests and, in some cases, clad in religious motives. Since
independence, noted Bakare, these winds, operating through political power
blocs, have produced governmental change from one regime to another.
Between 1966 and 1999, it was often a case of one military government taking
over from a civilian government or from another military government citing,
amongst other factors, economic mismanagement and political corruption, and
expressing a messianic mission to correct the blunders, even if insincerely.5
In the democratic arrangements that preceded the return to civil rule in 1999,
such as the 1993 elections, religion was a much more silent factor among the
four winds in the determination of political outcomes. That was why the June
12, 1993 elections could produce victory for a Muslim-Muslim ticket. However,
following the return to civil rule, religion has become a major factor in the
determination of election outcomes especially since the 2003 elections in which
General Muhammadu Buhari first contested for the presidency, as he has often
been pointedly associated rightly with religious fundamentalism. The import of
this factor got to what some might have thought would be a crescendo in the
2011 elections when, for the first time in Nigeria’s history, a pastor stepped into
politics as running mate to General Buhari. 6 It would be recalled that in 2003,
Ahmed Tinubu, the former governor of Lagos State and one of the most
influential politicians in the Western region of the country did warn Nigerians
about Buhari: “Muhammadu Buhari is an agent of destabilization, ethnic bigot
and religious fanatic who, if given the chance, would ensure the disintegration
of the country. His ethnocentrisms would jeopardize Nigeria’s national unity”. 7
Nevertheless, in the year 2015, a crucial year in the unfolding history of our
nation, the Four Winds of the Earth also hit the nation in one combined storm
that never left her the same. Also, in 2019 general elections, these four winds
interfered and interrogated the system in some more fundamental ways. The rest
is history.
 The State of the Nigeria Nation

Whether we like it or not, the Devil has rented a flat in people’s heads inside
Nigeria. “Hell is empty, and all the devils are here”, writes Shakespeare in The
Tempest. The bard might have had Nigeria in mind, at least as detailed in the
pages of this utterly amazing narrative of the illogical and insane way we have
chosen to run our country’s affairs. The devils are not only right here in number,
the angels, if they actually exist, are very few, dogged, feisty and, inevitably,
banished to the side-lines.8
It is, therefore, not surprising when William Golding infers in his ‘Lord of the
Flies’ that beast is synonymous for politics;9 but, is politics a beast? Put
differently, in what important sense is politics, especially as practiced in
Nigeria, a beast? And, Olusegun Obasanjo wrote a book, titled: ‘That Animal
called Man’ in which he likened the negative aspects of man to that of beasts.
The correlation between Obasanjo and Golding likening politics to beasts refer
to the bestial element in man which surfaces in the art or process of
politicking.10
Politics in Nigeria is poisonous. In Nigeria politics, any politics, anything and

everything is possible. Evil can become good. Truth could become a lie and a
lie could become truth. We often hear in Nigeria politics that “a statement or an
action is good and right, but not politically correct!”
In politics, somebody once said: “With proper arrangement even Satan can see
God! The very idea of Satan paying a courtesy call on God! To discuss what,
pray? If this happens, it would imply that some underhand things have
happened, like bribing the angels at heaven’s gate or God’s throne to arrange
such meeting! In politics, anything and everything is “possible”.”
Deception and lies, trickery, betrayal, literal or metaphorical killings and
assassination – there is this general perception, though negatively, of politics,
politicians and the political process held by non-politicians in Nigeria and
across the world. It is not complimentary. If anything, it is unsavoury and
indeed condemnatory.
Politicians in Nigeria have been routinely described and addressed with such
uncomplimentary expressions or terms as ‘ politrikcians’, ‘politricks’, ‘the-
more-you-look-the-less-you-see’, ‘talking from sides of the mouth’ (that is
double talk people) and ‘liars’ . A potential voter would lie, swearing to vote or
have voted for you. A supposed friend would campaign against you and end up
in your house for dinner, drink some wine and curse all those who ate your food
but did not vote for you. A highly placed person in the scheme of things would
swear neutrality and go ahead to promote false narratives about you and do
unimaginable things behind you. In politics, lie-telling is second nature. A man
may claim to have achieved things he never was party to, or claims to be the
initiator of everything good in your life or claim to have made you what you are
as your god father! In a significant sense, the Nigeria’s political class is a
university of liars!
Yet, we all need politics and politicians for the state or country to make
progress, for the quality of life to improve, and for government to make an
impact on lives. If those whom we “entrust” with public office are tricksters and
we do not really respect them, how do we expect change to take place more so
when conduct of elections in Nigeria is a travesty of justice, a glorified sham? A
conundrum!
The journey of the ship of the Nigerian state has thus far been difficult and we
have largely drifted under the influence of the four winds – politics, economy,
military and religious minds. The fundamental flaws in the polity include but
not limited to the following:
(a) The awkward geo-political structure that has the form but lacking the
substance of federalism;
(b) The consequent lop-sided economic structure in which a single product
from one region of the country contributes the bulk of the revenue of the
entire nation despite the abundant resources spread across the nation;
(c) A constitution that lays claim to the phrase, “we the people” but to which
the people made no impact;
(d) Contentious population figures that have been the harbinger of election
disputes since the pre-independence era;
(e) An electoral body that wears the label ‘independent’ but is practically
under the control of the presidency;
(f) Endemic corruption pervading the whole strata of the country; and, most
importantly,
(g) The two conflicting ideologies in Nigeria – Democracy and Sharia
These factors have directly and indirectly contributed to the current economic
crisis, the political instability and the insecurity situation.
Twenty years into democracy, the government tells us every dissent is treason;
every criminal-acquiescence is patriotism. Marching, not marching; walking,
not walking; talking and not talking are capital crimes, except the party in
power is the beneficiary. But still, can we be dead quiet as kidnap victims in
Nigeria’s forest of carrion eaters? 11
With the benefit of hindsight, one could say that Nigeria under Buhari
government is steadily sliding into a suffocating fascist, illegitimate
“rigocracy” and it will only get worse in the coming years unless something
drastic is done to arrest the situation now. Dissent is now violently suppressed.
Opposition is pathologically treated and criminalized. Elections are militarized
and rigged blatantly and with criminal impunity. Rule of law and due process is
officially disdained and murdered at the highest levels. The judiciary is now a
pitiable poodle of the presidency. Rank nepotism and total disregard for even
the wispiest pretences to meritocracy are now normalized.
The Nigeria’s National Assembly is a pliant, slavish, rubber-stamp congress of

yes-men and women willing to tamper with the constitution if only to legitimize
and even prolong Buhari’s tyranny if permitted. Opposition parties are
gradually being decimated and Nigeria, according to some schools, may likely
become a one-party state.
Nigeria is on the throes of economic collapse. The slenderest tinctures of

democracy are being eroded every day and there is more division now than
anytime in Nigeria’s history, but Nigerians feel helpless and appear to have
come to terms with depressing realities with listless surrender. The federal
government under the leadership of Muhammadu Buhari appears to be allergic
to plurality of voices, of criticism.
The 2019 general election in Nigeria has been described by international and
local observers, stake holders, direct participants and the electorates themselves
as a ‘disappointment’, ‘a bad day for democracy’, ‘a step back from whatever
Nigeria may have achieved since the return to civilian rule’, ‘a shameful
exercise’, ‘below par’, ‘an affront on international standards and best practice’,
and so on. Indeed, there is a near-universal consensus that the 2019 elections
have failed the test of integrity.12
The ominous sign in our political firmament appears to be the fact that we have
two Nigeria – the core North and the rest of us! These feelings have been
reinforced in the ways President Buhari has been drifting the ship of the nation.
Nigerians had never been this divided as they are under Buhari administration.
Many critics have posited that if Jonathan administration was a failure, the
Buhari’s is a disaster and repulsive to men of good conscience. Buhari is
reminding us that it is in ethnic politics that the bestial nature of man climbs to
the highest peak and man descends into a pit of extreme foolishness. Our people
say that in ethnic politics, the people would rather vote in a goat from ‘home-
town’ than vote in a wise professor from the next community. Why are
Nigeria’s three top leaders from the core north – Ahmed Lawal (Senate
President) North East, Chief Justice of the Federation, Tanko Mohammed,
North East, and Buhari – President North-West? They are all Moslems and
core-northerners.
The government’s responses to security situation in Nigeria are very weak.

Going by the UN Report in 2005, we had about nine hundred million
(900,000,000) illegal small arms weapons in circulation globally. And, within
the West African region at least some five hundred million (500,000,000) were
domiciled and Nigeria alone is playing host to about three hundred million
(300,000,000).13 Today, that figure is inferior to reality.
It would be recalled that in 2013, security Officers uncovered weapons linked to

Lebanese Hezbollah’s terror cell in Kano with huge cátche of arms. 14 Where are
the arms today?
On the eve of his resumption in office, former Ogun state governor, Ubikonle
Amosun reportedly handed over at least four (4,000,000) million rounds of
ammunition, one thousand (1,000) units of AK 47 assault rifles, one thousand
(1,000) units of bullet-proof vests and others to Nigeria police! 15 Why was the
illegal importation made in the first place, by whom and to what purpose? Why
hasn’t he been prosecuted?
In September, 2016, major general Lucky Igilagbo of the Nigerian army and
commander under the South-East command told the media that the military has
confirmed that the soldiers were transferring arms to Boko Haram terrorists.
What was the outcome of this betrayal to Nigerian people?
In May 2017, the Nigeria Customs and Excise in Lagos seized a container
loaded with 440 arms, mostly pump-action rifles.16 Where are the ammunitions
and who are the importers?
In 2018, a ship travelling from Russia to Nigeria was intercepted in South

Africa carrying arms and explosives worth $3.5 million. 17 Who were the
owners and how did the story end?
In another development, 10, 000 daggers were imported through Lagos into
Nigeria.
The truth is: it appears that there is no political will to fight insecurity situation
in Nigeria. The fundamental problems of the Nigeria state manifesting as
insecurity challenges is no longer rational nor can it be tolerated any longer.
Why have the successive Nigerian governments shy away from constitutional
reconstruction to truly federal system whereby each state would organize,
operate and manage its police force as it is the practice in other federal states?
Why is there no genuine political will by the government of the day to address
insecurity challenges in the country? A lot of the security challenges – killings
by herdsmen, kidnappings, banditry, etc. are also political in nature.
The reactions of the citizens go beyond the fact that they are being killed, but
also the fact that there are other agendas – right or wrong! And if there are no
other agenda, they are wont to posit, how come the government is unable, and
sometimes unwilling to bring these killers to justice? Why must the leadership
of this government appear to prioritize the problems of a particular ethnic group
over and above others? This gives room for more speculations in the country.
Why is the government unable or rather unwilling to secure her territorial
borders? Secondly, it is political because people make the “mistake” of
attributing the killing by herdsmen to a particular ethnic group – “Fulani”. Yet,
there are many Fulanis’ who disagree with the way Buhari government is
handling the security challenges facing the country. There are a lot of political
issues surrounding the security challenges in the country.
Nigeria has some 371,800 personnel in the police force, with half guarding the
VIPs. How then do we expect to have an effective presence of the police that
covers the strategic security areas? I agree with Professor Kingsley Chiedu
Moghalu that Nigeria with a population of some 200 million needs some 1.5
million police servicemen, well-trained, well-equipped and well-remunerated!
Surprisingly, the former chief of army staff, Lt. Gen. Buratai said that the
Nigerian soldiers are not motivated to fight insurgency. Isn’t that a political
issue? Is it that the Nigerian army is not well-equipped and the government is
telling us that she’s voting billions of dollars on security? Where is the money?
If the military feels she is not supported and empowered enough, if she doesn’t
feel loyal and patriotic enough to lay down their lives for the Nigeria state, we
need to know why.
While the allegations that our soldiers are forced to confront terrorists with
inferior weapons have been denied by the Nigerian Army, these claims must
still be thoroughly investigated and acted upon rather than merely dismissed.
Recent news of the loss of territories to Boko Haram and recent videos of our
soldiers being massacred by terrorists are more potent in the consciousness of
the average Nigerian than any denial the military officials could muster.
Between 2008 and 2018, N6 trillion has been allocated to the Federal Ministry
of Defence.18 Between 2012 and 2014, it received a whopping 19.9% of the
total budget on average.19
Under the current administration, defence has received a significant percentage

of the annual budget. In 2016, for instance, the ministry was allocated N443
billion out of N6.06 trillion; in 2017, N469.8 billion out of N7.44 trillion; and in
2018, N576.4 billion out of N9.12 trillion.20
In 2017, N6.8 billion was budgeted for defence equipment, while Operation
Lafiya Dole “and other operations of the armed forces” received N78 billion.21
With these relatively huge allocations, even with average budget performance,
the allegations that our soldiers fight under poor conditions are intolerable.
If we further consider the fact that recurrent expenditure has been fully
performed as overhead costs are covered, then it becomes inconceivable that
any soldier risking his or her life for the Nigerian state should be owed a dime
of his or her allowance.
Even more disturbing is the 2017 investigative report that soldiers in the theatre
of war lack basic necessities such as food, uniforms and footwear despite the
fact that a portion of their wages is questionably deducted as feeding allowance.
These reports, in addition to the 2018 protests by soldiers deployed in the

theatre of war, give cause for concern especially against the backdrop of the
recent resurgence of the terrorists.
The President, the National Security Council, the Ministry of Defence, the
Army Headquarters, and the National Assembly Committees on Defence must
re-examine the defence architecture, especially the human resource factor, and
address every anomaly in the interest of the vulnerable rather than the powerful.
This also calls for political leadership graduating into an effective national
security strategy. Has the government of Buhari administration shown enough
capacity that she is capable of solving the security challenges in the country? At
least showing genuine signs to stem insecurity in the country is important;
effective communication and intelligence report on security is important,
holding people accountable for crimes committed is very important. But when
the government is making excuses for the perpetrators of these crimes or appear
to be doing so, she is undermining her ability as a government to be able to
solve the problems.
Many people now see Buhari as the greatest mistake of the century. When you
see the impunity with which these kidnap buzzards operate these days, you
can’t but ask if there’s no complicity from security officials.
The Taraba incident which happened in the most suspicious circumstances only
helps to reinforce the complicity of a hidden agenda. Why was the police
officers murdered in cold blood? The three police officers that were murdered
by soldiers of the 93 Battalion in Taraba State were said to have briefed the
soldiers of their mission at the military check-point to go after the criminal
gangs in Taraba. They also consulted with the police authorities in the area
before embarking on their action. They succeeded in dislodging the criminal
gangs and arrested the kingpin. On their way back the soldiers accosted them,
killed the three police officers and set the criminal kingpin, Bala Hamisa
Wadume free. 22
And to add salt to injury, the Miyetti Allah is setting a vigilante in some parts of
the country. A Yoruba chieftain, Chief Adebayo put it this way:
“…We are miffed that those who will not allow our elected governors have police are
now setting up Fulani bandit-vigilantes on our soil in addition to the Fulani militias
terrorizing our land”. 23
He went further to claim that about 30,000 people have been killed by the
Fulani herders/militias across the country between 2015 and 2019 and that
President Muhammadu Buhari has taken so many steps which betray the
encouragement being given to these troublers of Nigeria. 24
Recently, Wall Street Journal, in an on-line article reported that the Nigerian
Military maintains secret graveyards in the North East theatre of operation
where not less than one thousand soldiers killed by Boko Haram terrorists were
secretly buried in the North East. Atiku had challenged Buhari to probe the
reported secret burial of fallen hero killed by Boko Haram and ISWAP.25
The Buhari government need to set in motion a security plan that has the
following:
(a) Develop an effective security control of Nigerian borders to checkmate

the influx of foreigners and weapons at all entry points in Nigeria,
especially in the northern part;
(b) When the government is proposing creating colonies for the herders, the
influx of the foreigners with weapons would be naturally attracted to the
areas of the proposed settlement, mixing up with other innocent and
genuine settlers from various parts of the country. These are the problems
and there is need to have the political will to tackle it.
(c) There is need for professionalism for our police force – well trained,
well-equipped, well-remunerated and readily available to confront
insurgency.
(d) Perpetrators of crimes must be fished out and routinely dealt with and
must be seen to be impartial.
In another development, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders of Nigeria

(MACBAN) demanded some one hundred and sixty billion naira (NGN 160
billion) from the federal government. But the Buhari administration negotiated
and paid some NGN 100 billion. Why was this humongous sum paid to
MACBAN? Why would the federal government use the common wealth of the
Nigerian nation to service and run an ethno-tribal association described by the
world body (UN) as the 4th most dangerous terrorist organizations on earth? 26
Yet, the government was only able to allocate the sum of NGN 51 billion to
educational and health sectors put together. Nigeria is a country where “little
little drops of follies” make a mighty idiot. Does this gesture not suggest that
Nigeria is the prodigal son of Africa who sponsors terrorism?
In July 1968, a year into Nigeria’s civil war, one of the divisional commanders
fired a note, from the war front, to the Head of State: “What really are we
fighting for: to enliven a new class of the domineering type or to integrate the
country?”27 General Benjamin Adekunle who wrote that note to General
Yakubu Gowon fought in our civil war and became a folk hero. He thought he
was performing that duty for the sake of the children and grandchildren of a
future Nigeria of justice. The celebrated General soon saw how Nigeria bred
privileged vultures and preening maggots. He died broke and broken.
In what important sense are we really one nation? What really is the basis of
Nigeria’s “unity”? Once upon a time, a senator from the north suggested that
Islamic state be given to Boko Haram to stop the killings. Senator Ike
Ekweremadu challenged him that Ndigbo should be given Biafra as well and
further stated that Biafra is older than Nigeria. A senator from the north threw a
bottled-water at him for mentioning Biafra. Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe fought
the senator from the north for fighting his brother.28
Under Buhari, nepotism appears to be a state policy. While Buhari government

made frantic efforts to stop and put out of existence the Radio Biafra, sponsored
and bankrolled by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and registered
having been operating before the coming of his administration, the same
Mallam Buhari obtained license to register a private radio station that would be
devoted only to and in “Fulfidi” language to his Fulani people. Emotions were
quickly evoked and reminiscences of the Rwandan script were brought to the
fore.
The Buhari government has been known to travel crisis-ridden routes. The
Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) and passport issue were seen by critics as satanic
phases and final phase, or so it seems, of forceful islamization of Nigeria.
Recently, a vexing issue on RUGA took the country by storm. The government
set aside “eleven billion Naira” – (NGN 11,000, 000,000)29 – for RUGA in
Nigeria! The Southern part of Nigeria unanimously rejected RUGA on the
suspicion that it is laden with sinister intention. Some northern states like Benue
and Taraba also rejected it. The government was forced to suspend it
temporarily.
A woman political activist, Oby Ezekwesili lays it bare:

“If President didn’t learn anything from RUGA then we should let him know that
RUGA pointed that he’s a President of highly divided country … President Buhari
should invite all necessary parts of this country to a conversation that is deep,
introspection, retrospection, and radical rethink of how a democracy is constituted
for the future”. 30
Although some leaders of the north advised the withdrawal of the Fulani herders
from the Southern region for their safety, president Buhari reasoned otherwise.
Some Nigerians were flabbergasted as the northern youths led by one Abdul
Aziz Sulleiman gave the federal government a 30-day ultimatum to rescind the
decision to suspend RUGA failing which they will not guarantee the
unimaginable violence that would be visited against some Nigerians. It beats my
imagination and as some virulent critics have posited, how a region utterly
lacking in intellect, education, class and moral probity can unleash a motley
crew of Street urchins to spew out gibberish, threatening and giving ultimatums
to millions of Nigerians.31-32
No doubt, Nigeria is indeed at war and the Trojan horse in Aso Rock is
perceived to be actively involved.33
There are staggering reports Nigerians are being sold as slaves.34
Today, Nigeria is home to the highest number of poor people living in any
nation on earth. In 2016, according to the World Poverty Clock, Nigeria had
78,036,612 people living in poverty.35 In 2017, the number increased to
85,674,403 and yet increased the more in 2018 with 90,001,485 persons living
in poverty.36 The latest report of the UNDP reveals that Nigeria has moved from
86 million to 98 million persons living in extreme poverty. 37 Nigeria is growing
retrogressively at 5% annually. Every single minute, it is estimated that about
six Nigerians fall into extreme poverty. The World Bank had warned that by
2040, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) would account for
at least 40% of Africa’s population in extreme poverty.38
Nigeria runs asset depletion economy and this increases poverty. Nigeria is
being plundered and a major cause of extreme poverty – the illegal mining of
gold and other minerals going on in the North West to which the nation had lost
at least some $9 billion, illegal logging of wood being perpetuated in the North
eastern part of the country to which the nation had lost at least $1billion, illegal
oil bunkering between 2003 to 2008 to which the nation had lost some $100
billion and other illegal loggings and bitumen depletion to which Nigeria had
lost quite a fortune. 39
By the year 2000, China had 500 million people living in extreme poverty. But
by adopting and strictly implementing the Medium Development Goals (MDG),
she was able to pull 439 million Chinese out of poverty. And in 2012, India had
more than 276 million people living in extreme poverty. Today, India has less
than 76 million of such people. Regrettably, Nigeria has, today, more people
living in poverty than these two populous nations put together have. And this is
our crisis.40
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a measure of how a system is

developing and it is characterized into four components – very high, high,
medium, and low. Nigeria was placed in the 157th position, considered as very
low. Of the three components of HDI – life expectancy, education and security
– Nigeria has not fared better. The global life expectancy today is 75 years but
in Nigeria, life expectancy is 54 years, a drop of 21 years. The second is
education. Today, Nigeria is home to the highest number of out-of-school
children numbering 13.2 million. If you look at the world’s BRICS nations –
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – and then you consider the
world’s MINT nations – Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey – Nigeria is
the only country with a low literacy rate of 51%. All others are on the average
of over 90%. There is a gross lack of impact of education on our polity. And
finally, the third category is per capita income. Per capita is the measure of
individual wealth of any nation. Unfortunately, Nigeria is one of such countries
where per capita income has been falling for years. And, according to the recent
International Monetary Fund (IMF) report, Nigeria’s per capita would likely
decline till 2025.41 In 2015, it was $2,500 but today it is $1,920.42
Nigeria is the 3rd most unsecure place to live on earth, after Syria and
Afghanistan and with daily killings and kidnappings unabated, Nigeria is being
speculated to likely overtake the two. Our under-employment and
unemployment rate is one of the worst in the world. It is over 30% with over 22
million young people in their productive age doing nothing. This is very
worrisome.
Nigeria’s debts are escalating almost every single day. We are currently
indebted to about NGN 33 trillion 43 with little or nothing to show for it. What is
even worse! The debt is growing daily and consequently, what is required to
service it is worsening. In 2017, we spent NGN 1 trillion, 630 billion (NGN
1.63 trillion) 44 to service debts. In 2018, we spent NGN 2.90 trillion. 45 And so,
within a year, we had expended the sum of NGN 460 billion difference and this
sum represent about 90.3% of our budget for education and 125.6% for those of
health – just to service debts and yet we keep pilling more debts. 46 How do we
expect to overcome and redeem our debts when we borrow for consumption? In
Singapore, her Constitution was very clear on this matter: You can only borrow
for capital projects that will pay the debts back. But in Nigeria anything goes!
Our borrowings do not impact on our growth or per capita income. No tangible
projects to show for it.
Nigeria’s inequality presently is one of the very worst – 157/157 position

according to inequality indices. In the United States, 1% of the richest
Americans control 37% of American wealth. In China, the richest 1% controls
35% of Chinese wealth! In Indonesia, 1% controls 47% of the country’s wealth.
However, in Nigeria, the richest 1% controls 85% of her wealth and nobody
seem to care to lower it whereas others are striving to lower theirs and narrow
the gap.47
Forbes describes Nigeria as the money-losing machine of Africa. Nigeria’s

stock market in 2017 lost 18% of its investment. In 2019, it lost 13%, not even
the smallest country among the BRICS nations had ever recorded such deficit.
No country amongst the BRICS and MINT had ever recorded her stock market
valuation less than two hundred billion EXCEPT Nigeria. Brazil’s stock market
valuation is almost a trillion. Russia’s is 575 billion, India 2 trillion, China 6
trillion, and South Africa 575 billion. On the other hand, countries under the
MINT nations all fared better than Nigeria. Mexico had 385 billion, Indonesia
450 billion, Nigeria 31 billion and Turkey 200 billion. The Chief Economist of
the World Bank said Nigeria is living tragically on borrowed time. And unless
we refocus and reposition our political and economic structure, the country
would collapse.48
There are three things Nigeria needs to fix very urgently – issues on security,
education and the economy (with particular emphasis on under-employment and
unemployment).
No reasonable investor would invest where there are serious
manifestations of insecurity of lives and properties. Every investor needs
peace of mind to do his business and make his wealth. A place like
Nigeria with serious manifestations of insecurity is definitely not
considered an ideal place to invest irrespective of how much returns one
could make. At best, you need to be alive to harvest your investment.
Every empirical study has shown that the more a nation invests in
education the better for its economy and society. Countries that are doing
well today are those who have invested and continue to invest in
education. Education is not an expense; it is an investment. All the
BRICS countries invested at least 4% of their GDP on education.
Tragically, Nigeria’s budget is low and that of education even worse. In
both the BRICS and the MINT nations, only Nigeria has her education
budget below 1% of her GDP. China, with a population of 1.4 billion, a
GDP of $13 trillion and the annual budget of $3.8 trillion, her budget for
education is $590 billion (which is more than 40% of her GDP and more
than 15% of her budget). And, according to UNESCO, China has 95%
literacy rate.49
Among the MINT nations – Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey, the
most performing amongst them is Indonesia. Indonesia is a country of
260 million people. Her budget is $178 billion and she spent $40 billion
on education (about 4% of the GDP and over 20% of her budget). Nigeria
with about 200 million people and a budget of $28 billion (which is low)
only invested $ 2 billion on education (which is worse).50
South Africa, the second largest economy in Africa has an annual budget
four times those of Nigeria. With the current budget of $110 billion,
South Africa budgets the sum of $17 billion on education this year.
Think! In the past 10 years, Nigeria expended some NGN 4.4 trillion
($14.4 billion). This implies that the whole of 10 years of Nigeria’s
education budget at federal level is quite smaller than those of South
Africa in a year alone. Even when you add ten year budget on health
(which amounted to NGN 2.7 trillion) with the ten years of education
budget in Nigeria (which is NGN 4.4 trillion) the total is still inferior to
one year of South Africa budget on education.51
Yet, within the same period, Nigeria had expended some NGN 10 trillion
on subsidy. About 70% - 80% of those monies find their ways into
corrupt pockets. $1.6 trillion was said to have been stolen from oil
bunkering in 2016 and $1 trillion stolen in 2017. Combine these two it is
$2.6 trillion an equivalent of the sum spent on health sector in ten years;
that should not be!52
The third issue to urgently tackle is the economy as in employment.
Employment is the greatest contributor to building an economy. All the
BRICS and MINT nations know that there is a connection between the
issue of employment creation, growth per capita and growth to overall
economy with the support of the Ministry of Small and Medium
Entrepreneurs (MSME). China has an unemployment rate at 3.8%;
Indonesia 5.4%. Unemployment Rate in Nigeria increased to 23.10 per
cent in the third quarter of 2018 from 22.70 per cent in the second quarter
of 2018. Unemployment Rate in Nigeria averaged 12.31 per cent from
2006 until 2018, reaching an all-time high of 23.10 per cent in the third
quarter of 2018 and a record low of 5.10 per cent in the fourth quarter of
2010.53 Today, those figures are inferior to reality.
In Indonesia, 97.7% of the companies are collaborating with the Ministry
of Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME’s) creating over 90% of the
jobs in the country. These SME’s in Indonesia produces over 60% of the
GDP. The country’s GDP is $1.2 trillion (60% of the GDP is $720 billion
which is twice Nigeria’s GDP.) Thus, with 260 million people, 145
million are gainfully employed and SMEs are producing 60% of the
employment which is 125 million. Indonesian government supports
SMSEs. These are the practice in other developed countries where their
governments supports the SMEs. But this is not the case with Nigeria.
Nigeria has borrowed a total debt of NGN 28.9 trillion. Had ¼ of this
debt (some NGN 7.23 trillion) been devoted to the SMSEs, the country
would have been better for it. 54
Dr Peter Obi collaborate the above report as he narrated his experience at
a Conference organised by the Tony Elumelu Foundation. According to
Obi, the CEO of the Foundation, Mrs Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu said that for
every $5000 support given to every entrepreneur, it created 20 jobs after
one year. Speaker after speaker supported her position. If Nigeria had
taken $ 23 billion (which is 25% of $90 billion she borrowed) and
supported our local entrepreneurs with grants, she would have created
4,600 entrepreneurs. Assuming 75% of them – 3,350, had created 60% of
the job Mrs Ifeyinwa had aluded to, just by creating only 10 jobs the
3,350 entrepreneurs would have created thirty four million, five hundred
jobs. If we had thirty four million + Nigerians who were gainfully
employed, who would be talking about 98 million Nigerians living in
extreme poverty? 55
Today, Nigeria has a taxable adult of 20 million when she should have
more. If the country wants more, the government must support the SMEs.
Eligible taskforce in Nigeria presently is 115 million. Those engaged in
one employment or the other are about 75 million. About 40 million able-
bodied men and women in their productive age are not doing anything.
The more China, for instance, puts people out of poverty, the more
revenue she receives. The Nigerian SMEs receive a pittance from
government aids and thus cannot contribute significantly to the GDP
growth. In comparison, China, out of the overall $30 trillion debts, the
SMEs control 25% which is $7.5 trillion. The consequence is that not
only do the SMEs contribute 60% of the GDP or 70% on employment,
but also contribute 50% of the tax revenue. 80% of China’s budget is
funded by tax revenue (which is about $3 trillion) and the SMEs provide
50% of which is $1.5 trillion. But in Nigeria the opposite is the case
because the Nigerian SMEs are living from hand to mouth. In 2019 alone,
about 10 million bank accounts were rendered un-operational. Nigerians
withdraw money more than any other countries the world over.56
The cost of governance in Nigeria to her GDP is largely unrealistic,

provocative, insulting, and unacceptable. It is about the most expensive in the
world. Nebraska, a state in the United States of America had in 2019 a budget
of $12 billion (about NGN 60.36 billion). Nebraska is the only state in the US
operating a single legislature with 49 legislators. The average state
representative in the legislature on part-time basis is $11,379 per annum. As of
2010, the salary of Nebraska's governor ranked 40th among U.S. governors'
salaries. The average salary earned by U.S. governors was $128,735 annually.
The median salary earned by U.S. governors was $129,962 per annum. Yet,
Nebraska budget is about three times the expanded budget of the entire South
East and North East of Nigerian states (about 11 states put together) are not up
to $1.2 trillion. These Nigeria’s 11 states have over 270 House members costing
over $16 billion annually.57
A story was told how the Nebraska’s governor’s wife was forced by
circumstances to take up a job in a restaurant in order to augment her husband’s
salary to be able to buy a Rand Ford car. I have written extensively how
Nigerian legislators are stealing from the commonwealth of the people in the
course of this book. I need not be detained on that here.
In the recent Global Terrorism Index, based on 2013 incidents, Nigeria ranked
4th among 162 countries with 303 reported attacks, 1,826 fatalities and 457
injuries. In 2020 Nigeria ranked the 3rd position (8.314) position just before
Afghanistan and Iraq. Terrorism was said to have cost Nigeria $28.48 billion in
the year 2013. Nigeria is surpassed only by Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq in
this index. Given the dastardly activities of Boko Haram 2013, the 2014 index
was more damning for Nigeria. Terrorism Index in Nigeria decreased to 8.66 in
2017 from 9.01 in 2016. Terrorism Index in Nigeria averaged 6.64 from 2002
until 2017, reaching an all-time high of 9.31 in 2015 and a record low of 3.86 in
2002.58
I am yet to see any other nation in the world where government officials behave
as irresponsible as they do in Nigeria. In a country where poverty is erasing
people’s surnames, some clowns pocket humongous sum as welfare package.
Our legislators are the highest paid in the world, receiving NGN 13.5 million
monthly, even as they do part-time job. Nigerian governors behave like
emperors using the state resources in the most bizarre manner with the security
votes constitutionally granting them avenues to steal the commonwealth of the
nation. The president of Nigeria is one of the most powerful individuals in the
world and we are facing the consequences associated with it.
In Nigeria where most states are complaining of how to pay NGN 30,000
minimum wage (presently about $60 in black market), 469 members of the 9th
National Assembly receive NGN 4.68 billion as welcome package in one day.
In a country where the minimum wage is below $100 and the daily wage below
$5, yet our so-called leaders are sharing billions of naira. In a country that
produces seven out of the twenty richest pastors in the world, a country that
produces the richest black man and once the richest black woman on earth, a
country that was enormously endowed with both human and material resources,
it is most ironical that it is the poverty capital of the world.
Nigeria borrowed to fund its 2019 budget of NGN 8.83 trillion ($28.8 billion).
Nigeria government set aside N305 billion ($1 billion) for fuel subsidies in
2019. From the borrowed money, the sum of NGN 2.14 trillion, a quarter of the
budget, was used in paying part of previous debts. Under Buhari administration,
Nigeria has already borrowed more than NGN 33 trillion. Let’s not forget that
the sum of NGN 410 billion was also borrowed to finance the 2018 budget. The
Buhari government has gone ahead to borrow more money. The Minister of
Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed has said the “new”
sought $3bn loan by the Federal Government from the World Bank would be
deployed for reforms in the power sector.59
In the same country where many governors could not even pay consistently the
minimum wage of NGN 18,000 (less than $40) and now that it has increased to
NGN 30,000 which is less than $90, many of them have shown signs that
they’re very likely to default. Meanwhile, our federal legislators who earn more
than presidents of countries from where we wish to borrow will also benefit
from these loans. Do we still wonder why Nigeria was recently adjudged as the
6th most miserable country on earth? Which economic theory says that a
country would move forward by borrowing to fund its entire budget and pay
illegal salaries to its uncaring, bureaucratic and autocratic politicians? 60
China, through its Belt and Road Initiatives, superimposes on Africa continent
like a colossus. In 2017, Sri Lanka was forced to hand over her sea port to
China after fallen into debt traps due to her inability to redeem her $1,
000,000,000 Chinese’ loan. Similarly, Djibouti, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia,
Montenegro, Pakistan, Tajikistan, etc. are all dying under Chinese loans now.
Nigeria’s case could be worse because those in office usually loot what is
borrowed Nigeria.
It would be recalled that China wrote off some debts owned by Tajikistan in
exchange for some 1,158 square kilometres of her land. Zambian government
has handed over her national electricity company ZESCO (formerly known as
Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation Limited) a state-owned power company
in Zambia. It is Zambia's largest power company producing about 80% of the
electricity consumed in the country. And, her Lusaka Airport is said to have
been ceded also to China in lieu of debts owed. Kenya is presently shivering
because of 72% of her $5,000,000,000 debts from China. Nigeria owes China
over $5,000,000,000 even as her insatiable appetite for loans drives her to
demand for more loans from any willing country on earth. Nigeria may be in the
way of losing some of her national assets to China like the Murtala Mohammed
International Airport, Lagos, some of Nigerian refineries, oil blocs, federal
roads and even some federal institutions, some of our major highways,
including raising toll gates which Nigerians must be subjected to pay for using
the roads in their land to China in lieu of debts that are unlikely to be redeemed
in view of the ways of rascality of our leaders. 61 Most grants given to Nigeria
only feed corrupt pockets.
Not long ago, the Nigeria Customs and Excise seized expired chickens and
buried same because they are not fit for human consumption, but hungry
Nigerians were reported to have exhumed those expired and buried chickens
and consumed them. It is that bad; a country where a couple in Port Harcourt
sold their new born baby in order to pay their rent and survive.
It appears there is a conspiracy of perpetual exploitation, enslavement and

generational poverty in Nigeria. While the gullible ones rejoice that the
minimum wage has been increased from NGN 18,000 to NGN 30,000, but the
Value Added Tax (VAT) was also increased thereby nullifying any appreciable
benefit that workers would have enjoyed. A Nigerian worker puts in 35 years of
active service before getting pension, who is economically productive, whose
face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly in his
productive age doing the deeds, who knows the great enthusiasm, the great
devotion in labour, who spends himself in a worthy cause. In the end, he dies
most time without getting his pension because somebody sits on it. Yet, in the
same society, there are political elites like the governors and deputies, the
presidents and their vices, who served for 4 or 8 years but receiving millions
and billions of naira monthly for life for being “ex-”, even after fleecing their
states and the nation. Instances are legion. Ex-governors that looted Delta state
receive NGN 4.2 million monthly for life, just for being ex-governors.
In Akwa Ibom, Kano, Lagos and others, ex-governors receive 100% of annual
pay slip salary of the incumbent governors and deputies (and this excludes the
billions paid to them as they leave office). This is a nonsensical piece of
ridiculous, arrant and stupendous nonsense. Are we joking in this country?
Many of them transform to be senators where they retire to earn even more than
most presidents on this planet earth. Government officials in Nigeria both
serving and “ex” are liabilities for life.
At least in 17 states in Nigeria, government workers were owed salaries running

into months despite federal government NGN 1,800,000,000,000 bail out.62
Nigeria is rated 67th on suicide rate world-wide. Nigerians have been known for
their resilience and suicide attempt is no option in our culture. But today, the
story has changed.
Quota system in Nigeria is designed to demonize and mentally frustrate the
ingenuity, tenacity and brilliance to hard work and mediocrity enthroned.
 The Need for a New Foundation for Nigeria
Fellow Nigerians and to whom it may concern, the time has come when we
must make hard and uncommon choices in order to arrive at uncommon change
for personal and national transformation. Choices and changes are life
constants. And if we make the right uncommon choices, we shall arrive at many
great uncommon changes.
Following from above, it is quite obvious that most of our institutions and
structures in place are largely obsolete and inappropriate for the kind of future
we pretend to aspire. As Professor Soludo has rightly opined: “You can’t build a
100 storey building on an old bungalow foundation”! Can we create a
functioning and competitive socio-political and economic foundation for
Nigeria without losing the stranglehold of Abuja?
As the oil rent that held the country together is gradually disappearing, its
internal contradictions are forced open, requiring a coterie of survival-coping
mechanisms to keep the system afloat. But for how long!
Today, Nigeria earns as much money from oil as it earns from remittances from
diaspora. She would have gained more had she engaged in massive educational
drive. How do we deliberately optimize the huge army of youths in the country
to be highly productive at home and competitive abroad? According to
Professor Soludo, an educational system with 21 st century curricula powered by
the technologies that guarantees one youth to three skills might be the winning
strategy. As the Western strategies age and decline, they would need production
labour and Nigeria can smartly position herself to become the largest supplier of
such labour either directly or indirectly.
Is the existing foundation adequate or appropriate for the dynamics and

challenges of the future with or without oil? Long-term sustainable
transformation must address the root of these problems. This is because in a
multi-ethnic, multi-religious society such as ours, designing institutions for
stability and prosperity requires great care. It should be a work-in-progress.
Nigeria has a dysfunctional federal system. This system in a world without oil
cannot endure. It is a system designed by sharing and consumption.
Property rights and rule of law constitute the foundation of a modern economy.
In Nigeria, we copied the American presidential system of government but
ignored her multi-layer judicial system that is consistent with their federation.
Instead we are stuck with a highly centralized system of the command and
control structure of the 1999 Constitution with its unitary federalism. Every
conceivable matter could end up in the Supreme Court in Abuja. For instance, a
little business misunderstanding in a locality could be finally settled in Abuja
instead of the locality where the action took place. The federal courts are
seriously over congested. Presently, there are 117,000 pending cases in the
Federal High Courts alone; tens of thousands in the Court of Appeal and about
more than 30 to 40 pending cases in the Supreme Court. 63 Today, these numbers
are quite inferior to realities.
Since 2007, no civil case lodged in the Court of Appeal has been called up for
hearing. Accordingly, Chidi Odinkalu made some calculations on the
congestion rate to about 70% with 86% of Nigerians in prisons today awaiting
trials.64 Most of them eventually overspent their time under detention than they
would have been were they convicted and sentenced. Judges are grossly over-
worked and grossly underpaid. The Nigeria Supreme Court is probably the only
one in the world where judges sit every day and yet cases keep piling up. How
then do we expect the future economy to compete and win in a society where it
can take more than twenty years to settle a simple commercial dispute which
takes few days in other countries? Imagine! Our system of fighting corruption is
concentrated at Abuja. Can we seriously expect the ICPC, or EFCC to police
the 774 local government areas of the country or match up with an intimidating
population surge? 65
In the light of the above, the following measures are therefore proposed to be
put in place:
1. A productive progressive Constitution for a world without oil. We need to

address those clusters of variables in the US Form for its fragile state
index which ranked Nigeria under the red-alert category. This is
important, a sine-qua-non as far as framing sound and progressive public
policies are concerned. In 2003 – 2004 Nigeria was on the list of non-
compliance nations for the financial action task force. We thought
getting Nigeria out of the list together with having debt-relief would be
critical to re-engineering the economy. We succeeded with the legislation
required to do that and finally we got out. The economy, thus, had a
breathing space. Exiting the red-alert category under the fragile state
index is a desideratum. Many companies situate in Nigeria are relocating
to Ghana, why? We need to find honest answers to this question.
2. Devolution of Power according to Principle of Subsidiarity and Viable
Geometry: Nigeria needs to go away from the current system of unitary
federalism with its choking concentration of powers and responsibilities
at the inefficient centre, thereby giving power back to the people. Even if
the oil boom comes back to endure, devolution is a matter of survival for
the federal government and the economy. The Federal Government
should loosen its hold on policing, power (electricity), railways, ports,
aviation, business incorporation, vehicles and federal licences, taxation
powers, regulatory functions, schools, prisons, etc.
 By creating a unitary system, Abuja had sought to keep everybody
in check but in the process holding everybody down. Abuja should
free up the ports in Calabar, Port Harcourt and loosen the
congestion in Lagos.
 Solid minerals should have a new fiscal federalism which altars the
incentiveness by the economic agents.
 The local government should be scrapped by the constitution. A
federation has two federating units not three.
 Scrap section 162 of the 1999 Constitution and replaced with a
fiscal arrangement that is consistent with devolution of powers. We
need to abrogate the land use decree act of 1978 and Solid
Minerals Act at the various petroleum Acts/amendments and return
the right ownership, control and exploration of these assets to the
federating units as proposed even by the APC committee on
restructuring led by El-Rufai. In return, they should pay
appropriate taxes to the federal government. Let Zamfara keep her
gold, Kaduna, Kogi, etc. keep their solid minerals, and the Niger-
Delta keep her oil, and then pay taxes to the federal government.
We need the Fiscal Responsibility Act to constrain irresponsible
fiscal behaviour and provide incentive to create wealth. We need to
liberate the stranglehold of Abuja.
3. The Legal Judicial Infrastructure: In a 21st century, a prosperous economy
is not sustainable without a sound and efficient judiciary system. We need
a progressive and practical judicial structure that can deliver justice to the
hundreds of millions of Nigerians and their businesses at the shortest
possible times. One wonders why Nigeria cannot have state/zone appeals
and supreme courts over local and state matters or why state election
matters should go to federal courts in a federation. Our productive,
progressive constitution would provide for specialized courts especially
commercial courts. Nigeria needs to invest heavily on the judiciary,
providing infrastructures with cutting edge technology as well as
continuous upgrading of knowledge and skills of our judges. Our judicial
system should be part of our natural pride. Let’s do what it takes to brand
Nigeria as a nation of laws. Can Nigeria target to be the number one legal
jurisdiction in Africa just as London is perceived the world over? And
with the Continental Free Trade, businesses are going to locate to places
where things move. In Nigeria today, it takes, at times, over twenty
something years for common commercial cases to last, something going
up to one omnibus supreme court. This should not be. Our justice system
needs to have a new job description.
What then is holding action? It would be recalled that the All Progressive
Congress (APC) provides a template for restructuring – (a) state police,
(b) scrap the local government from the Constitution, and (c) resource
control. According to the template, APC advocates for instant abrogation
of extant legislations and transfer rights over minerals to the federating
units or the states. Even the manifesto of APC reiterates that. With APC
Committee and manifesto declarations, it is time for Nigerians to begin to
demand answers to the following questions: what is holding action? Why
the presidency under APC control unable or rather appears unwilling to
walk her talk? Why do the northern political elites appear to be afraid of
restructuring the country? Apart from Atiku and lately Ibrahim
Babangida who advocate openly in favour of restructuring, many others
are either keeping quiet or blatantly opposed to it. Why? Even the main
opposition party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) has not come out
clearly on her position on restructuring, safe the position already taken by
her presidential flag-bearer. Why?
The suggestions above are the fundamental plans for Nigeria’s future
prosperity without oil. The contradictions are many. We have a choice –
either to engage in a pre-emptive, proactive action to orchestrate and
chart a new production rather than sharing-consumption structure, or wait
until change is forced upon us in the most chaotic manner. A wise man
gets his umbrella ready before the rain starts. My central message is that
systemic restructuring is not only necessary but a desideratum, not only
for progressive politics but excellent economy.
4. Finally, we need to fix our politics through ideological and value-
oriented mass participation. A secured, prosperous nation for the future
won’t fall from the sky nor can politics be legislated out of public policy.
Every advanced or progressive society is a product of organised struggles
and continuous contestations for a more perfect union or society. In a
democracy, there is no other route to a better future than the
instrumentality of politics. Politics is therefore too serious to be left to
only those who call themselves politicians. It is our collective destiny.
Unfortunately, our politics is broken. It is destructive rather than
developmental. It is largely a dining-table politics (you-chop-I-chop
politics) or what an author describes as it is “our turn to eat” politics.
Consequently, our political parties are mere platforms to grab powers –
same people, same interests driven by crass opportunism and primitive
accumulation of wealth and riches. It is largely about what is in it for my
pocket and not about how I can contribute to make my country and the
world better than I met them.
We have a national crisis of values dressed in hypocrisy. We need to fix
our electoral and judicial system so that only vote counts and all votes are
counted. This will transfer real power back to the people free from the
stranglehold of opportunistic elites.
With power in the hands of the people and with the institution reforms
proposed above which require leaders with capacity with wealth creation,
consequently, the idea-based cake-sharing politics can begin to emerge.
Our politics is woven around the sharing and consumption of oil rents and
you don’t even need any productive skills or be a person of ideas to be
able to share the money.
Instructively, the oil money is fast running out. Total income from oil is
barely $100 a person which is absolutely not enough to give our children
21st century education at primary or secondary school levels.
The cost of governance and the cost of politics in Nigeria are absolutely
unacceptable. Citizens of conscience regardless of ethnicity and religion
should realign along ideological lines to offer Nigerians real alternatives
regarding the pathways for their future. We need a system that transit
from a rentier cake-sharing to one of cake-baking.
Mass participation of Nigerians founded on patriotism, passion, and
values of hard work and integrity should drive the politics of the future.
Those who have something to offer for a better future, especially our
youths must stand up to be counted, not just recline to complaint. The
perverse value system of some of our youths summarized by the phrase,
“get rich young; or die trying” is not part of the future we’re talking
about. We must be the change we want to see. Only a vigilant and active
citizenry that holds public officers to account will secure the kind of
future that we’re envisaging.66
In summary, an alternative, even better future for Nigeria is possible if we work

at it.
Granted that Nigeria has got a long list of problems, but adversity comes with
opportunities. With a “Will” to overcome, the problems shouldn’t stop us nor
should a few thousands of miscreants – kidnappers, treasury looters, drug
barons, 419 scammers, etc. must not be the ones that define us. As we build a
new foundation for the next Nigeria we must seize the narrative and sing a new
song to rebrand Nigeria.67
While we bemoan the rising poverty and unemployment rate in the country, we
could take solace the fact that Nigeria still remains the leading and largest
economy in Africa and the most populous and arguably, the most important
black nation on earth.
The United States’ Federal Bureau Intelligence 77 (FBI) released list indicates
that Nigerians in US constitute the most educated and highest earning
immigrants in the US.68
When I hear of drug barons who were Nigerians, I remember that Alaba Market
in Lagos houses some of the highest business incubators on earth. When the
news of the litany of insecurities adorn all nooks and crannies of the nation –
kidnappings, bandits, terrorism, military and police hacking down on the
defenceless citizens of the country, etc., I also remember that there are honest
and hardworking and law-abiding citizens of Nigeria in their millions. When I
hear about the afro-phobia and the stereotyping of Nigerians in South Africa, I
recall that the richest black man on earth is a Nigerian (Aliko Dangote), the one-
time richest black woman on earth a Nigerian (Mrs. Alakija), and our own Tony
Elumelu Foundation is empowering thousands of young African entrepreneurs.
Our own Allen Onyema, the owner of Air Peace is currently evacuating trapped
and stranded Nigerians in South Africa – the remnants of the xenophobic attack
in South Africa – irrespective of their ethnicity, religion or other affiliations,
free of charge. He had expended billions of Nigeria currency to undertake the
evacuations of thousands of Nigerian nationals, a duty the federal government
ought to have done but did not. What is more, our own Mike Adenuga owns the
Glo Communications and he is doing great job; the former Secretary General of
Commonwealth (Emeka Anyaoku) is a Nigerian who excelled in his job.
Nigeria’s investment banker, Adebayo Ogunlesi recently bought over Gatwick
Airport and some other airports in the United Kingdom. 69 Dr Ngozi Okonjo-
Iweala, a Nigerian-born world-class economist has recently become the first
African and the first woman on earth to head the World Trade Organisation
(WTO).
In another development, a Canadian-based Nigerian man identified as Kelechi

Madu has been appointed minister of justice and solicitor-general of Alberta, a
province in Canada. A Nigerian, Professor Charles Egbu, has been appointed
the Vice-Chancellor of Leeds Trinity University in the United Kingdom (UK).
The appointment makes him the first Black VC of a UK university. Egbu hails
from Idemili North in Anambra State and has been the Dean of school of the
Built Environment and Architecture London South Bank University, London,
England, UK. Also, a Nigerian man is the President of the International Court of
Justice (ICJ), Justice Chike Eboe-Osuji, who hails from Imo State of Nigeria.
The first blackman, an Igbo-born Nigerian-American takes over the Command

of US Navy Guided Missles Destroyer, USS HALSEY (DDG-97) on April 2,
2021. Until his appointment by the Biden administration, Commander Ndukwe
is the recipient of numerous Naval Awards, including Defense Meritorious
Service Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal.
Also Obinna Ukwuani, a Nigerian man, has been appointed to lead digital
innovation and growth as Chief Digital Officer for the Bank of Kigali, Rwanda.
And Eno Titilayo Ebong is the latest appointee of President Joe Biden as acting
director of the United States Trade and Development Agency.
Let’s not forget that as Obinwanne, the fame-formed alleged scammer and a
“kid-singer” who worth millions in dollar is from Nnewi, let’s also quickly
remember that Cletus Ibeto (the CEO of Ibeto Group of Companies), Innocent
Chukwuma (Innoson Motors), which produces sports utility vehicles,
commercial buses, and passenger cars at the first indigenous assembly plant in
Nigeria), Chikason, Cosmos Maduka (President/CEO of Coscharis Group,
started Coscharis Motors as a one-man business and over the years has
transformed it into one of the largest car dealership in Nigeria that deals in
BMW, Jaguar, Range Rover and Rolls Royce cars, etc., and Emeka Offor, an oil
dealer. These men all hail from Nnewi Nigeria.
When someone tells me that our youths are under-performing, I remind him that
the youths at the Ikeja Computer Village are doing wonders. Aba is Nigeria’s
Japan and Onitsha Main Market a leading market in West Africa. A young man
from Anambra State recently invented a generator that runs on water; and a
young girl from Regina Patche Secondary School, Onitsha, Anambra State,
Nigeria won the global prize for innovation. Our own Phillip Emeagwali, the
patent-owner and computer wizard and the father of internet on earth is a
Nigerian, the son of the soil. Also, Jenali Alliu from Sokoto designed a
Chevrolet Volt car.70
Tell me that Nigerians can’t be proficient writers and I will conveniently remind
you that the 1986 Novel Prize in Literature was awarded to our own Wole
Soyinka, Chinua Achebe was a well acknowledged and respected international
author who had won so many literary awards and our daughter, Ngozi
Chimamanda Adichie are all Nigerians.
Whenever I hear about the looting leaders of today in Nigeria, I quickly

reminiscences with nostalgia, the visionary and selfless leadership of
yesterday’s Nigeria – Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello,
Tafawa Balewa, M.I. Okpara, Alex Ekwueme, etc. Footballers, artists, activists,
and Nollywood stars, the list is endless.
Since 2019 till date, the whole world trembles as a result of the coronavirus
pandemic tearing through families and taking loved ones away, everyone
longed for succour. The announcement of a vaccine undergoing trials was the
needed reprieve for the global community having recorded over 1.7 million
deaths. But in the heart of that race to save the world is a scientist with Nigerian
heritage — Onyema Ogbuagu.71
Ogbuagu is one of those leading the research for a COVID-19 vaccine in the
US. Pfizer and BioNTech had announced that the first vaccine they developed
against COVID-19 could prevent more than 90 per cent of people from getting
infected, saying it would be able to supply 50 million doses by the end of 2020,
and around 1.3 billion by the end of 2021.72
The point is simple: For every one challenge that Nigeria is confronted with,
there are possibly more opportunities out there. If Lagos, for instance, were to
be a country in spite of her challenges, she would have been among the 6 th
richest African nations. Nigeria is adequately blessed to be the most prosperous
nation of the black race. All we need do is to unleash the creative geniuses in
our people by designing the appropriate institution to power a 21 st century
economy without oil.
The party is over. The elites need to come together. The pretence and hypocrisy
is over. Nigeria’s current population of 200 million and the projected 2050
population of over 400 million with the youths in greater percentage need
quality education, job creation, clean drinking water, uninterrupted electricity
supply, roof over their heads, quality health services, etc. Our leaders should
make it a goal to offer to the children of the poor, what they’re offering their
own children, abroad. That would be the minimum template.
The Nigeria’s National Assembly must do the needful by scaling down her
salaries and allowances to a reasonably, affordable remuneration the country
can endure. What really, according to comments credited to a sitting senator,
would three senators be doing that one couldn’t do? Better still, we can make do
with one arm legislature at the national level. We have no other country but
Nigeria. We must make it work. Of course, I see huge problems and challenges,
but my focus is on the solution.
The choice, ladies and gentlemen, is ours! If we believe it and work at it,
especially in the light of the fact that Africa deepens its integration with the
continental free trade in view, Nigeria could become Africa’s California. But if
Nigeria chose to go the path of its current trajectory, I’m afraid to join Obasanjo
to decry: “… I am very much worried and afraid that we are on the precipice
and dangerously reaching a tipping point where it may no longer be possible to
hold danger at bay. The main issue, if I may dare say, is poor management or
mismanagement of diversity which, on the other hand, is one of our greatest and
most important assets. As a result, very onerous cloud is gathering. And rain of
destruction, violence, disaster and disunity can only be the outcome.” 72
Today, Nigeria is heavily pregnant. The gathering storm and possible shipwreck
is avoidable. The die is cast, Caesar has crossed the Rubicorn, the horse has
bolted from the stable, the cat is out of the bag, our eyes have been opened, we
have lost all sense of fear and Nigeria can NEVER be the same again.
Any moment from now Nigeria would surely deliver a baby. We are all
expectants. Is Nigeria going to slip into avoidable genocide? Will Nigeria be
officially “fulanised” and “islamized” as events unfold? Would Nigerian elites
do the needful to restructure the country and reposition her for greater heights?
Or is Nigeria pregnant with bloody revolution? Or, better still, we should know
that when tyranny becomes a law, rebellion becomes a duty. Biafra question
still resurrects! Unity is not forced on people. Any man who ignores the
continuous call for separation or divorce by his wife will soon be a victim of
food poisoning at its best because marriage should be by choice, not by force.
Our leaders should therefore recognize that Nigeria is truly united when it is not
forced to be together. A word is enough for the wise. A wise man gets the
umbrella ready before the rain starts. Dalu nu!
REFERENCES
1. Pastor Tunde Bakare, “The Gathering Storm & Avoidable Shipwreck:

How to Avoid Catastrophic Euroclydon” being Text of Speech at the
State of the Nation Broadcast, on Sunday, 4 th of January, 2015. Venue:
The Latter Rain Assembly, End-Time Church, 4, Akilo Road, Off Oba
Akran Avenue, Ogba, Ikeja, Lagos.
State of the Nation Broadcast, on Sunday, 4th of January, 2015. Venue:
8. Dele Olojede, Winner of Pulitzer Prize, quoted Sharespeare in Tempest
quoted in Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai, “The Accidental Public Servant”,
(2013) Ibadan: Safari Books, back cover.
9. William Golding, “Lord of the Flies” (1954), London: Faber and Faber,
p. 224.
10.Olusegun Obasanjo, “This Animal Called Man” (1998) Abeokuta: ALF
Publications, p. 385
11.Lasisi Olagunju, “Sowore, Vampire State and the Dead Whales” (2019),
TheNewsDigest, 5th of August, 2019, Abuja, Nigeria.
12.Aidoghie Paulinus, “2019 Election marked by severe operational
transparency shortcomings – EUEOM”, TheSun, 15th of June, 2019.
13.Matthias Nowak, Fiona Mangan, researchers at the Small Arms Survey,
“The West Africa – Sahel Connection: Mapping Cross – border Arms
Trafficking” Switzerland, 2019.
14.Ibrahim Shuaibu, “Nigeria: Weapons Linked to Hezbollah Uncovered in
Kano”, ThisDay, 30th May, 2013.
15.Samuel Ogundipe, “EXCLUSIVE: Documents show ex-Gov. Amosun
illegally imported arms, ammunition”, Premium Times, Nov. 4th, 2019.
16.TheCitizen, “Nigeria seizes illegal arms shipment”, 24th May, 2017, AFP
news.
17.Aanu Damilare.O., “Ship Loaded with Arms, Explosives Heading to
Nigeria Intercepted in South Africa”, Within Nigeria 24th of August,
2018.
18. See www.macrotrend.net
19. www.macrotrend.net
22.See PM News, “Is Taraba Killings Protest Police Own
#RevolutionNow#?” 14th August, 2019.
23.A Yoruba chieftain, Chief Adebayo made this statement about Miyetti
Allah setting up a vigilante in the country.
24.Chief Adebayo’s comment about Miyetti Allah setting up a vigilante in
Nigeria.
25.Elombah News (Special Reports), “Nigeria Buried 1,000 Soldiers Killed
by Boko Haram in Secret Graves”, 1st August, 2019.
26.Tobi Aworinde, ThePUNCH, “Miyetti Allah admits, clarifies NGN 100
billion demand from FG” 17th of May, 2019.
27.Adekunle Abiodun (2003), “The Nigeria-Biafra Letters: A Soldier’s
Story, Africa Phoenix Group.
28.Ike Ekweremadu’s comment reported in “Nigeria Senators Divided: If
You Give Boko Haram Islamic State, Give My People Biafra”, Vanguard
News Update,
29.Samson Toromade quoted Oby Ezekwesili as she slams Buhari over
RUGA, Pulse.ng, 14th of July 2019.
30. Following the suspension of the establishment of RUGA settlements, the
spokesman for the Coalition of Northern Groups, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman,
in a video has ordered the federal and state governments to bring back the
Ruga settlement project within 30 days. The spokesman, Abdul-Azeez
who said this on Channel TV had insisted that failure to do so will result
in them resorting to their own ‘decisive line of action’.
31.Victor Ogunyinka, “RUGA: Arewa youths give Buhari, Southern Leaders
30-day ultimatum”, Vanguard, 5th of July, 2019.
32.Anosike Chukwunonso, Peter Oshagwu, Family Press Writers Press Int’l,
made reference to the alleged 1000 Southern Officers were killed in
compromised intelligence.
33.Ibid.
34.Vanguard July 15, 2019, “Full text of Obasanjo’s Letter to President
Muhammadu Buhari”.
35.Ibid
36.The LeaderNews Online, “Nigerians sold for $400 as slaves in Libya”,
Nov. 20, 2017.
37.Pastor Tunde Bakare, op. cit.
38.See The National Bureau of Statistics as well as Trading Economics.
39.Pastor Tunde Bakare, op.cit.
40.Ibid.
41.IMF Report on Nigeria’s Debt
42.Ibid
43.Peter Obi’s remark on Nigeria’s Debt. Peter Obi made the disclosure
while speaking in Lagos as the guest speaker on the theme: “Re-
designing the Nigerian Economy with New Ideas” on The Platform, a
programme of The Covenant Christian Centre.
48.Orient Daily, Peter Obi “NGN 22.7 trillion Debts: Nigeria’s Economy on
Life Support”, 27 August, 2018.
49.OlisaTV, “Peter Obi raises alarm over Nigeria’s rising debt profile”,
March 12, 2020.
50.Michael-Jude Nwolisa, “Obi Laments Nigeria’s Debt Profile”, Fides
Media (FM). Obi who spoke at the Morning Show on Arise TV on
Wednesday, March 11, 2020 said the current debt position of the country
called for a serious concern.
51.Peter Obi made the disclosure while speaking in Lagos as the guest
speaker on the theme: “Re-designing the Nigerian Economy with New
Ideas” on The Platform, a programme of The Covenant Christian Centre.
59.See https//tradingeconomic.com/Nigeria/terrorism-index
60.Charles Akujieze, (2019)“Nigeria: An Experiment in Nation Building”,
UK: AuthorHouse Publishers
64.APC Senator Shehu Sani (APC Kaduna) reveals that Senator Abdullahi
Adamu who was later removed as the chairman of Northern Senators’
Forum alleges that NGN 70million given to the Northern Senator’ Forum
was swallowed by monkey in his farm.
65.Henry Umoru, “NGN 614 billion bailout deductions. We were ready to
pay – Governors”, Vanguard, September 18, 2019.
66.Premium Times of 30, July 2019, 626 Nigerians were killed during 2019
Nigeria elections, while 1,689 court cases arising from the 2019 general
elections.
67.Gbenga Odunsi, “FG Spent $16 million to buy Mosquito Nets”, Within
Nigeria, 26th of May, 2019.
68.TheLagosTimes, “Revealed: List of 105 Top Individuals Owing Nigeria
NGN 906 billion”, October 25, 2018
69.Ibid.
70. See http://ekwenche.org
71.Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu narrates the holocaust against
the Jews, the complacency of the world and crimes against humanity,
against the Biafrans and others.
72.Professor Yusuf Dankofa of the Faculty of Law, Ahmadu Bello
University, (ABU), Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria.
73.Professor Yusuf Dankofa of the Faculty of Law, Ahmadu Bello
University, (ABU), Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria.
74.Professor Charles Soludo, “Soludo urges Nigerians to invest in
technological innovations”, PM News, October 1, 2019.
75.Chidi Odinkalu made some calculations on the Court congestion that
about 70% with 86% of Nigerians in prison awaiting trials.
78.See “Full text of Obasanjo’s Letter to President Muhammadu Buhari”
Vanguard 15th 2019
PART 1
THE GATHERING STORM AND AVOIDABLE

SHIPWRECK
Chapter 1: Nigeria: An Experiment in Nation Building
No President, king or emperor will make Nigeria work until we evolve a truly federal system.
Successive rulers have denigrated Nigeria into a tragic enclave of overbearing centralism
and shifty Byzantinism. As bestowed by our current constitution, the Federal Government is
a monstrous octopus; its tentacles continue to asphyxiate the progress and unity of our
people. We need to devolve far greater power from the central government to the federating
units of Nigeria. We need to terminate the virtual omnipotence and omnipresence of the
Federal Government which cause the epilepsy of our power supply, paralysis of our railway
system, incapacitation of our police, the ruination of our educational system, pollution of our
environment, corruption of our polity and strangulation of our economy. – Professor Sola
Adeyeye, Chief Whip – Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
(1) Background Studies:
Oh Nigeria! This is Nigeria!! When the naïve hear these expressions, he is

likely to mistaken the first for a longing by a compatriot who had been away
from home to come back to a country he badly misses, or in the case of the
second expression, a positive statement of identification, telling visitors who
may be visiting the country for the first time that they are now in Nigeria.1
But to the initiated, the expression: “Oh Nigeria!” is an exclamation of

frustration by Nigerians about Nigeria. And the second expression: “This is
Nigeria” is a statement of fact showing a negative attitude arising from a feeling
of frustration and helplessness. If this is Nigeria, so they say, then anything
goes. You may or may not have light; you may or may not have your flight, you
may or may not get that badly needed job even when you are the most qualified,
and of course, meeting an official on his duty post is a matter of luck.2 Ibid
This is Nigeria where “Politics” is a criminal enterprise. Without intending to be

unnecessarily cynical, corruption remains Nigeria’s second largest religion.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime, a total of 117 million bribes were paid in 2019
alone with an average bribe size of NGN 5,754 billion, meaning that a total of
around NGN 675 billion was paid in cash bribes to public officials in Nigeria. 3
This corresponds to 0.52% of the entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of
Nigeria. Corruption appears to be the only thing that works in today’s Nigeria.
This is Nigeria where you might woke up one day to hear that snake had
swallowed thirty-six million naira (NGN 36,000,000)4 belonging to a board, or
that Monkey ate up seventy million naira (NGN 70,000,000) 5 belonging to an
association. Or, that the government fetes with terrorists, carouses with
kidnappers and had regular unprotected sex with felons, the troublers of the
Nigerian nation6. Or that the one on the driver’s seat in Aso Rock is an
imposter! Or that about 70% of Nigeria’s expenditure goes to payment of
salaries while only 30% goes to capital projects.7
Nigeria’s poorest state, Zamfara pays NGN 10 million monthly to “Ex-

governors”, each one of them and with the five former governors that collect
these sums, Zamfara is paying NGN 50 million monthly on “ex-governors”,
amounting to some NGN 700 million8 annually on each “ex” and yet could not
afford to pay her civil servants the paltry sum of NGN 30,000 monthly ($100);
ordinary workers who spent their lifetime serving and servicing the state.
In the same vein, the Nigeria-nation spends billions of naira on ex-Presidents as

their gratuities for life. In 2021 alone, the presidency intends to spend some
NGN 7.8 billions on the former “rulers” of Nigeria and their respective deputies
will earn a combined entitlement of N2.3 billion.9 And in the end, in the
imbecility of those who rule over us, they prefer to pay the ex-governors and
presidents who fleeced their states and nation and compromised their offices in
tunes of billions and trillions of local and foreign currencies at the expense
ordinary Nigerians in complete disregard of our stark economic realities. Yet,
revelations according to a Swiss lawyer, Enrico Monfrini, hired by the Nigerian
government since 1999 to work on recovering monies looted by Sani Abacha,
says his work has secured the restitution of more than $2.4 billion so far and
some $192 million are still in the UK, France and Jersey.10
The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, a renowned
rights, democracy and security watchdog has revealed that the humongous sum
of NGN 806 billion was criminally extorted from innocent and industrious
peoples of old Eastern Nigeria otherwise known as “Biafra” in the past 50
months (August 2015 – October 2019)11.
It would be recalled that in August 2017, Senator Isa Misau, a retired Deputy
Superintendent of Police and a senator representing Bauchi South District made
a weighty and shocking allegation and disclosed that the Federal Government of
Nigeria refused to thoroughly and conclusively investigate the NGN 500 billion
criminally extorted from innocent citizens of the old Eastern Region. The
operations of the Nigerian Police Force and the Army-led military in the two
geo-political zones (the South-East and South South) of the old Eastern Nigeria
where innocent citizens are robbed and killed are needless, worthless,
unwarranted, provocative, act of war, genocidal and laden with ethno-religious
ulterior motives. 12
It suffices that in the first tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari, some 25,794
Nigerians were killed.13 Of this number, Boko Haramists alone slaughtered over
5,598 persons13 whilst the Fulani herders and other sectarian violence consumed
over 4,917 innocent lives.14 Over 2000 Boko Haramists have been enlisted into
Nigerian army.15 It would be recalled that the two Boko Haram leaders –
Commander Boni and Commander Useini Matagará – involved in the bombing
of the Mosque in Kano and Yobe State, were arrested by the Nigerian
authorities but were swapped in a deal for the Dapchi girls. 16 Now, these
terrorists are back to the war front against Nigerians in cooperation with the
over 2000 Boko Haramists in the Nigerian Army, added with the mass of illegal
foreigners and terrorists that troop into Nigeria. Nigeria has not less than 1,800
porous borders and most of them located in the north. While Buhari closed the
Southern borders, he allowed the northern borders to remain open. It is as if
Buhari closed borders to food but opens same to terrorists and criminals.
Not quite too long ago, the Chadian president led the Chadian soldiers to
dislodge the Boko Haram hideout in Lake Chad Basin.17
If this is Nigeria, critics argue, the chances are that nothing will work. You may
or may not get fair treatment because justice is geographically and religiously
defined; patriotism may mean self, first and self, last! Government work is
obviously nobody`s work, and you may decide to close at noon or sleep off or
chat away on duty cheerfully, ignoring the job you are paid to do.
This is Nigeria where your place of birth tells the man next door whether you
are a genius or a congenital idiot, whether your name is a password or a
handicap, whether your religion may open door or close same.18
This is Nigeria where we have witnessed our “rise to greatness”, and a decline
to a state of a bewildered nation. Nigeria’s electoral umpire, Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) since the return to civil rule in 1999 has
spent NGN 450 billion conducting five general elections and a number of by-
elections.19 In addition to that, the sum of NGN 143 billion was budgeted for
2019 general elections in Nigeria.20 In spite of all these “wastes” our nation
continues to suffer a staggering leadership deficit.
Truth be told, I’m not unaware of the fact that we have experienced some
semblance of “outstanding leadership”, particularly by appointment in the last
twenty-something years ago. We have also seen good intentions and laudable
development agendas. But unfortunately and regrettably, neither the five and
now six general elections nor the wonderful intentions have translated into
improved living conditions for most Nigerians. Six general elections and yet
more than 90 million Nigerians are extremely poor thereby earning the country
the title “Poverty Capital of the World”.21 Six general elections, yet more than
38, 00022 lives have been claimed by the Boko Haram menace, 2.4 million of
us are internally displaced23 but today this figure is inferior to reality, more than
228,000 of us are refugees24, thousands of us have been kidnapped by terrorists,
and 7.7 million of us require urgent humanitarian assistance.25
Six elections, yet more than 2,300 children under the age of five and more than
145 women of childbearing age died yesterday and will die today due to little or
no healthcare facilities.26 Six elections yet well over 13 million of our children
are still out of school27, over 90 million of us, almost half our entire population,
have no access to electricity supply28, and over 108 million of us are homeless.29
Six elections, yet our country have one of the worst infrastructural deficits in the
world; needless to say, our roads are lavishly decorated with potholes and our
airports are among the worst of the worsts.30
Six elections and most of our 36 states have remained economic vegetables,
cap in hand and running to Abuja for life support every single month because
they are unable to generate sufficient internally generated revenue. 31 And
indeed, six elections and our paradoxical underdevelopment continue to
confound the world.
It suffices that Nigeria’s economy had, indeed, grown significantly since 1999
up until 2015 or so, but what is the essence of economic growth if it does not
reflect on the tables of Nigerians? What is economic growth if it enriches the
few and leaves the rest of us in abject poverty? In seventeen years, like prodigal
sons, we earned NGN 77 trillion and squandered it. 32 We have gone ahead to
incur an additional $74.28 billion worth of debt barely thirteen years after a debt
burden of $18 billion was lifted off our shoulders. 33 Yet, there is no
commensurate development to show for the debts we keep piling up for future
generations of Nigerians (“Blessed are the future generations of Nigeria for they
shall inherit our national debts!”) Oh yes! Six general elections and ours is a tale
of an increasing poverty and indebtedness.
This is Nigeria where the current drivers of our nation’s economy had led the
country’s external debt grown to 700% from $10.32 billion in 2015 to $81.2.74
billion in 2019.34 It implies that Nigeria was committing half of its foreign
earnings to servicing its current level of indebtedness. Such a situation only
talks about imminent bankruptcy. No entity can survive while devoting an entire
50% of its revenue to debt servicing. Debts servicing simply means paying
interests that accrue from debts owe. Only interests are paid not the loan or part
of it is attended to. And yet this government is not seeing anything wrong in
borrowing further. Obasanjo was therefore right when he said: “I do not need
the brain of any genius to conclude that those who use statistics to dig us deeper
into debt are our enemies. Statistics can be used to serve any purpose, and that
is why Winston Churchill talked of lies, damn lies and statistics, meaning
statistics can be made master of lies”.35
President Muhammadu Buhari had placed a request for Senate approval to

borrow almost $30 billion for “developmental purposes”. 36 Debt servicing gulps
NGN 7.04 trillion under Buhari administration both domestic and external
debts.37 The Senate recently raised alarm that with its approval of $22.7billion
foreign loan request by President Muhammadu Buhari penultimate week, the
total debt profile of Nigeria now stands at N33 trillion.
This is Nigeria where her parliament is the highest paid in the world (Senators
earn as much as $80,000 per month meaning 10,000 times minimum wage and
200 times more than the GDP per capita38 and yet more than 90 million of her
people are below the poverty level, living less than a dollar a day; whilst at least
10.5 million African slaves were taken over the 300 years of Trans-Atlantic
trade39, over 15 million of Nigerian citizens are in diaspora since her
independence in 196040. From popular nations like the US, UK, Canada and
Italy to less popular nations like Ukraine, Russia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and
Nigerians have chosen to endure all manner of inhuman treatment and
deprivations.
It was said that Britain “bought” Nigeria for £865,000. 41 Who “sold” Nigeria to
Britain? At what price and why, Nigerian youths are wont to ask? Allegedly, for
every single barrel of oil Nigeria gets or sold, Britain has 13. Britain is said to
be feeding fat on Nigeria and critics argue that Britain may not be able to stand
without going bankrupt except by “parasiting” and “killing Nigeria to death”
through our political and economic gate-keepers. 42
In Nigeria where most state governments are complaining about their “inability”
to pay a paltry sum of NGN 30,000 (-$90) minimum wage to her civil servants,
in just one day, 469 members of the 9th National Assembly received NGN 4.68
billion as a welcome package.43 And yet, this is a country in which poverty has
erased peoples’ surnames, a country that has come to become the poverty
capital on earth, a country where people exhume buried chickens and consume
due to poverty, a country where suicide rate skyrockets!, a country that her
National Assembly plans to spend a humongous sum of NGN 37 billion, just to
“renovate” the complex.44 SERAP is currently contending with the House of
Representatives over alleged plans to spend NGN 5.04 billion on exotic cars
purchase.45 Tufiakwa! Emere anyi ihe a eme!!
This is Nigeria where government bribes a terrorist group with one hundred
billion naira (NGN 100,000,000,000)46 and yet could not adequately fund its
educational and health sectors put together in a year near that figure!
It is alleged that the Presidency is a refugee camp of known and well-advertised

faces of corruption and candidates of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) and while the Presidency is fighting corruption in the
opposition camp with “insecticide”, within the ruling party, he is using
“deodorant” to engage with them.
Not quite long, the First Lady and her daughter took umbrage at the
management of Aso Rock Clinic over the poor state of health, accusing the
Chief Medical Director of Aso Rock of running an ill-equipped health care
Clinic despite huge budgetary allocations it receives yearly. Aso Rock Clinic,
instead of becoming a centre of excellence has become seedy, a wretched centre
where ordinary facilities such as syringes, cotton wool, drugs and equipment,
even paracetamol are conspicuously absent and yet between 2015 till date about
NGN 13 billion had been expended on the Clinic. 47 The name of the game is
corruption and it is happening right under the nose of President Buhari.
Nigerians have realized that the corruption industry is still flourishing till date.
What the First Lady and her daughter’s angst signify is that minus the president,
members of the First Family have also come to this realization.
This is Nigeria where a sitting president went to Egypt, and without the
knowledge and approval of the parliament, told his host that as from January
2020 there would no longer be a visa requirement for Africans to come to
Nigeria.48 How could a “leader” of a nation that has come to become the third
most dangerous place to live on earth, a nation with some 93 million of its
population unemployed; a nation with billions and trillions of debt in foreign
and local currencies that has come to become the poverty capital of the world be
so callous, insensitive, purblind, imbecilic, to make such a pronouncement. That
policy statement is nothing but a nonsensical piece of ridiculous, arrant and
stupendous nonsense.
The implications of this unguarded declaration could be that “Fulanis of north

and West Africa rejected and unwanted elsewhere, have finally been given what
they wanted all along: a homeland of their own. They will flood Nigeria in their
millions and within 5 years our demographics will change forever.”
“Simply put, a visa-free policy for Africans to come into Nigeria is a shameless and
subtle attempt to alter the racial and religious demographics of our country and open
our front door for mass Fulani, Berber, Taureg and Arab migration into our shores.
By the time they come here from all over north and West Africa and settle down, we
the indigenous people of Nigeria will be a tiny minority. The next thing they will do is
to implement RUGA to the letter and take our land and insist on Sharia law being
implemented all over the country.
It is a dangerous, self-serving and self-seeking policy which will ultimately result in
great conflict, carnage, racial and religious strife and total catastrophy. In an
attempt to implement an ancient agenda of Fulani hegemony and turn us into a
conquered and enslaved people Buhari, his born to rule co-travellers and their vast
legion of slavish sympathisers and supporters are likely to set Nigeria on fire…
With this irresponsible, unpatriotic, dangerous and self-serving policy, I repeat, we
are playing with fire and sitting on a keg of gunpowder which will eventually explode.
It will be the final nail in the coffin of a united Nigeria. May God deliver us from the
coming evil.” 49
President Buhari is the only president of Nigeria that attempt to change the
demography of the country by subterfuge.
The government has proposed that states be allowed to control all the solid
minerals deposited in their soil. That’s a good one. But what about states that
have little or no solid minerals but have other mineral deposits buried in their
soil? Why would they not be allowed to also access their natural resources and
then pay royalties to the federal government? Solid minerals are largely
deposited in the northern parts of Nigeria whilst states in the Niger-Delta region
are blessed abundantly with oil. If the states in the North be allowed to access
their solid minerals and some other states, for example, in the Niger-Delta
region could not access theirs, is there a better definition of injustice more than
that?
Islam in Northern Nigeria has carved in to the forces of bigotry. With deep
sense of responsibility and highest regard to honest and sincere faithfuls of
Islamic faith, and without intending to be unnecessarily cynical to their faith,
the truth remains that the enforcement of sharia law has created an atmosphere
of impunity and intolerance. It would be recalled that in 2013, a lady was
beheaded by members of a terrorist organisation suspected to be those of Boko
Haram sect.50 The brutal murder of this unfortunate lady was recorded on video
and viewed by CKN Nigeria in one of the troubled states in the northern part of
Nigeria. The lady whose hands were tied to the back was asked to confess that
she was a member of the State Security Service (SSS), an allegation she denied.
It was a gruesome death!
In 2016, some blood-thirsty Muslims who wanted to please Allah by all means
and get into the good books of Prophet Muhammad were on rampage in
Northern Nigeria where they maimed, killed and destroyed lives and the horrific
consequences of their actions were graphic and glaring. Also, one Mrs. Eunice
Elisha, the wife of a Redeemed Pastor was murdered in cold blood in the early
hour of Saturday July 9th by suspected Muslim fanatics.51
Beheading for God and religion has become a dangerous slippery, slippery
slope and a worrisome development in northern Nigeria. The beheadings were
never done in secrets; they were open and public rituals.52
The criminal silence of the Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, the Kano
State Governor, Umar Ganduje and then Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II
over the killings in Kano was disappointingly deafening and sends worrisome
signals about the threat of Islamic fanaticism in the region. 52 Within a week,
Christians have been murdered in different states across northern Nigeria in
very gruesome ways for the supposed crimes of blasphemy against Prophet
Muhammad. The Christian woman is the latest. But is she going to be the last?
On 26th of December 2019, the Islamic State in West Africa Province

(ISWAP), an Islamic terrorist faction, in a 56-second video published through
Amaq, the IS propaganda media wing, declared that it has executed eleven
Christian aid workers in Borno State – north eastern part of Nigeria. 53
According to Washington-based intelligence Group, the footage shows that one
man was shot dead, with the others – all male – being beheaded by jihadists
wearing black masks and beige uniforms. 54 The death is said to be a retaliation
for the killings of IS leader Bakr al-Baghdadi and his spokesman in two
separate US military operations earlier 2019. The voice-over of that video says:
“This message is to the Christians in the world … Those who you see in front of us
are Christians and we will shed their blood as revenge for the two dignified sheikhs,
the caliph of the Muslims and the spokesman for the Islamic State, Sheikh Abu al-
Muhajr, may Allah accept them”.55
According to Catholic Herald, the beheading of 10 Christians by Islamist

militants in Nigeria has sparked a condemnation by a bishop who accuses the
government of using different methods to achieve the same goal of Islamic
dominance.
In the wake of the Christmas Day attack by Islamic State West Africa Province
(ISWAP) and an attack by Boko Haram on Christmas Eve, Bishop Matthew
Hassan Kukah of Sokoto told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need of his
disgust with the authorities.
According to him:
“The only difference between the government and Boko Haram is Boko Haram
holding a bomb and the government is using the levers of pawn … using different
methods of achieving the same goal of Islamic dominance… They are using the levers
of power to secure the supremacy of Islam, which then gives more weight to the idea
that it can be achieved by violence. With the situation in Nigeria, it is hard to see the
moral basis they have to defeat Boko Haram…
They have created the conditions to make it possible for Boko Haram to behave the
way they are behaving.56
This followed a Christmas Eve attack by Boko Haram in which seven people
were slaughtered.
Criticising the Buhari government’s penchant for “fulanisation” and

“islamisation”, Bishop Kukah said the Nigerian government, by packing key
government positions with hard-line Muslims, gives tacit approval to such
groups.
“If the people in power don’t do enough to integrate Christians then they give oxygen
to Islamism. If they have countries where everybody is Muslim in power then you give
vent to the idea that Islam should be supreme.”57
(https://catholicherald.co.uk/news/2020/01/03/nigerian-government-are-islamic-
fundamentalists-without-bombs-says-bishop/)
The rampaging soldiers of Allah got away with their heinous crime in the past
in the case of Gideon Akaluka in the 90s and are most likely to get away with
such in the future because some Muslems have ensured impunity is entrenched
in Muslim communities in northern Nigeria; yet there are good and faithful
ones. Extremism appears to be ubiquitous and the political will to stem this
cancerous trend is obviously lacking.
In my estimation, those who fight for God are missing the point. If your God is
God indeed, let Him fight for Himself! Why must anybody fight or kill in the
name of God?
One is therefore not surprised when a popular Australian Muslim Scholar Imam
Tawhidi had disclosed that Nigerian Government harbours all forms of terrorists
because the government itself is run Terrorist.
According to Tawhidi, Boko Haram terrorists are allowed to operate with little
or no effort to tackle them because of corruption in Nigeria.
He took to his twitter handle and wrote:

“We have ignored Nigeria in the discussion about terrorism. Nigeria is the most
corrupt country in Africa. It is home to a terrorist government that harbours
terrorists just like the government of Pakistan. Boko Haram were given the green
light in their early stages. We Remember.
Now all of a sudden Nigeria wants to lead the war against terror.
Indeed, “my enemy is also my sword, I shall use him to kill with and then break the
sword”. 58
The naïve and uninformed are surprised that while the whole former Eastern
Region otherwise known as the Biafra land is decidedly Christian, at least 75%
are Catholics. It is believed that the Pope has the ears of the world leaders.
People are wont to ask: Why is the Pope “not doing something” about the
killings of Christians in Nigeria? But for those who are in the know, it is not
surprising that even Buhari is an asset to the Vatican more than he is to the
British Crown. What Vatican and others failed to do, America under Trump has
done graciously. US has placed Nigeria on a Special Watch List for nations
whose religious intolerance holds sway; even as she has placed a visa ban on
Nigeria on certain immigration aspects.59
In some African countries, it is the Church that is stopping the government from
impunity. But here in Nigeria, the Church aids the government, speaks for them.
Some of the so called pastors are enjoying private jets in a country that is the
capital of poverty on earth. When you confront the politicians, poor citizens will
troop out to defend them and insult you. They say you are a mere civil servant
that can’t feed himself, that’s why you are talking. When you call out pastors, a
sick man drinking only anointing oil and holy water will remind you of “Touch
not My Anointed and My Prophet Do No Harm”. They ask you to pray for
Nigeria, while they take huge donations from the same government killing you.
“Obu gini n’eme nu!”
They ask us to have faith in the miraculous works of God for our salvation.
While I may have some believe in some miracles, I want to say that the
miraculous is only a periodic intervention of divinity in the affairs of humanity
when humanity is helpless and confused. It cannot and will never take the place
of strategic planning and putting in place sound economic principles and values
that represents the connerstone of raising the common man to some reasonable
standard and basis of livelihood. The demands for better life does not reckon
with praying and fasting but with rigorous political, financial (fiscal), socio-
cultural and economic exercises.
Nigeria of today could better be described and/or defined through the lens of
William Shakespeare as a tale told by idots, full of sound and fury, signifying
nothing! 60 Was it not William Bossman who opined that “the Negroes are all
without exception crafty, villainous and fraudulent and very seldom to be
trusted and a man of integrity is as rare among them as a white falcon” 61? We
have failed to dispel the validity of this view by our actions and by our
performance and behaviour in government, we have proven Sir Richard Burton
right who said that the Negro is always a child, that he never develops and that
the race is an inferior one which neither education nor anything else can raise to
the level of the white.62
An intriguing aspect of our problem is that everyone appears to be aware that

public affairs are not run the way they ought to be. The unfortunate state of
affairs leave everyone grumbling under his breathe. And as one commentator
expresses it, “…We know what the problems are and yet we seem to be jinxed
to do anything about them. It is as if we are cursed to burgle things more and
more …”63 But are we to keep burgling things over as if we are villians by
necessity and fools by heavenly compulsion?
Indeed, without intending to be unnecessarily cynical, Nigeria under Buhari
administration, in the opinion of some bitter critics, could be described as an
abomination unto humanity, a “great evil under the sun” when “the children of
slaves ride on horseback” whilst “the sons of Kings walk around barefoot”. That
is what, according to the critics, has been happening in Nigeria since 1960. The
children of the “bonded woman” have been riding on horseback whilst the
children “of promise” have been walking around barefoot. This is indeed “a
great evil under the sun”. Some critics went further to demonise it as a spiritual
affliction. “It is witchcraft. It is an abomination. It is unacceptable. It is a total
reversal of the way things ought to be. It is a rejection, usurpation and total
corruption of God’s original plan. It is ungodly and it is anti-Christ.” 64 But no
matter how bitter anybody could be, the problems of Nigeria did not originate
from Buhari administration nor are they an exclusive creation of any particular
faith. Nigerian leaders in the past, Christians, Moslem and other faith(s) do
share in making Nigeria what it is today. On the corruption table, for instance,
politicians of various faiths are united under one brotherhood “the vultures and
vampires” to steal our commonwealth. There is nothing basically wrong with
Islam. There is nothing wrong with Christianity or any other indigenous
religions. But there is everything wrong with people including some of them
that claim to represent those faiths. My argument stands or falls on this theorem.
2. Nigeria: Challenges Before a Bewildered Nation
Nations constitute an indisputable part of modern society. Historically, a

retrospective glance reveals the world divided into empires and kingdoms. In
the modern period, however, nations or nation-states have replaced empires as
the basic unit of human political organization.
Nigeria is an integral part of the modern world; therefore, Nigerians are rightly
concerned about nation-building. In a significant sense, nations are not just
thrown up by historical accident; they are built by men and women with vision
and resolve. Nation-building is therefore the product of conscious statecraft, not
happenstance.65
Nation-building is always a work-in-progress; a dynamic process in constant

need of nurturing and re-invention. Suffice it to say that nation-building is a
continuum, not a finished product and men and women who build nations
cannot really rest their oars because there are always new challenges constantly
being thrown up which nation-builders must confront. Even so, nation-building
has many aspects. 66
First and foremost, it is all about building a political entity which corresponds to
a given territory, based on some generally accepted rules, norms, and principles,
and a common citizenship. Secondly, it essentially has to do with building
institutions which symbolize the political entity – institutions such as a
bureaucracy, an economy, the judiciary, universities, a civil service, and civil
society organizations. Most importantly, nation-building is about building a
common sense of purpose, a sense of shared destiny, a collective imagination of
belonging. Therefore, nation-building is all about building the tangible and
intangible threads that hold a political entity together and gives it a sense of
purpose. It is all about building the institutions and values which sustain the
collective community in these modern times. 67
Nigeria has the potential to become the ‘Giant of Africa’. Although many see
Nigeria as giant, not necessarily because of the quality of her national
institutions and values but simply by virtue of her large population and oil
wealth. But the greatness of a nation, in reality, has to be earned and is not
determined just by the size of its population or the abundance of its natural
resources. Unlike Nigeria that has the highest population of black race and
superabundance of natural resources, China and India which also have the
largest populations in the world, are only recently rising as important global
players. Japan, on the other hand, has few natural resources, but has long
managed to turn itself into a global economic powerhouse. 68 Singapore
optimized the quality of her national institutions and values to become an Asian
tiger.
“In today's world, skills, industriousness, productivity, and competitiveness are the
determinant factors of national greatness. Not even the possession of the nuclear
bomb is enough to make a nation great without reference to the industriousness and
creativity of its citizens. Since the time of Adam Smith, every serious nationalist and
politician has come to know that the wealth of a nation is not based on the wealth and
opulence of its rulers, but on the productivity and industriousness of its citizenry.” 69
The real question is: Despite our enormous human and natural resources, why
has the task of nation-building been so difficult in Nigeria, and the fruits so
patchy? We shall interrogate three critical areas:
 threats and challenges posed by the environment for

nation-building;
 the quality of leadership that has confronted these
challenges; and
 the fragility of political and development
institutions.70
Nigeria faces six main nation-building challenges:71
1. the challenge from our history;

2. the challenge of socio-economic inequalities;
3. the challenges of an appropriate constitutional
settlement;
4. the challenges of building institutions for democracy
and development; and
5. the challenge of leadership.
6. challenges from spirituality and mysteries in
governance in Nigeria: A Recapitulation
In conclusion, Nigerians need a nation to belong to, a nation cemented by a

social contract of mutuality and reciprocity, in cultural, economic, political and
social relations, a nation to be proud of, and one that provides its citizens with
an enabling umbrella of opportunities, social and distributive justice, protection
and security.
Nigerians within and outside our country are convinced that, with the right
social, economic and political atmosphere, a united, powerful, purposeful,
compassionate and egalitarian nation will emerge from the frustrations
expressed and captured by such expressions as marginalization, stranger,
indigene, discrimination, etc.
There is enough evidence on ground to suggest that, were Nigerians to see a

leadership that can synchronize public sentiments for the emergence of a
Nigerian nation with genuine policy programs of national reconciliation,
reconstruction and national integration, during time, Nigeria could achieve
harmony and progress.
But unfortunately and regrettably too and considering the insatiable crocodile of
militant Islam in Nigeria whose sense of history extends beyond blood
breakfast, it appears that if a people wants to destroy or divide their country,
they should elect a Buhari? The malignancy which is now growing between
militant Islamism resident mainly in the North and other crimes mainly in the
South threatens the peace of all. This malignancy seeks not to liberate but to
enslave; not to build but to destroy. That malignancy is militant Islam. It cloaks
itself in the mantle of great faith, yet it murders the Jews, Christians and
Moslem alike with seemingly unforgiving impartiality.
Buhari government has witness some hundreds of thousands of innocent

Nigerians been slaughtered either by Boko Haram and/or Fulani herders or
simply Bandits.
Nigerians have been clamouring for a change of guards of their security

architecture. Those who are calling for the sacking of the Service Chiefs as a
solution to the upsurge in Boko Haram and herdsmen terrorism are missing the
point. Suppossing the Service Chiefs are delivering and diligently serving the
hidden interests of the drivers in Aso Rock, how do you expect the Aso Rock
tenants, trading in the blood of the Nigerian people and indulging in all manner
of barbarity, suppression of dissent, persecution of perceived enemies and
wholesale evil, etc to sack those doing their biddings? Nigeria alone has five
different terrorist organizations, all located and birthed in the North of Nigeria.
Pray! Tell me which other country in the world has five deadly terrorist
organizations? Even in hell, could Lucifer defend what is happening in Nigeria?
The Challenge from our History:
The historical legacies of colonial rule created some challenges for nation-
building in Nigeria. It splited Nigeria into North and South with different –
 land tenure systems,

 local government administration,
 educational systems, and
 judicial systems. 73
While large British colonies like India and the Sudan had a single administrative
system, Nigeria had two, one for the North and another for the South. Indeed,
these were supposed to be two separate countries, but held together only by a
shared currency and transportation system.
In the 1950s and 1960s many members of the Nigerian elite class had their
education and world outlook moulded by the regional institutions. While it is
generally true to speak of Britain as being relatively “homogenous” inspite of
the distinctive cultures of the English, Scot and the Welsh which made her
adopt a unitary political system, Nigeria, on the other hand, had before 1914,
different kingdoms which differ in many respects – socio-political, cultural,
linguistic, and religious backgrounds and orientations.
In 1906, Fredrick Lugard amalgamated the protectorates of the Southern

Nigeria. Having brought all the protectorates of the South under one
administrative unit, Lugard who was a former employee of the Royal Niger
Company and Governor-General of Northern Nigeria, went ahead to merge the
two protectorates – the North and the South – together in 1914. Since then, the
battle for the soul of Nigeria had begun.
With an estimated population of some 200,000,000 people and with extra-

ordinary human pot-pourri of some three hundred ethnic groups speaking
different languages and dialects representing one out of six Africans, there was
this problem of mutual suspicion among the ethnic groups and fear of
domination of one ethnic group by another or combination of groups. These are
the factors which determine the political culture and governmental structures of
Nigeria. Yet, she found herself tied to a political culture and governmental
structure designed for a country with different political and cultural
circumstances. These have led to continuous friction, sometimes resulting in
violent conflicts.74
During the period of the decolonization struggle, Nigerian nationalists from

different regions fought each other as much as they fought the British
colonialists. Nigeria never had a central rallying figure like Kwame Nkrumah
in Ghana or Nelson Mandela in South Africa. Instead, each region threw up its
own champions – Azikiwe for the East, Awolowo for the West and Ahmadu
Bello for the North, although Azikiwe was somehow generally perceived as the
symbol of “independence struggle” but there was no unanimity of purpose
under one singular command.
It is, therefore, in this important sense that regionalism has been regarded as a
major challenge to nation-building in Nigeria. In coping with the problems of
state and nation building the founding fathers of our nation tried to deal with
this challenge by adopting federalism and advocating a policy of unity-in-
diversity. 75
Federalism for many groups in Nigeria is an important mechanism for allaying

their fears – fears of political and economic domination. In an address to the
House of Representatives in September 1957, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa,
Nigeria’s first Prime Minister said:
“I am pleased to see that we are all agreed that the federal system is, under the
present conditions, the only sure basis on which Nigeria can remain united. We must
recognize our diversity and the peculiar conditions under which the different tribal
communities live in this country. To us in Nigeria therefore unity in diversity is a
source of great strength, and we must do all in our power to see that this federal
system of government is strengthened and maintained”.76
Nigeria, having experimented with unitary and confederal systems of

government in 1967, settles for a federal form of government. Unitarism lasted
for six months and confederalism lasted for two months but some semblance of
federalism had been in existence considering the complex demographic and
geographic entity that formed Nigeria.
Federalism is a “paradoxical elixir” to be purchased from any political market

because of the very compromises it is capable of enhancing. It provides for
safety and survival of the nation. It also safeguards self-determination by
parochial sub-national group. One of its cogent problems is that of attaining
federal balance. The strategy of federal balance is Nigeria’s formalistic attempt
and hope for the eradication of fears and insecurities which have dominated her
inter-community relations.
What do we mean by “federal balance”? A “federal system of government is

the result of compromise. It is a compromise between centrifugal and centripetal
forces”. This compromise is a form of balance between two opposing forces.
All federal systems experience adjustments at different point in time, between
centripetal forces (which pull towards the centre) and centrifugal forces (which
pull away from the centre).The degree and extent to which the federal system
survives very much depends on the ability of the political elites in the country to
maintain a delicate balance between centrifugalism and centripetalism.
Excessive pull to the centre may challenge the very existence of a federation
and the cocoon of security it provides for the members of the society. These
stresses can also lead to disintegration as the communal instability of 1966 in
Northern Nigeria confirmed. It is the delicate balance of, or compromise
between these two extremes that we define as federal balance. It is also the
delicate balance between sub-national autonomy and state control in Nigeria’s
inter-community relations which necessitates the establishment of a monitoring
agency. Above all, federalism is a mechanism of managing conflicts.77
In a typical federal system, as in an inter-dependent world, the various levels of

government are co-ordinate and yet autonomous in their areas of constitutional
jurisdiction. The federal Constitution should be people-oriented. A federal
system is non-centralised, with each component unit exercising its jurisdiction
directly on the people. In this process, inevitable conflicts emerge from the
various dimensions of inter-governmental relations.
“Unfortunately, the lack of consolidation of Nigerian federalism around commonly

shared values and positions means that this challenge of divisive historical legacy
continues to undermine our efforts at nation-building. One current manifestation of
this historical legacy is the division between ‘indigenes’ and ‘settlers’. This division
has been a source of domestic tension and undermined our efforts at creating a
common nationhood. While we should learn from history so as not to repeat its
mistakes, we must never see ourselves simply as victims of our history; it is our
responsibility to overcome the challenges posed by our history.”78
The Challenge of Socio-economic inequalities
There are wide varieties of economic inequality, most notably measured using
the distribution of income (the amount of money people are paid) and the
distribution of wealth (the amount of wealth people own). Besides economic
inequality between countries or states, there are important types of economic
inequality between different groups of people.78
Important types of economic measurements focus on wealth, income, and

consumption. An important aspect of nation-building is the building of a
common citizenship. Socio-economic inequality relates to disparities that
individuals might have in both their economic and social resources that are
linked to their social class. These disparities include but aren’t limited to their
earnings, education, and/or income.79
Advanced nations and those referred to as second world nations manage to

establish a baseline of social and economic rights which all members of the
national community should enjoy. These could be achieved through
development of the economy and /or offering opportunities for all or through
the development of social welfare safety nets. Hence, many Western countries’
contemporary attempt at nation’s building attempt to prevent ‘social exclusion’
or the exclusion of segments of the population from enjoying basic social and
economic rights.80
In the case with Nigeria, however, not only are many of her citizens denied
basic rights such as the right to education and health, there is also serious
variation in the enjoyment of these rights across the country. As a consequence,
the citizen is not motivated to support the state and society, because he or she
does not feel that the society is adequately concerned about their welfare.
Secondly socio-economic inequalities across the country fuels fears and
suspicious which keep our people divided.
According to Professor Ibrahim Gambari:

“… If we take the level of immunization of children against dangerous childhood
diseases, we note that while the South-East has 44.6% immunization coverage, the
North-West has 3.7% and North-East 3.6%. If you take the education of the girl-
child as indicator, you see a similar pattern of inequality with the South-East having
an enrolment rate of 85%, South-West 89%, South-South 75%, North-East 20%, and
North-West 25%. Only 25% of pregnant women in the North-West use maternity
clinics, while 85% of the women in the South-East do. It is not surprising that 939%
more women die in child-birth in the North-East, compared to the South-West.
Education and poverty levels are also important dimensions of inequalities across
Nigeria. If we take admissions into Nigerian universities in the academic year
2000/1, we see that the North-West had only 5% of the admissions, while the South-
East had 39%. As for poverty, the Governor of the Central Bank, Charles Soludo,
recently pointed out that while 95% of the population of Jigawa State is classified as
poor, only 20% of Bayelsa State is so classified. While 85% of Kwara State is
classified as poor, only 32% of Osun is in the same boat.”81
Two related challenges to nation-building are posed by these inequalities in

Nigeria. First and foremost, high levels of socio-economic inequalities mean
that different Nigerians live different lives in different parts of the country. The
implication, therefore, is that one’s chances of surviving child-birth, of
surviving childhood, of receiving education and skills, all vary across the
country. As Ibrahim Gambari advances, “If different parts of Nigeria were
separate countries, some parts will be middle income countries, while others
will be poorer than the poorest countries in the world! A common nationhood
cannot be achieved while citizens are living such parallel lives.”82 Inequalities
are a threat to a common citizenship.
Secondly, even in those parts of the country that are relatively better off, the
level of social provision and protection is still low by world standards. The
20% that are poor and unemployed in Bayelsa State, for instance, are still
excluded from common citizenship benefits. We therefore need a Social
Contract between the people on the one hand, and the state and nation on the
other. The state and nation must put meeting the needs of the disadvantaged as
a key objective of public policy. Such an approach can make possible a
common experience of life by Nigerians living in different parts of the country
and elicit their commitment to the nation. Instead of resorting to the divisive
politics of indigene against settler as a means of accessing resources, a
generalized and honest/sincere commitment to social citizenship is expected to
create a civic structure of rights that will unite people around shared rights and
goals.83
The traditional polarization between the rulers and the ruled increases in leaps
and bounds! As the Niger Delta region with all its trappings of oil and power
and the most embarrassing expression of poverty and neglect and the fact that
more than 85% of the people in the north of Nigeria live below poverty level
insult the psyche of the nation, and yet, our leaders are swimming in an ocean of
opulence.84 This should not be!
Nigeria is home to some 200 million people scattered in 36 states of the

federation and Abuja. When Nigeria got independence, the poverty level was
low. However, under 60 years, this country has risen from a low poverty level
status to become the country with the highest level of poverty rate in the world
– the world’s poverty capital.
According to a Nigeria Poverty statistics, the poverty rate in Nigeria south-west

is 19.3%. That of the south-south of Nigeria is 25.2%. The statistics also reveals
that the poverty level in the south-east is about 27.4%. In the north central, the
level of poverty is 42.6%. The north-east and the north-west are the regions of
the country with the highest level of poverty. The poverty level in the north-east
is 76.8% while the poverty level in the north-west of Nigeria is 81.1%.85
Statistics also reveals the level of poverty in all the 36 states, including the
capital, Abuja runs thus:
 Lagos State – 85%; Osun State – 10.9%, Anambra State – 11.2%, Ekiti
State – 12.9%, Edo State –19.2%, Imo State – 19.8%, Abia State –
21.0%, Rivers State – 21.1%.
 FCT (Abuja) – 23.5%, Kwara State – 23.7%, Akwa Ibom 23.8%, Delta
State – 25.1%, Ogun State – 26.1%, Kogi State – 26.4%, Oyo State –
29.4%, Cross River State – 33.1%, Plateau State – 51.6%.
 Nassarawa State – 52.4%, Ebonyi State – 56.0%, Kaduna State – 56.5%,
Adamawa State – 59.0%, Benue State – 59.2%, Niger State – 61.2%,
Borno State – 70.1%, Kano State – 76.4%, Gombe State – 76.9%.
 Taraba State – 77.7%, Katsina State – 82.2%, Sokoto State – 85.3%,
Kebbi State – 86.0%, Bauchi State – 86.6%, Jigawa State – 88.4%, Yobe
State – 90.2% and Zamfara State – 91.9%.86
Poverty and nation-building are strange bedfellows, whether the poor are 20%
or 85% of the population. How can you sincerely expect a largely marginalized
citizenry, increasingly crippled by poverty and the lack of basic needs, to play
its proper role in the development of the nation? Nations’ are built by healthy
and skilled citizens. On grounds of both equity and efficiency, we need to
promote the access of the bulk of the Nigerian population to basic education,
health, and housing. Nigeria, indeed, needs a social contract with its citizens as
a basis for demanding their loyalty and support.87
The Challenges of an appropriate constitutional arrangement
The country, Nigeria was created through Constitution and had now grown into
an independent nation since 1960, having gone through the period of colonial
rule under the British government, which lasted for over a century, with the
annexation of Lagos in 1861. The history of constitutional development in
Nigeria can simply be separated into two:88
Firstly, the colonial or the pre-independence constitutions, which actually

covers about 6 among the constitutional instruments, that is, 1914, and
1922, and 1946, and 1951, and 1954 and 1960, and;
Secondly, the post-independence Constitutions which covers about 3
constitutional instruments, that is, 1963, and 1979 and 1999.
However, since 1940s and 1950s, our founding fathers have been confronted
with the problem of an appropriate constitutional arrangement. In the end, they
arrived at the principle of federalism as a foundation for our nation. The
Lyttleton constitution of 1954 is the fourth and the last of the pre-
independence constitutions of Nigeria. It was enacted in 1954 as a successor of
the Macpherson Constitution of 1951.
The Lyttleton constitution is known to have been a pathway to the independence

of Nigeria and also did include the federal principle in its features which
differentiate it from earlier constitutions such as the Clifford Constitution of
1922, Richards Constitution of 1946, etc.
The Lyttleton constitution of 1954 was inundated with the following features: 89
 Post of the premier was created in every region. The Premiers were to
advise the governor of their regions.
 Federal system of government by sharing power between the central and
the regions.
 Lagos was carved out of the Western Region and made the Federal
Capital Territory.
 It retained the bi-cameral legislature for both Northern and Western
regions, and uni-cameral for the Eastern Region.
 There was autonomy of regions.
 Federal legislature (House of Representatives) consisting 184 members
who were elected directly from regional assemblies.
 A council of minister with the governor general as the president, three
official members, three ministered from each region and one minister
from southern Cameroon.
 The speaker instead of the governor presided over the House of
Representatives.
 The governor of the region ceased to be member of the Federal executive
council.
1960 Constitution:
Nigeria, as a nation, was granted independence thus, becoming a sovereign state

under the 1960 Constitution. The constitution provided for a parliamentary
system of government.90
It was the Constitution that defined ‘Nigerian citizenship’, as well as, outlined
constitutionally protected rights for every citizen and person living in Nigeria.
1963 Constitution: The 1963 Constitution actually led to the establishment of

the first republic in Nigeria, and replaced the appointed Governor-General by
the British monarch with an elected President by members of the Nigerian
federal legislature.
Under the 1960 constitution, the three, and subsequently four, regions of
Nigeria were viable and promoted sustained development in all sectors of the
economy. In Northern Nigeria, groundnut pyramids grew exponentially, and so
did cotton mills, tin, animal husbandry and grains thrive. Ahmadu Bello
University grew into a reputable institution, boasting of one of the best
architectural faculties in Africa.91
In Western Nigeria, cocoa production flourished and financed free education at
all levels, leading to the establishment of the University of Ife, with an
internationally renowned Pharmacy Department. The first television station in
Africa was established in Ibadan and also the first stadium in Africa. Import
substitution industries grew, extending to Lagos, which increasingly became the
industrial hub of West Africa. 92
In Eastern Nigeria, the first Iron and steel factory in Black Africa was built in
Enugu, the second cement factory at Nkalagu, the first gas factory in Emene, the
second beer brewery in Umuahia and two soft drink plants in Onitsha and
Enugu. An American oriented University of Nigeria, Nsukka grew, threatening
the pioneer status of University College Ibadan, then a campus of University of
London.93
Military rule and the imposition of a non-federal constitution changed all that.
The unitary system of government destroyed competition among regions. It led
to a scramble for our collective resources and the foundation of unbridled
corruption in government.
Quota, as opposed to merit, became the primary consideration for appointment

to public offices.
States and local governments, which did not reflect any demographic equality,
were created and used as the yardstick for representation in the legislature and
the executive.
Nigeria began to slide.
Speaking glowingly about the legacy of Sir Ahmadu Bello, the former premier
of the north, Bishop Kukah avers:
“At a time when there was no technology and no structures, you developed them from
scratch. You built such institutions as the Ahmadu Bello University, Institute of
Administration, Kaduna Polytechnic, Colleges of Education, Government Secondary
Schools, etc. You set up the Northern Nigerian Development Corporation, Northern
Nigeria Investment Limited, Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Broadcasting Corporation of
Nigeria, New Nigerian Newspapers, Textiles Factories such as Kaduna Textile Mills,
Zamfara Textiles, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria, Northern Oil Processing
Mill, Sword Branch Bottling Company, Nigerian Breweries Ltd, Hamdala Hotel,
Kano Groundnut pyramids, Central Hotel, Bank of the North, Northern Nigeria
Radio Corporation and many others, etc.”94
It is of note that during this period, Dr. Micheal Okpara ended up building the
fastest growing economy in the world as a Premier of Eastern Region.
It is unarguably true that DR.M .I. Okpara laid a solid industrial base for the
development of Eastern Nigeria for the then period and for future generations. It
was then that Nigeria’s industrial pathway was drawn and which could have
established Nigeria on a solid foundation of industrial growth had the initiative
been sustained by successive administrations. According to him:
"I have never understood why Nigeria should export 41,947 tons of raw cotton in
1961 valued at £9.5 million while importing 177, 684, 000 square yards of textiles
valued at £19 million.
Why should we continue to import such heavy commodities as cement when limestone
abounds in this country? The only adequate answer to the European Common Market
with the obnoxious tariff walls is our manufacturing most of what we import from
them. With the best will in the world, this will take time .
But a start must be made now by deliberately concentrating on those goods which can
be easily manufactured here thereby saving foreign exchange. I have already
mentioned two, but I believe that it is possible to concentrate during this period of the
plan on three specific fields covering food, clothing, and shelter."95 - Premier Michael
Okpara (1962 )
'Progress Without Tears'
As premier of former western Nigeria, Chief Obafemi Awolowo proved to be

and was viewed as a man of vision and a dynamic administrator. Awolowo was
also the country's leading social democratic politician. He supported limited
public ownership and limited central planning in government. He believed that
the state should channel Nigeria's resources into education and state-led
infrastructural development. Controversially, and at considerable expense, he
introduced free primary education for all and free health care for children in the
Western Region, established the first television service in Africa in 1959, and
the Oduduwa Group, all of which were financed from the highly lucrative cocoa
industry which was the mainstay of the regional economy.96
However, our founding fathers did very well and were able to perform because
the regions were truly autonomous and independent, practicing fiscal federalism
as it were.
Essentially, a true federal constitution is a reflection of a technique in managing

conflicts in a heterogenous setting. Federalism is a system of government which
emanates from the desire of a people to form a union without necessarily losing
their identities. It is usually a compromise solution in a multi-national state
between two types of self-determination – the determination to maintain a
supranational framework of government which guarantees security for all in the
union on the one hand and the determination of the component units to retain
their individual identities, on the other hand. Basically, therefore, federalism
“satisfies the need for cooperation in some things and coupled with the rights
for separate action in others. Only federalism fulfils the desire for unity where it
coexists with a determination not to smother local identity and power”. This
was the situation before the military struck. 97
However, Major-General J.T.U. Aguiyi-Ironsi emerged as Nigeria’s new head

of state in late May 1966 having successfully dislodged the coup plotters and
foiling the January 1966 coup. In a Broadcast to the nation on May 24 th 1966,
Ironsi banned all political parties and imposed what he called Decree 34 –
eliminating Nigeria’s federal structure and put in place a unitary republic which
seemed to fan the embers of tribal discrimination, domination and accusation of
hegemony of political leadership of the nation. This threatens more local
patronage network.
Consequently, the “New Federalism” was born under the first military rule in
1966. It had uncertain infanthood during the early periods of Gowon
government but its growth was accelerated during the later period of his regime.
Its adulthood and continuity have received tremendous boost from Murtala’s
regime down to the last vestige of military rule in Nigeria. It was the last
military junta of Abdulsalami Abubakar that inspired and conspired to produce
what we know today as the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
It suffices that Nigeria is governed with an ordinance and not with a

“Constitution”. Any Nigerian who does not know or care for the origins of the
“constitution” with which his/her country is driven is the quintessential
ignoramus of the highest order. The real cause of all the woes of the present
unitary Nigeria appears to be the adoption and enforcement of an ordinance
instead of a true constitution written by “We the People …” A Constitution
promulgated by decree, as was the case with the 1999 Constitution, is an
ORDINANCE. Calling such a “constitution” is a misnomer.
“The Decree No 24 of 1999 promulgated by General Abubakar, which was
subsequently baptized "1999 Constitution", still remains an ordinance after two
decades. How many Nigerians are aware of the fact that today's Unitary Nigeria is
run with an ORDINANCE called Decree No 24 of 1999 (a. k. a. 1999 Constitution)
and thus, is not a true constitution? Democratic constitutions are written and
approved by constituents of the nation in question and not imposed through decree as
is the case in today's Unitary Nigeria.”98
This ordinance, by way of an imposed Constitutional Order, leads naturally to

hatred and killings and the massive expropriations and exploitations in Nigeria.
The so-called “Constitution” indirectly legitimizes corruption, injustice,
Marginalization! In the 1999 Constitution, a whopping 68 items are in the
Exclusive List for the federal government alone to legislate upon its subjects
whilst on the concurrent list has less than 30 items and a careful reflection on
wordings establishing those items reveals that the real intention of the drafters
of the constitution was to usurp the whole powers to the exclusive advantage of
the central government.
Related to the problem of federalism as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution is

the question of fiscal federalism. What is the appropriate and just basis for
revenue-sharing? Should the central government have the right to deduct
monies due to states without their permission? Should state governments
continue to control local government allocations? These are all fundamental
principles on which we have no clear consensus. While we all agree that
Nigeria must be a federation, we have no clear consensus on the nature of that
federation, on whether we should have territorially defined states or ethnically
defined states as some are demanding. We also do not have a consensus on the
number of states or federating units we should have. While some are satisfied
with the current 36 states, others are calling for more states for their own
groups. On the other hand, yet others are arguing that the number of states
should be reduced to 6. Here again, there is little by way of consensus.99
The so-called 1999 “Constitution” of Nigeria is said to be a product of a

criminal conspiracy which had existed even before the 1914 amalgamation and
then legitimized by the military junta of Abdulsalami and accommodated the
interests of two criminal gangs – the Fulanis and the British – who met
somewhere around the Middle Belt area of Benue/Plateau and Illorin axis,
reached an agreement and perfected plans on how to hold Nigeria on the
jugular.
Now I ask: Will the deliberate suppression of the truth of what happened and
what is currently playing out, cure the terrible maladies manifesting all over
Nigeria from its many self-inflicted wounds? No. Will elections mandated by
the “Rogue Constitution” that emerged from the blood festivals of 1966-1970
cure the dying Nigeria? The answer is “No”. Why is Nigeria the only country
on earth operating two conflicting irreconciliable ideologies – democracy and
sharia all embedded in the same constitution? A conundrum!
The nature of our democracy constitutes another constitutional challenge. 100
A third and final area of constitutional challenge is about the principles for
sharing power at inter-governmental relations. 101 Some indigenous people were
not only discriminated against, but tactically excluded. The present
administration in Nigeria is a perfect example. This pattern of uneven
distribution of power goes right down to even local governments. Unless we
have inclusive systems of government, we cannot have a stable political system
as an anchor for nation-building. Through the Federal Character Commission
and through informal arrangements like zoning, we have witnessed some
epileptic progress, but a lot more work has to be done before we fully address
the problem of monopoly, marginalization, and exclusion in bureaucratic and
political positions. More importantly, the pursuit of the principle of the federal
character should not be at the expense of merit or a substitute of equal
opportunity for all citizens.102
I would argue, therefore, that the key values of federalism, democracy, and
inclusive government have not been sufficiently consolidated as core values for
our nation. Some important questions regarding each of these three key values
remain unanswered. And in many instances, there is a discrepancy between
what is written on paper and what people do in practice. Building consensus
around these three key values remains a constitutional challenge for nation-
building. Nigeria needs a constitutional settlement that commands the
acceptance, if not the respect, of a majority of its 200 million citizens. The
1999 constitution bequeathed by the military is defective in many important
respects. Attempts to correct these defects through the National Political
Reform Conference (NPRC) of 2005 and the Constitutional Reform Bill of
2006 which was debated and rejected by the National Assembly, have so far
failed.103
The issue of the constitutional conference convened by the immediate past

government of former President Goodluck Jonathan is on ground and still
subject to a national debate. But what is bothering many Nigerians is what the
present government of Muhammadu Buhari would do with it. With the division
that the conference created when it was mooted, inaugurated, convened, when
the final report was sent to the National Assembly by the immediate past
President Jonathan, and after the swearing in of Buhari the issue is still
generating controversies and divisions among Nigerians, especially the political
class.104
The Challenge of Building Institutions for Democracy and Development
One of the greatest challenges of nation building is the challenge of institution

building. Whether nations are able to manage their political and social disputes
peacefully, without lapsing into conflict, or sustain economic growth without
creating huge inequalities, critically depend on the quality of the relevant
national institutions.
There are three important components to institution building, as Professor

Gambari rightly pointed out: setting the rules; hiring persons with the technical
expertise and moral competence to interpret the rules or implement the goals of
the organisations; and ensuring that the institutions inspire public confidence by
being transparent, fair and consistent. These are also the standards by which the
performance of any organisation, in particular, public sector organisations
should be measured. This shows that the act of creating the organisation itself
is not as important as its proper functioning and overall effectiveness. In this
regard, Nigeria needs to create or strengthen institutions that would help achieve
the national goals of democratic governance and sustainable development. 105
These include:
(a) Institutions for fostering public integrity
When we refer to the courts or the ICPC or Economic and Financial Crime
Commission (EFCC) as institutions that fight corruption; we imply that these
organisations not only operate and apply enforce a set of rules but also aim to
create a system of values that rejects the abusive of public position for private
gain.
Today, there are three institutions that are dedicated to fostering integrity in the
public sector: the Code of Conduct Bureau [CCB], the ICPC and EFCC.
Together the ICPC’s mandate include reviewing public sector systems and
procedures with a view to eliminating pitfalls for corruption, public
enlightenment and mobilization against corruption and enforcing the law in
these areas. By contrast, EFCC has mandate to combat 419 crimes, money
laundering, and terrorist financing and fraud in the financial sector.
Yet, the reasoning among Nigerians is that there is an overlap in functions

between the ICPC and EFCC. However, those knowledgeable with the statues
creating the ICPC and EFCC argue that the main area of overlap is in the
definition of economic crime as including corruption. The anti-corruption
bodies especially during the time of Nuhu Ribadu have met the criteria of
inspiring public confidence in their work. That public confidence will be raised
much higher if the functions are delineated in a way that can easily be grasped
by the public.106
(b) Institutions for public service delivery
The civil service is the main instrument and institution of public service
delivery. Traditionally, the civil service performs three functions: supporting
the policy making function of government at the federal, state and local
government; facilitating or regulating the private sector; and providing
managerial leadership for operating public sector enterprises. The capacity of
the Nigerian civil service to perform its statutory functions is critically
dependent on its ability to attract and retain competent and highly skilled
persons in the professional category; the willingness to offer attractive pay and
benefits package; and the modernisation of the office infrastructure.
The reforms of the federal civil service has rightly focused on improving the
pay package, increasing the number of staff in the professional category and
improving service to the public through the Service Compact with Nigerians
(Servcom).
Nonetheless, much remains to be done both in improving the office

infrastructure in the civil service and in bringing public servants attitude to the
standards of many emerging economies. Moreover, it is doubtful whether the
new pay scale has done much to improve overall conditions of the civil
servants. While high pay may not offer a guarantee against fraud and
corruption, it is a major incentive to work harder and show commitment to
public service.107
(c) The Judicial Institutions
The Judiciary is an important institution is any democracy but they are essential
to the functioning of a market economy. The judiciary not only arbitrates
disputes between the various levels of government, between government and
citizens, and among citizens but also among private sector agents. Given its
pivotal role in national stability and economic prosperity, some of the major
features of good institutions noted earlier are particular relevant. These are that
institutions should have persons with the technical expertise and moral
competence to interpret the rules or implement the goals of the organisations;
and ensure that the institutions inspire public confidence.
In recent times, the Supreme Court, the apex court in the country, has inspired
much public confidence and respect because of the quality of its judgment,
especially in some politically sensitive cases. In some ways, the gradual
maturity of the democratic process in Nigeria, where politicians now prefer
legal recourse rather to local rampage with their supporters and loyalists, is
directly linked to the growing public confidence in the courts. Election related
disputes should be addressed in the courts –be they electoral courts or ultimately
in judicial courts –and not through violence.
There are multiplying instances of election-related violence tearing apart the

social fabric in several African countries. Nigerians have also needlessly shared
much blood in the past. If Nigerians are beginning to realise the futility of
shedding blood in elections disputes, this owes much to our judiciary, which has
provided reasoned judgment on several cases. Nonetheless, the responsibility
for conducting free and fair elections and accepting results should not be left to
the judiciary alone. Democracy cannot be built solely on court orders or
judgment of electoral tribunals.108
(d) Institutions for Economic Governance
The functioning and effectiveness of a market-based economy such as Nigeria

relies on several institutions. It requires an institution to regulate the supply and
flow of money and the financial system (Central Bank); to allocate capital to
firms and individuals (Banks and Stock Exchange); to insure against
commercial risks (insurance firms); to insure individual bank depositors against
loss of up to certain amount (deposit insurance); to enforce contractual
obligations (courts); and to collect revenue for the government (fiscal
authorities).
The performance of our national institutions of economic governance is a mixed

one. However, the reform of the financial sector has strengthened public
confidence in the banks especially and opened opportunities for our banks to
extend their reach to other parts of the region.
How to spread the benefits of growth and development to all – in other words to
achieve equitable growth is a major public policy challenge. In Nigeria, little
effort has been made in that direction. The key instruments for sharing include
unemployment insurance, access to affordable housing, and access to health.109
The Challenge of Leadership
In his book, “The Trouble with Nigeria” Chinua Achebe identified failure of
leadership as the main problem of Nigeria’s politics and governance.
Everybody defines leadership differently but I really prefer the way John C
Maxwell defines leadership, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way,
and shows the way.” Irrespective of how one defines a leader, he or she can
prove to be a difference maker between success and failure. A good leader has
to have a futuristic vision and knows how to turn his ideas into real-world
success stories.110 In this book, we shall look at some of the important leadership
qualities that separate good leaders from a bad one. (See Charles Akujieze,
(2019) Nigeria: An Experiment in Nation Building, ibid)
 The Lessons We Refused to Learn:

Scholars in comparative politics have pointed out that Botswana and Somalia
are quite similar when you look at their fundamental characteristics. Both have:
(1) one large dominant group ethnic group divided into clans; (2) both are
sparsely populated in semi-arid conditions; (3) at independence, both depended
on livestock for the livelihood of a majority of the population. While the
Botswana leadership was collectively focused and had a vision of what it
wanted to do with the country, the leadership in Somalia was divided against
itself. As a result, Botswana learnt to harness its limited resources for generally
agreed objectives. It learned to survive under the shadow of apartheid South
Africa. And it learned to manage its diamond resources well when those
resources started flowing in. Somalia, on the other hand had a divided
leadership, some of whom wanted to build Greater Somalia by military means,
while others simply wanted to get on with running the country they inherited
from colonialism. As a result, the Somali leadership lacked focus and vision,
and often fought itself through conspiracies and military coups. Somalia also
went to war with its neighbours. For anybody looking at these two countries
today, the difference is clear.125
The comparative histories of Botswana and Somalia suggest that we should be

concerned not just with the quality of leadership of our Presidents, Governors,
Senators and Judges; we should also be concerned by the quality of leadership
which we all bring to our professional and personal responsibilities.
 Nigeria Under President Muhammadu Buhari
The Buhari We Used to Know
Colonel Tony Nyiam, a retired Army officer who hails from Cross River State
came to the limelight when he and some other officers attempted to overthrow
the former military president, Gen Ibrahim Babangida in a coup, on April 22,
1990.126 Nyiam who also served under retired Major-General Buhari recounted
how the then general officer commanding (GOC) 3rd Armored Division, Jos told
the officer under his command that though his ancestral lineage and root were
from the Niger Republic, he having sworn an oath of allegiance to Nigeria is
committed to defend the territorial integrity of the Nigeria-nation.
The character of the Buhari we used to know as a no-nonsense and down-to-

earth officer was brought to the fore during the Chadian–Nigerian War though a
brief and obscure war that was fought over the control of islands on Lake Chad.
The war started when a force led by Chadian Army chief-of-staff Idriss Déby
invaded parts of Nigeria's Borno State, and ended with a Nigerian force led by
Muhammadu Buhari expelling the Chadians and briefly invading Chadian
territory.127
On April 18, 1983, a Chadian force invaded and occupied 19 islands on Lake
Chad. Acting independently of the Nigerian government, Muhammadu Buhari,
General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Third Armoured Division of Jos, 128
unilaterally closed the Chadian-Nigerian border and mobilized his forces. The
Nigerian government under President Shehu Shagari ordered Buhari to reopen
the border, but he openly refused, opting to expel the Chadian troops without
the blessings of the government. The Nigerian troops successfully recaptured
the islands, and also pursued the Chadians 50 kilometers across the borders.129
The war was one of the causes behind the 1983 Nigerian coup d'état.
Demonstrating President Shagari's powerlessness vis-à-vis his officers, which
had enabled Buhari to openly act against orders; it highlighted the tensions
between the military and the civilian government. On December 31, 1983,
Muhammadu Buhari seized power in Nigeria, ending the Second Nigerian
Republic.
One of the turning events during his leadership was the failed attempt at
kidnapping the former Nigerian politician, former transport and aviation
minister and adviser (confidant) of former president Shehu Shagari – Alhaji
Umaru Dikko, accused, alongside others, of embezzling billions of dollar.
Buhari ruled Nigeria briefly and brought some sense of sanity and orderliness in
the country. Though high-handed in his approach to governance, many
Nigerians appreciated him for his thoroughness and no-nonsense mien and zero-
tolerance to corruption. He subsequently despatched most corrupt Nigeria
politicians to Kirikiri maximum prison and seized many assets and properties
acquired by corruption.
He had tried three consecutive times to run for presidency under democratic
dispensation which were unsuccessful but his efforts paved way in his forth
time. Having ran on the manthras of three major issues which Nigerians
desperately sought after – arresting the insecurity problem in the country,
revamping the economy and fighting corruption in the system, Nigerians
believed in him and gave him the mandate in 2015.
This is the summarised version of Buhari we used to know – a great compatriot,

a corruption Czar and a courageous leader.
The Buhari We Knew Not
The Holy Book of the Christian faith admonishes that the heart of man is
deceitful and deliberately wicked; who can know it? This is perfectly in
consonance with the manner of man we come to know as Muhammadu Buhari.
It would be recalled that in the election for the secretary general of the
Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1985 when he was the military head of
state, Buhari voted against Nigeria. Instead, he voted and secured the election of
one Ide Oumarou, a Fulani man from Niger, as opposed to Peter Onu, an Igbo
man from Nigeria. By doing so, Buhari became the first and only head of state
in the history of modern international relations to vote against his country in
favour of his tribe. His ancestoral root was from the neighbouring desert nation
– Niger Republic.
According to one Abba Mahmoud who commented on Buhari cueless
government lamented that the president does not seem to be in charge of the
country as there is no clear path being taken. This is not the Buhari we knew.130
We appear to have confusion in virtually everywhere in Nigeria including the

presidency. The Buhari government lacks direction. We appear to have no clear
policy on anything in the country be it economic, security, foreign, aviation,
environment or any other issue of importance. Buhari’s ministers and some
other politicians are virtually doing what they want with nobody to call anyone
to order.
Holding a copy of the Qur’an, President Buhari swore to an Oath of Office “to
do good to all manner of people, without fear or favour, affection or ill will”.
Unfortunately and regrettably too, Buhari whose speech: “I belong to everybody
and I belong to nobody speech”, show the appearance of a no-nonsense and
neutral umpire suddenly degenerated into the worst nepotistic, tribal and
religious bigot known in Nigeria history. Buhari has identified those he appears
to favour and he has chosen those he cannot sack, apparently because he fears
them, all contrary to his oath of office. He went further to say that we should not
expect those who gave him 5% to enjoy the same privilege as those who gave
him 97% vote. This is not the Buhari we knew.
According to Yusuf Omotayo

As a General who served in one of the most national of institutions, the Nigerian
Army, we expected Buhari to create a national platform where every section of
Nigeria will feel a sense of belonging. Instead, this is one of the most exclusive
governments in the history of Nigeria. From Jigawa state, for instance, virtually
every appointee is from Kazaure – INEC National Commissioner; DG, NYSC; SCOP;
Ambassador; and Minister are all from that single town. Is the President not aware of
this? This is not the Buhari we knew.
Buhari came with a pan-Nigeria mandate enjoying enormous goodwill across Nigeria
and indeed around the world. From that national, in fact international pedestal,
Buhari’s constituency is now the two to five people who appear to exclusively have
his ears. The party is aggrieved; chieftains like Tinubu are alienated; the National
Assembly is feeling side- lined; in fact everyone is feeling marginalized. His
government is a disappointment to Nigerians; a disgrace to those who insisted on
him, particularly northerners; and indeed a disaster to the Africans who saw in him a
hope which has now been dashed. This is not the Buhari we knew. 131
Even Aisha Buhari had reason to complain in public about the cabal that caged
her husband; many well-meaning individuals both high and low have been
complaining too. The verdict is that President Buhari is surrounded by very bad
people who are destroying him, his government and even the country he
pretends to love so much. Is it that the President does not know or is not
listening? We really love Buhari and we want him to succeed. That is why we
have to complain loudly, before it is too late so that he can take necessary
actions immediately. The verdict of history awaits him and he should know that.
After all, history is on the side of the oppressed.132
Col. Nyiam said, “It will not augur well for Nigeria if Buhari continues this
way. Buhari is too sectional. He doesn’t hide it and his action if remained
unchecked is capable of undermining the unity of Nigeria. He should see entire
Nigeria as his constituency,”133 he declared.
A member of the Board of Trustees of Centre for Fiscal Transparency and

Integrity Watch, Ugoji Egbujo, wrote an article titled, “Our Olympus Is Falling:
Who Can Rouse the General?” and meticulously explained how Buhari’s aura
has dimmed; how our lion (Buhari) looks castrated. Egbujo writes:
“Once tall, rigid and fearless… He is now slow and timid. The lion we had run to for
protection now watches wild goats eat palm fronds on our head. Even with the fangs
of the presidency, our bold lion now lets hyenas feast on our cubs. When he roars, we
hear a whimper, the one who chased the wild dogs of Maitatsine into oblivion. Why
does he watch our slow dismemberment?
Our lion looks castrated. If the gods are not to blame, how did our lion become a
lame squirrel? He had sworn he wouldn’t let corruption kill us. Let us say corruption
is a ghost. But how can’t a General trained to protect by killing our enemies, watch
bandits and terrorists desecrate our sacred educational temples, slaughter the young
and the old?
The devil has gone footloose.”134
The Buhari government is pampering the bandits in Zamfara and Katsina and
incentivising organised crime. The Buhari government have allowed Sheikh
Gumi trivialise terrorism and sow seeds of discord in the military; even
suggesting the bandits were only asking for a piece of their denied national pie
in ransoms. Unfortunately our lion (Buhari) suddenly become drowsy and
allowed cockroaches to grow teeth, never bothered with the apparent danger
that Gumi poses.135
The governors in the North of Nigeria have started doing the biddings of the
terrorists, paying heavy ransom to them and shuting down schools. Niger State
is currently overrun by the terrorists and Abuja is under siege of the “arrangee”
terrorists. It brutalises my psyche to hear that the DSS was said to have written a
memo to a frightening village in Abuja telling them not to panic as the terrorists
are only passing by through their village.
“In Niger State, a certain community has taxed members and paid bandits for a slice
of peace. Nobody knows when their payment would expire and if the bandits in Niger
would seek to renew the agreement, and at what fee? Niger, perhaps, has the fastest-
growing terrorism industry in the world. Somewhere in Borno, some people had tried
a brigade of prayer warriors. Now our politicians are openly begging for foreign
mercenaries.”136
And as terrorists take over Abuja the Department of State Security (DSS), the
Nigeria police and the military go after protesters especially in the South East.
According to SaharaReporters,
“The Nigerian military has drafted reinforcement troops from some of its formations
fighting insurgency in Borno State to join the troops in the South-East region over the
military’s clash with the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its security arm, the
Eastern Security Network (ESN).
Military sources confirmed to SaharaReporters that the reinforcements were drawn
from some battalions including the 231 Tank Battalion in Biu, Borno State, which is
under the 3 Armoured Division, Jos, Plateau State…”137
Under the very watch of the great lion, some unknown gunmen sourced and
found the audacity to visit a governor’s home at 9 a.m. on a Saturday. They
killed police officers and burnt the house. And under this dispensation, perhaps,
just perhaps, we could soon have a situation where a sitting president could be
negotiating with some unknown gunmen to release a sitting governor kidnapped
from a government house. 138
“Direct death threats have been issued to governors and traditional rulers, and
nothing happened. Oh, sorry, somebody jumped out of the presidency to remind a
bemused public that those crimes are not federal crimes. You need not laugh.
Perhaps that’s why the federal Attorney General is aloof. The chief law officer of a
nation sliding into anarchy… The Foreign Affairs Minister is too urbane, too suave,
to attend to threats against the country coming from foreign lands. So, who would
blame state governors who have become chickens? The rumours that some state
governments have begun paying protection monies to organised crime groups
masquerading as freedom fighters might, after all, not be unthinkable.”139-140
The last bite we could hear from Mr. President was “Shoot on sight everybody
found with assault weapons.” However, since this order was given, an entire
State police command and prisons have been sacked and burnt by hoodlums. A
governor’s house burnt. Yet, all Buhari has done is to issue warning to criminals
not to mess around with him. Is Buhari now desperate to be seen as a born-again
democrat? Our fate is bleak.141 .
“The aura of the lion is what keeps his adversaries away. That aura is built by his
conquests, muscularity, roars, mien and alertness. That aura deters the forest and
saves him a thousand fights. The glory of our lion is fading. Not because he has tried
to bite and failed to tear and crush. But because he has picked his teeth and watched
goats eat palm fronds on our heads. So even scrawny hyenas are gathering and
nibbling at him, on the tail. His time is running out. Our last hopes are crumbling.
His legacy is in peril. We are in shambles.
We know the goats eating palm fronds on our heads will grow canines. When the
palm fronds are finished, they might chew our heads and tear us apart. Yet we hope.
Because what would it take the lion to whom the gods had given all our fangs to use
and pounce.”
“Today all our chickens are coming home to roost. We have been on the brink many
times. Siddon-look looks dangerous. Many rural communities in the North are now
desolate. The South-East is slipping. Fatwas are flying around. Anambra
governorship election, due in a few months, is in clear jeopardy. Our last hopes are
crumbling. Who can rouse the president?”142
The Challenges from Spirituality and Mysteries in Governance in

Nigeria: A Recapitulation
A reflection on human nature and the conditions for human progress, or lack of
it, as the case may be, is copiously recapitulated and encapsulated in the
Scriptures, through the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes – two of the most
profound books which distill insights into human experiences and direction in
life. For a reformer who desires good governance in his society, these two
books should be in his arsenals, for the dynamics of politics and good
governance cannot survive independent of spiritual elements.
“There is no doubt that Nigeria is at a most precarious phase in its existence as a
nation. These are indeed trying time for Nigeria and Nigerians. My diagnosis is
simple: We seem to have lost our ways because we seem to have lost the wisdom of
governance and the wisdom of service as well as the wisdom that flows from the
spirituality that undergirds both.”143
Three things appear essential for a reformer – a sense of context, a sense of

direction and a sense of the spiritual. These are three components that appear
relevant in the life of anyone that carries the burden of reform.
And this is where faith, religion and spirituality enter the picture. How far and
to what extent is Nigeria rated in these three dimensions of our national life?
“We all are grossly disappointed by the performance of religion in Nigeria with its
tragic fundamentalist and social dimension. On the one hand, Nigeria alone has
suffered massive human and governance tragedy resulting from the religious
insurgency of Boko Haram. Thousands have been killed, a thousand more rendered
homeless while millions of naira have been lost in properties all in the name of
religion and God. On the other, the social dimension of Nigeria’s religiosity provides
a shocking direct proportionality between the proliferation of churches and mosques
and a thriving corruption mentality in the Nigerian society and public life. Thus, in
one breath, we proclaim Nigerians as deeply religious and as deeply corrupt! In
2003, a study carried out in more than 65 countries and published in the UK New
Scientist magazine reported that Nigerians are the happiest people on earth. A year
later in 2004, a BBC report noted that Nigeria is the most religious country in the
world. Over 90 per cent of Nigerians said they believed in God, prayed regularly and
would die for their belief. For many years, the Transparency International’s
Corruption Perception Index (CPI) rates Nigeria as one of the most corrupt countries
of the world. Finally, a 2013 report of the National Bureau of Statistics observed that
about 120 million Nigerians are living below the poverty line of $2 a day.”144
Nigeria certainly appears to be a paradox considering all these puzzling

demographics.
“How can a nation combine a very high Gross National Happiness and Gross
Domestic Product with equally very high unemployment and poverty rates? How can
seemingly wealthy and happy people throw themselves into lagoons where religion
seems so powerful? How can lives be so meaningless where happiness seems so
high? These statistical evidences only tell us that something is quite wrong in the
relationship between religion and politics in Nigeria. And our answer is quite simple
and obvious: There is in place in Nigeria a religiosity coloured by hypocrisy that
throws in the clergy and the politicians into the same mix of false sanctimonious
rituals. Essentially, a large percentage of Nigerians have the infinite capacity to
carry religion and piety in the outside, but the very hearts where spirituality ought to
reside are very far from God.”145
There appears a conspiracy between religion and politics to rob Nigerians of

good governance. Whether or not we want to admit it, faith and politics are
inextricably fused together. The first thing to realise is that we cannot
externalise the source of our problem to God or others. We are morally
responsible for most of our failings even if a number of these problems are
ingrained in our colonial history and in the structure of our political economy
and of the federation.
Good governance will not only benefit the people, but also embodies the
goodness and love of God. Therefore, in democratic governance, the spiritual
content is the responsibilities to serve the people with godly virtues and worthy
intentions that will make the people truly rejoice. Spirituality encourages
honesty, integrity, holiness, love, fairness and fidelity to the divine.
But spirituality is a double-edged sword. It could be positive or negative.
Foundation reflects one’s life and no man or nation can go beyond the
foundation of his or her life. It is a factor to either growth or stagnation. The
foundational problem of Nigeria, one of the major inter-locking and hydra-
headed problems why nothing works in Nigeria is largely spiritual.
One of the most seldomnly, publicly acknowledged problems in Nigeria is that

most of our political elites, those superintending the political and economic
gates of Nigeria including those seeking positions of authority in the country
belong to dangerous secret societies and have made league with Satan. If you
want the potency of human sacrifice, ask the gubernatorial candidates in
Nigeria. The higher the posts, the more sacrifices are expected from them. Most
of the horrible things they do were heavily influenced from the powers of
darkness. Most of them were ritualists parading themselves as leaders. Most of
these leaders and influential politicians and state-actors go to meetings and
preside over the affairs of the nation using demonic instrumentalities and
paraphernalia’s to “solidify” themselves against eventualities and influence the
course of events to their favour. Sincerely speaking, this is one of the unspoken
reasons why governance has ran riot in Nigeria. Take it or leave it; believe it or
not, unless and until something is done to reposition Nigeria on a sound spiritual
foundation, expecting progress is like asking a Carmel to go through the eye of
a needle.
The spiritual controls the physical. Even the name we bear: “Nigeria”, what
does it connotes spiritually? What is the spiritual significance of choosing 1 st
October 1960 as Nigeria’s independence date? What are the spiritual
consequences of hosting FESTAC 1977 where different countries brought in
their in their demonic inheritances and unholy customs into our land? What are
the consequences of having demonic agents man our political, economic, social
and educational gates of Nigeria? Was it propaganda that Nigeria’s former
dictator – General Sani Abacha – buried 500 human heads in Aso Rock in order
to solidify and secure his rulership over Nigeria and what are the consequences
of such an action in Nigeria’s governance? Why was it that as Nigeria’s capital
city was moved to Abuja from Lagos, virtually all the rulers (mostly either the
president or his wife, or the family members) had been having one serious
misfortune or the other? From the administration of General Ibrahim Babangida
when the nation moved to Aso Rock in Abuja on the 12 th December, 1991 to
this present day under President Buhari, strange and surreal pictures have been
painted of the incredible things happening in Nigeria’s seat of power.
Do you seriously think that the numerous and innumerable killings and
shedding of innocent blood in Nigeria is for nothing? Do you honestly think that
the Buhari government were as supine as we tag it to be; unable to stem the
insecurities in Nigeria if the government officials really wanted to do that? To
the naïve and the “uninitiated”, these questions do not and should not arise. But
to those in the know, these blood that flow in all nooks and crannies of Nigeria
are necessary to satisfy the desires and yearnings of the spiritual entities
employed by most of our political elites and leaders to enable them have a
stranglehold on Nigeria.
Another good example of spiritual dimension to nation building is what is

playing out in Francophone countries of Africa. The leaders of FrancAfrique
wear lapel pin on the chest areas of their suits – right on top of their heart – to
pledge allegiance to the Order of the French secret societies. There are strong
evidences to believe that these FrancAfrique Leaders get directives from France
and not from the people they pretend to represent, protect and serve. When one
joins a secret society, he becomes a Brother to the Order and he vows to protect
the secrets and interests of the Order. He essentially pledged absolute
allegiance, loyalty and submission to the Master of the Order. These Presidents
and leaders always defend and protect the slave Masters’ interests at all cost at
the expense of that of their people and in return, France guarantees them
everlasting stay in power – the Sassou Nguessos, the Paul Biyas, the Bongos,
etc. The FCFA’s, Colonial exploitation, dictatorship and French secret societies
are intractably interwoven. They work in synergy to rob the FrancAfrique of all
its natural resources and ship it right to the door step of slave Masters in Paris,
France. Even Italy was so exasperated by the evils of France against the
FrancAfrique Leaders and their countries that she publicly exposed and rebuked
France.
 Blood on their Conniving Hands: How Nigerian (African) Leaders Made
League with the Devil for Power and Control
It is culturally interesting that Africa’s top ruling elites have been linked to
dabbling in irrational juju-marabou mediums to the injury of Africa’s progress,
especially in terms of developments and Africa’s Renaissance process. The
reasons for this are not far-fetched; such practices have been part of African
culture for thousands of years, especially in West Africa, the most juju-marabou
and witchcraft infested region of Africa. In an important sense, African elites
are yet to have a fuller grasp of the realization that juju-marabou and other such
practices are counterproductive to progress.
The implications of our leaders dabbling in juju-marabou and other associated

practices only helps to weaken the ruler’s ability to totally rationalize
developmental problems on ground.
Evidently, as Dirk Kohnert of Germany’s Institute for African Affairs, rightly

argues, the belief in juju-marabou and other such practices are still "deeply
rooted in many African societies, regardless of education, religion, and social
class of the people concerned." Like any other culture, this aspect of the African
culture is irrational and blinds one from realistic assessment problems.
Experience have shown that the history of Africa’s development process reveals
that leaders, both military and civilians, who dabble heavily in juju-marabou
either paralyze their country or effectively destroys it or are blinded from
reasoning properly to solve the problems. History is replete as we watched some
African ruling class – from Liberia’s General Samuel Doe to Uganda’s General
Idi Amin Dada, down to Central Africa Republic’s Jean-Bedel Bokassa (who
ate human flesh as part of his juju-marabout ritual) – become increasingly
unrealistic, depending on illiterate, irrational, unscientific and impractical juju-
marabout mediums that, in all measure, are immoral and destructive. It suffices
that the average juju-marabout dabbling Africa leader sees critics as enemies
and lives in paranoia to the detriment of Africa’s progress. In Idi Amin of
Uganda, we saw such leaders become the manipulative robots of the juju-
marabout and spiritual mediums. Idi Amin was perhaps one of the most rabid
juju-marabout dabblers Africa has seen, who listened to these mediums to the
extent of deport enmass Ugandan-Asians and which impact destroyed Uganda’s
economy till President Yuweri Museveni stepped in. The Ugandan media
described Amin as “spiritually weak.” Likewise, Sierra Leone witnessed Foday
Sankoh’s revolution derailed partly because of the juju-marabout mediums. The
collapse of Gen. Samuel Doe’s Liberia and mounting troubles of Guinea Bissau
till recently were also tarred with the same brush.
In another development, General Kutu Acheampong regime in Ghana not only

showcased a throwback to the primodial times mired in irrational native
spiritual mediums but rule by forces of irrationality. His was an era that
witnessed a Head of State confused and shifting from one juju-marabout
medium to another. Consequently, General Acheampong was rendered not only
terribly gullible but also infantile, believing in everything the spiritual mediums
told him. It is, therefore, in this kind of confusion that Gen. Acheampong was
compelled to swimming every mid-night in one of the rivers in Accra, as
advised by his spiritual mediums, ostensibly to ward off being overthrown. But
yet, he was overthrown all the same and executed because he failed to
rationalize the problems on the ground.
In Nigeria, according to Kofi Akosah-Sarpong as he examines the implications

of the juju-marabout, “the juju-marabout mediums had so much grip on General
Abacha that his every move was juju-marabout directed: he conducted
important affairs of state overnight by the advise of the mediums; he looted the
Nigerian treasury in the same fashion; he killed and jailed in the same vein (He
jailed and nearly killed President Olusegun Obasanjo upon the advice of his
mediums, some of whom come as far as Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Mali,
Yemen, Saudi Arabia and India). Nigeria was ruled by so much irrationality that
the country not only became ’dark’ but also on the edge of another civil war
after the Biafran one of the 1960s.” (Kofi Akosah-Sarpong, “Obasanjo, Atiku in
Juju-Marabout Row”, African News, 24 May, 2007)
Robert Kaplan was right to have reported in his work, “The Coming Anarchy”
that not only were juju-marabou and other such practices weakens trust which is
an indispensable factor in national development, but also undermines “national
morality because they are based on irrational spirit power. Experience in Africa
governance and attempts at resolving developmental problems are never solved
by dabbling in juju-marabout; if for anything it undermines and renders them
counter-productive. It was one of such unmitigated and reckless dabbling into
juju-marabout that led to Sani Abacha into ‘deleting’ his real and imaginary
enemies in an attempt to transmute himself from military head of state to
civilian president, possibly for life if permitted, according to the whims and
caprices of his juju-marabout.
The use of charms, juju or African talisman was once part of the culture of the
tribes that make up Nigeria; it is often associated with the country's traditional
culture. Two religions, Christianity and Islam have however eroded dependence
on this aspect of the people of this country's culture to an extent but the fact is
that belief and the use of charms is still much prevalent remains.
It is widely acknowledged that most African elites use religion as smokescreen

to hide their deep-seated juju dabbling, they use Christianity or Islam as a
smokescreen while engaged in occultism and diabolical acts.
Nigerian leaders such as military President, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida and

Late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha were reported to have resorted to inviting
Juju-men or Marabout into Aso Rock Villa for special spiritual sessions. Late
President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua at the height of his illness was reported to
have engaged in some consultations too.
The most recent public outburst of such an occurrence from the country's seat of
power was the verbal exchange of accusations between, former President
Olusegun Obasanjo and his deputy, Vice-President Atiku Abubakar towards the
twilight of their administration.
Obasanjo accused his estranged deputy of wishing him dead and consulting
Islamic holy men on the date of his demise.
Obasanjo said the vice president had told a former minister: "Don't worry, the
president will be dead soon."
Atiku Abubakar denied the charges, saying Obasanjo's mind was full of "the
cobwebs of juju or occult".
The pair fell out when Abubakar opposed the president's efforts to stay in office
for a third term.
Speaking about the feud between him and his deputy on national television,
Obasanjo said Abubakar had told a minister that he had been consulting a
marabout (holy man).
Obasanjo, who was forced to standing down after two terms, revealed that
Abubakar told the minister: "So the same marabout has told me that I will be
President when this man (Obasanjo) dies and had given me a month that he will
die, you better prepare."
Obasanjo said the alleged comments showed his rival's "bankruptcy of ideas,
bankruptcy of knowledge and lack of knowledge in God and the affairs of God
on the lives of human beings".
He added: "If I will live for another 20 years, it is in the hands of God. I am not
afraid of such stupidity. Of course, I know that you can be poisoned but if God
wants to save you, you will be saved."
The then vice-president dismissed the president's accusations as "bizarre and

ludicrous".
"Unlike Obasanjo who uses Christianity as a smokescreen while engaged in

occultism and diabolical acts, I am a devout Muslim who has always striven to
live in accordance with the teachings of Islam,” Atiku fired back as he declared:
"The next occupant of the State House (presidential villa) will need to spiritually
cleanse the presidential lodge to make it habitable for normal people.
"I don't believe in resorting to marabout and have never wished the president dead.
Rather, it is the president who has been hell-bent on eliminating me politically and
physically.
"By making public accusations of fetish acts against me, the president has exposed
his own mindset as one that is covered in the cobwebs of juju or occult.
"It is on record that the president had never in the past denied his association with
deadly secret societies." (See BBC Report of 21st of May, 2007, See also
Kofi Akosah-Sarpong, “Obasanjo, Atiku in Juju-Marabout Row” African
News, 24 May 2007)
It would be recalled that the loser in the Nigerian presidential elections of 1999,
Chief Olu Falae, filed an appeal against the victory of General Olusegun
Obasanjo.
Chief Falae said the general was not qualified to stand in the polls because he
belonged to a secret society and had been convicted of treason.
But Chief Falae says that at the time of the election General Obasanjo was a
member of the Ogboni - a secret society said to include some of the nation's
most powerful businessmen and politicians. (See BBC News Monday, March
15, 1999 Published at 23:22 GMT) Nigeria's election rules bar members of
secret societies from running for president.
The Spiritual Side of Aso Rock

Beyond the glitz and glamour of the official residence and office of the
president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria are surreal pictures of incredible
things that go on. In his article titled ‘The Spiritual Side of Aso Rock’, Dr Abati
who served as President Jonathan’s spokesman for four years recounted strange
and some times, tragic occurrences that befell people who work or live in the
precincts of the presidential Villa.
While recounting personal experiences and those that happened to colleagues

during his service in the highest office in the land, Dr Abati gave a depressingly
worrisome scenario of the negative supra-natural powers that tended to
influence or dictate the happenings in the Villa which by extension had dire
consequences for the country.
He wrote in part:
“I can confirm that every principal officer suffered one tragedy or the other; it
was as if you needed to sacrifice something to remain on duty inside that
environment.
From cancer to brain and prostrate surgery and whatever, the villa was a
hospital full of agonising patients.
“A colleague once told me that I was the most naïve person around the place. I
thought I was a bright, smart, professional doing my bit and enjoying the President’s
confidence. I spelled it out. But what I got in response was that I was coming to the
villa using Lux soap, but that most people around the place always bathed in the
morning with blood. Goat blood. Ram blood.
Whatever animal blood. I argued. “He said there were persons in the Villa walking
upside down, head to the ground. I screamed. Everybody looked normal to me. But I
soon began to suspect that I was in a strange environment indeed”.146
Abati went further to write:

“… Every position change was an opportunity for warfare. “By the same token, all
those our colleagues who used to come to work to complain about a certain death
beneath their waists and who relied on videos and other instruments to entertain
wives (take it easy boys, I don’t mean any harm, I am writing!), have all experienced
a re-awakening.
“When Presidents make mistakes, they are probably victims of a force higher than
what we can imagine. Every student of Aso Villa politics would readily admit that
when people get in there, they actually become something else. They act like they are
under a spell. When you issue a well- crafted statement, the public accepts it
wrongly.”147
I have copiously quoted from Abati’s column that is now generating
controversy.
As a correspondent of the Vanguard newspaper, Olumuyiwa Olayinka who

covered presidents Olusgeun Obasanjo, Umaru Yaradua and Goodluck
Jonathan, admitted he related well with some of the stranger than fiction
scenario painted by Dr Abati.148
But beyond the strange incidence, according to insiders, the foundation of the
construction of the villa itself was laid in strange circumstances.
According to a staff of Julius Berger, the construction company that built the
Villa, from the very day that the excavation for what is now known as the
presidential Villa was made; it was mired in strange incidences.
The staff who has worked for the construction company for over thirty years
and claimed he was there when the very first excavation began narrated the
strange occurrences that marked the first few months.
“When we moved in here, it was as if we were in a war zone. There were multiple
incidences of equipment failure, workers developing strange illnesses and in one
particularly poignant case, a very senior officer of the company who was brought in
from Germany to supervise the construction collapsed and died on site while
supervising the uprooting of a particular tree that defied all attempts to remove.
Strangely, his death brought an end to the many equipment failures that we had
witnessed over many weeks”149 he said.
Whether the strange incidences that have been noticed in the Villa are products
of striking coincidences or handiwork of higher, inexplicable spiritual powers is
hard to decipher.
But since President Ibrahim Babangida, the first occupant of the presidential
Villa left office; subsequent occupants of the sprawling edifice have brought
spirituality to bear on their stay in the edifice.
From General Sani Abacha to Abdulasalami Abubakar to Olusegun Obasanjo to

Umaru Yaradua down to the present occupant, Muhammadu Buhari, these
occupants have had to carry out spiritual cleansing of the place before moving
in with their families and hordes of aides.150
According to a security officer who served during President Obasanjo and
Yaradua’s tenure at the Villa, the spiritual cleansing carried out by the
presidents differ from one to the other, depending on the faith of the occupants.
“When President Obasanjo came in, different men of God were brought in to pray
and anoint every corner of the place before he moved in. At least that was what we
saw in the afternoon. What happened in the night I cannot tell but what I know is that,
under Yaradua, different Mallams, some of them said to have been imported from
Chad and Niger were brought in to cleanse the place before he moved in with his
family too.
Three live cows and several rams were buried at strategic positions within the villa.
These are fairly common practices that were repeated every now and then”151 he
said.
It is perhaps these contending spiritual constellations amongst people of various

faiths that have given the Aso Rock the foreboding personae that it has assumed
in the minds of some.
But it is not inexplicable only deaths and sicknesses that stand out in the Aso
Rock. Strange things happen both at night and day that defy logical
explanations.
Olayinka went further to explain that, during the Obasanjo regime, for instance,
a huge python was found right inside the Council chambers of the Presidential
Villa where the federal executive council meeting takes place. Giving an insight
into what happened, according to Olayinka, a staff of Julius Berger which is in
charge of maintaining the Presidential Villa told Saturday Vanguard a cleaner
found the python right under the table where the president seats to preside over
the federal executive council meeting while cleaning the place on a Tuesday to
prepare for the Wednesday meeting.152
“The python was killed but the cleaner who found it died a few weeks after in
mysterious circumstances”153 the staff explained.
Perhaps the greatest witnesses to the strange happenings at the presidential Villa
are the security personnel who man every corner of the Aso Rock twenty four
hours round the clock.
According to a former body guard to President Goodluck Jonathan, very many

security men dread night duties because of the strange things that happen at
night in the Villa. “Although we were all heavily armed and trained to wade off
any kind of attack, our fear was more of the unknown forces that confront us
daily. Sometimes, you hear strange voices of people quarrelling in strange
languages but you will never see the people.
Sometimes, we will wake up to see blood on the ground, at the fore court of the
presidential Villa. At other times, we hear the cry of babies throughout the
night.
“In one particularly poignant case, we heard banging of doors at the president’s
office only to go and see that the president’s office remained securely locked.
In other circumstances, even after all the electrical gadgets and lights were
turned off at the president’s waiting rooms, the televisions and the lights come
on, on their own with the volume at its loudest. Being on duty at night at the
president’s office was the most dreaded beat among security personnel in the
Villa”154 a body guard who worked at Aso Villa under President Jonathan said.
Even people who come to the villa to see the president or other officials do so
with less than noble intentions.
According to a former staff of the Villa, “we see people with different amulets
on their body when we notice suspicious behaviours. And some of the people
that such amulets are found on were either friends of the president of highly
placed government officials.155
In such delicate situation, we make formal reports to our superiors and allow
them deal with it. In few instances, such people are denied access to the villa”.
It is not only strange things that go on in the villa. Sometimes the president’s
personal security is even threatened by those who are close to him.
According to one account, at the end of a particular function in the briefing

room adjacent the council chambers, the president noticed an old friend was
amongst the guests that visited and moved to shake his hand.
But rather than shake the president’s hand and allow him to move to the next
guest, the visitor held unto the president’s hand and it took the intervention of
body guards to wrest the president hand that was being held hostage.156
“It was one of those anxious moments that no body guard wants to be caught
in” a security detail who witnessed the incidence confessed.
Whether they are coincidences or not, there is no doubt that some people
believe that strange things happen at the Aso Villa. But those who don’t believe
in superstition or reckon with principalities and powers would not attribute
strange happenings to demons. To them, they are mere coincidences.
And not all staff of the Villa would readily confirm strange ailments especially
the crash of libido.
“However, as the seat of government, there are those who believe that there are
powers and principalities that occupy high places in that sprawling edifice. The
interface between the known and the unknown is bound to have consequences on
mere mortals.
How we are able to harvest the positive side of these contending powers will always
depend on the occupants. But for now, the occupants and workers of the seat of
power who fear that demons are in the air must find a way of navigating this
treacherous route without losing their minds, limbs or even soul”.157
There appears other spiritual dimension which some call the mystery of the Aso
Rock goddess and the diabolic nature of Nigeria’s sit of power. Some who
claimed to have spiritual insights believe that an evil, deadly woman sits at the
back of Aso Rock. This, according to them, is a female spirit called “Niger”,
holding the Nigerian people and Nigeria in bondage especially our leaders in
Aso Rock. How does she operate? This evil demonic woman called “Niger”
has a lot of young girls (daughters of Niger) all over Abuja and their
preoccupation is to sleep with politicians and leaders and to bring down every
so-called man of God, especially in Abuja, and anybody that dares to speak
against the evils in Nigeria, the daughters of Niger would be released against
such people.
The “daughters of Niger” are mistresses of perversion. The sexual immorality

and perversion in Abuja is the highest in the land about four to five times more
than those of Lagos. The “daughters of Niger” are allegedly, spiritually
speaking, responsible for the sexual immoralities in Abuja. Whoever they meet,
they brought down immediately. Nobody gets into Aso Rock and do not witness
paedophilia. Occupants in Aso Rock use paedophilia as sacrifice in Aso Rock
even as they also indulge in all manner of human sacrifices, especially children
sacrifices. The demons of Niger allegedly live physically inside Aso Rock.
Nothing destroys a nation like sexual immorality. In the Transcorp hotel in

Abuja, the daughters of Niger go after politicians, inflicting them with
redundancy, useless lifestyle, backward thinking, and extreme stupidity. The
daughters of Niger saturate everywhere in Transcorp hotel in Abuja,
mesmerizing members of the Houses of Assembly, National Assembly and the
Presidency! By these expositions, I’m not trying to explain away culpability on
the part of our leaders. I am only trying to expose negative under-currents
militating against the system.
 Background Analysis on the Emergence of Muhammadu Buhari: A Case

Study
A high-level and well-guarded conspiracy was hatched by the political

juggernauts of the North mainly of Muslim extraction from both sides of the
political divide to unseat Jonathan and made sure power returns to its traditional
base and never allowed again to shift to Christians and South. This conspiracy
came on the heels of the 2015 presidential elections which included many of the
Northern supporters and confidants of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan
under the superintendency of the Sultan of Sokoto in a nocturnal meeting where
it was decided under Oath of Secrecy. A live-cow was ritually buried alive in
the course of the event to signify the burial of President Goodluck Jonathan’s
re-election bid and any other Christian Aspirant to the Presidency.
As the 2015 elections approached and both sides of the political divide began to
make frantic moves to decide the course and subsequent outcome of the
elections a concerned Northern Muslim and driver to one of the prominent
Emirs of the North secretly approached a Northern Clergyman and informed
him of the on-going clandestine plans of the Northern Muslim leaders including
those who are serving under Goodluck Jonathan’s Government and presumed to
be his confidants to make sure that President Goodluck Jonathan was kicked out
of power by every possible means and have a Northern Muslim installed as his
successor.
It was gathered that the Traditional Doctor who carried out the ritual processes
on their behalf warned them that although they would get what they were asking
for but it might involve the spilling of much blood if not immediately but after.
To the surprise of the Native Doctor the Northern leaders asked him if it was
possible to achieve any political feat without the shading of blood! Hence the
unabated “rains of blood and mayhem” in Nigeria under the Buhari
administration may not be unconnected, after all from the spiritual sacrifices
and obligations entered into in the quest for political powers. This look weird to
the uninitiated but those in the know of the spiritual underworking in Nigeria, it
is not a surprise at all.
It is important to note that part of the resolution of the ritual cow-driven Sokoto
meeting was for all Northern Muslim political leaders of the two major political
parties PDP and APC to unite under one discreet political umbrella and make
sure that President Jonathan did not succeed in his re-election bid. There
General Muhammadu Buhari was unanimously nominated as their preferred
candidate with the condition that he would serve for only one term in office
because of his age and ill-health, with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar taking over the
reins of the Presidency after.
3. Inter-Governmental Relations in Nigeria: The Increasing

Dependency of the State Governments on the Federal
Government.
This work focuses attention on that aspect of state building which deals with the
emerging relationships between the national (federal government) and the
constituent states. Specifically, this paper examines the emergence of a “new
federalism” – a more centralised or unitary federal arrangement marked by
increased dependence of the constituent states on the federal government.
Federal Supremacy (Increased Centralisation and Consolidation of

National Authority):
One of the major features of the emerging federal – state relations in Nigeria is
the greater centralisation and consolidation of the national authority. Humphrey
Nwosu observed that this development has been made possible by the very
nature of Nigeria’s military regime159 and Olajide Aliko concluded that “the
trend towards increasing federal supremacy and authority over the states would
be hard to reverse at least in the foreseeable future”. 160
Immediately after the civil war in Nigeria, General Gowon with his principal
military aides gradually, but firmly established federal presence and authority in
all parts of the federation. However, the emergence of more or less permanent
federal preponderance can be explained by a number of factors:
First and foremost, in consonance with the creation of twelve state-structures by

Gowon administration, in the highest councils of state there emerged a new
breed of highly educated technocrats and iconoclasts who, in outlook,
sentiments and attitudes were deeply committed to federal supremacy. Members
of these power elites were more attuned to national politico-economic
integration than to sectionalism and political expediency. They became the
primary decision-makers or at least “given greater recognition” in their policy-
formulating roles both at the centre, and to a lesser extent, in the states. And as
Adebayo Adedeji opined: “The planning process cut across the constitutionally
delimited powers and functions of the federal and state governments and
hastens the movement on the direction of integration and unity”.161
For planned development to succeed, the federal government must be willing

and able to provide the necessary impetus, the finances, the political and civil
service leadership and the right type of nationwide institutions and means of
communication between the Federal and state governments.162
 Attract to itself the ablest and most experienced politicians (and civil
servants) to whom the state counterparts could “authomatically look for
leadership;
 Take over the most important fiscal powers; and
 Create strategic civil service cadres that cut across federal-state service
boundaries, along with an economic civil service and inter-governmental
planning and finance Commissions.
These sentiments were, however, endorsed in the higher Civil Service and
among the intelligence.
In his article, “The Future of the Federal and State Civil Services in the Context
of the Twelve-State Structure”, Phillip Asiodu cautioned against the danger of a
loose federation and the myth that the responsibilities of State and the federal
governments and their respective civil servants were the same and that their
roles were identical.
“The development of national consciousness and the growth of the federal unifying
ideal would be retarded by the ‘regionalistic and separatist developments’ such as
led to ‘a flow of official advice in the Regions in support of a confederal solution to
the 1966 crisis’. While the ideal of a civil service cadre that cut across Federal-State
service boundaries would seem impracticable in Nigeria, a Federal ‘Elite Service’
should at least be created. This should have ‘adequate recruitment, training and
remuneration policies to make it indeed superior to the civil services in their highest
echelons and more attractive to nthe best talents in the country’, talents which
should be made to look up to the highest positions in the federal civil service for the
normal fulfilment of their ambitions. The federal supremacy should be reflected and
maintained by ‘appropriate pay differentials’”163
In similar circumstance, Humphrey Nwosu observed that the major

commanding factor that has greatly helped to shape the emerging federal-state
relationship is the substantial increase in human and financial resources
available to the federal government.164 It would be recalled that when the old
federation started its precarious existence in 1954, most of the talented and
experienced civil servants left the central civil service in favour of regional
services. This trend then accounted for the efficiency and effectiveness of the
former regional civil services, especially those of the West and East. But now
the situation has reversed. The federal civil service is at present more powerful
and prestigious, not only because of the increased magnitude and complexity of
its activities, but as a result of high concentration of talented and experienced
publc servants. Most of the newly created twelve states were not in a position to
establish viable planning institutions for lack of staff and also affected by
financial resources in 1968 as they began to operate at the start of the second
National Development plan. This provided the federal government the
opportunity to exploit the newness and inexperience of the states to assert
federal initiative and leadership for an effective national plan.
Some scholars like James O’Connel and Ibrahim Tahir urged the federal
government to live a life of its own, distinct from the resultant of regional
forces; to be an organic and pervasive power transcending regionalism, and to
“assume the predominance in the federation that is its right”. 165 No wonder, the
Udorji Commission on wages and salaries and the white paper on Civil Service
reflected this in salary differentials between a state and a Federal Permanent
Secretary.166
Another important factor which influences the emergence of federal supremacy

and dominance is the essential political institution defined as “stable, valued,
recurring patterns of behaviour” in which Nigeria leaders were socialised and
which they later inherited, influenced their views of federal-state relations.
Edward Feit observed that the colonial institution was an administrative
traditional grid, ostensibly decentralised but actually held together by a strict
District Officers down to the precinct Chiefs. The prime values were in
consonance with the traditional authoritarian poitical culture.167 The first
generation of African leaders – the politicians who led their countries to
independence – came to operate this institution without prior experience in the
art of politics and consequently, without a clear conception of what politicians
do other than weld power. The net consequence was aggressive use of power
and tendency to improve upon the inherited authoritarian institutions in the
direction of authoritarianism. Our founding fathers fit into this bill.
Consequently, the disastrous repercussion spilled over the succeeding
generation of leaders in the Second Republic to tune down and feign
decentralisation and democracy but imposing Unitarian regimentation and
control through the back door.
The third factor which influences the Federal hegemony is the material
advantages to a potent political and bureaucratic class, economic in the
Southern States, socio-political in the Northern States. The Southern
bureaucratic and political class saw a dominant federal government the only
opportunity for coveted civil service and related jobs and for higher status. Such
opportunities were already limited in their respective states. According to
Adabayo Adedeji, in the Western Region, for instance, total establishment
increased only by 4.7% between 1959 and 1966 (from 12,011 to 12,573) whilst
that of the federal government increased by 65.9% (from 41,000 to 65,951) over
the same period. Consequently, the creation of states in agreement with federal
preponderance would open up highly remunerated political and civil service
appointment in the new systems. For instance, in 1963 when the Mid-Western
state was created, the exercise enabled 4,327 people to fill such posts within
three years. 168
In the North, however, the power of the federal military government to create
six states at once demonstrated the penetrability of a closed Northern society,
offered avenues for political and social advancement and guaranteed human
rights. Ojo advances that the bulk of the northerners, except for the old
aristocracy, wanted more leadership and authority from the centre to further
transform the northern societies.169 A former permanent secretary in the old
North Eastern State, Yaya Abubakar puts it thus: “… the people welcomed the
idea of having more control over their future in the belief that this will enable
them to develop faster … Even the Hausa-Fulani bloc … to bring government
closer to the people has now become, with justification, a key slogan”.170
Ojo concludes with unmistakable finality: “In short, psychologically,

economically and politically, the tune was ripe for the leaders and the led to
accept federal supremacy”171
As it were, these attitudinal, historical and material factors outlined above

conspired to lead to the emergence of federal supremacy after 1967 and beyond.
Constitutional and Political Relations:

The federal military government that sacked the First Republic parliamentary
system assumed “absolute powers” to make laws on “any matter whatsoever”
unlike what obtained in the system it removed. The entrenchment of federal
supremacy was further made pronounced after the establishment of the twelve-
state structure through the instrumentality of Decrees. Among them were the
Newspaper (prohibition of circulation) Decree forbidding the circulation of the
Nigeria outlook, the Decree enabling the Federal ministry of Trade to usurp
state power to sell or suspend sales of state produce, and the Decree granting the
Central Bank sole authority to determine the financial requirements of
marketing boards for their annual operations, to loan them appropriate sum and
to have a right to be consulted before fixing producer prices.172
Since 1969, two different attempts were made to alter State-Federal

constitutional relations.
“First there are the direct attempts which enhance the power and authority of the
federal government at the expense of the states. These normally take the form of
decree amending the constitution. The Constitution (Distributed Pool Account Decree
of 1970), for instance, changed the allocation of federally collected duties by
repealing Decree No. 15 of 1967 and suspending sections 141 and 164 of the Federal
Constitution. Instead, it provided inter alia, that 50% of duties should be retained by
the federal government in its consolidated revenue and 50% paid into the
Distributable Pool Account. Of the latter, 50% is to be distributed equally among the
States in proportion to their population. The Federal Military Government
(Supremacy and Enforcement of Powers Decree already referred to) declares as null
and void any decision of any court which purports to declare the validity of a decree
or the incompetence of the government to make the same. In effect, the constitution is
what the Federal Government says it is …”173
It was in this important sense that the Federal Government under General
Yakubu Gowon intervened and declared the former Governor of the old Benue-
Plateau state, Mr. Gomwalk of maladministration and misappropriation, a case
levelled against him by one Mr. Ape Aku. The federal government had, at one
fell swoop, unconstitutionally intervened in State matters, truncated due process
and blocked constitutional avenues for redress of wrong doing.
The changed constitutional reality reflects a political one: that, in keeping with
its own centralised command, the military regime tend to unify rather than
decentralize political administration. Thus, the appointment and removal of
State governors are the responsibility of the Head of the Federal Military
Government. Ojo further explained:
“True, these governors were all members of the supreme Military Council before July
29, 1975, but this very fact illustrates the centralisation tendency; a governor’s
actions had to conform with the decisions of the Supreme Military Council and these
were no more than a ratification of the supreme Commander’s actions, inactions or
simply preferences … In sum, state governors and governments have essentially been
instruments of the federal government …”174
Under Gowon regime, the Marketing Board system was financially controlled
by the Central Bank. The Board’s export duties on produce have been abolished
and its power to fix producer prices with the advice and consent of the state
government eliminated. (see Federal Budget Speech 1973) Under the new
arrangement, “the amount claimable as subsidies from the Federal Government
in lieu of export duties would be lower than what would have been collected if
the duties had been abolished” (see West Africa, 11 June 1973, p.763). It is
virtually impossible for the Marketing Boards to make grants and loans to the
states for capital development; and the states can no longer use producer price
fixing as a weapon in their campaigns to remain in power. The initiative has
shifted to the Federal Government which can now use the Marketing Board to
make “new deals” with Nigeria’s farmers and score points vis-à-vis the State
governments.175 (see O.J.B. Ojo, “Federalism and State Administration”)
It would also be recalled that during the First Republic, States could at least
organise provincial police for use in the particular province, but the Constitution
(Suspension & Modification Decree No. 36 of 1971) prohibits the establishment
of provincial police other than the Nigeria Police Force under the hegemony of
the Federal Military Government.
It has been noted that in the area of education, the federal government has made
tremendous gains at the expense of state authority. According to Ojo:
“During the 1972-1973 financial year the Supreme Military Council agreed to
transfer primary and secondary education to the concurrent list, thus paving the way
for the Universal Primary Education scheduled to begin in 1975-1976. The shift of
education to the concurrent list was also followed by the school year (Variation)
Decree which enjoins all States to start the school year in September and end it in
June or July. But much more profound was a change in the transfer of Higher
Education to the Exclusiver (Federal) list. For a while existing State Universities
were allowed to continue to be run by States, by the end of August 1975 all of them
had been taken over by the Federal Government. Further, the establishment and
location of new Universities or the establishment of new faculties or post-graduate
institutions in the existing universities … have to be on the recommendation of a
National Universities Commission established by Decree No. 1 of January 1974”.176
Whatever might be the reason for these actions, a very important area of State
power and authority has been taken over by the federal government.
Again, the Trade Union Decree 1973 concerning compulsory registration and
the exclusion of certain categories of employees from membership, together
with the Labour Decree 1074 on wages, contracts, recruitment, labour, health
questions and forced labour are so comprehensive that it is most unlikely that a
state law on the subject will not contravene at least some sections of it.
In effect labour was made a federal rather than a concurrent subject. To a lesser
degree the Nigeria Enterprises Promotion Decree 1072 indirectly curtails a State
to seek foreign private investment for its legitimate industrial development
functions. In sum, while the new states in theory inherited the constitutional
powers of the foreign regional governments, in practice the extent and scope of
these powers have been drastically reduced with the result that the States play
second fiddle to the centre.177 (O.J.B.Ojo, 1976, p.116)
Administrative Relations:
Federal-State relations have also moved in the direction of federal assertive

leadership and control in administrative matters. At least in appearance,
numerous inter-governmental administrative institutions have been created to
provide awareness of Federal-State consultation and cooperation, but in reality,
such establishment was meant to provide additional pressure point for
integration and federal dominance.
Accordingly, a view revealed:

“One such administrative institution with a number of tentacles is the Nigerian
Council for Science and Technology established by Decree No.6 of 1970. Created to
determine priorities for scientific activities in the federation, advice on the
application of research the council of science and Technology maintains general
surveillance of a number of Research Councils. The latter include the medical
Research of Nigeria (1972), the Agricultural research council (1971), the industrial
Research council (1971) and Natural Sciences Research Council (1973).
Each council in turn has its own institutes for research promotion and coordination
… But to the extent that these meet regularly, to that extent, will national (rather than
parochial) outlook develop to further strengthen integration and federal leadership
dominance.”178
Again, the Cooperative and Social Development Divisions of the Federal
Ministry of Labour was one of the inter-governmental and inter-state
institutions. An Advisory Council of Federal and State officials was set up to
offer advice to the Divisions. Although in theory, this provisional arrangement
offered opportunities for socials of the state to make the best case for their
respective states, in practice, however, the reverse was the case; the same
opportunities were open to the Federal officials to make their case and they had
the additional authority of their Ministry, as the sponsoring agent, to wield great
influence.
For more details read my book, Nigeria: Challenges Before a Bewildered

Nation pages 109-110.
Fiscal (Financial) Relations:
The major commanding factor which has contributed immensely to the

emergence of federal supremacy and hegemony over the state is the substantial
increase in the financial resources available to the federal government. When
the old federation started its precarious existence in 1954, the regions, as it were
self-sufficient. Comparing the revenue between the Regions and the federal
government, Billy Dudley (1982) revealed: where the Federal government
revenue rose by a mere 74.4% in the year 1960; that of the Regions combined
rose by 181.5% with a breakdown of 74.4% for the North, 214.2% for the East
and 247.2% for the West.179
According to the Federal Digest of Statistics in 1970, between 1960 and 1966,
while federal revenue rose by only 32.5%, that of the Regions combined rose by
72.0% with a breakdown of 84.7% in the north, 81.3% in the East and 53.3% in
the West.180
Thus, before 1968, the Regions were so powerful vis-à-vis the federal-state
confrontation. Such confrontation ended in 1966 disaster.
However, after 1968, the trend was reversed. The federal government command
enormously more financial resources than its pre-1966 predecessor.
Thus, between 1968 and 1974, federal revenue increased by 293.3% whereas
that of the then twelve states put together rose by only 214.4%. 181
In the year before 1966, the rate of revenue growth of each and every region had
surpassed that of the federal government. However, during the 1968-1974
periods, only a third of the twelve states had a higher revenue growth rate.
For more details read my book, Nigeria: Challenges Before a Bewildered

Nation, pages 111-113.
Adjustment of States to Federal Supremacy:
With the loss of political, economic and constitutional powers to the Federal
Government, the States are resigned to their fate – making the best of the
situation by providing institutional means of protecting their interests on a day-
to-day basis in the federal capital.
Samuel Hume observed that the States have reacted to the loss of autonomy in
some vital area of activities by incursion into other areas largely at the expense
of their local administrations. The loss of several functions such as the police,
prisons, and a major portion of the educational responsibilities have led all the
states to embark, in the guise of reforms, on change that increase the power and
authority of the State government. The former South-Eastern states would rather
administer all services from state capital. The North states would wish to
undermine the traditional authorities and, together with the West, create local
administrations to subordinate, that more services would, in effect, be provided
directly by state ministries.
In summary, the dominance and indeed, supremacy of the Federal Government

over the State since 1967 to date is reflected in every facet of national life –
constitutional, administrative, financial and political. Unlike the situation in pre-
1966 dominance, the present dominance of the Federal Government is a Stable
one. Two reasons have been adduced for this. First and foremost, the leadership
that emerged since 1967 to date was and is most suited to the essential Nigerian
political culture and institutions – leaders who by training, experience,
sentiments and values are committed to federalism with a strong centre.
Secondly, it appears to power brokers and most political elites that the material
advantages of federal dominance outweigh its disadvantages, hence the States
has no choice but to accept their new fate.
Federal – State Relationship: What It Should Be!
The “New Federalism” in Nigeria since 1967 has two major implications – (a)
there is increasing dependency of State government on the federal government;
and (b) are the constituent States in Nigeria operating as coordinates of the
federal government or as units of unitary administration?
The issue of inter-governmental relations is a “rat-race”. There is always a

power tussle in inter-governmental relations. Naturally, the federal government
would, indeed, want to be in dominion or supremacy over and above all other
units because the formation and control of both the domestic and foreign
policies are at its disposal. Also there is a substantial increase in both human
and material (financial) resources available to it.
On the other hand, States want parity with the Federal government. The
contention of States is that all the powers and control of the national
government are derived from the states comprising Nigeria. Even the local
governments have their genuine desire for some powers and some control
because they are the grassroots.
However, three basic facts should be noted. First, every federation is formed
with the purpose of achieving certain gains accruing from the union and their
gains can only be realised through joint effort. These gains could be political,
economic or military or all of these in varying degrees. Secondly, the Federal
government assumes responsibility of matters of common interest while those
of local importance are left to the states. This principle rests on the theory that
the people or their representatives in a particular area are best fitted to decide
and to manage these matters which touch the daily lives of the people of that
area because of their intimate knowledge of and sympathy with their
requirements. On the other hand, certain matters in which uniformity is
desirable or because it alone can command the vast financial resources
necessary for their implementation. Matters like defense including the territorial
integrity and territorial waters should not be left for the States. Thirdly, powers
are generally so divided as to enable both the Federal government and the State
to be legally autonomous within their respective spheres.
There has to be mutual division of power. Sovereignty does not rest with
individual States nor does it rest with the national (Federal) government alone
for the union as a whole is sovereign. Federal government involves a division of
powers and not a division of sovereignty.
The Federal – States relations should encourage the felicitation of mutual

sharing of functions and to encourage equal participation of the citizens in the
affairs of their government. The Federal government should be assigned the
responsibilities of foreign and national affairs while the States concern
themselves with the running of local affairs. They should both be parners not
rivals. Therefore, this decentralization and cooperation should make the
Nigerian administration well structured and effective.
I conclude by quoting from my book, Nigeria: Challenges Before a Bewildered

Nation:
“… the real obstacle to progress in our federal system, in my opinion, is the lopsided
allocation of powers between the center and the States. Strangely, much of our claims
for socio-political organization was federalism but the pattern of positioning political
and economic institutions left one wondering if what we all have all that while was
not such that stifled segments of the federation against what was considered a free
association of equal nations in a political union. Under our arrangement, the center
is too strong and the states too weak. In fiscal matters, the domination at the center is
total. In legislative matters, the powers are so allocated that the constitution is
centripetal and not centrifugal. To rub the federal salt on the wound of the states,
only one constitution governs both the center and the states. In a true federal system,
as Nigeria had up to 1966, each state in the federation should have its own
constitution. The present structure of Nigeria is a unitary system masquerading as a
federal one”. 182
4. Conclusion:
Nigeria is presently confronted with three viable options – a mutual (or forced)
separation, a true autonomous fiscal federalism or a confederal arrangement as
those of the United Kingdom where there are independent political entities
uniting to form the United Kingdom.
Should Nigeria restructure to a true autonomous fiscal federalism as we once

had before 1966 military incursion or better still be restructured on confederal
arrangement as agreed on Aburi? The bitter truth is that presently, the issue of
restructuring is considered belated by the majority of the underdogs especially
from the South owing to the fact that a lot had gone extremely wrong and
irretrievably so. The atmosphere appears to favour a separatist agenda either in
peace or “in pieces”.
As I write, all our chickens are coming home to roost. Nigeria has been on the
brink too many times. “Siddon-look” looks extremely dangerous. Many rural
communities in the North are now desolate; even as the South-East is slipping.
Fatwas are flying around. Anambra governorship election, due in a few months,
is in clear jeopardy. Our last hopes are crumbling. Who can rouse the president?
Today, Nigeria is heavily pregnant. The gathering storm and possible shipwreck
is avoidable if we do the needful. The die is cast, Caesar has crossed the
Rubicorn, the horse has bolted from the stable, the cat is out of the bag, our eyes
have been opened, we have lost all sense of fear and Nigeria can NEVER be the
same again.
5. REFERENCES
1. Dan Agbese, Editorial Comments, Newswatch Publications, 1986.
2. Dan Agbese, Editorial Comments, Newswatch Publications, 1986.
3. See Reports of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the UN Office
on Drugs and Crimes, 2019.
4. BBC News on the 12th of February, 2018 titled: “Nigerian Snake Ate
Millions of Naira, Clerk Says”. This was also reported in various media
houses both in pring and electronic.
5. Kemi Busari, “Monkey Carted Away NGN 70 million in Senators Farm-
House” The PremiumTimes, 21st February, 2018.
6. Lasisi Olagunju, “Sowore, A Vampire State and Its Whale”, in News
Digest, 5th August 2019.
7. Lamido Sanusi made this revelation that “at the moment, 70% of the
federal government revenue goes for payments of salaries and
entitlements, leaving 30% for development of 167 million Nigerians”.
See AllAfrica.com of 15th of March, 2015 titled “Jumbo Pay”.
8. Gbenga Adejayan, “Zamfara Assembly Stops Payment of Entitlements to
Ex-Governors, Others in 2021”, Within Nigeria, 26th of November, 2019.
9. SaharaReporters, “Nigeria to Spend NGN 7.8 billion on Entitlements of
Former Presidents, Deputies, Others in 2021” New York, 22nd January,
2021. See also Premium Times of 22nd of January, 2021 and other dailies.
10.Ngere Davies, “Swiss Lawyer Details How He Helped Nigerian
Government Recover Over $2.4 billion Abacha Loot”, Within Nigeria,
29th of January, 2021. See also www.pmnewsnigeria.com.
11.The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law revealed
that for the past 50 months (August 2015 – October 2019) lost NGN 806
billion to government-inspired corruption and rape on the people of
former Eastern Region of Nigeria. See also Ekwenche Research Institute,
“Refund the Extorted NGN 806 billion and Account for Hundreds Slain
and Maimed in Eastern Nigeria or Face More Lawsuits, Others”,
Chicago, Illinois, USA, 29th of October, 2019.
12.The Ekwenche Research Organisation, the Biafra Genocidal Survivors’
International and the Persecuted Christians International all based in the
US are strongly warning and calling on Nigeria Police and Army-led
Military to account for the sum of NGN 806 billion. Also, Isa Misau, a
former Senator and a retired Deputy Supreintedent of Police (DSP)
representing Bauchi South District alleged that the Federal Government
has refused to investigate the NGN 500 billion currently extorted from
innocent citizens of the old Eastern Region.
13.Wikipedia on Timeline of the Boko Haram insurgency.
14.Gbaradi, “Timeline of Fulani Herdsmen Insurgency in Nigeria from 2012
till Now” gbaradi.com/category/news. See also Culture/Arts General Life
News Politics.
15.Promise Adiele, “Boko Haram: Nigeria’s Absurd Conditions” TheSun,
26th of February, 2020.
16.SaharaReporters, “Nigerian Government Lied, Boko Haran Fighters,
Money Swapped for Dapchi Girls”, 21st March, 2018.
17.OrientalTimes, “Don’t Allow Nigeria Free Captured Boko Haram
Terrorists, President Iddris Derby tells Chadian Soldiers”, 12 th of April,
2020.
18.Dan Agbese, Newswatch Communications, 1986.
19.Abdallah, Nuruddeen M. “2019 elections set to be Nigeria’s most
expensive.” Daily Trust. August 3, 2018.
20.“INEC adjusts 2019 Elections budget to N143bn.” Vanguard August 28,
2018. Accessed October 4, 2018. See also
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/08/inec-adjusts-2019-elections-
budget-to-n143bn
21.Ugwu, Emmanuel. “Nigeria as new poverty capital of the world.” The
Nation July 9, 2018. Accessed October 4, 2018.
http://thenationonlineng.net/nigeria-as-new-poverty-capital-of-the-world
22.“Boko Haram in Nigeria.” Council on Foreign Relations”, Updated
October 5, 2018. Accessed October 5, 2018.
https://www.cfr.org/interactives/global-conflict-tracker?
marker=26#!/conflict/boko-haram-in-nigeria
23.ibid
24.ibid
25.ibid
26.Onuoha, C. Freedom and Samuel Oyewole. “Anatomy of Boko Haram:
The Rise and Decline of a Violent Group in Nigeria” Aljazeera Centre for
Studies. April 22, 2018, Accessed October 4, 2018.
http://studies.aljazeera.net/en/reports/2018/04/anatomy-boko-haram-rise-
decline-violent-group-nigeria180422110920231.html
27.“Nigeria.” Action Against Hunger Accessed October 4, 2018.
https://www.actionagainsthunger.org/countries/africa/nigeria
28.Johnson, Dayo. “Over 17m Nigerian children malnourished – UNICEF.”
Vanguard. February 28, 2018. Accessed October 4, 2018.
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/02/17m-nigerian-children-
malnourished-unicef
29.Nleweoha, Happiness and Njideka Agbo. “The Trouble With Maternal
Healthcare In Nigeria.” The Guardian, August 19, 2018 Accessed
October 4, 2018. https://guardian.ng/life/on-the-cover/the-trouble-with-
maternalhealthcare-in-nigeria
30.Aluko, Olaleye. “13.2 million Nigerian children now out-of-school –
UBEC.” Punch. October 5, 2018.Accessed October 5, 2018.
https://punchng.com/13-2-million-nigerian-children-now-out-of-school-
ubec
31.20Adeyemi, Muyiwa. “90 million Nigerians lack electricity supply, says
Fashola.” TheGuardian March 6, 2018. Accessed October 4, 2018.
https://guardian.ng/news/90-million-nigerians-lack-electricity-supply-
saysfashola
32.“Over 108m Nigerians are technically homeless.” The Guardian
February 10, 2017. Accessed October 4, 2018.
https://guardian.ng/news/over-108m-nigerians-are-technically-homeless
33.Olatunji, Kehinde. “Why Nigeria is trapped in infrastructural deficit.”
The Guardian July 20, 2018. Accessed October 4, 2018.
https://guardian.ng/news/why-nigeria-is-trapped-in-infrastructure-deficit.
34. AfricaDailyNews, New York, “Nigeria Faces Impending Bankruptcy,
says Obasanjo”, 27th of December, 2019.
35.Ibid
36.Seyi Olumide, “Proposed $30 billion Loan and Buhari’s Many Burdens”,
The Guardian, 1 January, 2020.
37.Bamidele Samuel Adesoji, “Debt Servicing Gulps NGN 7.04 trillion
under Buhari’s Administration”, Nairametrics, July 18, 2019.
38.Uche Jombo, “Senators make NGN 29.5 million ($80,000.00) per month
in a tweet published by NigeriaTimes.
39.Thomas Lewis, “Transatlantic Slave Trade” Britannica.com
40.The senior Special Assistant to thePresident on Foreign Affairs and the
Diaspora, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, in a lecture titled: “Nigerians in the
Diaspora: Strengths and Challenges in Pursuit of National Development”,
at the Island Club, Lagos that there were about 15 million Nigerians in
various parts of the world. See Vanguard, March 30, 2017.
41.Takudzwa Hillary Chiwanza, “How Nigeria was Bought for £865,000 by
Britain”, The African Exponent, November 12, 2019.
42.Quotes from Herberts Hoover
43.ExpressiveInformation, “9th National Assembly: 469 Members to
Receive NGN4.68 billion Welcome Package”, 15th of May, 2019.
44.Queen Esther Iroanusi, “Buhari approves NGN 37 billion for National
Assembly Renovation”, Premium Times, 16th of December, 2019.
45.Vanguard, “SERAP, Others, Sue Gbajabiamila, Reps over Plan to Spend
NGN 5.04 billion on 400 exotic cars”, 24th of February, 2020.
46.Tobi Aworinde, “Miyetti Allah Admits, Clarifies NGN 100 billion
Demand from Federal Government”, Punch, 17th of May, 2019.
47.Adeola Aderounmu, “What Happened to NGN 13 billion Aso Rock
Clinic Budget?” adeola.blog posted on the 18th of April, 2020.
48.SaharaReporter NY, “Africans No Longer Need Visa to Enter Nigeria,
Buhari Announces in Egypt”, 11th of December, 2019.
49.Femi Fani-Kayode reacts to free visa requirement announced by
President Buhari and the consequences.
50.Cisco Knowledge Network (CKN) recorded a video and was viewed by
the CK cable Network in one of the troubled states in the northern parts
of Nigeria where a lady was tied to the back and was beheaded.
51.SaharaReporter NY, “How Suspected Muslim Fanatics Hacked Female
Redeemed Church Preacher to Death in Abuja”, 11th of July, 2016.
52.TheNigerianVoice (TNV), “Christian Woman Beheaded in Kano for
Blasphemy”, 4th of June, 2016. See also www.breitbart.com
53.On 26th of December, 2019, ISWAP, in a 56-second video published
through Amaq declared that it has executed eleven Christian aid workers
in Borno State.
54.Washington-based intelligence Group explained the ISWAP footage
killings saying that one man was shot dead, withn others – all male –
being beheaded by jihadist wearing black masks and beige uniforms.
55.On 26th of December, 2019, ISWAP, in a 56-second video published
through Amaq declared that it has executed eleven Christian aid workers
in Borno State.
56.Tunde Omolehin, “Bishop Kukah blasts Federal Government over
Killings of Christians by ISWAP terrorists”, 8th January, 2020.
57.https://catholicherald.co.uk/news
58.Imam Tawhidi, a popular Australian Muslim scholar discloses that
Buhari government is run terrorist, aids and abates terrorism in Nigeria.
59.US placed Nigeria on a Special Watch List for nations whose religious
intolerance holds sway ever as she has placed a visa ban on Nigeria on
certain immigration aspects.
60.William Shakespeare quoted in Charles Akujieze (2007), “Nigeria:
Challenges Before A Bewildered Nation”, Mdrid, Spain.
61.William Bossman, quoted in Charles Akujieze, ibid.
62.Sir Richard Burton quoted in Charles Akujieze, ibid.
63.Charles Akujieze, ibid.
64.Quotation from https://elombah.com/
65.Professor Ibrahim Gambari, “Challenges of Nation Building: The Case of
Nigeria”, First Year Anniversary Lecture, Mustapha Akanbi Foundation,
in Sheraton Hotel Abuja, Nigeria on the 7thn of February, 2008.
72.See https://www.thedefensepost.com
76.Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa said this when addressing Nigeria’s first
Prime Minister.
77.Charles Akujieze (2007), op. cit.
78.Charles Akujieze (2007), ibid
79.Wikipedia.or on Economic Inequalities
80.Ibid
82.Professor Ibrahim Gambari Anniversary Lecture, Mustapha Akanbi
Foundation, in Sheraton Hotel Abuja, Nigeria on the 7thn of February,
2008.
85.See the Nigeria Poverty Statistics Score Sheet
88.See Wikipedia.org
89.See Wikipedia.org
90.See the 1960 Nigeria Constitution.
91.Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of the Sokoto Diocese, Nigeria
commented on the progress made in the north by the First Republic in the
northern region.
92.See Wikipedia about Nigeria’s regional achievements of their respective
premiers.
93.Ibid
94.Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of the Sokoto Diocese, Nigeria
commented on the progress made in the north by the First Republic in the
northern region.
95.Premier of the Eastern Region, Michael Okpara (1962) “Progress Without
Tears”. See Wikipedia.org
96.Ibid
97.Charles Akujieze (2007), op. cit.
98.Some legal minds and political activists have forcefully argued that the
1999 Constitution is a Military Imposition nof Decree 24 which imposed
a unitary system masquerading asa federal one which birthed the so-
called 1999 Constitution of Nigeria.
99.Ibrahim Gambari, op. cit
100. Ibid
101. See the United Nation’s Research Institute for Social Development
(UNRISD) in Geneva expresses its view on the political dominance in
Nigeria.
102. Ibrahim Gambari, op. cit.
103. Ibid.
104. Business Hallmark, “Buhari and Jonathan’s Constitutional
Conference Document”, 15th of June, 2015.
105. Ibrahim Gambari, op. cit.
106. See Wikipedia on Chadian-Nigerian War
107. Ibid
108. Ibid
109. Yusuf Omotayo, “Opinion: This is Not The Buhari We Knew”,
Legit, 9th November, 2017.
110. John C. Maxwell defines leadership thus: “A leader is one who
knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way” quoted in Sarmad
Hasan, “Top 15 Leadership Qualities That Make Good Leaders”,
https://blog.taskque.com.
111. See Sarmad Hasan, “Top 15 Leadership Qualities That Make Good
Leaders”, https://blog.taskque.com
112. Dwight D. Eisenhower quoted in Sarmad Hasan, “Top 15
Leadership Qualities That Make Good Leaders”, https://blog.taskque.com
113. John Quincy quoted in Sarmad Hasan, “Top 15 Leadership
Qualities That Make Good Leaders”, https://blog.taskque.com
114. According to Merriam-Webster, accountability is: “an obligation or
willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions.”
115. In an interview with Capture Your Flag, leadership expert and best-
selling author, Simon Sinek explains him more about accountability in
leadership.
116. Patrick M. Lencioni, (2002) “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A
Leadership Fable”, USA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
117. Arnold H. Glass quotes (1905 – 1998, American humanist and
author).
118. See Wikipedia on Emotional Intelligence.
119. See https://www.palbp.com
120. Paul Keijzer, “5 Reasons Why Humility Is An Essential Leadership
Trait”, www.bisiness2community.com, March 15, 2018.
121. Thomas Merton was a quote machine spewing out pitting wisdom
as if the author of one of those thought-for-the-day calendars: “Pride
makes us artificial, and humility makes us real”.
122. See https://www.bamboohr.com
123. Jack Welch quoted in www.brainyquote.com
124. Jen Croneberger, “Vision, Mission, and Purpose: The Difference”,
www.forbes.com
125. Professor Ibrahim Gambari, “Challenges of Nation Building: The
Case of Nigeria”, First Year Anniversary Lecture, Mustapha Akanbi
Foundation, in Sheraton Hotel Abuja, Nigeria on the 7thn of February,
2008.
126. Col. Tony Nyiam (rtd), a Cross-River State retired Army officer
and one of the officers who attempted to sack Babangida regime in the
April 22, 1990 military coup has claimed that Buhari is undermining
Nigeria’s unity. See TheSun, 21 Oct., 2017.
127. See Wikipedia on Chadian-Nigerian War
128. Ibid
129. Ibid
130. Yusuf Omotayo, “Opinion: This is Not The Buhari We Knew”,
Legit, 9th November, 2017.
131. ibid
132. Humphrey Nwosu quoted in Charles Akujieze (2007), op. cit.
133. Col. Tony Nyiam (rtd), a Cross-River State retired Army officer
and one of the officers who attempted to sack Babangida regime in the
April 22, 1990 military coup has claimed that Buhari is undermining
Nigeria’s unity. See TheSun, 21 Oct., 2017.
134. Dr. Ugoji Egbujo, “Our Olympus is Falling: Who Can Rouse the
General”, Vanguard, May 8, 2021.
137. SaharaReporter, “Nigerian Army Sends Reinforcement Troops
from Borno to South East in IPOB, ESN Showdown”, rifnote.com;
https://journalist101.com
138. Olajide Aliko, quoted in Charles Akujieze (2007)
139. Adebayo Adedeji quoted in Charles Akujieze (2007)
140. Ibid
141. Ibid
142. Ibid
143. Tunji Olaopa, “Spirituality and Good Governance in Nigeria”,
Punch, 8 October, 2017.
146. Reuben Abati, “Rituals, Blood and Death – The Spiritual Side of
Aso Rock”, Breaking Times, 14 October, 2016.
147. Reuben Abati, “Rituals, Blood and Death – The Spiritual Side of
Aso Rock”, Breaking Times, 14 October, 2016.
148. Olamuyiwa Olayinka’s blog in reaction to Reuben Abati’s
“Rituals, Blood and Death – The Spiritual Side of Aso Rock”, Breaking
Times, 14 October, 2016.
158. Nwankwo Tony Nwaezeigwe of Institute of African Studies/Dept.
of History & International Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu
State, in his article titled: “Goodluck Jonathan, the Caliphate Ritual-Cows
and Ayo Oritsejafor” reveals activities leading to the penultimate of the
2015 electoral debacle that sent President Goodluck Jonathan packing
from Aso Villa.
159. Charles Akujieze, (2007) op. cit.
160. Philip Asiodu, “The Future of the Federal and State Civil Services
in the Context of the Twelve-State Structure”, quoted in Charles Akujieze
(2007).
161. Humphrey Nwosu quoted in Charles Akujieze (2007)
162. James O’ Connel and Ibrahim Tahir quoted in Charles Akujieze
(2007).
163. Udorji Commission on Wasges and Salaries and the White Paper
on Civil Service.
164. Edward Feit quoted in Charles Akujieze (2007).
165. Charles Akujieze (2007), op. cit
166. Ibid
167. Ibid
168. Ibid
169. Ibid
170. O.J.B. Ojo, (1976) “Federalism and State Administration”
171. Ibid
172. Ibid
173. Charles Akujieze, (2007), op. cit.
174. Ibid
176. Charles Akujieze, op. cit.
178. Charles Akujieze, op. cit.
179. Ibid
180. Ibid
181. Ibid
182. Ibid
Chapter 2: Historical Perspective of Hatred across Ethnic Nationalities of

Nigerian Union
“If we can imprison Awolowo, killed Ken Saro Wiwa, murdered Abiola and his wife without
Nigeria breaking apart, we are moving to kill Nnamdi Kanu and nothing will happen”. –
Buhari’s Defense Minister, Abdulrahman Dambazzau
“It is abject foolishness to dredge up resentment for wrongs caused by long dead individuals
and stir up strife among uninvolved generations … Let the wrongdoers make amends to those
they wronged” – Trisha Sonnia
“ … God is never mocked. Nigeria is today dying from its own wickedness and Nemesis is in
town redistributing the bloodshed, torment and General dislocation of whole populations...
What amends can you make for killing over 1.5 million adults and starving over 2 million
children to death? Any “amends” that does not begin with letting the thoroughly despised
East be by themselves in their ancestral space, in unfettered Self-Determination, should have
at the least started with the wholesale jettisoning of the Imposed Master-Servant
Constitutional Order, but the wickedness that prevails in Nigeria had not permitted that line
of thought since almost 5 decades. For the East to live, the murderous Nigeria must now
die”. – Tony Nnadi
Background Studies:
The true picture of the Nigerian situation was x-rayed by then Harvard
University Encyclopaedia on Ethnicity and a thorough study of these two
quotations (A) and (B) will throw more light:
A. “Assuming that the impossible were feasible that this collection of self-
contained and mutually independent Native States, separated from one another,
as many of them are, by great distances, by differences in history and traditions
and by ethno-logical, racial, tribal, political, social and religious barriers, were
indeed capable of being welded into homogenous nation – a deadly blow would
thereby be struck at the very root of national self-government in Nigeria, which
secures to each separate people the right to maintain its identity, its
individuality, and its nationality; its own chosen form of government, and the
peculiar political and social institution which have been evolved for it by the
wisdom and by the accumulated experience of generations of its forbearers” 1 –
Sir Hugh Clifford (Former Governor-General of Nigeria)
B. “Nigeria has actually pursued the politics of ethnic, religious and regional
cleavages to the point of violent, bloody and disintegrating civil war. In a way,
Nigeria represents the most troubling and the most complex aggregation of all
the structural problems in African politics today … Nigeria deserves special
mention. Since independence, Nigeria has witnessed chronic elite and
communal instability, ethnic riots, rebellions, several coup d’etáts, ethnic
pogroms, and a thirty-month civil war. The country was in grip of chronic
disintegration forces from 1962 – 1970. Of all countries in Africa, Nigeria is
unique in its special combination and convergence of chronic regionalism,
ethnic exclusivity and intolerance, religious polarization; and political
organization power drives within a structure of ruthless, even banal
competition”2 – Ray, L. Hall
Quotation (A) was a speech made by former Governor-General of Nigeria, Sir

Hugh Clifford. Admittedly, that speech, to me, is undisputable; as it is an
unbiased, non-subjective and most objective x-ray of the Nigerian nation. I
don’t think it admits of any debate to say that Nigeria is made up of different
autonomous ethnic nationalities that are not related to one another by culture,
language or religion and accordingly should not be welded together and
administered as a Unitary System, which de jure is what a multinational State
like Nigeria is unfortunately practicing.
Quotation (B) was a commentary on Nigeria by Raymond L. Hall. It is a true

account of Nigeria. Every sentence, every word contained therein is true. Since
the Amalgamation of 1914 to date, the relationship between the people of
northern Nigeria and the people of the southern Nigeria has been rough and
bumpy.
It would be recalled that as far back as mid-1950s when Late Chief Anthony
Enahoro moved a MOTION in Lagos at the Legislative Council, calling for
Nigeria’s independence from British rule, the people of northern Nigeria reacted
very violently against it. They went on rampage slaughtering in cold blood,
southern Nigerians resident in Northern Nigeria like rams.
This took place mostly in KANO. Since then, periodic slaughtering in cold
blood of southern Nigerians resident in northern Nigeria is a common place. We
do not have evidence of such periodic slaughtering occurring in southern
Nigeria amongst the ethnic groups of southern Nigeria. The HATE CRUSADE
is limited to northern Nigeria versus southern Nigeria.
I hereby present a syllabus of errors between and amongst ethnic nationalities in

Nigeria.
a. Nigeria’s Geo-Political Tripod: The Syllabus of Error
i. The Igbos: A History of Ethnic Tension and Resentment
In his book, “Origin of Nigerian Civil War”, Nnamdi Azikiwe disclosed,

unlike what many scholars of Biafran war have written, that the killing of Igbos
in the North was actually instigated by Igbos who were celebrating the Major
Nzeogwu’s coup in the North, thereby taunting and defaming the killed
Northern political elites. Azikiwe narrated thus:
“… In the meantime, some Ibo elements who were domiciled in Northern
Nigeria taunted Northerners by defaming their leaders through the means of
records or songs or pictures. They also published pamphlets and postcards
which displayed a peculiar representation of certain Northerners, living or
dead, in a manner likely to provoke dissatisfaction. The natural reaction to
these positive acts was the germination of a revanche movement which
smouldered at first only to erupt in the May 1966 massacre of Easterners
residing in the North”.3
Nonetheless, many a historian have claimed the 1966 coup led by two Igbo
military officers – Nzeogwu and Ifeajuna – has no tribalistic motivation
attached; it was only but a coincidence that many Igbo soldiers were involved.
Insinuating otherwise, Azikiwe wrote:
“In January 1966, five Majors, four of whom were Ibo, decided to liquidate
five Heads of Government together with certain politicians and senior military
personnel. When the coup de grace was executed three Premiers, one Federal
Minister and nine military leaders were assassinated. Only one of the last
category was Ibo”.4
Azikiwe went further to blame Ironsi for his part in the misadventure that led to
the Biafra war. First and foremost, he accused Ironsi of clannishly favouring
lower ranked Igbo military officer against higher ranked Niger Deltans in his
choice of the military leadership of the Eastern region. According to Azikiwe,
this created serious tribal divides between the Igbos and Niger Deltans of the
Eastern region.
“When General Aguiyi-Ironsi assumed power, he appointed a Military
Governor for each region. In Eastern Nigeria, he appointed Lieutenant-
Colonel C. Odumegwu Ojukwu who, at that time, was junior to six senior
military officers of Eastern Nigeria origin, among whom were Colonel W.U.
Bassey [Niger Deltan], Lt. Col. U.O. Imo, Lt-Col. G.U. Kurubo [Niger
Deltan] and Lt-Col. H.M. Njoku. This was a capital blunder because it smacks
of tribalism and favouritism. Bassey is Efik, Kurubo is Ijaw, Imo and Njoku
are Ibo”5
Ironsi was accused and criticized for being the first to amend the Nigerian
constitution without a proper constitutional conference thereby creating a
precedence that was later followed by other military governments. Ironsi was
said to have used four of his tribe’s men to promulgate decree 34 which, to all
intents and purposes, abrogated the country’s federal system, thereby stopping
RESOURCES CONTROL by region government, and in its place, established a
Unitary System. Critics saw this move as tribalistic posture and betrayal of
faith.
“On assuming office, General Aguiyi-Ironsi promised that he would not
amend the Nigerian Constitution without formally consulting the people of
Nigeria. As an earnest of his good faith, he appointed a Constitutional Study
Group to make recommendations. Without formally consulting the Nigerians
and without waiting for the submission of report of the Study Group, General
Ironsi, acting contrary to the advice of majority members of the Supreme
Military Council, together with that of the Sultan of Sokoto, and influenced by
the advice of four Ibo experts, who are now the closest associates of General
Ojukwu, promulgated Decree No. 34, in April 1966, abolishing the federal
system of government and introducing the unitary system. This was a
unilateral act which arbitrarily jettisoned the fundamental basis of the
Nigerian political union.”6
Even the concept of “ONE NIGERIA” which was indeed propagated during
Ironsi’s regime was perceived by critics as an “Igbonization agenda” just as we
are witnessing the “Fulanization agenda” of the present Buhari misadventure. It
would be recalled that Ironsi and Ojukwu foiled the first secession attempt in
Nigeria by Isaac Adaka Boro, declaring the Niger Delta Republic. Critics gave
more insight to some of the Ironsi’s protracted tribal cadence and Igbonization
agenda:
“The Supreme Commander was now confronted with a political problem
which neither himself nor his Ibo experts [referring to the four Ibos, including
Prof. Nwabueze, who helped Ironsi to establish the unitary system] could cope
with. A meeting of traditional rulers was convened to take place at Ibadan on
July 29 and he planned to use the occasion to explain and expatiate for his
monocratic act. He was abducted and murdered by some soldiers. Leading
officers of Ibo and non-Ibo origin from Eastern Nigeria were murdered
also.”7
In his book, “Origin of the Civil War”, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe made assertions
and indications antithetical to frequent claims by Ojukwu and other pro-Biafran,
giving the massacres of the Easterners in the North as the reason for the
declaration of Biafra as an independent entity. Debunking the pro-Biafra claims,
Azikiwe laid out a precedence which showed that it was Igbos in the Eastern
region that started the massacre of Northerners. Azikiwe’s highly controversial
claim which indeed is highly debatable accuses Ojukwu of using the reprisal
attack of Northerners on Igbos for his secession propaganda. Azikiwe puts it
this way:
“Between August and September 1966, either by chance or by design,
hundreds of Hausa, Fulani, Nupe and Igalla-speaking people of Northern
Nigeria origin residing in Eastern Nigeria were abducted and massacred in
Aba, Abakaliki, Enugu, Onitsha and Port Harcourt. Eye witnesses gave on-
the-spot accounts of corpses floating in the Imo River and River Niger. Radio
Cotonou broadcast this macabre news, which was suppressed by Enugu
Radio. Then Radio Kaduna relayed it and this sparked off the massacre of
September-October 1966 [in the North]. When now, Easterners were
slaughtered in the North, in reprisal for the slaughter of Northerners in the
East, and General Gowon publicly expressed his regrets for what had
happened and conveyed his condolences to the bereaved, maimed and
displaced. Lt. Col. Ojukwu seized this as an opportunity to beat the tom-tom of
secession. In spite of his propagated canard of genocide this has now been
universally discredited.”8
Obviously, Azikiwe must be courting the ire of his tribesmen and women for
these anti-Igbo comments. No wonder why most of his countrymen and women
ridiculously refer to him an “Efulefu” and a “Sabotuer” amongst his people.
Azikiwe’s inflammatory remarks find expression in Ogoni-born environmental

activist, Ken Saro Wiwa. In his book, “On a Darkling Plain” Saro Wiwa
concurred with Azikiwe’s position that Ojukwu predetermined the Biafra
secession even before the reprisal massacre of Igbos. He stated that:
“Is the conviction that Ojukwu did not make sufficient attempts to starve off
war but used the attacks on Igbos in the North, harrowing though they were,
to justify a secessionist course on which he was already embarked long before
the massacres took place.”9
Some critics opine that it was Ojukwu’s self-serving greed that caused the
Biafra war. Azikiwe who was one of these critics had this to say:
“Lt.-Col. Ojukwu’e greed blinded him to fail to realize the great concession
he had won. He under-rated General Gowon and underestimated Nigerian
war potential. He decided to continue a CALCULATED GAMBLE WHICH
HAS LED TO THE CIVIL WAR.”10
Critics have argued that even the provisions of Decree No. 8 which was rejected
by Ojukwu in the Aburi Accord actually guaranteed regional autonomy “and
safeguarded the security of persons and property of the citizens of Nigeria in
each region. In its issue of March 25, 1967, a London-based weekly, “West
Africa” made a remark about a balanced critique of the agreement of Decree
No. 8 which Azikiwe succinctly opined that:
“It transformed Nigeria into a PSEUDO-CONFEDERATION. It referred to
some of the extra-ordinary powers conceded to the Military Governors,
arming them with great authority in the federal sphere without their being
restricted in their own, excepting the proviso regarding secession. It
concluded that the only sanction of the Federal Government against abuse of
power by the regions was that which enabled it to take over their function
when necessary.” 11
Critics went further to narrate that Ojukwu was not interested in any
negotiation, stating that after the Aburi conference, he was only buying time to
actualize his grandiose dream of being the supreme leader of a tribal dominated
state with no regards to life that may be lost in the process. Even Azikiwe’s
comment showed that he could not agree less.
Ojukwu’s tyrannical and dictatorial ambitions were, according to critics, made

clear when on February 21, 1967, he promulgated the Law and Order
(Maintenance) Edict, No. 2 of 1967 which enabled him to declare any part of
Eastern region to be “a disturbed area, if he, Ojukwu, were satisfied that there
was a threat to, or that any disturbance endangered or was likely to endanger
law, public order and peace in the area. Offenders were to be tried not by the
civil courts but by special tribunals to be set up by warrant at the instance of the
Military Government at Enugu. The verdict of such special tribunal was said to
be final and no appeal against it shall be entertained by any other tribunal or
court; although every decision made by it shall be subject to confirmation by
Lt.-Col. Ojukwu, who reserved to himself the right to vary, alter or suspend
same.”12
In another development, critics had alleged that Ojukwu tribal rhetorics against
Niger Deltans became evident through his broadcast medium, Radio Biafra. He
was said to have used this medium to engender pre-war tribal acrimony between
the Igbos and Niger Delta. And, according to Ken Saro Wiwa, in all the flurry
of pre-war activities, meetings and consultations that were held by the Igbo staff
and students at the University of Ibadan were he was a student, Niger Deltans of
the East were excluded. However, he noted that:
“It is signal that although what they were thinking of was secession of Eastern
Nigeria, when they gathered to discuss the matter, non-Ibos from Eastern
Nigeria were carefully excluded. Again, this was symbolic of things to come.
In the end, a memorandum went into circulation, was signed and was carried
to Ojukwu”13 5(Pg.35).
Critics continued that six weeks after the meeting at the University of Ibadan as
expressed above, the war broke out, the Niger Delta was said to have suffered
the brunt of Ojukwu’s tyrannical plot and atrocities. Biafrans from the Niger-
Delta geo-political zone felt bitter and was said to have suffered the brunt of
Ojukwu’s tyrannical plot and atrocities. Even Nnamdi Azikiwe was very bitter
how even intellectuals became a willing tool in what he called Ojukwu’s self-
serving, tribalistic and grandiloquent plot. To him, Ojukwu could pass for a
modern day con man who sacrificed his people for his pleasurable experiment
to seek power and fame. According to Azikiwe,
“General Ojukwu has deceived his people to believe that they are fighting the civil
war for their survival. But he has cleverly enthroned tyranny in that unhappy
land.When he bragged, three weeks ago that, the war will not end on the conference
table on the battlefield, he shut the door to any meaningful peaceful settlement of
THIS CARNAGE. What strikes me is his apparent IMPERVIOUSNESS TO REASON
and INSENTITIVENESS TO HUMAN SUFFERING. The death of children and
helpless old people in millions would appear to mean nothing to him. I HAVE YET
TO HEAR AN EXPRESSION OF SYMPATHY EMANATING FROM HIM FOR THE
PLIGHT OF THESE INNOCENTS. I have hoped against hope to see a picture of him
fondling with one of these skeletal children. YET HIS TWO CHILDREN ARE
ROBUST AND HEALTHY; and he has had the temerity to urge the parents of the
dying generation to sacrifice everything for the sustenance of THE MIRAGE OR
BIAFRAN sovereignty.”14
Here, Azikiwe called Biafra a “mirage”. Also concerned was he how Ojukwu
easily hoodwinked and indoctrinated the Igbo intellectuals with his (Ojukwu’s)
phantom freedom he coined as “Biafra”. And while describing Ojukwu as
crafty, shameless, and double-talk, Azikiwe lamented:
“If a person of my stature cannot hold opinion on any public issue and must
only express views which conform to a regimented behaviour pattern of the
Biafran Establishment, then it is evident that Biafra cannot, by any stretch of
the imagination, be regarded as a democratic and tolerant society. Yet many
people, including university dons and students of Biafran origin, would not
hesitate to condemn those who dared to hold their own opinion and refuse to
conform to misdirected, misguided and mistaken popular opinion. How can I,
in conscience, support a leadership which deliberately violated section 86 of
the Nigerian Constitution, craftily transformed Eastern Nigeria Nigeria into a
Police state, SHAMELESSLY PLACED A PREMIUM ON DOUBLE-TALK,
systematically metamorphosed and mesmerized Ibo and non-Ibo leaders who
live in Biafra or outside its confines, into cowards who dare not oppose a
tyranny which has been firly rooted in their homeland, for fear of death, and
they are so supine that they cannot protect their children from hunger and
disease and death, because they, are afraid of being ostracized or detained or
shut, on the order of a CONFIRMED DESPOT created thy them. WHAT A
CHICKEN-HEARTED GENERATION!”15
 Why Igbos are Hated and Resented by Others: An Opinion
Africa’s literary giant and celebrated writer Chinua Achebe, has claimed that
Nigerians, especially the Hausa/Fulanis and the Yorubas, do not like the Igbos
because of their cultural ideology that emphasizes ‘change, individualism and
competitiveness.’
He made this claim in his latest book “There was a Country”, which has
generated controversy for his onslaught on the role of Obafemi Awolowo as the
federal commissioner of finance during the Nigeria civil war. He accused
Awolowo of genocide and imposition of food blockade on Biafra, a claim that
has drawn rebuttals and contradictions of emotional intensity from some
southwest leaders and commentators.
“I have written in my small book entitled The Trouble with Nigeria that
Nigerians will probably achieve consensus on no other matter than their
common resentment of the Igbo,” he wrote under the heading, A History of
Ethnic Tension and Resentment. He traced the origin of “the national
resentment of the Igbo” to its culture that “gave the Igbo man an unquestioned
advantage over his compatriots in securing credentials for advancement in
Nigerian colonial society.”16
He observed that the Igbo culture’s emphasis on change, individualism and

competitiveness gave his ethnic group an edge over the Hausa/Fulani man who
was hindered by a “wary religion” and the Yoruba man who was hampered by
“traditional hierarchies.”17
He therefore described the Igbo, who are predominantly Catholic, as “fearing no

god or man, was “custom-made to grasp the opportunities, such as they were, of
the white man’s dispensations. And the Igbo did so with both hands.”18
He delved into history with his claim, asserting that the Igbo overcame the
earlier Yoruba advantage within two decades earlier in the twentieth century.
“Although the Yoruba had a huge historical and geographical head start, the
Igbo wiped out their handicap in one fantastic burst of energy in the twenty
years between 1930 and 1950.” 19
He narrated the earlier advantage of Yoruba as contingent on their location on

the coastline but once the missionaries crossed the Niger, the Igbo took
advantage of the opportunity and overtook the Yoruba.
“The increase was so exponential in such a short time that within three short
decades the Igbos had closed the gap and quickly moved ahead as the group
with the highest literacy rate, the highest standard of living, and the greatest of
citizens with postsecondary education in Nigeria,”20 he contended.
He said Nigerian leadership should have taken advantage of the Igbo talent and
this failure was partly responsible for the failure of the Nigerian state,
explaining further that competitive individualism and the adventurous spirit of
the Igbo was a boom Nigerian leaders’ failed to recognize and harness for
modernization.
“Nigeria’s pathetic attempt to crush these idiosyncrasies rather than celebrate

them is one of the fundamental reasons the country has not developed as it
should and has emerged as a laughingstock,21 he claimed.
He noted that the ousting of prominent Igbos from top offices was a ploy to
achieve a simple and crude goal. He said what Nigerians wanted was to “get the
achievers out and replace them with less qualified individuals from the desired
ethnic background so as to gain access to the resources of the state.”22
Achebe, however, saved some criticisms for his kinsmen. He criticised them for
what he described as “hubris, overweening pride and thoughtlessness, which
invite envy and hatred or even worse that can obsess the mind with material
success and dispose it to all kinds of crude showiness.”23
He added that “contemporary Igbo behavior (that) can offend by its noisy
exhibitionism and disregard for humility and quietness.24
 Igbo Apprenticeship System Makes People Hate Igbos – Aisha Yesufu

Sparks Debate:
A Nigerian activist, Aisha Yesufu has stirred up a debate on Twitter after
sharing her opinion that the Igbo apprenticeship system have contributed to why
many people from different tribes resent Igbos.
According to her, it is given that the age long Igbo apprenticeship system has
produced a lot of multimillionaires of Igbo extraction to the wonder of many
from other tribes.25
The Igbo apprenticeship system allows a businessman take a young person to
learn about his business and eventually get settled (given start-up capital) after
an agreed period of time, which usually lasts between 5 to 7 years. During the
service period, the younger person (servant) serves the businessman (master)
while learning the business.
The Igbos have used the system to build themselves and relatives into renowned
business men and women even where apprentices have little, or no formal
education.
A Twitter user had said: “The Igbo’s apprenticeship program is the only ‘MBA’
class in the world that teaches the real intricacies of running a business, the
practical application of SWOT and PESTEL analysis. And when you graduate,
they’ll give you seed capital to start the business; a system that works!”26
In replying the tweet, Aisha Yesufu pointed out that “The Igbo apprenticeship is
an amazing system and the reason Igbos are great in business.”27
However, she went on to say that “Everything has its advantage and
disadvantage and that same system has also portrayed Igbos as clannish people
who only employ their own people and never assimilate”.28
Her tweets opened up a debate as she went on to state that the apprenticeship
system have contributed to Igbos been resented the same way Jews are resented.
She went on; “These are my opinions and thoughts over the years and I might
be completely wrong but this is how I see it.” She went further to say:
“There is a need to take a deliberate look at the Igbo apprenticeship system and
begin to look at ways of inclusion. It can start with 5% inclusion of others. When you
always go to your village to bring those that will work for you how do you expect the
people where you are to feel?
“Just like the Jews, Igbos are resented and I have always wondered why? Is it
because they are successful and can achieve anything from nothing? Is it the
resilience? I concluded it is because it seems no matter how long they stay with you
or you with them you are never one in business”.
“A situation where as a business person you only employ your people via the
apprenticeship model & no matter how long you stay in a place you never employ the
indigenes there except to load and off load. there will be resentment. More if it is not
one off experience but the norm
“The Jews too have that trait – Family businesses. Helping each other grow in
business and capacity to gang up (if na one naira na one naira) on business issues
are common traits shared by both Igbos and Jews. The others feel like outsiders not
allowed to share in the goodness.
“Systems are to be looked at and upgraded from time to time. It is also important to
look at how things are perceived by others. You don’t have to change but just know
this is how this action is seen by others.”
“In all the riots I witnessed as a child, I always say it is more economical than
religion. Host community usually think it is the others that kept them impoverished.
They feel those monies would have been theirs if these people weren’t there. People
don’t blame their lazy selves.29
 Why Igbos are ahead of other tribes in Nigeria – Obasanjo
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, former President of Nigeria, has revealed reasons

why Ndigbo [the Igbos] is ahead of other tribes in Nigeria. Obasanjo reasoned:
“It will be a task impossible to actualise for the Igbo, to follow the Yoruba’s
Ideology. The Igbo is more republican by nature, which is why it is very
difficult for you to tame such a tribe.”30
Speaking from empirical evidence from the research he undertook on the three
major tribes, Obasanjo found out that “… the Igbos are the most westernized,
most enterprising, most astute, most dynamic, most intelligent (smart), and the
most technically gifted tribe found among the black race. The Hausa/Fulani and
the Yoruba have limitations. But an Igbo man doesn’t see any limitations.”31
An average Igbo man, Obasanjo rightly observes, is highly competitive, unlike

the Yoruba and the Hausa/Fulani.32
While the Yoruba and the Hausa/Fulani had kingdoms which enabled the British to
infiltrate their territories easily, the Igbos on the other hand, had what could be
called “Chiefdoms” (autonomous Communities). These structures made it very
difficult to tame the Igbos.
It took the British just 9 months to tame the North and South West but almost 30 years
to be able to tame the Igbos. The British had to send a team of anthropologists to the
South to understudy the Igbo because, they (the British) acknowledged they hadn’t
been up against a black race with such depth and intelligence coupled with the gut to
confront the whites and learn from them so, so fast.33
He went further to explain the uniqueness of the Igbos:
“While a Tinubu, can have unrestricted influence over the Yoruba tribe, something
you can only find mostly among blacks and some poor nations on earth today, an
Igbo man can never be tamed by the ideology of one man unchecked, no matter how
highly placed he or she is. That’s why the Igbos are very successful no matter where
they find themselves. They don’t believe in putting limitations on their path. You can
only find such similarities among the Europeans, the Americans, and developed Asian
tiger nations.”34
Obasanjo finally submits that whilst a Hausa/Fulani man sees Kano as his world
and a Yoruba man sees Lagos as his world, an Igbo man rather sees the world
as his Village!35
These achievements and advancement of the Igbos engenders jealousy, hatred

and animosity of others against Ndigbo.
 Other Testimonies:
On his part, however, Reno Omokri, an Activist, Author, Humantarian and

spokesman to the ex-President Goodluck Jonathan has stated that Igbos can
survive without Nigerian Government but Nigeria can’t survive without Oil.
Reno Omokri took to his facebook page to disagree and expressed discomfort to
how the current government is being run.
 “If you don’t respect Igbos, consider that without government assistance, Alaba
Electronic Market generates $4 billion annual sales.
 “When you add Onitsha and Aba Markets, the total comes to $6.5 billion. Add Ladipo
Spare Parts Market, it jumps to $8 billion. Without oil, Nigeria’s Federal
Government can’t generate what the Igbos are generating without government.
 “What do we learn from this? “The Igbos can survive without Nigeria’s government,
but Nigeria’s government can’t survive without oil. In reality, who is better off?
 “The Igbo apprenticeship system is not only the world’s largest venture capitalist
scheme, it has produced more US dollar millionaires per capita than either Harvard
or Yale universities.
 “To understand money, you must understand the Igbo race. Igbo is synonymous with
SUCCESS. No other race on Earth, with perhaps the exception of the Jews, has a
better excuse to be poor, as the Igbos.
 “Militarily defeated and financially devastated in 1970, they overcame that in less
than a generation, and prospered above any other ethnicity in Africa, bar NONE!”36
 The Igbos in the Eyes of other Ethnic Nationalities: Matters Arising!
The Igbo people, according to critics, were responsible for the first successful
military coup in this country; they were responsible, according to bitter critics,
for the first attempt at “ethnic cleansing”; they were responsible for the first
violation of constitutionally laid down succession procedures; they were
responsible for the destruction of the federation and the creation of the unitary
system of which they are now victims (since the initial objective was for the
Igbos to dominate the other groups) some Igbo detractors have claimed; they
were responsible for Nigeria's first and only civil war.37
In collaborating this report and going further to inflame anti-Igbo passions Femi
Fani-Kayode writes, explaining how Igbo officers in the army carried out the
first military coup in Nigeria 38-41
According to detractors, “it makes no sense, in the face of these facts, repeat
facts, for the Igbos to shed tears today and claim to have always been an
aggrieved party. It will convince no one.” They further advised:
“Granted, the Igbo people as a whole must not be punished for the action of some.
Granted, there can never be full reconciliation without justice and equity. Granted,
the Igbo people, like all Nigerians, have the right to fight against perceived injustices.
The way to do this is by integration into the country, by joining broad-based parties
and establishing a system that guarantees all individuals and groups their rights and
liberty. It is not by crying Biafra again. It is not by following the man who led them to
defeat and ran away to come back later and enjoy his wealth. The Igbos have always
had alliances with other parts of the country. The astute political strategy is to go into
one now. Tribalism will lead to defeat, once more, and even more humiliation.”42
Anti-Igbo rhetoric was on the rise inside Nigeria during Obasanjo regime. Only
a few years ago, the then country's President and retired army General –
Olusegun Obasanjo called some Igbo leaders insane for demanding a frank
discussion of Nigeria's federalism and stating that secession was preferable to
being victims of pogroms. His Minister of Transport called Ndigbo idiots for
making the case for an Igbo as President. One of his Ministers of State called
Ndigbo traitors.
Inspired anti-Igbo articles were then flooding the newspapers. For instance,
Reuben Abati of The Guardian (Lagos) wrote a two-part article entitled
"Obasanjo, secession and the secessionists"43 (The Sunday Guardian, December
16 and 23, 2001). All he did therein was to denigrate Ndigbo.
Normally, the abuses rained on Ndigbo may not ring alarm bells. Were they not
always everybody's whipping boy? However, there is something sinister in the
rising tirades. For seeking a shot at the presidency, Ndigbo were called idiots.
For demanding compensation for Nigerian soldiers who fought for Biafra, a
topic initiated by the Federal Government, they were called traitors.
As an Igbo writer and essayist stated:

It is pointless joining issues with political appointees, those amplifiers of 'His
Master's Voice' who may hold no personal opinion on anything and whose relevance
disappears the moment they are ditched in a cabinet reshuffle. However, it is different
when a journalist/commentator plays himself up as a conceited ignoramus. Abati…
call Ndigbo criminals and nincompoops. Why?
Ominously, Abati warns that his kinsman Gen. Obasanjo is standing by with his pick
ax, ready to chop off additional Igbo heads as if that should be in an elected
President's mandate…”44
But instead of showing remorse and apologise for lack of respect to his fellow
Southerners, Reuben Abati claimed that his write-up was to address "the issues"
bordering on secession. His words:
"Always, from President to my 'washaman', we should all be interested in the issues,
for if there is anything that unites us all, it is the expectation that this country called
Nigeria will serve our purpose by guaranteeing our safety and happiness. Safety and
happiness: those are the two things that the average Nigerian wants. When we do not
focus on the issues, we trivialize critical aspects of our own lives."45
But how do the above justify Abati's subjection of Ndigbo to obloquy? This is
what Reuben Abati was reported to have said:
"After all, Ibos now sell land in Lagos and Kaduna, and they are in charge of
commerce, "419" and 'international trade.' But there is a problem of leadership.
Every Ibo man who has access to the media, and some money in his pocket thinks that
he is an Ibo leader." When this fellow renders sentences such as these, could he be
seen to be promoting "safety and happiness" which, according to him "are the two
things that the average Nigerian wants." (By the way, it's not 'Ibo' but Igbo) 46
Let's examine the illogicality of the sentences. How could it be sensibly said
that Ndigbo now sell land in Lagos and Kaduna when they were into that long
before Abati was born? Why should the selling of land in Lagos and Kaduna by
Ndigbo be an issue? Are there no Hausas, Yorubas and indeed people of other
nationalities who sell land in Abuja, Kaduna, Lagos, Port Harcourt and
elsewhere? 47
Ndigbo, says Abati, are in charge of "419" in Nigeria. Where is the evidence to
support this wildness, Ndigbo challenges? What respectable part of journalism
or scholarship allows people to throw unsubstantiated statements around like
confetti, Ndigbo demanded? "Every Ibo man who has access to the media, and
some money in his pocket thinks that he is an Ibo leader" 48, asserts Abati. Pray,
how did he come by this? In any case, why should anyone be afflicted by
insomnia even if every Igbo person sees himself as a leader of his ethnic
group?, a rejoinder challenges. Yet, another Abati claim: "The biggest disease
in Ibo land is money." What is the biggest disease in Yorubaland? What is the
biggest disease in Hausaland? What is the biggest disease in other lands of
Nigeria? How does Abati monitor and quantify these pandemics? Clearly,
Abati's irrationality is calculated to expose his fanatic anti-Igbo feelings” 49,
some Igbo intelligentsia have posited.
On the action of January 15, 1966, Abati writes that:

"The coupists were mainly Ibos, they killed mainly Northern officers and no single Igbo
man (except perhaps, Lt.Col. A.G. Unegbe, the Ibo Quarter-master General who was
killed because he refused to surrender the keys to the armoury)" 50
But, according to some accounts, Arthur Chinyelu Unegbe was not killed for
refusing to hand over the keys to the armoury. As QMG, the Colonel held no
armoury keys, and The Guardian's top-flight commentator/staff ought to have
known this. Also, what are the brackets in Abati's sentence for?
When he says "perhaps" in that context, is he alluding to some doubt as to

Unegbe's fatality in the January 1966 action?
"And Ironsi not only made the mistake of surrounding himslef with Igbo advisers,
including the strong-headed Francis Nwokedi, under him nearly every major
department - Education, Railway, etc was dominated by Igbos and he was not willing
to deal with the coupist of Jan. 1966.51
Fact is that Ironsi did not surround himself with Igbo advisers. Recent books
have quite thoroughly discredited that lie. What are the grounds for referring to
Francis Nwokedi as "strong-headed"? In Reminiscence, his 1989 biography
published by Malthouse, Lagos, General David Ejoor states that Ironsi's
Supreme Military Council (SMC) of which Ejoor was a member decided on the
trial of the January coup makers52 (p39). Also, in 'The Barrel of a Gun: The
Politics of Coups d'Etat in Africa' which was published by Allen Lane The
Penguin Press, London in 1970, Professor Ruth First attributes the following to
Hassan Usman Katsina. "By July (1966), the minutes of the SMC recorded that
the young majors were to be court-martialed not later than October. The
proceedings were to be in public."53 (p. 307).
General Hassan, another member of Ironsi's SMC, lived for over 25 years after
First's book was published but never denied the statements credited to him.
Ironsi was assassinated months before the October date slated for the court-
martials. Yet, Abati maintains that the General "was not willing to deal with the
coupists of January 1966."54
Ironsi was in power for six months, as against Yakubu Gowon's nine years.
Why did Abati and his ilk not ask Gowon the reason he failed to try the coup
makers of January 1966 and the counter-coup makers of July 1966? The Igbos
querried!
Abati says that the Igbo "even had a song, Celestine Ukwu's 'Ewu Ne Ba Akwa'
(meaning 'Goats Are Crying') with which they taunted the Northerners. That
song was not the work of Celestine Ukwu. That song was not the work of an
Igbo artiste. That song was on vinyl long before the action of January1966, the
Igbos submitted.55
According to Reuben Abati, Ojukwu fled to the East in the wake of the July
1966 counter-coup. But is it not a matter of public record that then Colonel
Ojukwu was in Enugu from January 1966 as the Military Governor of the East?
56
Abati claims that Isaac Adaka Boro was an Ogoni man, that he was a student of
the University of Nigeria (Nsukka) when he declared a "Republic of the Niger
Delta", and that he had no army! These are not correct. Boro was Ijaw. Boro
was on the staff of the University of Lagos when he struck. And, yes, Boro had
an army.57
Abati claimed that Gowon announced his 12-state structure the same day as
Ojukwu declared Biafra. That is fallacious.
Of the Igbo intelligentsia, Abati says, “They had lived all their lives either in the
West or the North"58 Was that not a nonsensical piece of ridiculous, arrant and
stupendous nonsense? Does he mean that none of the Igbo intelligentsia lived
abroad? None taught at the Enugu and Nsukka campuses of the University of
Nigeria? None found gainful employment elsewhere in the East?
The collective sin of Ndigbo is their refusal to be content with "buying and
selling" which Obasanjo's deputy minister of defence and daughter of Yoruba
chieftain Abraham Adesanya, Mrs. Dupe Adelaja insists is their place. Rather,
the Igbos have the effrontery to ask for a stint at the presidential palace,
something intolerable to those intent on making Aso Rock a place of permanent
abode.59
It is, therefore, according to Abati, imperative to contain the troublesome lot,
and to amputate those arms stretched for the handshake across the Niger,
especially during periods of presidential elections. That explains the new wave
of anti-Igbo sentiments being fanned across the length and breadth of Nigeria 60,
the Igbos have submitted.
According to the Igbos, when the Holocaust was in the offing, every means was
used to portray the Jews as evil and despicable. The Jews ultimately paid an un-
owed debt to the staggering tune of six million lives. A reality of this played out
in Year 2019 as Ndigbo are being readied for the first holocaust of the new
millennium. Should Ndigbo and, indeed, the whole world allow it? 61
 Bad Blood between the Igbos and the Yorubas
In another development, Amin Femi Aribisala, a brilliant and erudite Yoruba

scholar and preacher, a man of conscience and of truth made a trending
comment, titled: “Time to end the bad blood between the Yorubas and
Ndigbo”:
“THE Yorubas and the Igbos, two of the most resourceful, engaging and outgoing
ethnic groups in Nigeria, are becoming implacable enemies. Increasingly, they seem
to hate one another with pure hatred. I never appreciated the extent of their animosity
until the social media came of age in Nigeria. Now, hardly a day passes that you will
not find Yorubas and Igbos exchanging hateful words on internet blogs…”.76
 Ethnic stereotyping
Aribisala appreciates this ethnic stereotyping between the Youbas and the
Igbos. Both the Yorubas and the Igbo stereotype one another. To the Igbo, the
Yorubas are the “ngbati ngbati” “ofemmanu” who eat too much oil. They are
masters of duplicity and deception; saying one thing while meaning another. To
the Yorubas, the Igbo are clannish and money-minded. They are Shylock
traders who specialise in selling counterfeit goods.77
But the truth is that stereotypes are essentially generalisations and

exaggerations. In a lot of cases, they are unreliable and untrue. Stereotypes must
be recognised at their most effective as a joke. They are the stock-in-trade of
seasoned comedians; the garnish for side-splitting anecdotes at weddings and
social gatherings. Stereotypes should not be taken seriously. We should laugh at
them without being offended by them. The more Nigeria develops as a melting
pot of nations, the more we should be able to laugh at ourselves. The greater
inclination to do this denotes increasing strength of character and self-
confidence. However, with the advancement of social media, the banter has
gone way beyond the jocular and innocuous to outright malice and
unadulterated hatred. Increasingly, what you hear are abusive and pejorative
labels of “Yariba,” “Yorubastards” and “Yorobbers;” as well as “Eboes,”
“Zooafrans” and “Biafrauds.”78
According to Aribisala, as the insults fly with abandon, you begin to wonder
where all this comes from. What is the basis of all this hate? In the sixties, the
Igbo were slaughtered in pogroms in the North. However, the principal
exchange of hateful words today is not between Northerners and Easterners, but
between Easterners and Westerners. Why are these two ethnic groups so much
at loggerheads? How did we get to this pass? 79 queried Aribisala.
Malicious stereotyping often has a way of denigrating the strengths of others.

According to Aribisala, the Igbo are very enterprising – a very valuable
resource in a developing country as Nigeria. But then this is castigated as
mercenary. The Yorubas take great pride in education; another valuable asset in
today’s modern world. But then they are derided as using this to get one over on
others. The saving grace is that the two groups live side-by-side in peace and
quiet in different parts of the country. Moreover, the animosity between them,
especially among the younger generation, has not prevented their boys and girls
and men and women from falling in love, Aribisala submitted. Yoruba men
marry Igbo women; and Igbo men marry Yoruba women. Meanwhile, “a lutta
continua.” 80
Awolowo factor
The Igbo tar the Yorubas with the brush of Awolowo, who they label as “the
father of ethnicity in Nigeria.” In that narrative, it is conveniently overlooked
that the broadmindedness of the Yorubas enabled Azikiwe, an Igbo man, to win
a regional election in the Yoruba heartland in 1954. Instead, what is harped on
is the fact that Awolowo mobilised Yoruba politicians to nullify that victory by
decamping from Azikiwe’s more nationalist camp to Awolowo’s more
ethnically-focused camp.81
According to Aribisala, one of the newspaper headlines that stick in his memory
from 50 years ago is the one that said: “If East Goes, West will Go – Awo.”82
“After a visit to Ojukwu in Enugu at the height of the acrimony over the mass killing
of the Igbo in the North in the mid-1960s, Awolowo declared that if the East was
allowed to secede as a result of acts of omission or commission, he would also lead
the West into secession. This flashed a green light for Igbo secession. But when the
East seceded, Awolowo failed to mobilise the West to follow suit. Not only did the
West not join the East in secession, it joined the North in fighting against the East.
Awolowo then became the Commissioner of Finance and Vice-President of the
Federal Executive Council of the Nigerian government that prosecuted the war
against Biafran secession. The Igbo have rightly deemed this a great betrayal. But
their case against Awolowo did not end there.”83
As finance minister,
“Awolowo was the brainchild of the strategy to blockade Biafra; leading to mass
Igbo starvation and deaths. With the end of the war, it was also alleged that Awolowo
orchestrated the policy whereby the totality of individual holdings of Biafran
currency was converted to Nigerian legal tender at a flat maximum amount of only 20
pounds. This effectively pauperized the Igbo.
Since it also coincided with the period when Nigerian corporations were being
privatised, it had the effect of locking out the Igbo from strategic sectors of the
Nigerian economy; gobbled up in the main by the Hausa-Fulanis and Yorubas.”84
Brothers in adversity
The Igbo case against Awolowo has become the Igbo case against the Yorubas.
In the process, it is easily overlooked that prominent Yorubas, like Tai Solarin
and Wole Soyinka, defended the Igbo right to self-determination during the
Biafran War. The properties the Igbo left behind in Yorubaland during the Civil
War were not expropriated by the Yorubas, as they were in some other places.
When Odumegwu Ojukwu came back from exile in Ivory Coast, his entire
father’s properties in Lagos remained intact. Under President Obasanjo, a
Yoruba man, the Igbos was given the control of Nigeria’s economic and
monetary policy. The Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Governor of
the Central Bank, Charles Soludo; and Director-General of the Stock Exchange,
Ndidi Okereke-Onyuike, was all Igbos. So were the Minister of Education,
Obiageli Ezekwesili; and the Director-General of NAFDAC, Dora Akinyuli.
Indeed, Obasanjo favoured the Igbo more than his native Yorubas. He
appointed an Igbo, Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, as the Minister of Defense and
another, Air Marshal Paul Dike, as Nigeria’s first Igbo Chief of Air Staff.85
While the Igbo visit the transgressions of Awolowo on the Yorubas, they do not visit
the favouritism of Obasanjo on the Yorubas. The sins of Awolowo were brought again
to the fore in 2012 by Chinua Achebe in his book: “There Was a Country: A Personal
History of Biafra.” The blogs came alive as blame was traded on both sides of the
East-West divide. Awolowo was now cast by the Igbos as the father of the Yorubas;
and they were determined to visit his sins on his Yoruba sons to the third and fourth
generations.86
Mistakes galore
Blunders continue to be made on both sides, fanning the flames of hatred. In

2013, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State blundered by deporting some
destitute Igbos back to the East in the dead of night. A sizeable Igbo community
in Lagos were flabbergasted. A ridiculous discussion nevertheless ensued about
the rightful ownership of Lagos, even though Fashola expressly apologised to
the Igbos for the faux pas. Orji Uzor Kalu, former governor of Abia State, put
his foot in it when he declared that Lagos, as a former national capital, was “no
man’s land and so belongs to all of us.” 87 This incensed ethnic jingoists in
Yorubaland who, forgetting the traditional hospitality of the Yorubas, asked the
Igbo to leave Lagos and go back East.
“It is amazing how one or two of the numerous nationalities that make up Nigeria
secretly wish that they were yoruba and consistently lay claim to Lagos as being
partly theirs. Have they forgotten where they came from? I have never heard of a
Yoruba wanting to give the impression to the world that he is an Igbo, an ijaw, an
Efik or a hausa-fulani or claiming that he is a co-owner of Port Harcourt, Enugu,
Calabar, Kano or Kaduna. Yet more often than not some of those that are not of
Yoruba extraction but that have lived in Lagos for some part of their lives have tried
to claim that they are bona fide Lagosians and honorary members of the Yoruba race.
Clearly it is time for us to answer the nationality question. These matters have to be
settled once and for all.
… Lagos is not a “no-man’s land” but the land and heritage of the Yoruba people.
Others should not try to claim what is not theirs…”88
But nothing quite compares to the comment that came from the Oba of Lagos.
During the 2015 election, Oba Rilwan Akiolu summoned Lagos Igbo leaders to
his palace; only to threaten them:
“If anyone of you, I swear in the name of God, goes against my wish that Ambode
will be the next governor of Lagos state, the person is going to die inside this water.
What you people cannot do in Onitsha, Aba or anywhere you cannot do it here. If you
do what I want, Lagos will continue to be prosperous for you, if you go against my
wish, you will perish in the water.”89
It mattered little to His Royal Highness that Ambode’s close rival was not an
Igbo but Jimi Agbaje another Yoruba man.
Timeout
The Yorubas and Ndigbo do themselves great disservice by seeing themselves
as arch-enemies. Within the framework of Nigerian politics, this has limited the
freedom of action of both ethnic groups. If one is prominent in this political
party, the other is more likely to align itself with another party. This means the
one can always be manipulated against the other. Instead, the political space
should be opened up by the possibility that the Yoruba and the Igbo can form an
alliance. That eventuality is not implausible especially because they actually
have common interests.
 Both groups prefer a Nigeria that practices fiscal federalism.

 Both want a country with a weaker centre.
 Both want a Nigeria that rewards merit, with a state-structure based on
resource-control.
 Both groups want a Nigeria committed to self-determination. These are
grounds for cooperation as opposed to discord.
 If the North is not to continue to take the South for granted, it must not be
allowed to continue to operate in the confidence that the East and the
West will always be divided.
 In politics, there are no permanent enemies and no permanent allies. Fifty
years down the road, the politics of the Nigerian Civil War should not be
allowed to continue to cast a shadow over Yoruba-Ndigbo relations. 90-91
Summary:
 Yoruba – Igbo fact sheet: An Opinion
1. Azikiwe defeated Awolowo to become the first Nigerian Premier of Western

Nigeria (present Southwest plus Edo and Delta States). Awolowo instead of
forming opposition rather formed Egbe Omo Yoruba and used it to intimidate
Yorubas that won election on NCNC platform to cross carpet and join him
against Azikiwe. This was the first parliamentary coup in Nigeria.
2. Awolowo from then on, started indoctrination of Yorubas against the “threat
of Igbo domination”. That is how the incurable seed of fear of Igbos was sown
in the psychic of Yorubas which Yorubas later sold to other groups through
Yoruba control of the media for decades.
3. Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, Nigeria’s first Prime minister could not tolerate
Awolowo’s treacherous and inordinate ambition of acquiring political power by
all means and at any cost. So, he threw Awolowo into prison for treason.
4. Samuel Ladoke Akintola who replaced Awolowo as Premier of Western

Nigeria tried to destroy Awolowo’s political grip on Yorubaland by forming a
party to takeover Western Nigeria in alliance with the Hausa-Fulani oligarch
who Awolowo despised as a backward race. Consequently, Yorubaland went
ablaze in revolt against Akintola’s plot. Law and order completely broke down
in Western Nigeria. Wole Soyinka wore a mask and forced announcers at
Western Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation to declare that Akintola’s
government was a fraud.
5. Yet, Tafawa Balewa refused to declare state of emergency in Western Nigeria

in order to keep Akintola as a proxy for Hausa-Fulani interest. This was the
MAIN reason Yoruba graduates in the Army were the brains behind the coup
led by Chukwuma Nzeogwu who happened to be Igbo.
6. As Wole Soyinka and even Obasanjo acknowledged, Nzeogwu’s coup was

widely accepted by a vast majority of Nigerians across regional, religious and
ethnic divides. But the dissatisfied Hausa-Fulani oligarchy who had majority in
Nigerian Army infantry used their puppets, Yakubu Gowon, Theophilus
Danjuma and others to overthrow General Ironsi.
7. In order to win support of Yorubas, Gowon released Awolowo from prison.

The Hausa-Fulani knew Awolowo’s fear of Igbo as the only group that stood
against his ambition to power. Gowon therefore quickly made a deal with
Awolowo which in effect was that power would rotate between the North and
the West (Hausa-Fulani and Yoruba) in post war Nigeria if Awolowo convinced
Yorubas to join the North in fighting Igbos.
8. The Nigerian Army was consequently split into two divisions: the northern
sector division commanded by Hausa-Fulani and the southern sector division,
commanded by Yorubas.
9. Lagos, a city built largely by Igbos and where Igbos invested heavily, was
also ceded to Yorubas as a State even when there was no Abuja at the time
(1967). Awolowo was made Vice Chairman of Federal Executive Council and
Finance Minister. All federal government owned banks in Nigeria at the time
which included the Central Bank and First Bank, were under Awolowo and
Yoruba management. It was a deal Awolowo could not resist. The man was an
unscrupulous Machiavellian anyway.
10. The Igbos were eventually defeated and Yorubas became champions of
nationalism.
11. Awolowo tried to make sure no Igbo man or woman would ever be more
than financial destitute let alone have the financial resources to rival a Yoruba.
12. To achieve his objective of permanent Yoruba supremacy, Awolowo

insisted that every bank account owned by an Igbo, regardless of how much was
in it before the declaration of Biafra, would only be replaced with twenty
pounds! He instructed Yoruba Permanent Secretaries who took over the Federal
Civil service when Igbos left, to make sure that Igbo senior civil servants were
not reinstated but to rather retire those who could not be dismissed as rebels.
The same policy obtained in the Armed Forces of Nigeria and Police.
13. The Igbo were not only made pariahs but also financial destitutes.
14. Every house and industry in Igbo city was destroyed by war. Schools were
closed for 3 years and many were razed to the ground.
15. Awolowo masterminded the indiginization policy by which Yorubas bought

over all companies in Nigeria using money readily made available to them by
the banks under their control. The Igbos was excluded.
16. They rejoiced and relaxed and complacently asked: “How could Igbos ever
rear their ugly heads up again”? Sure, if that had happened to Yoruba’s or any
other ethnic group, that would be their end. But as Awolowo rightly feared, we
happen to be Ndi Igbo.
17. The shooting war ended 45 years ago and we are still here. We have
survived all policy shenanigans contracted by treacherous Yoruba masterminds
and executed by their Hausa-Fulani allies.
18. In frustration, they have realized that we are who we are. Imagine their
frustration! Never mind all Yoruba masterminded psychological attacks on
Igbos disparaging us in any way they can.
19. Yes, Federal government policy has made them the tycoons of oil and gas,
telecommunications, insurance and manufacturing. Oh, their Hausa-Fulani cum
military allies gave Nigeria to Obasanjo for 8 years in keeping faith with their
alliance.
20. Bola Tinubu is angling for Awolowo mantle by forming an alliance of

ethno- religious jingoistic party to ensure power keeps rotating between Yoruba
and Hausa-Fulani. Where is the position of the Igbo and other tribes in Nigeria?
92
ii. The Yorubas: The Black Sheep of Nigerian Union?
In “A Paper Presented At The “National Conference On The 1999

Constitution”, Jointly Organized By the Network For Justice And The Vision
Trust Foundation, at the Arewa House, Kaduna From 11 th - 12th September,
1999”, the emir of Kano unequivocally supporting a statement credited to
Balarabe Musa, Sanusi had revealed that the Yoruba political leadership over
the years has shown itself to be incapable of rising above narrow tribal interests
and reciprocating goodwill from other sections of the country by treating others
with respect93.
According to critics, practically every crisis in Nigeria since independence has

its roots in this attitude of the Yoruba Bourgeoisie. They cite examples of the
Yoruba elite and their “area-boy” politics!
In his views on the Yoruba political leadership which have been thoroughly
articulated in some of his writings, prime among which was “Afenifere:
Syllabus of Errors” published by This Day (The Sunday Newspaper) on Sept
27, 199894 Emir Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, took the Yoruba leadership to the
cleaners. There was also an earlier publication in the weekly Trust entitled” The
Igbo, the Yoruba and History” (Aug. 21, 1998).
In 1962, according to critics, the Yoruba elite were the first to attempt a violent
overthrow of an elected government in Nigeria. It was the violence in the West
in 1966 which provided an avenue for the putsch of 15th January. In 1983
general elections after Chief Awolowo lost to Shagari in the presidential
election, it was the discontent and bad publicity in the South-West which led to
the Buhari military intervention.
When Buhari jailed the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) governors like Ige and
Onabanjo, the South-Western press castigated that government and provided the
right mood for General Ibrahim Babangida to take over power. As soon as
Babangida cleared UPN governors of charges against them in a politically
motivated retrial, he was regarded as the darling of the South-West. When
General Babangida annulled the primaries in which Adamu Ciroma and Shehu
Yar Adua emerged as presidential candidates in the then National Republic
Convention (NRC) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), he was hailed by
the South-West. But unfortunately, the same South-West suddenly became
defenders of democracy when the same man annulled the June 12, 1993
elections in which Abiola was the front-runner.95
The South-West actually supported General Sani Abacha to take-over

government when it seemed he was sympathetic to Abiola. General Sani
Abacha was in fact invited by a prominent NADECO member to take over in a
published letter shortly before the event. According to Sanusi, though Abiola
had won the elections in the North, yet the North was blamed for its annulment.
When Abdulsalam Abubakar started his transition, the Yoruba political
leadership through NADECO presented a memorandum on a Government of
National Unity that showed complete disrespect for the intelligence and liberties
of other Nigerians, according to critics.96
Subsequently, according to critics, the Yoruba leadership formed a tribal party

which failed to meet minimum requirements for registration, but was registered
all the same to avoid the violence that was bound to follow non-registration,
given the area-boy mentality of South-West politicians. Having rejected an
Obasanjo candidacy and challenged the election as a fraud in court, we now find
a leading member of the Advance Democracy (AD) in the government, a
daughter of an Afenifere leader as Minister of State, and Awolowo´s daughter
as Ambassador, all appointed by a man who “won the election through
fraud”.97
Meanwhile, according to critics, nothing has been negotiated for the children of
Abiola, the focus of Yoruba political activity. In return for these favours, the
critics argue that AD solidly voted for Evan Enwerem as Senate President. Yet,
this man – Evan – participated in the two-million- man March for Abacha´s
self-succession. He also was reputed to have hosted a meeting of governors
during Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida´s transition, demanding that June 12
elections should never be de-annulled and threatening that the East would go to
war if this was done. The Yoruba political elites actively campaigned for his
resignation when Ibrahim Salisu Buhari was accused of swearing to a false
affidavit.
Why did the Yoruba elites not taken the gruntlet to insist the resignation and
punishment when an AD governor, Bola Tinubu, swears to a false affidavit that
he attended an Ivy League University which he did not attend? We only hear
excuses from them.
For so many years, according to critics, the Yoruba have inundated this country
with stories of being marginalised and of a civil service dominated by
northerners through quota system. And, according to Emir Sanusi, the Federal
Character Commission has recently released a report which shows that the
South-West accounts for 27.8% of civil servants in the range GL08 to GL14 and
a full 29.5% of GL 15 and above. One zone out of six zones controls a full 30%
of the civil service leaving the other five zones to share the remaining 70%. We
find the same story in the economy, in academia, in parastatals.98
Yet in spite of being so dominant, the Yoruba complained of marginalization.

Of recent, in recognition of the trauma which hit the South-West after June 12,
the rest of the country forced everyone out of the race to ensure that a South-
Westerner emerged, often against the best advice of political activists.
Instead of leading a path of reconciliation and strong appreciation, the Yoruba

have embarked on short-sighted triumphalism, threatening other “nationalities”
that they (who after all lost the election) will protect Obasanjo (who was forced
on them). No less a person than Bola Ige has made such utterances.99
To further show that they were in charge, they led a cult into the Hausa area of
Sagamu, murdered a Hausa woman and nothing happened. In the violence that
followed, they killed several Hausa residents, with Yoruba leaders like Segun
Osoba, reminding Nigerians of the need to respect the culture of their host
communities. This would have continued were it not for the people of Kano
who showed that they could also create their own Oro who would only be
appeased through the shedding of innocent Yoruba blood.
According to Emir Sanusi Lamido Sanusi:

“I say all this, to support Balarabe Musa´s statement, that the greatest problems to
nation-building in Nigeria are the Yoruba Bourgeoisie. I say this also to underscore
my point that until they change this attitude, no conference can solve the problems of
Nigeria. We cannot move forward if the leadership of one of the largest ethnic groups
continues to operate, not like statesmen, but like common area boy” 100
The Yoruba ethnic nationality have not been known to call for secession or the
break-up of the country until recently in the aftermath of the June 12 crisis and
Abiola's death. But as some political analysts posit, one may not agree entirely
with their description of themselves as peaceful people, but they clearly are a
peace–preferring people, consistent with their well-known nature of seeking
maximum enjoyment from life at minimal personal cost. The Yoruba
instinctively know that more can be gained in peacetime than in war. Being
business people, they have an acute sense of the risks of war and its implication
in terms of destruction of accumulated wealth and property.
“Yet in spite of this, the Yoruba have in their politics displayed two consistent streaks
that have consistently kept them in opposition and cost them opportunities for coming
to power. The first is vanity - a dangerous state of self-delusion borne of imagined
intellectual and academic superiority over opponents and rivals alike. Thus, Yoruba
politicians have consistently underestimated their northern opponents who thrive on
wily intrigues and far-sighted manipulation of the political process. They have also
assumed to their peril that other southern tribes would naturally acquiesce to their
leadership and be lured into a southern alliance whose objective is to help secure
supremacy and power for the south - west. Even the so-called Oduduwa republic
assumes that the people of the former mid-west who had fought for an independent
region in the sixties will willingly resubmit themselves to Yoruba domination. This is
all in addition to the recent utterances of Afenifere calling for excision of the Yoruba
of the north from Fulani domination, a call dismissed by a prominent northern
Yoruba leader, Sunday Awoniyi, for its banality and presumptuousness”.101
This account went further to state:

The second streak is self-centredness. Of all the tribes in Nigeria who sometimes fight
for parochial reasons, the Yoruba are the only group who clearly believe they are
Nigeria. When they have what they want, Nigeria is good. Otherwise it is bad. When
a Yoruba candidate loses an election (like Awolowo did in 1979 and 1983) it is
rigging. When he wins (like Abiola in 1993) it is a landslide victory in a free-and-fair
election. When Buhari overthrew a democratically elected and sworn-in government
headed by Shagari, he was hailed as a reformer who came to fight corruption. When
his tribunals jailed 'progressive' Yoruba governors for theft he became unpopular.
When Babangida dissolved the election of Adamu Chiroma and Shehu Yar Adua as
flag-bearers of NRC and SDP the decision was hailed as patriotic and courageous
even though it led to an extension of military dictatorship. When the same man
annulled Abiola's election it was a travesty of democracy. The list is too long to go
through.” 102
Consequently, the Yoruba have tended to be received or perceived by all other

groups in Nigeria with one sentiment: mistrust. The Igbo people believe to this
day that the Yoruba led them into the war pretending to be with them and
dumped them at the last moment. It would be recalled, according to critics, that
during the Second Republic, a grand alliance of four opposition parties capable
of winning power from the NPN achieved nothing when it became clear that for
the Yoruba the issue was not one of supplanting a conservative government and
installing a progressive one, but of securing the presidency for a Yoruba
candidate - Chief Awolowo. NADECO, whose members had been strident
opponents of Abiola branding him Babangida's boy, suddenly look up June 12
and tribalised the cause.103
Critics argue that subsequent to Abiola's death, the memorandum NADECO

submitted to the Government of Abdulsalam Abubakar was such a comical
exercise in vain hallucination and naïve optimism that one wonders if those that
drafted it were in complete possession of their mental faculties.
In his bid to advise the Yorubas and the Igbos to abandon tribal politics, Sanusi
said:
“The Yoruba have become Nigeria's wailing tribe, detaching themselves from the rest
of the country and alienating the people they hope to rule; abusing other Nigerians
through their vociferous media and hoping for votes from the same Nigerians on
ballot day.
The lesson in all this is that the Igbo, Yoruba and all Nigerians must learn by now
that no one can win a national election on a tribal platform. Those clamoring to join
Ojukwu's Igbo party and those attempting to transform Afenifere/NADECO into a
tribal party are heading for a resounding defeat at the polls.
The presidency can, and perhaps should, move to the south. But it will be to a
southerner who contests on the platform of Nigeria, not of his tribe. A southerner
committed to the system, to the rule of law and to the principle of peace, justice,
equity and freedom, not of avenging real or imagined wrongs; a Southerner like Chief
Abiola who stands the chance of winning.
This is an opportunity to make (or unmake) history. But, sadly, it is being thrown
away once more in what may be the commencement of a new cycle of defeat,
frustration and wailing.104
iii. The Hausa/Fulanis: The Troublers of Nigeria and the

Reason the Union is writhing in Blood, Turmoil and State
Failure?
A Biafran journalist, Chinweizu Ibekwe, wrote: “Special Report on Activities
of Fulani Herdsmen & the Future of Non-Fulani Nigerians”, an open letter to
Nigeria’s non-Fulani nationalities. (Elombah News May 21, 2019)
There has been tension and suspicion that in the second coming of Muhammadu
Buhari, the Biafrans could be likened to the situation of the Jews in Hitler’s
Germany, the Tasmanians, and the Native Americans.
In 2015, the majority of Nigerians demanded a change of government of

President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and many secularist and non-Muslim
Nigerians, hungry for change, helped to put Buhari, a self-declared Jihadist, into
office as the President of Nigeria. But from the benefit of hindsight, was that the
right decision? The unfolding events now revealed that that was like sheep
flocking to seek refuge in a mosque on the eve of the Id al-Fitr. And Buhari and
his Jihadist Cabal have used his first term to lay the groundwork for a massive
sacrifice of the sheep. 105 (Elombah)
The author, Chinweizu Ibekwe wrote that in July 2018, Buhari showed his
death–dealing hand when, through his media spokesman, he warned non-Fulani
Nigerians to: “Give up your ancestral land for ranches or die” 106(Accessed July
2018)
Chinweizu made this contribution as an avenue to encourage resistance to the

secret project exposed in January 2018 by the Fulani Nationality Movement,
FUNAM in its Media Release where it said:
The Fulani Nationality Movement, (FUNAM) after extensive deliberations on

the state of the nation . . . hereby make the following declarations:
“That we have asked all Fulani across West Africa to raise money and arms to
prosecute the oncoming war. We call on all Fulanis to prepare for this Holy War.
There is no going back. All over the world, Nigeria is the only country given to Fulani
by God.
“That the Cattle Colony is the only solution to the crisis. Whether the Federal
Government or State Governments accept or not, we have asked all Fulani herdmen
all over West Africa to move to Nigeria and penetrate every corner for the upcoming
Jihad. We have asked them to be armed since it seems it is the only language Nigeria
understands. . . .” 107
Caution: Now that Buhari has rigged himself into a second term, those non-
Fulani Nigerians who want themselves and their ethnic nationality to survive
Buhari’s second term should pay close attention.
 THE Fulani Project in Nigeria
In 1960, the Fulani project in Nigeria was defined as conquest and domination.
Their political leader, Sir Ahmadu Bello told his people that Nigeria should be
Dan Fodio’s Estate:
“The new nation called Nigeria should be an estate of our great–grandfather,
Uthman Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We use the
minorities of the North as willing tools and the South as a conquered territory and
never allow them to rule over us, and never allow them to have control over their
future.” 108
Prior to that, in 1957, the same Sir Ahmadu had vowed to conquer and to
Islamize the south:
“We the people of the north will continue our stated intention to conquer the south
and to dip the Koran in the Atlantic Ocean after the British leave our shores.” 109
Thus, by 1960, the Fulani project in Nigeria had been defined as having two
components:
1. Fulani Domination; and

2. Islamization-by-conquest (i.e. Jihad).
And since 1960, the Fulani in Nigeria have been implementing the two projects.
Then in 2018, something was publicly added to the Fulani Domination and
Jihad project. It is the Living Space campaign proclaimed by FUNAM and
supported by Buhari. That is to say, the Fulani project in Nigeria now has three
components: Fulani Domination, Jihad and Living Space, which Chinweizu
call FUDOJILS for short.110
For, according to “Special Report to future of non-Fulani Nigerians”, the non-

Fulani nationalities need to look at Nigeria through special lenses that can
recognize, in addition to the Fulani domination that many Nigerians have come
to know as the “born-to-rule mentality”, two usually unacknowledged things:
(1) Jihad; and (2) the Fulani Living Space (Lebensraum) project. Unless they
do, they will be clueless about the mortal danger they are now in, and clueless
about what they now need to do to avert the disaster that Buhari is all set to
inflict on them in his second term.111
Critics have argued that the leaders of Nigeria’s ethnic nationalities (whether
assembled in Afenifere, Ohaneze, PANDEF, MBF or other organizations) are
clamouring for restructuring. But they will not get restructuring while a Fulani
or a Fulani-loyal non-Fulani is President. That’s because restructuring is not in
the Fulani interest. And they will repudiate any restructuring agreement that
would adversely affect their domination, just like they got Gowon to renege on
the 1967 Aburi Agreement. 112
According to political analysts, non-implementation of the confederal structure

agreed at Aburi started the slide towards Biafra’s declaration of independence
and the subsequent civil war to drag Biafra back into Nigeria; or they will
pocket veto (i.e. refuse to implement) it, just like Buhari pocket–vetoed the
report of President Jonathan’s 2014 Confab on how Nigeria can be restructured
to achieve greater success as a nation. 113
“But more important: in clamoring for restructuring, these leaders are like mice
agitating for conditions that will allow them to live in the same cage with a cat that,
by its nature, can’t stop eating mice. These leaders delude themselves in hoping that
some terms and conditions can be found that will oblige the cat to stop eating mice
and live at peace with them. Amazing” 114
It would be recalled that in 2001, Buhari declared his “total commitment to the
Sharia movement” in Nigeria, i.e. that he is a Jihadist, those mumu Nigerians
did not understand and went on to help to make him President in 2015; and in
2019, some of them, especially from the South and Christian, did whatever they
could to help Buhari rig himself into a second term. Had they understood what a
Jihadist is, their instinct for self-preservation would have prevented them from
helping Buhari become President in 2015; and it would have restrained them
from helping him to rig himself into a second term.115
Since 2015, most Nigerians haven’t known what to do about Buhari because
they haven’t figured out and put the correct name to what he has been doing.
When they do, they will know the nature of the war he has been waging on
them, and can then step out of their clouds of confusion and respond
appropriately.
Well-meaning Nigerians, especially the non-Fulani Nigerians should put on

their lenses for seeing both Jihad and the Fulani Living Space project. We invite
them to admit into their framework for understanding Nigeria the concepts and
the evidence for these two phenomena. That way they will begin to understand
the hurricane of bloodshed that Nigeria is heading into, and they can then see
what they must do so as not to be sucked into that vortex of destruction.116
What other simpler or clearer way do we get non-Fulani to see what Jihadists
are about than through two statements: The first was made by the founder of
the Sokoto Sultanate, a.k.a. the Caliphate, Uthman Dan Fodio in 1810 when he
proclaimed that his project was to convert the pagans and wash their land with
blood:
“Allah has bestowed on me and my people the historic duty to spread the holy faith of
the Prophet throughout the Caliphate and convert these pagans. If they refuse to
accept Allah and his Prophet we will wash the earth, the forests, the mountains, the
rivers and the streams with their pagan blood. Ours is a holy and righteous calling.
We are doing the work of Allah”. —Sheik Uthman Dan Fodio, the father of the
Fulani Caliphate and the first Mahdi of Nigeria.117 (Early 19th century)
The second was the declaration made in 1957 by Sir Ahmadu Bello, Dan
Fodio’s direct descendant and Jihadist heir, to conquer and Islamize the south.
That Jihadist project is the religious part of what Buhari has been carrying out in
his first term, and is committed to completing in his second term—namely,
ignoring the secular character of the 1999 Constitution and putting northern
Muslims, and preferably his fellow Jihadists, into every possible office in the
government.
And the second part of what Buhari has been doing is the Fulani Living Space
(Lebensraum) project, otherwise baptized as Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) that
had been going on, unrecognized for years, before FUNAM made it public; and
that the Buhari government supported and abetted by warning non-Fulani
Nigerians, to “Give Up Your Ancestral Land For Ranches Or Die”.
If anyone is in doubt about Buhari’s determination or ability to exterminate the

non-Fulani in Nigeria, he should recall the bloody ethnic cleansing his military
was aiding and abetting in the Middle Belt until General T. Y. Danjuma alerted
the world about it in 2018. Buhari thereafter suspended it for the 2019 election,
so as to get a second term in which to resume and extend the ethnic cleansing
down to Lagos, Forcados, Port Harcourt and Calabar on the coast.
As a non-Fulani Nigerian, do you honestly and sincerely want yourself, your

family, your loved ones and your ethnic group to become victims of Buhari’s
FUDOJILS project? If not, you need to invest enough time and effort to
understand what Nigeria has been put through in the last 20 years.
How to understand today’s Nigeria through 30 major events and related
occurrences since 1999:
Chinweizu said that for the enlightenment of those Nigerians who do not
understand Buhari’s agenda or who say they see no agenda, only incompetence,
we shall examine 30 major events of the last 20 years and decipher the agenda
that is being implemented.118
1] 1999: the fraudulent 1999 Constitution was decreed into effect by Gen.
Abdusalami Abubakar.
2] 1999: Obasanjo, a.k.a. OBJ, was elected and took office as President and he
promptly retired wholesale the Caliphate military officers, thereby depriving the
Fulani of full command of their habitual military instrument for dominating and
ruling Nigeria.
3] 2000: Shari’a was adopted by 12 states in the Arewa (Far North) bastion of
the Caliphate, in violation of the 1999 Constitution.
4] 2001: Buhari declared that he wants Shari’a extended to the whole of

Nigeria. He thereby identified himself as a Jihadist
5] 2005: Mustapha Jokolo, the Emir of Gwandu and the second highest person
in the Caliphate hierarchy, second only to the Sultan of Sokoto, called for Jihad
to restore Caliphate domination and end the alleged marginalization of Muslims
by the OBJ government.
6] 2005: Boko Haram grew strong after it was adopted by unknown powerful
patrons including, allegedly, the then Governor of Borno State, Ali Sherif.
7] 2009: Bala N’Allah, a Fulani member of the House of Representatives, called

for the extermination of Niger Delta militants. He told the House of
Representatives: “We can do away with 20 million militants for the rest 120
million Nigerians to live.”
8] 2009: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the so-called underwear bomber, a

mechanical engineer and son of Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, a wealthy Nigerian
banker and businessman, attempted to blow up a Detroit-bound jetliner on
Christmas Day 2009. His father, who was described by The Times in 2009 as
being “one of the richest men in Africa,” is a former Chairman of First Bank of
Nigeria and a former Nigerian Federal Commissioner for Economic
Development.
During his sentencing in 2012, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, declared: “The

Mujahedeen are proud to kill in the name of God and this is exactly what God
told us to do in the Koran.
“Nigerians should therefore stop believing the lie that Boko Haram, like Al-Qaeda
and other Jihadist terrorists, is a byproduct of poverty and lack of education.
Islamists are not motivated by poverty or lack of education. For example, Osama bin
Laden was a very rich man; and his 9/11 hit squad was made up of well-educated
persons. And Umar Abdulmutallab, the “underwear bomber”, is neither poor nor
uneducated. We need to understand, as Abdulmutallab told the court, that what
breeds Islamist terrorists is their Jihadist religious beliefs.”119
9] 2010: A Caliphate bigwig, Lawal Kaita, threatened to make Nigeria

ungovernable if President Jonathan sought the presidency in 2011.
10] 2011 to 2019: In 2011, Boko Haram issued a quit notice to southerners in
the north, and began enforcing it by bombing churches; The Fulani Militia, in
battalion–size units armed with AK-47s and other sophisticated weapons,
attacked villages in Benue State, and even ambushed Benue Governor Gabriel
Suswam in 2014. From the ambush of the Governor, there were clear
indications that elements in the military were aiding and abetting these Fulani
militias in their attacks on villages in Benue State.
11] 2014: Ismaila Gwarzo, a Fulani who had been Abacha’s National Security
Adviser, declared that “Nigeria is Allah’s gift to the Fulani (…) to rule and to
do with as we please.”120
12] 2015, May 29: Buhari, the self-admitted Jihadist, became President of
Nigeria. He felt strong enough to start ruling Nigeria as an Islamic country. And
his fellow Northern Muslim bigwigs have been conducting themselves as if
Nigeria is a de facto Islamic country instead of a secular democratic republic, as
provided for in its 1999 Constitution. This will be seen in the events listed
below.
13] 2015, July: Buhari declared that he will probe only corrupt officials in the
Jonathan government.
14] 2015, September: Fulani herdsmen abducted Chief Olu Falae from his farm
and released him for a ransom. Chief Falae is a prominent Yoruba leader; he
was a 1999 presidential election candidate, and a former Secretary to the
Government of the Federation.
15] 2015, December: Global Terrorism Index named Nigerian Fulani militants
as the fourth deadliest terror group in world, after Al-Shabab, ISIS and Boko
Haram.
16] 2015 to 2019: Buhari, in his appointments, has been brazenly flouting the
Federal Character provision of the Constitution, and has overwhelmingly
appointed Northern Muslims.
17] 2017, August: The Emir of Katsina abducted an underage Christian girl,
forcibly converted her to Islam and married her.
18] 2017, September: Buhari’s Defense Minister, Abdulrahman Dambazzau,

boasted about the Fulani record of political murder with impunity:
“If we can imprison Awolowo, killed Ken Saro Wiwa, murdered Abiola and
his wife without Nigeria breaking apart, we are moving to kill Nnamdi Kanu
and nothing will happen”.121
19] 2017, September: Buhari’s military, in its Operation Python Dance, killed
non-violent Biafra self-determination demonstrators near Aba, Abia State, SE
Nigeria; but, at the UN General Assembly in that same month, Buhari declared
his support for Muslim self-determination campaigners in Western Sahara.
20] 2017, September and October: Buhari withdrew Nigeria from 90 non-
Islamic international organizations but kept it in Islamic organizations like the
Organization of the Islamic Conference and the D8 (a grouping of Islamic less-
developed countries formed by Turkey).
21] 2017, October: Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, a member of

Buhari’s Jihadist Cabal, began a process of changing Chiefdoms into Emirates.
22] 2017, October: The World Bank President revealed that Buhari asked the
World Bank to focus its development projects only in northern Nigeria.
23] 2015, May to 2019, March: Buhari’s security agencies, almost all headed by
Fulani officers, have been unable to seal (or is it uninterested in sealing?)
Nigeria’s borders to stop foreign Fulani herdsmen from coming into the
country.
24] 2018, January: In a media release, the Fulani Nationality Movement,
FUNAM, declared that Nigeria is Allah’s gift to the Fulani, echoing what
Gwarzo had said in 2014.
25] 2015-2018: Under Buhari’s watch, Fulani militias and Boko Haram
intensified their attacks on Christian communities, their mass murder of
Christians, and the murder of priests, especially in the Middle Belt. In March
2018, Gen T. Y. Danjuma, a former Chief of Army Staff and former Defense
Minister, revealed that Buhari’s security forces have been aiding and abetting
the Fulani ethnic cleansing militia in the Middle Belt, thus adding his prominent
voice to many other such reports.
26] 2018, May: The president of Miyetti Allah, the Fulani Cattle Breeders’
Association, insisted on Cattle Colonies and Grazing Reserves and rejected
ranching. Their ulterior land–grab motive was explained by Col. Madaki and
Gen. Lekwot.
27] 2018 May: Trailer loads of Fulani infiltrate forests in Cross River; and
helicopters supply Fulani base camps in Delta State. Infiltrations have also been
reported from other states in southern Nigeria.
28] 2018 July: Buhari’s government, through its media spokesman, warned non-
Fulani Nigerians to “Give up your ancestral lands or die!”
29] 2015-2019: Buhari continued to pack the Judiciary, from the Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court down to all levels, with Northern Muslims.
30] February and March 2019: Free and fair elections, Buhari Jihadist style,
were held and Buhari was, predictably, declared winner by his Fulani-led
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
What these 30 events show is that, since the year 2000, Nigerians have been
under a relentless and continuous Jihadist assault; yet, most Nigerians do not
speak about that fact and possibly are unaware of it. They have been suffering a
Jihad for the last 20 years without realizing it. How is that possible? How is
such systematic ignorance possible?
It is possible because of the paradigm or framework with which people view

their world. If that framework is defective, it doesn’t enable them to recognize
certain things. It’s like how we can’t see bacteria with our normal eyes until we
look through a microscope. In the same way, in color blindness, a Green-blind
person is unable to see the green part of the spectrum and hence can’t see a
green object that’s in front of him.
There is a political/conceptual equivalent of color blindness. Some of those who

still see no agenda may have simply failed to recognize what they are seeing for
what it is. It may be a matter of non-recognition: for example, if they lack the
concept of “forest” they cannot recognize numerous trees as being a forest.
Therefore, it is necessary to name and describe the particulars of Buhari’s

FUDOJILS project, and point out their collective significance, so nobody can
pretend the agenda and its consequences were never pointed out to them.
Let’s see how a defective conceptual framework has operated to blindfold and
confuse Nigerians.
 Paradigm, Perceptions and Explanations
The creeping Islamization of Nigeria: 1960-2019
In 1960 as Nigeria was granted independence in 1960, its visible and official
ruler was a Muslim: Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the Prime Minister.
He was the political lieutenant of Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna
(warlord) of Sokoto. The Sardauna, being Sir Abubakar’s boss, was the real
political supremo of Nigeria. This simple fact of reaching independence under
Muslim leaders has had serious consequences for Nigeria’s history.
According to Chinweizu Ibekwe in “Special Report on Activities of Fulani

Herdsmen & the Future of Non-Fulani Nigerians”, it is an Islamic doctrine a
country is Islamic if its ruler is a Muslim, even if he is the lone Muslim in his
whole country. And as a Muslim ruler, he is obligated to spread Islam, starting
in his own country. Accordingly, since 1960, the Jihadist Muslims in the Sokoto
Sultanate, a.k.a. the Caliphate, have relentlessly tried to Islamize Nigeria
through what they call “advancing Shari’a”.
But Chinweizu noted that the non-Muslim secular democrats, in Southern

Nigeria especially, took no notice of the Islamizing project of their Fulani
Caliphate compatriots. They didn’t even notice the significance of the green on
Nigeria’s flag. They didn’t notice that, in Muslim eyes, the green-white-green
flag proclaimed that Nigeria was already a Muslim country.
In contrast, the Fulani-led Jihadists in Nigeria, who had been on Jihad since the
early 1800s, carried on steadfastly with their project of “advancing Shari’a,”
expecting, someday, to advance Shari’a to a point where they would be in a
position strong enough to complete the Islamization of Nigeria.
The clueless Westernizing and Christian Nigerians put up no informed and

organized resistance to the creeping Islamization of Nigeria by these Fulani
Caliphate Jihadists. Even when, in 2000, the Caliphate Jihadists made Shari’a
the de facto Constitution in 12 of Nigeria’s 36 states, the Westernizing
Christians and secularists did nothing to resist that rebellion against the official
secular democratic identity and Constitution of Nigeria. (This similar action
once was attempted in Turkey but never succeeded in 1997)!
They were still clueless about the creeping Islamization of Nigeria when they
helped install a Jihadist Buhari as the President of Nigeria in 2015. When he
thus became the political leader of these Jihadists, Buhari was determined to
conclude the creeping Islamization of Nigeria. He and his Jihadist cabal
believed their position was at last strong enough for them to drop the disguises
of the preceding 55 years and boldly rule Nigeria as a de facto Islamic country.
And that is what Buhari has been doing since 2015, to the consternation of the
still clueless and confused secular democrats, who mistake Buhari’s Jihadist
actions as simply incompetent or dictatorial.
Most of Nigeria’s modernizing secular democrats are completely unaware of

this fundamental Islamization aspect of Nigeria’s history, and therefore don’t
understand what Buhari is about, and how to save themselves from it.
A Tale of Two Paradigms
According to “Open Letter To Nigeria’s Non-Fulani Nationalities”, the NSLM

Manifesto Basic Message Project 2019 stated that perceptions of Nigeria and its
politics have been guided by two radically different paradigms: 122
(a) The Modern Secular Economistic (MSE) paradigm; and
(b) The Ethno-religious Paradigm.
(a) The Modern Secular Economistic (MSE) Paradigm

This paradigm manifests in different ways: a preoccupation, or exclusive
concern with resource control; with taking the feeding bottle away from the
Caliphate parasites; with the distribution of oil, VAT and other incomes; with
“better life,”: namely, the eradication of poverty, diseases, illiteracy (in
English), reduction of infant mortality; with building more schools, hospitals,
roads, railways, dams, and such indicators as are used in the UN Human
Development Index (HDI). The MSE world outlook refuses to recognize or give
due weight to the serious ethnic and religious lines that divide Nigerians.
According to that MSE world outlook, all Nigerians, just like Americans, are
secular and detribalized INDIVIDUALS practicing democracy and engaged in
upwardly mobile striving for prosperity. Nigeria’s problems are supposedly
rooted in poverty and tribalism, and can be solved only by reducing the numbers
of the poor and by everybody becoming detribalized and learning to live
together harmoniously through growing up together, attending unity schools,
and finishing up with the Youth Corps experience of living in some part of the
country other than their places of origin.123
However, these things of the material world are of scant concern to Jihadists
and the rank and file Almajiri cannon fodder who adhere to:
(b) The Ethno-religious Paradigm
From top to bottom, from royalty to the poorest rank and file, the Jihadists see
the world in terms of religion and ethnicity. They are preoccupied with the
prospect of dying when on Jihad and going from there straight to a Muslim
heaven where they will be in the arms and beds of black-eyed, beautiful virgins.
But the heart of Nigeria’s problem is that the adherents of the MSE paradigm
assume that everybody already shares or will soon be brought around to share
their paradigm, mindset, desires and ambitions. They refuse to see, let alone
understand, that the Jihadists are not like themselves.
Even if they understand themselves, they don’t understand the Jihadists. In

contrast, the Jihadist leaders are well educated in the secularist system of the
West, as well as in the Muslim system of which the secularists know next to
nothing. Is it any wonder that, “in a hundred battles” the secularists have been
“defeated a hundred times” by the Jihadist leaders who understand both
themselves and their MSE adversaries?
And that has been the record in Nigeria’s history since Dan Fodio’s Jihad in
1804. The Fulani Jihadists have kept defeating their ignorant but arrogant MSE
foes. The people who are avid for Boko (Western education) have not tried to
understand the mentality of those for whom Boko is Haram or taboo.
If you don’t understand what a Jihadist is, and how he sees the world, and what
he wants in the world, and you are told that Buhari, in 2001, called himself a
Jihadist, you are likely to dismiss the statement as old and irrelevant to what is
happening in 2015 or 2019. That’s like dismissing a lion’s roar that you heard
last year as telling you nothing about the lion’s hunger for human flesh today.
Most Nigerians, especially the Christian and Westernized elites in the south, do
not see a religious, let alone Jihadist, factor in what is happening in Nigeria.
They see each of these events but don’t see a Jihad. They see each of these 30
events in isolation, never together as a set. They don’t see them as the trees that
make up the Jihad forest. That’s because they adhere to the MSE paradigm for
explaining politics; aparadigm that lacks the Jihad concept. Let’s see how well
this MSE paradigm can explain the 30 items listed above.124
THE Explanatory Power of the MSE Paradigm
How well does the MSE paradigm, with its identification of poverty as root
cause, explain these 30 events? How well, for instance, does poverty explain the
attacks on Christian churches and communities and the killing of priests by
Boko Haram and the Fulani Militia or, Boko Haram’s abduction of the Chibok
girls and their forcible marriage of the Christians among their captives; or the
Emir of Katsina’s abduction and marriage of an underage Christian girl? How
does poverty explain Kaduna State Governor El-Rufai’s conversion of
chiefdoms into emirates? Or Buhari’s brazen flouting of the secular democracy
Constitution he swore to uphold? Or Buhari’s biased anti-corruption campaign;
or his skewing of security, judiciary and other appointments overwhelmingly in
favor of Northern Muslims? 125
Poverty may explain the herdsmen attack on Chief Olu Falae’s farm and other
cases of abduction for ransom. However, that the perpetrators were Fulani, or
were on an ethnic Fulani agenda, was initially unacknowledged, in line with the
“detribalized Nigerians” dogma. And the religious aspect was also not
acknowledged because Nigeria was supposed to have already become, or to be
developing into, a secular country where persons of different religions live
tolerantly and happily as neighbors.126
Because they are in denial regarding these powerful ethnic and religious factors
that actually dominate daily life in Nigeria, the secularists see the religious and
ethnic mayhem in the Middle Belt and the Northeast as “senseless”, “irrational”,
etc. Some have even blamed these massive killings on a “bunch of psychopaths
and anachronistic feudal mentality.”127 In other words, their MSE framework
obscures for them the nature and purpose of the killings they read and complain
about.
But let’s ask a few elementary questions: Is poverty causing Boko Haram to
burn churches and kill Christians?
Is poverty the reason the Fulani militia kill villagers and take over their villages
in the areas they operate in?
Is it poverty that is bringing trailer-loads of Fulani to hide in forests near

villages in Cross River State, and in Delta State where they receive supplies
from helicopters? Other places in the South East keep receiving trailer loads of
the Fulani janjaweeds masquerading as “almajirai” hiding in all the nooks and
crannies of our bushes and forests.128
How does poverty explain Buhari’s Jihadist actions and policies listed above?
Of course, the burden of showing that the MSE paradigm can explain all these
30 developments, let alone in a better way than the Ethno-religious Paradigm, is
entirely on those who use it to explain Nigeria’s history. I have merely indicated
a few of the cases where the difficulties of explaining things seem insuperable.
In contrast, does the Ethno-religious Paradigm explain most of the listed events?
Yes, it does, as we shall see below. That’s because it acknowledges the
powerful ethnic and religious aspects of life in Nigeria, and allows us to
recognize the Fulani Domination, Jihad and Living Space (FUDOJILS)
phenomena.
THE Explanatory Power of the Ethno-Religious Paradigm
To show that the FUDOJILS project explains all of these major 30 events, it is
necessary to link each to some FUDOJILS project or concept.
How Fulani Domination and Jihad explain some of these 30 events and how the
Fulani Living Space project explains the rest.129
#1: The imposition of the 1999 Constitution by military decree was to covertly
entrench Fulani domination through the devices and frauds in that document.
#2: OBJ’s mass retirement of Caliphate military officers, was done to prevent
the Fulani from overthrowing his elected regime.
#3: The adoption of Shari’a by 12 states in the Arewa (Far north) bastion of the
Caliphate, in violation of the 1999 Constitution, was to further “advance
Shari’a”; promote the Jihadist agenda; and protect the Domination agenda.
#4: Buhari’s coming out of his Jihadist closet was to position himself as the
champion of Jihad.
#5: Mustapha Jokolo’s call for Jihad in 2005 was in the interest of both Jihad
(Islamization by war) and Caliphate Fulani domination.
#6: The sponsored growth of Boko Haram was to promote Jihad as well as
restore a Fulani domination that had been undermined by OBJ.
#7: Bala N’Allah’s call for the extermination of 20 million Niger Delta militants
was aimed to secure Fulani Domination from challenge by its Niger Delta
victims.
#8: The “underwear bomber’s” attempt was in the service of Jihad.
#9: Lawal Kaita’s threat to make Nigeria ungovernable for President Jonathan
was in the service of restoring Fulani domination.
#10: Boko Haram’s quit notice to Southerners in the North, and the Fulani
militia attacks on villages in Benue were some early manifestations of the
Fulani Living Space project. These attacks, by some accounts, began as far back
as 2009.
#11: Ismaila Gwarzo’s declaration that “Nigeria is Allah’s gift to the Fulani (…)
to rule and to do with as we please.” was in furtherance of Fulani domination.
#12: Buhari’s becoming President of Nigeria placed him in a position to carry

on the domination and Jihadist agenda of the Fulani.
#13: Buhari’s discriminatory anti-corruption policy is protective of Fulani

officials and Fulani domination; it also applies the Jihadist principle that non–
Muslims are not the equal of Muslims in an Islamic state.
#14: The abduction of Chief Olu Falae from his farm for a ransom looks like a
crime motivated by poverty. But was it? It should be noted that Chief Falae’s
farm has been attacked several times, but ransom was demanded only the first
time. So, what motivated the attacks that followed the first? Could it also have
motivated the first attack? Was the demand for ransom designed to mislead?
I think these attacks have a different purpose than economic. They were
designed to intimidate the Yoruba and keep them subservient to the Fulani. I
base this explanation on a device for Fulani minority rule that Ibrahim Tahir, in
a boastful moment, revealed to Chuba Okadigbo when they both were
colleagues in the NPN leadership under President Shagari in the early 1980s.
The story goes like this: Okadigbo asked Tahir how come a lone Fulani
herdsman could control a herd of hundreds of cows each of whom could
trample him underfoot. Tahir explained it thus: The cattle leading the herd are
liable to wander off in any direction and scatter the column of cattle. To prevent
that from happening, the lone herdsman hastens forward and hits one of the
straying cattle very hard with his stick until it returns to its place in the line.130
The others watch this happen and, not wanting to be beaten like that, learn their
lesson and stay in line. And Tahir concluded by saying that that’s how his
Fulani people keep their subject peoples under control. When any of the leaders
of the subject peoples starts getting out of line, his Fulani masters publicly and
severely punish him for all to see. His people, from fear of getting the same
treatment, avoid following him. I think that’s what was being done to the
Yoruba through one of their most prominent sons, Chief Falae.
A similar thing was done in 1993 to General Lekwot by framing and sentencing
him to death when his Zango Kataf people became restive after the Fulani used
their cattle colony to take over rulership of Zango Kataf. On this explanation,
the attacks on Falae and his farm were not for the ransom demanded when he
was kidnapped in the first attack, but to publicly and repeatedly hit him so hard
that the Yoruba would stay subservient to the Fulani. That is to say, despite
appearances, this was also a case that served Fulani domination.131
#15: Putting the Fulani militia on the terrorism list immediately following ISIS,
al-Shabab and Boko Haram can be understood as inviting Nigerians to see them
in the same light as those other Jihadist forces; and as encouraging them to stop
accepting the disinformation that the attacks by these militias were like the
traditional farmer-herder clashes.
After all, traditional herders did not carry AK47s and other sophisticated
weapons or attack in battalion–size units. It therefore served to expose the
Fulani Living Space project that had been hidden by the systematic
disinformation about farmer-herder conflict.
#16: Buhari’s practice of overwhelmingly appointing Northern Muslims to

Judicial, military and other offices not only brazenly flouts the Federal
Character provision of the Constitution; it also, like #13, applies the Jihadist
doctrine that non-Muslims are not the equal of Muslims in an Islamic state but
second–class citizens.
Basically, Buhari’s general disregard for the secular democratic Constitution he

swore to uphold is in line with the Jihadist doctrines that “Secularism
completely contradicts religious ideology”. And “Democracy should be
prohibited” because, among many other things, it “is the rule of the people [and]
not the rule of Allah the Exalted”; “the legislator obeyed under democracy is
mankind, not God”; it “is based on the idea of freedom of religion and creed. 132
“Under democracy, a person has the right to believe whatever he pleases, to adopt
the faith of his choice, and to revert to any religion whenever he wishes to do so, even
if this apostasy leads to the abandonment of the religion of God almighty, to atheism .
..
“Beyond doubt, this is a matter that is in contradiction of many Sharia texts. A
Muslim who reverts from his religion to disbelief shall be sentenced to death under
Islam, as is set forth in the Hadith narrated by Bukhari and others: ‘He who
exchanges his religion, Kill him.’”; Democracy “abolishes the authority of the Sharia
over society and opposes it in form and in content”; and in all these ways “it stands
in opposition to the religion of Allah.”133
#17: In abducting an underage Christian girl, and forcibly marrying her, the
Emir of Katsina was upholding the Jihadist doctrine that “Jihad is waged to hurt
the Infidels” . . . “taking them captive and enslaving them injures their honor
and morale.”134
#18: Buhari’s Defense Minister’s boast about the Fulani record of political
murder with impunity serves to intimidate the victims of Fulani domination. It
says, to them: look what we can do to you, and with impunity.
#19: Buhari’s militarily crushing unarmed Biafra self-determination

demonstrators in SE Nigeria while he declared his support for Muslim self-
determination in Western Sahara was an application internationally of the
Jihadist doctrine of the inequality of Muslim and non-Muslim. It also was an
application of the Jihadist doctrine that “Allah made annihilating the infidels
one of his steadfast decrees when Allah said ‘Obliterate the infidels’.135 [Quran
3:141]
#20: Buhari’s withdrawal of Nigeria from 90 non-Islamic international

organizations while keeping it in Islamic organizations like the OIC and the D8
confirmed and reinforced Nigeria’s official linkage with the Islamic world. It
also further emphasized the Islamic identity that was imposed quietly on
Nigeria at its independence in 1960 and advertised by its green-white-green
flag.
#21: Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s move to change Chiefdoms into
Emirates would extend Fulani domination over populations that had never been
part of the Fulani emirate system.
#22: Buhari’s asking the World Bank to focus its development projects only in
northern Nigeria was another act of Jihadist discrimination against the non-
Muslims in the other parts of Nigeria and serves the interest of the northern
bastion of Fulani domination.
#23-28 each serves the Fulani Living Space project that #24 made public. In
particular, #23, not sealing off Nigeria’s borders, allows the inflow of armed
Fulani herdsmen and militia into Nigeria; and
#25, the aiding and abetting of the Fulani ethnic cleansing militia in the Middle
Belt by Buhari’s security forces, facilitates the project; and,
#26: Miyetti Allah’s insistence on Cattle Colonies and Grazing Reserves and its
rejection of ranching, together facilitate Fulani expropriation of the lands of
non-Fulani peoples. Cattle Colonies, as Col. Madaki and Gen. Lekwotexplain,
are a device Fulanis have traditionally used to gain a toehold in the territories of
their intended victims; Grazing Reserves will obviously help them penetrate
other people’s territory and set up cattle colonies; and,
#27, the infiltration of Fulani into forests in Cross River, Delta, and other states
in southern Nigeria implements the FUNAM directive to Fulani herdsmen from
all over West Africa to “penetrate every corner [of Nigeria] for the upcoming
Jihad”, and,
#28, the Buhari government’s warning to non-Fulani Nigerians to “Give up
your ancestral lands or die!” aims to discourage resistance to the Fulani ethnic
cleansing land grabbers.
We should note that the attacks on Christian communities and churches; the
killing of priests and the mass murder of Christians all serve the Jihadist project
of destroying Christianity and other religions that Jihadists consider repugnant
to Islam. Basing themselves on the Quran, Jihadists claim that “Allah made
annihilating the infidels one of his steadfast decrees” . . . ‘for the unbelievers are
unto you open enemies’ [Quran 4: 101].
In Africa specifically, the destruction of Christianity and other non-Islamic

religions was prescribed as a project by the 1989 Islam in Africa Conference
that was held in Abuja. [THE ABUJA DECLARATION–The Islamic Initiative
to Takeover Africa]136
#29: Buhari continued packing of the judiciary, at all levels, including the Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court, with Northern Muslims, is just another Jihadist
device for Islamizing the Nigerian state apparatus.
#30: The 2019 free and fair election, Buhari Jihadist style, and INEC’s false
declaration of Buhari as winner will facilitate every aspect of FUDOJILS during
Buhari’s second term.
It should now be abundantly clear that the FUDOJILS project explains all of
these major 30 events that have occurred in Nigeria since 1999. It does so by
linking each to some FUDOJILS project or concept.137
WHY IT IS VITAL TO RECOGNIZE THAT THESE EVENTS ARE

ELEMENTS OF A JIHAD
When you finally see that Jihad is being waged on you, you learn something
vital about the fighting methods of your enemy. You are then able to see
through his usual tricks and stratagems and then can evade or counter them. For
instance, when he plays Takkiya on you, you are not fooled you do not fall for
what he says under oath, least of all for what he swears on the Koran, because
you now know that Takkiya enjoins him to deceive the infidel, even by
swearing falsely on the Koran.
You also know that, like Muhammed’s example with the treaty of Hudaybiya,
he will not honor any agreement he signs with non-Muslims. You realize that
any talk or claim of integrity in a Jihadist enemy is just a pretense. You now
know and you don’t allow yourself to be confused by the pretense.
Knowing these usual tricks and techniques of Jihadists, we can then organize to
fight appropriately. If you recognize that your opponent in the boxing ring is a
southpaw, you change your boxing stance and style to accommodate and take
advantage of that fact.
We have seen how well one paradigm explains these events and how inept the
other is at the task
But it is even more important to ask:
WHAT Solutions Does Each Paradigm Suggests?
In healthy and normal animals, a perceived threat triggers the fight-or-flight

response. We therefore expect that when the normal among Nigeria’s
modernizing secular democrats accept that they are under attack from Buhari’s
forces, they will decide which it is to be for them: fight or flight.
By the MSE paradigm, you should presumably do everything needed to

terminate what it identifies as the root source of the threat: the poverty of the
ethnic cleansers and their Fulani constituency. You should abolish the poverty
of the Fulani even by giving up your ancestral lands.That means you should
sacrifice your welfare, your wealth, and even your life to abolish or alleviate the
poverty of the land–greedy Fulani militias.138
Since you will be killed immediately if you don’t give up your land, and will die
of starvation and homelessness, perhaps more slowly, if you give up your land
and become a refugee that means that the MSE paradigm requires you,
whatever choice you make, to sacrifice your life for the Fulani. What self-
respecting person would do that? Not even a slave of the Fulani would do that.
Did your God create you to be used as human sacrifice to the Fulani armed land
robbers?139
In contrast, the Ethno-religious Paradigm suggests that you terminate

FUDOJILS, the source of the threat, by fighting; or that you flee from it. Now,
in March 2019, are non-Jihadist non-Fulani Nigerians organized for a fight? Do
they understand Jihadists and how to defeat them?
Do they have the trained forces, weapons and disciplined organization that can
fight Buhari and his assemblage of armed forces for genocide: Boko Haram,
Fulani Militia, Fulani Herdsmen, all aided and abetted by the Fulani-led
Nigerian military? If not, what do they do? Plunge into a hopeless resistance?
Get into a fight without more ammunition than the other guy?
It should be obvious that armed ethnic militants (the OPC of the Yoruba,
MASSOB/ IPOB of the Igbo, the Avengers and other militants of the Niger
Delta) are together no match for Buhari’s collection of armed forces. Given the
mighty disparity between the armed strengths of the two sides, the secularists
can’t hope to win militarily.
As they can’t win by fighting, they must endeavor to win without fighting. And
in this case, winning without fighting means flight into the protection of the
United Nations. And for that, serious and expert diplomacy is needed to get UN
membership for their new countries. This is exactly what Nnamdi Kanu is doing
and we must support him!
Flight and escape from your Fulani exterminators requires that you remove the
territory and population of your ethnic group from the jurisdiction and physical
control of Buhari’s Nigerian state. And this should be done preferably before
2023, before his genocide project gathers unstoppable momentum. And that is
something practical that could be done if you have the will to find the way to do
it.
Instead of sheepishly, lazily and dishonorably accepting and waiting passively

for the Fulani to use you for human sacrifice, isn’t it an obvious necessity to
find a way to escape the genociders and get into the safe refuge of the UN as
soon as possible?140-141
(Chinweizu Ibekwe, “Special Report on Activities of Fulani Herdsmen & the

Future of Non-Fulani Nigerians”, ElombahNews Last updated May 21, 2019)
3. Cries of the Children of a “Lesser God”?
Nigeria is a pluralistic society made up of three (3) major ethnic groups:

Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo, in addition to others comprising about 250
other groups.
Each of the three major ethnic groups dominated one of the three regions that
existed before independence and they had many other groups with them in the
same region.
Ethnic pluralism led to the development of minority nationalism in Nigeria

leading to the demand for autonomy. The Borno Youth Movement demanded a
separate union, the non-Igbo in the East demanded for the autonomy of the
North through the Middle Belt state.
In the West, the non-Yoruba speaking people of Asaba, Warri, and Benin
demanded for a separate mid-Western region.
To allay the fears of the minorities, the Sir Henry Willink Commission was set
up in 1957 to look into the grievances of minority groups and their agitations for
separate states and recommendations.142
A minority group, by its original definition, refers to a group of people whose

practices – race, religion, ethnicity, or other characteristics – are lesser in
numbers than the main groups of those classifications. However in present-day
sociology, a minority group refers to a category of people who experience
relative disadvantage as compared to members of a dominant social group.
Minority group membership is typically based on differences in observable
characteristics or practices, such as: ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation,
or disability. Utilizing the framework of intersectionality, it is important to
recognize that an individual may simultaneously hold membership in multiple
minority groups. Likewise, individuals may also be part of a minority group in
regard to some characteristics, but part of a dominant group in regard to
others.143
(a) The Middle Belt Region
One of the most visible minorities is the Middle Belt states in Nigeria. Middle
Belt is a human geographical term used to designate a belt region stretching
longitudinally across the center of Nigeria and thereby forming a transition zone
in between the South and North locations in Nigeria. It is characterised by clear
absence of Majority ethnic groups and a location of Nigeria’s Federal Capital
Territory (FCT) in Abuja. The eminence of the ethnic minorities that made up
the Middle Belt is manifold, and to some extent, brings barrier of having an
ethnolinguistic status in Nigeria and thereby drawing a separation between the
North which mainly practice Islam and the South which practice Christianity
mainly.144
Defining Middle Belt areas are subjected to powerful debate because of the
presence of a significant number of ethnic groups in Nigeria such as the Hausa,
Fulani and Kanuri groups. Moreover, the Yorubas in Kwara and Kogi states
possess a strong bond with Majority of the Yoruba body and preferred often not
to be identified with Middle Belt states. The total population of the people
residing the Middle Belt states is estimated to be over thirty-five million
(35,000,000) or more of which majority are Christians and some few number of
them are converted to Muslims. It comprises a significant number of Hausa and
Fulani who are in approximation of 20% of the total population. Christians in
the Middle Belt are about 70-75% of the total population, while the Muslim of
the Middle Belt takes the remaining 25-30% of the total population.145
What is the list of Middle Belt states in Nigeria? The rightful answer to this
question has been subjected to contention by a series of groups for many years.
Nigeria is divided into six different geopolitical zones which include the North
West region, North East region, South East region, South West region, and the
Middle Belt which are loosely termed the North Central. These zones were not
entirely established based on the geopolitical locations they were established
based on their similarities in culture as well as shared history and ethnicity. But
the Nigeria’s Middle Belt region which is widely termed as the North Central of
which there is a mixture of both minor and major ethnic presence and co-
existing together.146
The Middle Belt region is mapped at the very center of Nigeria and stretches
longitudinally from one of the map’s end to the other, for instance, from West to
East. Although the North Central is also the Middle Belt, some groups from the
Middle Belt or North Central region have laid claims to the fact that they are not
northern states nor part of Northern Nigeria. Following the Nigeria’s map, the
states which fall under the Middle Belt zone are: Abuja (Federal Capital
Territory), Kwara, Kogi, Benue, Taraba, Nasarawa, Plateau, Niger, Adamawa.
Others included Kaduna, Kebbi, Bauchi, Yobe, Gombe and Borno states.147
But following the geopolitical divisions of Nigeria, the Middle Belt states are
just seven in number which includes the following: Benue, Abuja, Kwara, Kogi,
Nasarawa, Plateau, and Niger states.
However, many people believe that the Middle Belt zone of Nigeria is
indeterminate because it does not possess an official or designated border.
In conclusion, when asked to list the Middle Belt states in Nigeria, it is

advisable to follow the list of seven (7) states above which is in consonance
with the division of geopolitical zones in Nigeria. However, on real terms and
when we tried to avoid being “politically correct”, we would follow up and list
out the states that fall under the Middle Belt zone on the map.148
 Violence in Nigeria’s Middle Belt: A Recapitulation
Evidences show that in northern Nigeria, targeted violence against Christians

comes not only from the Islamic militants of Boko Haram. As World Watch
Monitor Nigeria has rightly stated, clashes with militants among the
predominantly Muslim Fulani herdsmen have claimed thousands of Christian
lives in Nigeria’s Middle Belt – the handful of states straddling the pre-colonial
line dividing Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north from its Christian south. 149
(September 11, 2017 By World Watch Monitor Nigeria)
In the last 12 months in 2016, more than 50 villages have been attacked and
hundreds of families were severely affected. The World Watch Monitor Nigeria
in its September 11, 2017 publication identified five germane and fundamental
issues about violence in Nigeria’s Middle Belt.150
1. The Fulani are predominantly Muslim cattle herders
Thirty-eight million people belong to the larger Fulani cluster of ethnic groups
found in pockets across 19 Central and West African countries. They speak a
variety of languages, including Hausa, English, French and Arabic, and form
the world’s largest nomadic group roaming this large area in search of grazing
for their cattle. Although there are varying degrees of dedication throughout
Fulani society, 99% follow Islam.
2. They are in conflict with farmers in northern Nigeria’s strategic Middle Belt
The Middle Belt is part of Muslim-dominated northern Nigeria. Unlike the

Hausa Muslim-dominated far northern states, the Middle Belt hosts a diversity
of peoples and cultures. It is a melting pot of ethno-religious groups that have
long co-existed. It is also the centre of the Christian presence in the north. Many
regard this area as the breadbasket of northern Nigeria. As the Fulani herders
increasingly migrate southward, they have come into conflict with the mostly
Christian grain farmers over resources.
Nigeria's 'Middle Belt' is made up of a handful of states straddling the pre-

colonial line dividing Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north from its Christian
south.
3. Socio-economic factors drive conflict, but also religious undertone
Increasing desertification drives the Fulani gradually southward, intensifying

pressure on already scarce resources. Herders have migrated here looking for
pasture and water, in a virtually unchecked way, from neighbouring West
African countries (especially Niger) which suffer drought. A report from global
charity and religious watchdog Open Doors points out that “along with the
herdsmen, there has been mass migration towards the south, putting pressure on
access to land, jobs and government funds”.151
Although socio-economic factors have sparked conflict in the region, clashes

also seem to have taken on a religious dimension. The Nigeria Conflict Security
Analysis Network, in its research, argues that this is not just an advanced form
of jostling over territory. Rather, it says, it is part of a political strategy that is
inspired by the Islamic doctrine of Dar al–Islam, which translates as “the house
of Islam” and describes the obligation to bring the non-Islamic under the rule of
Islam.
It is an ideology that pitches the migrant Hausa-Fulani herdsmen from the north
against the indigenous Christian population of the Middle Belt region. The
migrants, the authors say, are determined not only to keep their own traditions
and culture, but also to make them dominant: the battlegrounds are religious,
political, economic and social.
The stories coming out of the region tell a consistent tale of harassment,
discrimination and outright persecution. In Taraba State, for example, Hausa-
Fulani attacks on Christian communities have caused mass internal
displacement. Thousands of indigenous farmers have scrambled to the state
capital of Jalingo for safety.
Research in three states showed that 88 per cent of victims in Benue State were
Christians, 70 per cent in Taraba State, and 75 per cent in Nasarawa State,
where “Christians are being driven out of their ancestral homes, and those who
refused and stayed were indiscriminately targeted. The vacated lands are being
grabbed by those responsible for the displacement”.152
The history of the Fulani people knows of waves of radicalisation combining

the conquering of land with expansion of religion. They played a role in the
jihad of Usman dan Fodio (1804-1815), who conquered parts of the Middle Belt
and incorporated them into the Sokoto caliphate that lasted until 1903.
In recent decades, the Fulani have again grown increasingly radical due to the
influx of radical Islamic preaching by missionaries from Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Attacks can be seen as a continuation of jihad, seeking an Islamic state
throughout Nigeria.
The Catholic Bishops of Kaduna, an area that suffered many attacks in recent
years, recently said, “The Fulani want to subjugate Christians, disintegrate the
country, weaken the Gospel and destroy the social and economic life of the
people. There is a hidden agenda targeted at the Christian majority of southern
Kaduna. This jihad is well-funded, well-planned and executed by agents of
destabilisation”.153
4. Attacks have been brutal and are ongoing
The US Department of Defence’s Africa Centre for Strategic Studies estimated

that, by January this year, more than 60,000 people had died since 2001 in
pastoralist-related violence in Nigeria alone. Thousands more have been injured
in the attacks and hundreds of women have been kidnapped. Fulanis have
destroyed countless homes and churches and seized large swathes of land and
property.154
Open Doors’ research further shows that violence increased in the run-up to the
2015 presidential elections and persisted since Muhammadu Buhari, himself a
Fulani, became president. It estimates that the group killed as many as 6,500
people in Kaduna, Plateau, Nasarawa, Benue and Taraba states between 2013
and 2015 alone. The Local Government Areas of Jama’a, Kachia, Kagarko,
Kaura and Sanga in southern Kaduna have been the worst hit. World Watch
Monitor’s sources indicate that more than 50 villages have been attacked in the
last 12 months alone.155
5. Government criticised for ‘inaction’

The National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) expressed in March 2016 its
dismay at “the inaction of the Federal Government to the carnage and
destruction caused by the Fulani herdsmen against legitimate native land owners
and farmers across the country… For years, the Fulani herdsmen have been
murdering innocent Nigerians with impunity… The response of the government
to the menace of the Fulani herdsmen has to date been tepid and indifferent”.156
“The crisis here has persisted because of the way and manner the Federal and
State governments, as well as the Security Agents, are handling it,” said Bishop
Joseph Bagobiri of Kafanchan, southern Kaduna, in March this year. “Many of
us are disappointed to see that our political leaders are taking sides and known
to be supporting, directly or indirectly, the Fulani themselves and that is why
they are fast losing the support and trust of the people.”157
According to the Catholic Bishops of Kaduna, “The government has shown

outright partisanship in favour of the herdsmen, to the disappointment of the
majority of southern Kaduna indigenes and Christians… In most of these
attacks, the military stands aloof and watches while our people are being
massacred… In the Godogodo and Pasakori attacks, for example, the military
merely watched and supervised the burning of our homes. When the youth
mobilised to repel the attackers, the soldiers deliberately blocked them from
entering the town.”158
“The intervention of the Nigerian government has been slow and haphazard. No
attempt has been made to address key issues. No herdsmen were held
accountable for the atrocities already committed; there was no discussion of
prosecution for perpetrators, nor of compensation, nor provision of security for
victims. Many communities were left displaced and fearful, without any
security,”159 writes Yonas Dembele in a 2016 report for the World Watch
Research unit of Open Doors.
He continues, “The administration of President Buhari has been very slow to

recognise the severity of the problem and come up with a plan to address it.
While [he] made it a priority for the Nigerian armed forces to defeat Boko
Haram in northern Nigeria and demanded that this be accomplished in a
relatively short period of time, he has paid little attention in comparison to the
situation in the Middle Belt.160
“A government cannot solve a problem that it has not recognised and is not paying
attention to. The neglect of the situation has meant that the attacks by the Fulani
militia are becoming more deadly and sophisticated… There seems to be little
intelligence and information gathered by the government to understand the source of
the problem and how it has evolved and if there is more to the conflict than meets the
eye. More importantly, the persistent failure of the government to secure its borders,
to control the flow of weapons, and its failure to provide protection to the
communities that are being systematically wiped out, is a colossal failure that is
having very tragic consequences. There also seems to be a lack of urgency in the
government’s response to the situation.”161
In my book, “Nigeria: An Experiment in Nation Building”, I have

painstakingly enumerated the demands made on Nigeria by the Joint Action
Committee on the Middle Belt (JACOMB) through the Oputa Panel. I do not
wish to repeat same here. In addition to what I have written already in the said
book, I wish to conclude the concerns and demands of the Middle Belt zone: 162
b. The state of insecurity in Nigeria and its several national

institutions is a sign that Nigeria is a failed state;
b. Buhari government has zero will to maintain public order and
demand the implementation of the 2014 National Conference
recommendations could tackle several problems facing Nigeria;
c. Restructure and remove the structural imbalances that occasion the
terrible injustices against the peoples of the Middle Belt;
d. The ammendments of the Constitution should work towards
providing special rights for minorities in our laws.
(b) South – South Minorities
The South South geopolitical zone is made up of six states. These six states are
known as the Niger Delta states. One of the things these states have in common
is that they have the keys to the Nigeria economy - oil. These states are the
major oil producing states in Nigeria. These six states are: ● Akwa Ibom ●
Bayelsa ● Cross River ● Delta ● Edo ● Rivers
Nigeria’s Niger Delta region is not only home to the greater part of Africa’s
largest mangrove forest, but also the source of Nigeria’s oil wealth. Here, in this
amazing network of creeks, and an aquatic splendour comprising marine,
brackish and freshwater ecosystems, lay the operational bases of a kaleidoscope
of ethnic militia and insurgent organizations dedicated to the socio-economic
emancipation of the Niger Delta peoples. These have culminated in the Niger
Delta Crisis. Thus, the area has become a hot bed of violence, insurgency,
kidnapping, hostage-taking, oil pipeline sabotage, crude oil theft, gang wars,
internecine struggles and so much else by way of anarchy and chaos.
The armed struggle, internecine conflict and insurgency in the Niger Delta, all
of which have been subsumed under the general term – Niger Delta crisis, may
be seen in three basic dimensions. As has been mentioned earlier the Niger
Delta region is a pot-pouri of ethnic nationalities. These ethnic groups, while
subscribing to a general interest in the development of the Niger Delta,
nevertheless manifest inclinations towards more specific primordial interests.163
 Conflict in the Niger-Delta
The current conflict in the Niger Delta first arose in the early 1990s over
tensions between foreign oil corporations and a number of the Niger Delta's
minority ethnic groups who feel they are being exploited, particularly the Ogoni
and the Ijaw. In 1999 the country returned to a democratic dispensation under
Obasanjo presidency but yet, ethnic and political unrest which enveloped the
entire 1990s continued unabated.164 Ethnic militia groups in the region were
drawn into conflicts between themselves and the involvements and activities of
the Nigeria Police (notably the Police Mobile Force) and the Nigeria military
led to the militarization of nearly the entire region. Consequently, the insecurity
created by these actors is a major contributor to Nigeria’s ongoing energy
supply crisis because foreign investment in the new power generation plants in
the region is discouraged.
Between 2004 and 2009, the oil industry was hit by the gale of piracy and
kidnappings. But luckily in 2009, a presidential amnesty program accompanied
with support and training of ex-militants proved to be a success. Within this
period, it was understandable for crime victims not to want to seek justice due
to failure of the government to be enthusiastic enough to prosecute those
responsible for human rights abuses. All these changed from 2011 upwards.
5. The Price of Conquest
(a) The Nature of Prejudice:
The Nigerian nation must realise that Igbos have more than paid for their
“foolishness”. They have been defeated in war, rendered paupers by monetary
policy fiat, their properties declared abandoned and confiscated, kept out of
strategic public sector appointments and deprived of public services. The rest of
the country forced them to remain in Nigeria and has continued to deny them
equity.
The Northern Bourgeoisie and the Yoruba Bourgeoisie have conspired to keep
the Igbo out of the scheme of things. In the recent transition when the Igbo
solidly supported the PDP in the hope of an Ekwueme presidency, the North
and South-West treated this as a Biafra agenda. Every rule set for the primaries,
every gentleman´s agreement was set aside to ensure that Obasanjo, not
Ekwueme emerged as the candidate. Things went as far as getting the Federal
Government to hurriedly gazette a pardon. Now, with this government, the
marginalistion of the Igbo is more complete than ever before. The Igbos have
taken all these quietly because, they reason, they brought it upon themselves.
But the nation is sitting on a time-bomb.
After the First World War, the victors treated Germany with the same contempt
Nigeria is treating Igbos. Two decades later, there was a Second World War, far
costlier than the first. Germany was again defeated, but this time, they won a
more honourable peace. Our present political leaders have no sense of History.
There is a new Igbo man, who was not born in 1966 and neither knows nor
cares about Nzeogwu and Ojukwu. There are Igbo men on the street who were
never Biafrans. They were born Nigerians, are Nigerians, but suffer because of
actions of earlier generations. They will soon decide that it is better to fight their
own war, and may be find an honourable peace, than to remain in this
contemptible state in perpetuity. We better watch it!
The Northern Bourgeoisie and the Yoruba Bourgeoisie have exacted their
pound of flesh from the Igbos. For one Sardauna, one Tafawa Balewa, one
Akintola and one Okotie-Eboh, hundreds of thousands of Biafrans (Igbos
mainly) have died and suffered!
If this issue is not addressed immediately, no conference will solve Nigeria´s

problems.
The nature of prejudice in Nigeria today is embarrassingly silly. The eastern

region of Nigeria is the worst hit. Buhari built a powerful and magnificent
“seaport” (land port) in Niger state of northern Nigeria, a state that has neither
sea nor river. Who does importation in Niger State? The Igbos whose
businesses have to do with importation has no seaport. The recent closure of
Nigeria’s borders is seen by many as a calculated attempt to economically
emasculate the Igbos whose businesses mainly have to do with importations,
right or wrong!
The existing Calabar and Port Harcourt seaports in the eastern part of Nigeria
are made redundant and manipulatively inefficient so that the Igbos and other
easterners will be made to use Apapa and Tinkan Island ports thereby enriching
the Lagos state at the expense of the Igbos and the eastern states. Why is River
Niger not dredged to allow Igbo businesses some comfort? Why do successive
Nigerian governments ignore to fix the Calabar and Port Harcourt ports to ease
congestions of Lagos ports, the Igbos are wont to ask?
Oguta Lake in eastern part of Nigeria in Imo state is only about 18 nautical
miles to the Atlantic Ocean. No other body of water in the south and in the
eastern region has that kind of proximity. Yet, the federal government allegedly
refused to give Igbos a seaport. Instead, Buhari was alleged to have plans to
dredge the water from River Niger, extending it to Niger State in the north to
create artificial “seaport” in a “desert” so that when the Igbo traders whose
merchandise arrives Lagos, the goods would be taken to Niger State “seaport”
for clearance. The Igbo traders, upon clearance of their merchandise, would
then transport it down to their various destinations in Biafraland.
In addition, the north already has a “dry port” in Kaduna State in northern
Nigeria. Already, most Igbo traders clear their goods from Kaduna dry port,
travel hundreds and thousands of miles to get to their stations. Some of them die
on the highways as a result of road mishaps. The north has at least two major
international airports – the Nnamdi Azikiwe International airport Abuja and
Aminu Kano International airport in Kano. While the West has Murtala
Muhammed International airport, in Lagos, the east central part of Nigeria has
only one airport which the Jonathan administration managed to upgrade to
international status.
Presently, the federal government of Nigeria has downgraded the Enugu airport
to local because the airport is lacking in facilities. But why can’t the federal
government fix the Enugu airport to international standard instead of
downgrading it knowing that it is the only international airport the Igbos has?
The airports in Calabar and Port Harcourt are made to operate not in full
capacity so that the Igbos and other easterners would be compelled to use
Murtala Muhammed International airport in Lagos.
The highest Islamic school in West Africa – Sheikh Ibrahim Nwagui’s
Foundation (School of Arabic and Islamic Studies) – was established in Afikpo
in Ebonyi State in the eastern part of Nigeria’s Biafra-land. One wonders why
such a school was built in Afikpo when Islam is less than 1% in Igboland
(Biafra). Many believe it is one of the agenda of islamization of Biafraland. The
rail line projects in Nigeria under Buhari regime carefully avoided and excluded
the Igbo area (as against the original plan that included it) from the rest of the
country. Why?
The $22.7 billion loans secured by the Buhari-led federal government on the
behalf of Nigeria and Nigerians conspicuously discriminated against the Igbo
race. None of the Igbo-speaking states received a dime. The statistics are as
follow: 165
(b) Discrimination Against the Igbos in Loan

Distribution
Nigeria’s $22.7b Loan: Projects/Services by Political Zones

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------
Zones Projects and Amount Alotted
1) South West: $ 200,000,000.00 (Power transmission project in

Lagos and Ogun)
2) South South: $4,270,000,000.00 (East-west road ($800m; Niger

Delta) Railway modernisation coastal railway project (Calabar-Port Harcourt-
Onne deep sea port segment ($3.47bn; Cross River and Rivers states)
3) South East: $ 0000000000
4) North West: $6,372,000,000.00 (Kano - Lagos railway

modernisation project (Kano - Ibadan segment double track) ($5.53bn; Kano -
Ibadan states); Vocational training in power sector ($50m; FCT, Lagos, Ogun.
Kano, Plateau, Niger, Enugu, Kaduna and Cross River); Kaduna state economic
transformation program for results ($35m, Kaduna); National Information and
Communication Technology Infrastructural Backbone Project (NICTIB) phase
II ($328.1m; Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan, Akure, Maiduguri, Lokoja, Kaduna,
Akwanga, Bauchi, Kano, Katsina); Health System Project ($110m, Katsina);
Rural water supply and sanitation ($150m; north-east, and Plateau);
Development of the mining industry ($150m, nationwide)
5) North East: $ 300,000,000.00 (Multi-sectoral crises recovery

programme ($200m, north-east); North-east Nigeria integrated social protection,
basic health, education, nutrition services and livelihood restoration project
($100m; north-east); Lake Chad Basin Commission ($13m, multinational)
6) North Central: $ 6,531,000,000.00 (Staple crops processing zone

support project ($100m, Kogi); Greater Abuja water supply project ($381m;
FCT); Abuja mass rail transit project (phase 2) ($1.25bn; FCT); Mambila
hydro-electric power project ($4.8bn; Taraba); Integrated programme for
development and adaption to climate change in the Niger Basin ($6m; Nigeria
and Niger Republic)
General: $5,853,900,000.00
Recently, the information released by the federal government on the Federal

Government Relief Transfer done zone by zone clearly show that the Igbos
which occupy what is geo-politically known as the South East in Nigeria was
absolutely discriminated. The sharing according to zoning structure used is as
follows:
ZONES CASH RECEIVED
6. North West NGN112.7 billion

7. North Central NGN 88.1 billion
8. North East NGN 44.4 billion
9. South West NGN 39.1 billion
10. South – South NGN 10.4 billion
11. South East NGN 3.3 billion
President Muhammadu Buhari with his government has signalled its intention to
build railways from Kano to Niger Republic with borrowed Chinese money.
The sum of about $1.96 billion contracts has already been approved of the
proposed project. The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria
(HURIWA), a human rights group described the planned project of
$1,959,744,723.71 contract as a misplaced priority and a grave threat to national
security, insisting that it is fraudulent to borrow from China and build railway
for Niger Republic and then tax Nigerians to pay back. The railways will
connect at least seven cities in Nigeria and one city in Niger Republic and is
expected to start from Kano and pass through Dambatta, Kazaure, Daura,
Mashi, Katsina, Jibia and terminate in Maradi, Niger Republic. The Igbos have
querried that their geopolitical zone does not have federal government presence
and that in the proposed railway projects in the country, the South-East was
carefully avoided, not captioned in the project, among many other denials they
are facing in Nigeria. And now, they and other Nigerians are asking: “… we
condemn this venture as wasteful because of the danger of being used to import
weapons that will set Nigeria ablaze. Whereas there are no such rail lines
linking Lagos to Enugu and Port Harcourt or Maiduguri to Enugu, President
Buhari is investing almost $2bn to build railways for terrorists and bandits to
flood into Nigeria and destabilize the country. Is this government just for the
North? 166 Belatedly, it was gathered that Buhari government had also approved
a railway-highway into Cameroon that will terminate within 300 kilometres of
Yaounde, the capital city. He should be praised for that!
But Nigerians are worried that the 11 out of the 12 stations on the route which
are in Nigeria with the terminal point at the border town of Maradi covering 622
kilometres from Niamey, the capital of Niger, when completed will be express
entry for killer herdsmen and terrorists from Niger. Critics see it also as a plot to
flood Nigeria with illegal aliens for purposes primarily to stage a jihad against
the Igbos and the South of Nigeria, including the Middle Belt and also of
undermining the 2023 polls, right or wrong!
The questions that arise from such governmental decision and recklessness are
germane and fundamental: What is the economic benefit of this project to
Nigeria? Is the Nigerian economy, as it is today, in a state to contain this kind of
wasteful spending? Illegal immigration in Nigeria is a serious problem as
Nigeria’s borders, especially those in the north, have become quite porous;
people from Niger are considered the biggest group of illegal immigrants, and
the problems with illegal influx migrants are seen in the dangers faced by the
host or receiving country, which are social, economic, political and security.
How does the Buhari government intend to contend with the crisis of
identification and an increase in the crime rates, mostly occasioned by the rapid
influx of illegal immigrants? It is also alleged that among the illegal migrants,
there are militants, who enter the nation to carry out terrorist activities. In what
practical ways does the Buhari government intend to interrogate the security
situation in the country to contain crimes if it opens her porous borders to
facilitate or create easy and accessible means of illegal arms trafficking and
migrants? By her actions and behaviour, the Buhari government has made
herself a grave security suspect and ennobler, not victim, of terrorism!
However, in another development, the representatives of the eastern people both

in states and federal levels of governments are not helping matters. It would be
recalled that the House of Representatives’ Committee Chairman on Aviation,
Hon. Nnolim Nnaji, made a critical report of the collapse of the Akanu Ibiam
International airport, Enugu: “By my investigation, a standard runway should
have a lifespan of 30 years. So if that runway could collapse under six years,
some people have to give us explanations.”167 The Akanu Ibiam International
Airport terminals were started in 2012 when Stella Oduah was the minister of
Aviation. During this time, airports in Port Harcourt, Abuja, and Kaduna started
same time with Enugu. Today, only the Enugu airport is in a sorry state –
abandoned and dilapidating. And under the Goodluck Jonathan administration,
the contract was given to an Irish firm in Nigeria, PW Nigeria Limited. This
company messed up the airport job leaving behind a shoddy job. Osita Chidoka,
from Obosi in Anambra State was said to be the minister of aviation when the
PW Limited did a shoddy job. This would have been an opportunity the Igbos
would have utilized to put in place the only international airport in Igboland to
an international standard. They squandered it.
A time was when all the six Ministers in Jonathan’s kitchen Cabinet were all
Igbos. An Igbo man in the person of Anyim Pius Anyim was the Secretary of
the Federation while Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a first-class world renowned
economist, was in charge of Finance, doubling as the coordinating minister for
the nation’s economy. She also is Igbo. Emeka Wogu was in Labour and
Productivity, Berth Nnaji was in Power and Energy. These Igbo sons and
daughters were so powerful during Jonathan administration that they could
influence and largely decide government actions, dictating what would be
discussed at the larger Federal Executive Council meetings. Nigeria then was
literaly in their pockets.
Instead of them to care about the poverty ravaging the Igbo land, the dearth of
infrastructural facilities making the Igbo nation one of the world’s worst
infrastructures, creating a conducive environment for businesses to thrive, etc.,
most of them were busy diverting Billions of Naira into their accounts at home
and abroad.
They left undone the Second Niger Bridge and shared the money allegedly.
They nonchalantly neglected to ensure that the Lagos-Calabar rail lines passing
through nine states – three of them in the South East were executed as they
refused to pay the Chinese the Counter part fund. They allegedly shared the
money.
Enugu/Onitsha, Aba/Port Harcourt and other roads of economic importance to

their fellow Igbos were left abandoned. The Igbos had their chance for six years
during Jonathan administration. They bungled it.
Other Igbo sons and daughters who occupied juicy positions under Jonathan
included Dieziani Madueke the powerful Minister for Oil. Okiro and Onovo had
the Police under their control while General Ihejirika and later Minimah
controlled the Army.
Others included Senator Ike Ekweremadu – former Deputy Senate President for
almost six years, Emeka Ihedioha – former Deputy Speaker, House of
Representatives for five years, Senator Stella Odua, former Minister of Aviation
for four years and later Osita Chidoka.
Since the present democratic dispensation in 1999, we have witnessed Igbo sons
and daughters occupied enviable positions in governance and yet could not do
any reasonable thing for their geo-political zone. It might interest you to also
know the following:
 Evan Enwerem – Igbo – Senate President

 Chuba Okadigbo – Igbo – Senate President
 Adolphus Wabara – Igbo – Senate President
 Anyim Pius Anyim – Igbo – Senate President
 Ken Nnamani – Igbo – Senater President
 Chinedu Nebo – Igbo – Minister of Power
 Berth Nnaji – Igbo – Minister of Power
Who really is marginalising who when all these sons and daughters of Ndigbo
had all the chance in the world to get their kinsmen their fair share of the
National Cake? Or was the cake not shared? Did they not get the slice of their
geo-political region? Of course, they did! But where did it go? Your guess is as
good as mine, “ndewo nu”. And yet, some people are clamouring for a Nigeria
President from Igbo extraction as if the Igbo president, if elected will “kill
lion!”. Most of the politicians in Igbo land are bunch of “efulefus” and
“otulectuals” and “sophisticated morons”!
The point I’m trying to make is that some Igbo politicians are criminally-
minded Caliphate-compliant, only interested after their own belle. Most of them
are criminals on whose foreheads bear the mark of Cain, who suck the breast of
corruption and engage in other banalities, who are hyenas controlling the sheep.
c. Why Igbos Are Angry With Nigeria – An Opinion
In his interview with BBC Hard Talk published by Republican News, Obasanjo
painstakingly lay to bare why Igbos are very angry with the Nigeria nation even
to the point that the current generation of Igbos are contemplating bearing arms
against the union. It is not hidden that fact that a lot of Igbos, mainly the
younger generation, follow Nnamdi Kanu of IPOB with his secessionist
message. Even those who appear not to follow him due to his perceived
detestable antics and rhetorics appear very sympathetic to his underlying
message – that the Igbos don’t feel wanted in Nigeria, hence, they marginalized,
discriminated against, and ultimately excluded from the scheme of things. In the
said interview, Obasanjo reveals:
“My friends who are not from the East of Nigeria where Igbos come from often ask
me why there is so much anger in the East and among Igbos. Some wonder why,
despite the famed Igbo” wealth’ and enterprise all over Nigeria, the people still
complain that Nigeria is unfair to them. Some insinuate that the anger comes from the
loss of the 2015 election by Jonathan who the Igbos heavily backed…”168
However, one of the conspiracy theories, indeed the latest feeds on the
assumption or suspicion that Jonathan’s loss of power to Buhari in 2015 may
have fuelled the current campaign for Biafra agitators for secession. Obasanjo
thinks differently. So, why is the Igbos mad at Buhari? According to Obasanjo:
“First, for those who think this is all about Jonathan and Buhari. It is not. Igbos were
disappointed that Jonathan did not win. But those whose candidates lose elections
lick their wounds. It is allowed. It happens when your candidate loses election. Why
did the Igbos invest so much emotion in Jonathan, a non-Igbo from Ijaw? It was more
because of the fear of their experience in the past 50 years. Nigeria has placed an
embargo on any Igbo man becoming Nigerian president and Igbos understands this.
Jonathan was the next best thing. Other parts of Nigeria have supported their sons to
the presidency. Some have bombed Nigeria into submission to get their sons to Aso
Rock. Igbos have little capacity to blackmail Nigeria to the presidency. They chose
Jonathan as their “Igbo”. But that’s not to say that they are angry enough because he
lost to contemplate going to war on his behalf. Jonathan was not really the model of a
President the Igbo would go to war for. And even his Ijaw people have accepted his
loss.
So? Igbo anger has been building up in Nigeria since the 70s. As kids, people made
choices in other parts of Nigeria school years based on the narrative of the Igbo
place in Nigeria. They knew about the glass ceiling against Igbos.”169
Obasanjo went further to explain that after the civil war, despite the “No
winner, no vanquished” program of Gowon’s Federal Government, Nigeria
placed glass ceilings and no-go areas for Igbos. The war reconstruction program
was rather observed more in the breach. There was this issue of “abandoned”
property, an apartheid program that was introduced to drive a wedge between
components of the former South-East Nigeria. Though not officially gazetted by
any administration in Nigeria, it was a tacit unwritten agreement by successive
Nigeria leadership for anyone who cared to look. Why do you think that an
average Igbo police officer stays in one position while less qualifies juniors
progressed to become his bosses? Why do you think that no Igbo ever qualify to
become the Inspector General of Police, or lead any division in the armed
forces? Why do you think that when "sensitive" or "lucrative" positions were
shared in Nigeria, Igbos is conspicuously absent? 170
Why do you think that Igbos were only fit enough to be made Minister of
Information until Obasanjo administration came to power? And even recently,
why do you think that when Buhari appointed 47 people to man the critical roles
in his government, no one from the South east was there? Why do you think that
any time there is a federal appointment in Nigeria, it is usually the east that is
left to shout? The evidences of marginalization and exclusion of the Igbos was
there from Buhari first term as a Military Junta to his second coming and any
other time in-between.171And so, when the Igbo elite cried out against
marginalization of Ndigbo, other Nigerians countered by saying no part of
Nigeria was getting enough; claiming that Marginalization was (and is)
universal. But guess what! The Igbo cry of marginalization was an official
policy – it was expected, it was programmed. And so occasionally, certain key
government officials drum it that Igbos should not complain – after all, they
fought a war with Nigeria. Let nobody be deceived by Gowon’s political
gibberish of “No Victor, No Vanquished” verdict. There was truly a “Victor”
and a “Vanquished”. And the Igbos were reminded of that at every turn – at
very appointment, at every national project, the Igbos was propagated with the
glass ceiling in mind to contain them.172
(d) Marginalization through Designation of Toll-Gates in Nigeria:
Designated points to install toll gates in Nigeria.173
 Southeast 56 toll gates
 South south 21 toll gates
 Southwest 22 toll gates
 North central 14 toll gates
 Northeast 9 toll gates
 Northwest 12 toll gates
(e) The Complicity of Southern Political Elites
You must understand something – all Southern politicians are driven by untold
degree of selfishness. While in office, they are all aspiring for the next office.
The strategy to get on the ladder is to sacrifice their people, their towns and
villages and their region. They do everything possible to please the Hausa
Fulani Northerners in order to be favoured. We can go back a little to pull out
some examples.174
(1) *Gov. Peter Odili wanted to run for presidency he squandered River State
money on Northern Emirs and Northern Opinion leaders. At the end, he failed.
(2) *Gen Obasanjo held up all development programs in the South and
promoted infrastructure development in the North in order to get the 3rd term
agenda through*. At the end, he failed.
(3) *James Ibori wanted to be a Vice President to President Yar’dua, in place of

Jonathan*. Delta State Liaison office in Abuja, became an ATM for all the
Northern PDP members. At the end, not only did he fail, he was sent to prison.
(4) *Jonathan Goodluck postponed South South development to his anticipated

second tenure* and put in all resources to the rehabilitation of the Almajiris,
Emirs Palace from Sokoto to Maiduguri. Built Abuja- Kaduna Rail line when
Lagos Ibadan Express Way was impassable, East West Road was a mere
historical concept; built and completed Federal Universities in Katsina, Jigawa
etc but did foundation ground breaking for the Federal University in Bayelsa. At
the end, he was sent out of the Villa by the Northern INEC Chairman he
appointed.
(5) *Under Jonathan, the then Minister for Aviation, Stella Odua, funded in
full*, the rehabilitation & upgrading of the Kano, Sokoto, Katsina Airports but
Port Harcourt Airport operated from a Tarpaulin, Enugu completely short down.
At the end, AMCON took over all her assets and currently facing EFCC.
(6) *Our brother Ibe Kachukwu was the Chairman of NNPC BOT & Petroleum
Minister* at the same time. He promoted the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano Gas
Pipeline. He rehabilitated the Petroleum institute in Kaduna when the Petroleum
Institute in Warri was not captured in the budget. He was humiliated out of
office.
(7) *Obono-Obla was appointed the Chairman of Government Asset Recovery

Committee*. His target was only all past office holders from the South South
and South East. At the end he was framed and arrested.
(8) *The immediate past MD of NDDC and Akwa Ibom State APC
Governorship candidate, Nsima Ekere gave out emergency jobs (contracts) only
to Southern Contractors fronting for Northerners*. NDDC became an ATM for
“the Villa Boys”. Where is he now?
(9) *Rotimi Amaechi is lobbying to be the next Vice President, in 2023*. His
first action is to sell the South and became a saboteur. No wonder why as a
Transport Minister he found it very necessary to build the Lagos-Ibadan- Abuja-
Kaduna-Kano-Katsina Rail line, Calabar – Maiduguri Rail line, Transport
University in Katsina. The Great Eastern Railway line From Port Harcourt via
Aba, Onitsha to Enugu to Okene in his books, is not feasible.
The minister is completing the biggest rail and road line into Niger Republic
and towards the border of Niger Republic and other countries while the roads in
the south are impassable. What Niger Republic has benefited in this
Administration is bigger that all that south south and south east combined. Who
are the MDs of Nigerian Ports Authority and NIMASA?
(10) *The current Petroleum Minister, Chief Timipre Sylva, has initiated the
construction of the Ajaokuta-Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Gas Pipe line* to facilitate
the building of a Gas Power Station in Abuja and Kaduna and “to turn Kano
into an Industrial Head Quarters”. The man is from Bayelsa State where there is
over 90% unemployment and no electricity light from National Grid.
11)” *Ahmed Tinubu, for his desire to rule Nigeria practically sold the south*
and with his bullion vans rigged Buhari to power.I think History is telling of
him like others?
12) *The number of appointments of people from Niger Republic in Buhari
Administration is bigger than all south combined* and all the National
Assembly members are aware but keep quiet because of future ambition and to
avoid probe.
(f) Nigerian Government and Igbo Businesses:
The Biafrans, mainly the Igbo extraction, have accused the Federal Government
of Nigeria of bias and discrimination against certain businesses belonging to the
Igbos. A few examples will suffice.
a.) Ibeto Group of Companies:
When the former Nigerian president – Chief Olusegun Obasanjo – during his
administration encouraged local production of cement, Chief Cletus
Mmadubugwu Ibeto from Nnewi, Anambra State of Nigeria promised to flood
Nigeria market with cement and drastically reduce the price of this product. He,
however, fulfilled his promise in no distance time by flooding the market with
cement which invariably forced its price to crash. Aliyu Dangote, a Fulani from
the Northern part of Nigeria, another well-accomplished businessman, wrote a
petition to Obasanjo challenging the authority of the Federal Government to
grant Ibeto Group license to import 800,000 metric tons of cement. Obasanjo
government later issued a directive that Ibeto Group was not allowed to import
cement but to engage in local production. At this time, Ibeto’s consignment was
stucked in the ship not allowed to offload. However, Dangote Group was
granted import license to import cement. Thousands of staff of Ibeto Group of
Companies was rendered jobless.
In July 2007 when Yar’ Adua succeeded Obasanjo, Ibeto applied afresh for
import allocation for cement and his request was granted. Again, he flooded the
market with quality cement and the prices crashed. Dangote Group filed a
petition at a Federal High Court alleging that Ibeto Company is being given
undue advantage. But those who are in the know claimed that Dangote was only
strategizing to become the only cock that crows in the cement industry by
positioning himself as the only monopoly of the product. Ibeto later filed a
counter-suit. Following judgement on the case, Ibeto was allowed to continue to
import 1.5 metric tons of cement per annum from 1st October 2007 to
September 2019. This was said to be in line with the Federal Government
guarantee on Ministry of Trade and Industry dated 5th of June 2002.
By that judgement, the Federal Government was to pay Ibeto Group the sum of
$40 million (N1.9 billion) then. This amount was said to be a verifiable claim
from a Committee set up by the Federal Government on the matter for
unjustified closure of Ibeto production site between December 2005 and 2007
when it resumed operation. But Dangote Group challenged this ruling claiming
that its rights and interests were affected. Dangote further argues that the
continuation of production of cement by Ibeto Group only made Dangote’s
cement expensive. After thorough investigation, the Federal Court concluded
that the Dangote Group has no locus standi to act in behalf of the Federal
Government and has no statutory mandate of administering, managing, or
enforcing tax compliance therefore lacks the capacity to comment or maintain
the legal action or release in the case. It further reveals that the suit filed by
Ibeto Group was not fraudulent. It argued that Dangote’s Group is not a
nominee of the Federal Government acting on her behalf therefore ague that
Dangote Group lacks the statutory mandate of administering, managing or
enforcing tax compliance and therefore lack the legal status to comment or
maintain legal action and seek the release of the case.
Ibeto later signed a contract with Chinese Company, SINOMATIC-TEC to the

tune of $368m to produce 6,000 metric tons of cement in Enugu, Anambra State
of Nigeria. The contract covers areas like crushing limestone mining, cement
raw materials to packaging, overhaul processes, 2.5 megawatts power planting,
engineering designs, equipment, steels, material supply, civil wax, installation,
commissioning, and personals. Ibeto is said to be operating in similar capacity
in Port Harcourt which produces 6,000 tons of cement. Dangote was said to be
afraid of possible dominion of Ibeto in cement production and used his
connections to oust Ibeto. 175
Since Cletus Madubugwu Ibeto, regarded widely as Nigeria’s Corporate Caesar,

won the battle for the re-opening of his cement terminals in Port Harcourt
closed down by draconian and intemperate President Olusegun Obasanjo
administration, Ibeto Group has truly joined the league of cement kings,
especially with the acquisition of Eastern Bulkcem Company Limited and
Nigeria’s Cement Company (Nigercem) Nkalagu.
The irony of Ibeto’s battle with Obasanjo’s regime was that it was Obasanjo
who banned the importation of bagged cement and in a bid to create jobs in
Nigeria, asked the stakeholders to build bagging terminals as well as invest in
Greenfield production – total manufacturing of cement from limestones.
Inexplicably, just four months after Obasanjo commissioned the N12 billion
bagging terminals with patronage booming, the same Obasanjo closed it. The
Igbos cried foul! It took the coming of Yar’ Adua administration to re-open
Ibeto’s factory and by so doing, his financial floodgate!
When Buhari came into power, Ibeto applied for foreign exchange (forex) hard
currency from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to enable him run his
business effectively. He was denied. Dangote applied and was granted. No
reasonable explanation was given for this preferential treatment. Dangote Group
has been enjoying all manner of waivers from the Federal Government.
Following the subsequent closedown of Ibeto cement factory, the prices of

cement has gone up from N1500 to N2500. Dangote achieved his lifelong
dream to become the only cock that crows in the cement industry. Ibeto has
been arrested by the security agencies several times – harassed, humiliated, and
intimidated. Yet, there is no known law in Nigeria Law Book that Ibeto has
reneged. Ndigbo is asking: “What is Ibeto’s crime?”176
b) Emzor Pharmaceutical Company
Emzor Pharmaceutical Industries Limited is a wholly private indigenous

pharmaceutical manufacturing group founded in 1984 by Dr. Stella C. Okoli,
OON. The company is into the manufacture of high quality pharmaceutical
products and medical consumables. Its holding company, Emzor Chemists
Limited opened for retail business in January 1977 in Yaba, Lagos.
The rapid growth of the retail business encouraged Emzor Chemists Limited to
venture into the importation and wholesale of assorted pharmaceuticals. The
idea to manufacture locally came later and this was predicated on the need to
develop local capability, create jobs and provide high quality pharmaceutical
products and services to the Nigerian people at prices that are not only
affordable but represent value.
Emzor Pharmaceutical Ind. Ltd. started pilot production in 1985. By 1988 it had
become an established pharmaceutical manufacturing company especially with
the introduction of Emzor Paracetamol which is today a leading brand of
analgesic not only in Nigeria but across Sub Saharan Africa.
The company’s factory is located in the Isolo industrial area of Lagos with
facilities to make a wide variety of high quality pharmaceutical products that
meet international standards at affordable and competitive prices. All Emzor
products meet the highest international standards and are duly registered with
NAFDAC.
The then secretary of Health to the Interim National Government Dr.

Christopher Okojie officially commissioned the company’s factory in July
1993. The company has since attracted foreign missions, scholars, and students
of pharmacy, microbiology and chemistry. In April 1999, Prof. Debo Adeyemi,
the Honorable Minister of Health, commissioned the factory extension.
From the modest beginning with four (4) products in 1987, Emzor now
manufacture a wide range of products in the analgesic, anti-malaria,
vitamin/haematinics/multivitamin supplement, anti-helmintic, antibiotics and
therapeutic categories. The company has in its stable more than 80 different
products.
Today, Emzor has become a household name in Nigeria and a leader in the
pharmaceutical market that is known for quality products at prices that offer real
value. These products are widely distributed throughout Nigeria and the West
African coast. Our commitment is to produce and deliver flawless products on
time and every time.
Shutting Down Emzor Pharmaceutical Company: The Igbos cry foul! An

opinion writes that Emzor Pharmaceutical Company was shut down because the
owner is Igbo.
In the issue of Emzor pharmaceutical company crackdown, the management

explained that only the section that produces cough syrup using codein was
actually closed down pending investigation. If this report is right, then there is
nothing abnormal or sacrilegious about it. This is my belief, this is my
opinion.177
c) Innoson Group
*Innoson group Vs GTBank: 30 Key Points you need to know about their
dispute: 178*
*1* At all Material time, Innoson Nigeria Ltd operates a Current Account with
GTBank.
*2* – Innoson obtained, and had repaid same, a loan of N1.3billion from GTB
which was secured with a legal mortgage of its properties valued at more than
N1.4 billion.
*3* – Innoson discovered that GTBank imposed excess and unlawful charges in
its Current account.
*4* Innoson Group Complained to GTBank on his discovery of access charges
on his account.
*5* – Both parties (Innoson and GTBank) agreed to invite an independent
auditing firm that will be agreed by both parties.
*6*- At the end , MULTI-WINGS Consulting Firm of Auditors was invited to
properly audit Innoson Nigeria Ltd Current account No 0043753636 domiciled
with Nnewi Branch of GTBank . The audit covers a period from March 2004 to
Dec 2011.
*7* – After the account was audited, it was discovered that GTBank has been
illegally deducting excess bank charges on its overdraft facility to the Innoson
to the tune of seven hundred and Eighty-Six Million, Two Hundred and Five
Thousand , Nine Hundred and Fifty-Five Naira , Ninety Nine kobo
(N786,205,955.99).
*8* – GTBank was shocked at the audit report when the report was forwarded
to it .They replied in their letter to Innoson on 20th January , 2012 that it will
investigate the issue raised and will get back to Innoson on the Conclusion of its
investigation .
*9* – In the month of September 2012 , GTBank wrote to Innoson that from
their personal audit report , the excess bank charges was Five Hundred and
Fifty-Nine Million , three Hundred and Seventy-Two naira ,Nine kobo ( N
559.3Million).
*10* – Innoson agreed to their version and decided to accept payment from it in
the spirit of amicable resolution.
*11*- Innoson also requested that the said agreed amount of N559.3million be
paid with a 22% interest rate because Innoson had been repaying all his loan
with GTBank at 22% interest rate.
*12* – GTBank refused and said that the best they can repay excess and illegal
deduction is at 7% interest rate. This led to another disagreement between
Innoson and GTBank.
*13* – As a result, in 2012, Innoson sued GTBank at Federal High Court Awka
with Suit No : FHC/Awk/Cs/2012 .
*14* – Federal High Court, Awka delivered Judgement in favour of Innoson in
excess of N4.7billion against GTBank.
Delivering Judgement in suit no : FHC /Awk/ CS / 139/2012 , the FHC awarded
N4.7billion to Innoson Motors against GTBank .
*The court also ordered GTBank to pay 22 % (percent ) interest on the
Judgement debt until all the payment had been made to Innoson .*
*15* – In 2013, GTBank appealed against the judgement to the Court of
Appeal, Enugu Division, appoxite appeal No: CA/E/288/2013.
*16* – The Court of Appeal , Enugu in a Considered ruling ordered GTBank to
pay the Judgement debt of N6billion Inclusive of the accrued interest and any
interest that would subsequently accrue thereon into an interest yielding account
in the Name of the Chief Registrar of the Court .
*17* – In its various affidavits, particularly at the Court of Appeal in suit no :
CA/E/288/2013 , GTBank deposed that if it pays the outstanding Judgement
debt of N6billion , much less the N8.5billion , it could go bankrupt and be out
of business.
*18* – GTBank went to the Supreme Court .The case is still in the Supreme
Court , while the Judgement debt is about N8billion now to be paid to Innoson
by GTBank.
*Other Cases:*
IBADAN Cases: Innoson /GTBank/Nigerian Custom Service:
*19* – Nigerian Customs Service Auctioned Innoson goods.
*20* – Innoson challenged the action Nigerian Custom Service for auctioning
its goods at Federal High Court, Ibadan.
*21* – On July 29 ,2011, In a Garnishee Order Absolute , the Federal High
Court sitting in Ibadan ordered GTBank to Pay Innoson #2,048,737,443,67
(#2billion) from Nigerian Customs account in GTBank .
*22* – Rather than Comply with the Garnishee Order Absolute of the Court ,
GTBank on February 6, 2015 appealed the Judgement , but the Court of Appeal
in Appeal no. CA/1/258/2011 affirmed the Judgement of the Federal High Court
and ordered GTBank to pay the Judgement debt of #2,048,737,443.67
(#2.048billion) to Innoson.
*23* – GTBank , instead , appealed to the Supreme Court against the Court of
Appeal’s decision where GTBank claimed through a motion in suit no : Sc
/694/2014, that the Court of Appeal Judgement in Ibadan (CA/I/258/2011) was
procured by suspicious means .
*24* – On May 12, 2017, Supreme Court in its wisdom and rightly, dismissed
that unfounded and exasperating claim of GTB against Innoson.
*25* – As a result, Innoson commenced a N400 billion suit against GTBank, in
the suit No: FCT /HC/CV/2448/2017 at the High Court of the Federal Capital
Territory, Abuja.
OTHER ISSUES
**26* – Consequently in order to save itself from paying the outstanding
Judgement debts to Innoson the GTBbank filed a petition against Innoson
alleging forgery which led to the suit No : FHC /L/565C/2015 by Police .
*27* – On February 17 2016 Police properly and Competently withdraw the

charges against Innoson saying they needed to properly investigate the bank’s
complaints first and see if they had merits .
*28* – On September 1 2014 GTBank secured an ex parte order on Innoson
Nigeria Limited dated September 1 2014 with suit no FHC/L/CS/1119/2014
filed before a Federal High Court in Lagos between GTBank and Innoson
Nigeria Limited issued by *Justice Okon Abang* ordering that pending the
hearing and the determination of the substantive suit all Commercial Banks in
Nigeria were restrained from accepting in any manner whatsoever to any
mandate or instruction presented to them by Innoson Companies or any of its
agents or nominees for withdrawal of any sum of money standing to the credit
of any account maintained by the company in all the banks.
*29* – However on June 10 2015 *Justice Saliu Saidu* of the Federal High
Court Lagos in a Considered ruling set aside the ex parte order of September 1
2014 by Justice Okon Abang and the writ of summon as well .
*30* – Innoson then slammed a N30 billion suit on Guaranty Trust Bank for
what it had suffered in monetary terms and reputational terms during the months
when the accounts of its companies in all Nigerian banks were frozen. With
Innoson winning both cases at the High Court and both cases at the Appeal
Court and GTB appealing both cases are awaiting the verdict of the
Supreme Court. Meanwhile the fresh N30 billion naira suit has just gone to the
High Court to start its legal journey.
In all, Innoson has won two High Court cases and two Appeal Court cases all
against GTBank.
Innoson as at today has Judgement debt over about N10 billion based on 22%
interest rate against GTBank.
*Questions for EFCC:*
*(i)* Now where is the EFCC coming from in all these?
*(ii)* Does EFCC actually understand their duties here?
*(iii)* Is this action by the EFCC not sabotaging Nigeria’s economy?
*(iv)* If EFCC should arrest any of the parties, shouldn’t GTBank who
dubiously deducted Innoson money from his account and have debt of about N8
billion to pay Innoson that they should arrest?
REFERENCES
1. Former Governor-General of Nigeria, Sir Hugh Clifford made

the statement quoted in Harvard University Encyclopaedia on
Ethnicity. Quoted in Charles Akujieze, (2019) “Nigeria: An
Experiment in Nation Building”, London: AuthorHouse
Publishers.
2. Ray, L. Hall quoted in Harvard University on Ethnicity. Quoted
in Charles Akujieze, (2019) “Nigeria: An Experiment in Nation
Building”, London: AuthorHouse Publishers.
3. Nnamdi Azikiwe (1969), “Origin of Nigerian Civil War”,
Lagos: Nigerian Printing Press, Apapa.
9. Ken Saro Wiwa (1989), “On a Darkling Plain: An Account of
the Nigerian Civil War”, Published by Saros International
Publishers, 5. p. 42
10.Nnamdi Azikiwe (1969), “Origin of Nigerian Civil War”,
13.Ken Saro Wiwa (1989), “On a Darkling Plain: An Account of
the Nigerian Civil War”, Published by Saros International
Publishers, 5. p. 35
16.Chinua Achebe (2012), “There Was A Country”, London:
Penguin Group
Penguin Group
Penguin Group
Penguin Group
Penguin Group
Penguin Group
Penguin Group
Penguin Group
Penguin Group
25.Aisha Yesufu stirred up a debate on Twitter after sharing her
opinion that the Igbo apprenticeship system have contributed to
why many people from different tribes resent Igbos.
26.A Twitter user paid a glowing tribute to the successes achieved
through Igbo apprenticeship system and rated it as one of the
most successful business strategies the world over.
30.Ndigbo Link, “Why Igbos are ahead of other tribes in Nigeria –
Obasanjo”, July 25, 2019.
36.Reno Omokri, an activist, author, humanitarian and spokesman
to the ex-President Goodluck Jonathan took to his Facebook
page to disagree and expressed discomfort to how the current
government is being run. See ReporterPress NG, May 4, 2020.
37.Femi Fani-Kayode: “A Morning of Horror and the Slaughter of
Igbos”, Daily Post, 2 June, 2019.
Igbos”, Daily Post, 2 June, 2019. See also an article written by
Femi Fani-Kayode in 2013 has been trending on WhatsApp. On
June 3, 2017, a Nigerian national daily, Vanguard brought it
back for readers, titled: “The Bitter Truth about the Igbos”.
42.Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, “Igbo Marginalization and the
Responsible Limits of Retribution”, Nairaland September 12,
2017
43.Reuben Abati, “Obasanjo, Secession and the Secessionists”,
TheSundayGuardian, December 16 and 23, 2001
44.Chuks Iloegbunam, an award-winning investigative journalist
and Lagos-based publishing executive, is a contributing editor
of USAfricaonline.com and USAfrica, “The Newspaper
(Houston).
45.Reuben Abati, op. cit.
46.Reuben Abati, ibid
(Houston).
(Houston).
51.Reuben Abati, ibid.
52.General David Ejoor (1989) “Remniscence” Lagos: Malthouse
Publishers, p. 39
53.Prof. Ruth First (1970), “The Barrel of a Gun: The Politics of
Coup D’etat in Africa”, London: The Penguin Press, p. 307
54.Reuben Abati, op.cit., p.
(Houston).
(Houston).
(Houston).
(Houston).
(Houston).
(Houston).
(Houston).
62.Olalekan Waheed Adigun, “Igbos and the Buhari Government”,
The Nigerian Voice, September, 2015
65.Kenneth Okonkwo, “Igbo and Political Wilderness”, TheSun,
19 October, 2018
19 October, 2018
19 October, 2018
19 October, 2018
19 October, 2018
19 October, 2018
19 October, 2018
19 October, 2018
19 October, 2018
19 October, 2018
75.Amin Femi Aribisala, a brilliant and erudite Yoruba scholar and
preacher, a man of conscience made a trending comment titled:
“Time to end the bad blood between the Yorubas and the
Ndigbo” and “Nigeria cannot survive without the Igbos –
Aribisala” Vanguard, 15 2017.
Aribisala” Vanguard, 15 2017
86.Former governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu declared that
Lagos was “no man’s land and so belongs to all”, while
responding to quit notice given to some Igbo indigenes said to
be indigents and undocumented in Lagos
88.Oba Rilwan Akiolu summoned Igbo leaders in Lagos to his
palace and issued a threat demanding that the Igbos in Lagos
must do his biddings and vote his candidate for the 2015
gubernatorial election in Lagos state.
92.Moses Tom, “1966 Igbo Coup and 21 Yoruba-Igbo Fact
Sheets”, MoreNews, February 9, 2021.
93.Sanusi Lamido Sanusi in “A Paper Presented at the ‘National
Conference on the 1999 Constitution”, jointly organized by the
Network for Justice, and The Vision Trust Foundation, at the
Arewa House, Kaduna from 11 – 12 September, 1999.
94.Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, “Afenifere: Syllabus of Errors”,
published by ThisDay (The Sunday Newspaper) on September
27, 1998. See also “The Life, the Yoruba and History”, Trust 21
August, 1998.
August, 1998.
August, 1998.
August, 1998.
August, 1998.
August, 1998.
100. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, “Afenifere: Syllabus of Errors”,
August, 1998.
August, 1998.
August, 1998.
August, 1998.
August, 1998.
105. Chinweizu Ibekwe, “Special Report on Activities of Fulani
Herdsmen and the Future on Non-Fulani Nigerians”, Elombah
News 21st of May, 2019.
106. Chinweizu Ibekwe quoted Buhari media spokesman as he
warned non-Fulani Nigerians “Give up your ancestral land for
ranches or die” (Accessed July, 2018)
107. Declaration made by the Fulani Nationality Movement
(FUNAM) over Nigeria.
108. Sir Ahmadu Bello, Leader of the Northern Peoples’
Congress (NPC) and Premier of the Northern Nigeria, Parrot
Newspaper, 12, October, 1960, republished on November 13,
2002 by the Tribune Newspaper, Ibadan.
109. In 1957, Sir Ahmadu Bello made the insidious comments on
the intentions of the North towards the rest of the country.
110. Chinweize Ibekwe, “Special Report on Activities of Fulani
Herdsmen and The Future of Non-Fulani Nigerians”, Elombah
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
119. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallan declared that the Mujahadeen
are proud to kill in the name of God and this is exactly what
God told them to do in the Koran.
120. Ismaila Gwarzo, Fulani who had been Abacha’s National
Security Adviser declared that Nigeria is Allah’s gift to Fulani
“to rule and do with as we pleased.”
121. Buhari’s Defense Minister, Abdulrahman Dambazzau
boasted about the Fulani record of political murder with
impunity.
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
News, May 21, 2019.
141. Prof. Zackary Gundu, professor from Ahmadu Bello
University, reveals 40 Fulani Facts unknown to most Nigerians.
142. See the Willink Commission in Nigeria (1957)
143. S. Olawale, “Middle Belt States in Nigeria”, naijaquest.com,
January 3, 2019.
January 3, 2019.
January 3, 2019.
January 3, 2019.
January 3, 2019.
January 3, 2019.
149. See World Watch Monitor Nigeria, September 11, 2017
151. See OpenDoors, Christain Human Right Watchdog on
Religious Tolerance
153. The Catholic Bishop of Kaduna made these comments about
the killing of Christians going on in Kaduna.
154. The US Department of Defense, Africa Centre for Strategic
Studies … more than 60,000 died since 2001 in pastoral-related
violence.
155. See OpenDoors, Christain Human Right Watchdog on
Religious Tolerance
156. See Comments of The National Christian Elders Forum
(NCEF) in March 2016 about the killings in Nigeria,
particularly the Middle Belt.
157. See Bishop Joseph Bagobiri of Kafanchan comments on the
activities of the Fulani herders.
158. See Bishop Joseph Bagobiri of Kafanchan comments on the
activities of the Fulani herders.
159. Yonas Dembele in a report in 2016 for the World Watch
Research unit of the Open Doors.
162. Victor Gai, “Insecurity in Nigeria and the Failed State
Status”, TheNews Chronicle, 25 February, 2020.
163. L.A. Afrinotan and V. Ojakorotu (2009), “The Niger-Delta
Crisis: Issues, Challenges and Prospects”, https://www.gisf.ngo
164. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_in_the_Niger_Delta
165. “Senate Approves Buhari’s $22.7 billion External Loan
Request”, PM
NewsNigeria, 5 March, 2020.
166. Emmanuel Anthony, “Rights Group Threatens to Sue Buhari
over Railways to Niger State”,www.msn.com, 25 September,
2020.
167. Ekwutosi Chikadibia, “Why Igbos are Angry with Nigeria –
Olusegun Obasanjo”, Reporter’s PressNG, September 3, 2020.
172. House of Representative Committee Chairman on Aviation,
Hon. Nnolim Nnaji made the critical report on the collapse of
the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.
173. Olusegun Obasanjo, “Why Igbos are Angry with Nigeria” in
his interview with the BBC Hard Talk published by Republican
News.
174. Ahmed Sani Yerima, for governor of Zamfara State berated
the Southern Politicians for being very selfish and not taking the
interest of their people into consideration. See “I Weep for the
South” published by Odogwu Media Publication
175. SaharaReporter (Oct. 17, 2016), “Cement War: Dangote-
Ibeto Continue Legal Tussle”, Editorial Report.
176. SaharaReporter (Oct. 17, 2016), “Cement War: Dangote-
Ibeto Continue Legal Tussle”, Editorial Report.
177. Emzor Pharmaceutical Industries Limited is a private
indigenous pharma manufacturing group founded in 1984 by
Dr. Stella C. Okoli, OON. Ndigbo accused the Buhari-led
government of discriminations and nepotistic against Emzor and
other Igbo businesses. Following the BBC investigation over the
abuse of drugs by the youths, Emzor Pharmaceutical suspended
the distribution of codein cough syrup.
178. Proshare, “Innoson Group Versus GT Bank: 30 Key Points
You Need To Know about Their Dispute”, December 20, 2017.
See also Aljazirah NigeriaNewspaper, 21 December, 2017.
CHARTER 3: Nigerian Union Disputes and Dialogue: Impact and

Significance of Constitutional Force Majeure
“I will continue to show openly and inside me the total commitment to the Sharia movement
that is sweeping all over Nigeria … God willing, we will not stop the agitation for the total
implementation of the Sharia in the country.” – Muhammadu Buhari, President and
Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
In retrospect, the amalgamation of 1914 produced a country but not a nation.

There was an amalgamation of two Protectorates but there was no integration of
the Ethnic Nationalities and this created serious fault lines that still exist today.
The unity of the two protectorates was not part of the British Agenda. Rather,
Britain sought to maintain a hold on Nigeria through a policy of divide and rule.
In effect, Nigeria remains a country made up of two races pulling in opposite

directions. There is the indigenous African race tilting towards a Westernized
ideology and the Arab race, made up of Fulanis, Hausas, and Kanuris in favour
of adopting the Arabian culture.
At independence in 1960, the impression was created that “all” Nigerians opted
for Liberal Democracy as the national ideology. As the years progressed, it
became clear that some citizens of the Arab stock were more in favour of a
system of rule of which an “important ingredient is the application of the
Muslim Law”.1
Many of the political, religious, traditional and military leaders from the
Muslim North, while paying lip service to democracy, were insidiously working
to undermine democracy and promote Sharia, which is based on Islam and is
patterned after the Arabian culture, to which the North has been exposed to for
hundreds of years.
Operating under the Islamic practice of “Taqiyya”, which permits a Muslim to

deceive an “infidel” in order to gain the mastery over him, leaders of the
Muslim North surreptitiously “smuggled” Nigeria into the Organization of
Islamic Countries (OIC) in 1986 and kept it out of public knowledge for ten
years until 1996, when Sultan Dasuki confirmed to the Pope that Nigeria is a
member of OIC.2
The Islamization Agenda was solidified in the period 1975 – 1999 under the
military rule, of which majority of the military heads of state were Muslims
from the North. The Muslim Military leaders favoured an Islamic model of
ideology because it promoted dictatorship. They set up an “invisible”
government which operates behind the scene in the Presidency and constantly
undermines liberal democracy while promoting Sharia. The “invisible
government” is still active till today.3
The invasion of the nation by Islamic terrorism and smuggling of Sharia into the
1999 Constitution, thereby creating a dual ideology for the nation, are
reflections of the activities of the “invisible government”. Boko Haram,
membership of Nigeria in OIC, Islam in Africa Organization, the D8 group, as
well as compromise of Section 10 of the Constitution on separation of state and
religion, are all interwoven conspiracies to abolish Liberal Democracy in
Nigeria and declare Sharia as the national ideology and the nation as an Islamic
state.4
2. Democracy versus Sharia: Which Way Nigeria?
What defines Nigeria’s identity? What roles do states and government play in
defining our identity? What roles do language and religion play in defining that
identity? How do we shape the agenda for the 21st century of our country?
Every country in the world derives its identity and system of governance from
its national ideology. Countries with Sharia ideology have a system of
governance and way of life different from countries with communist ideology
which is also different from countries with democratic ideology and so on. No
country has two conflicting ideologies except, of course, Nigeria.
The problem of Nigeria is largely IDEOLOGICAL. It is simply DEMOCRACY

versus SHARIA. This is the problem Nigerians need to solve. Nigeria is a
democratic country under the invasion and subsequently subversion of Sharia
ideology. This is the core problem that must be solved and every crisis will
evaporate.
It suffices that at the root of the insecurity, distrust and mutual suspicion in
Nigeria is the conflict between Liberal Democracy and Sharia ideology. As a
nation, Nigeria was established upon the principles and practice of Liberal
Democracy. According to the Willink’s Commission Report of 1958:
“The whole structure of the proceedings leading to independence is based on the
belief that Nigeria meant to follow the road of liberal democracy and parliamentary
government and to base part of the structure on the opposite assumption is to invite
government to do their worst. But if the road is followed (liberal democracy and
parliamentary government), votes will count and in the last resort it is votes that will
win fair treatment for minorities.”5
Bearing in mind the huge ethnic, cultural, religious, and racial diversities in
Nigeria, it was deemed necessary that an all accommodating ideology would be
required to ensure justice, equality, and fairness for all the divergent groups in
the nation. Unfortunately, a group known as “Islamists” has been working
surreptitiously over the years to supplant Liberal Democracy with Sharia as the
“source of legislation” in Nigeria, over and above the Constitution.
The present day state of global Islam makes it imperative for a distinction to be
made between Islam and Islamism. While Islam is a religion, Islamism,
otherwise called “political Islam”, “is a set of ideologies that holds that Islam is
not only a religion but a political system”. 6 As a political system, Islamists insist
that Islam is meant to dominate the environment in which it is practiced. In a
sharply divergent society like Nigeria, any attempt to implement the principles
of Islamism portends great danger for the nation.
Evidently, the ideological competition between Liberal Democracy and

Islamism has not helped Nigeria in terms of development, progress, peace and
security and the reason can be found in the conclusions of several thinkers that
Liberal Democracy and Sharia are not compatible. For Islamists of a radical
disposition, like the influential Egyptian activist Sayyid Qutb said, “democracy
and Islam are simply incompatible”.7
The British, in their characteristic divide and rule policy, left Nigeria with
democracy in the hands of Islamists, knowing full well that democracy and
Islamism cannot peacefully co-habit. The challenge facing Nigeria today is how
to resolve this apparent contradiction that has created a conflict of ideologies for
the nation. If we continue in this trajectory, Nigeria is sadly and inadvertently
moving into avoidable calamity hence the need for a Truth and Reconciliation
Commission to be established by law.
It would appear that the Islamists, (otherwise known as the “invisible

government”) who used to rule by proxy in all the previous administrations, are
now fully entrenched in Government. Rather than pretend that all is well with
the country, Nigeria needs to examine its past critically and reconcile all the
ethnic, religious, and other groups in Nigeria. Presently, the Islamists control
the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary, including the Economy and the
Military.
It is instructive to note that many Arab nations have found Islamism an extreme
way of religious expression and have taken steps to ban it. Examples are Egypt
and Tunisia. After the Arab Spring revolution, both nations voted Islamists into
power and within a few months, staged another revolution to oust them. Even
the United Arabs Emirates is on record to have denounced the extremism
associated with Islamism when it alerted Britain on the dangers of giving
oxygen to what Britain does not understand. It is therefore a cause for concern
that in Nigeria, a multi-cultural and multi religious nation, Islamism should be
thriving.8
As a principle, Islamists “loathe” democracy believing that it is a “man-made”

law that must give way for “God made” law, which is Sharia. Islamists, as
opposed to Muslims that practice Islam as a religion, will go to every possible
length to eradicate democracy in any society so that Sharia can be introduced.
Nevertheless, Islamists pay lip service to democracy and claim to promote and
support it. Nigerians should understand that such claims by Islamists of
supporting democracy are mere pretensions and a display of “TAQIYYA”
(deliberate deception) because they work surreptitiously underground to
undermine and destroy democracy.9
3. Insecurity in Nigeria: Full text of Christian Elders’ Letter to British

Parliament.
In response to the request of the All Party Parliamentary Groups of the UK

Parliament for “written submissions” for an Inquiry “into the on-going
violence between farmers and herders in Nigeria”, the National Christian
Elders Forum (NCEF) led by Elder Solomon Asemota made a submission on
June 3, 2019.
Excerpts from the rejoinder:
The National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) made the following

submissions:
o Fact of Discrimination: While trying to deny culpability in the

wanton murder of Christians in Nigeria, the Buhari Administration
could not hide its hostility and sectional discrimination against
other ethnic nationalities that are not from his northern part of the
country. In October 2017, the President of the World Bank, Mr.
Jim Yong Kim revealed that President Buhari informed the World
Bank to concentrate projects in the North of Nigeria.10
o Sharia Culture: It is permissible in Islam for a Muslim to lie,
especially to non-Muslims, to safeguard the Muslim or to protect
Islam. This is called “Taqiyya”. This culture seems to have
extended to Christians in an Islamic dominated Federal
Government of Nigeria. 11
 It is rather unfortunate that due to political patronage, for
culture change, Christians in the Buhari Administration are
also practicing dissimulation. The Vice President of Nigeria,
a Pastor, regularly dissimulates on the issue concerning the
persecution of Christians as well as the genocide going on in
Nigeria. The Vice President of Nigeria was in the United
States where he made statements that many people
considered inaccurate and gross denial of reality.
 According to news report, “A former Acting Asst. U.S.
Secretary of Defence, Mr. Frank Gaffney accused Nigeria’s
Vice President of “shamelessly” lying about the killings of
Christians in Nigeria. …12 ‘Mr. Pence’s visitor is a man who
should be on their side. After all, he’s one of the very few
Christians in a Nigerian government otherwise dominated by
Islamist Fulani tribesmen. Unfortunately, he is instead part
of the problem’”. The report continued: “He lies shamelessly
– including this weekend in New York – about the anti-
Christian persecution his government is at least tolerating
and, at worst, enabling.”
o The VP’s own tribe has sharply repudiated him for doing so: “The
socio-cultural group of the tribe of the Vice President called
‘Afenifere’ said, “All the reports provided clear indications of
failure of the state as the security forces are largely incapable or
unwilling to safeguard the lives of our people against these
criminals as we are not aware of any of them that has been arrested
or is under trial at the moment just as all the Federal Government
has done so far is to make excuses for the Boko Haram and Miyetti
Allah groups (Fulani Herdsmen) that have been accused of so
many crimes against the people of Nigeria.”13 “It is against this
backdrop that the meeting was scandalised by the opportunistic and
provocative utterances of the Vice President in New York on
Sunday dismissing the danger we are faced in Yorubaland as well
as by other zones in Nigeria as being “politically motivated.”
o “As if he is unaware that we are in a digital world, which explains
why America and Britain have issued travel directives to their
citizens not to travel to more than 2/3 of Nigeria, the VP without
much thought for his integrity stated that: “With respect to general
kidnapping which we have seen in parts of the country, again, this
is not entirely new. In fact, some of the kidnapping stories you read
or listen to are simply not true anywhere, some are fuelled by
politics.”14
Describing the alleged Vice President’s comments as unfortunate, Afenifere

alleged that the Vice President had shamed the Yoruba people with “his very
cheap politicking with the lives of Nigerians”.
NCEF DEMAND FOR ANSWERS IN 2017
On September 6, 2017, the National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) asked

the leaders of Islam in Nigeria for answers to the following questions. To
date, no leader of Islam has ventured an answer. The Buhari Administration,
being overtly Islamic in deeds, may do well to consider the questions rather
than dissimulate at the UK Parliament.
The questions are as follows:
1. Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, in one of his video releases,
said in 2012, “…This war in not political. It is religious. It is between
Muslims and unbelievers (arna). It will stop when Islamic religion is the
determinant in governance in Nigeria or, in the alternative, when all fighters
are annihilated and no one is left to continue the fight. I warn all Muslims at
this juncture that any Muslim who assists an unbeliever in this war should
consider himself an unbeliever and should consider himself dead.”15
If this statement is not a declaration of Jihad, could Muslim leaders explain

what this means?
2. In 1989, Islam in Africa Organization (IAO) held a Conference in Abuja

and amongst many other decisions, released a Communiqué tagged Abuja
Declarations 1989 in which it affirmed that its purpose was “To eradicate
in all its forms and ramifications all non-Muslim religions in member
nations. Such religions shall include Christianity, Ahmadiyya and other
tribal religions. (In the original Declaration, the word Christianity was
underlined.) Since Nigeria is considered a member nation, could what is
going on be an implementation of this decision? Or could we be corrected
that the Conference never held in Abuja in November 1989 or such
Communique was never released? We are also unaware of any rebuttal of
the same statement by Islamic leaders.16
3. In a 154-page Research Report conducted by Arne Mulder in 2015, the
researcher affirmed that over 13,000 Christian places of worship
(Churches) have been destroyed in Northern Nigeria as at December
2014. Under what condition do Muslim insurgents destroy Churches if
not Jihad?17
i. On February 4, 2017, the United States Congress affirmed that
the most dangerous nation on earth for anyone to be a Christian
is Nigeria. The implication is that Nigerian Christians have
become endangered species in a country in which they
constitute over 50% of the population.
ii. According to the Global Index on Terror, the first and fourth
most terrible Islamic Terrorist organizations in the world
operate in Nigeria. Boko Haram is first while the Fulani
Herdsmen is fourth. If these terror organizations are not fighting
Jihad, what then are they doing in Nigeria?
iii. Under the present administration, every key and sensitive
position in National Security is held by Muslims from the
North, in outright violation of Section 14 (3) of the 1999
Constitution. Also early in the life of this administration, we
recall that more than 95 per cent of senior army officers retired
from the Military were Christians. In NNPC, only recently,
more than 95 per cent of the new appointments into senior
management positions are Northern Muslims. Taking these
developments in conjunction with the lopsided appointments in
National Security, is one not confronted with the inevitable
conclusion that there is a deliberate attempt to emasculate
Christians, Southerners and other non-Muslim population of
Nigeria verifiably by intimidation and force which are stealth
Jihad?
4. Despite unconstitutionally appropriating all security positions to the
Muslim North, the Fulani Herdsmen operate with impunity in mostly
Christian areas, killing, maiming, raping and destroying without any
arrest, without any prosecution. If this is not complicity of the Muslim
dominated Security Services, are we then to conclude that the Nigerian
security units are so incompetent that they cannot successfully engage
insurgents after the Nigerian Army successfully prosecuted a Civil War?18
5. We recall that in 2011 in Harvard, USA, his eminence the Sultan of
Sokoto who is also the President of the Supreme Council of Islamic
Affairs, was reported to have said during a public function, “I do not
recognize any Nigerian Constitution and the only Constitution I recognize
is the Koran” By virtue of Section 38 (1), the Constitution guarantees
freedom of Religious conviction while Sharia through its law of “Ridda”
forbids it with capital punishment. It is clear there is a huge conflict
between the Democratic values of the Constitution of Nigeria and Sharia
in the 1999 Constitution. The Late Justice Mohammed Bello said, at a
lecture in Kaduna, “Section 38 (1) of the Constitution ensures for every
person the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion,
including freedom to change his religion or belief, whereas under Sharia,
“ridda” is inconsistent with Section 38 (1) and by virtue of Section 1 is
unconstitutional”. 19
Therefore, when the President of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs said in
a foreign land (which is in itself a treasonable statement) that he does not
believe in the Nigerian Constitution (which guarantees freedom of religious
conviction), but he believes only in the Koran (which forbids freedom of
worship through Sharia’s “ridda”), could not the statement of the Sultan be
interpreted as an endorsement of Jihad? 20
Added to the above are the big questions begging for answers: Who is funding
and equipping the Islamic insurgents? And more importantly, who is shielding
them from prosecution?
We would not wish to belabour these issues but rather appeal to the
distinguished leaders of Islam, who have stepped forward to be identified, to
join us in putting Nigeria first. Nigeria is a Secular State according to Section
10 of the Constitution, but a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious
society. The diversity in the country should be harnessed for progress and
prosperity and not resisted thus leading to disintegration of the country. It is
wishful thinking for anyone to imagine the possibility of imposing one religion
or one culture on 389 Ethnic Nationalities in Nigeria.
In June 2018, the Amnesty International also accused the Nigerian Government
of encouraging the killings going on. The report stated: “Rights group, Amnesty
International, says the failure of Nigerian government to hold murderers to
account is encouraging them and fueling rising insecurity across the country.
The group made the observation on Thursday through a statement signed by its
media officer, Isa Sanusi. It said independently verified estimated figures
showed at least 1813 people have been murdered in 17 states in the country this
year, double the 894 people killed in 2017”.21
“According to the group, the death tolls reflect killings as a result of farmers-
herders conflict, communal clashes, Boko Haram attacks and banditry. “We are
gravely concerned about the rising spate of killings across the country,
especially the communal clashes between farmers and herders and attacks by
bandits across at least 17 states,” the statement quoted Osai Ojigho, Director
Amnesty International Nigeria. “The authorities have a responsibility to protect
lives and properties, but they are clearly not doing enough going by what is
happening,”22 Mr Ojigho said.
Open Doors International Organization said: “Open Doors raised the issue of
escalating violence in Nigeria’s Middle Belt where, because of the violence and
the doubling of fatalities, villagers have started to abandon their homes and flee
for safety. In the Plateau State, 1,885 Christians were killed by the Fulani
herdsmen. The atrocities of the Fulani herdsmen were declared ‘genocide’ by
the Nigerian House of Representatives in 2018. However, despite this
designation, the Nigerian government has not taken any decisive steps to
address the situation and the attacks continue to this day”.23
Judgement on Open-Grazing
The Federal Government’s letter was also said to have indicated that “the
issues of grazing routes is historically central to these conflicts …”
Hon. Justice Adewale Thompson held on April 14 1969:

“…that he the Judge did not accept the contention of Defendants that a custom exists
which imposes an obligation on the owner of farm to fence his farm whilst the owner
of cattle allows his cattle to wander like pests and cause damage. Such a custom if it
exists is unreasonable and I hold that it is repugnant to natural justice, equity and
good conscience and therefore unenforceable…in that it is highly unreasonable to
impose the burden of fencing a farm on the farmer without the corresponding
obligation on the cattle owner to fence in his cattle.” Sequence to that I ban open
grazing for it is inimical to peace and tranquillity and the cattle owners must fence
or ranch their animals for peace to reign in these communities.” 24
The NCEF can confirm that the demand for grazing land predates
Amalgamation, and the introduction of Certificate of Occupancy was a
contraption by the British to identify and protect the Land of indigenes who
were driven from their lands by Fulani Jihadists before Amalgamation. When
the above is considered along with the concept of “Sacred” Space in Sharia, that
land already conquered by Muslims as well as any space ever granted in the past
are “Waqf” and considered sacred ground endowed by Allah to Ummah-
Muslim people forever, for which Muslims can wage a Jihad.25
This explains why Fulani in West Africa now claim ownership to land in
Nigeria as they form part of the Ummah. Other Fulanis in West Africa are on
Jihad in Nigeria, which explains why an adviser to Buhari advised Nigerians to
give up their lands to the Fulani for grazing rather than be killed. The inference
is that we have two choices, keep the land and be killed or vacate the land and
live. This is Jihad.
Nigeria therefore remains a target of the Islamists with respect to ownership of

land by the forces of Jihad with intent of returning land to the Dar al-Islam. We
Elders know the Islamists would not succeed. However, NCEF want a change
of policy by the Buhari Administration to stop this Jihad to save lives and
properties and above all the unity of an indivisible Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Influence of Culture
In our petition of June 3, 2019 which we titled “Competing Ideologies of

Democracy and Sharia”, we listed the nuance understanding of the drivers of
the conflicts in Nigeria, which included: 26
 The man on the spot for Amalgamation – Lord Lugard;

 Verses of the Quran; Role of religion;
 Evidence of organized co-ordination;
 State support;
 Disproportionate number of victims;
 Finance and weapons;
 Evidence of collusion;
 Actions to be taken to prevent further conflicts;
 Fake news and
 Concluded that and the conflict is primarily ideological – Democracy Vs
Sharia.
The Nigerian High Commissioner to the UK in his reply on behalf of the
Federal Government of Nigeria was not forthcoming and was downright
evasive. The NCEF cannot understand why the High Commissioner who is of
age bracket with NCEF members with an average age of 70 years most of
whom are known to him, if not all the members of the National Christian Elders
Forum. They are made up of champions in the Military, Police, the Judiciary,
Business industry, Bureaucracy, and others who were in the colonial service
before independence.27 To suggest that NCEF represent Elders of only the North
and not the whole of Nigeria even though our petition was written on NCEF
letterhead is “Taqiyya” – deceit. We stated the Church Groups which each
member belongs, including one of our members who served with the High
Commissioner as Supreme Court Justice throughout the period the High
Commissioner was a Justice of that court.
The undersigned Solomon Asemota, SAN who also signed the earlier petition to
the APPG on IFoRB appeared before the High Commissioner when he was
Justice of the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. His Excellency knows that
Solomon Asemota, SAN is not a Northerner and the Asemotas are Edos from
the South South region of Nigeria. NCEF does not know where the High
Commissioner got his Northern Christian Elders Forum (NOSCEF) in answer to
such an important issue confronting Nigeria – conflict of ideology that has
consumed thousands of lives and displaced millions of people.28
The NCEF can only attribute the conduct of His Excellency to culture influence.
The High Commissioner and most other members of the NCEF were part of
manpower development established by the British for Nigeria’s independence
that formed the nucleus of the three arms of government – Legislative,
Executive (including the Armed Forces, Police and Civil Service) and Judiciary
at independence in 1960. 29
President Buhari was not in this category in that he joined the Army in 1962
after independence. The High Commissioner was a student at Independence in
1960.
As a group, NCEF was able to appreciate fully where Nigeria got it wrong. The
High Commissioner in his letter tried to downplay the status, importance and
influence of the members of the group by reducing them to representing a
section of the country by changing the word National to Northern. By this act,
we are clear in our minds that the High Commissioner did not appreciate – he
too is part of the group of Nigerians, who the Islamists, who regard western
education as a sacrilege (Boko-Haram), refer to as “useful idiots”.30
We do not expect that culture influence would change a learned friend and
brother from common law culture to Sharia law culture that made His
Excellency to reduce an ideological problem to a lesser one of riot between
Muslims and Christians. His Excellency the “High Commissioner” was reported
to have said “the Northern Christian Elders Forum had made allegations against
the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari whom this group said was
practising bigotry”. 31
President Buhari’s administration is far more than bigotry that in a country with
equal number of Christians and Muslims in population that constitute over 80%
of Nigeria’s total population, that Muslims should occupy the following key and
strategic offices including Ministers of Interior, Finance, Defence, Justice,
National Security Adviser, Chief of Army, and Air-Force Staff, Inspector
General of Police, Director General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps,
Director General, Department of State Security, Chairman Independent
National Electoral Commission, Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, President
Court of Appeal, Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Chief Judge High
Court of Federal Capital Territory.32
If this is not bigotry, then it must be “Stealth Jihad” by President Buhari, the
same stealth jihad which seemed to have caught up with His Excellency, the
High Commissioner of Nigeria to the UK who we knew was once an erudite
scholar and judge. He seemed to have succumbed to the influence of the culture
of Sharia now being imposed on Nigeria. 33
How NCEF wished that the High Commissioner had used his intellect, training
and knowledge to bear, on the conflicting ideologies of Democracy and Sharia
in Nigeria and how it is affecting the country, men and women and what may
happen to future generation of Nigerians. Educated Christians must change the
perception of “useful idiots” to “useful neighbours”. We must all – Christians,
Muslims and Animists ensure that our education reflects in our day to day life.
In the case of a lawyer, we must be learned at all times.34
Conclusion:
It is very clear that the above facts constitute Jihad on a section of the Nigerian
populis – non-Islamists that which include Christians, non Islamist Muslims and
Animists. There are two types of Jihad: A Conventional Jihad which meant the
constant state of war since 1914 that must exist between the Dar-el-Islam and
Dar-el-Harb since the 8th and 9th century. “Fight in the name of Allah and in the
“path of Allah”, “combat those who disbelieve in Allah”. Conventional Jihad
fits Boko-haram and Fulani Herdsmen based on available evidence contained in
this presentation. 35
A Stealth Jihad which is the same as violent jihad. The object of stealth jihad is
the same as conventional jihad – subjugation of Dar-el-Harb which will result in
non-Muslim world being subsumed under Dar-el-Islam. Some of the actions
enumerated earlier suggest stealth including actions of the present
administration such as refusal to sign the Electoral Act authorising the use of
Card Readers for election purposes, especially in the known fact that Sharia law
is incompatible with democracy because one tenets of Islam provides that “any
system of man-made law is considered illicit under Islamic law for whose
adherents Allah already has provided the only law permitted which is Sharia”. 36
4. Issues of Concern
In the build up to the 2015 elections, majority of Nigerians expressed great hope
that there would be CHANGE in the nation. However, ten months after the new
government was sworn into office, credible apprehension can be expressed
given the policy direction of the new administration. We hope that the build-up
to these policies do not result in full blown Sharia which President Muhammadu
Buhari had promised Muslims in Nigeria.
A number of worrisome issues readily come to mind:
a) The apparent disregard for the Constitution, by Mr President in many

instances. For example, N900 billion was released in bailout package for states
without Appropriation, the government was run for five months without a
Cabinet, international commitment are being made without recourse to the
National Assembly. All these are acts violating the Constitution.
Some of these constitutional infractions are highlighted below for your

information and action as you may deem appropriate.
 The suspension and subsequent removal of the Chief Justice of Nigeria

Walter Onnoghen
On Friday, January 25, 2019, Nigeria woke up to the shocking news of the
unilateral and extra-constitutional suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria,
Justice Walter Onnoghen and the immediate appointment and swearing in of
Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, as the new acting Chief Justice of Nigeria
(CJN). This action of President Muhammadu Buhari, not only breaches the
Nigerian Constitution, but has also managed to undermine Presidential
democracy by assaulting one of its hallowed doctrines of separation of Powers.
For the records, Justice Walter Onnoghen is the head of one of the Tripartite but
mutually independent organs that form the government of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria. To attempt to muscle out the Chief Justice of Nigeria using phony
charges at a time when His Lordship was primed to play a central role in the fast
approaching nationwide electoral process represents the boldest steps in the
march to undermine our democracy. This is undoubtedly an anti-democratic act
which Nigerians of conscience wholly condemn unequivocally.
This brazen authoritarian and imperious stride of President Buhari was the latest
action in a series of carefully planned onslaught on Nigeria’s hard earned
democracy by an extremely power hungry and anxious President and the cabal
that feeds fat around him as February 16, 2019 was drawing nearer.
The fact that the unlawful suspension of Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen was
announced just as it became public knowledge that the CJN was constituting the
election petition tribunals is not lost on discerning Nigerians and the
international community. This act of desperation is geared towards affecting the
outcome of the 2019 Presidential elections. Indeed, it is not just the CJN that
has been “suspended”, it is the Nigerian Constitution that has been infracted
and, in effect, suspended, under the guise of the suspension of the CJN.
The case involving the legality or otherwise of the charges against Chief Justice
Walter Onnoghen is in court, as it should be. So far, the judiciary has ruled in
Justice Onnoghen’s favour. So, why not allow the court to adjudicate on the
matter? What is the pressing urgency about this matter?
The purported suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Honourable

Justice Walter Onnoghen, by President Muhammadu Buhari is unequivocally
unconstitutional, illegal, immoral and grossly indefensible. What General
Buhari has done, putting it mildly, is a brazen coup against democracy.
 The Illegal Purchase of the Tucano Aircrafts:

President Buhari sometime in April 2018 approved the purchase of Tucano
Aircrafts for the Nigerian Military at the sum of $496 million (Four Hundred
and Ninety-Six Million United States Dollars).39 This, he did, without seeking
prior approval of the National Assembly contrary to Section 80 (3) and (4) of
the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which states very clearly, how the President
can spend monies belonging to the Federation. It provides:
“(3) No money shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund or any
other public fund of the Federation, except in the manner prescribed by the National
Assembly.”
“(4) No monies shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund or any
other public fund of the Federation, except in the manner prescribed by the National
Assembly”
5. Disregard for Orders of Courts:
The Muhammadu Buhari administration has serially violated court orders, going
against the rule of law especially in three known cases.
Col. Sambo Dasuki (former National Security Adviser):
Various courts have granted Col. Dasuki bail on at least six different occasions;
the Buhari led government has persistently refused to comply with the court
orders.
Ibraheem El-Zakzaky (Leader of a Shiite Group, IMN):
a. Sheikh El-Zakzaky has been in detention without trial for

over 3years after his followers were massacred in broad
daylight; his wife and family killed and his home burnt, in a
gory and shameful show of brute force by the Nigerian
Army. This particular state violence is nothing short of
genocide.
b. On December 2, 2016 the Abuja Division of the Federal
High Court Presided by Justice Kolawole ordered the release
of Sheikh El-Zakzaky and berated the Nigerian government
for violating his rights.41
Continued Detention of the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra
(IPOB) Mazi Nnamdi Kanu Against Court Orders:
It is common knowledge that the President Muhammadu Buhari
administration is notorious for disobeying court orders. It also appears
that legal practitioners are unwilling to confront the government to do the
needful and stop undermining the integrity and independence of the
Nigerian judiciary.
The Approval of $1 billion for Military Expenditure before Approaching

the National Assembly:
The Nigerian government through the National Economic Council NEC,

again in contravention of Section 80 (3) and (4) of the 1999 Constitution
(as amended), granted approval for the release of $1 billion from the
Excess Crude Account, ECA, for the procurement of military hardware
and other equipment to fight insecurity in the country, ahead of the 2019
General Elections without recourse to the National Assembly. Mansur
Dan-Ali, Nigeria’s Defense Minister disclosed this at the end of security
chiefs meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential
Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday, April 4, 2018. 43 By this act, the Federal
Government acted contrary to the provisions of the Section 80 (3) and (4)
of the 1999 Constitution, which states:
“(3) No monies shall be withdrawn from any public fund of the Federation, other
than the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation, unless the issue of those
moneys has been authorized by an Act of the National Assembly.
Executive Order No. 006 (On Preservation of Suspicious Assets and

Related Schedules):
The enactment of the controversial Executive Order No. 006 as an Executive

legislation which permits security agencies to freeze the assets of persons
standing trial or undergoing investigation without recourse to court orders. This
is a usurpation of legislative and judicial powers of the National Assembly and
the judiciary as enshrined respectively under sections 4 and 6 of the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and reminiscent of the military
era of decrees.
The above, and many more that did not make it into this very short letter, are
the unfortunate actions of the Government of a man who merely pays lip service
to being a reformed democrat.
b) Including Nigeria in the Saudi Arabia Military Coalition of
“Muslim/Arab” nations would appear that the Foreign Policy thrust of the
present administration is to make Nigeria a satellite state of Saudi Arabia. The
strengthening of the nation’s democracy and security for all should remain the
greatest priority of Government. This we see to have been negated by the
President’s fiat/unilateral decision to enlist Nigeria in the 34 nations
Muslim/Arab coalition. Given the emotive and sensitive nature of this unilateral
Executive decision, it should have been handled by Mr President in line with
our democratic culture through popular discussion and participation by the
citizenry, or at the very least, through the National Assembly.
c) Attempt to fund deficit in the 2016 Budget through issuance of Sukkuk

loan which is a “Sharia compliant loan.” Nigeria is not a Sharia compliant
nation.
d) The consideration of establishing “free visa” arrangement with Islamic D8

nations. These countries are: Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia,
Pakistan, Turkey, and of course, Nigeria.
e) The apparent Islamization of key security positions in the country.
f) The apparent disdain and contempt of Mr President for Christians in

Nigeria as demonstrated during his interview on Al – Jazeera on the objection
of Christians to Nigeria’s involvement in the Saudi-led Military Coalition to
fight ISIS.
We wish to remind Mr President that he was brought to power through the votes
of Nigerians, Christians inclusive. Mr President should kindly remember that
the over 50% non-Muslims in Nigeria did not vote for the nation to transmute
into a Sharia compliant nation. Mr President assured Nigerians that he is “a
convert” to democracy but we are disturbed by the direction of his
administration.
We are aware that there are presently Islamists in Government prepared to

execute the Islamization Agenda. Any nation in which Islamists believe that
they are sufficiently strong to exercise influence rarely experience peaceful
cohabitation amongst the divergent groups within it. This is the current situation
in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and the
Sudan. Islamism thrives on injustice, inequality and unfairness. We urge
Nigerians to remain circumspect so that the Islamists do not drag the nation
down the path of destruction.44
6. The Politics of Company and Allied Matters Acts (CAMA) 2020,

Hate Speech
On Friday, 7th August 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari assented to the

Companies and Allied Matters Bill passed by the National Assembly. The
Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020 (the "Act") repealed the Companies
and Allied Matters Act, Cap. C20 LFN 2004, and contains major amendments
that have brought the Act in line with global best practices.45
It appears the angst against this new legislation is its Section 839 (1) and (2) has
spurned bitter commentaries against government, suggesting that it is a
document whose main agenda was to Islamize Nigeria. That section which the
ecumenical warlords found offensive to their practice of Christianity relates to
Trustees of Non-Governmental Organizations, (NGOs) which purports to give
government officials the power to remove the board of trustees and even close
the accounts of any church without recourse to the courts. Nigeria seems to have
been quaking ever since, with these religionists mounting the pulpit to denounce
CAMA as designed from the pit of hell.46
Entitled “Suspension of Trustees and Appointment of Interim

Manager(s),”Section 839 (1) empowers the Commission to suspend trustees of
an association and appoint interim managers to manage the affairs of the
association where it reasonably believes that-
a. There is or has been misconduct or mismanagement in the administration

of the association;
b. it is necessary or desirable for the purpose of;
i. Protecting the property of the association
ii. Securing a proper application for the property of the association
towards achieving the objects of the association, the purpose of the
association of that property or of the property coming to the association,
iii. Public interest; or
c. the affairs of the association are being run fraudulently.47
Subsection 2: 1. The trustees shall be suspended by an order of Court upon the

petition of the Commission or Members consisting of one-fifth of the
association, and the petitioners shall present all reasonable evidence or such
evidence as requested by the Court in respect of the petition.
What the foregoing provision means is that, rather than the practice before now
when NGOs, among which churches and mosques were ranked, operated as
Lords of the Manor and had overarching powers over their organizations,
henceforth, the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has the power to lawfully
place on suspension trustees of any of the above associations principally on
grounds stated above. Specifically, the trustees shall be suspended “by an order
of Court” which can only be actioned “upon the petition of the Commission” or
“members consisting of one-fifth of the association” alleging mismanagement
of their organizations’ funds.
David Oyedepo, presiding Bishop of Living Faith Church Worldwide, as usual,

was the first to raise umbrage. Addressing his congregants in the preceding
Sunday service the week the law was signed Oyedepo spat fire like a dragon.
He was quoted to have claimed that government was jealous of “the prosperity
of the church” and queried the rationality of ranking churches alongside
companies, the church being “God’s heritage on earth.”
“Molest the wife of somebody and you will see the anger of that person. The church
is the bride of Christ. You know how a strong man is when you tamper with his wife.
The church is the body of Christ. We are under obligation to give warnings to wicked
rulers so we could be free from their blood. The church works on the pattern
delivered by God not the pattern of man. Government has no power to appoint
people over churches. This is a secular nation…”, Oyedepo said.48
Some observers have noted that, under the Buhari administration, CAMA is
only another attempt primarily aimed at caging churches in Nigeria. It would be
recalled that in late 2016/early 2017, the Financial Regulations Council, waving
the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria Act No. 6 of 2011, had announced a
maximum period of 20 years for the head of all registered churches, mosques,
and civil society organisations. Had that regulation been implemented, all the
notable church leaders in the country would not have been spared if not the
public uproar that forced the government to beat a quick retreat.
My fear is that the government, though appears to have decidedly kept these
regulations in the cooler, but will have to invoke them at the oppotuned time.
But there are some fundamental questions we need to ask: Where were the
church leaders when the CAMA bill, for instance, was making its rounds in the
National Assembly? How many representations did they make to the
legislators? Are there no Christians in the NASS? Is there any notable church
leader who does not have members in the NASS? What efforts did they make to
kill the bill before it became law? Is this not the same country where the Vice
President is not just a Christian but also a senior pastor? 49
How many times did the church leaders picket the National Assembly on
account of these obnoxious laws and regulations? What advocacies did they
embark upon? How many press conferences did they address on the issue?
Where were the CAN, PFN and such other leaders of Christendom? What is
their relevance if they cannot undertake the simple task of defending their own
interest? Will someone who shirks the responsibility of defending his own
interests be minded to defend someone else’s?
Why do Nigeria’s religious leaders gladly subject themselves to same rules

overseas where they extend the octopodial roots of their financial empires
nicknamed church and willy-nilly subject their church administration to the
rules of trustees as NGOs? Why then do they dissent in this instance? It is on
record that many of them have been fined millions of pounds, escaping the
jailhouse by the whiskers in the process, while trying to brandish their Nigerian
brand of lawlessness and primitive gluttony abroad.50
It must however be said that the Buhari administration’s proclivity for mis-
governance and pristine cronyism may not totally allow one to apply the right
cudgel on this misguided opposition to this section of CAMA 2020. If you sit
the religious barons down to a discussion, they are likely to offer as alibi to their
dissention to the law the infamous antecedent of Buhari Fulanizing every
appointment and his tendency to want to use CAMA 2020 to foist his known
mindset on the church. As puerile as the argument may be, Buhari may give
shine to the suspicion.
These same barons failed woefully in getting spiritual intercession for the
affliction of COVID-19 and were totally absent with appropriate succour when
the pandemic ravaged their Nigerian faithful from whom they have collected
even before colonial infiltration into the Nigerian social and political space.
Crying foul on a law that is aimed at bringing sanity to their greed is
tendentious. They should take a step forward and see their congregation
laughing at their folly.51
Even though it has not been tested, it is obvious that the particular provision of
CAMA 2020’s intendment is to curtail the massive looting, money laundering
and manipulation by Nigerian pastors. They explore and exploit the
hopelessness in the land brought about by equally wicked and selfish successive
governments and use the twine of prosperity and blissful eternal life to empty
the wallets of their congregants at Bible-point. If not, the sensationalist
harangue of this provision of CAMA 2020 is needless, unless the church barons
are admitting that they are running the churches fraudulently. Hyping the
narrative that, by virtue of the law, the “Islamist government” wanted to appoint
“unbelievers” to preside over the church will not hold water. This is because the
provisions are not ambiguous at all. Only fraudulently-run churches need to be
afraid.52
First, the law gives the right to suspend trustees of the church to the CAC and
the church members themselves and the petition, which must be signed by
either the commission or church members, must give evidence of fraud. Even at
that, it is the church that would effects the suspension.
My take in all of this is that the law as it is presented in a society that respects
the rule of law and has no skeleton in her capboard is a desirable one. But in a
society were political and governmental vultures feast, where the current
holders of power is an unmitigated disaster, where plans had already been
uncovered of attempts to Fulanise and Islamize the country, there are fears that
such regulations could be invoked to harm the targeted victim(s). Critics have
already posited that full-blown dictatorship has started to bare its fangs.
Wealthy and influential church leaders who command the attention of millions
of followers not only in Nigeria but also all over the world are seen as critical
opinion moulders who must be silenced way ahead of 2023 so that the cabals
dictating the pace of things in Nigeria can have it smooth sailing from now on.
7. Caging the Social Media
Another critical section of the society Buhari government is bent on caging is

the media, especially social media. That is the import of their hate speech law
and the whopping N5million they are imposing as fine. Remember, they once
mulled even the death penalty as punishment for so-called hate speech while
Boko Haram murderers are gifted with rehabilitation! The so-called hate speech
law appears in every important sense a reincarnation of the obnoxious and
draconian Buhari’s Decree Number 4 of 1984. We are all living witnesses how
security operatives tried to “rubbish and diminish” Obadiah Mailafia just like
the self-proclaimed evil genius, Ibrahim Babangida, did to Tai Solarin, and how
they slapped a fine of humongous sum on the medium that published Mailafia’s
interview!53
Freedom of speech is under attack; freedom of religious worship, no less! The

positive provisions of CAMA 2020, such as the promotion of the ease of doing
business, according to critics, are mere camouflage and detour; those are not
their goal or real intention or else, they would have stopped at that; gagging
churches is the target, particularly the outspoken ones like Oyedepo and the
others that speak against the many atrocities of the Buhari/APC regime.54
We have heard Oyedepo roar over issues that touch his soul again and again.
But the Government’s response – that Oyedepo obey or get himself another
country – is most reckless and patently irresponsible. I’m particularly not
surprised at that response! No government properly so-called talks to its citizens
that way. Only an army of occupation behaves like that! But I did not get the
riposte I expected from the Bishop! Oh yes, a new country is on the way; a
brand new country of the free born is in the offing! A country that we can truly
call ours; not this contraption that the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, described
as a mere geographical expression and which has bluntly refused to come of
age!
8. Kaduna State Religious Bill
We wish to express tremendous shock at the proposed Kaduna State Religious

Bill. The proposed Bill contravenes Section 38 (1) of the 1999 Constitution. We
should remind the Government of Kaduna State that religion is personal and no
one has the right to legislate on how individuals worship. We call on the
Kaduna State Governor to retrace his steps from this ill-advised venture.
Adoption and forceful marriage of underage Christian girls: We are saddened

by recent exposure in the country of serial cases of forceful abduction of
underage, forceful marriage, marriage without parental consent of the Christian
girls and their forceful conversion to Islam. We condemn in totality this act of
violation of the Human Rights of these girls and it is a degradation of our
national values.
We are also amazed that the Senate failed to pass the Gender and Equal
Opportunity Bill into law. We strongly recommend that this Bill should be re-
introduced and passed into law urgently.55
9. Rampage of the Fulani Herdsmen

We are dismayed by the inaction of the Federal Government to the carnage and
destruction caused by the Fulani herdsmen against legitimate native land owners
and farmers, across the country. The most recent case occurred in Agatu area of
Benue State in February 2016. According to media report by eye witnesses,
over 300 Nigerians were allegedly massacred by the herdsmen and many
communities were devastated in the attacks. It is most shocking that till today,
there has been no prosecution of any of these marauders. For years, the Fulani
herdsmen have been murdering innocent Nigerians with impunity. The
murderous escapades of the Fulani herdsmen has gained international notoriety
to the extent that the group is now considered, internationally, as the fourth
most dangerous terror organization in the world. It is sad to note that Boko
Haram, which is presently regarded as the world number one most dangerous
terror organization and the Fulani herdsmen, considered the fourth are both
operating in Nigeria. Meanwhile, the response of Government to the menace of
the Fulani herdsmen has to date, been tepid and indifferent.56
10.Grazing Reserves for Cattle
One reason adduced to justify the perennial attacks of the Fulani herdsmen is
the argument that they seek grazing fields for their cattle and as a result engage
in conflicts with farmers. It was therefore proposed that ancestral lands of other
ethnic groups should be allocated to them as grazing fields.
However, the most sensible and economically wise approach would be to build
ranches for the herdsmen in their states of origin. This makes more sense and it
is the internationally approved best practice under the circumstances. Other
nations of the world consume beef yet, nomads do not drive herds of cattle all
over the nation in the 21st century.
The Grazing Reserve proposal is seen as a deceptive manner of appropriating

the lands of indigenous ethnic groups for the Fulani herdsmen to spread their
tentacles of terror all over the nation. The proposal should be dropped and the
state governments of the herdsmen should build ranches for them in their states
of origin.57
11.Inconsistencies in Governmental Policy
We find it curious that the Federal Government of Nigeria that has pledged total
support for a two state solution to the Israel – Palestinian conflict, as well as
support for the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), is not addressing
the demand of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) for a state of their own.
The latest in the series of attacks on the IPOB occurred on 9th February, 2016
when over twenty two members of the Movement were killed by soldiers during
a prayer meeting in Aba. And in September 2017, the Nigerian army carried out
an operation dubbed “Operation Python Dance”, invaded the home of the IPOB
leader, killed more than thirty IPOB members and miraculously the leader
escaped.
It is difficult to rationalize why a government that is clamping down on

agitations for self-determination by an ethnic group within Nigeria, could be
supporting such agitations in foreign countries. We recommend to the
Government that as it is considering the case of SADR and the Palestinians, it
should in like manner open dialogue with IPOB. The solution to the Biafra
agitation is dialogue. While some discountenance any secessionist move, the
solution to the Biafran agitation is dialogue.58
12. The 1999 Constitution and the Rise of Ethnic Nationalism in

Nigeria: What Next?
The latest constitution of Nigeria that was created to rule our country was
accepted in 1999. This document became the fourth in Nigerian history to
appear in the law field. However, there is a huge history before that constitution
and its power. A lot of things have been changed, modified or even disappeared
from the life and laws of Nigerians.
The 1999 Constitution, a Fraud?
Recently, Yemi Osinbajo (Vice-President of Nigeria) surprisingly publicly

raised alarm that the walls of Nigeria are cracked and if nothing is done urgently
the whole edifice will crash upon us. Some intellectuals have diagnosed that the
crack came from the wrong foundation upon which Nigeria is built – the 1999
Constitution.
Diagnosing Nigeria’s ailment, Tony Nnadi, one of the finest intellectuals and a
foremost Constitutional lawyer with specialty in jurisprudence, has likened the
Nigerian government, any government, to a Company with its inherent “Memo”
and “Article of Association”. It is the sole responsibility of the owners of the
Company to decide, define and submit both the articles and the memorandum of
association of the company in question. What happened to Nigeria is that the
owners (different nationalities that make up Nigeria) ought to be independent in
their own right. They are actually the shareholders of the corporate Company
called Nigeria. Who are these share holders? They are the Eastern Region
otherwise known as the Biafra, the Yoruba nation otherwise called the Oodua
people in the South West, the North Central (the Middle Belters), and the core
North (the Arewas). The article and memorandum of association (otherwise
called Nigeria Constitution) ought to be formulated by these Stakeholders.
Using the same analogy, the three components of a building (Nigeria) are the
foundation, vertical structure and the roofing structure. The definition of the
union (the polity) is the foundation (the Constitution). It is the foundation that
defines and moderates the politics (the vertical column). The roof of the
building represents the policy-statements and discussions arising from that
politics. Those three components could be collapsed into the three components
illuminated in the definition of democracy – Government “of the people”
(foundation – the people in exercise of their sovereignty decide the ultimate
rules called the Constitution), “by the people” (having so decided the politics
that happens in a state is governed by the Constitution); “for the people” (the
politics – is where the people begins to get benefits.) Nigeria’s so-called
“Democracy” does not pass any of these tests.
By 1966, the military toppled the Enterprise called Nigeria and removed the
owners (different nationalities) from the “Ownership” of the “memo” and
“Articles of Association” called Nigeria and the Federal Government now
becomes the “Owner” of everybody and everything progressively to the point
where we now have 68 items in the Exclusive List which emasculated the rest
of the component parts, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
in Abuja processes who governs other parts of the country, where states (and
regions) cannot defend themselves but depended on Abuja for their security
which was an abysmal failure, where all the economic assets belong to the
Centre, controlled by the Fulani hegemonists, where the Supreme Court decides
cases in remote nooks and crannies of the country, etc.
It was in 1967 that the four regions which were broken into twelve states and
their assets progressively sequestered by the Federal government, seized to be a
Federation. But we kept pretending such that in 1975 Murtala Muhammed
seized power from Gowon, invited Rotimi Williams and handed down to him
instructions arising from the festivals of the killing field and how the victors in
the Nigeria/Biafra war want to lord it over the rest of us. Rotimi Williams in
turn drafted in Ben Nwabueze and they went with others to formulate what we
now known as the 1979 Constitution.
Stake holders have querried the authenticity and intendment of the 1999
Constitution as the products of the people of Nigeria. Regrettably, the peoples
of Nigeria have never made a constitution for themselves. The Nigerian
government has always made a Constitution for the people. This is wrong!
All the agitations in Nigeria – the separatist demand for an independent Biafran
nation through the Indegenous People of Nigeria (IPOB) etc, the Oodua
Peoples’ Congress (OPC) and the demand for restructuring, regional security
outfit snowballing into the latest Oodua South West movement for Oduduwa
Republic, the Middle Belt agitations, the Niger-Delta agitations through the
Niger Delta Volunteer Force led by Asari Dokubo, MEND, Avengers, etc are
all borne out of their constitutional grievances. When Tony Nnadi reportedly
asked Asari Dokubo why he blew up oil pipelines, Asari retorted: “I did not
know how the assets in Ijaw land became the property of the Northerners and
their foreign friends”; their oil and gas under the control of the North through
Shell, Chevron, Mobile, etc.
Before Obasanjo came, OPC had enough weapons to push the police out of the
way. The police personnels hide their uniforms to go to work. The OPC is now
asking: how did the internal security of the Yoruba nation evidently became the
exclusive business of people from outside the Yoruba land, especially those
perceived as their enemies? When a Yoruba leader was asked similar question,
he retorted: “How can you have the internal security of the Yoruba nation in the
hands of those who do not wish us well”, apparently referring to the need for
state police.
The imposed 1999 Constitution for Nigeria has 98 items in the Legislative List.
68-Items therein are reserved for Exclusive Legislative List. The remaining 30
items are in the Concurrent List for both the Federal and State governments. In
the event of clash of interests between the two, the Constitution gives the
Federal Government the prerogative of Right. In other words, effectively the
federal government has authority of all the 98 items.
Nigeria’s founding fathers at independence were sufficiently aware of Nigeria’s

perculiarities and underlining principles and consciously chose federal system
of government based on land mass, diverse ethnic groups, cultures, religions
and perception of life. Consequently, there was a true Federal/Republican
Constitution with proper items in the legislative lists to enable the federating
regional governments have a measure of autonomy to meet the yearnings and
aspirations of their people for development.
There was healthy competition among the regional governments in development

as each explored and exploited the vast mineral and natural resources within
their respective areas and remitted an agreed sum to the federal government for
the administration of foreign affairs, defense, immigration and customs.
It is lamentable that the federal government deliberately bastardised the

Exclusive Legislative, Concurrent Legislative and Residual Legislative lists to
pander to the vaulting ambition of a section of the country to lord it over the
others. Centralized governance led to the intimidation of state governments over
the items in the Concurrent Legislative list.
The federal government does not need to operate all the present MDA’s like
agriculture, health, education, commerce and industry, prisons, solid minerals,
power, housing works; and agencies such as FRSC which usurped the motor
licensing, plate number and driving license from the board of internal revenues
of state governments.
That is why the Federal Ministry of Agriculture has become a tool of Fulani
herdsmen, which is using impressing upon it to use public fund for importation
of grasses, nutrients and other medicals; in addition to sponsoring a bill to
develop the so-called “grazing reserves”. We are therefore calling for
restructuring the country to reinvent true and fiscal federalism in order to put a
stop to these aberrations.
The Constitution in its Exclusive List puts the matter of Arms/Ammunition and
the matter of Police also in the hands of the Federal Government. The carnage
and ethnic cleansing going on in the Middle Belt and the South could not defend
themselves because the right to instruments of coercion is in the hands of the
Fulani-control Federal Government. Eastern Nigeria complains about
constitutional grievances. The Middle Belt and even the Sharia North had their
constitutional grievances. The Sharia Northern states complain that they live
their quiet life and Nigeria came and imposed democracy on them. The reason
why people are being killed in the Middle Belt and cannot defend themselves is
because the Constitution grants an exclusive preserve of arms and ammunition
to the Federal Government led by the Fulanis. It removes the instruments of
coercion from the states and given to the Federal Government. The case of
former Anambra State governor that was sequestered by his political godfather
who relied on the federal might to kidnap the executive governor of Anambra
State.
The preponderance of the Federal-controlled Exclusive List over the power of

coercion and the power of the purse which the Fulani-controlled federal
government exploits the rest of the country especially the South-East. Through
their power of the purse, the federal government grants underserved favours to
Dangote, usurping all government concessions, granting all manner of business
opportunities to their brother, a Fulani man. How did Dangote become the
owner of Benue Cement?
The economic assets in Nigeria have been sequestered by the Constitution. The
Federal Government with the seaports and airports under her control
emasculated the eastern seaports in Calabar and Port Harcourt, making the
people of the region use the Lagos sea and airports in their international
transactions. Eastern region used to generate electricity using the Oji River built
a power plant. About 80% businessmen are from the South East and are
sequestered by various toll-gates in the South East and the South South regions.
Nigeria is a toxic liability to its constituent assemblies. The 1999 Constitution is

an instrument of death, backwardness. The first assignment of Murtala
Mohammed as head of state in 1975 was an invitation of Rotimi Williams to
draft what was a 50-year charter of the civil war, the victorious charter
emanating from the blood festival between 1966 and 1970. It was the whole
package of brigandage backed upon by a Decree that became a legal instrument
which necessitated the adoption of the 1979 Constitution. Rotimi Williams then
shopped for Ben Nwabueze who helped him in drafting the working document
for 1977 Constituent Assembly.
As it were, the Constituent Assembly effected a number of adjustments to the

draft – rejected the retention of states created by the brigandage of 1967, wanted
a return to the regions with their autonomy. The Constituent Assembly rejected
the presidential system of government because power is concentrated in the
hands of a few hands. The Constituent Assembly did not legitimize the Land
Use Decree that gave the Federal Government the power over all lands in
Nigeria.
It is important to stress that on the 21st of September, 1978, Olusegun Obasanjo,

having received the draft of the Constitution Drafting Committee from the
Constituent Assembly, introduced 17 amendments, announced on a national
broadcast. These amendments effectively removed essentially all the ingredients
that would have sustained a federal system that Nigeria pretends to aspire to and
imposed some other extraneous and inimical principles and practices that led to
the country standing on bended knees.
The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) meant as a national unifying

institution was used to push the children of the North from Sokoto, Kano,
Bauchi, etc to the South where they serve the nation for one year as required by
the law after which they are retained in such choice plumb jobs in the NNPC,
NPA, Central Bank, Chevron in places like Lagos Warri Port Harcourt whilst
the children of the South are posted to the Northern villages where there is no
prospects and opportunities for employment. About 90% of employment is
done without due process and in the favour of the North.
Marginalization has forced many youths from the South to migrate to other
climes especially to Europe, America, Asia and other African countries, seeking
for greener pasture.
The compromise position of the Fulani-led Federal Government of Nigeria is

becoming clearer by each passing day. A minister from the northern part of
Nigeria was quoted as saying that those who built on ancient routes in their
ancestral home should remove their investments for cows to have unhindered
access. In fact, the Inspector General of Police flatly declared that those states
that passed anti-grazing bill should remove it and allow cows’ unhindered
access otherwise they should expect further attacks from the herdsmen. El-
Rufai, the Governor of Kaduna State said he went to 14 countries to pay the
herders and dissuade them from reprisal attacks in Kaduna, Nigeria. During the
coronavirus lockdown, there was compromise when the government imposed
“no-movement” stance, except on essential duties, but allowed and facilitated
the easy movements of the Janjaweed terrorists to infiltrate the South, especially
the South-East, usually in the night. The bushes in the South East houses these
criminals imported by the troublers of Nigeria. The Buhari Government is
perceived as an enabler of this crime. Many Nigerians believe that the Buhari
government plans to make Nigeria the home of all wandering Fulanis from
other West African countries. Upon the completion of this assignment, he
would hand Nigeria over to ISIS for their global operations.59
The controversial Water way Bill had been secretly signed into law; also the
controversial bill of the Company and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) has also
been signed by the government.
Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has called on members of the National
Assembly to reject the National Water Resources Bill before the Assembly in
the interest of the country describing it as another version of the rejected RUGA
policy to grab land for pastoralists.
The Governor insisted that the bill which sought to bring all water sources
(surface and underground) as well as river banks under the control of the
Federal Government through its agencies was anti-federalism and also negated
the right of Nigerians to their God-given resources.
The Governor in a statement Saturday, by his Chief Press Secretary, Terver

Akase, observed that Section 13 of the Bill, states thus: ‘In implementing the
principles under subsection (2) of this section, the institutions established under
this Act shall promote integrated water resources management and the
coordinated management of land and water resources, surface water and
groundwater resources, river basins and adjacent marine and coastal
environment and upstream and downstream interests.’ He described as curious,
the reintroduction of the Bill, which was rejected in 2018 by the 8th Assembly
adding “those pushing for the passage of the bill at all cost have a surreptitious
motive which is not yet clear to other Nigerians.”60
He stated that “the bill, in addition to its provisions which are at variance with
the Land Use Act, is a disguised land-grabbing legislation designed to grant
pastoralists unhindered access to river basins, adjacent marine and coastal
environments across the country. “The bill is another version of Ruga which
objective is to create grazing areas in the 36 states of the federation for herders
and their livestock.”61
He commended socio-cultural organizations such as Afenifere, Ohaneze and

Middle Belt Forum for speaking against the reintroduction of the bill at the
National Assembly and urged federal lawmakers to act as true representatives of
the people for the sake of posterity and to remember that the destiny of the
country lied in their hands. Governor Ortom also advised legislators in the two
chambers of the National Assembly to toe the path of honour by rejecting the
bill as the 8th Assembly did.62
13. Nigeria: Will Insecurity Be Contained Via The Constitutional
Force Majeure?
Understandably, the Constitutional Force Majeure is an ORDERLY PROCESS

proposed by some stake-holders to bring order, and a cessation of the hostilities
foisted upon indigenous people by Fulani herdsmen and the other terrorists in
the Nigerian space.
Upon the initiation of this process, Nigeria became a “Disputed Project” with
the proclamation of a Constitutional Force Majeure consequent upon which the
influential USA House of Representatives non-partisan Tom Lantos Human
Rights Commission held an important hearing on “Conflict and Killings in
Nigeria’s Middle Belt”.
“The hearing lasted for nearly four hours and a recording is available on the
internet. The list of witnesses to this hearing is quite impressive and included R.H.
Baroness Cox, UK Member of Parliament and Co-Chair, All-Party Parliamentary
Group for Freedom of Religion and Thought, Ms Annigje (Ann) Buwalda, Executive
Director, Jubilee Campaign USA, plus H.E. William Avenya, Bishop of Gboko,
Nigeria. The long and short of it is that this hearing provided evidence that Nigeria
has very severe security and human rights challenges, has no effective civilian
security, no effective police protection, and terrorists appear to enjoy freedom of
movement. All this meaning that organised criminals are terrorising Nigerians across
the country.”63
The international community is fully aware of the killings, terrorism, human

rights abuses and the absence of civil liberties in Nigeria under the present
dispensation and the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission is fully aware of
all these. Infact, Nigeria had been under investigation by the International
Criminal Court for Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes.
The Tom Lantos Commission entertained various witnesses pointing to the

ethnic cleansing against indigenous peoples of the Middle Belt, mainly
Christians, but also moderate Moslems, by Fulani herdsmen militia/terrorists.
Clearly demonstrated by witnesses with adduced evidences is the actual
genocide unfolding in the Middle Belt, and coupled with the fact that current
events in Nigeria authenticate the fact that these slaughters and land grabbings
are spreading down to the south.
“In fact, in the presentation made by Baroness Cox, she provided a slide with
information that as at May 2020, 350 Igbo villages had become occupied by Fulani
herders and Shuwa Arab mercenaries. The slide also stated that Boko Haram has
killed 43,000 people and Islamist Fulani had killed 19,000.”64
Finally, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission hearing came to the
conclusion that the Nigerian government was not providing security for
Nigerians. Here is a sample of what was said:
 “…Jubilee Campaign submits for the record our detailed Brief that we provided to
the International Criminal court and in which we argue that genocide has taken place
in the Middle Belt of Nigeria. It is our finding that Boko Haram and Fulani militants
are committing acts of genocide. Fulani militants pose a mortal threat to the
predominantly Christian farming tribes in the Middle Belt and surrounding states, but
the Nigerian government is failing both to protect the victims of Fulani militant
violence and to bring the perpetrators to justice according to its duty. As a member of
the Genocide Convention, it is time for the United States to place pressure on Nigeria
to end the impunity and offer security to the victims in communities in Nigeria
vulnerable to Fulani militant attacks and violence…”65
This hearing confirms what Nigerians know through experience. Nigeria is such
a terrifying state that the ruling elite who should address the insecurity
situations choose rather to send their own children abroad mainly to Western
countries to enjoy the safety and peace there. Dubai has suddenly become a
place of refuge for Buhari’s wife and other emebers of the family, with reports
that spouses of the ruling class have decided to partake of the carefree lifestyle
there in complete disregard to our stark economic realities, rather than be in
Nigeria.
It is under such an atmosphere of insecurity and non-responsive governance, so

wanting to bring some order to the country, that the Nigerian Indigenous
Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS) declared a
Constitutional Force Majeure on 16th December 2020 to De-commission the
illegitimate 1999 Constitution.66 Hence, Nigeria became a Disputed Project
because the Constitutional Force Majeure is over a Sovereignty Dispute
occasioned by issues with the imposed 1999 Constitution.
In September 2019, prior to the 16th December, 2020 declaration, the UN

Special Rapporteur for Extrajudicial and Arbitrary Executions, Agnes
Callamard had described Nigeria as “an injustice pressure cooker” that “gives
rise to extreme concern” and “warning signs are flashing bright red”. 67 Experts
have clearly shown that it is the imposed 1999 Constitution, a forgery, that
creates injustice, enables insecurity, and facilitates corruption. Given what the
1999 Constitution has brought upon Nigerians, it was repudiated by NINAS in
the Constitutional Force Majeure undertaking.68
The custodians of the Constitutional Force Majeure strategy are Movement for
New Nigeria (MNN) an Alliance of self-determination organisations that
comprises of Lower Niger Congress (South East and South South bloc), Ìlànà
Ọmọ Oòduà (South West bloc), and Middle Belt Congress (Middle Belt bloc).
Through this Constitutional Force Majeure process, MNN has begun to re-
educate Nigerians to see that they deserve to enjoy security, human rights and
civil liberties within Nigeria, and do not need to flee abroad in order to get
them. Nigerians, especially the youth are now seeing that they are the Owners,
and that elected officials are the hired Managers, employed by the Owners via
elections to bring about good for the society.69
Nigeria, being now a ‘Disputed Project’, the Constitutional Force Majeure, is

that pathway through which NINAS, ie the indigenous peoples, have set
themselves the task of bringing order and security to their ancestral lands
through an ORDERLY PROCESS. It will be achieved because there is a new
determination that a situation as described by Agnes Callamard, UN Special
Rapporteur, where “…increased criminality and spreading insecurity;
widespread failure by the Federal authorities to investigate and hold perpetrators
to account, even for mass killing…”70 can no longer be the norm.
 The 90 Days Ultimatum
On December 16, 2020, the MNN, an alliance of the Middle Belt, Yorubaland,
and Lower Niger (otherwise known as the Biafraland) issued a
PROCLAMATION of the CONSTITUTIONAL GRIEVANCES,
DECLARATION OF CONSTITUTIONAL FORCE MAJEURE AND
DEMAND FOR TRANSITIONING PROCESS FOR ORDERLY
RECONFIGURATION OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL BASIS OF THE
FEDERATION OF NIGERIA! The proclamation is titled: CORRECTING
THE MISTAKES OF 1914.
The 5 Demands:
The Peoples of Middle-Belt and Southern Nigeria made a five-point demand to

the Federal Government of Nigeria which they said MUST be addressed within
90 days from December 16, 2020. They included the following:71
 A Formal Announcement by the Federal Government of Nigeria
acknowledging the Constitutional Grievances and Sovereignty Dispute
now Declared by the Peoples of South and Middle-Belt of Nigeria.
 A Formal Commitment by Federal Government of Nigeria to the
wholesale Decommissioning and Jettisoning of the 1999 Constitution as
the Basis of the Federation of Nigeria as was done by the Government of
Apartheid-Era South Africa in 1990, to commence the process by which
the Apartheid Constitution of the then South Africa was eased out.
 A Formal Announcement by the Federal Government of Nigeria
suspending further General Elections under the Disputed 1999
Constitution since winners of such Elections will Swear to, and Govern
by that Constitution.
 A Formal Initiation of a Time-Bound Transitioning Process to midwife
the emergence of Fresh Constitutional Protocols by a Two-Stage Process
in which the Constituent Regional Blocs will at the first stage, Distill and
Ratify their various Constitutions by Referendums and Plebiscites and in
the second stage, Negotiate the Terms of Federating afresh as may be
dictated by the outcomes of Referendum and Plebiscites.
 A Formal Invitation to the Peoples of the South and Middle-Belt of
Nigeria to work out and emplace a Transitional Authority, which shall
specify the Modalities for the Transitioning Process including the
Composition and Mandate of the Transitional Authority a well as the
Time-frame for the Transitioning and other Ancillary Matters.
Recommendations72
a) Government should urgently convene a Council of State meeting to enable

past presidents assess developments in the nation and give mature counsel.
b) A Truth and Reconciliation Commission should be set up to reconcile all

Nigerians. It would appear that the Islamists, who ruled Nigeria for many years
from the background, using various administrations as proxies, are now fully
entrenched in the Government. The terms of reference of the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission should include:
o To distinguish the differences between Islam and Islamism and

identify Nigerians that promoted Islamism in Nigeria.
o The role that Islamism played in promoting corruption and
impunity, which includes cultism, a phenomenon that was
developed in Nigeria in the last 30 years.
o Identify the role played by the armed forces, the police, and the
intelligence agencies in the promotion of cultism, corruption and
other vices that have since devastated Nigeria.
o To grant reprieve and pardon to any person, organization or group
which confess to criminal, illegal and immoral act in the past.
o To deal with the issues of genocide and/or marginalization
perpetrated against certain ethnic minorities and promote
reconciliation and healing to all those affected.
c) Every form of negotiation to involve Nigeria in issuing Sukkuk should be

discontinued. Sukkuk is a “Sharia Compliant Loan” which does not serve the
interest of all Nigeria because the nation is not a Sharia compliant nation. In
addition, Sukkuk would jeopardize the sovereignty of Nigeria because under
Sukkuk, both the lender and the debtor will own the asset which is based on
land. It therefore implies that if Nigeria should eventually succumb to the
acceptance of the Sukkuk loan, both the Arabs and Nigerians will own Nigeria.
d) To put an end to the murderous attacks of Fulani herdsmen, ranches should

be established in the states of origin of the herdsmen. The Grazing Reserve
proposal is seen as a deceptive manner of appropriating the lands of indigenous
ethnic groups for the Fulani herdsmen to spread their tentacles of terror all over
the nation.
e) The ownership of Nigeria can rightly be claimed by the Ethnic

Nationalities. We call on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to
complement the stand of the National Assembly on the Constitution and
implement the Report of the National Conference as regards the Executive and
Policy recommendations. The National Conference Report guarantees the
introduction of true Federalism which is required to build a strong, united, and
prosperous nation.
f) In view of the security challenges facing the nation, it is highly advisable

that each ethnic group should develop State or regional Policing to protect its
people and its land. The security agencies have not been effective in providing
security, particularly for vulnerable communities in the nation.
g) For reasons shrouded in mystery, the government stopped the teaching of
History as a subject in schools. From the experience of Black Africans in
Sudan, Islamists employ this sly method to eradicate the history of the
indigenous ethnic groups whose land the Arabs covet and wish to takeover.
According to George Orwell, “The most effective way to destroy people is to
deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” A people without
history, is a people without a future. We therefore demand that the teaching of
History as a subject in schools should be reintroduced forthwith.
14. REFERENCES
1. National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) Chairman, Elder Solomon

Asemota (SAN) in a statement entitled: “Jihad in Nigeria: Burying the
Head in the Sand”, signed on September 6, 2017. See also earlier release
entitled: “Correct Assessment of Situation in Nigeria”, which has
generated a great deal of debate among some Nigerian Muslim leaders.
2. Sam Eyoboka and Dapo Akinrefon, “Islamization: Nigeria on Throes of
Jihad, Christian Elders Insists”, Vanguard, September 11, 2017.
5. See Willink’s Commission Report of 1958
10.Sam Eyoboka, “Insecurity in Nigeria: Full Text of Christian Elders’
Letter to British Parliament”, Vanguard July 6, 2019.
11.Sam Eyoboka, “Insecurity in Nigeria: Full Text of Christian Elders’
Letter to British Parliament”, Vanguard July 6, 2019.
12.National Christian Elders’ Forum, NCEF has dismissed the Federal
Government’s rebuttal of the petition it forwarded to the British, (July 5,
2019). US former acting Assistant Secretary of Defense, Mr. Frank
Gaffney accused Nigeria’s Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo of lying
shamelessly about the killings of Christians in Nigeria.
13.Afenifere discredited the statements credited to Vice-President as he
visited the Vice-President of the US. Afenifere viewed those statements
as being politically motivated.
14.Yemi Osinbajo was morally flawed and without much thought for his
integrity as a pastor fundamentally erred by denying the world from
knowing the truth and from speaking truth to power.
15.On September 6, 2017, the National Christian Elders’ Forum (NCEF)
asked the leaders of Islam in Nigeria those questions as tabulated in the
NCEF letter submitted to the British Parliament.
21.In June 2018, the Amnesty International accused the Nigeria Government
under President Buhari of encouraging the killings going on in Nigeria.
22.Mr. Ojigbo, personnel of the Amnesty International expresses deep
concerns and disappointments over the way the Buhari-led Nigeria
Government is handling the security situation in the country.
23.Open Doors International Organisation raised the issue of escalating
violence in Nigeria’s Middle Belt region.
24.See Hon. Justice Adewale Thompson’s Judgement on “Open Cattle
Grazing – suit No. AB/26/66.
25.National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) Chairman, Elder Solomon
26.NCEF petition of June 3, 2019 titled: “Competing Ideologies of
Democracy and Sharia”, op. cit.
27.NCEF petition of June 3, 2019 titled: “Competing Ideologies of
Democracy and Sharia”, op. cit.
28.The leaders of NCEF were surprised at the attitudes of the British High
Commissioner towards the killings of Christians in Nigeria.
29.The leaders of NCEF were surprised at the attitudes of the British High
Commissioner towards the killings of Christians in Nigeria.
37.Akinyemi Ogidan, “The Illegality of Removal of Justice Onnoghen: 20
Points to Note”, NewsRescue.one
38.Akinyemi Ogidan, “The Illegality of Removal of Justice Onnoghen: 20
Points to Note”, NewsRescue.one
39.Henry Umoru, “Purchase of $496 m Tucano Aircraft: Senate gets report
today on call for Buhari Impeachment”, Vanguard May 2, 2018.
40.Ade Adesomoju, “Court Orders Release of Dasuki Passport”, Punch
February 20, 2020.
41.Evelyn Okakwu, “Court Orders Immediate Release of Nigeria’s Shi’a
Leader, El-Zakzaky” Premium Times, August 18, 2020.
42.NigerianNewsDirect, “Court Sends Nnamdi Kanu to Prison”, January 20,
2016.
43.The Nigerian government through the National Economic Council (NEC)
in contradiction of Section 80 (3) and (4) of the 1999 Constitution (as
amended), granted approval for the release of $1 billion from the Excess
Crude Account, ECA, for the procurement of military hardware and other
equipment to fight insecurity in Nigeria ahead of the 2019 General
Election without resource to the National Assembly. See also Kingsley
Omonobi, “Reps’ $1 billion for arms procurement” “There’ll be trouble if
Buhari approves $1 billion without NASS” Vanguard, April 6, 2018.
44.Joshua Egbodo, “Reps’ Issues with Buhari’s Executive Order 006”,
BluePrint, July 26, 2018.
45.AfricanReview, “President Buhari Signs Companies and Allied Matters
Act 2020” Monday 17, August 2020.
46.Sam Eyoboka, “CAMA: Church Leaders Tackle Government”, Vanguard
August 21, 2020.
47.Festus Adedayo, “Oyedepo, CAN and the Islamization Agenda of CAMA
2020”, Premium Times August 23, 2020.
49.Bolanle Bolawole, “Of Karma, CAMA, the Church, and Mushrooming
Churches (1)”, Nigerian Tribune, August 30, 2020.
59.The Secretary General of Lower Niger Congress (LNC), Tony Nnadi in a
video coverage entitled: “The 1999 Constitution and the Rise of Ethnic
Nationalism in Nigeria: What Next?” presented by Njenje Media TV in
August 2020.
60.Governor Samuel Ortom through his Chief Press Secretary, Terver
Akase, observed that Section 13 of the Water Resources Bill. See Peter
Duru, “Ortom to NASS: Reject National Water Resources Bill is another
RUGA”, Vanguard 29, August 2020.
63.Ndidi Uwechue, “Nigeria: Insecurity Will Begin to End Via the
Constitutional Force Majeure”, SaharaReporter, 2 February, 2021.
67.Agnes Callamard, the UN Special Rapporteur for Extrajudicial and
Arbitrary Executions raises grave concern about mountains of injustices,
grave insecurity situations in Nigeria.
71.“Middle Belt, Southern Leaders Give Buhari 90 Days to Scrap 1999
Constitution”, SaharaReporters, New York, 16th December, 2020.
72.“Conflict of Ideologies as the Greatest Obstacle to Peace, Unity and
Development in Nigeria”, Being text of a Press Conference by National
Christian Elders Forum (NCEF), at Abuja on the 17th of March, 2016.
PART TWO: A CONSPIRACY TO ENSLAVEMENT AND

PROGRAMMED GENERATIONAL POVERTY OF THE NIGERIAN
PEOPLE
CHAPTER 4: Nigeria in the Belly of the Vultures
“Questions will be asked by posterity about what we did with our past. Every looter must be
made to suffer for their sins. They have stolen our yesterday. They have hands on our today.
Their eyes are still at our tomorrow”. – Journalist Iteveh Ekpokpobe
1. An Introduction
Nothing goes for nothing anything anymore. And, nothing is done in gratis any
more. Nigeria society is perverse and permissive. Our society is morally sick
and it stinks. Our desire for money, our crave for wealth is increasingly
insatiable. We are no longer satisfied with our wages. We are today living a
false life style in a vain society; a society where morons are barons, a society
where thieves are chiefs, a society where ´monkey de work, baboon the chop`.
In the opinion of many Nigerians, corruption is a cankerworm that has eaten
deeply into the fabric of the society. Corruption and abuse of office in Nigeria
are deeply rooted and entrenched in the Nigerian society which encourages and
rationalizes it.
There seems to be certain corruptive residual that makes the line dividing the
“saints” and the villain in Nigeria, a thin one indeed. They seem to be, from an
analysis of the pattern, the degree of occurrence and ready disposition to
rationalization of corruption, that the abuse of public office is already a way of
life in Nigeria. This worm continues to get nourished with each and every
public holder.
Corruption disease has had an unequal spread across board – both the “high”
and “mighty” as well as ordinary Nigerians are not immune from its scourge.
From public office to private home, Nigerians actively encourage corrupt
practices. The uncertainties prevalent in the Nigerian society, it would seem, is
catalytic to the general perception of public office, as God-given chance to
make up for years of deprivation. So, people who get into public offices at
whatever level, seek to ensure themselves and their families against vagaries by
looting and abusing their offices. From outside of his immediate family and
friends, pressures are brought to bear on the public office-holder to fulfill
certain social expectations. He or she must live the status of the office. In a
society where wealth is synonymous with kingship, wisdom and unbridled
influence, it is difficult for the public officer who is personally not inclined to
loot and/or abuse his office, to stand up to the sneers and jeers of a people who
see in him all that they have ever known as failure. It would seem the officer`s
personal “failure” not to convert public funds or misapply his office in other
people`s favor, is a social disgrace, a disappointment to his people. The officer`s
first allegiance as dictated by social expectations, is to himself, his nuclear and
extended family, his friends, his village, his state and his country, in that order.
And the hunger for money and the good things of life is an ever-abiding one.
So, he never manages to fully satisfy the first hierarchy of social list to find
enough will to attend to the others. But then, the public is better disposed to
forgiving and forgetting, even glorifying the “sin” of corruption and abuse of
office if he shows ample evidence of having taken good care of himself and the
immediate concentric ring of family, friends and hangers-on.
In fact, Nigerians are better disposed to drawing a beeline to the causative

factors of corrupt practices than in finding solution to the cankerworm. Jesus
Christ classic question: “who will cast the first stone?” is one many Nigerians
cannot attempt an answer to, because the society finds easy rationalization for
messengers as well as presidents who abuse their office. Also, in a society that
readily flaunts a multi-ethnic and multi-religious contradiction as “unity in
diversity”, it is almost certain that ethnic and religious victimization will be
alleged when anybody summons enough courage and will to cast the first stone.
At this stage, a serious national issue as public office abuse becomes trivialized
played up for all it is worth. It will simply become a case of “we” and “them”,
and with the persistent question being asked the spoil-sport: “if you were in his
shoes, won`t you do the same? 1
Corruption has many faces, all of them ugly. In Nigeria, in particular, and
Africa in general, attention is always focused on monetary or financial
corruption, which is very prevalent especially among politicians and public
officials. But while politically motivated financial corruption must be strongly
condemned and every effort made to stop it, non-monetary corruption is just as
equally pernicious as financial one.
Nepotism, tribalism and favoritism are forms of corruption that undermine

merit, equity and fairness while destroying justice and enthroning mediocrity,
inefficiency and incompetence. Anything in the system or organization that
makes the organization works less than optimum is corruption. It is not only the
use of one´s office to obtain illicit gain or reward for one´s kit and kin, friends,
relations and associates, but it is also perversion of justice, merit, equity and
truth.2 Corruption is the greatest bane of development and the cause of mass
poverty.
Corruption has grown so widespread and sophisticated that it not only threatens
to undermine the very fabric of the Nigerian society, but indeed, actually did
undermine it. In recent times, some concerned Nigerians were driven to a state
of suspended animation by recoveries made by the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC). Our newsstands, including our social media, were
inundated with news of discoveries of monies stashed both within and outside
our shores. For instance, in a Lagos home in Ikoyi, EFCC finds $43 million,
N23 million and £27,000 hidden and concealed. These sums amount to about
$50 million or N 13 billion in our local currency at the time of their discovery.
Nobody has come to claim the money and EFCC has not told Nigerians who
“owns” the money.3
In February 2017, EFCC made another discovery of $9.8 million including

£74,000 belonging to ex-NNPC General Managing Director Andrew Yakubu.
How come a civil servant lays claim to such money 4. That was not the only one
discovered yet.
In March, 2017, EFCC intercepted N 49 million abandoned at the Kaduna

Airport.5 Again, in Lagos sometime ago, EFCC discovered N 448.8 million
abandoned at Bureau de Change.6 And in April 8, 2017, EFCC found £547,000
and $21,000 including N 5.6 million (totaling about N 250 million or £50
million) inside a Lagos market.7
In another development, there were discoveries made on Nigeria Oil Scandal:

Former President Implicated in Controversial Exploration Permit.8 According to
Panama Paper, the illegal oil exploration involving Shell/Eni, having acquired
oil field in 2011, paid $1.3 billion into GEJ account (GEJ stands for the former
Nigerian President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan).9 Evidence showing e-mails
correspondence made by Shell executives talking about politician “on the take”
and “an attempt to deliver significant revenue to GLJ” (GLJ means Goodluck
Jonathan)”.
In the Shell authorities probe, top authorities know part of 1.3 billion Nigerian
oil deals would go to convicted money launderer.10 Even Patience Jonathan was
withheld from withdrawing the sum of $5.9 million found in one of her
accounts.11 Where did she get such money? But what marvel me are the
attitudes of Nigerians. Most Nigerians just laugh it off and hiss. These are very
recent discoveries not to talk of mountain of corrupt practices in the past.
It would be recalled that in November 2016, a Transparency group – Socio-

Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) sent a letter to the then
acting Chief Justice of the Federation, CJN, Walter Onnoghen requesting him
urgently “to appoint an independent counsel to investigate allegations of
corruption in the spending of $16 billion on electricity by the government of
former President Olusegun Obasanjo between 1999 and 2007.” 12 The letter
dated November 24, 2016 signed by SERAP senior staff counsel says: “a
Parliamentary Hearing by the House of Represntatives in Abuja over the
spending of $16 billion between 1999 and 2007 on the power project revealed
through testimonies of witnesses appearing before the Committee that the $16
billion budgeted for the power project may have been stolen by few state
officials and others, and cannot be accounted for”.13 (see Premium Times,
“Authorize Probe of Obasanjo’s $16 billion power spending – SERAP tells
CJN, November 24, 2016 (Press Release).
Buhari said in 2019 Presidential Campaign that he will investigate the former
President Olusegun Obasanjo administration for the $16.5 billion electricity
project wasted and not properly accounted for. But surprisingly under the
Buhari administration, within five years, President Buhari had made available
through the Disco/Genco electricity supplier companies the whopping sum of
NGN 1.7 trillion (Government figure). The Federal government through the
Central Bank also set aside $2 billion for solar energy, contracting the German
energy giant – Siemen to generate some 2,000 mega watts with $2 billion. 14 It
would be recalled that it was Siemen that assisted Egypt to build 14,000 mega
watts for $9 billion. 15 In all of these the electricity supply in Nigeria is largely
epileptic, with most sections of the country without electricity for months and
years.
Our political system is run by whales and sharks swimming in an ocean of

unrepentant and sensitive cesspool of corruption. My friend Bayo Oluwasanmi
could not but be right after all when he said that corruption is Nigeria’s own
pandemic virus deadlier than COVID-19.16 He however advocated having a
minister for wholesale looting. According to him, by appointing a minister for
wholesale looting of Nigeria, Buhari will shape his legacy. Buhari is what
survives him.17 Or, what do you think? As to the corruption virus in Nigeria,
there appears to be no vaccine in the foreseeable future.
Recently, the case-files of 15 high-profile individuals, including the Governor

of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, and others facing graft
and other criminal charges have disappeared. The missing files included the
non-declaration of assets and possession of foreign accounts cases against
Anambra North Senator, Stella Oduah, the President of the Nigeria’s Footbal
Federation (NFF), Amaja Pinnick; and four other NFF officials as well as Akwa
Ibom North-East Senator, Bassey Akpan, amongst others.18
The Senate had disclosed that the Nigerian police and staffers of the Niger Delta
Development Commission (NDDC) shared N3.14 billion as relief for the
COVID-19 pandemic.19 Senator Olubunmi Adetunbi (APC Ekiti North),
chairman of the Senate adhoc committee investigating alleged N40 billion
illegally expended by the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NDDC
made this disclosure to the Senate. Pondei who had admitted before members of
the Senate adhoc committee that N3.14 billion was spent by the NDDC on
COVID-19, said the money was paid to the police, NDDC staff, youths, men
and women to cushion the negative effects of the pandemic and to avoid
violence in the Niger Delta region. Many Nigerians believe this sum was one of
the innumerable ways of fleecing the country dry.20 (see Solomon Ayado,
“Police, NDDC Staff Shared N3.14 billion for COVID-19, says Senate”,
BusinessDay, July 9, 2020).
Between 2015 and 2019, Nigeria made $206 billion in oil sales and yet
borrowed the sum of $81 billion the same period. What have we done with what
we have acquired? Where is the development? This is a nation where the
Nigeria National Petrolem Corporation (NNPC) spent NGN 36 billion (NGN
36, 000,000,000) on pipeline repairs while NGN 8 billion (NGN 8,000,000,000)
stolen in 5 months.21 (see Michael Eboh, “NNPC spent N36bn on pipeline
repairs, N8bn petrol stolen in 5 months” Vanguard, August 8, 2020).
Since Buhari came to power in 2015, we have watched, are watching his regime
descend into full-scale looting of Nigeria. The Buhari administration has
sparked outrage in the land after approving a somewhat scandalous N797.23
billion for rebuilding of Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano road. The road which is 375
km long will cost N12.12 billion per kilometer. It was initially awarded in 2020
at N155 billion to Julius Berger.
Kabir Abubakar, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on
Works said it was inflated by over N60 billion. Some companies at the time had
quoted N90 billion for the same job.
In a revision of the scope of the contract, Minister of Works, Raji Fashola said
the cost has been hijacked up to N797.23 billion, more than 4 times the initial
cost (Abankula, “Buhari Government Approves N12.12 billion to rebuild one
kilometer of road”, PM, 8 March, 2021)
Alhaji Umar Ganduje, an APC governor of Kano state was caught on camera
concealing $ 5 million bribe in his babariga cloth in the government house in
Kano State. He is notoriously being referred to afterwards as “Gandollar” and
his babariga coth as the new bullion van for “Alhaji Bureau de change” for
Kano state.22 (The video published by Daily Nigerian, an online newspaper,
showed the governor receiving bundles of dollars and putting them into his
white dress known as ‘babanriga’ in the northern part of Nigeria. See
TheCable, October 15, 2018)
The Department of State Security (DSS) had asked president Buhari to

prosecute Adams Oshiomhole for making “millions of dollars” from APC
primaries. A total of $55 million is what Adams is alleged to have received.
Some party chieftains claim it is $80 million, a source aware of the content of
the report told SaharaReporters. According to report, $17 million is what
Oshiomhole allegedly received as bribe from Zamfara – $10 million for him, $7
million shared between Farouk Adamu, former Minority Leader of the House of
Representatives; Niyi Adebayo, a former Governor of Ekiti State. He received
from other party chieftains’ too23
The Jagaban of Lagos, ex-Governor Ahmed Tinubu’s company, Alpha Beta was
accused of money laundering to the tune of NGN 100 billion, tax evasion and
fraud.24 And during the 2019 presidential election, at the eve of the election, two
bullion vans were spotted at Tinubu house believed of carrying monies meant to
use in bribing prospective voters to lure them into voting President Buhari into
power. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) however, has
received a petition from an activist Deji Adeyanju a convener of Concerned
Nigerians to investigate the source of money conveyed in bullion vans to the
home of the All Progressive Congress (APC) National Leader Bola Tinubu on
the eve of the 2019 presidential election.25
After submitting his petition, Deji was quoted as saying: “To the best of our
knowledge, Mr Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a private citizen who ordinarily should
not be seen with a convoy of Bullion Vans.” The petition reads, “The
commission would recall that it was reported all over the news that Bullion
Vans allegedly containing an undisclosed amount of cash were seen entering the
home of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former governor of Lagos State on the eve of
Nigeria presidential elections. Tinubu himself admitted to this fact while
responding to questioning by journalists.” It is therefore germane and
fundamental to ask: What are Bullion Vans doing in the house of Asiwaju Bola
Ahmed Tinubu? Who owns the content, believing to be cash in the Bullion
Vans that were seen entering his house on the eve of Nigerian presidential
elections? Has the commission, based on its core mandates, investigated the
source of the Bullion Vans? Is Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s house now a bank where
Bullion Vans take money to? 26
Adeyanju who called on the commission to swing into action and begin an
investigation into the appearance of those Bullion Vans, however, avers: “We
cannot as a nation have two separate rules for fighting corruption, one for those
opposed to the ruling party and another for supporters of the government.” He
however noted that: “If properly investigated and prosecuted diligently will
assure Nigerians of the commission’s willingness to fight corruption that is
devoid of party affiliations.”27 In another development, Tinubu’s Alpha Beta is
said to be responsible for collecting the Lagos State allocations from Abuja in
the behalf of the Lagos State government. The company is also said to be
collecting taxes (levies) for government and whatever she declares that she
collected is what the government will take. That should not be!
According to investigations, at least eight out of the politicians who were

involved in the various graft cases were working for the re-election of President
Muhammadu Buhari in the February 2019 election have pending corruption
cases worth N232bn.28
Some of the eight politicians, as it were, used to be members of the Peoples

Democratic Party and other opposition parties, but had allegedly defected to the
ruling All Progressives Congress to stop the dangling axe of the EFCC and
other security agencies from falling on them.
Specifically, the politicians who are currently either under probe or prosecution
for allegedly diverting government funds did separately vowed to ensure Buhari
remains in power until 2023.
The eight politicians include the senator representing Nasarawa West at the
National Assembly, Abdullahi Adamu; the senator representing Sokoto North
and former Governor of Sokoto State, Aliyu Wamakko; ex-Senate Minority
Leader and former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio, who
recently defected from the PDP to the APC; and a former Governor of Abia
State, Orji Uzor Kalu.29
Others include the immediate past Secretary to the Government of the
Federation, Babachir Lawal; the former Governor of Rivers State and Director-
General of the Buhari Campaign Organisation in 2015, Rotimi Amaechi; the
Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari; and former National Chairman of
the PDP, Ali Modu Sheriff.30
Abdullahi Adamu is a serving senator and former Governor of Nasarawa State,

and one of the President’s allies in the Senate. He is also a member of the
National Advisory Committee of the Buhari 2019 Presidential Support
Committee. The lawmaker is being prosecuted alongside 18 others for allegedly
stealing N15bn from the treasury through contracts awarded when he was
governor for eight years. Also arraigned by the EFCC was his son, Nurianu, in
January 2018 for alleged N90m fraud.31
Former Sokoto State Governor, Senator Aliyu Wamakko abandoned his godson
and successor, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal due to NGN 15billion fraud allegations
against his administration currently being investigated by the EFCC. He was in
charge of Buhari’s campaign in Sokoto State and during the presidential
campaign in 2019. He held a massive rally on behalf of Buhari in order to prove
to the President that Governor Aminu Tambuwal’s defection would be of no
effect.32
The former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Gowswill Akpabio, has been under
probe by the EFCC for over three years based on allegations that he diverted
over N100bn from the coffers of the state between 2007 and 2015. He joined
the APC to avoid prosecution and was welcomed into the APC by the President
himself.33
Orji Uzor Kalu who governed Abia State from 1999 to 2007, was one of the
most influential politicians in the South-East during his time in government.
After leaving the PDP, he formed the Progressive Peoples Alliance from where
he contested and lost a senatorial election in 2015 and later defected to All
Progressive Congress (APC). However, the former governor has been having a
running legal battle with the EFCC since leaving office.
The EFCC alleged that Kalu and the others committed fraud between August
2001 and October 2005. It accused Kalu of utilising his company (Slok Nigeria
Limited) to retain in the account of First Inland Bank, now First City Monument
Bank, the sum of N200m.34 The commission said that the sum formed part of
funds illegally derived from the coffers of the Abia State government. The
EFCC also said that the accused retained, in different bank accounts, about
N2.5bn belonging to the state government, adding that he diverted about N3.2bn
from the coffers of the same government. Regardless of his travails, the former
governor did evrything to ensure that Buhari was re-elected in 2019.
In another development, the successor of Orji Uzo Kalu and former Abia state
governor and current senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief T. A.
Orji (TA), and his sons are alleged to have stolen more than 500 billion naira
from the state’s coffers. The alleged fraud happened through the 8 years he
governed Abia state.
Recently, there were reports that a Nigeria court has ordered the Economic and
Financial Crimes Comission (EFCC) to recover from the former governor of
Imo State Senator Rochas Okorocha properties believed to have been
improperly appropriated when he was governor of Imo State. They included the
following:
 N59.6 billion taken from the local government system by Okorocha.
 The Eastern Palm University built with Imo money but personalized by Okorocha.
 The N96 billion being the stolen portion of Imo’s IGR for eight years.
 N40 billion siphoned through the unexecuted 27 general hospitals projects.
 The Old IBC premises at Orji.
 The Nekede and Orji Mechanic Villages.
 Vast expanse of land on the Sam Mbakwe Airport road acquired by the Government
for the purpose of attracting a Naval Base.
 The Adapalm in Ohaji which Okorocha leased out to investors and left in ruins till
date.o
 The Concorde Hotels, an enviable investment of the State which was acquired by
Okorocha through some proxies.
 Westbrook Hotels which was built by Okorocha’s son-in-law, Uche Nwosu.
 WODDI Wellness Center owned by Okorocha’s wife, Nkechi, built on the former
Imo State Secretariat Annex, a land forcefully acquired from the State by Uche
Nwosu as Commissioner for Lands.
 The Reach FM owned by Uche Nwosu, without any known legitimate means of
owning such huge property.
 The multi billion Naira Farmers Market built by Geraldine, Okorocha’s sister, on a
land belonging to the State.
 Over twenty-five plots State land acquired by Uche Nwosu upon which El Freeda
Foundation was built. This is the Foundation through which billions of Naira have
been laundered out of the State.
 Municipal Plaza owned by Nkechi Okorocha built on a land forcefully acquired from
a civil servant by Uche Nwosu.
 Twitter Bites acquired by Geraldine Okorocha forcefully from Mr. Fans.
 Spibat Estate most of which land was forcefully taken from Mbieri people by
Okorocha.
 House of Freeda Malls in Owerri, Abuja and Lagos built by Uloma, Uche Nwosu’s
wife.
 Multi million worth poultry farm beside Shoprite owned by Uche Nwosu on a land
forcefully acquired.
 N800 million given to Okorocha’s sister, Geraldine per annum, for Christmas trees.
 N600 million diverted through the supposed renovation of the Imo State Secretariat.
 N18 billion looted through the alleged construction of primary school blocks across
the State.
 Recovery of all the markets in the State which Okorocha has claimed 30%
ownership.
 Recovery of the ISOPADEC funds and the 13% oil derivation funds which amount to
over N20 billion.
 Recovery of the cardboard industry at Owerri-Ebeiri in Orlu.
 Recovery of the N2 billion diverted through the construction of the completely

worthless Akachi Tower.
 A probe into and recovery of over N120 billion diverted through failed road projects.
There is no single road project done by Okorocha that is not a failure.
 Recovery of hundreds of plots of land taken from the State by Okorocha and family,
spread across the state.
 Recovery of Imo’s security votes which Okorocha personalized for eight years.
 Recovery of IRROMA equipment worth billions of Naira looted by Okorocha. (See

Treasure Orokpo, “Summary of what court has asked EFCC to recover from
Okorocha”, NigeriaNews, April 20, 2021)
Babachir Lawal, notoriously known and called by his detractors as “the grass
cutter” was the immediate past Secretary to the Government of the Federation,
was accused by the Senate ad hoc Committee on Mounting Humanitarian Crisis
in the North-East, led by Senator Shehu Sani, of awarding a N223m consultancy
contract for the removal of invasive plant species in Komadugu, Yobe Water
Channels to his company, Rholavision Engineering in contravention of Section
43(iii) and (iv) of the Public Procurement Act 2007.
A committee headed by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo subsequently

investigated Lawal and recommended his dismissal in October 2017, a year
after he was indicted by the Senate. He was alleged to have claimed he used
NGN 220 million to cut grass.35
Although he was later probed by the EFCC, Babachir was among the key
figures that ran Buhari’s re-election campaign in Adamawa State. The former
SGF was having a leadership tussle with Governor Jibrilla Bindow over who
should lead Buhari’s campaign in the state.
The lion of the Niger Delta – Rotimi Amaechi was the Director-General of the
Buhari Campaign Organisation in 2015, was also charged with the task of
ensuring that Buhari is elected a second time.
The Minister of Transport, who is the face of the Buhari campaign, was indicted
by the Justice George Omeregi-led Rivers State Judicial Commission of Inquiry
set up to investigate the sale of state assets.
He and others were accused of allegedly misappropriating N97bn through the

sale of the state valued assets. He was alleged to have stolen about NGN 50
billion from Abandoned Rivers State Monorail project.36
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, had alleged that $150m (N30bn at the
time) was spent on Buhari’s campaign in 2015.37
Abdul’aziz Yari has been engaged in a fierce battle with the EFCC for over a
year following allegations that he diverted nearly N680m which formed part of
the Paris Club refund due to his state.38
In July 2017, a Federal High Court in Abuja ordered an interim forfeiture of the
sums of N500m and $500,000 (N180m) said to have been looted from the Paris
Club refunds made by the Federal Government in favour of the 36 states of the
federation.39
The sums of money said to have been recovered from two firms, First
Generation Mortgage Bank Limited, and Gosh Projects Limited, were allegedly
linked to the governor.
The EFCC also alleged, in an affidavit filed in support of its ex parte application
seeking the interim forfeiture of the sums of money, that the N500m was
diverted to offset Yari’s personal loan obtained from the First Generation
Mortgage Bank Limited.40
Ex-minister Sheriff and others are under investigation for allegedly receiving
N450m out of the N23bn ($115m) bribe allegedly disbursed by a former
Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, during the build-up
to the 2015 elections.41
He has been grilled several times by the EFCC but was never charged. His
private jet was also impounded by the commission but later released to him.
The spree and the speed of looting and raping the country is “unchecked” by all
norms or political prudence – “Magugate” and “Malamigate” – the two most
recent high profile corruption cases trending. Aso Rock is now grand zero for
open robbery of Nigerian Treasury. Critics have asked: Isn’t it better to have a
minister for wholesale looting of Nigeria, just to make the work of looting looks
tidy? By appointing a minister for wholesale corruption, Buhari will only shape
his legacy! After all, Buhari is what survives him. Was it not Senator Akpabio
that declared flatly that the NDDC is an ATM where people withdraw money to
contest elections? No wonder he was alleged to have paid some NGN 16 billion
to have his nomination as a minister cleared! 42
The Chief Justice of the Federation, Tanko was said to have allegedly collected
some NGN 2.5 billion bribe from Senator Hope Uzodinma, the man who came
4th position in the 2019 gubernatorial election in Imo State, to make him the
Governor in a controversial judgement. This accusation could not be proven and
there is presently no evidence to support such claims.43
One Jackson Ude, a Blogger and a former director of strategy and

communications under President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration had
through the Twitter and his news medium, “Point Blank News” published that
Magu embezzled over NGN39 billion and gave Osinbajo NGN 4 billion for a
soft landing. The Vice-President denied the allegations and followed it with a
petition to the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu demanding
criminal proceedings against Ude and his platform to restrain them from future
“false publications”.44
It was said that Idi Amin Dada of Uganda once asked the central bank governor
of his country to print more Ugandan notes to cushion the effects of inflation in
Uganda at the time of his reign. But in Nigeria, at least two times within living
memory, individuals walked up to the central bank of Nigeria and demanded
and were given monies belonging to the commonwealth of Nigerian citizens.
The first was the former maximum ruler, General Sani Abacha who ordered the
then Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria to issue him monies at different
points and times during his regime. More than twenty years after his regime,
Nigeria is still repatriating stolen funds directly collected by Abacha or those
acting on his behalf.
The second occasion was Isa Funtua. Isa Funtua never held any political office
save the fact that he belonged to the much-dreaded “Cabals” in Aso Rock,
dictating proceedings from behind. He was an in-law to President Muhammadu
Buhari. Isa Funtua was said to have gone to the Central Bank of Nigeria and
collected some $400 million to buy Etisalat for himself! Since this allegation
was made by the leader of the Indigenous Peoples’ of Biafra (IPOB) and some
other individuals, nobody had made attempts to reprove such claims. Isa Funtua
was the man in charge of all the black-market exchange in Nigeria, collecting
money at government rate and resold with huge financial gain at the black
market. But, this is Nigeria! 45
The Federal Government expended about N523.3 million on school feeding

programme during the lockdown against the coronavirus pandemic. The
Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social
Development (MHADMSD), Sadiya Farouq, announced this at the Presidential
Task Force briefing on COVID-19 in Abuja. According to Farouk, Nigeria’s
new “hushmummy”, only the poorer households will benefit from the federal
government fund. She said that the Igbos have people outside the country to
help them, only the poor in the North will benefit. “We are only sharing money
to the poorest Nigerians in the North because we don’t have poor people in
South Nigeria; they have people outside the country that is taking care of them
so we are not going to South Nigeria”. Hmmm! Eziokwu!! She claimed as at
late March 2020, that 2.6 million households have each received NGN 20,000
COVID-19 palliatives from her ministry. The veracity of her claims have been
contested by many Nigerians who regard the whole exercise as a huge fraud.46
It has been allegedly certified that the sum of NGN 806 billion (NGN
806,000,000,000) was criminally taken from innocent and industrious people of
old Eastern Nigeria (Biafra) in the past 50 months (August 2015 – October
2019)47 (see International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, a
renowned Rights, Democracy and Security Watchdog based in Igboland). The
group demanded refund of the extorted NGN 806 billion, account for hundreds
of individuals slain and maimed in Eastern Nigeria or face more law suits,
others.
It maintains that the operations of the Nigerian Police Force and the Army-led
military in two geo-political zones that comprise the old Eastern region are
needless, worthless, unwarranted, provocative, act of war, genocidal and laden
with ethno-religious ulterior motives.48
According to Ekwenche Research Report on Intersociety (January 2019) and

Amnesty International (October 2016), the sum of NGN 500 billion (NGN 500,
000,000,000) was part of the bulk NGN 806 billion (NGN 806,000,000,000)
creditably alleged to have come from police top officials’ juicy transfers and
special security services. The amount was criminally pocketed in the past 50
months (August 2015 – October 2019) by the past and present authorities of the
Nigeria Police High Command – NGN 5 billion per month, NGN 120 billion
annually and NGN 500 billion for the past 50 months (August 2015 – October
2019)49. Research independently discovered that over 95% of the NGN 806
billion, excluding the NGN 56 billion Military extorted sum, directly and
indirectly belong to the citizens of old Eastern Nigeria, illicitly and licitly paid
to the Police authorities and their personnel in the course of doing their
travelling, banking, industrial and other commercial businesses. Out of the
amounts illicitly or licitly paid to the Police in Lagos, Kano, FCT etc, greater
percentage is found to belong to the industrious citizens of old Eastern Nigeria
doing businesses in Lagos, Kano, FCT, etc.50
It would be recalled that in the August 2017, Senator Isa Misau, a retired
Deputy Police Superintendant representing Bauchi South District made a
weighty and shocking allegations and disclosure that the Federal Government
refused to thoroughly and conclusively investigate the criminal NGN 500
billion illegally extracted from innocent citizens of the old Eastern Region.51
Ekwenche demands that the authorities of Army-led Military and Police

checkpoints – the projected 6,900 in all – Police (6,300) and Army (600)
roadblocks in Eastern Region of Nigeria be completely dismantled. 52 These
extortionist roadblocks and official highway robberies should be replaced by
CCTV etc. By extension, Ekwenche condemned the “Operation Positive
Identification” embarked by the Nigeria Military.53 According to it, “…The so-
called ‘Operation Positive Identification’ (is) short of crude and archaic
soldiering which further exposes unprofessionalism, emptiness, tactlessness of
the Nigeria Army in matters of internal security. The Army seems to derive joy
in massacring defenceless civilians or layings of traps to massacre them while
running like fowls on sighting members of terrorist organisations such as Boko
Haram and ISWAP”.54
Many Nigerians maintain that the gap between President Muhammadu Buhari’s
words and his actions could be likened to the gap between heaven and earth.
Not a few Nigerians believe that security issue in Nigeria has been
compromised. Reno Omokri is one of them.
Taking to his twitter account, Omokri querried: “Why should Boko Haram
graduate, while students cannot …”55 Obviously reacting to the news of the
Federal government integrating 601 ex-Boko Haram terrorists into the Nigerian
society, Omokri reacts: “It is horrifying to see photos of the so-called repentant
Boko Haram members … wore fresh graduation clothes made available by the
federal government while prestige people were on the ground to mark their
graduation. Graduation came in a time the president said no schools should
open and students will not write their WASSCE” 56 This is Nigeria where “little,
little drops of follies make a mighty idiot”.
This is Nigeria where snake allegedly swallowed N3657 million from JAMB
office vault, and monkey ate up some NGN 70 million kept by a Senator in his
farm. 58
In his keynote address at the 2nd National Summit on Diminishing Corruption

with the theme: “Together against Corruption and Launch of the National Ethics
and Integrity Policy” at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, the Chairman of ICPC,
Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye disclosed that it uncovered the sums of NGN2.67
billion payment made to some federal colleges for school feeding during the
lockdown in personal accounts. Professor Owasanoye said NGN2.5 billion
appropriated by a senior civil servant (now deceased) in the Ministry of
Agriculture for himself and cronnies was also discovered.59
The anti-graft agency listed other assets recovered in the Agricultural Ministry
to include 18 buildings, 12 business premises, and 25 plots of land. He said
under the Open Treasury Portal review carried out between January to August
15, 2020 out of 268 Ministries, Departments, and Agenda (MDAs), 72 of them
had cumulative infractions of NGN90 million. He said while 33 MDAs tendered
explanations that NGN4.1 billion was transferred to sub-TSA, NGN4.2 bn paid
to individuals had no satisfactory explanations.60
It was Bishop Hassan Matthew Kukah who reminded us of the paradox of life
that Nigeria represents. Bishop Kukah wrote: “Nigerian educational systems
have surprising outcomes. The smartest students pass with First Class and get
admitted to Medical and Engineering Schools. The Second Class students get
MBAs and LLBs to manage the First Class students. The Third Class students
enter politics and rule both the First and Second Class students. The Failures
enter the Underworld of crimes and control the politicians and businesses. And
best of all, those who did not attend school become Prophets and Imams and
everybody follows them. What a paradox of life. This can only happen in
Nigeria where corruption is the order of the day”.61
It was the late iconic Nigerian musician, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti that produced a
song titled “Confusion Break Bone”. It perfectly depicts the picture of the
Buhari government; …no coordination in government! The Minister of Justice
is fighting with an agency under him, the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC), Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) is fighting
Nigerian Post Office (NIPOST), Minister of Communication is fighting
Diaspora Commission, the Ministry of Niger Delta is fighting Niger Delta
Development Commission (NDDC). It is a Fuji house of commotion that we
now have. And no patriot can be comfortable with the state of affairs that we
found ourselves. 62
Nigeria could also be likened to a market place where transactions are

conducted in the currency of ignominy, of impunity. Many critics have argued
that beyond the Babel of corruption, killings, insecurity, poverty and
underdevelopment, the time to dismantle the contraption called Nigeria is now.
To them, Nigeria ‘was’ and ‘is’ never a “country”. It is a filthy marketplace.
For this group of people, acceding part of our sovereignty to China for a $5.3
billion loan may be terrible; but inviting China to take over the country FULLY
won’t be a bad idea, after all! They went further to argue that the best idea is for
America and Europe to help negotiate the winding down of the “country” into
independent regions. Without this, according to them, Nigerians will continue to
be a threat to the global immigration because everyone wants to flee this
marketplace lacking in leadership that is swimming in an ocean of unrepentant
and sensitive infidelity in all ramification.63
Nations, like life itself, is not governed by miracles but by laws and principles.
It was Apostle Johnson Suleiman who said that “when something happens once,
it can be termed an accident. When it happens twice, it can be seen as a
coincidence. When it happens thrice, it is a programme; when it happens a
fourth time, it is an agenda. It happens a fifth time, it definitely has sponsors”.
The continuous and persistent slaughtering of unarmed Nigerians by terrorists
and bandits can no longer be rationalisable. Was it not General Sani Abacha that
said if a bomb is dropped at a place and the government could not trace and
apprehend the perpetrators and take control of the security situation there, then
the government is an accomplice?
Many Nigerians believe that the nation’s security architecture has been
compromised. Dr. Obadiah Mailafia, a former Deputy Governor of the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN), alleges that repentant terrorists told him that a serving
northern governor was the leader of Boko Haram. Mailafia, who was the
presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress in the 2019 election,
said the terrorists moved weapons even during the COVID-19 lockdown. 64 A
terrorist was arrested and his phone seized and while searching through the
phone, it was discovered that a recent communication was made by the terrorist
just before he was picked up, and it was discovered that the person he called and
was engaging in communication was a colonel in Nigerian Army. Obadiah also
claimed in the interview which has now gone viral that some sections of the
north are planning to launch a civil war in 2022 in a ploy to retain power to the
Moslem north. He further claimed that the Kaduna killings are only a test-run of
what would happen to the entire South if left unchecked.
It would also be recalled that the Zamfara State Governor, Yari reported an
“intels” to relevant authorities on security matters regarding an impending
invasion and massacre of the citizens in his state by terrorists. The authorities
ignored his warning. The terrorists came and massacred the people in the state.
Also the case of Uzo Uwani in Enugu is similar to that of Zamfara. The body
language of the Buhari administration is suggestive of the fact that it is in league
with the criminals.
As Obadiah’s testimony is trending, an upper Sharia Court in Kano State

sentenced a musician, Yahaya Sharif-Aminu to death for blaspheming Prophet
Mohammed in a song he circulated via WhatsApp. He was accused of
committing the offence in March 2020, after which protesters burnt down his
family house. The death penalty for blasphemy sets social media on fire.
A large section of Nigerians wondered why the Kano State Government was
bent on ensuring that blasphemers were killed while those who looted the public
treasury were allowed to go scot free. Why are those supporting the killing of
blasphemers silent when a video went viral showing Governor Umar Ganduje
allegedly stuffing his babariga with dollars?
Aisha Yesufu tweeted, “Can someone please tell me how many rapists have
been sentenced to death by the Sharia courts in Nigeria? Or, how many corrupt
politicians have been sentenced to death. The same Sharia courts that have
professional witnesses in front of their doors that one man can hire? If Sharia
courts and the judges practice Sharia laws as they should, even non-Muslims
will bring their cases there!”65
Suleiman wondered why Nigeria pardons terrorists but orders death for
blasphemy. He tweeted, “A country that pardons terrorists want to kill a man for
blasphemy. I am sure even Saudi Arabia is shocked … the worst form of
deception is self deceit.”66
In almost every Western country, there is severe concern about Nigerian-based
crime called “419” in Nigerian parlance. The problem has become so serious
that the Central Bank of Nigeria publishes frequent warnings in the newspapers
across the world. This document is in itself probably the strangest document
ever to originate from a Central Bank: “You have been warned several times
before! You have been warned again!” – Central Bank of Nigeria advertisement
in September 1997 warning against “419” frauds.67
Recently one Raymond Abbas, aka “Hushpuppy” was arrested in Dubai over
Internet Fraud. He was arrested all side his alleged co-conspirators following an
overnight raid of his apartments in Dubai on June 10. Emirati police and
prosecutors said that about NGN 16 billion was found in cash out of an
estimated NGN 168 billion online scam linked to the syndicate.68
The Department of Justice, US Attorney’s Office, Central District of California
has detailed how Nigeria’s ‘super cop’ Abba Kyari was paid by notorious
internet fraudster, Hushpuppi to arrest his partner. Kyari was indicted in
Hushpuppy’s $1.1 million fraud. The US Court has ordered the FBI to arrest
and repatriate Kyari to the US to answer for his alleged crimes.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Anti-Graft Agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes

Commission (EFCC) has launched a manhunt for a foreigner – a 46-year-old
Nigerien Aboubakar Hima who allegedly scammed the Nigerian Army to the
tune of NGN 157 billion over supplies of military arms. The alleged scammer
“duped” the Nigerian Army to the tune of over $394m (NGN152, 315,803,981),
€9.9 m (NGN4, 539,509,271) and NGN 369 m. 69 One wonders why the Federal
Government would engage in such “dirty deal” with an individual with
fraudulent character. In any case, it reflects the kind of government we have.
Corruption appears to be Nigeria’s second largest religion. All these monies

could have been used to transform Nigeria for better – transforming our
Generals Hospitals, transform school hostels for better, repairs and construct
good roads and have 24-hours light in Nigeria, have national airline, construct
wireless internet system, etc. Who, even, is monitoring all these recovered
stolen monies by the EFCC? Who is policing EFCC? Meanwhile, the Attorney
General of the Federation and Minister for Justice, Abubakar Malami has
declared that “We have no record of how $5 billion Abacha loot was spent”.
Lest we forget, we have reports that the federal government under Buhari has
received the £4.2 million loot recovered from James Ibori, former Delta state
governor, and his associates.
It was the Executive-Director in charge of projects in the Interim Management

Commission (IMC) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mr.
Cairo Ojougboh who said that if he releases the list of those involved in looting
the commission, the country will break. The IMC accused members of the
National Assembly of plotting to stall the forensic audit ordered by President
Buhari. When Cairo was asked why he made this statement, he retorted: “Oh!
Because of the people looting, the caliber, the names and people looting the
NDDC! And who engineers it? The Chairman of the NDDC in the Senate and
the House of Representatives in the National Assembly…”! 70
Many Nigerians have asked the Nigerian leaders to publish details of corruption
probes, a call the leadership are very hesitant and reluctant to heed. Meanwhile
the Nigerian activists have sued the Senate President and House of
Representative Speaker over “failure to publish details of corruption probes”.
Journalist Iteveh Ekpokpobe raised concerns which I’ve been pondering in the
innermost recesses of my soul: “Questions will be asked by posterity about what
we did with our past. Every looter must be made to suffer for their sins. They
have stolen our yesterday. They have hands on our today. Their eyes are still at
our tomorrow”. Haba!
2. Where Vultures Feast: Nigeria
(i) “Criminal Crude” otherwise called Oil Theft in Nigeria:

“Nigerian crude oil is being stolen on an industrial scale. Some of what is stolen is exported.
Proceeds are laundered through world financial centres and used to buy assets in and
outside Nigeria”
– Nigeria’s Criminal Crude Report, 2013, Chatham House
In terms of orthodox definition and in the context of Nigeria, “criminal crude”

(otherwise known as and called “oil theft”) is conceived and portrayed as the
illegal appropriation of refined oil or crude oil from the various multinational oil
companies that are positioned in the country through the process of oil
bunkering. This includes the theft, diversion, and smuggling of petroleum
products. This illegal appropriation of crude and/or refined oil products is
largely facilitated from the pipelines of multinational oil companies. 71
Generally, oil theft in Nigeria is facilitated by the pragmatic co-operation

between security forces, militia organisations, the local population, and the oil
company employees who use a variety of methods to steal oil from the
multinational oil corporations that are stationed within the country.
Refined oil products refer to crude oil that has been refined through a variety of
treatment process to become ready to burn energy. Chatham House, the British
think-tank estimates that over 100,000 barrels of oil were stolen every single
day from Nigeria however the real estimates of how much oil is stolen per day
in Nigeria vary.72 According to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC) Nigeria is estimated to produce over one and a half million
barrels of oil per day.
Currently, it suffices that five major multinational companies are present in

Nigeria – Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Statoil, Shell, and Agip. As a result of the
lack of federal oversight and a tsunami of corruption leading to the formation of
various corruption networks, oil theft is primarily cellular rather than
hierarchical and requires frequent collaboration between a variety of random
players depending on the level of oil theft being committed. 54 In the oil theft
business in Nigeria, each criminal group maintains a specifically assigned role.
These criminal key players use methods such as hot-tapping and cold-tapping to
perform oil bunkering and steal thousands of barrels of oil per day from
established oil pipelines.73-74 In addition to stealing oil from the pipelines, oil
theft can also occur during the transportation of the crude oil product to the oil
shipping terminals for export.
It would be recalled that Muhammadu Buhari's administration’s attempt to

reduce corruption within the government through the targeting of suspected
facilitators of oil theft has led to an increase in violence within the Niger Delta
area of the country. For instance, the creation of a militant organisation – the
Niger Delta Avengers – occurred after Buhari prosecuted the suspected leader
of a local militia group, Government Ekpemupolo, for his role in the practice of
oil theft in the Niger Delta region.75 As a result, Ekpemupolo and the Niger
Delta Avengers have proceeded to sabotage multinational oil corporation
pipelines. In addition to the violence associated with the Niger Delta Avengers,
oil spilled from these sabotage operations and the illegal refinery practices
committed by the local population have led to the severe pollution of the
environment.76 Granted that almost 83 percent of total exports revenue come
from the petroleum products revenue to Nigeria, the political and military elite
have sought ways to consolidate their control of the oil trade.77 This monopoly
over the oil trade has prompted many local villagers from the Niger Delta
region to commit small-scale oil theft and to pursue the illegal refinery of stolen
crude oil as means of entering into this unofficial economy.78
(ii) Oil Theft in Nigeria from 2009 – 2018: NEITI Reports
The NEITI means Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. It

represents the Nigerian arm of the global Extractive Industries Transparency
Initiative.
According to OPEC, Nigeria has almost 40 billion barrels of proven oil reserve.
After nearly 50 years of exploration, the oil and gas sector continues to play a
significant role in the economy and accounts for some 65% of total revenue to
the government. With a maximum crude oil production capacity of 2.5 million
barrels per day, Nigeria is Africa's largest producer of oil, and the 13th largest
oil producing country in the world. The country has faced significant challenges
in managing the sector such as the unaccountable use of revenues and
corruption. Nigeria EITI has been effective in strengthening public debate and
promoting policy options around signature bonuses, unpaid royalties, crude oil
and refined products theft. It has identified USD 9.8 billion owed to the Federal
Government, of which USD 2.4 billion has been recovered through Nigeria
EITI’s efforts.79 (NIETI report on 2018 Annual Progress Report)
According to NEITI, crude oil and refined product worth $41.9 billion were
stolen from Nigeria in the last ten years between 2009 and 2018. The
breakdown is as follows: 80
(iii) Crude theft – $ 38.5 billion

(iv) Domestic crude – $ 1.56 billion
(v) Refined domestic products – $ 1.8 billion
(vi) Daily average – $ 11 million
(vii) Monthly – $ 389 million
(viii) Annually – $ 4.2 billion
(ix) Government Figures – 150,000 – 250,000 bpd stolen
(x) Private Study estimate – 200,000 – 400,000 bpd stolen
Meanwhile, currently trending at the time of writing this report, is the 48

million barrels “criminal crude” allegedly leaving Nigerian shore illegally.
(iii) Illegal Gold Mining
In spite of the efforts of the Federal Government of Nigeria to diversify the

economy and earn more foreign exchange and create jobs, reports of illegal gold
mining and other solid minerals across many states of the federation, are very
disturbing. From vailable data from the Ministry of Solid Minerals and
Development illegal gold mining and other solid mineral activities have
continued to thrive in spite of government’s repeated threat to prosecute
culprits. Statistics have shown that between 2014 and 2015, Nigeria reportedly
lost an estimated $9billion to illegal mining across the country.81
(v) Nigerian Politicians with the Acquired Vulture Virus Syndrome

(Treasury Looters Exposed)
Nigerian Treasury Looters Exposed! 82
1. General Ishaya Bamaiyi $100,000,000,000,000,000. 00

2. Alhaji Wada Nas $115,000,000,000,000,000. 00
3. General Tajudeen Olanrewaju $145,000,000,000,000,000. 00
4. General Theophilus Danjuma $175,000,000,000,000,000. 00
5. General Abdulkareem Adisa $190,000,000,000,000,000. 00
6. Tom Ikimi $220,000,000,000,000,000. 00
7. Dan Etete $250,000,000,000,000,000. 00
8. Don Etiebet $275,000,000,000,000,000. 00
9. Abdulkadir Abachi $350,000,000,000,000,000. 00
10.Rear Admiral Mike Akhigbe $400,000,000,000,000,000. 00
11.Alhaji Ismaila Gwarzo $450,000,000,000,000,000. 00
12.Alhaji Umaru Dikko $500,000,000,000,000,000. 00
13.General Abdulsalami Abubakar $600,000,000,000,000,000. 00
14.Admiral Augustus Aikhomu $680,000,000,000,000,000. 00
15.General Jeremiah Useni $750,000,000,000,000,000. 00
16.General Sani Abacha $800,000,000,000,000,000. 00
17.General Ibrahim Babangida $1,200,000,000,000,000,000.00
Looted Money Discovered in Foreign Banks Individual Profilers in

Nigeria (as at August 1999):83
1. General Ibrahim Babangida NGN 2,462. 53 billion
2. General Sani Abacha NGN 1,218. 137 billion
3. General Abdulsalami Abubakar NGN 0,493. 85 billion
4. Rear Admiral Mike Akhigbe NGN 549. 645 billion
5. General Jeremiah Useni NGN 805. 9 billion
6. Alhaji Ismaila Gwarzo NGN 517. 0 billion
7. Alhaji Umaru Dikko NGN 894. 65 billion
8. Mr. Paul Ugwuma NGN 35. 00 billion
9. Mohammed Abacha NGN 210.7 billion
10.Abdulkadir Abacha NGN 338.42 billion
11.Wada Nas NGN 237.4 billion
12.Tom Ikimi NGN 252.553 billion
13.Dan Etete NGN 327.42 billion
14.Dan Etiebet NGN 567.47 billion
15.Al-Mustapha NGN 199.793 billion
16.Mr. Anthony Ani NGN 688.95 billion
17.Bashir Dalhatu NGN 555. 49 billion
18.General Wushishi NGN 228. 695 billion
19.Hassan Adamu NGN 130. 5 billion
20.General T. Y. Danjuma NGN 342. 7 billion
21.General Ishaya Bamaiyi NGN 94.0 billion
TOTAL = NGN 11, 130, 657. 00 billion
Looted Money Discovered in Foreign Bank 84
No. Names of Depositors London Swiss U.S.A. Germany
1. General Ibrahim Babangida £6.256 b $7.41b $2.00b DM9.00 b

2. General Abdulsalami Abubakar £1.31 b $2.33b $8.00m DM 1.00b
3. Rear A. Mike Akhigbe £1.24 b $2.42b $671m DM900m
4. General Jeremiah Useni £3.04 b $2.01b $1.01b DM700m
5. Alhaji Ismaila Gwarzo £1.03b $2.00b $1.30b DM345m
6. Alhaji Umaru Dikko £4.5b $1.4 b $700m DM500m
7. Mr. Paul Ugwuma £300m $1.42b $200m DM3.01m
8. General Sani Abacha £5.01b $4.09b $800m DM535m
9. Mohammed Abacha £300m $1.2b $139m DM471m
10.Abdulkadir Abacha £700m $1.21b $900m DM300m
11.Alhaji Wada Nas £600m $1.32b ?? DM371m
12.Tom Ikimi £400m $1.39b $133m DM371m
13.Dan Etete £1.12b $1.03b $400m DM1.72m
14.Don Etiebet £2.5b $1.06b $700m DM361m
15.Major Al-Mustapha £600m $1.001b ?? DM210m
16.Anthony Ani £2.9b $1.09b $360m DM1.66b
17.Bashir Dalhatu £2.3b $1.001b $161m DM1.43b
18.General Wushishi £700m $1.301b ?? ??
19.Alhaji Hassan Adamu £300m $200m $700m ??
20.General T.Y. Danjuma £1.32b $1.02b $300m DM10m
21.General Ishaya Bamaiyi £120m $800m ?? ??
Sources: London Times
As Nigerians are wondering where these thieves are getting these monies from
and the kind of business they do, a foreign Journal, Maxone Magazine, vol. 1,
No. 20 further exposed the Reckless Spenders and the names of Nigeria corrupt
leaders and their loots, including monies discovered in foreign banks and how
they are painting Dubai red with our money. Some of these thieves were spotted
cruising with our money in Amani Club Dubai and Burj Al Arab Hotel, Dubai
where an accommodation per night is between $1,500 and $28,000 (NGN 4.5m)
respectively. Entry free alone to Amani Club is $1,500. A good number of
exquisitely expensive properties in Dubai are owned by Nigerian politicians.85
It is not hidden that Nigeria’s corrupt politicians cruise on helicopter cruise

instead of the usual boat cruise. Guests are flown from Nigeria to celebrate
weddings and birthdays of their children and girl friends at Amani Club in
Dubai.
vi. Some High Profile Corruption Cases under

Buhari Administration
 Ibrahim Magu’s Loots: Facts on Alleged Re-Looting of Recovered

Funds, Magu’s Alleged Dubai Properties; Sales of 157 Oil Tankers:
The trending news as at the time of writing this report is that Magu is currently
being interrogated by a presidential probe panel headed by retired Justice Ayo
Salami over allegations of mismanagement and lack of transparency in
managing recovered assets by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC).86
A final Report of the Presidential Investigation Committee on the EFCC Federal

Government Recovered Assets and Finances from May, 2015 to May 2020,
obtained News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) had seriously indicted and implicated
Magu on various allegations levelled against him.
The investigative committee terms of reference were to:

 Investigate, verify and review the recommendations of the Presidential
Committee on Audit of Recovered Assets if it relates to the EFCC, with a
view to ascertaining the complicity or otherwise of the AQcting
Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, in the management of the assets recovered by
the Commission;
 Identify Avenues through which the recovered assets are dissipated and
seized, recovered, forfeited (Interim and Final) assets are valued,
managed, disposed and/or mismanaged with a view to ascertain
compliance or otherwise with extant laws, regulations, processes and
procedures;
 Review the existing procedures on the Management of the seized,
recovered and Forfeited assets (interim and final) and proffer Standard
Operational Procedures for the management of seized, recovered and
forfeited assets.
 Determine whether assets recovered during his tenure, whether locally in
Nigeria or abroad, are being kept safely in a manner as to preserve their
original value and determine:-
 Whether all the assets could be properly accounted for by the Ag.
Chairman.
 To confirm if any of the assets have been diverted to the benefit of
the Ag. Chairman, his family, relation, friends or favoured staff.
 To recover any such diverted assets and return back to the EFCC or
appropriate government agency.
 The committee was also to investigate and report on corruption and
money laundering allegations involving Magu and Bureau De
Change operators, as well as some of his associates; as per the
intelligence reports and petitions.
 It was to audit the Assets and Finances of the EFCC as a legal
entity from 2015-2020, with a view to establish compliance or
otherwise with procurement procedures of the EFCC in line with
the provisions of the Procurement Act.
 However, new facts have emerged on how interest rates accruing
from N550 billion recovered by the EFCC in the period under
review were allegedly re-looted.
 Magu is now expected to disclose the whereabouts of the missing
interest funds running into millions of naira.
 NAN also observed that the Final Report of Presidential
Committee on Audit of Recovered Assets (PCARA) that covered
the period of May 29, 2015, to Nov. 22, 2018, had also confirmed
the concerns of the public about contradictory recovery figures
emanating from Magu.
 “It is quite disturbing that conflicting figures are being circulated in
the public space by EFCC as the amount of recovered funds.
 “For Foreign currency recoveries, EFCC reported a total naira
equivalent of N46,038,882,509.87, while the naira equivalent of
the foreign currency lodgments were N37,533,764,195.66,
representing a shortfall of N8,505,118,314.21.
 “These inconsistencies cast a serious doubt on the accuracy of
figures submitted by the EFCC. It is the committee’s view that the
EFCC cannot be said to have fully accounted for cash recoveries
made by it.
 “While EFCC reported total Naira recoveries of
N504,154,184,744.04, the actual bank lodgments were
N543,511,792,863.47. These discrepancies mean that EFCC’s
actual lodgment exceeded its reported recoveries by
N39,357,608,119.43.
 “It must be pointed out that the discrepancy of more than thirty
nine billion naira does not include interest accrued in this account
since it was opened.
 “It therefore cast serious doubt on the credibility of the figures and
means that substantial amount of money has not been accurately
accounted for.
 “Failure to report on the interest on actual lodgments clearly
establishes that interest element of over N550 billion has been re-
looted relating to the period under review.
 “This is an apparent case of manipulation of data in a very brazen
and unprofessional manner and this has greatly eroded the public
confidence in the anti-corruption efforts,’’ the report stated in part.
 NAN also reports that the PCARA revealed how the investigative
reports on EFCC’s activities by the Nigeria Financial Intelligence
Unit (NFIU) exposed acts of corruption and money laundering
against some EFCC officials, including Magu.
 “The NFIU reports established that the Acting Chairman has been
using different sources to siphon money from the EFCC, and in
some cases collecting bribes from suspects.
 “The report has shown that a particular Bureau de Change, owned
by Ahmed Ibrahim Shanono linked to the Acting Chairman based
in Kaduna has more than 158 accounts and has been receiving huge
sums of funds.
 “The link to Magu was also established by the payment of N28
million to FALANA who is a close associate and ally of the Acting
Chairman,’’ the PCARA report further revealed.
 NAN reports that the Salami probe panel is expected to continue
sitting on Monday while Magu’s lawyer, Mr Oluwatosin Ojaomo,
had on Friday applied for an administrative bail for his client, who
is facing corruption and other charges before the panel.87
HIGHLIGHTS ON FURTHER ALLEGATIONS: Magu’s Probe over Dubai

Properties, Sales of 157 Oil Tankers, etc.
According to media reports, panic grills Magu over Dubai properties and the
sales of 157 oil tankers. Highlights on the allegations indicated that Magu was:
88
 Grilled by a Presidential inter-agency panel over alleged ownership of

choice properties in Dubai, UAE;
 Facing rounds of interrogations by the panel over the numerous
allegations of corruption raised against him by the Attorney General of
the Federation, Abubakar Malami;
 The panel presided over by a former court of appeal judge, Justice Ayo
Salami was keenly interested in knowing the details of Magu’s regular
travels to Dubai and establishing evidence of his ownership of certain
properties in the region;
 His Abuja houses raided for information gathering, for documents and
incriminating evidence;
 Alleged to have illegally sold 157 oil tankers seized from the Port
Harcourt office of the EFCC; … sold off or mysteriously released about
157 tankers without following due process, …monies not remitted to the
government coffers.
 It was also learned that the panel asked him to account for the sum of
N700 million meant for training of the commission’s operatives. The
training, it was gathered, had not been held.89
According to Ekwutosi Chikadibia, a correspondence of “Reporters’ Press NG”:

“There are allegations that about 157 oil tankers seized by the Port Harcourt
disappeared. Some were sold while some were returned to the owners after massive
bribes were given through operatives we believe to be Magu’s proxies…”90
In a memo to President Buhari, the Attorney General of the Federation and

Minister of Justice, Malami:
 recommended Magu’s sack;

 Recommendations anchored on several grounds ranging from diversion
of recovered loot to insurbodination, and misconduct. One of the
allegations of Magu is the discrepancies in the figure of assets recovered.
It was said that while he claimed that the commission had recovered
NGN 980 billion worth of assets, what is in the account is less than NGN
100 billion;
 Shortly after Magu’s arrest and detention, some protesters took to the
streets of Abuja to demand the arrest of Tinubu over two bullion vans
believed to be conveying cash at his residence on the eve of the 2019
general election;
 Magu’s perceived selective investigation and refusal to investigate the
bullion vans allegations even though President Buhari, who made the war
against corruption one of the three cardinal agenda of his administration,
had given him “unfettered access to go all out and probe anyone
irrespective of his status in the society”.91
He was released on bail after 10 days of detention, saying that the directive of
the presidential panel investigating corruption allegations against him were
fabricated and his detention a case of dog-eat-dog.
He, however, expressed shock at the allegations, which he claimed were

trumped-up to tarnish his image. Magu said:
“They are nonsense. They are mere trump up allegations to tarnish my image and
that of the EFCC. I did not steal or divert or convert funds to private use. I read the
allegations and I was shocked.
“What I have gone through is a case of dog eats dog but I see it as one of those risks
of the job… we must not give up in any way.”92
 Crisis in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC): Alleged
Financial Recklessness
The trending news at the time of writing this report are alleged financial
recklessness and misappropriation of N81 billion leveled against the Interim
Management Committee (IMC) of the Niger Delta Development Commission
(NDDC).93
According to the report credited to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on May
5, the Senate set up the ad hoc committee to investigate the IMC of the NDDC
over alleged misappropriation of N81 billion. 94
SOME Niger Delta leaders and crusaders have decried the alleged financial
recklessness and accusations of mismanagement of billions of naira by the
Interim Management Committee (IMC) which they believed was progammed to
fail.
Under the auspices of Oil Mineral Producing Areas Stakeholders Forum,

OMPSTAFOR, the host oil and gas communities put together what they
described as missing funds in the NDDC, starting from the former President
Shehu Shagari era when the prevailing agency for the development of the region
was 1.5 per cent ‘Presidential Committee’.
Conduit pipe
According to the former Secretary of Pan-Niger Delta Elders Forum (PANDEF)

and Chairman of Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI,
and prominent Niger Delta leader, Mr. Mitee:
“The core of the issue lies in the very conception of the NDDC as an agency of the
Presidency through which patronages are dispensed.
“Thus, instead of the laudable provisions in the 1998 OMPADEC Decree
promulgated by former Head of State, Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar, and which
charged the agency with the primary responsibility of developing the oil producing
communities, according to the priorities set by the communities, (a laudable bottom-
up approach), the NDDC Act, which repealed that decree, charged the commission
with the responsibility of developing the region according to priorities set by the
federal and state governments, and then provides in Section 7 (3) that in carrying out
its functions, the Commission shall be subject to the control, direction and
supervision of the President…”95
He went further to accuse the Commission of acting as the patronage agency of
the Presidency which has been progressively been doing a fantastic job at that:
“Any credible audit of the NDDC would amount to auditing the role of the
Presidency in developing the Niger Delta…”96
Meanwhile, the Head of the Interim Management Committee, IMC and

Managing Director, MD, of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC,
Professor Daniel Keme Pondei has declared that Hon. Olubuni Tunji-Ojo must
recuse himself as the Chair of the House of Representatives Committee on
Niger Delta for them to make their presentation. He also insisted that the Ojo
had been accused of various infractions in many contracts of the NDDC and
therefore on a revenge mission with the investigation.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the panel, Ojo had made more revelations of
various significant expenditures. According to him, the IMC, contrary to the
alleged mismanagement of N40 billion for which the investigation was
conceived spent extra funds on some sundry items. The items, he said, included
Community relations — N1.3bn; Condolences — N122.9m; Consultancy –
N83m; COVlD—19 — N3.14 billion; DTA – N486million; Impress – N790.9
million; Lassa fever — N1.956 billion; Legal services — N900million and
Maintenance – N220million. Others were Oversea travel – N85.6 million;
Project public communication – Nl.121 billion; Security – N744m; Staffing
related payments N8.8 billion and Stakeholders engagement (Feb 18- May 31,
2020) N248million. The money is totaled N81.5 billion.97
In his reaction, Pondei said that the figures did not reflect the true situation. He
said it was only N59 billion that had been spent by his administration between
March 2020 when he assumed office and May, 2020. He said:
“I reject the allegations of financial recklessness. Whilst no man can do everything
perfectly, I state categorically that all I have done is trying to reposition and
restructure the NDDC. That is the mandate of the Interim Management Committee.
Even a blind person will know that the issues are due to the plugging of leakages and
the end of business as usual…” 98
Speaking to the people of Niger Delta and indeed, Nigerians on the

developments, Pondei said
“They should verify everything they read or hear. There is a well-funded campaign of
calumny against the IMC and the Minister of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs. One
day the whole truth will come out and we will be vindicated.” 99
Saturday Vanguard recalls that in May 2020 when the allegations against Tunji-
Ojo made the rounds, the lawmaker called a press conference and denied them,
describing them as cheap blackmail against his person.
“It’s unfortunate that these allegations are coming…”100
 Corruption in NDDC – The Certified Looters of Niger Delta

under the Buhari Administration:101
Recently, one Joy Nunieh, the former managing director (MD) of Niger Delta
Development Commission from October 29, 2019 to February 19 th 2020 took
the Minister for Niger Delta affairs to the cleaners as she exposed the
underbelly of the minister and the commission. Amongst her numerous
allegations, she alleged that the “Water Hyscent distil contract ballooned from
NGN 5 billion to NGN 50 billion when Akpabio become a minister.102
The National Assembly invited the officials of the NDDC to unravel the
circumstances surrounding the purported misappropriation of NGN 40 billion
only to find out that the misappropriated fund was NGN 81.5 billion. The
NDDC acting managing director, Kemebradi Kumo Pondei collapsed at the
National Assembly during probe of the activities of NDDC. It was gathered that
between January and May 2020, the sum of NGN 81.5 billion was spent by the
NDDP. The breakdown is as follows: 103
Oversea Travels NGN 85.6 million

Community Relations NGN 1.3 billion
Condolences NGN 122.9 million
Consultancy NGN 83 million
Covid-19 NGN 31.4 billion
DTA NGN 486 million
Imprest NGN 790.9 million
Lassa Fever NGN 1.95 billion
Legal Services NGN 900 million
Maintenance NGN 220 million
When the Minister for Niger Delta, Senator Akpabio was being quizzed by the
National Assembly, it was revealed that the principal officers of the National
Assembly were indicted and actively involved in the whole scam. Chairman,
Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi of the
Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Delta North was alleged of owning
companies used for fake contracts at the NDDC. Nwaoboshi was accused of
collecting contracts from the NDDC with 11 different companies without
executing them.104
One Charles Odili alleged that Senator Nwaoboshi used 11 different companies
as fronts to secure for himself NGN3.6 billion in September, 2016. Odili
alleged, the contract was the “biggest single case of looting the Commission’s
resources”.105
On her Facebook Page, captioned “NDDC – The Chicken comes Home to

Roast” Lauretta Onochie said inter alia:
“The question Senator Nwaoboshi has refused to answer is to tell Niger Delta
citizens and Nigerians his role in the award of contracts for the provision of 4,800
plastic desks and chairs for primary/secondary schools in nine (9) states of the Niger
Delta in 2016 with award of contract letter dated 22 September, 2016.
The contract sum was for NGN 3.6 billion. The revelations in the award of the said
contract are mind boggling, disturbing, appalling, using eleven different companies
and business names which were awarded the contract are owned by or traceable to
one and the same person being Senator Peter Nwaoboshi…”106
 NDDC contracts beneficiaries: Akpabio finally names

Senators, Reps
The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godwill Akpabio at last reveals
the senators and members of the House of Representative who are beneficiaries
of various unexecuted contracts from the Niger Delta Development
Commission (NDDC).
In a vehement rebuttal, the National Assembly challenged Akpabio to give

names of beneficiaries in 48 hours ultimatum.
In his letter to the National Assembly Akpabio listed Senators Peter

Nwaoboshi’s name against 53 projects which included: 107
 Emergency Repairs of Asue Street, Owa Phase 2,

 Emergency Repairs of ldumuogbe Road via Ojemaye,
 Emergency Repairs of Otolokpo College Road, Otololkpo,
and;
 Emergency Repairs of Police lshu Ani Ukwu Road, Issele
Uku
They also included:
 Emergency Repairs of old Sapele Agbor Road, Obiaruku,

 Emergency Repairs of Ehwerhe Obada Road Agbarho Road,
 Emergency Repairs of Hon. Ifeanyi Eboigbe Street Boji Boji
Owa/Goodwill Street, Owa Alero, and
 Emergency Repairs of Ahiama Okwu to Obuocha Okwu among others.
Also the Minister listed Mutu’s name against 74 projects which included
various emergency road projects in Delta, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, and Rivers
states.
“Other lawmakers that Akpabio listed projects against are, Senator

Matthew Urhoghide (6), James Manager (6), Sam Anyanwu (19), and
others simply identified as Ondo and Edo reps,”108 the letter read.
The embattled Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission

(NDDC), Prof. Kemebradikumo Daniel Pondei, has listed some of the contracts
the Commission paid to some firms before the approval of the 2019 annual
budget was harmonized.
According to him, most of the contracts they were arm-twisted to pay, “were
never done or sometimes, never completed.”109
The list of contracts, benefiting firms and when the money was paid was
published in Abass Jimoh, “Nigeria: NDDC – Pondei Lists Contracts Paid
Under ‘Duress’ to Get National Assembly Budget Approval”, DailyTrust, 8
August, 2020.110
Pondei had alleged that “this blackmail scheme explains why the 2019 Budget
of the NDDC was passed by the NASS Committee in March, 2020”, adding
that, “we are talking about a budget that was billed to expire in May, 2020.111
This implication is that the management of the NDDC had only five weeks, to
implement the budget of one fiscal year, and present a performance report on
the same budget.
 Corruption in the Oil Sector
A former deputy national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress

(APC) and political activist, Mr. Timi Frank, has voiced out in condemnation of
series of corruption ravaging the country. The $800 million oil fraud gave him
more reason to ask President Muhammadu Buhari to resign as Petroleum
Minister.112
Frank also urged the National Assembly to thoroughly probe the fraud in the oil
sector as it has gone beyond mere reports in the media.
He queried why such huge amount of money gotten from the oil rich Niger
Delta region could be stolen while the region is lacking development in good
education, hospital, good roads and industrialization.
His tweets:
“$800million Sales of Crude Funds stolen as alleged by an online media Pointblank.
Gen Muhammadu Buhari @MBuhari should resign as Petroleum Minister and
President of this country. Under his watch, he has failed the citizens and Nigerians
cannot breathe anymore. I call on the oil producing community and Niger Delta
Region at large to protest this current looting…”113, Timi Frank stated.
 Alleged Scam at Central Bank of Nigeria (CNB) under Godwin

Emefiele
A global pan-Nigeria group known as Nigerian Young Professionals Forum

(NYPF) has petitioned the US Congress over alleged multiple scams at the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), under the watch of Godwin Emefiele, the
incumbent governor of the bank.
According to Nigerian Young Professionals Forum (NYPF) the litany of

scandals at CBN including forex scam rubbishes all the efforts of President
Muhammadu Buhari to stamp out corruption from Africa’s most populous
nation.
The petition which was addressed to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Leader McConnell,
Leader McCarthy and Leader Schumer was titled: Corruption, Looting In
Central Bank Of Nigeria: A Call For A Special Congressional Hearing,
Investigation, Sanctions On Godwin Emefiele And Others, was also copied the
US State Department, Department of Justice, Central Intelligence Agency, CIA,
and Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, and signed by Mr. Jackson Ude, a
Nigerian-American media specialist, activist, good governance advocate and
recipient of the Peace Ambassador Award of the Centre for Peace Studies
(CPS), Sri Lanka who is also the Coordinator of NYPF, U.S/Caribbean
chapter.177
According to the the petitioners, between 2015 and 2016, under Emefiele’s
watch, CBN conspired with Nigeria’s oil corporation, Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), to illegally divert $24,263,008.56 meant to be
shared to 36 states of the federation, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, and the
774 local councils.114
It would be recalled that, one of Nigeria’s leading Investigative news websites,

Saharareporter.com, leaked a tape in which Emefiele and some officials of the
CBN were caught discussing how to cover up the loss of over N500bn (an
equivalent of $1.2billion) stolen from the CBN and diverted to a private
investment that failed, the NYPF wondered why till date, no one, including
Emefiele, has been held accountable.115
The group also accused the CBN of allegedly awarding a contract for the
expansion of its parking lot to Bulet International Limited, a company owned by
Ismaila Isa Funtua, an ally and confidant of President Muhammadu Buhari at a
whopping sum of N30 billion (the equivalent of $77.5million) in 2019; stressing
that no parking lot extension contract costs that much in the United States. The
NYPF alleged that the said contract violated Nigeria’s procurement laws.116
The petitioners alleged that Emefiele has been running the CBN with top
members of the Buhari cabal led by Isa Funtua, who died recently, and also the
former Chief of Staff to President Buhari, Abba Kyari, Attorney General and
Minister for Justice, Abubakar Malami, Mamman Daura, Lawan Daura,
Babagana Kingibe, Nasir Danu and a few others who are all from the Northern
part of Nigeria.117
The group which is affiliated to global anti-corruption networks alleged that Isa
Funtua and the cabal have been running a black-market forex cartel worth $800
million every week since the beginning of the Buhari administration in 2015.
“This continued until late 2017 when Vice President Yemi Osinbajo scaled it
down to $500 million when the President was away for medicals,” the petition
alleged.118
Urging the US Congress to move into action, the petitioners made the following
demands: 119
 Convene a Special Congressional Hearing on Corruption in Nigeria and

the Central Bank of Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari;
 Place Godwin Emefiele, Abubakar Malami, Nasir Danu, Babagana
Kingibe, Samaila Isa Funtua, Abubakar Isa Funtua and all those linked
with the corruption in CBN on the U.S watch-list;
 Invoke the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLATs) with Nigeria and
obtain banking and other financial records on the dealings involving
Emefiele, Bulet International owned by Samaila Isa Funtua and Abubakar
Isa Funtua;
 Invoke the Global Magnistky Act and place visa restrictions on Godwin
Emefiele, Abubakar Malami, Ismaila Isa Funtua, Abubakar Isa Funtua,
Mamman Daura, Lawan Daura, Babagana Kingibe and Nasir Danu, their
families and others linked with the corruption in CBN.
According to the group, all necessary contacts within the US Congress had been
established and that they are prepared to testify under oath in Congress and
provide all necessary documents to aid the speedy investigations of all the
claims, adding, we are “willing to use all legal means necessary in bringing an
end to corruption in Nigeria to give her young population a new lease of life for
a better future.”120
 15 high-profile corruption case files missing — Investigation
According to Sunday Punch of August 23, 2020, the case files of 15 high-
profile individuals, including the Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodimma,
Senator Peter Nwabaoshi, and others facing graft and other criminal charges
have disappeared.121
The missing files also included the non-declaration of assets and possession of
foreign accounts cases against Anambra North senator, Stella Oduah; the
President of the Nigerian Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick; and four other
NFF officials as well Akwa Ibom North-East Senator, Bassey Akpan, among
others.122
 Fiscal Governance and the Bastardization of the “Federation

Account” in Nigeria
The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended provides
in Section 162 as follows:
“The Federation shall maintain a special account to be called the ‘Federation
Account’ into which shall be paid all revenues collected by the Government of the
Federation, except the proceeds of the personal income tax of the personnel of the
armed forces of the Federation, the Nigeria Police Force, the ministry or
department of government charged with responsibility for Foreign Affairs and the
residents of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja”.123
Our leaders, from the President, members of the federal and state legislatures,
governors, revenue generating agencies, etc., everyone is aware and knows
about this provision. Again, the Constitution in Section 80 makes it clear that
no money should be spent out of the consolidated revenue fund of the federation
or any other public fund except upon the authorisation of the National
Assembly.
However, some agencies operate above the law on a yearly basis and get away
with a fiscal murder. The office of the Auditor General of the Federation, an
office established by the same constitution states in the 2014-2017 federal audit
reports that three agencies- the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the
Department of Petroleum Resources and the Federal Inland Revenue Services
withheld a total sum of N5.785 trillion. The NNPC is holding on to N4.501tn,
DPR N334bn while the FIRS held on to N951bn. They have since failed,
refused and neglected to make these humungous sums available to the three
tiers of government.124
Reports have indicted the three deviant agencies for ignoring sections 80 and
162 of the constitution and took extra-legal steps to violate the law. This raises
the fundamental questions: Why are these sections often obeyed in the breach?
Why is no one being brought to account for flagrant disregard of constitutional
provisions? Spending without appropriation and in clear disregard of the duty to
remit to the distributable pool account is an original sin against the constitution
for which the culprits do not deserve an extra day on their seat after the crime
has been established. But this is Nigeria! And, for the President of the
Federation to spend money without appropriation is an impeachable offence for
it is an attempt to combine executive and legislative powers and such a
combination is the hallmark of dictatorship.125
This is a fact in the public domain at a time the federal government is virtually
bankrupt and borrows to pay salaries as well borrows to pay back the due
portions of previous loans – debt service and not even the repayment of the
capital. If this money is recovered, it would offset the 2020 federal deficit. The
N5.785tn is just a part of the unremitted funds reported in the audit reports and
if all the due unremitted sums for the four years are put together, it could be as
much as the 2020 federal budget.126
In a normal situation, the Accountant General of the Federation and the Minister
of Finance should follow up these monies, recover and put them back into the
Federation Account. And as Eze Onyekpere explained that this is not a normal
but an absurd and abnormal situation! Therefore, beyond the Accountant-
General and Minister of Finance, the President, Major General Muhammadu
Buhari (retd.), by virtue of his broad powers under S.5 of the 1999 Constitution,
should give clear orders that all due sums should be paid into the Federation
Account. This recommendation is also based on the fact that the key agency
responsible for the bulk of the deductions — the NNPC– is directly under his
supervision as the Minister of Petroleum. Furthermore, the unauthorised
deductions make a strong case for the expeditious enactment of the governance
and administrative reforms proposed in the Petroleum Industry Bill to enable
the NNPC or its equivalent to operate like a commercial firm. The PIB has been
delayed for over 20 years without any reasonable explanation and the last time a
governance bill was passed, the President refused assent based on specious
reasons.127
The case of the NNPC is even most absurd. In the last couple of years, the
backlog of joint venture cash calls and new ones are being paid for through the
deployment of excess crude oil which the major international oil companies are
allowed to take to offset due debts. So, what exactly informs the NNPC’s refusal
to pay due sums into the Federation Account? A nation that keeps borrowing to
meet basic mandates cannot be bleeding with unremitted sums and no one is
being held accountable. No one is in jail for these scams, no one is apologising to
Nigerians and indeed, unremitted sums have not been returned. Alternatively, are
the NNPC, DPR and FIRS stating that the Auditor-General reported without any
empirical evidence or went outside his mandate? No, we cannot continue this
charade.128
Isn’t it surprising that the states that are shortchanged by these unauthorised
deductions have kept quiet and have not mounted any vigorous challenge to
these infractions. It is the expectation that states should challenge this
“customary practice” at the Supreme Court. Apparently, because the Auditor-
General of the Federation takes on the cabals and grand fathers of corruption,
the bill to strengthen his office, provide more resources and logistics for the
office to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the performance of duties
has also been in the works for over 15 years, Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and
Buhari refused assent to the Federal Audit Service Commission Bill and none of
them gave any reason for their refusal.
 ICPC Uncovers Multi-Billion Naira TSA Scam

According to S. Adewale, a Reporter from Within Nigeria, a national daily
newspaper, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences
Commission (ICPC) recently disclosed that it has uncovered a multi-billion
naira scam in government ministries, agencies and parastatals.129
This was contained in a keynote address by the Chairman of ICPC, Prof. Bolaji
Owasanoye at the Second National Summit on Diminishing Corruption with the
theme: “Together Against Corruption and the Launch of the National Ethics and
Integrity Policy” held at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The ICPC chairman made the startling revelation in the presence of President
Muhammadu Buhari, Senate President Ahmad Lawan, the Chief Justice of
Nigeria, Justice Tanko Mohammed, and the Chairman of the Nigeria
Governors’ Forum, Dr. Kayode Fayemi (virtually) and other top government
officials.
“The TSA Illegalities”
He noted that government officials violated the sanctity of the Treasury Single
Account (TSA) by perpetrating illegalities.130
According to Daily Trust, the treasury single account is a public accounting

system whereby government receipt, revenue and income are collected into one
single account. The Central bank of Nigeria (CBN) is responsible for the
maintenance and management of such account.131-132
The Discoveries
Prof. Owasanoye said under the Open Treasury Portal review that was carried
out between January and August 15, 2020, out of 268 Ministries, Departments
and Agencies (MDAs), 72 of them had cumulative infractions running into
billions.133
He said while 33 MDAs tendered explanations that N4.1 billion was transferred
to something called sub-TSA, N4.2 billion paid to individuals had no
satisfactory explanations.134
According to Owasanoye, “We observed that transfers to sub-TSA were to

prevent disbursement from being monitored. Nevertheless, we discovered
payments to some federal colleges for school feeding in the sum of N2.67
billion during lockdown when the children are not in school, and some of the
money ended up in personal accounts. We have commenced investigations into
these findings.”135
Prof. Owasanoye also said in the education sector, 78 MDAs were reviewed and
common cases of misuse of funds were uncovered.136
Some of the discoveries include life payment of bulk sums to individuals/staff

accounts, including project funds; non-deductions/remittance of taxes and IGR;
payments of unapproved allowances, bulk payment to micro finance banks,
payment of arrears of salary and other allowances of previous years from 2020
budget, payment of salary advance to staff, under-deduction of PAYE and
payment of promotion arrears due to surplus in personnel cost, abuse and
granting of cash advances above the approved threshold and irregular payment
of allowances to principal officers.137
Contacted, the Director of Press and Public Relations of the Federal Ministry of
Education, Mr Ben Bem Goong, said right from the start of the school feeding
programme, it was never domiciled in the ministry and therefore could not
comment on the allegations by the ICPC boss.
“It (school feeding) was first in the office of the Vice President and when the ministry
of humanitarian was created, it was moved there.
That is why the minister has not been answering anything relating to school feeding.
The ministry has never been part of it,” he said.138
Responding to the allegation, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster

Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq said they were not
aware of the allegation and urged the ICPC boss to shade more light.
“Nobody has briefed me or brought my attention to the issue. The ICPC did not write
to us regarding the alleged issue of diverting monies meant for school feeding.
“I want to assure you that we will definitely take it up with him so that he will clarify
the allegations we made,” she said.139
Prof. Owasanoye also revealed that over N2.5 billion was appropriated by a late
senior civil servant in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development to himself and cronies.140
He said the commission recovered N16 billion from the ministry of agriculture
paid into individual accounts for non-official purposes.141
Also recovered were payments to agric contractors for no job done or

overpayment for jobs done, appropriation of projects to private farms of senior
civil servants of the ministry.
He said:
“We have restrained or recovered by administrative or court interim and final orders
assets above N3 billion facilitated recovery of $173,000 by the whistleblower unit of
FMFB&P from an erring oil company retrained £160,000 in a UK-bank in an
ongoing interim forfeiture. These figures exclude quantum of recoveries on return or
contractors to site as a result of projects tracking initiatives.
“It should, however, be noted that some of these assets are subjected to ongoing
cases and where suspects proved their cases physical or liquid assets will be released
in accordance with laid down laws, guidelines or court directives,” he said.142
(vii)The Executive cum Legislative Conspiracy: The Unholy Political

Matrimony
The present Nigeria’s National Assembly under Lawal is a pliant, slavish,

rubber-stamp congress of "yes-men!" that will even tweak the constitution to
legitimize and even prolong Buhari’s tyranny, if allowed. Opposition parties are
gradually being decimated and Nigeria, according to some schools, may likely
become a one-party state.143-144
Unlike NASS under Saraki who dutifully checkmated the Executive branch, the
present Lawal-led "alleluia-members" of the Legislative branch are of a
different lot. Their real nature was brought to the fore and they danced naked in
the market square for Nigerians to see and behold their ugliness, their nudity.
The whole world was appalled, almost in a state of suspended animation, when
the Lawal-led Legislature, under sixty minutes, approved a foreign loan of
$22.7 billion and on the same day approves $5.5 billion in foreign loan to
President Muhammadu Buhari. 145
It would be recalled that the proposal for $22.7 billion was first brought before
the then Saraki-led Legislature. The Senate requested for details of the
Executive plans on what to use the loans for and all the nitty gritty involved, or
should involve in the loan. The Buhari government failed to convince the
Legislature of the need for the loan. It was subsequently rejected. This same
rejected loan-request was what Lawal-led Legislature swiftly approved
unchecked. Nigerians were waiting to hear the nitty gritty of Buhari's $5.5
billion loan only to hear that the $22.7 billion loan had been factored in through
the back door and approved.
As it stands, Nigeria is poised to spend more on renovating the National

Assembly complex in Abuja than it would on repairing federal roads across the
country. It would be recalled that in the 2020 budget signed by President
Muhammadu Buhari, the renovation of the National Assembly complex is set to
gulp ₦37 billion.226 Many Nigerians have been angered against the plan to
spend the equivalent of $100 million on repairing just one building at a time key
infrastructure, hospitals and schools across the country remain in terrible shape.
Some have questioned how much would be required to build a new National
Assembly if mere repairs cost that much. 146
Yet, the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA), the agency responsible
for repairing broken federal roads across Nigeria earmarked by the federal
government in all the 36 states plus Abuja (FCT) only budgeted some NGN
36.6 billion.147 What a nation!
Some humongous amount was also voted for the Nigeria Television Authority
(NTA) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for some
digitalization exercise and other spurious reasons. Some billions were slated for
the EFCC and the NIMC. And yet, at this time of national and global
emergency, the budgets of health and those of education were slashed
substantially.
Even for the sake of argument, there is lop-sidedness in the loan itself. You
have a loan that is about 11 - 12 trillion naira and some parts of the country,
specifically the South-East and some parts of North East were not captured in
the loan and yet this is a loan obtained in the name of all Nigerians and must be
repaid by "Nigerians" especially from proceeds that comes from the Southern
parts of Nigeria notably the South East. This is certainly a satanic verse of the
policy drivers of the present administration.
The "alleluia-boys" of the National Assembly only recently permitted Mr.
President to borrow some NGN 850 billion in the domestic market 148; not up to
3 weeks, the government got another approval for Mr. President to borrow
another $3.5 billion149 (about NGN 1 trillion) from the IMF. Yet, not up to a
month later, the "alleluia boys" further approved some $5 billion for the
government. More than 80% of the projects tied to these borrowings are about
NGN 15 trillion and they were not economically viable projects. What it simply
means is that we are borrowing for consumption, period! Most of us are yet to
understand the nitty gritty of the loans which were said to have a moratorium of
4-5 years.
It has been five years of pain for Nigerians that all the bad indices in our socio-
political and financial lifestyles as a country had been activated.
With the volume of foreign loans being accumulated by Buhari and his APC
government, our nation and her people have been plummeted and placed on the
international auction market.
Buhari’s move to take a fresh $5.513 billion (NGN 2.1 billion) loan in addition
to an earlier $22.79 billion (NGN 8.5 trillion), the size of 2020 budget and
without operable repayment plans, will totally compromise the fiscal integrity
of our nation and open her up for economic annexation by foreign creditors.
This is in addition to NGN 850 billion from the capital market.
In this fiscal year, the Buhari administration cannot muster the capacity to
harness the huge resources available in our country to generate even half of the
sum of its own budget, but has been shopping for foreign loans.
The presidency is practically driving the nation to the brinks while exposing
Nigerians to the risk of modern day slavery by mortgaging our future to
economic appropriation by foreign interests.
The prevailing situation has already created apprehensions, anxiety and

trepidation among the citizens, particularly the youths who are presently scared
about their future and the survival of Nigeria under the APC-led government.
Unfortunately and regrettably too, the lives of the ordinary Nigerians, in spite
the deluge in loans, in whose behalf they claim to be amassing these debts, have
become far worse now than the Buhari and his APC government met it in 2015.
More distressing is the fact that this administration cannot account for the loan
taken so far.
It is painful to observe that the gains made by previous administrations have
been opened up, like prodigal son, for pillaging by the APC leaders and the
cabal in the presidency.
Many well-meaning Nigerians have continuously placed a call on Buhari

presidency to cut the size of his government, substantially reduce the size of his
over-bloated budget, checkmate its luxuries, curb unbridled corruption in his
administration and make haste to recover NGN 14 trillion stashed away by the
APC leaders and the cabal under his watch. If this sum is recovered, I want to
believe, our nation need not be in need of these humongous foreign loans.
In all of these loans, the Lawal-led Legislature is conniving with the criminal
APC Executive-led Buhari government to undermine the interests of Nigeria
and Nigerians.
It is my plea that the National Assembly should use its legislative instruments to
check the unbridled appetite for foreign loans. Otherwise, corruption and
recklessness will "kill Nigeria to death". But in all of these, why are Nigerian
youths scared to interrogate the system and insist that the right thing be done or
be forced to be done?
(viii)Villains by Necessity; Fools by Heavenly Compulsion?
Not too long ago, James Ibori, it was who raped and impregnated himself with
the wealth and resources of his people - the Delta State. He was protected and
prevented from being prosecuted and sentenced in Nigeria (what do you
expect?), but was duly sentenced to terms of imprisonment in the UK which he
dutifully and rightfully served. Upon his return to Nigeria, he was heralded by
the very Delta people he raped economically. The whole community, including
the so-called traditional rulers, heralded his arrival, comparing him to Jesus
Christ to his Delta people. That was a nonsensical piece of ridiculous, arrant and
stupendous nonsense! A man who stole you blind and caused millions of
destinies of Deltans despatched to Golgotha was ingloriously celebrated by the
very people he raped, what a society!
The same thing happened in the case of Alamasiegba of Bayelsa State, who
stole and stole, until Satan himself protested against him and was jailed in the
UK, disguised as a woman and "spirited" himself down to the only safe-heavens
for criminals the world over - Nigeria during Obasanjo administration. He was
ingloriously given an undeserved state pardon by the then President Goodluck
Ebele Jonathan who could not provide the basic necessities of life for his
Otueke community - no light, no water, no good road, nothing!
The cumulative damage from the actions of these criminals on the innocent,
underprivileged members of the society is better imagined than told. And
nothing happens; and nothing will ever happen because we are talking about
Nigeria. There is no place in the whole world where public servants behave as
irresponsible as they do in Nigeria, and yet nothing happens!
The former Governor of Rivers State once declared authoritatively that political
leaders steal state funds because Nigerians do not stone them. Amaechi said: "...
If you see a thief and you allow him to be stealing, what have you done? You
have stoned nobody; that is why we are stealing. Who have you stoned ... ?"150
The latest of this madness and extreme stupidity and demonstration of crass
ignorance and hopelessness which drove me to a state of suspended animation
happened in Abia State when the former Governor, Orji Uzoh Kalu, who was
accused and duly convicted for stealing the resources of the state and was
temporarily released on some administrative technicalities, visited the very state
he impoverished, and the very vulnerable elements he stole from, the very
wretched of the earth, whose destinies have been warped and desecrated were
sing his praises. These are nothing but glorified fools, congenital idiots,
pusillanimous simpletons, subservient mediocre accursed by the gods. They
were sing praises to a criminal whose actions and inactions have held them
bound, hostage, impoverished. What a people! What a country!!
In 2019, Orji Ujor Kanu, the present Senator and chief whip of the 9th
Assembly and an APC stalwart and also a former governor of Abia State
between 1999 and 2007 was accused and convicted for short-changing his state
with the sum of NGN 7.62 billion, for multiple sentences ranging from three
years to five years on 27 counts. The Federal High Court in Lagos sentenced
him to a maximum of 12 years imprisonment, but as a serving senator – in fact
the chief whip of the 9th National Assembly in the Senate – he still draws his
salary and emoluments that runs in millions and billions even while in prison. In
some climes, he’ll not only lose his salaries and emoluments but also his
position as a senator; criminals making laws for the citizens to obey (legislating
to steal). I’m not surprised at all when the court rules that the money be
recovered and paid to the federal government instead of the victim state,
because we are talking about Nigeria.
3.Conclusion
A society whose young people are asleep will never rise; such a society can
never fulfil its potentials. The attitude of an average Nigerian, especially the
youth is: "siddon look!" Are Nigerians fundamentally different from any other
people in the world? Where is the life we've lost in living? We're afraid of
death! Rubbish, as if we are living a "life"! In the long run of eternity, should it
really matter whether we live long or short on earth, since eternity is but a
passing moment? What really matter, and should matter, is everything what
stewardship we give of the days at our disposal. Whether we are today suffering
pain or enjoying pleasurable health will make little difference a thousand years
from now. But how our pain and pleasure, weakness or health are related to
faith and love will make all the difference.
Listen: If Nigerians must be free, we must stop cooperating with an evil system.
It is only a feeble expression of one's desire that right should prevail. It is
wisdom for Nigerians not to leave the right to chance nor wish it to prevail
through the power of majority. Let me remind us of the powerful proclamation
made by Douglass:
"The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet
made to her august claims have been born of earnest struggle. . . if there is no
struggle, there is no progress; those who profess to favour freedom and yet
deprecate agitation are men who want crops without ploughing up the ground;
they want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the
awful roar of its many waters ... Power concedes nothing without a demand. It
never did and never will. . . Men may not get all they paid for in this world, but
they must certainly pay for all they get. If we are to get free from the oppression
and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by
labour, by sacrifice and if need be, by our lives and the lives of others".151
So, the ball is in our court. As we lay our bed, so shall we lie on it. If we do the
needful, freedom's (democracy) road will prevail. Dalu nu! Shine your eyes!!
Ka Chineke mezie okwu!!!
4. References
1. Charles Akujieze (2007), “Nigeria: Challenges Before A Bewildered

Nation”, Madrid: MFC Grafica, Spain.
2. Olusegun Obasanjo, “My Watch: Political and Public Affairs” vol. 2,
Lagos: Kachifo Publishers, p. 426
3. Charles Akujieze (2019), “Nigeria: An Experiment in Nation Building”,
London: AuthorHouse Publishers, p.
4. Modupe Gbadeyanka, “How Ex-NNPC Boss Andrew Yakubu Hid $9.8
million in Kaduna”, BusinessPost, February 11, 2017.
5. Soni Daniel, “EFCC Intercepts N 49 Million at Kaduna Airport”
Vanguard, March 15, 2017.
6. Adeola Opeyemi, “EFCC Discovers N448.8 Million at Abandoned
Bureau de Change Office in Lagos”, Legit, April 2017
7. Eniola Akinkuotu, “How EFCC Recovered $43m, £27,000, N23m
During House Raid”, Punch, April 13, 2017.
8. Kunle Sanni, “Nigeria: Malabu Scandal – Court Adjourns Hearing on
Arrest Warrant for Etete, Adoke”, PremiumTimes, 13, May, 2019.
9. Elida Moreno, et al., “Shell Gets Access to Oil Hub in Panama”, Reuter,
23, March, 2017.
10.Elida Moreno, et al., “Shell Gets Access to Oil Hub in Panama”, Reuter,
23, March, 2017. See also Hilary E. Crawford, “Are ‘Shell’ Companies
Illegal? The Panama Paper Leaks” BustleNews, 4 April, 2016.
11.Iyobosa Uwugiaren, et al., “Again, Court Orders Forfeiture of Patience
Jonathan’s $5.9m”, ThisDay, 27 April, 2017
12.Press Release, “Authorize Probe of Obasanjo’s $16 billion Power
Spending” – SERAP tells CJN, 24 November, 2016.
13.Press Release, “Authorize Probe of Obasanjo’s $16 billion Power
Spending” – SERAP tells CJN, 24 November, 2016.
14.F.E. Bureau, “20% Stake: Total puts $2 billion into Adani Green”,
Financial Express, 19 January, 2021.
15.Siemen Press, “Completion of World’s Largest Combined Cycle Power
Plants”, 27th of July, 2018.
16.Bayo Oluwasanmi, “Let’s have Minister for Wholesale Looting of
Nigeria”, SaharaReporters, 5 July, 2020.
18.Adelani Adepegba, et al., “15 High-Profile Corruption Case Files
Missing – Investigation”, Punch, 23 August, 2020.
19.Henry Umoru, “COVID-19: NDDC under Attack by Senate over N3.14
billion Palliative for Police, Staff”, Vanguard, 9 July, 2020.
20.Solomon Ayado, “Police, NDDC Staff Shared N3.14 Billion for COVID-
19 says Senate”, BusinessDay, 9 July, 2020.
21.Michael Eboh, “NNPC Spent N36 billion on Pipeline Repairs, N8 billion
Petrol Stolen in 5 Months”, Vanguard, 8 August, 2020.
22.The video published by DailyNigeria, an online newspaper, showed the
governor receiving bundles of dollars and putting them into his white
dress known as ‘babanriga’ in the northern part of Nigeria. See TheCable,
15 October, 2018.
23.See Abuja Reporter on-line news (November 15th, 2018). See also
SaharaReporter, “DSS asks Buhari to prosecute Oshiomhole for making
‘millions of dollars from APC primaries’”, 15 November, 2018.
24. SaharaReporters, “Tinubu’s Alpha Beta Accused of ‘Money Laundering,
Tax Evasion Fraud’”, 7 September, 2018.
25.Matthew Ogune, “EFCC Receives Petition to Investigate Tinubu”,
TheGuardian, 25, October, 2019.
26.Matthew Ogune, “EFCC Receives Petition to Investigate Tinubu”,
TheGuardian, 25, October, 2019.
27.Nwa Diokpa, “Alpha Beta: Nigerians React as Tinubu’s Ally Accuses
him of Fraud, Corruption”, AfricaExaminer, 10 October, 2020.
28.Eniola Akinkuotu, et al., “Eight Politicians with N232 billion Corruption
Cases Working for Buhari’s Re-Election”, Punch, 1 September, 2018.
32.Gboyega Akinsanmi, “How EFCC Probe Compelled Wamakko to
Abandon Tambuwal”, ThisDay, 16 September, 2018.
33.Eniola Akinkuola, “N108 billion Fraud: EFCC to Seize Akpabio’s
Properties”, Punch, 7 August, 2016.
34.Ngere Davis, “BREAKING: Court Sentences Ex-Governor, Abia State,
Orji Uzor Kalu to 12 Years in Jail”, Within Nigeria, 5 December, 2019.
35.Henry Umoru, “Revealed: SGF, Babachir Lawal Awarded N220 Million
Grass-Removal Job to His Firm – Senate Report”, Vanguard, 18,
December, 2016.
36.Wale Odunsi, “Amaechi Sold Rivers’ Asset to Fund APC, Buhari”
quoted Princewill, DailyPost, 22 December, 2014; See also Sanni Tukur,
PremiumTimes, 21 December, 2014.
37.Ofiebor Okafor, “Amechi Spent $150m on Buhari’s Campaign – Wike”,
PM, 8 February, 2016.
38.“EFCC Investigating Over N200 bn from Zamfara Ex-Governor, Yari’s
Administration”, Vanguard, 17 December, 2019.
39.“Court Order’s Forfeiture of N500m, $500,000 Paris Club Money traced
to Yari” Punch, 5 July, 2017.
40.“Court Order’s Forfeiture of N500m, $500,000 Paris Club Money traced
to Yari” Punch, 5 July, 2017.
41.Agency Report, “Alleged N450m Fraud: Court Dismisses Ex-minister,
No Case Submission”, 12 April, 2018.
42.Matthew Ogune, “Akpabio Calls NDDC an ATM to Contest Elections,
Faults National Assembly Probe”, The Guardian, 21 August, 2020.
43.Grapevine believes that the incumbent Governor of Imo State purchased
his gubernatorial seat by offering bribe of N2.5 billion to the Chief
Justice of the Federation to secure the seat after a highly controversial
case that brought him from the forth position in the contested election
results to becoming the winning candidate. This is the reason why people
call him the “Supreme Court Governor”.
44.Jackson Ude, a Blogger and a former director of strategy and
communications under President Goodluck Jonathan had through the
Tweeter and his news medium, PointBlankNews published that Magu
embezzled over N39 billion and gave Osinbajo some N4 billion for a
soft-landing.
45.Mallam Isa Funtua was an in-law and an associate of President Buhari.
He died some few months ago. While alive, he was alleged to have
controlled the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and its foreign exchange
(forex) trade. See Dozldea, “Mallam Isa Funtua: The Man Who
Manipulated the Central Bank of Nigeria”, 29 July, 2020.
46.Adetola Bademosi, “COVID-19 Palliative Fails to Reach Most
Vulnerable Nigerians – NYCN”, Nigeria Tribune, 4 May, 2000.
47.See International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, a
Renowned Rights, Democracy and Security Watchdog. See Ekwenche,
Chicago Illunois, USA.
48.See International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, a
Renowned Rights, Democracy and Security Watchdog. See Ekwenche,
Chicago Illunois, USA.
49.Ekwenche Research Report on Intersociety (January 2019) and Amnesty
International (October 2016).
51.Senator Isa Misau, a retired Deputy Police Superintendent (DSP)
representing Benue South District declares that the Federal Government
had refused to investigate the monies illegally extracted from innocent
citizens of the old Eastern Region.
55.Reno Omokri taking to his Twitter account raised this concern. Quoted in
ReporterPress NG 20 July, 2020.
56.Reno Omokri taking to his Twitter account raised this concern. Quoted in
ReporterPress NG 20 July, 2020.
57.Juliet Ebirim et al., “Snake Allegedly Swallow N36m from JAMB Office
Vault, Nigerians React”, Vanguard, 17 Febuary, 2018”.
58.“Shocker! Monkey Swallowed N70m Belonging to Northern Senator”,
Vanguard, 21 Febuary, 2018.
59.The Chairman of ICPC, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, in his keynote address
at the 2nd National Summit on Diminishing Corruption with the Theme:
“Together Against Corruption, and Launch of the National Ethics and
Intergrity Policy”, at the Presidential Villa Abuja disclosed that N2.67
billion were recovered.
60.Johnbosco Agbkwuru, “N2.67bn School Feeding Funds Found in Private
Accounts – ICPC”, Vanguard, 28 September, 2020.
61.Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah reminded Nigerians of the paradox of life
that Nigeria represents.
62.Enyinnaya Abaribe, “ReportersPress, NG, 11, August, 2020.
64.Nnamdi Onyirioha, “Boko Haram: Northern Governors Demand Probe of
Mailafia Claims”, LegitNews, See also Eniola Akinkuotu, “Repentant
Terrorists Told Us Northern Governor among Boko Haram Leaders –
Mailafia”, Punch, 11 August, 2020.
65.Aisha Yesufu reacting on the death penalty given to a musician, Yahaya
Sharif-Aminu by Sharia Court in Kano.
66.Apostle Johnson Suleiman made a Tweet to condemn death sentences
given to Yahaya Sharif-Aminu.
67. Charles Akujieze (2007), op. cit.
68.Daniel Semeniworima, BBC News (Pidgin), 4 July, 2020.
69.Ikechi Michael, “EFCC Searching for Scammer who Duped FG of N157
billion in Arms Deal”, ReportersPress NG, 22 August, 2020.
70.Johnbosco Agbakwuru, “Probe: Nigeria’ll Break If We Release List of
Looters in NDDC – IMC”, Vanguard, 31, August, 2020.
71.Ibenegbu, George (2018-11-21). "Top 10 List of oil and gas companies in
Nigeria". Legit.ng - Nigeria news. Retrieved 2019-04-29.
72. Ralby, Ian (January 2017). "Downstream Oil Theft: Global Modalities,
Trends, and Remedies" (PDF). Atlantic Council.
73. Fellows, University of Houston Energy. "The Murky Underworld of Oil
Theft and Diversion". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-04-29.
74. "A Primer on Nigeria's Oil Bunkering". Council on Foreign Relations.
Retrieved 2019-04-29.
75. Warami, Urowayino (2017-12-16). "Underground for 2 yrs, Tompolo
still looms large in Ijaw nation". Vanguard News. Retrieved 2019-04-29.
76. "OPEC : Nigeria". www.opec.org. Retrieved 2019-04-29.
77. Emizet, Kisangani (April 1998). "Confronting Leaders at the Apex of the
State: The Growth of the Unofficial Economy in Congo". African Studies
Review. 41 (1): 100. JSTOR 524683.
78. Boris, Odalonu (May 2015). "The Upsurge of Oil Theft and Illegal
Bunkering in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria: Is There a Way Out?".
Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences (3 ed.). 6: 565–566.
79.See NIETI Report on 2018 Annual Progress Report.
80. See NIETI Report on 2018 Annual Progress Report
81.Johnson Olawale, “Illegal Gold-Mining in Nigeria: Influence on
Economy and Citizens”, Legitng – Nigeria News, 2018.
82. “List of Nigeria Treasury Looters Exposed”, Ekwenche Richard
Institute, Chicago Illinois.
83.“List of Nigeria Treasury Looters Exposed”, Ekwenche Richard Institute,
Chicago Illinois.
Chicago Illinois.
Chicago Illinois.
86.Emmanuel Dumobi, “Corruption Probe: Panel Grills Magu over Dubai
Properties, Sales of 157 Oil Tankers” PoliticsNigeria, 9 July, 2020.
87.A final Report of the Presidential Investigation Committee on the EFCC
Federal Government Recovered Assets and Finances from May 2015 to
May 2020 obtained News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) had seriously
indicted and implicated Magu on various allegation levelled against him.
90.Ekwutosi Chikadibia, “Magu Loots: More Troubles Landed for Magu as
New Facts on Re-Looting of Recovered Funds Emerge”, ReportersPress
NG, 12 July, 2020.
91.Ekwutosi Chikadibia, “Magu Loots: More Troubles Landed for Magu as
New Facts on Re-Looting of Recovered Funds Emerge”, ReportersPress
NG, 12 July, 2020.
92.Fadaka Louis, “EFCC Chairman or Not, Anti-Corruption War Must
Continue”, GBETU TV, 16 July, 2020.
93.“N81 bn Financial Recklessness, Allegation in NDDC Unacceptable –
Lawan”, Vanguard, 9 July, 2020.
94.Queen Esther Iroanusi, “NDDC Scandal: Senate to Investigate Alleged
Complicity of Members”, PremiumTimes, 23 July, 2020.
95.Former Secretary of Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) and Chairman of
Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and Niger
Delta Leader, Mitee made these assertions.
96.Former Secretary of Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) and Chairman of
Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and Niger
Delta Leader, Mitee made these assertions.
97.Levinus Nwabughiogu, “NDDC Probe: Reps C’tee Chair, Tunji Ojo on
Revenge Mission, Prof. Pondei Declares”, Vanguard, 18 July, 2020.
100. Levinus Nwabughiogu, “NDDC Probe: Reps C’tee Chair, Tunji
Ojo on Revenge Mission, Prof. Pondei Declares”, Vanguard, 18 July,
2020.
101. Rotimi Fasan, “The NDDC, Corruption and the Politics of Dirt”,
Vanguard, 6 November, 2019.
102. John Owen Nwachukwu, “NDDC: Former MD, Joy Nunieh Makes
Damning Revelations about Buhari’s Minister Akpabio”, DailyPost, 11
July, 2020.
103. “NDDC’s Acting MD Pondei Collapses at House of Reps Probe”,
PM News, 20 July, 2020.
104. Henry Umoru, “NDDC: Nwaoboshi Hits Back, Denies 11
Companies Allegedly Used for Fake Contracts”, 8 June, 2020.
105. Henry Umoru, “NDDC: Nwaoboshi Hits Back, Denies 11
Companies Allegedly Used for Fake Contracts”, 8 June, 2020.
106. Lauretta Onochie on her Facebook Page captured “NDDC – The
Chicken Comes Home to Roost” made this contribution.
107. Levinus Nwabughiogu, “NDDC Contracts Beneficiaries: Akpabio
Finally Names Senators, Reps”, Vanguard, 27 July, 2020.
110. Abass Jimoh, “Nigeria: NDDC – Pondei Lists Contracts Paid
Under ‘Duress’ to Get National Assembly Budget Approval”, DailyTrust,
8 August, 2020.
111. “$800m Oil Fraud: Nigeria in a Mess, Resign Now”,
Edujandin.com, 13 July, 2020.
112. “$800m Oil Fraud: Nigeria in a Mess, Resign Now”,
Edujandin.com, 13 July, 2020.
113. A global pan-Nigeria group, Nigerian Young Professionals Forum
(NYPF) has petitioned the US Congress over multiple scams at the
Central Bank of Nigeria. The petition which was addressed to the Speaker
Nancy Pelosi, Leader McConnell, Leader McCarthy and Leader Schumer
was titled: “Corruption, Looting in Central Bank of Nigeria. A call for a
Special Congressional Hearing, Investigation, Sanctions on Godwin
Emefiele was also copied the US State Department, Department of
Justice, CIA and Federal Bureau nwas signed by Mr. Jackson Udeh. See
also “Group Petitions US Congress, Demands Emefiele’s Sanction over
Alleged Scam at CBN”, www.msn.com, 5 June, 2020.
114. 177. A global pan-Nigeria group, Nigerian Young Professionals
Forum (NYPF) has petitioned the US Congress over multiple scams at
the Central Bank of Nigeria. The petition which was addressed to the
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Leader McConnell, Leader McCarthy and Leader
Schumer was titled: “Corruption, Looting in Central Bank of Nigeria. A
call for a Special Congressional Hearing, Investigation, Sanctions on
Godwin Emefiele was also copied the US State Department, Department
of Justice, CIA and Federal Bureau nwas signed by Mr. Jackson Udeh.
See also “Group Petitions US Congress, Demands Emefiele’s Sanction
over Alleged Scam at CBN”, www.msn.com, 5 June, 2020
over Alleged Scam at CBN”, www.msn.com, 5 June, 2020.
Alleged Scam at CBN”, www.msn.com, 5 June, 2020
121. Adelani Adepegba et al., “15 High-Profile Corruption Case Files
126. In a letter with ref.no. : SGF/PS/SPIPRPP/733/1 dated July 27,
2020, the Solicitor-General asked Ukpong give information on the 15
court cases to the Office of the AGF.
136. The Chairman of ICPC, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye made this
revelation at the Second National Summit on Diminishing Corruption
with the theme: “Together Against Corruption and the Launch of the
National Ethics and Integrity Policy” held at the Council Chambers of the
Presidential Villa, Abuja.
137. “ICPC Uncovers Multi-Billion Naira TSA Scam”, Daily Trust, 29,
September, 2000.
September, 2000.
September, 2000.
September, 2000.
September, 2000.
September, 2000.
143. Quoted in Charles Akujieze (2007), “Nigeria: Challenges Before A
Bewildered Nation”, op. cit.
144. Sunday Aborisade, “Senate Approved $28 BILLION Foreign
Loans in One Year”, Punch, 12 June, 2020.
145. Kabir Adejumo, “Nigerian Lawmaker Opposes NGN37 billion for
Renovation of National Assembly Complex”, PremiumTimes, 29
December, 2019.
146. “Budget for Maintenance of Federal Roads is Inadequate –
FERMA”, TransportToday, 11 March, 2000.
147. NAN “Budget: Buhari Writes National Assembly to Borrow
$29.96bn External Loan”, The Guardian, 25 October, 2016.
148. “Facts about the Senate’s Approval of Buhari’s N850 bn Loan
Request”, PremiumTimes, 2 May, 2020.
149. Nuel Suji, “Buhari Seeks NASS Approval for $5.5 bn External
Loan”, NewsInvestigators, 10 October, 2017.
150. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, quoted in Charles Akujieze (2019), op.
cit.
151. Douglas quoted in John J. Ansbro (1984), “Martin Luther King, Jr.:
The Making of a Mind”, New York: Orbis Books.
Chapter 5: Cost of Politics and Governance in Nigeria
(a) Background Studies:
The amalgamation of the Southern Protectorate to the Northern Protectorate

graduated into one unified political entity called Nigeria in 1960 and in 1963
she became a federation of three regions, and later four. Presently, Nigeria is
composed with three tiers of government: federal, 36 state governments and 774
local government areas. Each tier, in turn, has three arms of government: the
executive, parliament and the judiciary.
At the federal level, a democratically elected president forms a cabinet to

administer the country. The federal parliament is made up of the Senate, which
is the upper house, and the House of Representatives, the lower house. Headed
by the Senate President, the Senate is composed of 109 senators; and based on
equal representation of three senators from each of the 36 states and one
representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The lower house is made up
of 360 elected members from the 360 constituencies into which the country is
divided. The numbers of representatives per state is based on proportional
representation of the population of each of the 36 states, including the FCT.
Though a federation, Nigeria practices administrative federalism and not fiscal

federalism. The federal government largely controls the resources of the country
and therefore wields huge political influence. The 36 states depend on monthly
budgetary allocations from the federal government.
The Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), voted out in the 2015 general elections,
controlled the centre from transition in 1999 till 2015. It took a coalition of
three major opposition political parties (the Congress for Progressive Change
(CPC), the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the All Nigeria Peoples Party
(ANPP), as well as a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA)
which merged together to become the All Progressives Congress (APC) to vote
the PDP out of power.
Politics at the centre is more lucrative and very competitive due to the
concentration of and access to resources. Members of the ruling party at the
centre are usually appointed to positions such as heads of ministries,
departments and agencies of government. Due to a high level of corruption and
impunity, appointed and elected public officials have almost limitless access to
public resources. By implication and historically, the ruling party at the centre
has more funds to run party activities, including elections. As one of the three
arms of government at the centre, the federal parliament is also well funded and
has its budget drawn as “first-line charge” from the federation budget as a
measure of its independence.
For political parties to implement activities during and between elections,

money is indispensable. Candidates, require adequate funds, in addition to other
factors, for effective campaigning, which could lead to possible electoral
victory. Barrack Obama, former President of the United States of America, in
his book, The Audacity of Hope, (2006) captured the power of money when he
wrote that the “Peter Fitzgerald had spent $19 million of his personal wealth to
unseat his predecessor, Carol Mosley Braun”.1
Also emphasizing the importance of money to party politics, John C. Green

(2006) stated that money is an especially valuable resource among several other
resources which parties marshal in the process of seeking control of the
personnel of government. However, whether in established or new democracies,
unregulated use of money, private or public, for politics is capable of reversing
the ethics, practices and spirit of democracy. It confers undue advantages and
improperly alters available choice to electorates. 2
(b) The Three Arms of Government: A Democratic Burden
 THE Legislative (Legislating to Steal): How Nigerian Lawmakers Are

Highest Paid Globally (and also the Mecca of Corruption”)
Members of the federal parliament enjoy very lucrative salaries and allowances
which rank as one of the highest in the world. Nonetheless, corruption scandals
still pervade the National Assembly, suggesting underhand dealings by MPs in
the course of oversight functions. The questions that beg answers are legion:
Why does the National Assembly have persistent reputation for corruption?
Corruption has been the greatest bane of the Legislative Branch since the return
of democracy in 1999. As the branch of government saddled with the duty of
financial appropriation and supervision of the execution of the budget, it is
worrisome that the lawmakers cannot seem to stand up to their call to duty.3
The National Assembly has been enmeshed, since the beginning of our
democratic journey in 1999, in various allegations of corruption both moral and
financial. In the last 12 years, it is quite disturbing that Nigerians have been
regaled with graft allegations emanating from an institution that is supposed to
be one of the strongest fulcrums of democracy.4
The first dose of moral corruption in the National Assembly was publicly
witnessed in 1999 shortly after restoration of democracy. Alhaji Salisu Buhari,
the then Speaker of the first assembly, was accused of certificate forgery.
Subsequently, the then Senate President of the same first assembly, late Senator
Evan Enwerem, was accused of allegations that bordered on his true identity.
He too was later swept out of office.5
Senator Chuba Okadigbo, who succeeded Senator Ewerem, was also removed
under circumstances that somehow corruption-related. It appears that one of the
biggest corruption allegations that have rocked the National Assembly was the
N54 million bribery allegations under the leadership of Senator Adolphus
Wabara as Senate President. Allegedly, the Ministry of Education bribed the
Education Committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives to enable
them (committees) increase its budget. Wabara was forced to step down
following pressure from the Presidency and the Senate.6
Also thrown out of office over sundry allegations levelled against her was the
first female Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mrs. Patricia Ette and
some principal officers of the house. Mrs. Ette was replaced by Dimeji Bankole
as Speaker but was subsequently kicked out with his Deputy, Hon Bayero
Nafada over corruption charges and were arrested by the Economic and
Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) after Hon Dino Melaye and his group
blew the whistle on their alleged misappropriation of funds.7
In another development, the House Committee on Capital Market whose ex-

chairman, Hon. Herman Hembe, was also embroiled in alleged bribe demand.
Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) Director-General, Ms Arunmah
Oteh had accused committee members of seeking graft, failing which they went
on an alleged witchhunt. The Supreme Court found him guilty and requested
that he returned all the salaries collected at the point of his removal.8
In 2012, Honourable Farouk Lawan, Chairman of the House of Representatives

Ad Hoc Committee on Petroleum and Subsidy, allegedly requested and
accepted $620,000 as a bribe from a businessman allegedly involved in an oil
subsidy scam.9
Examples are legion and this need not detain us as some of them have already
been captured under Chapter 4 with the caption: “Nigeria in the belly of the
Vultures”.
Indeed, one can justifiably describe the national legislature since the return to
civilian rule in 1999 as the Mecca of corruption. Remember, Nasir el-Rufai,
former Minister of Federal Capital Territory, accused senators of demanding a
bribe of N54 million to facilitate his confirmation as minister. Although el-
Rufai cowardly apologised to the senate, it was obvious that federal
‘lawmakers’ are exploiting their privileged position for corrupt enrichment. The
Elumelu committee that investigated the N5 billion electrification scam was
fatally compromised when its chairman and his deputy, Ndudi Elumelu and
Nicholas Ugbane respectively, were accused of corruption. Thus, it is clear that
since 1999 the lawmaking arm of the federal government has bastardised its
oversight mandate on government ministries, parastatals and agencies. As a
result, when senators or House members embark on probes, Nigerians believe,
correctly in my view, that the ‘legislators’ are either looking for an opportunity
to be ‘settled’ or are executing the hidden agenda of political and business
cabals that want to checkmate the leadership of any government agency,
perhaps for planning to investigate and expose their nefarious business dealings.
And because the history of probes in Nigeria reveals that indicted VIPs usually
get away with criminality, many Nigerians would likely dismiss the current
scandal as a meaningless circus with the refrain: “we have been through this
before.” Yet, irrespective of ample justification for cynicism, it is still
worthwhile to critically examine the issues that arise from this case and discuss
reasons why it has been difficult to really to reduce official corruption to a
manageable level.
The current trend at the Senate of the National Assembly is the increasing
numbers of former state governors being elected as senators. According to a
civil society practitioner held that “having been governors for constitutional two
terms, of four years each, ex-governors have enough funds to facilitate elections
into the senate, even with their dwindled political profiles”.10
This is evident in the fact that 26 ex-governors are currently members of the
senate. This contributes to the turnover rate in parliament, an issue which needs
to be dealt with.
The National Assembly and Her Remuneration
One of the World’s finest and most respected magazines, “The Economist” have
suggested that the Nigeria’s federal legislator may afterall be regarded as one of
the highest paid the world over. In a new report released, it has reported that
Nigerian federal legislators with a basic salary of $189,500 per annum
(N30.6m) were the highest paid lawmakers in the world.11
A careful examination of data from the International Monetary Fund and The
Economist magazine of London, clearly show that lawmakers' basic salary
expressed as a ratio of the Gross Domestic Product per person across countries
of the world is among the highest.
According to the report, the basic salary (which excludes allowances) of a

Nigerian lawmaker is 116 times the country's GDP per person of $1,600 12 as
against British MPs who earn 2.7 times their country’s per capita.13
Juxtaposing the annual salaries of legislators from different parts of the world
with those of Nigeria lawmakers it shows that he $189,500 earned annually by
each Nigerian legislator is estimated to be 52 per cent higher than what Kenya
legislators, who are the second highest paid lawmakers, earned.14
The figures put salaries collected by Nigerian senators and members of the
House of Representatives way ahead of those received by fellow
parliamentarians in the 29 countries whose data was analysed by the
magazine.15
In comparison with the terms of volume of cash earnings, the Nigerian

legislators beat their counterparts in Britain who take $105,400 yearly, as well
as those in the United States ($174,000), France ($85,900), South Africa
($104,000), Kenya ($74,500), Saudi Arabia ($64,000) and Brazil ($157,600).16
The gap is even well pronounced in terms of lawmakers' salaries as a ratio of

GDP per capita. As it were, the salary of a Nigerian lawmaker is 116 times the
country's GDP per person, while that of a British member of parliament is just
2.7 times. 17
I refuse to understand why and how Britain's legislators pay is 'relatively
parsimonious' when compared with that of their counterparts in poorer
countries, including Nigeria, who 'enjoy the heftiest salaries by this measure.'
Yet Britain has an advanced economy as against Nigeria’s whobbling and
epileptic economy.
Only Australian lawmakers, with $201,200 annual salary, according to the data
receive higher amounts compared to Nigerian legislators, but their salaries are
only 3 times their country's GDP per person.18
Other yearly salary details published by the Economist are those of lawmakers
in Ghana ($46,500), Indonesia ($65,800), Thailand ($43,800), India ($11,200),
Italy ($182,000), Bangladesh ($4,000), Israel ($114,800), Hong Kong
($130,700), Japan ($149,700), Singapore ($154,000), Canada ($154,000), New
Zealand ($112,500), Germany ($119,500), Ireland ($120,400), Pakistan
($3,500), Malaysia ($25,300), Sweden ($99,300), Sri Lanka ($5,100), Spain
($43,900) and Norway ($138,000).19
Statistics have shown that Nigerian legislators were able to collect such
humonguous sum due principally to criminal allowances allotted to self in
complete disregard to the nation’s stark economic realities. Based on the
RMAFC documents dated February 2007, which are the subsisting approved
packages for National Assembly members, the lawmakers' allowances include
accommodation (Senator N4m, Rep N3.97m), vehicle loan (Senator N8m, Rep
N6.948m), furniture (Senator N6m, Rep N5.956m) and severance gratuity
(Senator N6m, Rep N5.956m), which are due once in four years.20
Other allowances, which are payable every year, are car maintenance (Senator
N1.52m, Rep N595,563), constituency (Senator N5m, Rep N1.687m), domestic
staff (Senator N1.5m, Rep N1.488m), personal assistant (Senator N506,600;
Rep N496,303), entertainment (Senator N202,640, Rep N198,521), recess
(Senator N202,640; Rep N198,521), utilities (Senator N607,920; Rep
N397,042), newspaper/periodicals (Senator N303,960; Rep N297,781), house
maintenance (Senator N101,320; Rep N99,260) and ward robe (Senator
N405,280; Rep N397,402)21
There are also estacode (Senator $600, Rep $550) and duty tour allowance
(Senator N23,000; Rep N21,000) payable per day when a lawmaker is on
official trip.22
 The Executives
An elected Nigerian president and/or governor through universal suffrage is
both the head of state and head of government, leading the Federal Executive
Council, or cabinet; in the case of the Federal Government and for states, the
chief executive superintending the state executive council as well as the chief
security officer in the state.
The executive branch is divided into Federal Ministries, each headed by a

minister appointed by the president. In accordance with the Constitution, the
president must include at least one member from each of the 36 states in his
cabinet. The President’s appointments are confirmed by the Senate of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria. In some cases, a federal minister is responsible for
more than one ministry (for example, Environment and Housing, or
Transportation and Aviation, or Power, Works and Housing may be combined),
or a minister may be assisted by one or more ministers of State. Each ministry
also has a Permanent Secretary, who is a senior civil servant.23
The ministries are responsible for various parastatals (government-owned

corporations), such as universities, the National Broadcasting Commission, and
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. However, some parastatals are
the responsibility of the Office of the Presidency, such as the Independent
National Electoral Commission, the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission and the Federal Civil Service Commission etc.24
The heads of the executive ministries are nominated by the President and then
presented to the Senate. Section 147 (6) of the 1999 Constitution gives the
Senate 21 days to complete the screening for confirmation or rejection by a
simple majority.25 According to Section 147 (5) of the constitution the only
qualification for one to be appointed as Minister is that the person must be
“qualified for election into the House of Representatives”. 26 If approved, they
receive their commission scroll, are sworn in and then begin their duties.
Salaries of Political Office Holders in Nigeria
The heads of the executive departments and most other senior federal officers at
cabinet or sub-cabinet level receive their salary under a fixed pay plan as
reviewed by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission
(RMAFC).27 The annual basic salary of a substantive minister is ₦2,026,400
(₦168,866:66 per month).28
However, the following allowances are officially granted to executive officers
as follows:29
 Furniture 6,079,200 Paid once in four years

 Vehicle 8,105,600 Optional, loan repayable by the end of
the tenure of the minister.
 Vehicle Fuelling and Maintenance 1,519,800 Paid annually
 Domestic Staff 911,880 Paid annually
 Entertainment 607,920 Paid annually
 Utilities 405,280 Paid annually
 Monitoring allowance 303,960
 Personal Assistant 506,000 Paid annually
 Newspaper allowance 303,960
 Leave 202,640 Paid annually
 Tour duty 35,000
 Estacode allowance $900 per night
 Housing 4,052,800 paid annually
 Total 13,374,240 Excluding optional vehicle allowance
How much is salary of the president of Nigeria?
When President Muhammadu Buhari came into office, he promised many

things and one of his first decisions was to cut government expenditure. The
decision not only affected the salaries of government officers and his vice but
also his own salary. Muhammadu Buhari made the Nigerian president salary per
month to be cut by 50%. The salary of his vice president was also reportedly
halved.
The president of Nigeria annual salary officially is about fourteen million Naira
(N14,000,000).30
What this means is that Nigerian president do receive at least one million naira
every month. However, other privileges like hardship (approximately N1.8
million) and consistency (approximately N8.8 million) yearly do abound for the
commander in chief. He also enjoys duty tour allowance, medical allowance,
accommodation, and furniture. The salary earn by a Nigerian president should
not be confused with other regular allowances such as: Fueling; Utilities;
Entertainment; Security; Domestic staff; Special assistant; Personal Assistant;
Travel; Hardship and much more.31
The State Executives
Currently, a Nigerian Governor’s basic salary, having been reviewed

downwards, is N2.22 million, while their deputies earn N2.11 million and their
Commissioners earn N1.33 million per month. It has been debated that given
the present economic challenges facing the country, the salary of the Governors
is still high and needs to be reduced since they still receive other allowances.32
The Elephant in the Room
To the naïve and uninitiated, the above salary scale of the executive branch in
Nigeria is quite reasonable and considerate; but to those in the know the cost of
maintaining the chief executives in Nigeria (including those of Mr. President
and the Governors) coupled with the so-called “security votes” are simply
scandalous and these remained in secrecy. Evidently, these sums run in billions
and trillions in both domestic and hard currencies and these are a well-guarded
secret between and amongst members of the executive body.
Figures, according to the former EFCC boss, have revealed that Nigeria's past
military dictators stole approximately $400 billion over the 39 years they were
in power. This is only the military leaders alone. The democratically elected
ones do not fare any better. Corruption and abuse of office, on the one hand and
the cost of maintaining an overbloated democracy in Nigeria are the satanic
verses that put the final nail on Nigeria’s economic coffin.
Let nobody be deceived, Nigeria runs one of the costliest types of democracy
the world over and bears a democratic overload and deficit she do not really
bargained for. That is a story for another day!
There are two fundamental areas the executive branch of government conspires
to send the country to Golgotha – wholesale looting of the nation’s resources
through outright graft, including both direct and indirect stealing, on the one
hand, and on the other, the cost of politics in Nigeria.
At this juncture, I would like to bring our attention to one basic concern – the
issue of “security votes” to both federal and states.
It would be recalled that billions and trillion of local and foreign currencies
have been officially appropriated and gazetted for security purposes in our
Budgets to the Ministry of Defence and their sister agencies. Yet, Nigeria is the
third most unsafe place to live on earth. From Chibok kidnap in Borno, to Buni
Yadi and Dapchi massacres in Yobe, to banditry and kidnapping across the
country, and extending to wholesale kidnapping of the Kankara boys in Kastina,
nowhere is safe in Nigeria any longer. Yet, billions are officially budgeted for
security annually.
Yet, our leaders say there is increasing need for proper state security financing.
“In Nigeria, there has been increased funding for internal security through the last
few decades. Recent statistics from the Central Bank of Nigeria show that the sum of
N2.13 trillion and N2.69 trillion have been spent on defence and internal security
respectively between 1970 and 2014, yet insecurity has been on the rise, particularly
insurgency, terrorism, kidnapping, border attacks and cybercrimes. This has raised
public concern on the legality, utility, essence, accountability and impact of security
votes on national security, development, and cohesion.”34
Investigations have revealed that huge sums of money allotted to the presidency
and state governors as “security votes” that runs in billions were
unappropriated, unaudited, and unaccounted for. According to Ekpa Stanley
Ekpa:
“Security votes are budgetary items to be spent on matters or operations that demand
confidentiality in deterring, neutralizing, or containing threats or harmful conducts
against a nation-state or a subnational government… Security votes are sue generis
items in the federal or state government budgets. This class of appropriation is not
specified or discoverable from the Appropriation Act, unlike regular budgetary items.
Ordinarily, only public institutions with Continuous Core Security Functions (CCSF)
are eligible for security votes. Unfortunately, other MDAs without any mandate to
deal with covert security operations have continued to receive appropriations for
security votes without accounting for same.35
A source reveals that in the 2019 Federal Budget, a total of N21,848,004,970

was appropriated as security votes for 162 MDAs. Yet, the normal
governmental budget made provisions for specific and defined security matters
like the purchase of security equipment, construction of security equipment,
purchase of uniforms, purchase of vehicles, construction of buildings and
perimeter fences, security charges and printing of security equipment.36
In the dire situation we find ourselves, it is therefore germane and fundamental

to ascertain who can receive security votes? How is it spent; to whom and for
what purpose? How can we hold the MDA or governments accountable on how
these votes are spent?
Governments and their agents at all levels in Nigeria are quick to espousing the
theory that security votes can be applied to a broad spectrum of discretionary
matters, particularly in support of the constitutional wisdom that “the security
and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.”37
Experience have shown that the “security vote” theory only serves as the
conduit pipes personal aggrandisement and corruption, promotes criminal
conduct leading to abuse of public trust.
“If this were to be the intent of those that introduced security votes in our polity, then
how do we hold those who spend this funds accountable, and do we measure the
impact of the provision of welfare and palliative interventions for the people – for
poverty and social injustice are the core root causes of insecurity and social
instability. This theory only seems to enjoy the convenience of widening the negative
culture of using security votes as conduit pipes for personal enrichment and
corruption. This creates criminal conduct of abuse of public trust, more so as the
Court of Appeal in Nyame v. FRN has expressly held that “security votes, being
government funds to be used for the security of the state, must be accounted for by the
recipient.”38
Investigations have revealed a huge amount of money provided monthly to the

Nigerian president and state governors, ostensibly for security purposes that is
un-appropriated, unaudited and unaccounted for. Although at present the
amount of security money voted monthly for the Nigerian president is
undisclosed, those of the governors are now in public domain. The use of
security votes offers a virtual carte blanche to the country’s President as well as
state governors to squander billions of naira in state allocation without scrutiny,
accountability, and without providing “security” for everyone save the
executive’s pockets and/or their bank account. A perusal of the monthly and
yearly “security votes” appropriation of state governors will suffice here.39
Monthly/ Yearly “Security Votes” Appropriation of State Governors
SOUTH EAST
Imo State: N4 billion per annum; N333, 333, 333 million monthly
Enugu State: N 600 million monthly; N7, 200, 000,000 billion yearly
Anambra State: N 850,000,000 million monthly and N10, 200,000,000
billion annually.
Abia State: N 700,000, 000 million per month, N 8.4 billion per annum
Ebonyi State: No record available
SOUTH SOUTH
Cross River State: N 500 million monthly and N 6 billion yearly
Rivers State: N1.5 billion monthly, N 18 billion yearly
Akwa Ibom State: N 1.8 billion and N21.6 billion yearly
Edo State: N 900 million monthly (as at 2008/ Could be more), N10.8
billion annually.
Delta State: N 2billion monthly and N 24 billion annually.
Bayelsa State: No record available
SOUTH WEST
Lagos State: N 1.429 billion monthly and N 17.149 billion yearly (N 15.559
billion [Public Order and Safety] + N 1.59 billion (Social
Protection).
Ondo State: N 600 million monthly and N 7.2 billion annually
Oyo State: Not specified, but the Governor draws his security votes from
annual “General Administration” budget of N 44.559 billion
annually.
Ogun State: N 80 – N 100 million monthly (N960 m – N 1.26 billion
annually)
Ekiti State: N 100 million and N 1.2 billion annually

NORTH WEST
Kano State: N 0.00 (All hail Kwankwaso, the State Governor)
Kaduna State: N 4.8 billion annually (N 2.16 billion as security vote and
another N 2.76 billion tagged “Security Vote [Preventive and
Supportive]” for the SSG’s office.)
Katsina State: N 1.6 million (approximate) and N211 million annually.
Zamfara State: N 600 million monthly and N 7.2 billion annually
Kebbi State: No record available
Sokoto State: No record available
Jigawa State: No record available
NORTH CENTRAL
Benue State: Not Specific. N 37.1 billion allocation to personnel and
overhead costs annually which cover security vote amongst
others.
Niger State: Not Specified but the Governor draws his security vote from
annual N15.7 billion for general administration.
Plateau State: N 216.66 million monthly and N 2.6 billion annually
Kogi State: N 400 million monthly, N 4.8 billion annually
Nassarawa State: N 100 million monthly, N 1.2 billion yearly
Kwara State: No record available.
The former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi spoke my mind as well
as the minds of most Nigerians when he revealed that political office holders
steal state funds because Nigerians do not stone them. Amaechi disclosed this in
Lagos during an event organized to pay tribute to Nelson Mandela challenged
Nigerians to hold their leaders accountable. He said:
“…. If you see a thief and you allow him to be stealing, what have you done?
You have stoned nobody; that is why we are stealing. Who have you stoned?
They came out and started dancing oil subsidy. They told you that they stole N
2.3 trillion, what did you do?”40
The cost of maintaining a Nigerian governor is simply scandalous. Instances are

legion but this need not detain us here.
Not only was the Federal Government heavily indebted, not even one out of the
36 states including the Federal Capital Territory is debt-free. A perusal of the
states’ indebtedness would shock even the most ardent optimist as follows:
STATES DEBT STOCK (NGN)
1. ABIA 57, 467,618,625.51
2. ADAMAWA 67, 460,656,279.08
3. AKWA IBOM 179, 714,994,143.75
4. ANAMBRA 2, 612,431,503.89
5. BAUCHI 78, 076,937,314.82
6. BAYELSA 123, 031,521,306.14
7. BENUE 92, 930,649,665.69
8. BORNU 77, 529,662,982.23
9. CROSS RIVER 124, 943,613,082.61
10. DELTA 222, 680,606,739.34
11. EBONYI 34, 515,070,111.77
12. EDO 69, 004,633,290.09
13. EKITI 117, 724,274,041.26
14. ENUGU 61, 231,913,793.95
15. GOMBE 41, 939,190,055.53
16. IMO 85, 432,191,992.42

17. JIGAWA 34,488,374,498.85
18. KADUNA 75, 606,381,758.43
19. KANO 95, 420,104,800.47
20. KATSINA 30, 852,661,159.10
21. KEBBI 53, 874,263,625.13
22. KOGI 114, 332,341,233.39
23. KWARA 40, 492,924,816.54
24. LAGOS 517, 367,331,072.95
25. NASARAWA 70, 335,662,265.00
26. NIGER 40, 300,423,742.82
27. OGUN 104, 933,290,271.91
28. ONDO 50, 610,170,334.16
29. OSUN 135, 831,145,633.27
30. OYO 88, 003,629,720.82
31. PLATEAU 121, 579,460,297.29
32. RIVERS 191, 156,694,184.66
33. SOKOTO 24, 891,029,854.58
34. TARABA 59, 598,963,943.09
35. YOBE 27, 317,264,912.88
36. ZAMFARA 69, 923,231,483.13
37. FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY 94, 115,685,075.02
TOTAL = 3, 477, 321,000,399.57
Charles Akujieze, (2019), “Nigeria: An Experiment in Nation Building”,

London .41
 The Judiciary
Salary structure of Nigerian Chief Justices, Judges, and Other Judicial Officers
A recent report has shown that Nigerian judges, chief justice and other judicial
officers gulp N33.47 billion as annual remuneration. The report released by the
Economic Confidential, a financial magazine shows that CJN, federal and state
judicial officers have in the past one year received a total of N33.47 billion as
salaries and allowances. 42
The report also included the regular and non-regular allowances - vehicle
maintenance and fuel, personal assistants, domestic staff, entertainment, utilities
allowances, hardship allowance, outfit and newspapers allowances - for 934
judicial officers in Nigeria.43
It also showed that while the CJN receives an annual salary of N3.36 million, he
or she is to be provided with vehicle maintenance and fueling, domestic staff,
entertainment, utilities and newspapers just like the president of the country.44
The chief justice of Nigeria is also entitled to receive 25 % of his annual basic
salary, this percentage is reserved for personal assistant and outfit each at
N840,993.13. 45
The CJN also receives 50% of his annual basic salary which N1,681,986.25 as
hardship allowance, likewise allowances for furniture, annual leave, severance
gratuity and vehicle loan at 10%, 300% and 400% of his annual leave
respectively. Furthermore, his duty tour allowance is fixed at N50,000 and
$2000 per night for local and foreign travels. 46
However, other officials like justices of the Supreme Court and the president of
the Court of Appeal are all placed on N2.47 million annual salary while the a
justice of the appellate court, chief judge of the Federal High Court, chief judge
of the Federal Capital Territory, Judge of the FHC, the president of the National
Industrial Court, grand Khadi of the sharia courts and it appeal court and their
colleagues in the customary courts are on an annual salary of N1.99 million.47
Then for the judges of the Federal High Court, National Industrial Court, FCT
High Court, State High Courts, FCT Sharia Court of Appeal, FCT Customary
Court of Appeal, Khadi state Sharia Court of Appeal and State Customary Court
of Appeal all earn N1.80 million annually. 48
For the judges, aside the Chief Justice of Nigeria, they receive 75% of their
annual salaries as vehicle maintenance and fuelling, 25% for personal assistant,
50% as hardship allowance, 75% for domestic staff and 45% for entertainment.
49
Other allowances received are 30% of their annual salaries as for utilities, 25%
for outfit and 15% for newspapers. 50
The judges also get 200% for accommodation once a year, 300% of annual
salary for furniture, 10% for annual leave, 300% as severance gratuity and
400% for vehicle loan which is however optional for non-regular allowances.51
All the justices of the Supreme Court and the president of the Court of Appeal
are entitled to N35,000.00 and $1300 per night as duty tour allowance within
and outside the country respectively. 52
Also, justices of the Court of Appeal, Chief Judge of Federal High Court, Chief
Judge of the FCT, Judge of the Federal High Court, President of the National
Industrial Court, Grand Khadi of the FCT Sharia Court of Appeal, President
FCT Customary Court of Appeal, Chief Judge of States, Grand Khadi state
Sharia Court of Appeal and President state Customary Court of Appeal all have
N30,000 as duty tour allowances each within the country and $1,100 as
estacode. 53
Other judges outside the above are entitled to N25,000.00 as duty tour
allowances per night within the country and $800 for estacode when they travel
out of the country per night.54
(c) Cost of Politics and Politiking in Nigeria
Money politics is the phenomenon in the Nigerian electoral process whereby

contenders for elective positions used money (or money is used on their behalf)
as an inducement to sway their support which is not based on persuading the
electorates to vote according to their wish and conviction but on the force of
money that has changed hands.55
In this book, we are not unaware of money politics and vote-buying and their
negative effects on governance in Nigeria. Good governance can thrive only
when based on transparency, accountability, and popular participation. The
importance of money to run elections in terms of campaign, printing of party
manifestoes, emblems and other services is well recognized, but the excessive
use of money with the aim of purchasing votes is inimical to good governance.
This is because once excessive use of money is employed to influence the
outcome of elections; the election becomes synonymous with the gentle art of
‘getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to
protect one from the other. The situation such as this injures good governance.56
In its final report on the 2003 National Assembly and presidential elections in
Nigeria, the COG noted: “It is clear that in Nigeria, as in many other countries,
there is a strong ‘money culture’ which affects the political landscape at all
levels. Politicians went as far as acquiring local newspapers and broadcasting
stations to advance access to the media.”57 In its observation report of the 2007
Elections, the EUEOM cited several instances of illegal use of money during
campaigns and elections proper. In one instance, an incumbent governor was
videotaped using government vehicles to campaign, from which he threw
bundles of money into the crowds58 (EUEOM, 2007).
Regarding the 2011 elections, the NDI notedthat

“… better financed candidates held large rallies; advertised on the radio, television
and newspapers; and gave supporters money, food, garments and other gifts. While
the latter type of campaigning violates electoral law, there was no serious discussion
about prosecuting vote-buying”. 59
The report emphasised INEC’s lack of capacity, beyond the audit of political
party accounts to prosecute parties and candidates for breaches of campaign
finance rules
Section 225 sub-sections (1 – 6) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal

Republic of Nigeria (as amended) stipulated conditions and scrutiny of the
sources of funds and expenses of political parties. Section 225 (3) (a) and (b) as
well as 225 (4) forbid political parties from foreign funding of any kind. Section
226 (1-3) demands annual reports of account from political parties. 60 By
extension, the Electoral Act (2010) stipulates the ceiling of expenses by
candidates and political parties for specific elective positions.
“The maximum limits are pegged at: N1,000,000,000 (naira) for presidential
candidates, N200,000,000 for governorship candidates, and N40,000,000 and
N20,000,000 respectively for Senate and House of Representatives candidates.”61
Table 1: Election Expenses Limit
Elective Office Limit on Election Expenses
President NGN 1, 000,000,000.00
Governorship NGN 200,000,000.00
Senate NGN 40,000,000.00
House of Representatives NGN 20,000,000.00
State Assembly NGN 10,000,000.00
Local Government Chairman NGN 10,000,000.00
Councillors NGN 1,000,000.00
Source: Electoral Act (2010)62
The importance of these provisions is to ensure that political parties and

candidates are properly guided with regards to the scope of party and election
funding and expenses. Additionally, putting a ceiling on expenses makes certain
that the cost of politics remains reasonable and affordable so as to ensure
qualitative and quantitative citizen participation. However, available evidences
show that despite these provisions, parties and candidates have continued to
infringe on these regulations. For instance, fundraising conducted ahead of the
2015 elections were done without regards to legal provisions.
“Campaign expenses, particularly of the two main presidential candidates, overshot
the N1 billion limits. Money was illegally used to buy votes and permanent voters
cards. State administrative resources were used by incumbent officials to facilitate
party activities.
Political party primaries became a cash affair to lead to the possible emergence of
the highest bidders. Yet, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the
regulatory body, is yet to investigate, prosecute and sanction erring parties and
candidates for infringements. This has been the case since the transition to
democratic governance in 1999.”63
2. The abuse of money at elections and the apparent inability to enforce

regulations have the implications of skyrocketing cost of politics, at all levels,
including the parliament. Priced beyond the reach of many are forms for
“Expression of Interests” and “Nomination Forms”. Instances abound where
politicians resort to desperate measures to mobilize funds, including sales of
private estates and borrowing from commercial banks and private lending
institutions. Accordingly, the former President of the Senate, Adolphus Wabara,
noted that contesting to be an MP is an “investment” which requires most
candidates to sell personal property to meet election expenses, with the intention
of “recouping” if elected.64
“For those who borrowed from political investors, they are pressured to repay the loans
before the end of their tenure, making them susceptible to corruption. The struggle to
gain positions as chairs of important senate and house committees is the commencement
of efforts by MPs at ensuring regular personal financial gratification.”65
While addressing the Nigerian situation, a former Nigerian MP noted, that

“access to public offices ought to be determined by people’s votes; but because
of the high financial costs involved only those who can afford to pay continue to
have access”.66 Public funds are often diverted to finance party and election
activities.
Party Office in View Expression of Normination Fee Total
Interest
APC Presidency NGN 2,500,000 NGN 25,000,000 NGN 27,
500,000
Governorship NGN 500,000 NGN 5,000,000 NGN 5, 500,

500
Senate NGN 300, 000 NGN 3, 000,000 NGN

3,3000,000
House of Reps. NGN 200, 000 NGN 2, 000,000 NGN 2, 200,

000
PDP Presidency NGN 2,000,000 NGN 20,000,000 NGN

22,000,000
Governorship NGN 1,000,000 NGN 10,000,000 NGN

11,000,000
Senate NGN 500,000 NGN 4,000,000 NGN

4,500,000
House of Reps. NGN 400,000 NGN 2,000,000 NGN

2,400,000
APGA Presidency
Governorship NGN 2, 000,000 NGN 10,000,000 NGN

12,000,000
Senate NGN 5,000,000 NGN 3,000,000 NGN

3,500,000
House of Reps. NGN 500,000 NGN 2,000,000 NGN 2,
500,000
Table 2: Cost of Parties Expression of Interest and Candidate Nomination

Form (2015 Elections) 67
According to Falodi (2016) the revelation that the Office of the National
Security Adviser (ONSA) to former President Goodluck Jonathan shows that
public funds of US $2.1billion meant for equipping the Nigeria military were
diverted to finance party activities for the 2015 general elections. 68 In the same
vein, there were allegations that the former governor of Plateau State – Joshua
Dariye, diverted state ecological funds to campaign activities of his party, the
People’s Democratic Party (PDP). The use of public funds for party activities is
said to cut across all political parties; however, the practice is associated more
with parties in power 69 (Falodi, 2016).
 Conducts of National Elections in Nigeria– A DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT!

Concerned Nigerians are deeply worried about the ever spiralling cost of
conducting free, fair, peaceful and credible elections here in Nigeria that would
be acceptable to all stakeholders.
Nigeria’s electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission

(INEC), according to its official report, spent NGN 112.9 billion (for 73.5
million voters) in 2011 general elections.70 In 2015, however, INEC expended
NGN 108.8 billion (for 68.8 million voters) 71 and in 2019 general elections, as
approved in the budget for 2019 elections, the sum of NGN 242 billion (for 84
million voters). 72
These humongous sums did not include the costs that various political parties
spend (or rather waste?) on obtaining Normination Forms, bribing party
bigwigs, printing and displaying colourful posters, media adverts, renting
crowds, foot soldiers and hiring of thugs! Added to these costs were sundry
logistics on transportation, paying for venues and feeding their supporters, etc.
At a two-day Learning Conference on the Regional Cost of Politics revealed

that the estimated cost of a trillion Naira (NGN 1,000,000,000) were actually
expended by INEC, political parties and candidates for 2015 elections. This
revelation immediately ignited outrage and disapprovals from stakeholders. 73
It is my opinion and those of many others, that the humongous amounts being
expended on politics and pursuit of power is one of the major, if not the main,
reasons of our fault foundations of corruption that pervades the entire political
space in Nigeria today. At the said Conference, it was revealed that the Peoples’
Democratic Party (PDP) alone expended, in 2015 elections, the sum of NGN
8.74 billion in traceable media and other related expenses while all the other
opposition parties put together expended NGN 2.91 billion for similar activities.
74
At the opening of the conference organised by the Westminster Foundation for

Democracy, Prof. Bolade Eyinla, the Chief Technical Adiviser to INEC
disclosed that:
“In the last general elections in Benin Republic, the core cost was $15 million, and
then you had a candidate who, alone, spent about $32 million. In Nigeria, our core
cost was $547 million. It is perhaps the most expensive elections that we have ever
seen. I have seen figures somewhere of between $1.5 billion to $2 billion and believe
me; it is true if we knew what happened”. 75
Nigeria’s Representative of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy,

Adebowale Olorunmola, while analysing the huge cost of 2015 general
elections stated that it was higher than 2011 polls. According to him,
“… these are traceable expenses which were spent on media advertisements,
campaign materials among others, to the exclusion of money spent in underhand
dealings and the use of state-owned facilities including stadia for campaigns and
other political activities. While agreeing with Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the Chairman
of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), who doubles as the
Chairman of the ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions, ECONEC, that the
increasing cost of elections in the country is partly due to security and logistical
reasons, its deleterious effects on the economy and ultimately, the Human
Development Index (HDI) of the average Nigerian is telling”. (Quoted in Ayo Oyoze
Baje, “High costs of conducting elections in Nigeria” THE SUNDAY newspaper of
19th February, 2019)
However, INEC Chairman noted that,

“… for the four-year cycle of elections, the cost of voter registration and the
compilation of credible voters’ register, recruitment and training of electoral officials
keep escalating. So is that of the provision of electoral logistics, election security,
civic and voter education, procurement of sensitive and non-sensitive materials. Not
left out are other expenditures related to deployment of electoral technology,
undertaking regular engagement with stakeholders and handling of pre-election and
post-election litigations are enormous.”77 ibid
We must be realistic enough to agree with Yakubu on why the cost of elections
keep ballooning and also that the task of meeting such extensive expenditure
has increasingly challenged the national resources of many countries in the
ECOWAS Sub- region.
“In fact, some countries are finding it tasking to fund the elections. It is against this
background that the Governing Board of ECONEC inaugurated the study to explore
what can be done as election managers, working together with national stakeholders
and development partners, to find ways to reduce the cost of elections.”78 ibid
The truth of the matter is that Nigeria cannot afford this prodigality by wasting
stupendous sums of our national patrimony just to get politicians elected to
public offices. No! Prof. Anthonia Simbine, an INEC National Commissioner
once said that the level of money in politics “is responsible for the kinds of
governance we have at any given time. If you make an investment, you would
want to reap from that.”79 Well said. We simply cannot afford and sustain good
governance with the humongous costs of accessing political power, the obscene
costs of conducting elections and the high pay packages of politicians in power.
We have witnessed, are witnessing the high dependency syndrome of the poor
electorates on their so called elected representatives.
“… those who they erroneously believe as doing them some favour when they dole
out raw cash, instead of strengthening the institutions that would drastically reduce
the twin evils of poverty and ignorance”80.ibid
A change of mindset is therefore, imperative.

“The ideas of deploying policemen and soldiers all over the country and closing
down institutions of learning during elections, as if we are preparing for war, must be
done away with. Elections in the neighbouring Republic of Benin and Ghana are
devoid of such political shenanigans. Let us borrow a fresh leaf from them. Other
factors to eradicate are the huge costs of nomination forms, campaigns and pay
package of politicians as well as the winner takes all attitude. Proper digital
registration of children at birth and alerting them when they are of voting age as it
applies in India should be adopted here. Above all, politics should be for public
service instead that of the self. The time to sacrifice the self for the Nigerian state is
now!” 81 ibid.
 2019 Elections: Nigeria’s Most Expensive Elections Ever

President Muhammadu Buhari proposed the whopping sum of N242.45bn
(equivalent to $672.35m at official exchange rate) to the National Assembly for
2019 general elections,82 according to investigations.
The money was shared between the Independent National Electoral

Commission (INEC) and five other security agencies that supervised the
elections.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) spent a total of

N190bn, representing 73.51 percent of the proposed amount, while the
remaining N52.45bn (26. 49 percent) went to security agencies that supervised
the voting process. The breakdown shows that the Office of the National
Security Adviser (ONSA) was allocated N4.28bn, Nigerian Security and Civil
Defence Corps (NSCDC) got N3. 57bn, Nigeria Police Force N30.54bn, Nigeria
Immigration Service (NIS) N2.63bn, and Directorate of State Security (DSS)
N12.21bn. 83
On the other hand, according to data prepared by the National Institute for
Legislative Studies (NILS), with 67m registered voters in 2015 general
elections, Nigeria spent $625m.84
The 2019 general elections budget is about $50m higher than what Nigeria
spent during 2015 elections.85 And, according to official documents, from 1999
to 2018, the INEC had received N450bn as an electoral expenditure from the
federal government.86 These figures exclude other monies INEC got from
international organisations working on election areas over the period. Through
the National Assembly, the federal government of Nigeria approves money
(electoral expenditure) for INEC during election years, outside of its traditional
budgetary allocations.
It suffices that Nigeria spent more than India, UK and many other nations.
Nigeria’s elections cost higher than the $600m the Electoral Commission of
India (ECI) spent during the 2014 general elections in which 553.8m people
voted out of 815m registered voters.87 It is also evident that the cost of
conducting elections in Nigeria is quite higher than those of bigger economies
such as Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. For instance, Canada spent
$375m on electoral expenditure where 17.5m voted.88 The United Kingdom
spent £113m during its 2010 parliamentary elections in which 45.6m voted.
£28.6m was the cost of distributing candidates’ mailings, and £84.6m for the
conduct of the poll.89
In 2012 general elections, Kenya with 14.3m registered voters, spent $427m and
$499m in 2017,90 while Australia, with 14.7m voters, spent $197.6m for the
House of Representatives and half of Senate elections in 2013.91
While defending the 2018 budget estimates of the electoral body in January,
INEC chairman Professor Mahmud Yakubu had said that
“…the exact cost of the 2019 general elections, which would hold across the 119,999
polling units in the country, could only be arrived at after the passage of electoral act
by the National Assembly. The N242.45bn proposal was made by the president after
the transmission of a new version of the amendment made to the 2010 electoral act by
the National Assembly”.92
(d) Rise and rise of elections cost
Since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999, a review of official documents of

INEC budgetary allocations showed that the cost of elections has been on the
rise.
According to official documents, the total budgetary allocations INEC received

from the federal government from 1999 to 2018 were NGN 450 bn. Of this sum,
captured under ‘electoral expenditure,’ the sum of N191.8bn was ‘personnel
cost,’ N36.9bn ‘overhead cost,’ and N54.7bn was ‘capital expenditure
projects.’93
The electoral expenditure started with N1.5bn in 1999 to N29bn in 2002,

N45.5bn in 2006, N 111bn in 2010, and down to N87.8bn in 2014.94
Further analysis of the official documents revealed that INEC’s highest total
budgetary expenditure was during the 2015 elections where she spent a total of
N236.7bn from 2012 to 2015.95 The electoral commission spent about N212.6bn
from 2008 and 201196; N84.6bn from 2004 to 200797, and N54.2bn from 2000 to
200398, according to the INEC data.
Given the Buhari administration’s position on the effective and responsible

management of public resources, Nigerians have expressed, are expressing
concern that the administration should reduce waste and extravagant spending
in conducting elections.
Reacting on the proposed budget of 2019 general elections in Nigeria, a critic

noted:
“The proposed budget to hold elections has not given hope that under this
administration we will not witness abuse of public resources in the name of holding
elections which even the previous administrations have not spent this much”.99
According to one Rafsanjani,

“Unfortunately despite the huge spending on elections in Nigeria, we still witness
fraudulent electoral outcome and violence which this huge proposed budget may not
guarantee integrity in its outcome.”100
The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) chief said Nigeria
must “stop wasting public funds in every election circle and build a credible
system like other countries where conducting an election is not an avenue for
money-making.”101 Rafsanjani advised that the Buhari government must at the
end give assurance of electoral transparency and absence of manipulation and
violence.
What Nigeria can do with Election Budget
Comparative analysis shows that the 2019 election budget is enough to fund the
dualisation, reconstruction and rehabilitation of 62 key economic roads across
the six geo-political zones of the country. In addition, the election budget is
about 44 times higher than what the 36 federal universities will spend on capital
projects in 2018.
 Current drivers of the cost of politics and governance in Nigeria
1. Expression of interest and nomination forms
Over the years, political parties capitalized on election periods to make money
from candidates through the sales of expression of interest and nomination
forms. Though the costs of these forms are excluded from what constitute the
limit of election spending, they are sold at exorbitant fees that makes it tough
for anyone but the very rich to obtain them. While it is reasonable that funds be
charged to ascertain that only serious candidates obtain them, in reality the
enormity of the cost is a barrier to participation in politics. President
Muhammadu Buhari reportedly obtained a loan facility from his bank to
purchase the forms. For the APC, which was formed less than two years before
the elections, candidates had to pay N27.5 million for the forms. Insinuation by
political analysts was that the high price tag was intended to stop Buhari’s
candidature102 (Oladimeji, 2014).
The high cost associated with politics, as reflected by the nomination form, has
the implication of hindering the participation of credible and patriotic Nigerians
with genuine intentions to serve the country, but with limited financial means.
Though some political parties exempt women from paying nomination fees, as a
measure to encourage female participation, yet down the line the costs of
participation makes it tough for some of them to continue the race effectively to
the very end.
(2) Support of the godfathers or oracles
Candidates curry the support of “godfathers”, also known as “oracles”, to

further improve their chances at the polls. Godfathers are mostly instrumental to
the emergence of virtually every successful candidate from whichever state they
control. Alhaji Olusola Saraki, father of the former Senate President Bukola
Saraki, reigned as godfather in Kwara state and almost always single-handedly
determined who emerged for federal and state elections, from the state.103
In Oyo state, late Chief Lamidi Adedibu once openly boasted to have sponsored
every successful politician, including the governor and federal and state
legislators104 (HRW, 2007). Getting the support of godfathers does not come
cheap, whether in monetary terms, which have to be paid in advance, or through
a commitment to regular returns of a percentage of certain budget lines of state
resources, usually the vote for security. The godfathers are typically above the
law and able to mobilize support, money and violence for candidates.
In 2003, Governor Chris Ngige of Anambra state attracted the anger of his
godfather Chris Uba when he reneged on terms of agreements after emerging
victorious at the polls. Again, the impeachment of Governor Rashidi Ladoja of
Oyo state in 2006 was facilitated by his godfather, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, as
punishment for not paying him N15 million monthly from the state security
budget.105
(3) Party primary
Political parties have the responsibility to conduct primaries to elect their

standard bearers. This intra-party activity has become an expense for candidates
on one hand and a money spinner for delegates and party officials on the other.
Because the political fortune of a candidate is determined by the votes of
delegates, the candidates and their sponsors go all out to bribe and buy those
votes. There have been instances of delegates being camped in secret locations
to make it difficult for other candidates to access them.
Most delegates vote for the candidates that offer the highest amount of cash. For
instance, the over 8,000 delegates who participated in the APC presidential
primary in Lagos state before the 2015 elections allegedly made US$5,000 each
from the candidates, just for the three days of the primaries 106. Delegates were
supposed to have received US$2,000 each from the Atiku Abubakar group and
also US$3,000 each from the Buhari group107 (Onyekpere, 2015). In addition to
bribing delegates with money, their hotel accommodations for the duration of
the primaries and other logistics are taken care of by the candidates.
Party primaries and conventions are sometimes fraught with fraudulent

practices that tilt the outcome in favour of predetermined candidates. One MP
said:
“In the case of primaries, settling the delegates translates to major financial cost
to candidates because you have to pay in cash for their votes even when you have
contributed to their rise to party executive positions. Otherwise, they will do
magic, while you are not looking.”108
 Implications for the political system
Having spent fortunes to win elections, the politician is already badly bruised,
morally and financially.
“Individual MPs – and the legislature by consequence – lack the moral pedestal
to oppose unpopular actions and policies of government. It becomes a legislature
that is less focused on thorough legislative oversight and more disposed to
recouping huge election expenses. In the process MPs becomes vulnerable to
corrupt practices and are easily manipulated. Some of the MPs sold their
properties and investments, while others dipped into their savings or borrowed to
raise funds.”109
The political terrain is also a major determinant of the amount to be spent by

candidates. For instance, candidates contesting in the Niger Delta area,
particularly the riverine areas, have to factor in the cost of water transport, as
well as adequate security arrangements to forestall attacks by militants. It was
gathered that candidates aspiring to be federal MPs, for instance, will have to
expend as much as N200 million on election campaigning, N160 million above
the legal limit set by the Electoral Act (2010). An MP claimed that an estimate
could not be given regarding the amount he spent in the course of the election.
To quote him: “It got to a point during the campaign that I decided not to keep
records any longer so that I do not get discouraged.”110
According to a civil society respondent:

“… as a result of the huge personal costs of the elections, many MPs are
disillusioned about serving a society that milked them so heavily. As such, the passion
and input in their responsibilities as MPs are already eroded by personal interests. In
reality, recouping for most of the MPs could mean taking steps to look for
111
gratification where they ought to look for the interest of the country.”
Having invested huge funds, candidates and their supporters have only one
mind-set: to win the election, and win at all costs. The candidates and sponsors
are not prepared to lose the huge sum invested in the process. Therefore,
elections become prone to violence, fraudulent practices and all forms of
irregularity. They explore every available means, including violence,
intimidation and vote buying, as well as rigging to ensure victory. Most electors
stay away from voting to keep safe. In such a scenario, the outcome of elections
hardly reflects the wishes of the electorates. Election credibility becomes a
difficult objective to attain no matter the professional competence of the
EMB.112
The high cost and potential for the outbreak of violence contributes to the low
participation of women in politics.
Political entrepreneurs do not believe women could win elections and will not
want to invest money in them. An MP averred that “women do not go too far in
the electoral process as they usually opt out due to the lack of financial means
necessary for mobilizing supporters”. Though they constitute almost 50 per cent
of Nigeria’s population, the percentage of women elected to parliament and
other elective positions in the country have neverreflected this numerical
strength.113
In the same vein, the country is deprived of the potential of the youth as they are
disconnected from a process through which they could be prepared for
leadership. Except those with personal wealth or from a rich family, it is tough
for the youth to participate in politics.
The representation of women in the House of Representatives dropped steeply

to 3.9 per cent, which is just above the 1999 figure of 3.33 per cent. A drop in
female representation to a period when the country was new to democratic
governance gives reason for all stakeholders to be concerned. The number of
women represented in the senate improved to eight, just above the 2011 figure
of seven, but dropping below the marked gain made in 2007 when nine women
were elected. These do not reflect efforts made by stakeholders to advance
female political participation and representation ahead of the 2015 elections.
This unimpressive representation of women is not a co-incidence because at no
other time since transition in 1999 was there such open and massive use of
money at elections as during the 2015 general elections and that of 2019 general
elections. 114
 Factors influencing cost of election campaigns
Mediatization of campaigns
A major factor which influences the cost of elections is the mediatization of

election Campaigns. Political parties and candidates use private and public
electronic media to reach as many members of the public as possible. At
election periods, radio and television stations’ prime time are usually in high
demand and therefore attract increased prices. Funds are budgeted for live
coverage of rallies and other political activities with partisan jingles,
documentaries and advertisements struggling to dominate the airwaves.
Expensive billboards are strategically positioned around town to capture public
attention. The print media is filled with paid adverts of candidates and party
messages and activities.
A study of the 2015 presidential elections indicates that huge amounts of

money, far beyond total legal limits, were spent by the APC and PDP
candidates on media campaigns. A breakdown of expenses incurred on the
media by the top two presidential candidates in the 2015 elections in Table 4,
gives an idea of the enormity of funds dedicated to media campaigns by
candidates. The PDP and APC expended on the media alone eight times and
three times respectively the amount legally allowed for running the entire
presidential campaign!
Description on Media Expenses PDP/Jonathan APC/Buhari
s/n
1. Campaigns and Rallies NGN 1, 280,374,879.00 NGN

671,062,200.00
2. Expenses on Bill Board NGN 473,160,000.00 NGN
190,380,000.00
3. Electronic Media Campaign NGN 532,100,000.00 NGN

410,050,000.00
4. Electronic Media Adverts NGN 3,988,822,185.00

NGN1,064,706,850.00
5. Print Media Campaign NGN 2,475,228,301.00 NGN

579,647,687.00
TOTAL NGN 8,789,685,296.00 NGN2,915,846,737.00
Table 4: PDP and APC media expenses for the 2015 elections (Source:
Centre for Social Justice) 116
Year in View Opposition PDP
2011 NGN 2,041,075,906.00 NGN

5,015,614,851.00
2015 NGN 2,915,846,737.00 NGN

8,749,685,296.00
% Increase in media expenses in 2015 42.86% 74.45%
Well above NGN 1bn total legal spending 191.58% 774.97%
Table 5: Total Traceable Spending of APC and PDP Presidential Candidates117
 Weak legal mechanisms

In the first republic which spanned 1960 – 66, there was no definite campaign
finance regulation. Political parties and candidates were responsible for funding
election activities. Conduct bordering on corruption and sharp practices were
recorded. For instance, the Action Group and NCNC were alleged to have used
state resources and investments to fund their campaigns. Also, in the second
republic which spanned the period between 1979 and 1983, legal provisions
were provided in the 1979 constitution to regulate campaign finance. These
included: the prohibition of any associations, other than political parties, from
campaigning on behalf of a candidate or contributing funds to parties and
election expenses of candidates; the provision of annual grants to political
parties; and enabling political parties to receive donations from individual and
corporate bodies, except from abroad. However, the limit of funds parties and
candidates could receive from individuals and corporate bodies were not
specified.118
This was a loophole which parties and candidates abused. Private individuals
lavished funds on parties and consequently on election campaigns. This led to
the emergence of the money-bag phenomenon in Nigerian politics and
subsequently the overthrow of the second republic. 119 (Adeyi, 2014). The
narrative was not different with the 1993 elections that would have ushered the
country back to democratic governance. Despite the well-orchestrated transition
programme, there was no guideline toregulate campaign finance, a trap which
saw an end to the transition process.
However, political finance regulation has been repeatedly defined and

redefined since the 1999 transition to civil rule, such that Nigeria now has the
Electoral Act 2002, 2006 and 2010. Nevertheless, loopholes still exist. For
instance, while section 91(9) states that “no individual or other entity shall
donate more than one million naira (N1, 000,000.00) to any candidate”, section
93(2) (b) in contradiction gives political parties leverage to receive unlimited
amounts above the threshold, while requiring the party to record and keep “the
name and address of any person or entity that contributes any money or assets
which exceeds N1, 000,000.00”. Therefore, it becomes possible for candidates
to technically overshoot the limit by transferring the extra cash to their party. 120
Secondly, donors took advantage of the provision to donate funds in billions on

behalf of several unnamed friends. This occurred repeatedly during the PDP
fundraiser for the re-election bid of President Goodluck Jonathan, during which
about N21 billion was recorded in donations121 (Vanguard, 2014).
The APC for its part attempted involving ordinary Nigerians in raising funds for
its presidential candidate through five platforms, including: donation via
dedicated bank accounts; an electronic donation platform, targeted at young
people who are computer savvy; donation of a maximum of N100 per time by
means of text messages to dedicated numbers; purchase of the party ringtone for
which N100 was deducted per time; and the use of scratch cards through which
supporters could donate between N100 and N1,500 each 122(Times, 2015).
By these direct donations, the APC planned to make N10 billion. On the other
hand, the party expected N40 billion in donations from its elected members at
the federal and state levels, hoping to pool a total of N50 billion in donations.
This is several billion naira above the ceiling of one billion naira per
presidential candidate, which contravenes regulatory provisions and also calls
into question the donation and expenses limits as provided for in the Electoral
Act 2010.
Elective Office Electoral Act (2006) Electoral Act (2010)
President NGN 500,000,000.00 NGN 1,000,000,000.00
Governorship NGN 100,000,000.00 NGN 200,000,000.00
Senate NGN 20,000,000.00 NGN 40,000,000.00
House of Representatives NGN 10,000,000.00 NGN 20,000,000.00
State Assembly NGN 5,000,000.00 NGN 10,000,000.00
Local Govt. Chairman NGN 5,000,000.00 NGN 10,000,000.00
Councillors NGN 500,500.00 NGN 1,000,000.00
Source: Electoral Act (2006), (2010)123
 Lack of enforcement capacity

While Nigeria’s current political finance regulations are stronger than previous
ones, the capacity and willingness of INEC to enforce them is lacking. INEC is
saddled with the responsibility to, among other functions, register and regulate
political parties and monitor their activities, including finances,
expenditures, primaries and campaigns. The tasks of tracking political parties’
finances, as well as election expenses of candidates seem to be overwhelming
for the commission.
It has been more than a year after the 2015 elections, but there has been no
investigation, arrest or prosecution of individuals for breaching campaign
finance regulations, despite apparent occurrences. The PDP had donations
running into several billions from serving governors, elected officials and party
members. Corporate organisations donated funds to the party in breach of the
law, but INEC failed to raise the red flag.
Allegations that the APC’s presidential campaign was largely funded by

outgoing governors, including those of Lagos and Rivers, are yet to be
disproved. Obvious were the activities of the Transition Ambassadors of
Nigeria (TAN), which contravened section 221 of the constitution prohibiting
any association from canvassing for votes for any candidate or contributing to
the funds and election expenses of political parties. TAN widely and openly
displayed President Goodluck Jonathan’s picture and posters to canvass support
for him. TAN practically ran a parallel presidential campaign for President
Jonathan without restraint.
The infringement of funding regulations was not particular to the presidential

elections, but was associated also with other levels of elections. For instance,
Alhaji Muhammed Umaru Jubrilla, governor of Adamawa state, publicly
acknowledged receiving a donation of N500 million from Vice-President Atiku
Abubakar which facilitated his emergence as governor and convinced him to
shift allegiance from his former boss, Murtala Nyako. The governor’s public
acknowledgement of the illegal donation has not met with prosecution and
possible sanctions, as would have been expected. The lack of deterrent as
apparent by the failure of INEC to prosecute anyone for infringing on political
finance regulations since the transition elections in 1999 is a major influencing
factor for the rising cost of elections in Nigeria.
 Corruption and impunity

A factor closely related to lack of enforcement capacity is the general laxity of
the rule of law in the country. It is noteworthy that various studies, including the
Index on African Governance for 2015 which was done by the Mo Ibrahim
Foundation, scored Nigeria low (50.8/100)126 with regards to enforcement of the
rule of law. In the study which was conducted between 2000 and 2014, Nigeria
was rated very low in rule of law between 2011 and 2014127 (Foundation, 2015).
During this period, corruption, impunity and lawlessness rose to a phenomenal

proportion. Highly connected individuals in the society got away with all forms
of crimes and infringements of the law with little or no consequences.
The culture of impunity and recklessness on the part of political parties and
candidates was therefore encouraged, with the consequent abuse of party
finance provisions. In situations where offenders belonged to the ruling party,
prosecution was virtually impossible. As a result, elected government officials
did not see problems in converting government funds to personal uses or to
fund party and campaign activities. The on-going revelations emanating from
the probe of the office of ONSA would not, in all probability, have been
possible but for the change of government. With the culture of corruption and
lawlessness which pervades the Nigerian polity, cost of politics can only soar
beyond the reach of ordinary citizens. 128
 Winner takes all Syndrome

Because candidates and political parties invest unimaginable amounts of money
in the process, elections can only be a do-ordie affair. Contestants and
supporters alike become desperate and resort to illegal means to manipulate or
subvert the process. The first-past-the-post system gives winners all the
advantages, as against such other systems which enable proportional
representation. Calls have been made at several meetings for the Nigerian
system to be replaced to ensure opposition political parties and candidates do
not totally lose out at elections. This is for the reason that they will be less
inclined to go beyond legal limits when certain that, regardless of the outcome
of the elections, their efforts will yield some electoral dividends. 129
 Political culture
Corruption and the embezzlement of public funds by the political class were the
usual excuses by the military for the coups which truncated democratic
governance in Nigeria at various times. This categorization of politicians as
very corrupt was reinforced over time by the reckless lifestyles of elected and
appointed public officers. Since the return to democratic governance in 1999,
the financial profiles of politicians became very high.
Elected officials, including governors, senate presidents, speakers of the House

of Representatives, speakers of state houses of assemblies, among others,
approved handsome service and retirement or severance packages for
themselves. The country’s MPs are believed to earn one of the highest
remuneration levels among their peers around the world. The popular saying
about politics in Nigeria is that it is the best vocation where money can easily be
made. As such, electorates perceive politicians to be very corrupt and very rich.
Because of the several years of the non-fulfilment of political promises,
Nigerians have come to believe that politicians seek to be elected only to steal
money and not to serve the people.
By extension, election periods are viewed by electorates as periods to get as

much money as possible from the politicians. Given this scenario, politicians
who are willing buyers of votes meet electorates who are likewise willing to sell
their votes. With this situation, campaigns have become very capital intensive.
Elections are completely made a cash issue as voters want to grab as much
money as they can from politicians; little or no attention is paid to campaign
promises and manifestoes as a result.
 Crowd for rent

A consequence of the above point is the emergenceof rented crowds for parties’
activities. For a candidate, the larger the crowds at their rallies, the more the
public is impressed and the more seriously their candidature is perceived.
Attractive amounts are budgeted for the crowds to be rented, ranging from
N3,000 to N8,000 per head. Political parties and candidates try to outdo each
other with the sizes of the crowds at their rallies. The higher the amounts the
candidates can afford to pay, as well as the gifts to be given per head, the larger
the crowds that will be in attendance at each rally. On the contrary, candidates
who are unwilling to rent crowds or give gifts at rallies attract very little
following. Public opinion and perception is immediately turned against such
candidates.130
In addition to monetary compensation, it is common to see the crowd at rallies

with t-shirts, wrappers, bags of rice, salt, groundnut oil, sugar, etc. As expressed
by an MP, “the process of logistics for campaign is very capital-intensive. Good
numbers of cars have to be lined up and the crowd at the campaign grounds has
to be huge, though some of them are not even committed members of the party
or supporters of the candidate in question. The sheer numbers of people that
attend the rallies gives an impression of seriousness of the candidate. So people
hire crowds, including students.”131
In fact, civil society organizations that were focused on promoting issue-based

politics launched an anti-vote- buying campaigned with the slogan “collect their
money but vote your conscience”. However, this is not to say that there have not
been instances of candidates who successfully conducted issue-based campaigns
without throwing money around or renting crowds.132
 Culture of free money

The culture of “free money” built over time by political leaders is a major driver
of electoral cost. Free money is made available to youths, particularly during
election periods, for doing nothing other than being political followers, praise
singers and thugs. Outside election periods, the youths maintain access to free
money by demanding “settlement” from companies and individuals
implementing projects. These demands are usually granted to placate the youths
and ensure work was not disrupted. Most of the youths have lived on free
money for years without any form of education or skills that could provide
alternative sources of income. For this class of youths, election periods are a
good time to access free money. Wherever political parties and candidates go to
campaign, provisions are made to settle the area “boys”, as they are called, for
hitch-free campaigns and party activities.133
 Lack of volunteerism
The volunteer culture is still not very popular in Nigeria, at least not with
political parties. Party and candidate campaign team members are regularly
fully compensated. Individuals and groups lobby to be part of campaign teams
of high-profile parties and candidates for ancillary benefits and not as
uncompensated volunteers. The higher the position candidates are vying for, the
higher the cost involved in mobilizing local campaign teams from one region,
state, local government, and ward, to the other. Compensated campaign team
members constitute a major cost of entry into politics as they have to be paid,
accommodated, fed and transported throughout the duration of the campaign
and beyond. An MP noted that “politicians pay students’ transportation
fees, as well as, feeding allowances, for participating at rallies”135
 Formal and Informal Demands on Elected Politicians
Demands from constituents are regular occurrences which the politicians have
to deal with. Constituents recognise politicians as their representatives at the
federal and state levels and believe their responsibilities, direct or indirect,
include dealing with their concerns, including personal ones.
Officially, using members of the parliament as a case study, the MPs are
expected to maintain constituency offices for which provisions are made by
federal government. Also, they are expected to go on know-your-constituency
meetings and to stimulate input of constituents on bills as well as to identify
pressing needs to be considered for constituency projects which are funded by
the federal government through direct implementation. However, demands are
regularly made on MPs by constituents to support and contribute to community
development efforts. To meet these demands, MPs have to draw from their
personal incomes.
Regardless of the input of the MPs into constituency development, in terms of
the provision of infrastructure, the personal needs of their constituents as well as
those of the elders are usually required to be met. The MP has to “settle” in
order to continue to be in the good books of the constituents whose demands
include, but are not limited to: school fees, medical bills, employment
opportunities and holy pilgrimage trips, among many others. The situation is
compounded by privileged constituents who also demand to be serviced
financially. Such leaders can easily withdraw their supports if not “treated
well”. According to some of the MPs,
“… only very few of the phone calls received on a daily basis are not personal-
demand-driven. The demands are always there and will continue to be there, because
Nigerians sees politicians as very rich people with lots of money to spare. Moreover,
emphasis has been shifting from physical infrastructural development to a new
concept of stomach infrastructure.”136
As such the MPs are also motivated to make as much money as possible to take
care of the demands from the constituents. The situation puts undue pressure on
the MPs and encourages corruption. The inability of serving MPs to “settle”
godfathers and VIPs in the constituency as much as expected usually leads to
counter votes from the constituents during re-election bids, and possible
replacement by a fresh and more ambitious candidate who is more willing to
meet the demands of the constituents. This has caused a rapid turnover in
parliament, which is a concern to most stakeholders. As reflected in the eighth
assembly, of the 360 members of the House of Representatives, only 85 (23.61
per cent) were returned, while out of 109 senators, only 33 (30.28 per cent)
retained their seats137 (Guardian, 2015). A respondent held that
“… right now the rate of turnover is becoming a concern because it is not just about
non-performance in terms of bills or motions but more about how much money
parliamentarians are able to give the leaders per time”. 138
MPs are also often required to make donations to political parties for various
reasons, including elections. Ahead of the 2015 elections, while the APC
requested donations from elected party members, including MPs, for the
election of President Muhammadu Buhari, three PDP members made the same
requests for the re-election bid of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Although the amounts donated by MPs were not reported, 21 governors of the
PDP were reported to have donated N50 million each 139(Vanguard, 2014). For
its part, the APC expected its elected officials, including governors, members
of federal parliament, and state parliaments to contribute N40 billion.
According to Professor Moses Aluaigba, the “inclusion of APC state governors,

federal and state MPs as donors to the parties’ campaign funds questions the
compliance of the party with the Electoral Act 2010, as well as, the 1999
constitution that forbids elected public office holders from making donations to
political parties”.140 (Aluaigba, 2015)
(e) Recommendations and Conclusion
The question of efficiency in governance is about ensuring that each amount of

public funds is spent judiciously.
In other words, every naira of public funds must be spent in a way that
collective, not private welfare of citizens is maximized. In the absence of strong
political institutions, the reduced cost of governance could only come if a
benevolent set of public officers is in power. Since this is highly unlikely, we
need to place institutional constraints on public office holders and technocrats in
a way that minimizes the extraction of rent from the state.
This is the better path to follow if the cost of governance is to be drastically

reduced in Nigeria.
Thus, no matter the quantum of financial resources in hands of the government,

the desired objectives may not be achieve if cost of governance is not reduced to
ensure revenue assurance in Nigeria. This is necessary to controlling costs and
achieving the overall objectives of governance. No institution of the size of
even the smallest public organization can prosper without effective cost control,
minimizations of expenses, blockage of revenue leakages and control of fraud,
excesses, and abuses, financial impropriety, extravaganzas in the discharge of
its responsibilities.
Over the years, Nigerians have always associated security vote with governors
and nursed the belief that it is prone to abuse, as well as, resulting to a
duplication of the votes allocated to the security agencies in the budget.
It is, however, astonishing to find security vote as an item running through all
Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). More surprisingly, as found by
Nzeshi (2012) even agencies whose primary functions revolves around security
have security vote allocations in the budget. There have also been cases of
duplicated budgetary provisions under various sub-heads to attract more
allocations that would be eventually siphoned at the end of the fiscal calendar
(Nzeshi, 2012). Similarly, budgets are usually filled with wasteful expenditure
from which great savings can be made. There were also too many MDAs
collecting huge sums of money through the budget and delivering little or no
tangible services.
Revenue Assurance is a combination of organizational structure, processes,

technology and information responsible for monitoring the revenue process. Its
activities are designed to provide assurance that business processes and systems
are performing as developed, in order to reduce the risk of revenue leakage, by
ensuring that risks have been identified and appropriately addressed; promote
operational efficiency, by analyzing processes and systems, identifying gaps
and design flaws which drive up operating costs; and effectively communicate
business risks to management, in order to allow informed decisions and
eliminate surprises.
Good governance can only achieve the desired objective if corruption is

addressed and completely eradicated from the society because no programme
can be successfully implemented under a corrupt environment. Revenue is a
growing problem in public governance in Nigeria. To get the most out of a
revenue engagement, it has to be carried out as part of a government
performance strategy – and not be just a leak detection exercise.
The task of reducing cost of governance for revenue assurance at states level
does not rest on the executive, legislature and judiciary alone. It is task
demanding the collective effort of all stakeholders.
Recommendations
1. There is the need to reduce recurrent expenditure to sustainable level through

reducing waste, inefficiency, corruption and duplication in government, as well
as, make capital spending more effective.
2. There is the need for more citizens' participation to ensure prudence,

transparency and accountability in the budgeting process.
3. There is the need for merging, restructuring and even repealing their enabling
laws to ensure that nonessential agencies ceased to exist to prune down wasteful
expenditure.
4. There is the need to continue the implementation of the monetisation of
benefits by ensuring that the practice of purchasing fleet of cars for public
officers was discouraged, except ambulances, Black Maria, and Hilux vans. The
continued implementation of the monetisation programme will save resources
and cut down expenditure.
5. The number of commissioners in the States Executive Councils, as well as,

special advisers and personal assistants to the Governors should be streamlined
to optimum. Similarly, none of this appointed official should have more than
one official vehicle.
6. Regulatory agencies and authorities in Nigeria should ensure that all salaries
and allowances of civil servants, public servants including political office
holders conform to due process, constitutional provisions and existing financial
rules and regulations. This will no doubt reduce friction and instability within
the entire system.
7. Efforts should also be made to ensure fiscal discipline through effective

public policy formulation and implementation aimed at reducing re-current
expenditure and budget deficits.
8. One of the major costs of governance, is the larger than optimal size of the
executive cabinet. It is possible to reduce the cost of governance by ensuring an
optimal size of cabinet, where merit and core competence are the primary
reasons for appointment to serve in public offices.
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2. John C. Green (2006) “The Values Campaign?: The Christian Right and
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3. “National Assembly and Allegations of Corruption”, Vanguard, 27
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6. Former Senate President Adolphus Wabara was impeached over a NGN
54 million bribe from the Ministry of Education. See Vanguard 2012;
www.wfd.org
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12.John Thomas Didymus, “Economist: Nigerian Legislators are Highest
Paid in the World”, DigitalJournal, 23 July, 2013.
13.Habeeb I. Pindiga, “Nigerian Lawmakers Top Salaries Chart”, Daily
Trust, 22 July, 2013.
14.The Economist quoted in Habeeb I. Pindiga, “Nigerian Lawmakers Top
Salaries Chart”, Daily Trust, 22 July, 2013.
15.The RainbowNigeria, “Nigerian Lawmakers Are Highest Paid
Globally”, ModernGhana MG, 25 July, 2013.
18.Habeeb I. Pindiga, “Nigerian Lawmakers Top Salaries Chart”, Daily
Trust, 22 July, 2013.
23.“Ministers’ Statutory Powers and Duties Acts” Wikipedia, 14 May,
2019.
24.“List of Federal Ministers of Nigeria, Permanent Secreataries and their
Ministries”, State House Office of the President, Federal Republic of
Nigeria, 16 January, 2017.
25.See Section 147 (6) of the 1999 Constitution
26.See Section 147 (5) of the 1999 Constitution
27.“Adjustments of Certain Rates of Pay” RMAFC, Wikipedia, 15 May,
2019.
28.“Salaries of Political Office Holders”, Wikipedia, 15 May, 2019.
29.“Salaries of Political Office Holders”, Wikipedia, 15 May, 2019.
30.See Government Gazette. See also www.xtremeloaded.com
31.See Government Gazette. See also www.xtremeloaded.com
32.Chizoba Ikenwa, “Nigerian Governors Salary: How Much Do
Governors in Nigeria Earn (2021), nigerianinfopedia.com, 11 January,
2020.
33.“Military Squanders $400 bn in 40 Years – EFCC Boss” Nigeria’s
EFCC, 18 May, 2005. See also David Blair, “£220 billion Stolen by
Nigeria’s Corrupt Rulers”, The Daily Telegragh, 25 June, 2005.
34.Ekpa Stanley Ekpa, “Security Votes and National Interest”, The Nation,
25 December, 2020.
25 December, 2020.
25 December, 2020.
25 December, 2020.
25 December, 2020.
39.Charles Akujieze (2019), “Nigeria: An Experiment in Nation Building”,
London: AuthorHouse Publications.
40.Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi quoted in Charles Akujieze (2019), ibid.
41.Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi quoted in Charles Akujieze (2019), ibid.
42.Economic Confidential, a financial magazine made the revelation that
the CJN, Federal and State Judicial Officers received a total of
N33.47bn as salaries and allowances for the past one year.
47.Jide Adeyoge Franklin, “Salary Structure of Nigerian Chief Justices,
Judges and Other Judicial Officers Leaked”, nigerianinfopedia.com
53.Nnenna Ibe, “What Nigerian chief justices, judges and other judicial
officers”, LegitNews, 2017.
54.Nnenna Ibe, “What Nigerian chief justices, judges and other judicial
officers”, LegitNews, 2017.
55.Kubiat Umana, “Money Politics in Nigeria: Causes and Effect”,
ResearchCyber, 28 November, 2018.
56.Kubiat Umana, “Money Politics in Nigeria: Causes and Effect”,
ResearchCyber, 28 November, 2018.
57.Commonwealth Observer Group (2003), “The national assembly and
presidential elections in Nigeria 12 and 19 April 2003”. London:
Commonwealth Secretariat.
58.Europe Union Election Observation Mission (2007), “Nigeria: Final
Report on 2007 General Elections, Brussels:EU
59.Regarding the 2011 elections, the NDI made those observations and
concern.
60.See Section 225, sub-sections (1-6) of the 1999 Constitution of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended). See also, Section 225 (3) (a)
and (b) as well as 225 (4) and also Section 226 (1 – 3).
61.See the Electoral Act (2010) of Nigeria.
62.See the Electoral Act (2010) of Nigeria.
63.Witnesses testify that the conduct of Nigeria’s general election of 2015
was done devoid of due process of established law guiding the election.
64.Adebowale Olorunmola, “Cost of Politics in Nigeria”, Westminster
Foundation for Democracy, www.wfd.org.
67.The Table shows the 2015 Elections with regards to the costs advanced
by notably Nigeria’s leading political parties in the purchase of “Parties
Expression of Interest Form as well as Nomination Form”.
68.Falodi, F. (2016,). Counting Issues from $2.1bn Arms Fund Diversion”,
16 January. Lagos: Lagos State
69.Falodi, F. (2016,). Counting Issues from $2.1bn Arms Fund Diversion”,
16 January. Lagos: Lagos State
70.Ehi Ekhator, “2011 Elections Cost Nigeria N122.9 bn – INEC”, The
StandardGazette, 17 October, 2014.
71.ENewsNigeria, “INEC: ‘2015 General Elections Cost Nigeria N108.8
billion”, 6 October, 2016.
72.Omeiza Ajayi, “Another Look at the 2019 INEC’s Election Budget”,
Vanguard, 18 August, 2018.
74.Emmanuel Aziken et al., “2015 Election Cost N 1trillion – INEC”,
Vanguard, 1 February, 2017.
75.Professor Bolade Eyinla, the Chief Technical Adviser to INEC at the
opening of the conference organised by the Westminster Foundation for
Democracy made some revelation on the high cost of general elections.
76.Ayo Baje, “High Costs of Conducting Elections in Nigeria”, The
Guardian, 28, February, 2019.
77.INEC Chairman made those remarks and made further explanations on
why such extensive expenditure has increasingly challenged the
national resources of many countries in the ECOWAS sub-regions.
78.Ayo Baje, op. cit
79.Professor Anthonia Simbine, an INEC National Commissioner once
said that the level of money in politics is responsible for the kinds of
governance we have at any given time. If you make an investment, you
want to reap from that.
80.Ayo Baje, op. cit.
81.Ayo Baje, ibid.
82.Azimazi Momoh Jimoh, et al., “Buhari Demands N242 bn for 2019
Elections”, The Guardian, 18 July, 2018.
83.Yusuf “2019: Buhari Seeks N242 for General Elections”,
OsunDefender, 18 July, 2018.
84.Yusuf “2019: Buhari Seeks N242bn for General Elections”,
OsunDefender, 18 July, 2018.
85.Nurudeen M. Abdullah, “Nigeria: 2019 Elections Set to be the
Country’s Most Expensive”, Daily Trust, 3 August, 2018.
87.Webmaster, “2019 Elections Set to be Nigeria’s Most Expensive”,
Daily Trust, 3 August, 2018.
88.Alex Enemanna, “2019 and Burden of Citizens”, OrientalTimes, 29
January, 2019.
92.Professor Mahmud Yakubu, INEC Chairman made those revelations
while defending the 2018 budget estimates of the electoral body in
January, 2019.
January, 2019.
January, 2019.
99.President Buhari has been severely criticized in supervising a country
wherein, in the midst of abject poverty and helplessness, continues to
promote scandalous spending in elections as exemplifies in the monies
voted for the 2019 general election in Nigeria – the most expensive
ever!
100. One Rasanjani had expressed dismay over recurring fraudulent
electoral outcomes and violence which the 2019 budget represented,
lacking in integrity.
101. The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) Chief
made the following advise.
102. W. Oladimeji (2014), “2015: Party Nominations and Monetisation
of Elective Offices, National Mirror.
103. For decades, Kwara politics had been dominated by the Saraki
political family. That dominance was entrenched by Dr. Olusola Saraki,
Senate Majority Leader in Nigeria's Second Republic (1979 -1983) and
the Godfather of Kwara politics for decades. In 2003, the immensely
charismatic and popular Dr. Olusola Saraki "installed" his first son, Dr.
Bukola Saraki as Governor of the state. The son will later replace the
father as the Godfather of Kwara politics. The Saraki political
machinery had a strong hold on the entire state, such that nobody could
aspire to any position if such a person was not endorsed by the Saraki
Godfather machinery. The ordinary people of Ilorin and other parts of
the state depended on the Saraki family, and the man they called
"Oloye" for their survival. Saraki, the father, did not disappoint them.
His longevity as a power broker was a function of his mastery of
populism and the common touch and his dexterity in building bridges to
the centre. See Reuben Abati, “Nigeria: Governance Beyond COVID-
19 – Back to Kwara” PremiumTimes, 23, June, 2020.
104. Oladimeji,W. (2014). 2015, op. cit.
105. Human Rights Watch. (2007). Criminal politics: violence,
“godfathers” and corruption in Nigeria. Abuja: HRW.
106. Oluniyi D. Ajao, “Governor Rashidi Lodoja of Oyo State
Impeached”, TechAfrica, 12 January, 2006.
107. Segun Adebowale, “800 Delegates to Converge in Lagos for APC
Presidential Primaries”, Eagles, 4 December, 2014. See also
PremiumTimes, 3 December, 2014.
108. E. Onyekpere, (2015), “Still above the ceiling” (a report on
campaign finance and use of state administrative resources in the 2015
election). Abuja: Centre for Social Justice.
109. Adebowale Olorunmola, “Cost of Politics in Nigeria”, Westminster
115. Tayo Agunbiade, “Participation of Women in Politics: The Nigeria
Context”, TheCable, 26 August, 2020. These figures are as collated
by the FMWASD Zonal Empowerment Offices for women political
empowerment when a number of cases involving women were still
unresolved at the Elections Petitions Tribunals as at date of this
compilation i.e. four months after the elections. See also 2015 figure
culled from a conference paper titled “Men without women: an analysis
of the 2015 general elections in Nigeria”, by Nse Etim Akpan,
Department of Political Science, Federal Polytechnic Wukari, Wukari,
Taraba State, Nigeria.
116. Emmanuel Ikechi Onah, “Monetisation of Electoral Politics and the
Challenge of Political Exclusion in Nigeria”, Commonwealth and
Comparative Politics, published online, 23 May, 2018.
117. See Centre for Social Justice, “PDP and APC Media Expences for
2015 Elections.
118. See Table explaining the Total Traceable Spending of APC and
PDP Presidential Candidates.
120. V. A. Adeyi, (2014), “Money, Parties and Democracy in Nigeria”,
in Political Parties and Democracy in Nigeria, Kuru: National Institute
of Policy and Strategic Studies, pp. 289-313
121. See the Electoral Act of 2002, 2006, and 2010 – Sections 91 (9);
Section 93 (2) (b).
122. Vanguard, (2014) “Naira Rain at Jonathan’s Fundraiser”, 21
December 21.
123. Vanguard, (2015) “Dollars for monarchs”, 16 March.
124. See Electoral Act (2006) and (2010).
126. Mo Ibrahim Foundation 2015. The Mo Ibrahim Foundation is an
African foundation, established in 2006 with one focus: the critical
importance of governance and leadership for Africa. It is our conviction
that governance and leadership lie at the heart of any tangible and
shared improvement in the quality of life of African citizens.
127. Mo Ibrahim Foundation 2015.
130. Sunday Akinfenwa, “The crowd and Deceits at Political Rallies”,
ElevateNewsNigeria, 8 December, 2018.
137. Guardian; 2015
138. Ibid
139. Vanguard, (2014). Naira Rain at Jonathan’s Fundraiser”, 21
December 21.
140. Aluaigba, P. M. (2015), “Taming a Lion: Monitoring Campaign
Finances of Political Parties Prior to the 2015 elections in Nigeria”, The
2015 General Elections in Nigeria: The Real Issues, Abuja. 27 to 28
July 2015 Abuja: Electoral Institute of Nigeria, p. 23.
141. Osmond Chigozie Agu, “Democracy and Cost of Governance in
Nigeria” Journal of Culture, Society and Development – An Open
Access International Journal.
Chapter 6: Nigeria in the Belly of the Vampires

“Someone listed the world’s most notorious criminal gangs. The first, he said, is the Italian
Mafia; next is the Japanese Yakuza; then the Russian Bratva; and next is the Irish
Mob….and there next, sitting regally in that dubious circle is the Nigerian Government. This
theorist was right. No matter which political party is in power in Nigeria, one thing is
constant: criminal class conspiracy rules the affairs of our country. Like the other gangs
which have always existed (some since the 17th century), the Nigerian Mafia sits pretty here
since the beginning of time. – Lasisi
1. A Preliminary Statement:
“Nigeria is now or never; We’ve got to win it or lose it forever!

“Nigeria is now or never, we’ve got to win it or lose it for good”
“Freedom is now or never, we’ve got to win it or lose it forever; freedom is
now or never, we’ve got to win it or lose it for good”
“K’anyi ga zigara ha ozi, Ka anyi gwa ha na chi anyi k’anma!”
“A gam aga zigara ha ozi, A gam agwaha na chi anyi ka nma!”
– Freedom Song by Nigeria’s Sunny Okoson
The clouds are gathering, the vultures are circling and our land is red with
the blood of the innocent. From the rolling hills of Taraba to the Plateau of
Jos; from the Escravos Rivers to the Ogoja River, from Ogota Lake to Lake
Chad; from Aso Rock to Olumo Rock, all I hear is the cry of the bereaved,
all I see is desolation and all I smell is the stench of suffering. How did a
once proud nation fall so low? How did the hope of Africa crash? How did
the African giant fall like the Biblical Goliath? Who did this to us? And how
can we recover from this? How can we rescue our once great nation from
this calamity?
Everyday we hear of wars and rumours of war. We are constantly assailed

with gory images of the bodies of the innocent Nigerians slaughtered like
cows. Nigerian youths roam the streets in hopelessness while the leaders
engage in squander mania and corruption, and indiscipline continue to
proliferate public appointment in complete disregard to our stark economic
realities. How can a nation at war be divided along tribal, religious and party
lines? Who then will save us?
Who still remembers the green and white flag that once flew proud? Who
still believes that our constitution, no matter how imperfect, guides our
affairs as a people? Daily our brightest seek greener pastures in safer climes
and daily our people are told they are not welcome even by our neighbour
countries that once depended on us.1
Without intending to be unnecessarily cynical, the nature of most of our

governments since independence can be summarised in Shakespeare’s
exclamation of sorrowful anguish from the mouth of Macbeth: “It is a tale
told by Idiot, full of sounds and fury; signifying nothing”. Has Nigeria
fallen?
We have failed as a nation in every performance index known to man be it

politics, economy, socio-cultural. We have failed woefully to fashion our
country into a modern nation-state with a stable polity, a sound economy and
a decent quality of life for her people. Our politics is completely in shamble
being dominated by the “vultures”. Our economy is in a jumble and our
socio-cultural life in a jungle of retrogression.
We have tried a British-style parliamentary system of government and then

an American-style presidential system, all to no avail. We have frittered
away our resources the extent of which would have been the pride of many
responsible governments and at the same time incur a debt that, for its sheer
size, may well have mortgaged our future development as a nation.
Ours has largely been an experiment in which a lot has been invested but
very little to show for it.
We have stumbled from one crisis to another, from one military coup to
another and we have refused to learn from such experiences. And in view of
the prevailing circumstances of our time, there is nothing that suggests that
we are on the path of redemption. There is nothing that suggests we are on
the path of recovery; for the voice of reason is constantly being challenged
by the collective voice of looters.
Evidently, Nigeria has been in a decade long war with the Boko Haram
terrorist group. At some point they controlled several local governments
within Nigeria, but our gallant troop succeeded in retaking most of the
captured areas. Just when we thought we had mostly eliminated the threat to
our nation, they regrouped and changed their strategy from capturing vast
swathes of Nigerian territory to attacking soft targets.
This is made easy for them because of our porous borders and the forest
vegetation in some areas of North Eastern Nigeria.
Attacks such as these have increased in recent times and the casualties are
rising daily. Thousands have been killed and millions displaced in this
senseless war that has cost our nation over a trillion naira in defence
expenditure and trillions in economic loss.
Whilst grappling with the carnage in the North East, we are yet confronted
with the menace of the murderers masked as herders who are ravaging our
farming communities.
It is a daily tale of bloodbath and woe as our police appear incapacitated or

sometimes unwilling to confront this menace. Every local government in
Nigeria has several police stations, and so it seems incredulous to hear of
herdsmen making orphans, widows and widowers out of our citizens on
daily basis.
As if things are not bad enough, our country Nigeria is known as the kidnap
capital of the world. No one is safe from this and whilst several reasons have
been adduced to the rise in kidnappings, we all know that our country is no
longer the same. We can no longer pretend that all is well.
However, American War Colleges have been using Nigeria as an example of

a failed state predicting now and again the collapse of Nigeria, from 2011 to
2015 and now 2030.
#EndSARS movement represent a watershed in Nigeria’s history in the last

60 years. It started with the demand to end the deadly police special squad
known for its impunity to allow the citizens live devoid of extra-judicial
killings from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). The #EndSARS
movement has snowballed into end all impunities, including
#EndBuhariregime and #EndNigeriaNow.
It was Thomas Sankara who once said: “You cannot carryout fundamental
change without a certain amount of madness”. The #EndSARS movement is
an attempt by the ordinary Nigerians to force the government to carryout
fundamental changes for a better society. The National Pivot quoted Gani
Adams as saying: “We knew Nigeria is finished the very moment the US
released its intelligence report on Nigeria”.2
Chief Gani Adams, the Aare Onakakanfo of Yoruba land has said the very
moment intelligence reports by the US showed how insincere the Buhari
administration is in its fight against terrorist groups in the country, it became
clear that Nigeria is finished. In his interview with New Telegraph, Gani
disclosed that it is evident that the current government is up to something by
not doing anything about reports of ISIS and Al Qaeda terrorists infiltrating
southern parts of the country. He therefore said that the Yorubas want to
leave Nigeria union before it is too late.3
Is restructuring still a viable option for the Yoruba’s’ South-West as against

seeking for self-determination? Aare Onakakanfo had this to say: “Well, I
think we have over flogged the issue of restructuring and the delicate aspect
of it is that when you talk about restructuring in Yoruba land now, the
majority of the Yoruba’s will tell you that restructuring is late.” 4 He claims
that a lot of people from Yoruba land have called on him saying that the
issue of restructuring the country is no longer tenable in the light of what is
happening in the country. According to him, the aggregate opinion of
Yoruba at the moment is that it is time to have a peaceful dissolution or
disbandment of the entity called Nigeria if you like.
We have failed to manage our diversities. Most illustrious sons and

daughters of Nigeria really wish we see strength, determination, commitment
and confidence in our diversities rather than adversities. They believe and
rightly so that as a heterogeneous country with flourishing skills and
numerous endowments, we should dictate the pace in Africa and lead by
example of what are possible amongst a people that are focused and
determined to pursue common national goal.
Governance is a function of the leadership and the followership. It is a two-

way traffic that demands certain responsibilities from those involved. The
citizens, like government, have their roles to play as well as obligations to
fulfil in order to motivate government in achieving its stated goals and
objectives, but certainly not those of “fulanizing” and “Islamising” the rest
of us. The citizens have the moral obligation to resist collective evil of those
in power. And, no one should ever make the mistake to think that he has the
monopoly of violence.
Presently, Nigeria has become so sharply divided with emotions running

high on the least provocations. Once tempers are that high, the fault-lines
become easily visible and with the slightest prompting, the unexpected can
happen.
An Introduction:
It seems to me that the basic distinction between God and the devil is lies.
No wonder, the Holy Book of Judeo-Christian religion admonishes the
faithful to always strive for the truth, because only the truth we know and
apply will set us free.
Writing about Nigeria exponentially could be likened to serving in a house

of many lies. And no matter which political party is in power in Nigeria, one
thing is constant: criminal class conspiracy rules the affairs of our country.
They constitute a university of liars.
No matter how much I tried to love and be generous in writing about
Nigeria, the truth remains that there is no justifiable reason to be optimistic
about her future. The primitivism of mentality menacingly showcased and
espoused, especially by her present, and to some extent, her past leaders;
their primordial sensibilities, their retrogressive discretions, their cerebral
stereopsis, their brain death to reason aright as human beings in the 21 st
century stares one at the face.
First and foremost, we must appreciate the fact that Nigeria is a house built
on a mirage because the amalgamation of the former two British
protectorates – the North and the South – was a fraud. And, sooner or later,
the country will go the way of other amalgamations like India, Sudan, and
others have went unless a genuine reconstruction, reconciliation and
rehabilitation is truthfully carried out by way of restructuring. Even at that,
the issue of restructuring is rather belated. But is Buhari government even
interested and committed to restructuring the country?
It was Fredrick Bashir, a French philosopher, who said that when blunder
becomes a way of life, those who benefit from it will create a legal code to
authorize it and the moral authority to justify it. It is not in my character to
write in order to provoke. I write because our time on earth is too short and
each moment we are not our truest selves; each time we pretend to be what
we are not, each moment we say what we do not mean because we imagine
that is what somebody wants us to say or write in order to be “politically
correct”, then we are wasting our time on Earth.
It brutalizes my psyche to watch our once beloved nation entering into

dangerous waters and I sense, very soon, something will definitely give in.
The Fulani’s – the political elites among them – appear very clever! First,
they came quietly and subtly with their religion. We were amused at their
“foolishness” and allowed them to stay. Now they have won the Hausa
community and formed Hausa-Fulani as one political indivisible bloc; and
other ethnic nationalities in the country can no longer act as one to resist the
Fulani threat of emasculating the rest of us. They have effectively put a knife
on the things that held Nigeria together. The centre can no longer hold and
things have fallen apart.
It appears a super-intellect of well-packaged “Fulanization” agenda has

monkeyed with the Trojan horse in Aso Rock with the primary objective of
using the Nigeria armed forces, the Boko Haram terrorists and the murderous
Fulani herders to fight Jihad and massacre the indigenous peoples of Nigeria
who are the legitimate stake-holders in Nigeria, take over their lands and
give to Fulani’s.
Having conquered the Hausa community, these Fulani marauders kill

Nigerians from across the Middle Belts (Kogi, Taraba, Plateau, Kaduna,
Nasarawa, Borno and Benue and others), sacking them from their
communities. The presidency, according to available security reports and
confessions from repentant terrorists, seems to offer support and
encouragement to these troublers of Nigeria.5 Unbelievable! You may say
but that is what it is!
They appeared to have conquered the South-West by halve through the

connivance of the Tinubu dynasty after sacking the Middle Belt. And after
they are done with the South-West, the game-plan is to muster all support
and energy to obliterate the Eastern Region. Their agents are already in all
nooks and crannies of the country including the South-East. This will indeed
be the battle of Armageddon and the Fulani’s are not pretending about such
sinister motives.
It would be inconceivably shameful for the indigenous Hausa, Igala, Tiv,

Idoma, Igbo, Yoruba, Calabar, Benin, Ishan, Urhobo, etc, to seat idly and
watch the adventurous Fulani through Buhari presidency destroy and turn
Nigeria into Fulani colony. This is a war against 165million + Nigerians as
against the 5 million Fulani people headed by Buhari. The game plan
appears to be the fact that Buhari will use the leaders of the South and the
Middle Belt to destroy their communities which would make it easier and
vulnerable for the Fulani to strike and destroy both and impose Fulani
hegemony and rulership on them as they have done against the Hausa
community.6
Embarrassingly, Miyetti Allah appears to determine what happens in the

Presidency, even threatening hell against the constitutionally elected
governors with the tacit support of the Nigeria army. This is not about
politics but about pogrom and ethnic cleansing plotted by Buhari and his
criminal gang.
The Fulani Nationalist Movement (FNM) issued a Press Release in which it

literarily threatens other indigenous nationalities. According to this group:
“Our attacks on the infidels must be total and overwhelming. We must begin by
instilling fear in them, weaken their resolve through kidnaps, brutal rapes, and
making it difficult for them to farm and subdue them before the war.
Our strategies involve learning from the tactics of the past and merging it with the
wisdom of the moment. Nigeria is our own. It was handed over to us by Allah.
How then can we share what is ours? We must fight a defensive war…”7
How would these threats be carried out? What strategy are they going to
employ in achieving their aim? The Fulani Nationalist Movement went
further to reveal:
“We must take the battle to the homes of the infidels. We must use everything we
have. Whether you’re a boy, a lady, a man, or a woman, all Muslims of Fulani
Origin must take this as a duty.
We must sharpen our fighting weapons. Everything is a weapon. Your Okada,
knives, hands, the trailers you drive, the tankers with fuel, food you sell, the house
of the infidels that you guard, study very well and wait for our order.
Exploit the weaknesses of the infidels: they are lousy, lack discipline, sleep like
fools, love parties and dances, lack focus and mostly unobservant and
unarmed…”8
And with an air of authoritative finality, the group finally declares:

With your vantage position, you can take on a whole family of 10, conquer and
kill them if need be. The battle must be fought in their homeland. The Middle Belt
must be totally crushed. They are very few and divided. Never trust anyone in the
East and the South, not even their filthy Muslims who do everything Allah rejects.
GET YOURSELVES PREPARED. THE BATTLE IS NEAR” 9
There is no iota of doubt that the Fulanis meant every word that proceeded from
their mouths as some of the strategies have already been tested and some are
currently been subjected to tests as I write.
The presidency is headed by someone whose honest belief (not appearances) in

Nigeria and ordinary Nigerians is seriously in doubt but whose preference in a
Fulani cabal appears undoubtedly unquestionable. How could he have claimed
to genuinely love the country of which he once shaded (crocodile?) tears going
by his antecedents? Hundreds and thousands of his “beloved” countrymen and
women were and are slaughtered under his very nose; under his watch even as
the president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces?
The partisanship of the Nigeria armed forces towards the troublers of the
Nigerian nation and her unity is a sore point this administration has not really
succeeded in abdicating herself from. How could he have claimed to have loved
his country when he parades the highest degree of nepotism such that never had
existed before in Nigeria’s history, which indeed is the worst form of
corruption?
Buhari released hundreds of Boko Haram fighters from prison claiming that
they are reformed and a few days later not less than 30 Nigerians were blown up
by the same Boko Haram in Borno State. The victims included young students,
women, infants, and babies were among those that were blown up in the Auno
atrocity. Still on the same day, 16 members of the same family and four others
were herded into a room and burnt alive by Fulani militants in Kaduna state.
Today, the number of innocent Nigerians who have been slaughtered by Boko
Haram alone could not really be correctly ascertained.
President Buhari had released not less than 1,400 terrorists who have murdered,
butchered, slaughtered, tortured, and maimed his soldiers, and terrorised his
people over the last 5 years. Today this figure is inferior to reality. Many
concerned Nigerians are yet to understand the “wisdom” in releasing murderers
while those who committed lesser crimes are dotted in various prisons in the
country. Many critics have accused the presidency of trading in the blood of
Nigeria people, indulging in all manner of barbarity, suppression of dissent,
persecution of his perceived enemies.
Granted that no nation drops from heaven; and that it is the fate of nations, at
some points in their lives, to go through the funniest and crucible of suffering.
This present leadership of Nigeria, without intending to be unnecessarily
cynical, is an apology to humanity.
Buhari government is yet to come to terms with the culture of death prevalent in
the country – the menace of Boko Haram insurgency, the orge of massacres and
heinous crimes against humanity being perpetrated by the Fulani herdsmen
against indigenous communities, the menace of the bandits and criminals in
nooks and crannies of the country, the police and army brutality against the
innocent citizens of the nation, and the incessant and unabated killings of
unarmed Nigerians by members of the Special Armed Robbery Squad (SARS),
and most recently the massacre of innocent Nigerian youths protesting for better
standards of living at the Lekki Toll Gate on Tuesday, the 20th of October by
members of Nigerian Army etc.
After 60 years of bloodletting, blood has become part and parcel of our culture
of existence. Nigeria is littered with the very sharp pieces of broken promises.
Yesterday’s dreams have virtually become Nigeria’s worst nightmares.
The Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah, in his audio message to
Nigerians demanded that: “President Buhari should be impeached for fragrant
violation of the Constitution. Nigerians feel collectively violated”. 10
Exposing the nepotistic tendencies of the Buhari government, Kukah avers:

“Today our country looks like a boiling pot in which everyone is struggling to
escape. Nepotism has become the new ideology of this government. In
following this ideology, it is estimated and very interesting that this statement is
made by a Northern Muslim Journalist that the President has handed over 85%
of key appointments to Northern Muslims and has ensured that men of his faith
hold tight to the realm of power in the most critical of our national life such as
the National Assembly, and the Security Agencies …”.11
Many concerned and illustrious Nigerians and friends of Nigeria have called for
restructuring as the only possible panacea to keep Nigeria united and
progressive. Regrettably, however, President Buhari government has labelled
those calling for restructuring as unpatriotic. But are those calling for
restructuring the country really unpatriotic? Put differently, in what important
sense are those calling for a restructured Nigeria be said to be unpatriotic?
Dele Fatorimi, a Nigerian author queried rather ironically: How do you demand
patriotism from a man whom you have denied citizenship? He went further to
ask: Is there really a nation? Probing further, he enquired: “You have to be a
nation … a citizen before you’re unpatriotic!” Patriotism is found in citizenship.
So, when you are not considered a citizen ab initio how can you be patriotic?
The demand for restructuring is a demand for citizenship – treat every Nigerian
equally irrespective of tribe, creed or sex. It is simply recognition of our
common humanity within a given political sphere called Nigeria. To every
disadvantaged Nigerian, restructuring is a demand for equalization.12
Granted that there is an agenda of the Fulanis to Islamize Nigeria, but this could
not have been possible without a tacit complicity of some elites from other
nationalities, hence it is also about a class issue. Those who have surreptitiously
usurped our citizenship are not necessarily Fulani or Hausa or Yoruba or Igbo,
etc. In a significant sense, it is a group of elites, a criminal class conspiracy
who have become the vampires, the vultures who, in Nigerian parlance, have
come to be known as “the cabals”. These cabals are spearheaded and
superintended by Northern political class and are Caliphate-compliant.
And so, when President Buhari calls the demand for restructuring unpatriotic,
he was indirectly saying the citizens of Nigeria are unpatriotically asking to be
treated as “citizens”.
The continuous call for succession by the Biafra’s and recently by the
Oduduwas is the only perceived avenue to have their genuine grievances find
expression. There can never be unity where others have been suppressed,
subdued, subjugated. Where there is no justice, unity is far-fetched. Nnamdi
Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is perceived as
speaking the language of the extreme. This is so because those who speak the
language of the moderate are not listened to by the Nigerian state.
For avoidance of doubt, the grievances of IPOB and those of the Oduaa
Republic agitators are genuine. The Nigeria-state only resort to the creation of
unviable states, creating talk-shops, not addressing the fundamental concern of
those demands which is to be treated equally as citizens! The question: “Who is
a Nigerian?” is a question the political ruling class have not really answered.
The first condition of humanity is justice.
Any nation whose people feel perpetually aggrieved by the governance system,
that nation or state would continually be in a state of war. How could you have
40 Custom checkpoints from Lagos (in the South-West) to Lokoja (Middle
Belt), and yet in all northern states there is no single Custom checkpoint? All
the borders in the Southern Nigeria are closed whilst those in the northern
Nigeria remain perpetually open. All the COVID-19 palliatives distributed to all
other states in Nigeria, those of the South East zone were denied. But what
reason do they have? The northern elites said the zone has her people who send
relief from abroad to aid their people back home.
The Federal Government has secured $7.5 billion loan for the construction of
standard rail gauge from Lagos to Kano, an official has said. The $7.5 billion is
part of the $30 billion loan the federal government seeks to take and for which it
has sought approval from the National Assembly. The minister of
Transportation said that $1. 4 billion of the loans were for the construction of
the rail gauge from Lagos to Ibadan, while $6. 1 billion would be used on
Ibadan–Ilorin–Minna-Kaduna– Kano line.13
The minister added that Kaura Namoda–Funtua rail line would also be revived.
Admittedly, President Muhammadu Buhari led administration has commenced
the construction of a 230 km link road from Enugu to Cameroon bridge. The
funding which was initiated in the 2017 funding by the Federal government on
the Nigeria- Cameroon Bridge will link Enugu to Bamenda in Cameroon. The
government should be commended for this!
(https://ng.opera.news/comments/s51160aad201220en_ng)
In another development, the Buhari government borrowed some $1.96 billion to

construct a rail line connecting some northern states and towns down to Maradi
in Niger Republic. 14
In our experiment with democracy, the essence of the rule of law in the country
is lost. President Buhari and his government do not respect the rule of law.
Equalisation can only occur when the laws rule. If the laws are not allowed to
rule, or selectionally applied, even when restructured, it would still not yield
expected dividend.
The only way to end SARS is when the policemen know that any shot fired
through their officially assigned gun must be accounted for and consequences
must be meted out. It is only when the policemen realise that the person he was
(is) shooting is a citizen in relation to whom they must offer an account, not
only to the state but to the family of the persons he has killed. The only reason
the Nigeria police kill with impunity is that he knows there would be no
consequences. The Nigeria state is structured in such a way that it only protects
the rulers and the rich.
Some elites especially from the north have advised that the call for restructuring
should be channelled through the National Assembly. This request is not
realizable because the members of the National Assembly are beneficiaries of
the corrupt system and therefore, are unlikely to affect any reasonable change.
There is a disproportionate representation between the North and the South to
the advantage of the former. Even if this is not the case, how do you expect
ravenous wolves to become vegetarians? How can the beneficiaries of a corrupt
system be the ones to initiate changes? It is not the duty of the oppressors to
liberate the oppressed. It is the responsibility of the oppressed to fight for their
freedom from their oppressors.
There are those who claim that it is rather too late to restructure Nigeria. They
believe that restructuring is a scam to keep people clued to the criminal
enterprise called Nigeria. They believe that Nigeria had never worked; it is not
working and will never work because we are of different nationalities, with
different cultural and religious background hence different people with
irreconcilable backgrounds.
Peace is not the absence of tension but the presence of justice. Nigerians,
especially the youths have been on the streets, registering their displeasure over
the abnormalities in the land. The #EndSARS and #EndNigeria protests are
spontaneous revolutionary movements presently convulsiving General Buhari’s
Presidency to its foundation.
The British Government has a choice to either rewrite/reinvent her own

chequered history of romanticizing with banality and the deliberate
asphyxiation of the Nigerian people or remains stoically impervious to her
perfidous preoccupations of letting humanity down by supporting and
fraternizing with Buhari administration.
The protests have persisted nationwide despite the disbandment of the police
formation by the Inspector General of the Police.
However, Dr. Enenche, the Senior Pastor of Dunamis International Gospel

Centre while reacting, attributed the anger being expressed by Nigerians across
the country to the loud impunity, nepotism, tribalism, religionalism, oppression
and subjugation in the land
In a video broadcast entitled, The Way of Peace, the trained medical doctor-
turned preacher said: there can be no peace in the face of hunger and
suppression.
According to him,
“There is no peace where there is massive injustice, unfairness and lack of
equity. There can be no peace in the face of oppression, suppression and
subjugation of one people by another. There can be no peace in the face of
nepotism, tribalism, regionalism, religionism and every form of such prejudice.
There can be no peace in the midst of deprivation, poverty and hunger.”15
Dr. Enenche also decried how a section of the country is in charge of juicy
positions in government while other zones look helplessly.
On the way forward, the cleric called for equity, fairness and justice.
He added,
“People have clamoured for restructuring. It is the devolution of power;
otherwise, there may be dissolution of union. It happened in other places and we
pray and trust God it doesn’t happen in our nation.
“It is not time to play the ostrich and hide the under. What is not confronted
cannot be conquered. In medicine we called something the debridement of wound
you expose wounds in order to repair them. “It is time to tell the truth because
people have been suppressed, subdued, subjugated and treated as if they don’t
reason.
“Nigeria is one of the most intelligent nations in the world. Our doctors and our
professionals are the most intelligent in the world. It is time for us to sit up and
say these things must be corrected.”16
The cleric urged protesters not to go violent while expressing their anger.
2. Is the APC the Direct Sponsor of Terrorism in Nigeria?
 In the Beginning:
Formed in February 2013, the All Progressive Congress (APC) party is the
result of a merger of Nigeria's three biggest opposition parties – the Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the
All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), a faction of the All Progressives Grand
Alliance (APGA) and the new PDP - a faction of then ruling People's
Democratic Party.16-18 The resolution was signed by Tom Ikimi, who represented
the ACN; Senator Annie Okonkwo on behalf of the APGA; Ibrahim Shekarau,
the Chairman of ANPP's Merger Committee; and Garba Shehu, the Chairman of
CPC's Merger Committee.19 Ironically, less than 2 years before the party's
historic victory in the 2015 elections, Messrs. Annie Okonkwo, Tom Ikimi and
Ibrahim Shekarau resigned from the party and joined the PDP. 20-22
The party received approval from the nation's Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) on 31 July 2013 to become a political party and
subsequently withdrew the operating licenses of the three parties that merged
(the ACN, CPC and ANPP).
In March 2013, it was reported that two other associations – African Peoples
Congress and All Patriotic Citizens – also applied for INEC registration,
adopting APC as an acronym as well, reportedly "a development interpreted to
be a move to thwart the successful coalition of the opposition parties, ahead of
the 2015 general elections."23 It was reported in April 2013 that the party was
considering changing their name to the All Progressive Congress of Nigeria
(APCN) to avoid further complications.24
Prior to the elections, the All Progressives Congress was formed as an alliance
of four opposition parties, the Action Congress of Nigeria, the Congress for
Progressive Change, the All Nigeria Peoples Party, and the All Progressives
Grand Alliance.25
Its primaries, also held on 10 December, were won by retired Major General
Muhammadu Buhari 26-29 who defeated Kano State Governor Rabiu
Kwankwaso, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Imo State Governor
Rochas Okorocha and newspaper editor Sam Nda-Isaiah. 30 On 17 December,
APC chose Professor Yemi Osinbajo as the running mate of General M.
Buhari.31-32
As of February 2015, "Though the APC's voter base is in the north, it enjoys
support all over the country, unlike the opposition in 2011."33
Prior to the formation of the APC and its victory in the 2015 elections,
Muhammadu Buhari had previously contested (and subsequently lost) the
Nigerian presidential elections of 2003 and 2007 as the presidential nominee of
the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and the 2011 Nigerian presidential
election as the presidential nominee of the Congress for Progressive Change
(CPC). Following the election widespread violence took place in the northern
parts of the country.34 Goodluck Jonathan was declared the winner on 19 April. 35
The elections was reported in the international media as having run smoothly
with relatively little violence or voter fraud in contrast to previous elections, in
particular the widely disputed 2007 election.36 The United States State
Department said the election was "successful" and a "substantial improvement"
over 2007, although it added that vote rigging and fraud also took place.37
 Mohammadu Buhari, the APC, and Terrorism in Nigeria:

Matters Arising!
Buhari was supported by The Economist "with a heavy heart" as "the least
awful" option; the newspaper was scathing about the repression and economic
policy of Buhari's previous regime, but praised his subsequent adherence to
democratic process, anti-corruption stance, and the legitimacy he held in the
Muslim North as a stronger platform with which to combat Boko Haram.38
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo supported Muhammadu Buhari in 2015
despite being aware that he “knows next to nothing,” Olagunsoye Oyinlola, the
former governor of Osun State, has said. “The last person to accept Buhari’s
candidature was Obasanjo and I say that one with every emphasis because I was
involved. Yes, Baba (Obasanjo) had fallen out with Jonathan. His projection
then was ‘any option but Jonathan’. That was his stand.
“Taking a look at those candidates from other parties, there was no other person
we felt could handle the delicate governance of Nigeria better than Buhari,
among the contenders that time. That was why the choice of Buhari became the
order.
“That, coupled with the fact that he had been at the helm of affairs in the country
before under the military, so he has that edge over all others. But Baba
(Obasanjo) was the last to subscribe to the idea.
“I can tell you that it took a team of Saraki, Amosun, Bola Tinubu, Kashim, Imam
and myself, that went and bombarded Baba (Obasanjo) at Ota, around 7 a.m.,
before he succumbed to our pressure.”39
Capitalizing on the situation at the time, Buhari came with three basic mandates
which he presented as a testament to Nigerians in seeking their vote for the
presidential election in 2015. The three cardinal objectives were – (1) to fight
corruption, (2) to revive Nigeria’s economy, and (3) to arrest the insecurity in
the country.
From the benefit of hingesight, the Buhari-led APC government has failed
woefully in all. The Buhari government is the most corrupt government ever.
Indices speak for self. In the recent report of the Transparency International
Corruption Index, Nigeria under Buhari scored 149th position – the worst rating
for Nigeria ever. Even under his government report, we had the most damning
official report to have ever emanated from the auditor general in any Nigeria’s
past administrations. Based on the government’s Auditor-General of the
Federation’s damning report, Buhari should have resigned if he is truly a man of
integrity and honour.
The size of corruption scandals in his administration is mind-blowing –

$25billion NNPC contract scam (the biggest contract scam in Africa ever).40
This is just a tip at the iceberg. Using his government’s official appropriation
arithmetic, President Buhari had so far spent about NGN41 trillion of the public
fund since be became president and yet there is nothing to show for it.
Under his regime, the government’s report on the official Sukkuk government
project reveals that over NGN5 billion was used to construct a “one-kilometre”
of Nigeria road. Yet, the Africa’s Development Bank (ADB) reputed for road
projects in Africa does a kilometre road on an average cost of about $150,000
(NGN60 million). Instances are legion but this need not detain us.41
On the economy, the government has not fared any better but worse. Using the
five universal criteria for micro-economic assessments, the government is found
wanting. For instance using the GDP as a unit of an assessment, the Nigeria
nation under Buhari had at least fallen two times under “recession”. The right
word is “depression”, not “recession”. The situation has gone beyond the issue
of poor GDP and graduating into hyper inflation, unprecedented level of
unemployment in the country, unprecedented level of debts (already in debt-
trap; the next stage would be debt crisis), etc.
The security situation in the country under this clueless government is

catastrophic to say the least. Today in Nigeria, kidnapping is done in large scale
(mass-kidnapping) at an average of every three weeks. Though Nigeria
witnessed the adoption of 276 school children who were kidnapped in Chibok in
2014 by Islamist group Boko Haram, sparking one of the biggest global social
media campaigns, with tweeters using the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, since
then the floodgate of large-scale kidnapping, sundary banditry, criminality and
killings have greeted the Buhari government, exposing its underbelly as the
most insensitive and purblind as far as securing the lives of Nigerians are a
concern.42
On February 19, 2018 at 5:30 pm, 110 schoolgirls aged 11–19 years old were
kidnapped by the Boko Haram terrorist group from the Government Girls'
Science and Technical College (GGSTC) Dapchi. Dapchi is located in
Bulabulin, Yunusari Local Government area of Yobe State, in the northeast part
of Nigeria.43
A total of 344 boys were kidnapped from their school – Government Boys
Science Secondary School in Kankara local government area of Katsina State
by gunmen on Dec 11, 2020.44 Following the kidnapping, President
Muhammadu Buhari came under severe criticism on social media, particularly
Twitter, where the hash tag #BringBackOurBoys trended. Indeed, this is not the
Buhari we knew.
On the 26th of February, 2021, the Police in Zamfara confirmed that about three-
hundred and seventeen (317) students were abducted from the Government
Girls Science Secondary School Jangebe in Jangebe, Zamfara State, less than
two weeks after 42 people, including 27 students, were abducted in a similar
incident.45
Village after village, community after community, state after state and region
after region, the level of insecurity in the country under this administration
makes the average Nigerian a walking corpse each day and makes the country
the third most unsafe place to live on earth; and by the way the security
situation worsens each passing day, Nigeria is most likely to overtake countries
before it – Afghanistan and Iraq. This is frightening!
Former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Obadiah

Mailafia has claimed that some Northerners are using the National Identification
Number, NIN to pursue a ‘Fulanization/Islamization’ agenda. Through
Pantami’s devious NIN plan, they are allegedly importing millions of aliens and
issuing them with passports, national identity cards and voter cards.”
Obadiah said:
“They are fighting a demographic Jihad to ensure that the North is the demographic
majority by subterfuge. And then they will have a free license to call the shots in
perpetuity. They have allowed hundreds of thousands of killers to invade our country.
They are everywhere now.”(see George Ogbolu, “Northerners Using NIN to Pursue
Evil Fulanization/Islamization Agenda – Mailafia” NaijaNews.com)
However, Mr. Obadiah Mailafia has described Nigeria’s minister of

Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami as a ‘Cold-blooded
Reptilian’ adding that he (Pantami) has brought sorrow and tears to Nigerians.
ibid
Meanwhile, as Nigeria is collapsing around us, let us remember how we got

here.
3. Sharia and Nigeria under Buhari: The Demise of Secular Union
 The Drivers of Terrorism and Insecurity in Nigeria

Baraje Abubakar Kawu Baraje, during the activities to mark his 70 th birthday in
Ilorin, made a confessional statement, tracing the origin of the current insecurity
in the country to the influx of Fulani from neighboring countries like Sierra
Leone, Mali, Senegal, Niger and Chad brought into the country for election
purposes in 2015.46
Baraje was the former PDP chairman, who also once served as the party’s
national secretary as well as the chairman of the breakaway faction of PDP that
formed the nucleus of the current ruling party: “We brought in Fulani from
Mali, Sierra Leone, Senegal, others to win 2015 election, after election, they
refused to leave”. 47
According to him, the Fulani men causing havoc in the country are not
aboriginal to Nigeria.
“We are not asking the right question on how the same Fulani we have been
living with suddenly turned out a menace… We also must ask how they had access
to their guns…The security agencies have not been open about the nature of the
problem. “They have made arrests. Why haven’t they told the public who the
terrorists are? …
“After the election, the Fulani have refused to leave. I and other like minds wrote
and warned those we started APC with that this was going to happen but nobody
listened,” he explained.48
Baraje’s confessional statement corroborated with Nuhu Ribadu’s account of

how Muhammadu Buhari, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, Retired General Dambazo
and others approached the leadership of Miyetti Allah and subsequently
received Fulani militia in preparation and readiness to enable the APC win the
2015 presidential election against the incumbent President Jonathan’s PDP. The
rest is history.
Since Nuhu Ribadu’s revelation and follow-up confessional remarks of Baraje,

why did the Nigeria media never took up the matter? Why have well-meaning
Nigerians never demand for accountability?
Also in a recent interview with SaharaReporters, the former presidential

candidate Martin Onovo declared with a tone of authoritative finality that “APC
is the direct sponsor of terrorism and insecurity in Nigeria”.49
It would be recalled that Miyetti Allah once made a public proclamation in the
wake of RUGA controversy that any indigenous community that want peace in
their community and state must provide land for the Fulani. In other words,
“surrender your land or die”. This effrontery was repeated by Buhari’s media
spokeman, Femi Adesina advising members of the indigenous communities to
surrender their lands instead of being killed.
Miyetti Allah is a collaborator and in league with Buhari’s APC who funded the
later with NGN100 billion belong to the commonwealth. Why must the Buhari
government give such a humonguous amount to a terrorist organisation?
Another indication of the possible driver of terrorism in Nigeria is the Buhari

government demanding the establishment of a radio station in collaboration
with Miyetti Allah where “fufulde language” exclusively would be used for the
Fulani people. Those who are in the know see some sinister motives,
remniscencing the replica of what happened just before the Rwanda genocide
were unleashed.50
Having carefully investigated the criminal activities that led to the death of Pa
Fasoranti’s daughter along the Ondo-Lagos axis, the Ondo State government
unequivocally and unapologetically declared that the Public Relations Officer
(PRO) of Miyetti Allah led the criminal gang that murdered the lady. Nothing
has been done by the authority yet.51
The Police Authority has revealed that in Plateau State, some herdsmen were
arrested with some sophisticated military rifles. The riffle numbers were known
and confirmed to be those of the Nigeria Army. No prosecution, no punishment
for wrong possession of arms. Who is the Commander-in-Chief – Buhari!
It was retired Col. Nyiam who once narrated how the Fulani herders were
repelled in an attack in Ogoja, were using riffles belonging to the Nigeria Army
from the barrack in that vicinity; and the soldiers came to collect their riffle
back later. Who should be held responsible for the activities of the armed forces
– Buhari?
Sometime in 2019, the former minister of Defence, General Theophilous

Danjuma publicly declared that the Nigeria armed forces have been
compromised and advising the citizens to arm and defend themselves.52
The former deputy governor of the Central bank, Obediah Mailafia had once
publicly declared that repentant terrorists have told him that one of the northern
governors is one of the leaders of Boko Haram.53
According to an official report on the trial in Dubai where some Nigerians were
accused and convicted for financing terrorism, there were allusions that some
highly placed government officials was indicted.54
Fulani herdsmen have claimed that the government supplies them with
weapons.
In a viral video recorded during one of the several meetings between popular
Islamic clerics, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, one of the herdsmen, addressing the
crowd on behalf of his fellow herders, claimed that cows don’t give birth to
guns.
He said that they were only herdsmen and did not know what guns were until
the government started supplying them with AK-47.
According to him “I swear to the Almighty Allah that it’s the government that is
giving arms to us. Fulani don’t know what gun is,” he said in Fulani to the
applause of others.
“We are only herdsmen. Cows don’t give birth to guns. I swear to Allah, we are
on our own and the government supplies AK47 to us. I am not afraid to say the
truth.”55
Sheik Gumi who interfaced and negotiated a truce between the government and
the terrorist was asked how he managed to know where the terrorists are in the
bush and how come the Nigeria government did not know; he quickly retorted:
the security agencies know where they are! The question is: if the security
agencies are in the know, why didn’t they go after them?
In another development, some members of Oodua People’s Congress, OPC,

loyal to Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams, who arrested
Fulani warlord, Isikilu Wakili, a notorious terrorist have been arrested and
transferred by the Oyo State Police Command to the Force Headquarters in
Abuja, allegedly on the orders of a top presidential aide.56
The OPC members were part of a joint security team that apprehended an
alleged notorious Fulani herder, Abdullah Wakilu, at Ayete in Oyo State.
A source, who was privy to Wakili’s arrest, said a top presidential aide had
warned some traditional rulers in Ayete and Ibarapaland not to touch Wakilu. 57-
59
“I told the OPC guys not to arrest Wakilu because the Oba of Ayete told me that
there is a presidential order on Wakili and that he should not be touched.
“When the team that went to arrest Wakili got there, I was called and I told them
that members of our group should back down from the operation and that those
going there to apprehend Wakilu would be arrested”.
 Islamization Is Likened to Football Game with One Goal
Mouth - Islamization
It is very difficult to explain convincingly how 175 Military hardwares were

intercepted and collected by Boko Haram from Nigeria Military. Obviously
those weapons, according to critics, were originally meant for Boko Haram for
their use and not for our Military, very unfortunate.
Jihad, according to critics, could be likened to a football match. The participants

or players have different and various roles but they are all interested in the
GOAL which is Islamization.
From all available evidences and deduced rational conclusions, one is tempted
to agree with the following conclusions:
 Buhari is interested in Islamisation

 Pantami is interested in Islamisation
 El-Rufai is interested in Islamisation
 JNI are interested in Islamisation
 Boko Haram is interested in Islamisation
 ISWAP are interested in Islamisation
Whoever you are – President, Governor, Politician, Almajiri – the one and only
ultimate goal is Islamization of Nigeria.
(ix) Players in the Game of Islamization
*The Strikers:
In the Islamization game, the strikers are the killers – they kill, rape, maim and
cause collateral damages. They carry the weapons of warfare. They don't hide
their extremism. And they are the ones that score the goal. Some Politicians are
also in this category implimenting the Jihad not by force but using their offices,
persecuting Christians and other non-Moslems and Southerners, especially the
South-East.
Those under this group of strikers included but not necessarily limited to the
following:
 Boko Haram
 ISWAP
 Fulani Killer Herdsmen
 Some Politicians
*Midfielders
Players at this position are the sponsors; they supply guns, cash and logistics to
the strikers. Though they are not visible, some are business men and some are
politicians. At the Islamization game, the players in the mid-field do not
necessarily need to know the strikers. But in most cases they know them. The
identities of these mid-fielders are hardly revealed for security reasons.
Those in this group included but not necessarily limited to the following:
 The recent arrests of operatives of the Bureau De Change in Kano and

Abuja
 The informant arrested recently in Yobe
 Sheik Pantami when he was a small boy at 34years is under this group.
*Defenders
These defenders go all out to stoutly defend the strikers, claiming that the
strikers – Boko Harams, ISWAP, Fulani hersmen, Bandits, and even the Nigeria
army – are not Muslims. But it is so obvious they can't deny the perpetrators
ISWAP, Fulani herdsmen or Boko Haram are Muslims, and yet they defend
them anyway. They claim these perpetrators are not Muslims because they have
killed more Muslims than Christians. At this wing in the field of “Fulanization”
and “Islamization” agenda, deception plays a significant role. This is the
position moderate Muslims are found. Also found in this position are
politicians, students, civil servants, academia, security operatives, traditional
rulers and close friends. The defenders in some cases know the midfielders but
they don't know the strikers in most cases. The defenders are also those that will
insult you on social media because you post about the atrocities of the strikers.60
Those in this group Include
 JNI
 MURIC
 AREWA
 Facebook warriors
Goalkeepers
These are people who claim that they have been living with with their hosts
over years peacefully. They tell you “our cows even enter their farms to give the
natives 'kashin shanu' or manure. We don't know where those strikers come
from.” The goalkeepers in most cases don’t know the midfielders but they know
the strikers because they accommodate them before any attack and they point
the targets to them. It is the Goal Keepers that will move away a week before
any attack. They move mostly in the night.61
Those in this group
 Fulani who can speak Yoruba more than Yoruba man

 FULANI who can speak Igbo more than Igbo man
 Fulani who can blow Atyap more than an Atyap man
 Secret Fulani Plan Unveiled
Recently, two Igbo officers – Lt. Col. ND Okeke and Lt. Col. Ajah – together
with 44 other predominantly Southern and Middle Belt Christian officers were
reported to have lost their lives in a high-level conspiracy conceived and carried
out by the senior military officers of the Fulani extraction in the Nigeria Army.63
Just recently, Nigerians were awashed with the reprehensible news of how the
Nigeria Airforce jet had bombed officers and men, mistaking them for Boko
Haram terrorists and these men were predominantly Igbo Christians from South
and Middle Belt regions. Not a few smelt a rat suspecting a carefully
orchestrated plan to exterminate officers of the South and Middle Belt.64
Let’s reason together:
Stage 1:
The Commanding Officer (Administration) in the Nigeria Army – Lt. Col. ND
Okeke and said to be holding security meeting along side other 43 Southern
Christian officers in Borno in the orders from the Military High Command. A
few minutes later, high ranking personnel of well-armed Boko Haram
merceneries but dressed in the rank of Major-Generals having been granted
access by higher conspiracy of the Nigeria Military Command under the Fulani,
were given access to the meeting.65
Thinking they were senior officers, Lt. Col. Okeke and 43 other officers stood
to welcome them in. But they were mistaken. Within a few minutes, all of them
were slaughtered. The sight was so horrifying that the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.
Gen. Jega ordered that no report, picture or video of the incident should ever be
published, posted or shared; threatening to court-martial anyone who dare to
disobey his orders. Why were there no single Fulani officer in the meeting and
how come no Fulani was a victim? Not a few Nigerians have concluded that
what played out was only a ploy to exterminate Southern and Middle Belt
Officers.66
Stage 2:
In another development, it was gathered that Lt. Col. Ajah was in the battle field
in Borno against the dreaded Boko Haram terrorists. But Lt. Col. Ajah-led
Nigeria military personnel were poorly equipped to confront the better-equipped
with state-of-the-art military equipments of the Boko Haram. Majority of the
Nigerian soldiers on the battlefield were Southerners and those from Middle
Belt. Boko Haram insurgents were said to have overwhelmed the Ajah-led
soldiers and he quickly called for reinforcements. Instead of the Nigeria High
Military Command to send regular soldiers, they mobilized a battalion of Boko
Haram and ISIS merceneries and got them well equipped. And like Lt. Col.
Okeke, Lt. Col. Ajah was mistaken. He opened the channel only for his men to
be slaughtered.67
Stage 3:
Soldiers who escaped who escaped “the Stage 2 pogrom” took to their heels and
immediately reported what had transpired in the conspiracy and sabotage.
Instead, the Fulani officer-agent detailed to accomplish the mission quickly sent
signal and the Airforce was sent to wipe off the remaining escaping soldier-
survivors. THIS WAS THE NEWS OF MISTAKEN BOMBING OF
SOLDIERS ON BATTLE GROUND BY THE AIRFORCE. It was nothing but
an “inside-job”.68
Stage 4:
The Buhari-led administration is in final stage for full islamization of the South
and the Middle Belt. Virtually all the positions that matter in Nigeria, whether
politically or economically were in full control of the Fulanis. The evidence will
be forwarded later.
Stage 5:69
 Late 2021 to Mid-2022 have been slated for the commencement of the
final elimination of Southern and Middle Belt officers and men in the
Nigeria Army.
 There would be appointment of Fulani Police Commissioners in all
Southern/Middle Belt states.
 The Nigeria Army would merge with the Boko Haram terrorists and
become one force.
Stage 6:70
 Dethroned erstwhile Emir of Kano (Sanusi) to be in Kano in readiness to

be enthroned the Emir of Lagos.
 El Rufai was detailed to increase and sustain Boko Haram financial
support.
 Only the Fulani herders are licensed to carry arms.
 NIN is meant to register African Fulani as Nigerian Citizens and issue
them with Nigerian passport (Kano, Katsina, Kaduna had already been
filled with foreigners)
 Stop remittances by diaspora most ly affected by Southerners.
 Install puppet governors in the Middle Belt and South to help further their
mission.
 Export Fulani with okada bikes to Lagos, using Dangote truck and
refinery.
 Take over Southern and Middle Belt forests as RUGA.
 Establish Fulani Colonies.
Stage 7:71
 Invade Yorubaland forests
 Invade Lagos and Ogun
 Take over Seaports and access the Sea and import more arms from
Turkey.
 Eliminate prominent Yoruba leaders and decimate their youths.
 Declare Lagos Emirate.
Stage 8:72
 Send advanced and well trained armed men to Igboland;

 Face the South East with brazen and brutal force possible;
 Close Akanu Ibiam International Airport to international flights;
 Destroy all Igbo businesses and manufactures;
 Leave no male child alive in Igboland;
 Burn down every Church in Igboland;
 Establish Caliphate in Igboland.
Stage 9:73
 Move towards Niger Delta;

 Nyesom Wike will fall victim;
 Take over Port Harcourt Sea and Airport;
 Assemble all Biafra agitators and kill them.
Action Plan:
There is need for the Middle Belt and the South to unite and fight a common
enemy.
All the saboteurs including the governors of the South and Middle Belt must be
flushed out and dealt with.
A line has been drawn; a battle must be fought.
4. #EndSARS#: A Metaphor for Complete Disenchantment with the Excesses

of the Nigerian Government and its Officials:
#EndSARS is a social movement in Nigeria that started on Twitter demanding

the elimination of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS), a unit of
the Nigerian Police Force. Amnesty International has documented 82 cases of
human rights violations by SARS between January 2017 and May 2020. SARS
officers profiled youths largely based on elements of their physical appearances
like dreads, tattoos, piercings, and other body modifications. And also, for
carrying signatures of wealth like expensive cars, laptops, and iPhones, one
could be profiled.74
Then in 2017, Segun Awosanya actively started the #ENDSARS campaign on

social media along with other activists. The campaign turned into nationwide
protests to ensure the government acts to end police brutality and scrap the
notorious police unit.75
Evidently, the average Nigerian perceives and portrays the Special Anti-
Robbery Squad (SARS) in Nigeria as a money-making terrorist squad with no
accountability. Some of the most infamous SARS center are Awkuzu SARS in
Anambra State, the inhuman abbatoir in Abuja and other notorious SARS in
Lagos and Port Harcourt, etc and so many others across the country. The
iniquity of SARS in Nigeria has increased; it is increasing and must be
checkmated. The Nigeria youths have cried out to the authorities to end the
activities of SARS which included extra-judicial killings, extortions,
dehumanisations, corruption etc. hence the #EndSARS outcry across the states
of Nigeria.
With SARS, an average young Nigerian is already an endangered specie that

must be profiled, exploited and estrangulated economically and even to the
extent of engaging in organ harvesting of victims.76 SARS is about the most
horrible experience, albert a nightmare, if you like, a hell of some sort in
Nigeria. And, there is an allegation of sectionalism attached to its operation.
People have wondered why SARS is not notorious in the core northern states as
they do in the South!
#EndSARS is a movement driven by an ideology without a leader. It is just a

movement which afforded the young Nigerians the boldness and opportunity to
tell and insist that the government of Nigeria must give them a chance to live as
humanbeings. This movement in a significant sense is an admission, overtly or
covertly, that the Nigeria Police Force has lost control its arm – SARS or so it
seemed! After all, SARS is an emergency arrangement, an ad hoc “illegal”
creation by police authorities, foisted on the people of Nigeria without any
constitutional backing.
 SARS, The Licensed Killing Squad Of The Nigerian Police
Force
The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigerian police force as the
name implies, was officially formed and charged years ago to take
responsibility of combating armed robbery, kidnapping and other
criminal/violent-related activities perpetrated within the civilian society by
criminals. But most unfortunately, it has metamorphosed into a deadly terror
arm of the Nigerian police that arrogantly engages in harassing, oppressing,
extorting, brutalizing, maiming and killing those they are supposed to protect
and fight for. These SARS operatives disappointingly, dress and operate like
criminals under the federal government's cover. 77
They have corruptively assumed the position of Moral Judges against the people
with their indiscriminate arrests, public/private humiliation and torture of
persons for being decently dressed, driving good cars, wearing different
fashionable hairstyles/beards, using good mobile phones, putting on jeans
trousers, etcetera. Most of these police officers that brandish variety of weapons
which include axes, machetes, hammers, cutters, assault rifle guns with double
magazines, lawlessly and persistently, going by their antecedents, allegedly get
involved in criminal activities on daily basis in Nigeria. They wield enormous
powers of tyranny against the people. A situation where supposed security
professionals blatantly get contracted to unleash terror on perceived enemies,
randomly stop road users for illegitimate searches and even threaten them to
have their mobile phones unlocked or get shot, is to say the least, most
mischievous.78
Many innocent citizens have unfortunately died as a result of torture in SARS

custody and for not having money to settle the exorbitant bills handed down to
them. Other victims have summarily been shot dead out of fear of unjustified
arrests and in the course of trying to evade these "dare-devils" in Nigerian
police. And to really confirm the anger and distrust the masses have against
these men, there were eruptive jubilations that filled the atmosphere on hearing
that unknown gunmen recently attacked the Rivers State SARS office, with
death recorded against them and their properties, destroyed.79
#EndSARSNow# has over the time, been trending but the Nigerian government
has bluntly given deaf ears to the demand of the people. The police
administrative hierarchy has equally absolutely done nothing to curb the
criminal excesses and menace of these operatives. These institutionalized
monsters have brazenly become a terroristic force that target unsuspecting
victims at gun points, forcing them to nearby banks to make withdrawals with
their Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards for settlement.80-81
5. Nigeria: How to Destroy a Country by Electing a Buhari
 Background Studies:
"Today, I am now reasonably convinced that the entire melodrama was meticulously
planned and masterfully executed in order for some people to paint President
Goodluck Jonathan as pathetically incompetent, and the reason his government must
be sacked urgently.
I confess to believing the full narrative at the time, like most Nigerians, hence my
almost fanatical support for Major General Muhammadu Buhari, in that sad period
of our nascent democracy.
I wish to express my sincere apologies once again for believing that tale by moonlight
and for being amongst those who plunged Nigeria into this unmitigated disaster from
which we may not fully recover in decades to come unless God decides to deliver us
miraculously. " – Dele Momodu (Hope For Nigeria).
Buhari’s penchant for sacrificing Nigeria’s interest for those of his ancestral
roots – Niger Republic did not start today. It would be recalled how, as military
head of state, General Muhammadu Buhari in 1985, voted against Peter Onu, an
Igbo man, who was Nigeria’s candidate for the post of Secretary-General of the
Organisation of African Unity, in favour of Ide Oumarou, a Fulani from Niger
Republic.83
This was speculated as the last straw that brokes the carmels’ back as the army
moved against him and toppled his government.
Is Muhammadu Buhari indeed a foreign potentate planted to exploit Nigeria

politically and economically considering his actions and inaction since he
assumed office?
Now, the question is this as Omokri has querried:

“Why is a man who is so opposed to the citizens he presides over accessing foreign
goods and services, is himself so addicted to foreign goods and services? Buhari
habitually wears $600 designer Gucci shoes, all his children schooled abroad, and
his entire family routinely take care of their social and healthcare needs abroad.
When Aisha Buhari wants to shop, she famously goes to the United Kingdom and it is
splashed all over gossip sites and celebrity magazines. When she wants to escape
from her bully of a husband, Muhammadu Buhari, she runs to Dubai and takes up
residence there. When her daughter, Zahra Indimi, wanted to give birth to her first
child, they went together to Spain. But when Aisha wanted to launch her books, she
came to Nigeria and gathered 12 billionaires together. Is it that to the Buharis,
Nigeria is only suitable for exploiting? Are we just one giant ATM that spits out cash
for the Buhari family to spend abroad?”84
Nigerians are asking: Is Buhari from Niger Republic? This is because the way
he and his family economically exploit Nigeria, while treating Nigerians with
disdain leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
“In fact, the last official act that Buhari undertook before jetting off to London to
romance with his doctors was the naming of a very major artery road in Abuja (the
Outer Southern Expressway) as the ‘Mahamadou Issoufou Expressway’ in honour of
the President of the Republic of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou.
What is so special about Niger Republic to Buhari and his cabal, that in this period of
a lack of funds, when our foreign debt has risen from $7 billion in 2015, to $34
billion in 2021, and we are the world headquarters for extreme poverty, that he must
award a $1.9 billion contract to build a railway in Niger Republic.85
Babatunde Fashola, the Minister of Works and Housing announced on the

February 26, 2020, that the government had awarded a contract for the
construction of two roads from Sokoto and Jigawa States up to Republic of
Niger at the cost of $81 million (NGN29 bn). 86
Buhari closed Nigeria borders in the Southern part of Nigeria whilst the borders
in the northern region were not closed. The major security challenges in the
country come from the Northern region of the country. Why were the borders in
the north left untouched?
Nigeria has been dubbed as the world headquarters for poverty; Nigeria denies
its citizens some of the luxuries and necessities of life and yet could afford to
build a multi-billion dollar project for its neighbour – Niger Republic. Nigerians
are yet to come to terms on how come Buhari presidency had to use $1.9 billion
to build a railway line for a country where the GDP is not even at par with the
GDP of Anambra State. Yet, Anambra State and the entire South-East region do
not have a standard-guage railway! The only international airport at Enugu was
downgraded but construction is on-going to upgrade the facilities. The
allegation has been that the Buhari-led government, nay previous Nigeria
governments save Yar’Adua/Goodluck administrations, never intended to allow
the Igbos have neither an international airport nor a seaport.
Buhari’s Information Minister, Lai Mohammed clearly and unambiguously

stated that: “Those clamoring for seaport in the South-East Region should know
that it’s not possible."87
Lai Mohammed said:

“Those clamouring for a seaport in their region should know that, it’s always
advisable to have a seaport in an enabling environment free from corruption.
“Having a seaport in the Eastern region might not be a better option because there
will be lots of irregularities that will aid corruption and possibly destroy the good
image of Nigeria.
“President Muhammadu Buhari led government wouldn’t tolerate any form of
shipping in contaminated products into the country. The country is comfortable with
88
the Seaports we have and they’re working".
The trending news today is that the self-help efforts to build one of the best
international cargo airports in Anambra State were scuttled by the Buhari-led
federal government. Why has the federal government refuse to grant an
international status to Anambra airport even when the airport meets all the
necessary requirements in terms of facilities it acquires? Why did the federal
government of Nigeria refuse to allow the South-East have at least one
international airport even when other geo-political regions have theirs – the
North has at least 7(though only 3 are currently in operation), the West has
Murtala Mohammed International airport in Lagos and others, the South-South
has Calabar and Port Harcourt International airports though rendered
deliberately ineffectual and largely inoperable by the federal government. But
the South-East was bluntly refused to own one save the Akanu Ibiam
International Airport in Enugu but now downgraded, why?
A lot is going wrong in Nigeria and as it stands, no reasonable and sincere

analyst would doubt that Nigeria today is undoubtedly a failed state. Not a few
Nigerians have lost confidence in President Mohammadu Buhari either as a
candidate or as President of Nigeria. It is difficult for many Nigerians to believe
that anything worthwhile would ever come out of Buhari’s Nazareth. My
convictions are based on his trajectory on the political landscape of Nigeria. A
trajectory of corruption, incompetence, deceit, nepotism and a genre of noxious
tribalism are the contaminating clouds characterizing his contoured career.
Nigerians are wondering why Buhari has refused to act on the evidence-based
corruption charges against his Chief of Army Staff, General Tukur Yusuf
Buratai. And with Sahara Reporters Expo on the current Interior Minister,
Abdulrahman Dambazau, Nigerians are perplexed that President Buhari is still
silent and not saying anything. But what do Nigerians expect from someone
who told the world that General Sanni Abacha stole no money belonging to the
country in spite of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary?
What makes Nigerians believe that if evidence did not matter in General
Abacha’s case, why should it matter in General Buratai’s case? Why should
evidence matter in General Dambazau’s case? Did Nigerians forget so soon
how Buhari allowed retired Vice Admiral Murtala Nyako who stole the
commonwealth of Adamawa State dry not to be detained? Are they surprised
that the case has since receded into the background?
But for someone under whose nose $2.8 billion disappeared when he was
Petroleum Minister in 1978, this ought not to be too strange. For someone who
fails to account for the 100 Billion naira Petroleum Trust Fund that he presided
over under the same Abacha, this should not be strange. For someone who led
Nigerians in a lie that he did not have a house in Abuja when the contrary is
true, why should this be news?
Did Buhari do anything on the Central Bank of Nigeria’s fraudulent

employment practices that unfairly benefited his family members? Did he not
keep silent with the hope that Nigerians would soon forget the monumental
corruption? Did Buhari say anything about the murderous Fulani herdsmen
rampaging across the south of the country? How could Nigerians forget so soon
the trajectory of Buhari as someone inflicted by a dangerous version of
tribalism? Have Nigerians forgotten what he did to Shehu Shagari and Alex
Ekweme?
How can Nigerians not know by now that Buhari is a recidivous nepotist?
Otherwise, how can a man who claims to fight a war against corruption fill his
cabinet with corrupt elements and eat at the same table with born again crooks?
Have Nigerians forgotten the Kwankwanzos, the Fasholas, the Amaechis, the
Fayemis, the Dambazaus, the Dalongs of this world? How can Nigerians expect
justice and fairness from Buhari with his history?
There is a lot of corruption going on under President Buhari. Buhari is allegedly

the number one obstacle to the war on corruption. Buhari would never allow the
war on corruption to succeed, critics are wont to believe. The reason is that he is
himself, eminently corrupt and dishonest. He has no integrity. This is why he
has no qualms distancing himself from the promises he made during the
electioneering campaign.
Reno Omokri’s Darts summarises Buhari legacy thus: 89
1. He met Naira at ₦199 to $1. Today it is ₦485 to $1

2. He met Nigeria as the third fastest-growing economy in the world. Today,
we are the world headquarters for extreme poverty
3. He met unemployment at 10%. Today it is 33%
4. He met other Presidents using Aso Rock Clinic. Today, he is in London
5. He met fuel at ₦87. Today, it is ₦221
6. He met only Boko Haram. Today, we have Boko Haram, herdsmen and
bandits
7. He met one Nigeria. Today, he has divided Nigeria
8. He met 50Kg bag of rice at ₦8000. Today it is ₦24,000
9. He met a debt of ₦12 trillion. Today, it is ₦34 trillion
10.He met Dangote at a net worth of $25 billion in 2015. Today, Dangote is
worth $10.7 billion
 Muhammadu Buhari: His Role in Recruiting Fulani Herders
According to Nuhu, decision was reached to consult Miyatti Allah cattle

breeders association for assistance to boot Jonathan Goodluck out of office.
Consequently, the National Chairman of Miyetti Allah was engaged to bring
in foreign mercenaries. Within a month, 2,000 Fulani fighters were brought
in from Mali, Senegal, Niger Republic, Chad, Libya to name but a few.
Further 4,000 fighters were stationed in Niger and Chad on standby.90
On arrival, they were allegedly assembled in Kaduna under the sponsorship

of El Rufai and were addressed by various Northern Leaders including the
Sultan of Sokoto and Gen Buhari (Rtd) etc.
Specifically, Gen Buhari in his address told the fighters that “the British
handed Nigeria over to us the Fulanis at independence. The land (Nigeria)
belongs to us. We must reclaim what belongs to us.” 91 He added that at the
event that Jonathan Goodluck won the election, the Fulani machinery must
fight until they regain control of the country. He allegedly assured them that
the Nigerian Army was behind them.
The mercenaries received initial training from the Commandant of the

Nigerian Defence Academy and were sent to 6 camps in Ekiti State, Benue
State, Katsina State, Kaduna State, Zamfara State and Borno State.92
In the camps, brand new pick-up trucks, generators etc were provided them.
Nigerian Airforce helicopters were used to provide them essential supplies
like food, water, drinks and even arms and ammunitions.
Evidently, Jonathan Goodluck lost the election in 2015 through a well

orchestrated election organised by INEC under a Fulani Chairman, Professor
Jega. Gen Buhari (Rtd) was sworn in as the president. This saw the
emergence of a Fulani president through a dodgy election hence the planned
violent war was averted.
Contrary to expectation, the mercenaries in the various camps were

abandoned, no more food and essential supplies. The relationship between
Miyetti Allah, El Rufai (now a State Governor) and Dambazo broke down.
El Rufai arrogantly declared that they were not needed anymore and they
should go back. Consequently, the killings in Kaduna commenced as a
warning to El Rufai but it did not bother him. He declared that he had paid
the people carrying out the killings and they did not want to stop. The
Nigerian police did not bother to call Gov El Rufai to give further
clarification on this.
The Mercenary at the various camps decided to go about to find food for
themselves by robbing people, going into farm lands and kidnapping. Miyetti
Allah made several efforts to contact El Rufai and Dambazzo to appeal to
them to provide money to return these fighters to where they came from. All
efforts proved abortive. The mercenaries at this point vacated their organised
camps and took to crime. 93
The criminal gangs which emanated from these mercenaries were at this
point described as “Bandits” in order to differentiate them from other
notorious terrorist groups like Fulani Herdsmen, Boko Haram etc.
Following the untold destruction and killings which the Bandits carried out
especially in Katsina and Zamfara, the Northern leaders in conjunction with
officials of Nigerian government requested Miyetti Allah to intervene and
remove the bandits from Nigeria. Miyetti Allah in return demanded some
150 Billion Naira to settle the bandits and evacuate them. The government
turned the offer down and restricted itself to the payment of 100 Billion
Naira.94
Shamefully Godwin Emefiele raised 100 Billion Naira for the settlement as a
condition for his re-appointment as the Central bank Governor.95
Miyetti Allah collected the money and purportedly distributed it but nothing
changed.
In a bid to control the damage, President Buhari directed that RUGA

initiative be setup to create colonies for these fighters in every state in
Nigeria.
 Nigeria: Stolen From the Mind of the Fulani
The following are conceived and portrayed as the mindset of an average

Nigerian Fulani as posited by their leaders and culled from one of their
representatives:
“We are the Fulani, we own Nigeria. They know we own Nigeria, the Igbo know, and
the Yoruba will not say they don't know. The Fulani has no particular home. We take
and possess wherever we want. Before 1804 we weren't in Nigeria. A certain Hausa
King, Yumfa welcomed our most revered Uthman Dan Fodio and from a preacher, he
rose to Kingship. He killed Mohammad Yumfa, took his Kingdom, and since then
Hausa has become our obedient slaves.”96
The Fulanis went further to boast:

For many years we have opened the Nigeria door for the influx of the Fulani into
Nigeria. Those that came in some little years back are today governors and in
charge of Nigeria. We the Fulani are in charge of Nigeria. And we have ruled
them more and more, and we will continue ruling them. We have opened the
borders and in few years millions of us will come in to possess our possession.86
We the Fulani are Lords. We can steal and still jail those from other tribes that
stole. We can kill and still arrest other tribes that didn't kill. Our youths are
killing people, sacking villages and occupying them. We go about with AK47
without being molested. Yet we have arrested Igbo youths and imprisoned them
for shouting Biafra. We are the Fulani, we do whatever we want. We snapped
pictures with our killer brothers, recruited them into the military and police, but
for gathering in Emene, Enugu State for a Meeting, we gunned down 21 Igbo
youths and made sure none of their leaders coughed”.97
Evidently, the criminal elements rule the affairs of this nation with tacit
unwritten support and authentification of the Caliphate. Any serious candidate
especially from the South intending to vie and occupied any political position of
substance must have the blessings and support of the Caliphate and must be
Caliphate-compliant. Hear them talk about the South:
“We shall never allow them take control over their destiny. We must keep making
sure the rogues among them rule them. Criminals who doesn't care about their people
or have regard for them. People we can control, those that will rule for us and enjoy
accelerated looting of their people's resources. That's the type of leaders we the
Fulani will gift them. Why do you think their governors rejected Regional Security
and embraced our packaged Community Policing? They are our proud slaves.98
They went further to state:

“With CAMA we are taking over the resources of your Churches. That's after we must
have taken over your waterways and its surrounding lands. We are Fulani. We own
the senate.
Didn't you see what happened in Imo state? Those Igbo people voted for Emeka
Ihedioha and we gave them Hope Uzodimma, our shameless stooge, a known thief
who has case with our dogs – the EFCC. We have been doing this since after the
genocide we committed against them, and we will keep doing it…
Yes, we own the EFCC, the army, the police and even the Air force etc. They all
belonged to us. Is that not why they are all headed by we the Fulani, with our
intellectual slaves from the East and West defending us. They say on our behalf that it
doesn't matter if the Fulani takes charges of every organization in Nigeria; what
matters is their performance, that we should all rise above tribe and stop seeing a
Fulani, but rather see a Nigerian. They are slaves and we pay them with their own
resources.
We are the Fulani, we take whatever we want. We are sacking villages, killing
Christians, occupying and renaming their villages and there is nothing anyone of you
can do. Rise up and we will bring you to your kneel using your own brothers. That's
how powerful a Fulani is.99
And with an air of authoritative finality, they declared:

They say they are sophisticated, intelligent and rich, yet they are fools and we the
Fulani control them.
Is that not why we own their oil wells and give them pipe line guard contract. And
they are happy and doing it well? Pathetic slaves!
We are the Fulani and we will become indigenes of every state in Nigeria. We have
become indigenes in Benue and will soon become indigenes in Ebonyi and Enugu.
After which the Koran will be dipped into the ocean. And your brothers will make all
of these possible.100
All hail the Fulani! (Written by Elochukwu Ohagi from IPOB Family
Writers)
 Nepotistic Tendencies of the Buhari Administration: Matters

Arising!
Never in the history of Nigeria has any President been so insensitive and
naïve to the plight of Nigerians than President Muhammadu Buhari; nor is
there any comparison in our history of the kind of ethnic agenda the Buhari
government represents and espouses. A list of positions held by the
Northerners in Nigeria in Buhari’s government suffices here.101
1. Muhammadu Buhari – President, Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria

Armed Forces and also Minister of Petroleum – North;
2. Ahmed Lawan, Senate President – North;
3. Tanko Mohammed, Chief Justice of the Federation – North;
4. Monica Dongban-Mensem, Federal Court of Appeal – North;
5. Ahmed Idris Wase , Deputy Speaker, Federal House of Representatives
– North;
6. Babagana Monguno, National Security Adviser – North;
7. Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Government of the Federation – North;
8. Lt. Gen. Yusuf Buratai, Chief of Army Staff – North;
9. Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, Chief of Air Staff – North;
10.Muhammed Adamu, Inspector General of Police – North;
11.Hameed Ali, Controller General of Customs Service – North;
12.Ja’afaru Ahmed, Controller General Nigeria Correctional Services –
North;
13.Mohammed Babandede, Controller General Immigration Services –
North;
14.Abdullahi Gana Mohammed, Commandant General, Nigeria Security
and Civil Defence Corps – North;
15.Yusuf Magaji Bidu, Chairman, Department of State Security, DSS –
North;
16.AVM Muhammed Usman, Chief of Defense Intelligence – North;
17.Muhammed Mustapha Abdallah, Chiarman/CEO NDLEA – North;
18.Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim, Director General NYSC – North;
19.Ahmed Rufai Abubakar, Director General National Intelligence Agency
– North;
20.Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance – North;
21.Isa Pantami, Minister of Communication and Digital Economy – North;
22.Sabo Nanono, Minister of Agriculture – North;
23.Suleiman Adamu, Minister of Water Resources – North;
24.Mohammed Bello, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister – North;
25.Ramatu Tijjani, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister of State –
North;
26.Abubakar Malami, Attorney General and Minister of Justice – North;
27.Ahmed Idris, Acountant General – North;
28.Mele Kyari, Group Managing Director, NNPC – North;
29.Garba Abari, Director General, National Orientation Agency – North;
30.Mohammed Nami, Chairman Federal Inland Revenue Services – North;
31.Bashir Jamoh, Director General NIMASA – North;
32.Hadiza Bala Usman, Chairman Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) – North;
33.Mansur Liman, Director General FRCN – North;
34.Yakubu Ibn Mohammed, Director General Nigeria Television
Authority – North;
35.Nasiru Ladan Argungu, Director General National Directorate of
Employment (NDE) – North;
36.Professor Abubakar Rasheed, Executive Secretary, National University
Commission (NUC) – North;
37.Professor Umar Dambatta, Executive Secretary, Nigeria
Communications Commission (NCC) – North;
38.Kashim Ibrahim Imam, Executive Secretary, Tertiary Education Trust
Fund (TETFUND) – North;
39. AVM Muhammadu Alhaji Muhammed, Director General National
Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) – North;
40.Lamido Yuguda, Director General, Securities and Exchange
Commission – North;
41.Professor Mohammed Sambo, Executive Secretary, Nigeria’s National
Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) – North;
42.Professor Armstrong Ida’chaba, Director General, Nigeria Broadcasting
Commission (NBC) – North;
43.Professor Aliyu Jauro, Director General National Environmental
Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) – North;
44.Narudeen Rafindadi, Managing Director Federal Emergency Road
Maintenance Agency (FERMA) – North;
45.Musa Nuhu, Director General Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority
(NCAA) – North;
46.Rabiu Yadudu, Managing Director Federal Account Allocation
Committee (FAAC) – North;
47.Garba Abubakar, Registrar General, Corporate Affairs Commission
(CAC) – North;
48.Abdulkarim Obaje, National Coordinator, Community and Social
Development Project (CSDP) – North;
49.Mrs. Aisha Dahiru-Umar, acting Director General, National Pension
Commission (PenCom) – North;
50.Abdullahi Kachifu, Director General General National Information
Technology Development Agency (NITDA) – North;
51.Abubakar Abba Bello, Managing Director The Nigerian Export-Import
Bank NEXIM Bank – North;
52.Aliyu Abdulhameed, Managing Director, The Nigeria Incentive-Based
Risk-Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) – North;
53.Hassan Alwan, acting Managing Director, Bank of Agriculture – North;
54.Ahmed Dangiwa, Managing Director Federal Mortgage Bank of
Nigeria (FMBN) – North;
55.Adamu Adaji, Director General National Boundaries Commission –
North;
56.Ahmed Kadi Amshi, Chairman National Assembly Service
57.Hamid Bobboi, Executive Secretary Universal Basic Education
Commission (UBEC) – North;
58.AbdulAziz Aliyu, Director General National Identity Mnagement
59.Maimuna Yaya Abubakar, Chairman Nigerian Postal Service
(NIPOST) – North;
60.Ahmed Kuru, Managing Director Asset Management Company of
Nigeria (finance)AMCON – North;
61.Yusuf Asir Danbatta, acting Secretary, National Assembly Service
62.Gambo Aliyu, Director General National Agency for the Control of
AIDS (NACA) – North;
63.Mamman Ahmadu, Director General Biodiversity Partnerships Project
(BPP) – North;
64.Bukhari Bello, Chairman Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) – North;
65.Mohammed Jibrin, Director General National Board for Technology
Incubation – North;
66.Professor Abubakar Sharabutu, Executive Secretary, Agricultural
Research Council of Nigeria – North;
67.Ibrahim Goni, Conservator General National Parks Service – North;
68.Hassan Bello, Ex-Sec/CEO, Nigeria Shippers’ Council – North;
69.Professor Isah Hayatu Ciroma, Director General, Nigerian Law School
– North;
70.Muhammed Umar, acting Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) Chairman – North;
71.Faisal Shuaibu, Executive Director/CEO, Nigeria Primary Health Care
– North;
72.Umaru Ibrahim, Managing Director, Nigeria Deposit Insurance
Corporation (NDIC) – North;
73.Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad, Managing Director/CEO, Rural Electrification
Agency – North;
74.Sule Ahmed Abdulaziz, acting Managing Director Transmission
Company of Nigeriam – North;
75.Saliu Buntu, Managing Director Federal Housing Authority – North;
76.Muhammed Umar, Director DPP – North;
77.Saidu Malama, Chairman, Solid Mineral Fund – North;
78.Abdulkadir Saidu, Ex-Sec, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory
Agency (PPPRA) – North;
79.Dasuki Arabi, DG, Bureau of Public Service Reforms – North;
80.Prof. Adam Okene Ahmed, acting Provost, Nigerian Defence Academy
– North;
81.Prof. Baba Muhammadu Aliyu, Ex-Sec, Federal Commission for
Colleges of Education – North;
82.Prof. Ahmed Tijani Mora, Chairman, Pharmacy Council of Nigeria –
North;
83.Air Commodore Yusuf Anas, Ex-Sec, Center for Crisis Communication
– North;
84.Muheeda Farida Dankaka, Chairman, Federal Character Commission –
North;
85.Fatima Shinkafi, Ex-Sec, Solid Mineral Fund – North;
86.Sen. Basheer Mohammed, Chairman, National Commission for
Refugees, Migrants and IDPs – North;
87.Prof. Muhammed Taofiq Ladan, DG, Nigerian Institute of Advanced
Legal Studies (NIALS) – North;
88.Bala Yabani Mohammed, acting Deputy Clerk of the National
Assembly – North;
89.Dauda Ibrahim El-ladan, acting Clerk of the Senate – North;
90.John Tsoho, Chief Judge of the Federal High Court – North;
91.Major General Sarham Jamilu, Commandant, Nigerian Defence
Academy – North.
This is in conjunction with numerous Permanent Secretary and Director-

positions in the Civil Service, including choice ambassadorial postings.
Are you aware that both the Chairmen of the Senate and Reps committee on the
Army and the Airforce are from the “North?”
We are not done yet. Look at that list again and you get the worst shock of your
life.
A Reminiscence
(A) Revenue Agencies: NNPC, NPA, Customs, FIRS, CAC, TCN,

NCAA, FAAN, NIMASA, National Parks, Solid Mineral Fund and
Immigration.
(B) ICT: NOA, NCC, FRCN, NITDA, NTA, NBC
(C) Security, Intelligence and Paramilitary, COAS, CAS, Customs,
Immigration, IGP, DSS, NDLEA, NSCDC, NDA, NIA, NYSC,
Correctional Service and Defence Intelligence.
(D)Education: NUC, Tetfund, Law School, NDA, NIALS, NILDS, Agric
Research Council and Technology Incubation.
(E) All the Federal Govt Banks and other Financial Agency – NIRSAL,
NDIC, NEXIM, AMCON, FMBN and BOA.
(F) Interventionist Agencies – FERMA, SMEDAN, NDE, NEMA,
PPPRA, NESREA, CSDP, EFCC, and REA
( H ) Judiciary – Supreme Court, Court of Apeal and Federal High Court
*These are all headed by the people from the North*

Buhari, it appears, has “captured” Nigeria for his Fulani people. From all
appearances, one may be inclined to think that what Othman Danfodio could
not do with his sword, what Ahmadu Bello failed to achieve despite his
aristocratic posturing; what Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida never contemplated
even with his guile and what Abacha never thought of with his brashness and
devil may care attitude, Buhari has done.
And will someone inform Mr. Lai Mohammed that none of the federations that
were structured the way Nigeria is now ever lived to tell their stories?
Besides a holistic “Police Reform”, Nigerian Youths also demand for the
following:
 *Judicial Reform*
 *A People's Constitution*
 *Electoral Reform*
 *Civil Service Reform*
 *Access to opportunities*
 *End to Quota System*
 *Reduction in the Cost of Governance*
 *Health Sector Reform*
 *Education Sector Reform*
 *End to the State of Origin Requirement*
 *Transparency in Government business,* etc.
If President Buhari cannot guarantee the fulfilment of these demands in record

time, then let him resign and go home.102
 Full List of the Army Officers Compulsorily Retired in 2016 By

Muhammadu Buhari. They Are 90% Southerners. The Ethnic,
Regional, and Religious Bigotry of Nigeria’s President Continues:
1. Maj. Gen TC Ude (SE)

2. Maj. Gen LC Ilo (SE)
3. Maj. Gen IN Ijoma (SE)
4. Maj. Gen O Ejimai (SE)
5. Maj. Gen PAT Akem (SS)
6. Maj. Gen ED Atewe (SS)
7. Maj. Gen Letam Wiwa -Younger brother of murdered Environmental
Rights activist and author, Ken Saro-Wiwa (SS)
8. Maj. Gen FO Alli (SS)
9. Maj. Gen Mobolaji Koleoso (SW)
10.Maj. Gen SD Aliyu (MB)
11.Maj. Gen MY Ibrahim
12.Brig. Gen GO Agachi (SE)
13.Brig. Gen Okonkwo (SE)
14.Brig. Gen Ogidi (SE)
15.Brig. Gen Koko Essien (SS)
16.Brig. Gen PE Ekpeyong (SS)
17.Brig. Gen Bright Fiboinumama (SS)
18.Brig. Gen. M. Onoyiveta (SS)
19.Brig. Gen IMD Lawson (SS)
20.Brig. Gen Oyefesobi (SW)
21.Brig. Gen AI Onibasa (SW)
22.Brig. Gen Bashir Mormoni (MB)
23.Brig. Gen AH Sa'ad -Former ADC to late President Musa Yar’adua
24.Brig. Gen MG Ali
25.Brig. Gen LN Bello
26.Brig. Gen D Abdusalam
27.Col. CK Ukoha (SE)
28.Col. OU Nwankwo (SE)
29.Col. Nicholas Achinze -Dasuki's ADC (SE)
30.Col. Tonye F Minimah –Younger brother of former Chief of Army Staff,
LT. General Kenneth Minimah (SS)
31.Col. FD Kayode (SW)
32.Col. Ojogbane Adegbe –ADC to former President Goodluck Jonathan
(MB)
33.Col. Audu (MB)
34.Col. DR Hassan
35.Col. MA Suleiman
36.Lt. Col GC Nyekwu (SE)
37.Lt. Col C Enechukwu (SE)
38.Lt. Col CO Amadi (SE)
39.Lt. Col Adimoha (SE)
40.Lt. Col OC Egemode (SS)
41.Lt. Col TE Arigbe (SW)
42.Lt. Col TO Oladuntoye (SW)
43.Lt. Col Baba Ochankpa (MB)
44.Lt. Col DB Dazang (MB)
45.Lt. Col A Mohammed
46.Lt. Col AS Mohammed
47.Maj. TA Williams (SW)
(Source: The Rainbow, “Army disowns list of compulsorily retired officers,

says only 38 officers were fired” The Nigerian Voice, 13 June, 2016)
(6) Muhammadu Buhari, the Northern Nigeria Fulani oligarchs and the
wider network of Fulani in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Nigeria’s 5th and 12th President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, is well-known for
telling truth to power. His legendary “letter writing” to erring incumbent
presidents drawing their attention on sensitive areas of concern of a bewildered
Nigeria nation is well known.
In one of his “telling truth to power” message to the current drivers of Nigeria-
nation in Aso Rock and the entire Nigerians, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo draws
attention to another possible civil war in Nigeria which he said has become
imminent and inevitable. According to him, the reason for its inevitability is
simply because Muhammadu Buhari, the Northern Nigeria Fulani oligarchs and
the wider network of Fulani in Sub-Saharan Africa have concluded plans to
adopt Nigeria as the homeland for all Fulani in Africa.103
Fulani have suddenly realised that the wandering and rootless lifestyle of cattle
herding, in the 21st century, is no longer tenable. To the Fulanis, they suddenly
come to the realisation that they need to have land to call home and rear cattle
and that land should and must be Nigeria. On the contrary, however, the
indigenous peoples of Nigeria have clearly, vehemently and stridently opposed
this diabolic plan and both sides are mobilising for war.104
A line has been drawn; a battle must be fought! The Fulani won’t relent and the
indigenous people will not give up their land.
Having failed so shamelessly and woefully in the Central African Republic,

they have resolved that the same Fulani Project must not be allowed to fail this
time as the Nigerian Fulani project is better funded with the massive [stealing]
of the sovereign wealth of Nigeria through nationwide kidnapping for ransom
by lower class Fulani and the seizure of the reigns of Government and wealth by
the elite Fulani.105
And according to Chief Obasanjo, “Kidnapping and the seizure of the

institutions of Government are all for the purpose of implanting Fulani into the
mainstream and control of politics and the economy of Nigeria for the objective
of funding the Fulani Project in Nigeria.”106
It would be recalled that the Central African Republic (CAR) has gone through
exact experience that Nigeria is going through right now in the hands of the
Fulani. In the obvious attempt to destroy the chokehold the Fulani in the Central
African Republic (CAR) had on the politics and economy of their country, the
country was decimated by the killings and destruction carried out by rival gangs
in the street. Unfortunately and regrettably too, even though the Fulani
hegemony over the CAR has been defeated, the street gangs that defeated the
armed forces have turned on one another and themselves, unable to rise above
petty gang warfare to rebuild their nation.107
Indeed, the Fulani have become “blight” on Africa and its biggest country
Nigeria. Experience has shown that the Fulani have continue to pull down every
nation wherever it has any populations due to her inability to break out of its
centuries old cow herding and wandering culture. Some countries in West
Africa, Ghana and their ancestral home Guinea have been said to have mastered
the brutal tactics of dealing with Fulani and the later have learnt the bitter lesson
by staying away from these countries.108
Following the pattern of their ethnocentric politics, the Fulani in the CAR had
seized control of the commanding heights of the country’s military and financial
institutions, the foreign exchange trade, the mining and export of gold and
above all the governing structures of Government. One Mitchel Djotodia, a hare
brained military officer and his Fulani faction seized power in a brazen coup by
a demographic minority. All the non-Fulani military officers were flushed out of
the forces, all the mineral deposits in the country were seized by Fulani
merchants, non-Fulani traders were barred from trading in foreign exchange and
the entire top echelon of the Civil Service were occupied by Fulani by as much
as 83%. This invariably is a repeat performance of what is playing out in
Nigeria today.109
France – the evil genius and former colonial master of CAR watched them do
all these over the years and did not raise a protest. As in Nigeria, the Fulani
were just 3% of the population of CAR, tucked in the desert recesses of the
nation’s Northwest. There was a conspiracy of silence as no world or regional
power raised a whimper even though the ethnic groups of the rich southern
forest regions roiled.110
In CAR the Fulani went even beyond the provocative as they are doing now in
Nigeria.
“They started seizing ethnic lands, raiding churches and killing worshippers, the
most brazen being the attack on Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in a town near
Bangui the capital, where dozens of Catholic faithful were massacred during mass.
The Fulani used their cattle bases allotted by Government to launch attacks and gun
fights on the surrounding communities for robberies and ransom paying kidnaps as is
happening now in Nigeria.
Again, as is happening in Nigeria today, the purpose of all the action of the Fulani
was simple; to transfer all wealth available in the CAR by all and every means and
place it in the hands and control of the Fulani.”111
Nigeria Fulani Oligarch: Acting the Script in Central African Republic

(CAR)
The unintelligent and wicked Buhari Government in Nigeria appears, in all

ramifications, to be playing the CAR script verbatim through her actions and
policies.112
 The Fulani elite are raiding the Central Bank, buying dollars and other
currencies at heavily discounted rates.
 Other Fulani are raiding the NNPC, ploughing through the vaults and
trading Nigerian crude for personal gain.
 The educated wing are mowing down governing structures, taking
forceful charge and control of all commanding heights of Government
and the armed forces.
 The uneducated Fulani herdsmen are engaged in kidnapping for ransom
and now primed to take over ethnic lands, spreading themselves across
the nation in settlements acquired with public funds to terrorise
indigenous populations.
How the Youth of C.A.R. Destroyed the Fulani Project: A Reflection

How did the youth of the Central African Republics (C.A.R) managed to
remove the yoke of unremitting oppression by the Fulani? The youth formed
street gangs and committed to frontally engage the army with all their vaunted
training and intimidating, deadly weaponry – no retreat, no surrender! While the
army was menacing with their machine guns, grenade throwers and rocket
launchers, the youths, on the other hand, had locally fabricated flint guns and
machetes.113
On that fateful day in Bangui in 2013 when the fight started, everyone expected
a complete annihilation of youth on the streets but surprisingly and
unexpecyedly, the youth took the fight straight to the Guard Brigade near the
Presidential Palace.
Corpses of dead soldiers were seen littering the streets while some were cut to
pieces in the evening of that fateful day. The streets of Bangui had become the
play ground and the killing field of the youth of Bangui by night fall. The entire
Presidential Guards of the army of the CAR was decimated, in disarray running
to their ethnic base in the far north and President Djotodia, the Fulani tyrant had
abdicated and run away from the Presidential Palace and Capital, Bangui, just
within three days of street fighting.114
The only reason for tyrants to survive is when the people live in fear and choose
to tolerate them. The Buhari Government is assuredly counting on deploying the
Nigerian armed forces against the many ethnicities where the RUGA will be
sited, starting off with the minority groups. But the indigenous ethnic
nationalities must not allow him to succeed.
Buhari’s plan is to deploy Nigerian troops to subdue Nigerian people for the
benefit of Fulani will not succeed if the ethnic nationalities will do the needful.
The case of Central African Republic is a lesson the drivers in Aso Rock refuse
to learn but which also provides a veritable lesson on how to deal with the
unrelenting Fulani menace. The previous experience in the “war” between the
Niger Delta/Boko Haram and the Nigeria Army, if anything have shown that the
Nigeria army is not invincible in a fight with local forces. If anything, the
Nigeria Army will likely disintegrate if made to fight in many fronts at once –
against the Biafrans’ Eastern Security Network (combined with the Niger Delta
forces in defence of the Eastern Region), the Oduduwas with her Amotekun
regional security network to defend the Western flank of the nation from Fulani
invasion and the underdogs of the Middle Belters do same for her region). It
would be a gross mistake for the drivers of the nation in Aso Rock to think that
they could to re-enact the 1967 version of the civil war. Such thinking is
suicidal! 115
“It is a known truth that the Fulani will not relent in their quest for the conquest of
Nigeria until they have seized all sources of income and made everyone else
subservient to their rule and hegemony.
The Fulani in Nigeria, in nearly a century of political and economic ascendancy have
acquired so much power and money that it will defeat the purpose of such acquisition
if they don’t deploy it for the very purpose for the grasp for power, which is the
conquest of Nigeria for the overlordship of the Fulani.
The final stage of the grand plan to subdue Nigeria for Fulani overlordship is afoot
and Buhari and his people cannot back out now. So a war has to be fought to resolve
matters”.116
The RUGA monstrosity is very much at work and the next thing now, it
appears, is to start the deployment of troops to protect RUGA in their various
locations of development.
When death is bent on destroying a dog, it would forbide the dog from
perceiving the foul smell of excretta. It was bound to happen that, one day, the
Fulani who have been taking so much out of Nigeria and have succeeded in
binding Nigeria hand and foot politically and economically, will take the wrong
step into the abyss. The logical culmination of all the rapaciousness would be
the last ditch attempt at the ultimate land grab, to seize the lands belonging to
indigenous communities and hand it over to Fulani. This must not be allowed.
From all appearances, internecine war in different RUGA locations and

different fronts is therefore inevitable. Communities will rage to keep their land
or lose it to their eternal shame and regret. Igbo communities, in particular will
rather choose to be annihilated than lose their land to a hostile and predatory
People. We expect other communities to do same too.
For the fact that the Fulani are not indigenous to Nigeria, they have no land in
Nigeria. They are migrants into Nigeria.
The decision by the Fulani to seize land by force in Nigeria can only lead to war
in the many places where this seizure will happen. The people must resist as of
necessity. They have done so in the Central Africa Republic and reduced the
country to rubble and they will do it again in Nigeria.
The possible deployment of police and soldiers by the Buhari government to
defend the RUGA settlements in Nigeria would instigate war. Since the Fulani
have no land to hold dear and protect in Nigeria and owing to the fact that
Fulani have no stake or investment in the project called Nigeria and will not
care if Nigeria burns; they appear very willing to let Nigeria burn if the people
are not willing to submit to their overlordship.
Consequently, the Fulani are likely minded to adopt a scorched earth policy to
obliterate Nigeria since they have nothing to lose. Did they not do it in CAR?
They are most likely to do same in Nigeria. It will be the responsibility of the
indigenous people of Nigeria to find common grounds to protect the land of
their ancestral inheritance and prevent the Fulani from putting a knife on their
unity and their need to bind themselves together in one nation, even as separate
independent nations if need be; but they cannot do this without first containing
the Fulani. Fulani will try to divide them.
Buhari and the Fulani oligarchs are counting strongly on deploying the armed
forces to quell insurrection that will arise from this massive land grab; that
unfortunately will be the Achilles heel of their grand plan. Once soldiers are
armed to put down these insurrections, they will turn against their commanders
to defend their communities. Nigerians should therefore expect to behold the
great unravelling of their armed forces.
Do the Fulani have the firepower, the men and the capacity to fight? In the
entire history of the Nigerian armed forces, the Hausa/Fulani officers and
enlisted men have always been promoted far beyond their qualifications and
competencies. The capacity to fight and man the different departments of
modern warfare will be put to overwhelming test in any ensuing encounter.
“The Fulani never fight an enemy in a frontal war. They attack isolated and
undefended villages. In any direct confrontation, they run away. It was evident even
in the battle of Bangui. Well armed Fulani soldiers could not take on street gangs
with flint guns and machetes. It has also shown in the war against Boko Haram. The
poor performance of commanders of their ethnic stock is a bad joke among soldiers
in the front.
Hausa/Fulani soldier had to be sorted out and protected from slaughter by Boko
Haram forces. This is not to talk of unending betrayals of their Christian colleagues
and commanders in the battlefront.
Buhari, a Fulani irredentist, will use to his advantage and for the benifits of his
agenda to divide, the ethnic and religious cleavages among the people of Nigeria. But
the people ought to know that the Fulani are friends to no one and that a Fulani
friend today can become an adversary tomorrow. You are only friend to Fulani for as
long as you continue to serve a purpose in their overall plan.
Let the talk cease and the battle begin.”117
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37.“The Recent Elections in Nigeria”, Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.com.
38.“Nigeria’s Election: The Least Awful”, The Economist, 7 February,
2015. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
39.Kabir Adejumo, “Why Obasanjo Supported Buhari in 2015-Former
Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola of Osun State”, PremiumTimes Nigeria,
30 January 2021.
40.Seun Opejobi, “Jonathan’s Ex-Aide, Omokri Attacks Buhari, Demands
Inquiry into NNPC $25 bn Contract Scam”, DailyPost Nigeria, 5 July,
2020.
41.A former presidential candidate, Mr. Martin Onovo, a front line
economist, in his interview with SaharaReporters New York,
meticulously x-rayed the Buhari administration, exposed its nakedness
and offers remedial measures.
42.See Wikipedia on “Chibok Schoolgirls’ Kidnapping”.
43.See Wikipedia on “Dapchi Schoolgirls’ Kidnapping”.
44.Emmanuel Akinwotu, “Group of 344 Kidnapped Nigeria Schoolboys
Handed to Government”, TheGuardian, 17 December, 2020.
45.Fikayo Olowolagba, “Zamfara Abduction: Police Gives Update on
Number of Kidnapped Students”, Daily Post, 26 February 2021.
46. Baraje Abubakar Kawu Baraje, “We brought in Fulani from Mali, Sierra
Leone, Senegal, Others to Win 2015 Election”, CrimeWatchNews, 3
March 2021.
47.Baraje Abubakar Kawu Baraje, “We brought in Fulani from Mali, Sierra
March 2021.
48.Baraje Abubakar Kawu Baraje, “We brought in Fulani from Mali, Sierra
March 2021.
49.Martin Onovo, a former presidential candidate and Head of the
Movement for Fundamental Change has slammed the ruling party, APC,
saying the party is a direct sponsor of insecurity and terrorism in Nigeria.
See Facebook SaharaReporters NY, of 5 March, 2021.
50.The APC-Led Buhari’s Federal Government of Nigeria has acquired an
Amplitude Modulation (AM) radio broadcast license to reach out to
herdsmen across various locations in the country. The radio service
would operate on a radio frequency of 720 KHz and will be strictly in
Fulani language – “Fufuldi”. See also Webby, “President Buhari Set to
Launch Radio Station to Reach Out to Fulani Herdsmen”, OnlineNigeria,
23 May, 2019.
51.Abdul Babajide, “Funke Olakunri: Death of Fasoranti’s Dughter, Tragic,
Sad – Osinbajo Says as He Visits Afenifere Leader”, DailyPost Nigeria,
14 July, 2019.
52.Sylvanus Viashima, “General Danjuma Accuses Military of Collusion
with Killer Herdsmen”, The Sun Nigeria, 24 March, 2018.
53.Obadiah Mailafia, “A Northern Governor as Commander of Boko
Haram”, RipplesNigeria, 16 August, 2020.
54.“6 Nigerians Convicted in UAE over “Boko Haram Funding”, Global
Up-Front Newspaper, December 2020”.
55.John Owen Nwachukwu, “Government is Supplying Us with AK-47,
Cows Don’t Give Birth to Guns – Herdsmen”, Daily Post, 7 March,
2021.
56.The Oyo State Police Command has declared that it has arrested some
members of the Odua Peoples’ Congress (OPC) in connection with the
earlier arrest of a notorious Fulani terrorist, Isikilu Wakili.
57.Adebayo Musliudeen, “Oyo: Police Arrest OPC Members who Arrested
Wakili”, Daily Post Nigeria, 7 March, 2021.
58.“Police Move OPC Men who Arrested Oyo Fulani Warlord, Wakili to
Abuja after Top Presidential Aides Directive”, SaharaReporters NY, 9
March, 2021.
59.“Police Move OPC Men who Arrested Oyo Fulani Warlord, Wakili to
Abuja after Top Presidential Aides Directive”, SaharaReporters NY, 9
March, 2021.
60. See www.nairaland.com
61.See www.nairaland.com
62.Fadaka Louis, “Secret Fulani Plan Unveiled: The Fulani Whirlwind and
the Compromised Army Chief”, www.gbetutv.com, 2 May, 2021
74. See www.nairaland.com
75. George Emine et al., “SARS on Trial as Nigerians Divided”, Aljazirah
Nigerian Newspaper, 12 Ocober, 2020.
76. “IPOB Sue to End Continued Killing of Members, Selling of Body Parts
by SARS”, Scan News Nigeria, 6 Ocober, 2020.
77.“Nigeria: Stolen From the Mind of the Fulani”, The National Trumpet,
See also. IPOB Family Writers Press, www.biafraherald.com
82.Reno Omokri, “Is the Buhari Agenda to Politically Dominate and
Economically Exploit Nigeria?”, ThisDay, 11 April, 2021.
86.Terhemba Daka, “Government Okays N29 bn for Roads Linking Niger
Republic”, The Guardian, 27 February, 2020.
87.Ikechi Michael, “Those Clamoring for Seaport in their Region Should
Know that It’s Not Possible in Corruption Environment – Lai
Mohammed” Reporters Press Nigeria, 18 July, 2020.
88.Ikechi Michael, “Those Clamoring for Seaport in their Region Should
Know that It’s Not Possible in Corruption Environment – Lai
Mohammed” Reporters Press Nigeria, 18 July, 2020.
89.See Reno Omokri’s Darts Summarises Buhari’s Legacy.
90.Nuhu Ribadu, “Fulanis Killed People Because They are Angry with
Buhari for Abandoning Them”, Omokoshaban, 2 September, 2019.
100. “Nigeria: Stolen From the Mind of the Fulani”, The National
Trumpet, See also. IPOB Family Writers Press, www.biafraherald.com
101. Thandiubani, “Fact-Check: 81 of Buhari’s 100 Appointees are
Northerners”, www.tori.ng, 6 November, 2017
102. The Rainbow, “Army disowns list of compulsorily retired officers,
says only 38 officers were fired”, Posted By: the-editoron: June 13, 2016
103. Olusegun Obasanjo, “The Fulani Agenda and the Imminent War in
Nigeria”, News Mirror, 1 February, 2020.
106. Olusegun Obasanjo, “War Will Soon Break Out in Nigeria: Mark
My Words”, The Plebiscite World, 24 December, 2020.
Chapter 7: Re-Negotiating a New Nigeria

Any man who ignores the continuous call for separation or divorce by his wife will soon be a
victim of food poisoning at its best because marriage should be by choice, not by force. Our
leaders should therefore recognize that Nigeria is truly united when it is not forced to be
together. – Charles Nnaemeka Akujieze
“Any ‘amends’ that does not begin with letting the thoroughly despised East be by
themselves in their ancestral space, in unfettered Self-Determination, should have at the least
started with the wholesale jettisoning of the Imposed Master-Servant Constitutional Order,
but the wickedness that prevails in Nigeria had not permitted that line of thought since
almost 5 decades. For the East to live, the murderous Nigeria must now die”. – Tony Nnadi
Secretary General of the Lower Niger Congress
1. Introduction
Our nation is enmeshed in a prolonged war against the retrogressive effects of a

structure that was created and sustained by the fear of the past, institutionalised
by the fear of the present and being perpetuated by the fear of the future. This
should not be!
Some years ago, the word “restructuring” was the exclusive lingo of pro-
democracy groups like the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), the Pro-
National Conference Organisation (PRONACO), and The Patriots. The leading
individual voices in this call emerged mainly from the southern part of the
country, including the likes of Chief Rotimi Williams, Chief Gani Fawehinmi
and Chief Anthony Enahoro, all of blessed memory. Others included the likes of
Prof. Ben Nwabueze, Prof. Wole Soyinka and Chief Emeka Anyaoku.
However, in more recent times, leaders from the northern part of the country
have increasingly lent their voices to this call. From former vice president,
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who has aired this opinion since around 2012 1, to a
former governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa 2, and, most
surprisingly, former Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida 3, the call for
restructuring appears to be reaching a tipping point.
Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that the restructuring of the polity is implied in
the manifesto of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the government has, for
a long time, been silent on the matter and has, very often, drawn the attention of
Nigerians back to the tripod-like policy agenda of President Buhari, namely,
anti-corruption, security, and job creation through diversification. However,
after much evasion, the APC, reluctantly, eventually constituted a ten-member
committee headed by Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, the current Governor of Kaduna
State, to address the increased agitations for restructuring.4
According to its 2015 election manifesto, the All Peoples’ Congress (APC)
professed desire to restructure the country. It said:
“As a change agent, APC intends to cleanse her closet to halt the dangerous drift of
Nigeria to a failed state, with a conscious plan for a post-oil economy in Nigeria. To
achieve this laudable programme, APC government shall restructure the country,
devolve power to the units with the best practices of federalism and eliminate
unintended paralysis of the centre”.5
So many politicians ran with the argument to restructure Nigeria in order to

checkmate ethno-religious agitations in the country. But today, the economic
argument of restructuring seems to be lost and mutual suspicion has crept in
about the motive and the word, “restructuring” now appears to mean different
things to different people.
The passion and the ferocity with which the Northern Caucus of the Senate
rejected the bill on devolution of powers which is necessary for Atiku’s
relentless call for the restructuring of the nation will appreciate the guts he has
to make such a call, being from the same part of the nation. But is Atiku’s call
for restructuring a threat to the North? I don’t think so. If anything, it is rather a
blessing to it and the entire nation. It will resolve a number of issues:
1. It will put to rest the continuous notion that the north is indigent and has
little or nothing to contribute to the national purse. But is the North truly
indigent? The answer is No! The truth is that the oil revenue which
largely comes from the Niger Delta region has blinded their eyes from
seeing their strengths and endowments and restructuring will be an eye
opener.
2. It will also douse tension in the land by fixing our skewed federal system.
Why do you think the Arewa Youths issued a quit notice to the Igbos
living in the North? Shouldn’t we address the reasons which are sustained
by IPOB by wanting to be granted a referendum in order to take Biafra
out of the commonwealth of Nigeria nation? Like Nnamdi Kanu puts it, if
you consider the quest for secession or self-determination, will you blame
IPOB?
The simplest solution to the Arewa Youth quit notice as well as IPOB’s
quest for self-determination lie with Atiku’s quest and call for
restructuring because it will douse the growing tension in the land. What
Nnamdi Kanu and others had sought for, in my view, is a better structure
where all are equal and not the Animal Kingdom experience (which he
calls a Zoo) where some animals are considered and treated as being
more equal than others. Genuine restructuring will fix that, I suppose.
3. One of the most important benefits of restructuring is Diversification of
the Economy. Once restructured, our economy will know true
diversification. Nigeria is blessed with more than 40 mineral resources
waiting to be tapped. The North and the Middle Belt are richly endowed
with a fair share, if not greater share, but the oil revenues and monies
from the centre have blinded the people and institutions to the real
prospects. They have gold, uranium, diamond and assorted solid minerals
buried beneath the soil. They have man power which when developed
would be a major source of wealth to the region, in addition to being the
food basket of the nation. After all, experts have warned of possible
disappearance of oil as a major economic force even as some advanced
nations have started manufacturing automobiles that would be powered
by electricity in the near future.
Gold is a natural resource deposit mainly found in the Northern part of
Nigeria, West Africa which is prominently located in Iperindo in Osun
State and other areas near Maru, Tsohon Birnin Gwari-Kwaga, Gurmana,
Anka, Malele, Bin Yauri and Okolom-Dogondaji.
Though it’s not dominant in the country, other states with smaller
deposits include; Abia, Abuja, Bauchi, Edo, Cross River, Niger, Sokoto,
Osun, Oyo State, Kebbi, Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara.
Taraba State is losing millions of naira to illegal mining of precious
stones on a daily basis. The illegal mining is taking place in three local
government areas – the Nguroje area of the Sarduana local government
area, Yorro and Karim Lamido local government areas of the state. It was
gathered that at the Mayo Sina site in Nguroje, blue sapphire worth over
NGN 100 million is sold to foreigners on a daily basis. This illegal
business has been on for the past six years with the full knowledge of the
authorities. Apart from the gemstone, other deposits of solid minerals
such as tourmaline, topaz, uranium, galena, limestone are yet to be
exploited. Each of the 16 local government areas of the state had deposits
of solid minerals but the government failed to put policy guidelines in
place for its development.
One thing is certain; once the system is restructured, the minds of our
Governors and/or state or regional managers as the case may be, would
be put to work. Internally generated revenue would be better for it and the
space for foreign direct investment (which by the way is going through
unending threat by real or predicted insecurities) and increase our
national earnings which will in turn fix our foreign exchange problems.
But the major question remains: Why is Atiku Abubakar in the frontline of the
vanguard whilst the majority of the northern ruling class are either neutral or
against it?
It would be recalled that in 2010, the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) presented a
“Contract to Save and Transform Nigeria” to then President Goodluck Jonathan
which, among other demands, made a case for devolution of powers, called for
a review of the revenue formula, and advocated the convocation of a national
conference towards the creation of a draft constitution that would be adopted
through a referendum. Following the inaction of the government, the group
subsequently convened a Dialogue of the Nobles attended by Donald Duke,
Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Dr.
Oby Ezekwesili, and Fola Adeola, among others. As part of a series of
dialogues, in a bid to seek the best of the North and the best of the South as an
alternative to the then incumbent administration, the group also engaged the
major candidates ahead of the 2011 elections in search of commitment to the
restructuring of the nation, among other desirables.6
Amongst the available contenders then, the Congress for Progressive Change
(CPC) chose Buhari as the presidential flag bearer of the party. And, on January
15, 2011, Buhari invited Pastor Tunde Bakare to be his running mate. Initially,
Bakare declined the offer but later changed his mind to accept it. Bakare’s
eventual acceptance was contingent on the mutual understanding that the
restructuring of Nigeria would be top on the agenda.
This was reflected prominently in the manifesto of the Congress for Progressive
Change (CPC) in which the party promised the initiation of “action to amend
our Constitution with a view to devolving powers, duties and responsibilities to
states and local governments in order to entrench Federalism and the Federal
spirit”. This provision subsequently made its way into the APC manifesto.
In 2014, the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) took their demands for restructuring to
the National Conference, where a case was made for a unicameral parliamentary
system of government to reduce the cost of governance, and for a federal
structure comprised of a strong central government with six geopolitical zones
as federating units. In addition, the SNG sponsored a Nigerian Charter for
National Reconciliation and Integration as the basis of our union as a nation, as
against Decree 24 of 1999 by which the current constitution was promulgated.
The conference adopted, after heated debate, a modified presidential system that
would harness the separation of powers inherent in the presidential system,
while guaranteeing the needed cooperation between both arms of government as
intended in the parliamentary system of government. SNG recommended the
selection of the Vice President from the legislature and advocated the
institutionalization of the principle of zoning in the Electoral Act. Furthermore,
the Nigerian Charter for National Reconciliation and Integration was
unanimously adopted.
In a message titled “The Gathering Storm and Avoidable Shipwreck – How to

Avoid Catastrophic Euroclydon,” delivered on the 4th of January, 2015, Tunde
Bakare sounded a note of warning at the height of the electioneering campaign.
He charged the nation not to place the cart of elections before the horse of
restructuring, proposing “true federalism under Zonal Commissions as well as
fiscal federalism…”7
The nation was very close to the brink of disaster and fortunately, by divine
intervention through the efforts of distinguished Nigerians, the international
community, and through a demonstration of statesmanship unprecedented in
Nigeria’s history, Nigeria scaled through the 2015 elections by a hair’s breadth.
Mindful of our narrow escape and the festering socio-political and economic
challenges, soon after the inauguration of this administration in 2015, the SNG
submitted to Mr. President an extensive document that called for a Presidential
Commission for National Reconciliation, Reintegration and Restructuring
comprised of eminent Nigerians, and guided by the Nigerian Charter for
National Reconciliation and Integration which was adopted by the 2014
National Conference.8
Their submission anticipated the need to reconcile contentious interest groups,

foster the integration of the diverse sectional groups into true nationhood, and
facilitate the evolution of an acceptable functional governmental structure for
Nigeria. SNG proposed that the new structure would be contained in a new
constitutional framework which would come into effect by way of an executive
bill to be submitted to the National Assembly by Mr. President and decided
upon by the Nigerian people through a referendum.9
The efforts of the SNG have been inspired by their belief that, as a nation,
Nigerians are better off together and should find acceptable ways to stay
together. According to them, they are driven by an urgent responsibility to find,
within the constitution, pathways to a more perfect union. Having laid this
background they proceeded to further simplify the seemingly complicated but,
indeed, simple concept of restructuring.10
It would be recalled that former President Jonathan without mincing words,

made the importance of the confab document known to Buhari when he said
that he was handing over two documents to him, the first one being the handing
over note and the second one the document containing the outcome of the
confab and he would want the new president to critically look at the document
because of what it meant to Nigerians. He said he was more interested in the
implementation of the conference recommendations to resolve many national
issues. He also said that the document was more important to him than the hand
over note because it was a document compiled by about 500 Nigerians who
were not influenced by government and was hopeful that it would as well help
to smoothen most of the grey areas in the nation’s polity.11
2. Understanding Restructuring: The Basis
Restructuring simply means to change the way an entity is organized or

arranged. In the corporate context, restructuring is a management term “for the
act of reorganizing the legal, ownership, operational, or other structures of a
company for the purpose of making it more profitable, or better organized for its
present needs”12. In the context of a nation, restructuring requires redefining the
relationship between the people and the government, including taking another
look at the structures and systems of governance as recapitulated and
encapsulated in the constitution. The diverse positions on the restructuring
debate are being championed by at least ten categories of advocates, give or
take a few overlaps, namely:13
The Conservatives
The Economic Structure Reformists
The Non-Structural Constitutional Reformists
The Political System Reformists
The Devolutionists
The State Creation Advocates
The Resource Control Activists
The Regional Federalists
The Regional Con-federalists
The Secessionists
Let’s now examine these positions and then proceed to present some
prescription on the way forward for Nigeria.
Category #1: The Conservatives
The major proponents of this position include Nigeria’s former president Chief
Olusegun Obasanjo and Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje.
The Conservatives are generally satisfied with the systems and structures of
governance, current challenges notwithstanding. They generally hold the view
that attitudinal adjustments, not necessarily systemic or structural changes, are
required. The conservatives posited that what Nigerians need is a “restructuring
of the mind” and not the governmental structures.
Category #2: The Economic Structure Reformists
The economic structure reformists frown at the focus on politics and emphasize
the need to restructure the systems and structures of economic governance, in
order to diversify from an oil-based economy, reduce the size and bureaucracy
of government, and loosen government’s grip on the economy through the
privatization of key sectors while the government simply plays the role of a
facilitator. Proponents include policy and economic experts like Dr. Oby
Ezekwesili, who has said: “We need economic governance as the basis for any
political grouping the country may need”, or, in the words of James Carville,
chief strategist for the Bill Clinton campaign in 1992: “It’s the economy,
stupid.”
Category #3: The Non-Structural Constitutional Reformists
These are those demanding amendments in certain aspects of the constitution

that have no direct bearing on the structure of governance. They include young
people advocating a reduction of the age qualifications into certain political
offices through movements such as Not Too Young To Run; they include
advocates for such affirmative action that reserves a percentage of political
offices for women; they include those advocating the removal of the Land Use
Act from the constitution, as well as those advocating the separation of the
office of the Attorney General of the Federation from that of the Minister of
Justice, and so on.
Category #4: The Political System Reformists
Political System Reformists make a case for such constitutional changes that
include a unicameral, rather than a bicameral, legislature to reduce the size of
government. Others prescribe part-time legislature while some make a strong
case for the parliamentary system of government or, as the 2014 National
Conference resolved, a modified parliamentary system.
Category #5: The Devolutionists

These are multi-state federalists making a case for ceding more powers to the
federating units even if such units are the current 36 states. Many of the current
advocates of restructuring, including former vice president, Alhaji Atiku
Abubakar, belong to this school of thought. The devolutionists envisage a
constitution with a leaner exclusive legislative list, a more robust concurrent
list, and a workable residual list. Also on the agenda of the devolutionists is the
review of the revenue sharing formula in favour of the states and local
governments.
Category #6: The State Creation Advocates
At the last National Conference, 18 demands for state creation were approved,
taking the possible number of states in the nation to 54. Some advocates are
regionalists deploying multi-state strategies in the quest for equitable allocation
of resources to the respective regions from the centre, including the leaders of
the South-East calling for one more state so each region would have six states
apiece except the North-West, which has seven. The Middle Belt states seeking
regional autonomy from the North-Central also fall into this category. They
recognize that, given the current revenue allocation system, the more states a
region has, the more allocation goes to that region or geopolitical zone. Other
advocates of state creation are motivated by the need to give geographical
expression to ethnic identities.
Category #7: The Resource Control Activists
This is a more radical group that swings between devolution and secession.
They include the Niger Delta activists and militants demanding outright
resource control, which is the exclusive right to regulate the exploitation of
resources in a geographical area. Their clamour simply reminds us that we need
a more pragmatic resource distribution and management system.
Category #8: The Regional Federalists
The Regional Federalists argue not only that the current system falls short of
true federalism, as the devolutionists point out, but also that the vast majority of
the current 36 states are not viable. Recent reports indicate that Lagos State,
where the commercial activities of Nigeria are concentrated, generates more
internal revenue than 32 states combined.14 This school of thought therefore
makes a case for the integration of states along geopolitical zone-lines to create
economies of scale. A number of options have been thrown up as to possible
number of zones but the six geopolitical zone-formula featuring the North-
West, North-Central, North-East, South-West, South-South and South-East, has
been the most advocated. Proponents envisage a strong central government
catering for matters like defence, foreign affairs and monetary management,
with six strong zone-federating units having concurrent legislative powers in
such matters as policing, mineral resource management, electricity generation,
and transportation. Groups such as Afenifere are inclined in this direction,
taking a cue from the 1963 Constitution.
Category #9: The Regional Con-federalists
These also advocate a regional or geopolitical zone-arrangement. However,

advocates of confederacy prefer a weak central government and strong regional
governments with each region having its own army and as such able to defend
itself in cooperation with other regions. Most proponents of this position hail
from the Eastern part of Nigeria.
Category #10: The Secessionists
These are those calling for Biafra Republic, Oduduwa Republic, Arewa
Republic, Ijaw Republic, Ogoni Republic and so on. This is because sectional
identities have survived independence and are still reflected in our social
interactions and intensified by perceptions of marginalization. Decades after the
civil war, we are yet to forge true nationhood and Nigerians still tend to think of
themselves as Yorubas, Igbos, Hausas, Fulanis, Kanuris, Tivs, Idomas, Nupes,
Ijaws, Edos, Urhobos, and so on, within the Nigerian state.
Some of the on-going calls for restructuring are motivated by the aim of finding
geographical expressions for these sociocultural identities. Although we can
compel statehood by show of force, we cannot force true nationhood into
existence. Relationship cannot be legislated; it can only be cultivated.
Nationhood can be built only through good and equitable governance.
Therefore, those asking for the opportunity to negotiate their existence within
the Nigerian state based on their ethnic or cultural identities have a right to do
so, as captured in international legal instruments such as the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which Nigeria is a
signatory.
The fundamental question should be: How best do we organize ourselves for
equitable, peaceful and productive coexistence?
3. Pathway to a New Nigeria
(i) Is The Unity of Nigeria not Negotiable?
Reality denied comes back to haunt. Reality is that Nigeria is NOT working.
The fault-lines are so glaring that denying it makes one a buffoon. Nigeria is a
broken nation – the only country on earth operating two irreconcilable
ideologies (democracy and Islam), a country were corruption and sleaze are
second religion, a country that has enshrined in her constitution tenets of
federalism but operated as a unitary system, a country whose many of the elites
and public servants behave and operate as irresponsible than any other nation
the world over, a country that has been so “iberiberised” that cows are given a
pre-eminent status over and above her citizens, in short, a country that many
now refer to as a “zoo”. From healthcare to education, mismanagement to
corruption, ethno-religious crisis to fulanisation of Nigeria and islamization of
black Africa, etc. The most pathetic person in the world is one who has sight but
no vision.
In spite of the glaring and most conspicuous fault-lines, some individuals have
continued to maintain that Nigeria’s unity is not negotiable. Is Nigeria’s unity as
copiously stated and enjoined by some Nigerians not really negotiable? Put
differently, in what important sense is the unity of this artificial creation, with
heterogeneous socio-political background, multi-creed nations called Nigeria,
not negotiable? If the “unity” of Nigeria is not negotiable, is the freedom of her
people negotiable?
President Muhammadu Buhari, upon his return to the nation after his three-
month medical vacation to the UK addressed the nation and reiterated that the
unity of Nigeria is not negotiable. It is a red-line that must not be crossed by any
mortal, living or dead!
In another development, while leading members of the Nigeria Defence

Academy (NDA) 3rd Regular Course Alumni Association on a courtesy visit to
the then acting Kaduna State governor, Alhaji Aminu Shagali to mark the
Golden Jubilee (50 years) of their entry into the NDA, the former Senate
President of Nigeria, Senator David Mark insists that Nigeria is indivisible no
matter what, stressing that “the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable”. In his words:
“Those who are agitating for otherwise are missing the point. Nigeria has crossed
many crucibles. We cannot reverse ourselves. The only option is to move on in a
manner that is progressive, peaceful, and united. We may have our disagreements.
But a break up is not an option. We can resolve our differences through meaningful
dialogue and genuine conversation. There is no use heating up the polity.15
(ii) The North-South Dimension of the Nigeria Question
The differences and volatility between the North and the South dates back to the
pre-independence days! The North-South dimension of the Nigeria question
was brought, once again, to the fore at the 2014 National Conference, and one
of the participants, Tunde Bakare claimed he saw first-hand the degree of
volatility in the relationship between the North and South of Nigeria. As
delegates convened to seek acceptable solutions to our nation’s structural and
functional problems, they were greeted with a position paper titled ‘Key Issues
Before Northern Delegates.’16
The document, which had been prepared by northern delegates, argued that,
since 1914, the North had contributed more to the national economy than the
South but had received less in terms of budgetary allocations; it also argued that
the North had, over time, sacrificed its interests to allow for a Nigerian state.
The document not only sought to demand more for the North at the expense of
the South, it also pre-emptively attempted to paralyse the position of the South
even before the commencement of deliberations. It sought to condition the
South to negotiate from a position of weakness.
To further charge the already tense atmosphere, HRH Dr. Muhammadu

Barkindo Mustapha, Lamido of Adamawa, spoke on behalf of the Northern
delegates and threatened that they would “easily walk out of [the] conference” if
the modalities of voting for resolutions at the conference were not resolved.17
Expectedly, the southern delegates were taken aback and poised to hit back in
reaction against the North. Some had become impatient in the face of the
perceived opposition of the North to progressive proposals from the South and
were already humming separatist tunes 18, but some Southerners were convinced
that was not the best approach.
Subsequently, a few southwest delegates met at the residence of Pastor Bakare

with some consultants to brainstorm on the issue. With the support of the
International Centre for Reconstruction and Development (ICRD), the think-
tank Bakare founded in 2007, and the collaboration of the consultants, they
created an intelligent rebuttal titled ‘Lest We Forget.’ Besides correcting the
factual misconceptions and fallacious assumptions in the northern document,
they reminded the delegates to the conference that, under international law, the
continental shelf of the Atlantic Ocean is connected to the southern territory of
Nigeria. Considering this, the southern delegates redesigned the map of Nigeria
to extend the southern territory into the continental shelf.
Having thus positioned themselves to negotiate from a position of strength, they

emphasised the need to build a united Nigeria made up of a strong North and an
equally strong South rather than adopting a divisive approach. Eventually, the
conference regained its focus and unanimously passed its resolutions, including
the ‘Nigerian Charter for National Reconciliation and Integration.’
Pastor Tunde Bakare’s reference to this experience in his narrative of the North-
South dimension of Nigerian Question is because it brought to the fore the
plethora of unresolved issues seething beneath the relationship between the
North and the South like a keg of gunpowder;
“… it brought to the fore the North-South dimension of the Nigeria Question, or what
you may also call the North-South Question; it brought to the fore the frosty relations
between northern and southern Nigeria even before the 1914 amalgamation. The
North-South Question encompasses the unresolved differences and grievances, the
mutual distrust and suspicion, and the power struggles between the two major
geopolitical divisions in the country. It has been a tumultuous quest for an acceptable
basis of coexistence and interaction.”19
(iii) The North-South Question and a History of Grievances
Historically, and as Bakare remniscences, the dissonance between the North and
South of Nigeria traces its origin to the southward advance of the Sokoto
Caliphate in the 18th century. Opinion leaders in the South see this southward
advance as a manifestation of an imperialist agenda with a persisting legacy.20
“The North-South trust deficit was further widened prior to and following the
amalgamation as the colonial administration isolated the colonies along sectional
lines, especially the North-South geopolitical lines. When the southern part of Nigeria
began to demonstrate considerable radicalism, the colonial masters became wary of
this influence spreading northward. They therefore deliberately hindered the inflow
of Christian missions and western education to the northern part of the country…”21
Statements credited to the leading lights of Nigerian nationalism at that time

indicated that all was not well with the system. In 1948, for instance, Chief
Obafemi Awolowo, in his book, Path to Nigerian Freedom, stated: Nigeria is
not a nation. It is a mere geographical expression. There are no “Nigerians” in
the same sense as there are “English,” “Welsh” or “French.” The word
“Nigerian” is merely a distinctive appellation to distinguish those who live
within the boundaries of Nigeria from those who do not.22
Years before becoming prime minister, Tafawa Balewa said while addressing
the Legislative Council in 1948:
“Since 1914, the British Government has been trying to make Nigeria into one
country, but the Nigerian people themselves are historically different in their
backgrounds, in their religious beliefs and customs and do not show themselves any
sign of willingness to unite…Nigerian unity is only a British intention for the
country.”23
Furthermore, some years later, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Premier of the Northern
Region, said:
“The new nation called Nigeria should be an estate of our great grandfather Uthman
Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We use the minorities in
the North as willing tools and the South as a conquered territory and never allow
them to rule over us and never allow them to have control over their future.”24
In 1953 when Chief Anthony Enahoro moved a motion calling for

independence, the mutual distrust and antagonistic dispositions between the
northern and southern leaders toward nationhood naturally led the two camps to
the first open confrontation. In reaction to the motion, Sir Ahmadu Bello
reminded the Legislative Council that: “Sixty years ago, there was no Nigeria
but merely a collection of communities very different in outlook and mode of
life.”25
The motion for independence, in essence, was vehemently resisted by the

northern representatives as the North was unprepared for self-rule. Instead of
the 1956 date proposed, the North amended the motion to read “as soon as
practicable.”26 As a result of these differences, the South walked out of the
Legislative Council while the northern representatives were openly ridiculed by
the southern masses on the streets of Lagos.27
“Following this debacle, the Action Group sent a delegation led by Chief Samuel
Akintola on a tour of the North to mobilise support for the cause of independence
among the northern masses. This move precipitated the first inter-ethnic riots in
Nigeria’s history, known as the Kano Riots. At this point, the northern leaders
reached what appeared to be the limits of patience and threatened secession or the
adoption of an “eight-point programme” which emphasised regional autonomy”.28
However, according to Bakare’s narrative, our founding fathers navigated these
conflict hotbeds with intense negotiations at conferences that culminated in
eventual independence and the adoption of a federal system of government with
the regions as federating units. These negotiations by our founding fathers
sought to redefine the Nigerian construct from the commercial undertone to the
genuine quest for nationhood. However, even independence could not truly
resolve the North-South Question. When the British eventually began to take off
the vestiges of colonialism to pave way for independence, reports allege that the
former colonialists tilted the ethno-political balance in the interest of the
North.29
In the bid to close the developmental gap between the North and South, the
Northern region soon adopted what it called the “Northernization policy.” 30 By
this policy, northerners were given priority consideration for public service
roles. Where there was no qualified northerner, the opportunity would be
extended to an expatriate on a contractual basis. Nigerians from other parts of
the country would only be considered, again on a contractual basis, where no
expatriate could take on the role.31
This affirmative action policy was, however, received by the South as

discriminatory.32
Another serious tensions and antagonism between and around the North-South
Question was the issue of an acceptable national census for Nigeria. Since the
first census in 1921 all through to the 2006 census, population counting in
Nigeria has always been controversial sometimes resulting in violence.33
The reason is not far-fetched. Population figures determine how many seats
each constituent part gets in a representative government, and they also
determine revenue allocations. More than these, in an ethnically charged
electoral system, they are predictive of election results.
“The ethnic construct of political parties in Nigeria also served to heighten North-
South tensions. Political parties in Nigeria began to take on a sectional undertone
when the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) was formed in 1949. The NPC was
formed in apparent rejection of the avowed nationalist inclination of the pre-existing
National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) established by southern
leaders in 1944. This ethnic undertone of political parties set the stage for post-
independence election disputes and political intrigues between the North and the
South. It was against this backdrop of politically motivated mutual suspicion that the
first coup and countercoup were prosecuted. The ensuing violent actions and
reactions around these events climaxed in the Nigerian Civil War that claimed the
lives of many Nigerians.”34
Even after the civil war, the North-South Question remained unresolved. The
resulting military era only perpetuated northern dominance in the political
space. As a result, since independence, although thirteen individuals have
served either as presidents or heads of state, only four of them have been from
the South.
More questions arose with respect to North-South relations when the June 12,
1993 elections were annulled. They became even more complex when, five
years later, General Sani Abacha, who was notorious for clamping down on
mainly southern opposition to his dictatorship, died as Head of State. Matters
became more complicated when the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential
elections, Chief M.K.O. Abiola (GCFR), died a month later.
The North-South Question continued to demand answers when we returned to

civil rule in 1999. It was what was at play when the North endorsed Chief
Olusegun Obasanjo for the presidency in 1999 while the South, in particular, the
South-West, largely supported Chief Olu Falae. It showed up in the 2011
presidential elections as “a clear division within the country between the North-
South, Muslim-Christian lines,” with the South voting for the People’s
Democratic Party’s Goodluck Jonathan, and the North voting for the Congress
for Progressive Change’s Muhammadu Buhari.35
The North-South Question has been at the heart of every allegation of sectional
interest in federal government policies and programmes; it was at the heart of
the Northern perception of marginalisation during the presidency of President
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan;36 it was at the heart of the ultimatum given by certain
northern youth groups to the Igbos to vacate the North by October 2017; 37 it is
at the heart of the outcry over perceived lopsided appointments by President
Muhammadu Buhari;38 it is at the heart of the bickering over revenue allocation;
the demand for resource control; the herder-farmer conflict; and the clamour
for self-determination by various groups in the country, from the Indigenous
People of Biafra (IPOB) to the Niger Delta Avengers.
(iv) The North-South Question – A Political Trajectory

The North-South Question and other dimensions of the Nigeria Question must
be approached with the understanding that, at the heart of the matter is the quest
for equitable distribution of resources. In essence, it is an economic question as
much as it is a social and political one.
“It is the question on the minds of … Nigerians back home across the country, North
and South, who cannot tell where the next meal is going to come from… the same
question on the minds of ordinary Nigerians across the nation, in the North and in the
South, who are united in suffering and in the audacious hope that, in spite of the
pains of today, one day, “e go better.40
It is why many well-meaning Nigerians believe the answer to the Nigeria

Question is the restructuring of our nation to foster the geo-economic potential
of the six geopolitical zones that embody the North and the South. It is why, in
the 2019 election, the involvement of some well-meaning Nigerians were
geared towards facilitating the honest conversations necessary to resolve the
broad dimensions of the Nigeria Question including the North-South Question.
It is why these Nigerians were stirring up the Nigerian people at home and
abroad around an idea whose time has come, mobilising the people around the
compelling vision of the New Nigeria, bringing together the major contenders
for the 2019 elections and beyond, and getting them to commit to the pathway
to a New Nigeria that Tunde Bakare call ‘Sixteen Pragmatic Steps to
Restructuring Nigeria.’41
4. An Attempt at Restructuring Nigeria at Aburi Conference.
Introduction:
The Meeting of the Nigeria’s Supreme Military Council at Aburi Ghana on the
4 – 5 January, 1967 did make the following observations: 42
 Background to Aburi Meeting:

In attendance on the Nigerian Federal Military Government (FMG) side were: 43
NAME & POSITION
 Lt-Colonel Yakubu Gowon – Head of the SMC

 Commodore Joseph Akinwale Wey Head of the Nigerian navy
 Colonel Robert Adeyinka Adebayo Military Governor of the
western region
 Lt-Colonel Hassan Usman Katsina Military Governor of the
northern region
 Lt-Colonel David Akpode Ejoor Governor of mid-west region
 Major Mobolaji Johnson Military Governor of Lagos
 Alhaji Kam Selem Inspector-General of Police
 Timothy Omo-Bare Police
.
Eastern delegate:
 Col Emeka Ojukwu Governor of South East
As the then military Governor of the eastern region at the time Ojukwu was in
attendance. The FMG delegation arrived, smiling and looking extremely happy
and anxious to pacify their former brother-in-arms Ojukwu. Colonels Adebayo
and Gowon even offered to embrace Ojukwu who appeared still stung by the
terrible massacres of his Igbo kinsmen in northern Nigeria the previous year and
was in no mood to embrace his former colleagues. And as max Siollum
observed, the contrast in the demeanor of the participants was in itself a
microcosm of what took place over the course of the next two days.
“While the federal delegation behaved as if the Aburi conference was a social
gathering to reunite former friends who had fallen out in a social tiff, Ojukwu saw the
conference for what it really was: a historic constitutional debate that would
determine Nigeria’s future social and political structure.”44
However, secret diplomatic dispatches which were later declassified by the

United States State Department depicted the FMG-eastern region stand-off as a
personality clash between Ojukwu and Gowon. But was it really that?
“According to the American perspective, “many Americans admire Ojukwu! We like
young, intelligent and romantic leaders, and Ojukwu has panache, quick intelligence
and an actor’s voice and eloquent/fluency. The contrast with Gowon – troubled by the
enormity of his task, not as educated, painfully earnest and slow to react, hesitant and
repetitive in speech – led some Americans to view the Nigerian-Biafran conflict as a
personal duel between two mismatched individuals”.
As they were busy fighting in Vietnam and fighting a “cold war” against the USSR,
the Americans did not become militarily or politically involved in the dispute;
instead, treating the conflict as one falling within Britain’s sphere of influence.”45
 THE Constitutional Debate
To get the other Colonels in the meeting to understand, and share his reasoning,
Ojukwu effectively employed and deployed his “skilful histrionics and superior
intellectual adroitness”, saying: that in order to keep Nigeria together as one
nation, its constituent regions first had to move a little further apart from each
other. Using a metaphor to explain his reasoning, Ojukwu said: “It is better that
we move slightly apart and survive, it is much worse that we move closer and
perish in the collision.”46
Paradoxically and surprisingly too, the Colonels accepted the logic of Ojukwu’s
argument. The problem then (as it still is in Nigeria today) is that Nigeria is so
large, diverse and unwieldy that it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to
find a leader who can elicit popularity and a following throughout, or most of
the country. Amazingly too, Gowon accepted Ojukwu’s thesis, but whether he
really understood the constitutional implications of what he was agreeing to, is
another issue.
Gowon was effectively sanctioning measures which would paralyse his own powers.
Lt-Colonel Katsina and Colonel Adebayo also agreed and were attracted to the
concept of regional autonomy. Adebayo agreed so enthusiastically that he advocated
a “repeal [of] those Decrees that were passed after 15th January, 1966 but I think we
should revert to what the country was as at 14th January, 1966, that is regional
autonomy”.47
Furthermore, Ojukwu preferred a titular Head of State that would act only with
the concurrence of the various regional governments: “what I envisage that
whoever is at the top is a constitutional chap – constitutional within the context
of the military government. That is, he is a titular head, but he would only act
where, say when we have met and taken a decision”.48
Ojukwu, having got what he wanted, was not content with the agreement to be
an oral one (even though it had been taped). He insisted that “we must write it
down in our decisions quite categorically that the legislative and executive
authority of the Federal Military Government shall be vested in the Supreme
Military Council because previously it had been vested in the Supreme
Commander”.49
It appeared that the reason for this nuanced request from Ojukwu is that Gowon
was now the Supreme Commander. By vesting official authority in the SMC (of
which Ojukwu was a member) rather than the Supreme Commander Gowon,
Ojukwu could ensure that no official decisions could be taken without his
consent. To signify the limited powers that would be exercised by the Head of
State envisaged, Ojukwu proposed that the diluted phrase “Commander-in-
Chief” should be used to address the Head of State as opposed to “Supreme
Commander” (a phrase signifying immense power). The title “Commander-in-
Chief” has been employed by every Nigerian Head of State subsequent to
Aburi.50
I want to believe that, while the other delegates arrived at Aburi with a simple,
but unformulated idea that somehow, Nigeria must stay together, “Ojukwu was
the only participant who knew what he wanted, and he secured the signatures of
the SMC to documents which would have had the effect of turning Nigeria into
little more than a customs union”.51
Having gotten virtually everything he wanted, Ojukwu was so pleased by his

success that he even declared that he would serve under Gowon if he (Gowon)
kept to the agreements reached. At that point, Gowon arose from his table
position and embraced Ojukwu.
The fulcrum of the agreement at Aburi was that each region would be
responsible for its own affairs, and that the FMG would be responsible for
matters that affected the entire country: a simple enough concept. Afterwards
the officers toasted their reconciliation and agreement with champagne.52
Obviously flabbergasted by the federal delegation’s jubilation such that Ojukwu

on his plane flight home, asked one of his secretaries whether the federal
delegation had fully understood the implications of what had been agreed.
Finally, it appeared that no one at Aburi (other than Ojukwu) really understood
the constitutional implications of what had been agreed. Ojukwu was obviously
delighted with this – hence why he was in such a hurry to implement the
decisions taken, and why the Federal Government had to renege on them.53
“Some have argued that Ojukwu took the SMC for a ride by using his superior
intelligence to trap the SMC officers into an agreement they did not understand.
Ojukwu was engaged in a constitutional debate by himself against five military
officers, and two police officers, yet still got his way. He can hardly be faulted for
outwitting opponents that outnumbered him by seven to one. Questions might be
asked of the other SMC members of greater numerical strength who allowed Ojukwu
to extract such substantial concessions from them.”54
The Supreme Military Council subsequently met at Aburi, Ghana, on 4
and 5 January, 1967.
 Agreements on the Meeting:
It had been recognized by the Military leaders that the meeting would: 55
 resolve the question of leadership within the army, restore

the chain of command which had become badly disrupted,
and examine the crisis of confidence amongst the officers
and soldiers which had rendered it impossible for them
intermingle;
 evolve ways and means of carrying on the responsibility of

administering the country until a new constitution had been
determined; and
 tackle realistically the problems of displaced persons. These

considerations were reflected in the agenda which was
agreed upon by members of the Supreme Military Council
(see Appendix I Annexure A).
 Aburi Conference: A Constitution in Waiting

I subscribe to the views of Max Siollum that the failure to implement the Aburi
decisions is a missed golden opportunity to find a constitutional arrangement
acceptable to all of its constituent parts. Had it been that at least half of those
agreements were ratified Nigeria may have saved itself a substantial amount of
the subsequent bloodshed that ensued over the next four decades.
“It is a sad commentary on the lack of progress that Nigeria has made since Aburi
that the issues discussed then (over 40 years ago years ago) are still being argued
over today. Back in 1967, the Aburi decisions were not implemented for one primary
reason: oil.
Nigeria’s greedy power brokers did not want a loose constitutional arrangement that
would deprive them of the vast revenues which Nigeria earns from its crude oil
exports. Hence Nigeria is glued together under a powerful central government of a
type more suitable to a country with contiguous ethnicity.
Nigeria is quite simply too large, too diverse, and too fractious a country to have an
all powerful central government of the type it has today. Across Nigeria, there are
groups agitating for greater devolvement of federal power to the regions. Although
the mantra of these groups is “restructuring” of the Nigerian federation – what they
really intend is what Ojukwu wanted to achieve at the Aburi conference in 1967: a
constitutional arrangement that would devolve so much power to the regions that the
entity known as Nigeria would exist in name only.”56
I strongly support the view that rather than engaging in another constitutional
drafting/conference exercise at which will waste more taxpayers’ money, and
serve as a means for corrupt “big men” to get even richer, Nigeria would do
well to dip into its archives and review the transcript of the debate at Aburi
which is gathering dust in the national archives.
What is more? I agree with Max that the debate transcript is sufficiently detailed
to serve as a constitution in waiting. To learn from the debates and mistakes of
the past may ensure a better future for Nigeria. What Nigeria needs is a
“constitutional chap” of the type envisaged by Ojukwu back at Aburi. As
Ojukwu said “It is better that we move slightly apart and survive, it is much
worse that we move closer and perish in the collision.”
5. Restructuring Through the Prism of Nigeria’s Ethnic Nationalities
 Ohanaeze Ndigbo’s South-East Summit on Restructuring Nigeria

Ohaneze Ndigbo and some few others were united in one voice to make bold
their position for a better Nigeria. Dubbed by Igbo intelligentsia as the “Famous
Awka Declaration” was the high point of years of brainstorming exercise by
leaders of all the arms of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohaneze
Ndigbo. These arms articulated what they purported to be the stand of Ndigbo
in the envisaged restructured Nigeria project. It was the result from accumulated
years of work by successive regimes of Ohaneze Ndigbo, as well as the various
Igbo think-tanks especially the submissions of the Igbo Leaders of Thought for
the 2014 national conference; Igbo positions for the 1994 Constitutional
Conference as well as the 2005 and 2014 national conferences. It also included
the report of the committee set up by South East Governors on the review of the
1999 Constitution; the report of the World Igbo Summit by the Igbo
Renaissance Center, Uturu, Abia State; various submissions and reports by Aka
Ikenga; Izu Umunna; Nzuko Umunna; the Igbo intelligentsia; the World Igbo
Congress; reports of various meetings and conferences of Igbo stakeholders and
leaders, among others.
South-East (Ndigbo) propositions are summarised as follows57:
1. A single term of six years for the President; the office of President should
rotate among the six geo-political zones of Nigeria;
2. Regional system of government;
3. Constitutional review: Ndigbo demands a new people-oriented
Constitution for Nigeria. Under this, there should be a Constitutional
Conference backed by a law enacted by the National Assembly where the
people of Nigeria would agree on a new, truly federal Constitution;
4. Advocate for a presidential system of government, under which the
various regions should determine the type of government to operate at
that level;
5. Five Vice-Presidents, one from each of the geo-political zones or
Regions, except the Region or zone of the President and each also to
serve for a fixed term of six years. Each of the five Vice-Presidents will
be assigned supervisory responsibility over two or more ministries such
as Defence, Internal Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Finance, Infrastructure and
Works, so as to give every zone a sense of belonging and a strong voice
in major decision making;
6. Six regional governments, each comprising the current states within each
zone and other states that might be enshrined in the constitution as the
basis for sharing national political, economic and social amenities, offices
and opportunities in an equitable manner among the zones;
7. Ndigbo demand that Nigeria give effect to the recommendation of the
2014 National Conference which states that “in the spirit of
reconciliation, equity, fair play and justice, there shall be created an
additional state for the South East zone; and all other requests for state
creation shall be considered on merit. One additional state in the South
East should be irreducible minimum. But the states remain the basis for
sharing resources and opportunities in Nigeria, we demand an equal
number of states per geo-political zone or region
8. Ndigbo advocate that Local Governments should be scrapped from the
Constitution of the Federation and should be in the exclusive list of the
Regional/State Constitution;
9. Whether the Regions or States become the federating units, and whether
or not equal numbers of states created in each zone, Ndigbo demand that
equality of the six geopolitical zones should be enshrined in the
Constitution. Politically, representation at the federal cabinet as well as
the twin chambers of the federal legislature should be based on equality
of zones or regions. Furthermore, sharing of revenues, distribution of
infrastructures by the Federal Government, and federal character
principles will be applied on the basis of equality of zones;
10.The concept of state of origin should be scrapped from the Constitution of
the Federation and replaced with state of residence. As an alternative,
minimum residency and civic rights and responsibilities should include
that any child born of Nigerian parents anywhere in Nigeria will acquire
the indigene-ship rights of the area at birth, any Nigeria citizen who has
resided in any part of Nigeria and paid taxes there for a period of ten
years can acquire the indigene-ship rights of the area, except for the right
to their traditional stool;
11.There should be a two or three-tier police structure with defined
responsibilities namely, a Police Force for the Federation and controlled
by the Federal Government, and the Regional/State Constitutions to
establish separate Police Forces for each region and each state. The Police
Force at every level will be headed by a non-partisan professional. The
power to appoint and remove such a head of police will be vested in an
independent body;
12.There should be a truly federal system that given control of resources to
the component units and replaces the current system of unconditional
transfers with conditional transfers from the centre. States should have
control over all the natural resources within their territory. Fiscal
federalism presupposes the revocation of the Land Use Act of 1978, the
Solid Minerals Act, as well as the various Petroleum/Gas Acts and
amendments since 1969. The right of ownership, control and exploitation
of these and other assets should be returned to the states and/or federating
units;
13.The taxation powers of the various tiers of government should be
reviewed to give the federating units greater flexibility and scope to
generate revenue internally. States within the federating units should
collect and keep 50% of rents, royalties and profit taxes on minerals
derived from their states; pay 20% to the Regional Government, and 30%
to the Federal Government; provided that each tier of government will
save at least 5% of the receipts from natural/mineral resources as Future
Generation Fund;
14.The Federal Government should set aside 40% of revenue collected from
the states/regions as a Distributable Pool Account (DPA). The balance of
60% plus 60% of its own independent revenues such as customs duties,
federal VAT, federal income tax, etc. will be deployed to its diminished
responsibilities. The sharing of DPA should be equitable and should
replace the present unconditional revenue allocation to the states and
local governments;
15.Nigeria must maintain an appropriate balance between merit and
affirmative action in the conduct of natural and regional/state affairs, and
the distribution of appointments, amenities, opportunities, and privileges
among constituent parts. For example, while 60% should be resolved for
merit, 40% could be reserved to ensure federal character principle or
affirmation. The Federal Character Commission should be replaced with
Merit and Equal Opportunities Commission;
16.Elections into the office of the President and the Federal Legislature
should be conducted by the electoral bodies set up by the Regional/State
Constitution or laws.
On the Economic development, Ohanaeze Ndigbo will assist the full realization
of “Enyimba Economic City” Aba, the revamp of Enugu coal mine,
resuscitation of Port Harcourt – Maiduguri railways with rail links and
connections with all igbo state capitals and commercial cities especially
Onitsha-owerri-Aba link, the new leadership lauds President Muhammadu
Buhari’s developmental strides in Southeast especially upgrading of Akanu
ibiam international airport Enugu and approval of Ebonyi state international
airport, the reopening of Onitsha dry seaport after 47 years and establishment of
another seaport in akwaete in Ukwa west 15km to Atlantic ocean, the new
leadership demand from President Muhammadu Buhari an additional state for
the Southeast.58
It is the contention of the Ohaneze that on the 2023 general elections, Nigerian
President of Igbo extraction will heal all wounds, all marginalization, all
aggression and more evidently rejig Nigeria to regain her rightful position
amongst the comity of World’s Superpowers as the engine room of Africa’s
Superpower. Ohaneze, therefore, urge all political parties to adopt Igbo as their
flag bearers in the 2023 Presidential elections.59
However, it is apposite to point out that the majority of the Igbos especially the
youths distanced themselves from anything Nigeria. All they want is
referendum to decide whether or not to remain in the so-called united Nigeria or
have the opportunity to decide their own destiny in another independent
political enclave called Biafra. Years of consistent and progressive
marginalisation of the people in every department of national life, coupled with
the feelings of being unwanted in Nigeria project and fatally wounded by the
strong feelings and fear of being “fulanized” and ultimately “islamized”, most
Igbos are opting for secession as against restructuring. According to them, it is
too late to restructure Nigeria. They have no trust in the behind the scene drivers
of Nigeria’s destiny.
It is against this background that I decide to state the minds and opinion of the
majority of the Igbos as recapitulated and encapsulated in write-up done by Dr.
Clifford Chukwuemeka Iroanya, titled, “Analysing/Deconstructing Ohaneze
Ndigbo’s so-called Igbo Position on Restructuring the Nigerian Federation”.
According to Dr. Clifford, Ndigbo do not want a transformed Nigeria. What

they want is a dismembered Nigeria which will work for all the currently
entrapped nations of Arewa, Oduduwa, Middle Belt, and Biafra. It is only a
dismembered Nigeria that will unleash the potentials and ingenuity of the
citizens of the constituent nations and engender the much-needed human and
capital development.60
According to Dr. Clifford, what Ohanaeze hid from the public was the common
threads that ran through these two declarations – Ohanaeze made reference to
two outstanding declarations namely; (i) Ibadan Declaration of September 7,
2017 and (ii) Uturu Communique of World Igbo Summit of October 30th, 2016
and they are61;
 outright rejection of the fraudulent 1999 Caliphate-imposed

Constitution of Nigeria,
 the demand for self-determination as a fundamental part of any
new constitutional reconfiguration, and
 agreement (via internal referendum) among the citizens of each
federating components to continue with the British-imposed union
before embarking on the constitutional reconfiguration.
According to Dr. Clifford, Ohanaeze Ndigbo does not speak for the Igbos and
was never empowered or authorized to do so by either the generality of the
Igbos or any of the various Igbo-centric organizations. The world must know
that Ohanaeze Ndigbo by its charter, organizational structure, and raison d’être,
is a voluntary Igbo-centric socio-cultural organization which was registered by
the Corporate Affairs Commission of Nigeria in 1976 and its membership is
optional for any Igbo-speaking person.62
According to some aggrieved Igbos, Ohanaeze is a voluntary organization that
does not have the mandate of the Igbos to speak on their behalf and there is
nowhere in any Laws of Nigeria, Federal and State, where Ohanaeze is
mandated to be the mouthpiece of the Igbos.
According to Dr. Clifford and others who shared his views on the so-called
Ekwueme Square Declaration, Ohanaeze Ndigbo got it wrong on the following
points;
1) Igbos do not want a transformed Nigeria. What the Igbos want is a

dismembered Nigeria which will work for all the currently entrapped nations of
Arewa, Oduduwa, Middle Belt, and Biafra. It is, according to them, only a
dismembered Nigeria that will unleash the potentials and ingenuity of the
citizens of the constituent nations and engender the much-needed human and
capital development. They went further to state that no matter the colouration
given to the British-created criminality and contraption called Nigeria, it will
always stultify growth, development, equality, freedom, justice, and religious
tolerance.63
2) They went further to state that Igbos do not want a Constitutional Conference
but outright exit from Nigeria. The first order of business in any socio-political
discourse pertaining to Nigeria is the rejection and repudiation of the fraudulent
and now-disputed 1999 Constitution. It is laughable and confusing as well that
Ohanaeze is calling for a new Constitution on the one hand but on the other
hand, it is subjecting the new Constitution to ratification by a National
Assembly. The question is: How will this National Assembly come into place to
ratify the new Constitution? Or is it the National Assembly that will be there
courtesy of the current fraudulent 1999 Constitution? A Constitution is made by
the people and ratified by the people and not ratified by a National Assembly
put in place by a disputed and rejected Constitution.64
3) The opponents went further to say that Igbos want a referendum to be

conducted to determine if they are still interested in continuing with the British-
created criminality and contraption called Nigeria. Recall that when the
amalgamation proclamation was made on January 1, 1914, the Igbos were not
consulted. Therefore, it is right that after 104 years, it is very crucial to go back
to the Igbos to gauge their interests in the Nigerian union. Ohanaeze cannot
unilaterally assume that Igbos are still interested in continuing with “One
Nigeria.”65
4) Any Constitutional reconfiguration of Nigeria, according to these aggrieved
Igbos, without including the option for self-determination is “dead on arrival.”
Even in the developed countries, there are exit clauses or recourse to self-
determination via referendum for Indigenous People or any state in that country.
For Ohanaeze to write all their epistles on Igbo position without including the
option for self-determination, it is self-defeating and against the yearnings of
every Igbo person. Ohanaeze needs to be reminded that even one of the Laws of
Nigeria (Section-20 of CAP A-9 L.F.N. 2004) has an option for self-
determination, although the authors of the fraudulent 1999 Constitution ensured
that this Section-20 of that Law never made it into the fraudulent 1999
Constitution thereby making it impossible to enforce because of its conflict with
Section-2(1) of the Constitution.66
5) Igbos are not interested in the suggestions to a new Nigerian Constitution

made by Ohanaeze in their Ekwueme Square Declaration. Ohanaeze should
save their efforts for the time when we need a Biafran Constitution. There are
several documents they can tap into in generating a Biafran Constitution and
these include The Biafran Charter, Ahiara Declaration, Ogoni Bill of Rights,
Kiama Declaration, etc. etc.67
Opposition finally submitted that Ohanaeze Ndigbo’s summit and the document
generated therefrom fell short of the expectations of the Igbos.
 Yoruba’s Position on Restructuring Nigeria

In what was termed Ibadan declaration, prominent leaders and representatives
from the Yoruba race, including Kogi and Kwara states demanded a
restructured Nigeria with emphasis on a return to regional government as well
as the federal system of government practised under the 1960 and 1963
Constitutions.68
Insisting on the reconstitution of Nigeria into six main autonomous regional

zones, with Abuja the FCT maintaining status quo, the Yorubas demanded a
system of government where all regions are empowered to govern their people
and control their resources at their own pace.69
According to speakers at the summit who took turns to submit that Nigeria,
having experienced military and civil administration with no meaningful
development for its people, needed to be steered away from a unitary political
arrangement that had stifled progress and development.
The meeting tagged: ‘Yoruba Summit’ attracted South-West leaders, governors,
former governors, traditional rulers, parliamentarians, Yoruba socio-cultural
groups, professional bodies, market leaders, youth groups and friends of the
Yoruba race.
Chief Afe Babalola, SAN, Chairman of the summit, in his opening remarks,
asserted that restructuring of Nigeria would curb the over concentration of
power at the centre.
According to him, Nigeria witnessed its greatest and fastest economic, political
and educational development during the self-government and the First
Republic.70
 “Each of the regions was fairly autonomous and could legislate over a
number of items which have today been taken over by the Federal
Government.
 “None of the constitutions fashioned out by the military reflects the ideals
which informed the making of the 1954, 1960 and 1963 Constitutions.
What the military did to those constitutions weaken the component states,
destroy or impair their power to develop and sustain themselves.
 “It is therefore correct to state that the military and their civilian apologist
either by design of by accident have planted the seeds of national
disintegration and disharmony,” Babalola said.
His continued71:
 “The agitation for secession is an ill wind that does no good. No matter
the motive of the conveners of Berlin Conference, we have lived together
for over 100 years having been married by fiat of the Europeans.
 “It is better to dialogue and restructure the country. No woman wants
dissolution of a marriage if the parties live in comfort and are prosperous.
It is incumbent on the leaders to make the country so prosperous that
nobody would agitate for secession.’’
Reading out a communiqué co-signed by Babalola and chairman of the planning

committee, Dr Kunle Olajide, Afenifere spokesperson, Mr Yinka Odumakin,
warned that the country “is careering dangerously to the edge of the slope” and
required urgent remedial actions to restructure it from a unitary constitution to a
federal constitution as was the case at independence in 1960.72
 “Summit recalls with nostalgia, the great strides made by the Yoruba
nation in the years of self- government up until the abrogation of the
federal constitution in 1966 evident in mass literacy, novel infrastructural
strides and giant leaps in all spheres of human development.
 “Summit noted that the crisis of over-centralisation has led to mass
misery in across the country with poverty levels at 72 per cent,
unemployment rate at 65 per cent internal immigration and internal
displacement, security threat in form of Boko Haram, herdsmen and
organised crime.
 “Summit convinced that Nigeria is careering dangerously to the edge of
the slope except urgent steps are taken to restructure Nigeria from a
unitary constitution to a federal constitution as negotiated by our
founding fathers at independence in 1960, it was resolved as follows:
 “That Yoruba are clear that restructuring does not mean different things
to different people other than that a multi-ethnic country like Nigeria can
only know real peace and development if it is run ONLY along federal
lines.
 “That the greatest imperatives of restructuring Nigeria is to move from a
rent-seeking and money sharing anti-development economy to
productivity by ensuring that the federating units are free to own and
develop their resources. They should pay agreed sums to the federation
purse to implement central services.
 “That the federating units- whether states, zones or regions must
themselves be governed by written constitution to curb impunity at all
levels. Nigeria shall be a federation comprised of six regions and the
Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
 “The Federal Government shall make laws and only have powers in
relation to items specified on the legislative list contained in the
constitution of the Federation. The Regions shall in turn be composed as
states.
 “Each Region shall have its own constitution containing enumerated
exclusive and concurrent legislative lists regarding matters upon which
the regions and the states may act or legislate.
 “Contiguous territories, ethnic nationalities or settlement shall be at
liberty through a plebiscite, to elect to be part of any contiguous region
other than the region in which the current geo-political zone or state
boundaries places them.
 “The power to create states shall be within the exclusive powers of the
region which shall be obliged to create a state provided a plebiscite is
conducted, following a request by an agreed percentage of the residents
of the ethnic nationality within a state.
 “The procedure for conducting a plebiscite and the percentage of any
ethnic nationality shall be out in the regional constitution. The power to
create local governments and assign functions to them shall be vested in
the states.
 “That these agreed positions of the Yoruba taken today shall form the
basis of negotiations with our partners in the Nigerian project for a United
Nigeria based on Justice, peace and fair play,” the communiqué read.
A senior advocate of Nigeria, Chief Niyi Akintola, SAN, moved a motion for
the adoption of the communique, which was unanimously adopted by those
present at the event.73 (See Ibadan Declaration on Restructuring Nigeria titled:
“Yoruba Nation Unify Position On Restructuring, Demand A Return To
Regionalism” Yoruba Agenda summit held in Ibadan, by Yoruba leaders in the
South-west region that converged on the Adamansingba Stadium, Ibadan, Oyo
State.)
However, there have been many groups among the Yorubas agitating for Odua
Republic, insisting that restructuring the country is rather too late.
 The Arewa Position:
The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), the apex socio-cultural organization for
Northern Nigeria, has kicked against calls by senators and governors from the
South, for restructuring of the country, state police and ban on open grazing.
Their main argument was that some of those calling for restructuring are also
championing the call for disintegration of the country.
The North is yet to summon courage to unanimously settle down for

restructuring. She is still prevaricating as a united bloc over restructuring
Nigeria.
(7) The Road to Freedom - Movement for New/No Nigeria (MNN) &
Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination
(NINAS)
If you are trapped or enslaved, in order to get your freedom you first must have
a plan and devise your escape route. The indigenous people of Nigeria have
been trapped up in a Union that produces retardation (backwardness),
corruption, terrorism, fear, and a system that is Apartheid in nature, favouring
some over others, and breeding mediocrity in all things. We have had enough of
it! We want to live free, able to control our lives and our future. MNN-NINAS
are that road to freedom.
 MNN and NINAS – WHO ARE THEY?
MNN is the Movement for New/(No) Nigeria that is, an Alliance comprising of
Middle Belt Congress (MBC), Ilana Omo Oodua (IOO – the Yoruba), and
Lower Niger Congress (LNC). Although each work in individual Blocs, they
come together as the MNN Alliance. It is this MNN Alliance that is the
custodian of our Strategy, the pathway for us to achieve self-determination and
independence, that is: FREEDOM! 74
NINAS stands for the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-
determination. This is the joint multi-ethnic Alliance of the indigenous
PEOPLES that comprise the MNN Alliance territory. That is, the indigenous
PEOPLES of Middle Belt, Oodua and Lower Niger Blocs, in Alliance.
From 1999, the MNN Alliance identified the Mechanisms that keep us
enslaved, the Imposed 1999 Constitution being chief amongst the Mechanisms
and the Alliance’s Strategy is a non-violent, internationally acceptable means to
remove those Mechanisms. It includes Self-determination for each of the
indigenous ethnic nationalities in our Alliance Territory, thus NINAS (as
explained above).75
Self-determination for each of the indigenous ethnic nationalities in our MNN

Alliance is the way to our independence, and will empower us to provide
properly for ourselves, and to give our children the good and safe lives we
desire for them.
MNN-NINAS is a firm and active commitment to creating and maintaining

friendships, alliances and productive unity among all the indigenous people of
our Alliance Territory, both at home and abroad.
 Notice of Constitutional Grievances, Declaration of Constitutional Force

Majeure and Demand for Transitioning Process for an Orderly
Configuration of the Constitutional Basis of the Federation of Nigeria.
(Being the Joint Proclamation of a Sovereignty Dispute by Accredited
Delegates of Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities of the Southern and
Middle Belt Territories of Nigeria, Issued This 16th Day of December
2020 in Lagos).76
 Correcting the Mistake of 1914:
This is the Full text of the Constitutional Force Majeure Declaration of 16th
December 2020, in Lagos, Nigeria by NINAS.
Freedom from Nigeria is a community and community action for NINAS and
our international friends, seeking freedom from all that Nigeria represents,
through Self-determination for the indigenous ethnic nationalities in our
Alliance.
We have a call to action!
The Road to Freedom has already been worked out for us by MNN Alliance.
People who are enslaved and entrapped have a duty to themselves and their
children, to get involved in their own rescue. Such work cannot be left to others
to do while we lie back and watch. There is work to do. There is rising of
awareness to do. Like everything in life, this all needs money too, so we
ourselves must be prepared to fund our own rescue. Our children are relying on
us to prepare a good future for them. So we must act as if we love them.
NOTE: Although these are general words in English vocabulary, here we define
them specifically as they apply to Nigeria, and to the Nigerian context.
Constitution: It is a legal document and the highest law in the country. It is a

contract, a social contract that describes how the ethnic nationalities are to live
together, interact together, and share what they want to.
Self-determination: Self-governance i.e. your own ethnic people being able to

choose/decide the way they want to live, and having the power to decide their
own future.
Ethnic Nationalities: United Nations provides the basis upon which ethnic
groups are identified by ethnic nationality distinct from citizenship or country of
legal nationality but race, colour, language, religion, customs of dress or eating,
tribe, or various combinations of these characteristics.
In the context of Nigeria, the MNN/NINAS have defined 4 ethnic nationalities:
Sharia North, Yoruba, Middle Belt and Lower Niger.
Referendum: A referendum is a direct and universal vote in which an entire

electorate (the people) is invited to vote on a particular proposal (nationwide or
local). In the context of Nigeria, it is a special vote by the people carried out
according to the ETHNIC NATIONALITIES to decide if they want to be in the
Union of Nigeria. So Ijaw decide for Ijaw. Yoruba decide for Yoruba. Igbo
decide for Igbo, etc. (It will be supervised by the United Nations) 77
Force Majeure: a legal term for when something unusual happens that prevents
a contract from being honoured. In the context of the 1999 Nigerian
Constitution, the changes made to the 1963 Constitution that took away the
autonomy of the regions and their self-governance was not made by the will of
the people but by military decree and so is not for the people by the people and
so fraudulent and not binding. Another example is when Arewa took up Islamic
Sharia in a Union supposed to be a secular one, it means the social
contract/Constitution got broken, and so can no longer be kept.
Restructuring: changing the arrangement of Nigeria, this can be done in several

ways, such as by having true Federalism or a Confederation under the current
constitution.
Restructuring vs Self-determination: Restructuring is a change in the

arrangement of Nigeria, while Self-determination is when an ethnic nationality
self-governs and has the power to decide the way their people live.
REFERENCES
1. Samson Toromade, “Atiku Says Only Restructuring Will Save

Nigeria from Becoming Failed State”, Pulse Nigeria, 25 January,
2021.
2. Wale Odunsi, “Balarebe Musa’s Last Words about Nigeria,
Restructuring”, Daily Post Nigeria, 11 November, 2020.
3. Adetutu Falasade-Koyi, “Babangida calls for Restructuring of
Nigeria, Says Only Solution Now”, 9NewNigeria, 27 June, 2017.
4. Ifreke Inyang, “We Have No Excuse…for Restructuring of
Nigeria”, Daily Post, 1 November, 2020.
5. “APC Report on Restructuring”, Vanguard, 22 November, 2020.
6. “Pragmatic Steps Towards Restructuring Nigeria”, Being Text of
Speech by Pastor Tunde Bakare at the State of the Nation
Broadcast on Sunday, 1 October, 2017. Venue: The Latter Rain
Assembly End Time Church, Lagos.
7. Tunde Bakare, “The Gathering Storm and Avoidable Shipwreck
– How to Avoid Catastrophic Euroclydon”, The Paradigm, 5
January, 2015.
10.“Pragmatic Steps Towards Restructuring Nigeria”, Being Text of
11.“Buhari and Jonathan Constitutional Conference Document”,
Business Hallmark, 15 June, 2015.
12.“ Restructuring”, Wikipedia, Accessed 19 September, 2017.
13.Tunde Bakare, “Pragmatic Steps toward Restructuring”, Being
Text of Speech by Pastor Tunde Bakare at the State of the Nation
14.“IGR: 36 States Generate N682 bn”, Vanguard, 27 June 2016.
Accessed 10 September 2017.
https//www.vanguard.com/2016/06/igr/36-states-generate-N682-
billion.
15.David Mark, “The Unity of Nigeria is not Negotiable”,
BellaNaija.com, 22 September, 2017.
16.“NATIONAL CONFAB: Key Issues Before Northern
Delegates”, Vanguard, 12 September, 2017.
17.HRH Dr. Muhammadu Barkindo Mustapha, Lamido of
Adamawa led the delegates of the Northern Region to the
Constitutional Confab and threatened to walk out if the
modalities of voting for resolutions at the conference were not
resolved.
18.Tunde Bakare, a delegate from South West at the Confab made
the submission.
19.Pastor Tunde Bakare’s reference to his experiences in his
narrative of the North-South dimension of Nigerian Question is
brought to the fore.
22.Obafemi Awolowo, “Part to Nigerian Freedom”,
st
www.britannica.com. 1 published in 1947.
23.Tafawa Balewa address the Legislative Council in 1948
explaining that Nigeria’s unity is only a British intention for the
country.
24.Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sarduana of Sokoto and the Premier of the
Northern Region said: “The new nation called Nigeria should be
an estate of our great grand father Uthman Dan Fodio, …” See
The Parrot, 12 October, 1960.
25.Sir Ahmadu Bello reminded the Legislative Council that Nigeria
was a mere collection of communities very different in outlook
and mode of life.
26.Anthony Enahoro raised an independence proposal to the
Legislative Council demanding Nigeria’s freedom from the
British with effect from 1956; the North amended it to read: “as
soon as practicable”.
27.The consequences of the North’s rejection of Enahoro’s “1956
independence request” made the Southern delegates to walk out
of the conference; subsequently, Northern delegates were openly
ridiculed and derided in Lagos.
28.Following from (33), the North threatened secession, presented 8-
point programme, emphasizing regional autonomy.
29.Reprts have it that the former colonial masters tilted the ethno-
political balance in the interest of the North.
30.Nkom Paul Yashim, “The Northernisation Policy and its Effects
on Inter-Group Relations in Kaduna Metropolis from 1958-
1966”, etamagazine.com
31.By applying Northern Indigenization Policy, the Northerners
were exclusively prioritised for public service roles. Where there
were no qualified northerners, the opportunity would be extended
to an expatriate as the first option, in the absence of which
considerations could be extended to other nationalities in Nigeria
but only on contractual basis.
32.The North’s affirmative action policy (of 37 above) was received
by the South as discriminatory.
33.Feyi Fawehinmi, “The Story of How Nigeria’s Census Figures
Became Weaponized”, QuartzAfrica, 6 March, 2018.
34.Samuel Osaretin Uwaifo, “Ethnicity and Development of
Political Parties in Nigeria”, Department of Political Science and
Public Administration, Babcock University, Illisan Remo, Ogun
State, Nigeria, Journal of Poverty, Investment and Development.
35.“Pastor Tunde Bakare: Message For Buhari on How to Rebuild
Nigeria”, PM News, 25 October, 2020.
36.“Pastor Tunde Bakare: Message For Buhari on How to Rebuild
Nigeria”, PM News, 25 October, 2020.
37.“Northern Youths Declare War on Igbos in the North, ask them
to Leave within Three Months”, SaharaReporters NY, 6 June,
2017.
38.Wale Akinola, “Buhari’s Loyalists Condemn ‘Lopsided’
Appointments in South West”, LegitNigeriaNews, 2015.
42.“The Meeting of the Supreme Military Council” at Aburi, Ghana
on 4 – 5 January 1967, printed by the Government Printer –
Enugu.
43.Max Siollun, “Aburi: The ‘Sovereign National Conference’ that
Got Away”, iNigerian.com, 21 May, 2007.
46.Col. Chuwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu was quoted by Max
Siollun.
55.“The Meeting of the Supreme Military Council” at Aburi, Ghana
Enugu.
56. “The Meeting of the Supreme Military Council” at Aburi, Ghana
Enugu.
58.Dubbed by Igbo intelligentsia as the “Famous Awka Declaration”
was the high points of years of brainstorming exercise by leaders
of all the arms of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation –
Ohaneze Ndigbo articulated what they purported to be the stand
of Ndigbo in the envisaged restructured Nigeria project.
59.The Rainbow, “Ohaneze Faction Backs IPOB’s Eastern Security
Network”, The Nigerian Voice, 18 January, 2021.
60.The Rainbow, “Ohaneze Faction Backs IPOB’s Eastern Security
Network”, The Nigerian Voice, 18 January, 2021.
61.Dr. Clifford Chukwuemeka Iroanya, “Analysing/Deconstructing
Ohaneze Ndigbo’s so-called Igbo Position on Restructuring the
Nigerian Federation”, Atlantic Post, 22 May, 2018.
69.Yoruba Position on Restructuring: Return to Regional
Government as well as the Federal System of Government of the
1960 and 1963 Constitution.
70.Yoruba Position on Restructuring: Return to Regional
Government as well as the Federal System of Government of the
1960 and 1963 Constitution.
71.See Chief Afe Babalola, SAN, Chairman of the Summit on
Yoruba Position on Restructuring.
72.See Chief Afe Babalola, SAN, Chairman of the Summit on
Yoruba Position on Restructuring.
73.Mr. Yinka Odumakin read out a communiqué jointly signed by
Babalola and chairman of the planning committee warning that
Nigeria “is careering dangerously to the edge of the slope” and
required urgent remedial actions to restructure from a unitary
constitution to a federal constitution as was the case at
independence in 1960. See also Ibadan Declaration on
Restructuring Nigeria: “Yoruba Nation Unify Position on
Restructuring, Demand A Return to Regionalism”, Yoruba
Agenda Summit held in Ibadan, on the Adamansingba Stadium,
Ibadan – Oyo State Nigeria.
74.The Road to Freedom – Movement for New/No Nigeria (MNN)
& Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-
Determination (NINAS).
PART THREE: “FULANISATION” OF NIGERIA AND
“ISLAMIZATION” OF BLACK AFRICA
Chapter 8: TERRORISM IN NIGERIA (The rise of Islamic Fundamentalism in

Nigeria)
“You’re useless; May your kind be purged from the land” – Islamic cleric, Adam Albani
blasts President Buhari over insecurity, tyranny
“If we have a faith worth living for, it is a faith worth dying for. Don’t YOUcompromise the
faith that WE are living and dying for” – Arch Bishop Ben Kwashi
For individuals, groups and states, the use of terror or violence has served, is
serving different purposes. In a fundamental sense, terrorism or the use of terror
is not entirely a new phenomenon. The impact of terrorism reverberates in
almost all nooks and crannies of the earth. Ironically, efforts geared towards
curbing terrorism and terror open new vistas.
The rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Nigeria has arisen; it’s rising with little
or no sign of abetting. It suffices that one of the greatest security challenges
facing Nigeria is acts of terrorism perpetrated by the Boko Haram and the
Fulani herders.1
In order to understand the genesis of Boko Haram, it is important to reflect on

two principal reasons Dr. Clifford explained about Boko Haram. According to
him: “First, the sect existence and activities are well known than its breakaway
faction, the Jama'atu Ansarul Musilimina Fi Biladis Sudan (or Ansaru), which
roughly translates as "Vanguards for the Protection of Muslims in Black
Africa". Second, and as a corollary to the above, its violent exploits have earned
it the official designation as a terrorist group in Nigeria, the US and Canada”2.
Between 2003 and 2004, this terrorist group received very little attention from
local and international media and scholars, even when it intermittently launched
loosely coordinated hit-and-run attacks on police posts in remote parts of Borno
and Yobe states, north-eastern Nigeria.
In July 2009, Boko Haram terrorist group received world attention when it
staged a violent anti-government uprising that killed over 800 people including
civilians, group’s members, and security personnel. The revolt attracted one of
the heaviest and ruthless security crackdowns in Nigerian history.
“The five-day revolt ended only when BH’s charismatic leader, Mohammed Yusuf,
was captured and subsequently executed by the police while in custody. The events
that occurred in 2009 are important for understanding the current phase of BH,
particularly the cause of its grievance against the Nigerian government. The group
felt that the killing of Yusuf under police custody was unjust and extrajudicial, and
vied to avenge the death of their leader and other members who perished through
police shooting during the 2009 uprising. To this end, over the past years, the group’s
tactics have evolved from poorly planned open confrontations with state security
forces to increasing use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), targeted
assassinations, ambush, drive-by shootings and suicide bombings.”3
Boko Haram attacks have focused mainly on security and law enforcement
agents – police, soldiers, civil defence and prison warders, among others.
Civilians, critical public infrastructure, community and religious leaders,
politicians, centres of worship, markets, public schools, hospitals, tertiary
institutions, media houses and other civilian targets that have nothing to do with
the government have also been targeted. Although Boko Haram insurgency
started as a national crisis, it however gained international character due to four
important developments:4
 First, the alleged declaration in March 2010 by the Boko Haram, that it is
joining Al Qaeda to avenge the murder of some of its members and leaders in
a series of explosions across Nigeria.
 Second, the suicide attack at the United Nations building in Abuja, on 26
August 2011, demonstrated its tendency to target foreign interests in Nigeria.
 Third, the designation of three of its leaders – Abubakar Shekau, Abubakar
Adam Kambar and Khalid al-Barnawi – as global terrorists by the US State
Department on 21 June 2012, representing the international dimension of the
group.
 Fourth, the 19 February 2013 kidnapping of seven members of a French
family – Moulin-Fournier family – in Dabanga, northern Cameroon, by the
BH.
The above presentation therefore is an initial analysis of BH terrorist activities

in Nigeria which focuses on, among other critical issues, its evolution and
ideology; organisation and transformation; mode of recruitment and
radicalisation; sources of funding; and operational tactics. Also highlights are
the various kinetic and non-kinetic counterterrorism measures adopted by the
Nigerian government. It concludes with some recommendations for
strengthening responses to the crisis in Nigeria.
2. Understanding the Boko Haram
Controversy dog the exact date of BH emergence. The historical root of the BH,
though not completely exclusive, could be traced to three major contending
accounts:5
 The first or ‘remotest’ account traces its origin to the “Maitatsine”

uprisings of the early 1980s, inspired by Cameroonian dissident preacher
Muhammadu Marwa. This account, which is common to the works of
scholars focusing on Islamic revivalism in northern Nigeria, presents the
BH as the latest incarnation of the Maitatsine, given that it shared with
the Maitatsine the same ideological opposition to modernization and
abhorrence of anything perceived as Western. More so, it is claimed that
Mohammed Yusuf’s biological father was an active member of Maitasine
group.
 The second or ‘remote’ account traces its historical root to 1995, when
Abubakar Lawan established the Ahlulsunna wal’jama’ahhijra or
Shabaab group (Muslim Youth Organisation) in Maduigiri, Borno State.
This account, which is popular with security and intelligence operatives
in Nigeria, maintains that the sect operated as a non-violent movement
until when Abubakar Lawan left to pursue further studies in Saudi
Arabia. Mohammed Yusuf assumed leadership of the sect in 2002,
shortly afterwards.
 The third or ‘recent’ account of its emergence traces its origin to 2002,
when Mohammed Yusuf emerged as the leader of the group. This
account, which is very common with the media, attaches special attention
to the sect’s exploits beginning from 2002 when it was referred to as the
‘Nigerian Taliban’.
 Notwithstanding the various accounts, the key to understanding the
challenge posed by the BH lies on the life and death of Mohammed
Yusuf. To be sure, since its emergence, the group has metamorphosed
under various names like the Nigerian Taliban, Muhajirun, Yusufiyyah
sect, BH and lately as Jama’atu Ahlissunnah Lidda’awati wal Jihad. Its
metamorphosis over the years will be discussed in greater details later in
the presentation.
3. Timeline on the Boko Haram Insurgency in
Nigeria6
Religious violence in Nigeria before the Boko Haram Insurgency
 2000
 February 21 – May 23 – 2000 Kaduna riots – between 1,000 and 5,000

people are killed in sectarian rioting between Christians and Muslims in
Kaduna following the introduction of Sharia law into the state
 2001
 September 7–17 – 2001 Jos riots – nearly 1,000 people are killed
following sectarian rioting between Christians and Muslims in Jos, Plateau
State.
 2002
 November 20–23 – Miss World riots – around 250 are killed during
rioting by Islamists across northern Nigeria as a response to an article
deemed blasphemous.
 Mohammed Yusuf founds the organization that will become Boko

Haram.
 2004
 February 4 – Yelwa massacre – 78 Christians are massacred in Yelwa,

Kebbi State.
 May 2 – Yelwa massacre – roughly 630 Muslims are massacred in Yelwa

as a reprisal attack from February.
 2008
 November 28–29 – 2008 Jos riots – 381 people are killed in sectarian
rioting between Christians and Muslims in Jos.
 2010
 January 17 – March 7 – 2010 Jos riots – around 992 people are killed in
sectarian rioting between Christians and Muslims in Jos.
 Timeline of the Boko Haram Insurgency in Nigeria
 2009
 July 26–29 – 2009 Boko Haram uprising – nearly 1,000 people are killed
in clashes between Boko Haram militants and Nigerian soldiers in four
locations in the north of the country – Bauchi in Bauchi State, Maiduguri in
Borno State, Potiskum in Yobe State and Wudil in Kano State – beginning
the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria.
 July 30 – Mohammed Yusuf, spiritual leader of Boko Haram, is

summarily executed by men of the Nigerian Police after he had been handed
over to them by Nigerian soldiers a day before following the recent uprising.
Abubakar Shekau takes control of the movement.
 2010
 September 7 – Bauchi prison break – 5 people are killed and 721 inmates
are freed from prison in Bauchi by suspected Boko Haram gunmen.
 December 24 – 2010 Jos and Maiduguri attacks - 80 people were killed in

a series of bombings in the city of Jos.
 December 29 – Boko Haram killed three police officers and two civilians
in Maiduguri.
 December 31 – December 2010 Abuja attack – a bomb attack outside a

barracks in Abuja kills four civilians.
 2011
 May 29 – May 2011 northern Nigeria bombings- 15 people are killed in

Abuja and Bauchi after bombs explode in several towns in northern Nigeria
during Goodluck Jonathan's swearing in as the new president.
 June 16 – 2011 Abuja police headquarters bombing – at least two people,

the perpetrator and a traffic policeman, are killed in a failed bombing of
Abuja's police headquarters. It is Nigeria's first suicide bombing.
 June 20 – Boko Haram attacked a bank in Kankara killing seven people.
 July 3 – Boko Haram attacked in Maiduguri killed 10 people.

 July 9 – Government troops killed 11 Boko Haram terrorists in
Maiduguri.
 August 19 – Boko Haram attack in Maiduguri killed three police and one
civilian.
 August 25 – Boko Haram attacked banks and police stations in Gombi

killing 12 people.
 August 26 – 2011 Abuja United Nations bombing – 21 people are killed

in a bombing attack on a United Nations compound in Abuja.
 November 4 – 2011 Damaturu attacks – between 100 and 150 people are
killed in a series of coordinated assaults in northern Nigeria.
 December 15 – Boko Haram attacked a Military school near Kano killing

four officers.
 December 17 – Boko Haram battled with the police in Kano killing three
police and four militants.
 December 22–23 – December 2011 Nigeria clashes – 68 people, of whom

are 50 militants, at least 7 soldiers, and 11 civilians, are killed in clashes
between Boko Haram militants and Nigerian soldiers in Maiduguri and
Damaturu.
 December 25 – December 2011 Nigeria bombings – 41 people are killed

by Boko Haram bomb attacks and shootings on churches.
 2012
 During 2012, 792 people were killed as a result of the Boko Haram
insurgency.
 January
 January 5–6 – January 2012 Northern Nigeria attacks – around 37

Christians are targeted and killed by Boko Haram militants.
 January 9 – Boko Haram killed four police officers and four civilian in
Potiskum.
 January 20 – January 2012 Northern Nigeria attacks, 183 people, of
whom at least 150 are civilians and 32 are police officers, are killed in Kano
State by Boko Haram gunmen.
 January 28 – The Nigerian military killed 11 Boko Haram terrorists in

Maiduguri.
 February
 February 8 – Boko Haram suicide bomber damaged the military

headquarters in Kaduna, but resulted in to casulties.
 February 20 – Eight Boko Haram terrorist were killed by the military in

Maiduguri.
 February 27 – Boko Haram attacked a police station and a bank in the

town of Jama’are killing three police.
 April
 April 8 – April 2012 Kaduna bombings – 38 people are killed following a

bombing at a church in Kaduna.
 April 29 – Boko Haram killed 20 people in churches across northern

Nigeria.
 April 30 – Boko Haram attacked a police convoy in Jalingo killing 11

people.
 June
 June 3 – Boko Haram killed nine people in a suicide bombing of a church

in Bauchi state.
 June 5–6 – Soldiers killed 16 Boko Haram terrorists in Maiduguri.
 June 8 – Boko Haram killed five people in a suicide bombing of a police

headquarters in Maiduguri.
 June 17 – June 2012 Kano church bombings – around 40 Christians are

killed by Boko Haram at churches in Kano.
 June 17 – June 2012 Kaduna church bombings – 19 people are killed

following bomb attacks against three churches in Kaduna.
 June 17 – Boko Haram killed 150 people across Plateau state.
 July
 July 13 – Boko haram killed five People in a suicide bombing of mosque

a in Maiduguri.
 August
 August 5 – Boko haram killed six soldiers and two civilian in a suicide
bombing of a convoy in Damaturu.
 August 7 – Deeper Life Church shooting – 19 people are killed when

Boko Haram gunmen raid a church in Kogi State.
 August 8 – Two Nigerian soldiers and one civilian are killed in a mosque
in an apparent reprisal attack for yesterday's massacre.
 August 12 – A battle between Boko Haram and the government in

Maiduguri killed 20 terrorists and one government soldier.
 September
 September 7 – Soldiers killed seven Boko Haram Terrorists in Maiduguri.
 September 24 – Soldiers killed 35 Boko Haram Terrorists in Adamawa

and Yobe states.
 October
 October 1–2 – Federal Polytechnic, Mubi attack – at least 25 people were

killed at the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi, Adamawa State.
 October 7 – Soldiers killed 30 Boko Haram Terrorists in Damaturu.
 November
 November 9 – Boko Haram killed three police men in an attack on their

police station near Damaturu.
 November 25 – 11 people were killed in a Boko Haram suicide bombing

on a military barracks in Jaji.
 November 26 – Boko Haram attacked a police station in Abuja killing

two police officers.
 December
 December 1–2 – Boko Haram attacked the village of Chibok killing 10

and killed five police in Gamboru Ngala.
 December 24 – Boko Haram killed six people at a church in the village of

Peri.
 December 25 – December 2012 shootings in Northern Nigeria – 27

Christians are killed in Maiduguri and Potiskum by suspected Boko Haram
militants.
 December 28 – Another 15 Christians are killed in the village of Musari

by unknown gunmen.
 2013
 2013 fatalities were at least 1,000–1,007:
 January
 January 1 – Nigerian Army raid kills 13 militants.
 January 2 – Boko Haram attacked a police station in the town of Song.
 January 4 – Ogun prison break, 15 inmates are freed in a prison break in

Ogun State. Boko Haram is not suspected to be involved in the attack.
 January 21–22 – Boko Haram killed 23 civilians in Damboa.
 February
 February 1 – Soldiers battled with Boko Haram in Borno state killing 17

terrorists and one soldier.
 February 8 – Attack on polio vaccinators kills 9 women.
 March
 March 3–20 Boko Haram terrorists were killed in a government operation

in the village of Monguno.
 March 18 – 2013 Kano bus bombing- between 22 and 65 people are

killed in Kano by a car bombing.
 March 31 – The Government battled with Boko Haram in Kano state
resulting in the deaths of 14 terrorists and one soldier.
 April
 April 16 – 2013 Baga massacre – 187 people are killed in Baga in Borno
State. It is unclear whether the Nigerian military or Boko Haram is
responsible for the massacre.
 April 19–20 – An unknown number of people were killed in a battle

between Boko Haram and the government in the town of Baga.
 May
 May 7 – Boko Haram attacked military barracks, a prison, and a police

station in the town of Bama. The attack killed 22 police, 14 prison guards,
Two soldiers, four civilians, and 13 terrorists. In total this attack killed 55
people.
 May 14 – 53 people were killed by Boko Haram in Benue state. The

government also began offensive operations in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa
states on the 14th.
 June
 June – 9 children are killed in Maiduguri and 13 students and teachers are
killed in Damaturu by Boko Haram.
 June 30 – Ondo prison break – 2 people are killed and 121 inmates escape
following a prison break in Ondo State. Claims that Boko Haram took part in
the attack are dispelled.
 July
 July 6 – Yobe State school shooting – more than 42 are killed by Boko
Haram gunmen in a Yobe State school. Boko Haram also attacked a police
station and a bank in the town of Karim Lamido killing three police officers.
July 27 – 20 people were killed by Boko Haram in the town of Baga.
 July 29 – 12 people were killed by Boko Haram in Kano.
 August
 August 4–5 – Boko Haram attacked military base in the town of Malam
Fatori and a police station in the town of Bama. The attack left 32 terrorists,
Two soldiers, and one police officer dead.
 August 11 – Konduga mosque shooting – 44 people are killed and 26

others injured in a mass shooting by Boko Haram in a mosque in Konduga,
Borno State.
 August 15 – Boko Haram killed 11 people in the town of Damboa.
 August 19 – Boko Haram killed 44 people in the village of Demba.
 August 30 – Boko Haram killed 24 pro-government militiamen near the

town of Monguno.
 September
 September 4–5 – Boko Haram killed 15 people in the town of Gajiram

and five people in the village of Bulabilin Ngaura.
 September 6 – A government operation in Borno state killind 50

Terrorits.
 September 8 – There was a battle between a pro-government militia and

Boko Haram in the town of Benisheik resulting in an unknown amount of
casualties.
 September 12 – Ambush by Boko Haram leaves 40 soldiers dead.
 September 12–18 – An offensive by Nigerian Army leaves 150 Islamists

and 16 soldiers dead.
 September 17 – Boko Haram killed 143 on the road between Maiduguri

and Damaturu.
 September 19 – Benisheik massacre – 161 are killed in attacks in Borno

State blamed on Boko Haram.
 September 19 – Boko Haram killed 16 on the road between Maiduguri

and Damboa.
 September 20 – An Abuja shootout leaves 7 killed.

 September 29 – Gujba college massacre – more than 50 students are
killed in Yobe State by Boko Haram gunmen
 October
 October 5 – The Nigerian military and Boko haram battled in the city of
Damboa killing 20 people.
 October 10 – An attack at Damboa leaves at least 20 killed (15 suspected

militants and 5 civilians).
 October 10 – An attack in the town of Logumani killed 19.
 October – Government forces raid rebel camps, killing around 101 Boko
Haram fighters.
 October 24 – Nigeria troops killed 74 Boko Haram terrorists in the

villages of Galangi and Lawanti.
 October 29 – Boko Haram raids Damaturu. At least 128 people are killed
(95 militants, 23 soldiers, 8 policemen, and 2 civilians).
 October 31 – Boko Haram killed 27 people in the village of Gulumba.
 November
 November 2 – Boko Haram killed 13 people in the village of village of T-

Junction.
 November 2 – Boko Haram killed 30 people in a wedding convoy near

the town of Bama.
 November 9 – Clashes between Boko Haram and the Nigeria military

killed five terrorists and two Nigerian soldiers.
 November 13 – The USA designated Boko Haram as a "foreign terrorist

organizations."
 November 23 – 12 were killed in the village of Sandiya after a Boko

Haram attack.
 November 28 – 50 Boko Haram terrorist were killed by government

troops around Gwoza hills.
 December
 December 2 – Boko Haram attacked several military bases in Maiduguri
killed several people.
 December 20 – Boko Haram attacked a military barracks in the town of

Bama killing 20 soldiers.
 December 23 – A battle between Boko Haram and the Nigerian military

near the border with Cameroon killed 50 terrorists, 15 Nigerian soldiers, and
five civilians.
 December 28 – Nigerian troops killed 56 Boko Haram terrorists in Alafa

forest.
 December 29 – Eight people were killed by Boko Haram in the village of

Tashan Alade.
 2014
 January
 January 14– 35 people are killed in a bombing by Boko Haram militants

in Maiduguri, Borno State.
 January 26 – January 2014 Northern Nigeria attacks – 138 killed in total
 January 31 – 11 Christians killed in Chakawa by Boko Haram militants.
 February
 February 14 – Borno massacre – 121 Christian villagers killed by Boko

Haram militants in Konduga, Borno State.
 February 15 – Izghe attack – 106 killed the village of Izghe, Borno State
by Boko Haram gunmen.
 February 15 – 90 Christians and 9 Nigerian soldiers are killed in Gwosa

by Boko Haram.
 February 24 – Dozens killed as Boko Haram again raids Izghe.
 February 25 – Federal Government College attack – 59 male students

killed in a school massacre in Yobe State.
 February 26 – Boko Haram attacked the towns of Michika, Shuwa, and

Kirchinga killing 37 civilians, Six terrorists were also killed.
 March
 March 14 – Boko Haram attacks the heavily fortified Giwa military

barracks in Maiduguri, freeing comrades from a detention facility. The
military then executes about 600 unarmed recaptured detainees, according to
Amnesty International.
 April
 April 14 – April 2014 Abuja bombing – over 88 people killed in a twin

bombing attack in Abuja.
 April 15 – Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping – 276 female students in Borno

State are kidnapped by Boko Haram.
 May
 May 1 – May 2014 Abuja bombing – 19 killed in Abuja by a car bomb.
 May 5 – 2014 Gamboru Ngala attack – at least 300 people are killed in
the twin towns of Gamboru and Ngala in Borno State by Boko Haram
militants.
 May 20 – 2014 Jos bombings – at least 118 villagers are killed by car
bombs in the city of Jos.
 May 21 – 27 villagers are killed by Boko Haram gunmen in northeastern

Nigeria.
 May 27 – May 2014 Buni Yadi attack – 49 security personnel and 9

civilians are killed during a Boko Haram attack on a military base in Yobe
State.
 May 30 – The third emir of Gwoza, Idrissa Timta, is assassinated during

a Boko Haram ambush.
 June
 June 1 – 2014 Mubi bombing – at least 40 people are killed by a bomb in

Mubi.
 June 2 – Gwoza massacre – at least 200, mostly Christians, are killed in

several villages in Borno State by Boko Haram.
 June 20–23 – June 2014 Borno State attacks – at 70 people are killed and
91 women and children kidnapped by Boko Haram militants in Borno State.
 June 23–25 – June 2014 central Nigeria attacks – around 171 people are
killed in a series of attacks in the Middle Belt of Nigeria.
 June 26 – Over 100 militants are killed by the Nigerian military during a
raid on two Boko Haram camps.
 June 28 – 11 people are killed by a bomb in Bauchi.
 July
 July 18 – At least 18 are killed by a Boko Haram attack in Damboa,

leaving the town almost destroyed.
 July 22 – 51 people are killed by Boko Haram in Chibok.
 September
 September 12 – Battle of Konduga
 September 19 – Around 30 people are killed by Boko Haram militants at

a busy market in Mainok, Borno State.
 October
 October 10 – Lagos prison break – one inmate is killed following a failed

attack to free inmates in a Lagos prison. Boko Haram is not suspected to be
involved in the attack.
 October 31 – At least 4 people are killed, 32 injured and 13 vehicles

destroyed by an explosion at a bus station in Gombe.
 November
 November 2 – Kogi prison break – 99 inmates in Kogi State are freed by

suspected Boko Haram rebels.
 November 3–10 – 2014 Yobe State attacks – a double suicide bombing in

Yobe State kills 15 Shiites on the 3rd and 46 students on the 10th.
 November 25 – Over 45 people are killed by two suicide bombers in

Maiduguri, Borno State.[33]
 November 27 – Around 50 people are killed in Damasak by Boko Haram
militants.[34]
 November 28 – 2014 Kano bombing – at least 120 Muslim followers of

the Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II, are killed during a suicide bombing
and gun attack by Boko Haram. The 4 gunmen are subsequently killed by an
angry mob.
 November 30 – Ekiti prison break – 274 inmates escape a prison in Ekiti.

Claims that Boko Haram perpetrated the attack are refuted.
 December
 December 1 – at least 5 people are killed by two female suicide bombers

who detonated explosions at a crowded market place in Maiduguri, Borno
State.
 December 6 – Minna prison break, 270 prisoners are freed from a prison
in Minna. Boko Haram is not suspected to be involved in the attack.
 December 10 – At least 4 people are killed and 7 injured by female

suicide bombers near a market in Kano.
 December 11–30 people are killed and houses are destroyed by Boko
Haram militants in Gajiganna, Borno State.
 December 13 – 2014 Gumsuri kidnappings, between 32 and 35 are killed

and between 172 and 185 are kidnapped by Boko Haram in Borno State.
 December 22 – 2014 Gombe bus station bombing, at least 27 people are

killed at a bus station by a bomb in Gombe State.
 December 28–29 – December 2014 Cameroon clashes, 85 civilians, 94

militants, and 2 Cameroonian soldiers are killed following a failed Boko
Haram offensive into Cameroon's Far North Region.
 2015
 January
 January 1 – Cameroon bus attack – Boko Haram militants attack a bus in

Waza, Cameroon, killing eleven people and injuring six.
 January 3–7 – 2015 Baga massacre – Boko Haram militants raze the
entire town of Baga in north-east Nigeria. Bodies lay strewn on Baga's
streets with as many as 2,000 people having been killed. Boko Haram now
controls 70% of Borno State, which is the worst-affected by the insurgency.
 January 3 – Fleeing villagers from a remote part of the Borno State report
that Boko Haram had three days prior kidnapped around 40 boys and young
men.
 January 4 – The Chadian military launched an offensive that resulted in

the deaths of 200 terrorists and nine Chadian personnel.
 January 5 – News emerges that two days prior hundreds of Boko Haram
militants had overrun several towns in northeast Nigeria and captured the
military base in Baga.
 January 9 – Refugees flee Nigeria's Borno State following the Boko

Haram massacre in the town of Baga. 7,300 flee to neighbouring Chad while
over 1,000 are trapped on the island of Kangala in Lake Chad. Nigeria's
army vows to recapture the town, while Niger and Chad withdraw their
forces from a transnational force tasked with combating militants.
 January 10 – A female suicide bomber, believed to be around 10 years

old, kills herself and 19 others, possibly against her will, at a market in the
northeastern city of Maiduguri, Nigeria.
 January 11 – More female suicide bombers, this time two, and again each
believed to be around 10 years old, kill themselves and three others at a
market in the northeastern city of Potiskum, Nigeria.
 January 12 – January 2015 Kolofata raid – Boko Haram militants launch

a failed raid on Kolofata in Cameroon. The Cameroonian military claims the
army lost only one officer while the Islamic group lost between 143 and 300
rebels.
 January 16 – The Military of Chad enters Cameroon to assist in fighting

against Boko Haram insurgents.
 January 17 – Following the January 16 Chad authorities decision to send

troops to Nigeria and Cameroon to fight Boko Haram militants, the Russian
ambassador to the country pledges to supply Cameroon with more modern
weapons to combat the Islamist insurgents.
 January 18 – Boko Haram militants kidnap 80 people and kill three others
from villages in north Cameroon.
 January 20 – Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau claims responsibility

for the attack on the town of Baga, Nigeria in which an unknown number of
civilians were killed.[47]
 January 24 – 15 people are killed as Boko Haram gunmen attempt to burn

down the village of Kambari near Maidaguri.
 January 25 – Boko Haram rebels launch a large offensive against

Nigerian forces in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, leading to the
deaths of at least 8 civilians, up to 53 militants, and an unknown number of
soldiers. Although the attack fails, the rebels manage to capture the nearby
strategic town of Monguno. The status of the 1,400 soldiers stationed in
Monguno is unknown. As a result of these attacks, Boko Haram now
controls four out of five roads leading into the major city, prompting fears
that it will be taken as well.
 January 28 – Boko Haram fighters killed 40 people while on a rampage in

Adamawa State.
 January 29 – The Nigerian military, in collaboration with Chadian

soldiers, captures the border town of Michika from Boko Haram rebels.
 January 31 – The African Union pledges to send up to 7,500 international

soldiers to aid Nigeria's fight against Boko Haram. Chadian forces claim to
have killed 120 Boko Haram fighters while losing only 3 soldiers of their
own during fighting in the north of Cameroon.
 February
 February 1 – Boko Haram again attacks the capital city of Borno State,
Maiduguri. This time, the city is attacked from four out of the five sides. The
attack is unsuccessful, but many civilians inside the city panic. Also, a
suspected Boko Haram suicide bomber kills himself and eight others at the
residence of a politician in Potiskum. Another suicide bomber kills five
people outside a mosque in Gombe.
 February 2 – A female suicide bomber attacks minutes after the President
of Nigeria leaves an election rally in the city of Gombe resulting in at least
one death and eighteen people injured.
 February 4 – Boko Haram militants reportedly raid the Cameroonian

town of Fotokol in Cameroon's Far North Region with scores of people
killed. Also on February 4, the Chad Army claims to have killed 200
militants and lost nine soldiers while capturing the border town of Gamboru
Ngala.
 February 6 – 2015 Niger raid – Boko Haram forces launch raids on the
towns of Bosso and Diffa, both in Niger, marking the first time that the
group has attacked the country. The Chadian military assists the Nigerien
Armed Forces in repelling the attack. 5 Nigeriens are killed while the
government claims 109 Boko Haram militants are killed as well.
 February 7 – Nigeria postpones its general election for six weeks to allow
its armed forces to control parts of the country currently controlled by Boko
Haram.
 February 9 – Boko Haram launch a raid on a prison in the town of Diffa

in Niger. Authorities repel the attack.
 February 12 – The West African Allied Forces, led by Nigeria and

supported by Cameroon, Chad, and Niger, invade the Sambisa Forest in
Borno State, a stronghold of Boko Haram, killing scores of the insurgents.
Elsewhere, the town of Mbuta, 15 miles northeast of Maiduguri, is raided by
Boko Haram, resulting in the deaths of 8 residents. A dozen people are also
killed in a suicide blast at Biu, 100 miles southwest of Maiduguri.
 February 13 – Boko Haram militants attack Chad for the first time after
30 fighters crossed Lake Chad in four motorboats and attacked the village of
Ngouboua. Chad recently joined Nigeria, Niger, and Cameroon in a military
coalition against Boko Haram.
 February 14 – Boko Haram forces assault Gombe, the capital city of

Gombe State, for the first time. The Nigerian military repels the attack,
although the militants managed to overrun a checkpoint on the edge of the
city before retreating. The attack coincides with the beginning of a Nigerian
offensive to roll back Boko Haram forces around the northeast.
 February 15 – A suicide bomber kills 16 and wounds 30 in the Nigerian
city of Damaturu.
 February 16 – Nigeria regains the key town of Monguno from Boko

Haram. The town had previously fallen to the militants on January 25.
 February 18 – The Nigerian Army claims to have killed 300 militants in

northeastern Nigeria. A warplane bombs a funeral ceremony in Niger killing
37 civilians. The warplane remains unidentified, with the Nigerian
government denying responsibility.
 February 20 – Boko Haram militants kill 34 people in attacks across

Borno State, 21 from the town of Chibok.
 February 21 – Nigerian army retakes Baga, which had fallen to Boko

Haram on January 3.
 February 22 – A suicide bomber kills five and wounds dozens outside a

market in Potiskum.
 February 24 – February 2015 Potiskum and Kano bombings - Two

suicide bombers kill at least 27 people at bus stations in Potiskum and Kano.
 February 24 – Chadian soldiers kill over 200 Boko Haram fighters in a

clash near the town of Gambaru, close to Nigeria's border with Cameroon.
One Chad Army soldier is killed and nine are wounded.
 February 26 – At least 35 people are killed in two attacks targeting the

cities of Biu and Jos.
 February 28 – Two female suicide bombers kill up to four civilians near

Damaturu.
 March
 March 2 – A senior military officer claims that 73 Boko Haram militants

disguised as herders were killed near Kondunga town in Borno State. In
addition, the Chadian military recaptures the town of Dikwa, also in Borno
State.
 March 7 – Five suicide bomb blasts leave 54 dead and 143 wounded in
Maiduguri. After the explosions, Boko Haram formally declares allegiance
to Islamic State.
 March 7 – Boko Haram pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq
and Syria.
 March 8 – Forces from Niger and Chad launch a ground and air offensive
against Boko Haram Islamist militants in northeastern Nigeria.
 March 9 – Chadian and Nigerien forces retake the towns of Malam

Fatouri and Damasak in northeastern Nigeria.
 March 13 – The Nigerian government admits to using foreign

mercenaries in the fight against Boko Haram.
 March 16 – Nigeria, Chad, and Niger begin a battle to liberate Damasak

from Boko Haram militants.
 March 17 – The Nigerian military reclaims the small city of Bama from
Boko Haram.
 March 18 – Battle of Damasak; Damasak massacre - Niger and Chad

capture the city of Damasak following a successful battle. A mass grave of
90 people is discovered in the city.
 March 21 – Chadian forces establish a presence in the border town of

Gamboru following recent attacks there by Boko Haram gunmen that killed
11 people.
 March 27 – The town of Gwoza is recaptured by the Nigerian military.
 March 28 – Voters in Nigeria go to the polls for a general election.

Gunmen kill at least 15 voters including an opposition house of assembly
candidate for Dukku in Gombe.
 March 29 – Voting in the Nigerian general election is delayed for a

second day due to delays and malfunctioning equipment. So far, 43 people
have died in Boko Haram attacks.
 April
 April 5 – Boko Haram militants dressed as preachers killed at least 24

citizens of Kwafaja Village in Borno State, with some reports claiming that
up to 50 were killed.[ April 9 – Members of Boko Haram entered the village
of Dile in Borno State, killing 20.
 April 17 – While soldiers were evacuating the town of Gwoza in Borno
State, militants entered the town and slit the throats of at least 12
townspeople.
 April 21 – As the military led efforts to evacuate the town of Baga in

northern Nigeria, militants planted mines and fired rockets at military
vehicles, killing eight soldiers and one civilian.
 April 24 – Last area controlled in Nigeria by Boko Haram's forces is in

the Sambisa forest.
 April 25 – Boko Haram retakes the town of Marte in Borno State,

invading with tanks and over 2,000 troops.
 April 25 – Boko Haram attacked an island in Lake Chad killing 46

Nigerian soldiers and 28 civilians
 May
 This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (July 2020)
 June
 June 12 – Several days of nighttime raids on six remote villages that left
at least 37 people dead in Northeastern Nigeria.
 June 16 – Twin suicide bomb attacks in N'Djamena – twin suicide

bombings blamed on Boko Haram jihadists killed 24 people and wounded
more than 100 in the first such attacks in Chad's capital N'Djamena.
Monday's attacks, which targeted the police headquarters and a police
academy, were the first in the capital.
 June 17 – Chad bans burqas and tinted cars – Chad has banned people
from wearing the full-face veil, following two suicide bomb attacks on
Monday. They also banned vehicles with tinted windows.
 June 22 – Maiduguri mosque bombing – 30 killed at crowded mosque by

2 young female suicide bombers. Boko Haram marks the start of Ramadan
by targeting a mosque that they see as falling short in following 'The
Prophet'. The second teen appeared to run away and blew up further away,
killing only herself, eyewitnesses said.
 July
 This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (July 2020)
 July 1–2 – July 2015 Kukawa massacre – Boko Haram militants attacked
mosques between July 1 and 2. Forty-eight men and boys were killed on the
1st at one mosque in Kukawa. Seventeen were wounded in the attack.
Ninety-seven others, mostly men, were killed in numerous mosques on the
2nd, with a number of women and young girls killed in their homes. An
unknown number were wounded.
 July 5 – 5 July 2015 Nigeria attacks – A suicide bomber attacked a

church in the Potiskum area of Nigeria's Yobe State, killing five.
 July 6 – 5 July 2015 Nigeria attacks – Two bomb attacks in Jos left at
least 44 people dead.
 August
 September
 [icon]
 October
 [icon]
 November
 [icon]
 This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (July 2020)
 November 17 – November 2015 Yola bombing – A suicide bombing in

Yola, Adamawa State, tore through a marketplace, killing 32 people and
wounding 80 others.
 December
 2016
 January
 6 January – Boko Haram gunmen raided Izageki village in northern

Nigeria, close to Sambisa Forest, Boko Haram's hideout and killed at least
two people. The gunmen pursued fleeing civilians and another militant
armed with a suicide belt blew himself near a market, killing another five
people.
 13 January – A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque at

Kouyape, close to the Nigerian border. The blast killed twelve people and
wounded another one. The attack occurred at dawn and was attributed to
Boko Haram although it didn't officially claim responsibility.
 18 January – A suicide bomber attacked a mosque in the village of

Nguetchewe in northern Cameroon, killing four worshippers and wounding
another two. No group claimed responsibility, but Boko Haram is suspected.
 25 January – 2016 Bodo bombings – Four suicide bombers attacked a

busy market in the town of Bodo, Far North Region, close to the Nigerian
border. The blasts killed at least 30 people and wounded another 65. No
group claimed responsibility, but Boko Haram is suspected.
 27–28 January – Weekend rampage with a total death toll of at least 65

people and twice that number injured. Affected areas were various villages
in Dalori and outskirts of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno Province.
Residents say the death toll was even higher, with as many as 100 dead.
 29 January –
 Two suicide bombers attacked a school, housing Nigerian refugees in

northern Cameroon, killing four people and wounding another twelve. No
group claimed responsibility, but Boko Haram is suspected.
 A 12-year-old blew himself up in the Gombis' market. The blast killed at

least 11 people. The attack occurred on 29 January in Gombi, Nigeria.
 30 January – At least 86 people are killed and hundreds others injured in
an attack by Boko Haram militants on Dalori Village some 4 kilometers
from Maiduguri, Nigeria
 31 January –
 A Boko Haram terrorist blew himself up on a motorcycle in Guié, Chad.
 A Boko Haram terrorist blew himself up in Miterine, Chad.
 February
 9 February –
 Two Boko Haram suicide bombers attacked a Muslim funeral gathering

in northern Cameroon 10 km (6 miles) east of the Nigerian border. Six
civilians were killed and another thirty were wounded. It is the first known
Boko Haram strike in Cameroon at a funeral gathering, although the
militants have made an attack on a baptism in the past.
 Two female suicide bombers sneaked into an internally displaced

persons’ (IDP) camp and detonated themselves in the middle of it in the
northeast Nigerian town of Dikwa. The blasts killed 60 people and wounded
another 78. No group claimed responsibility but Boko Haram is suspected.
 12 February – Members of Boko Haram attacked a village near Kachifa,

killing eight people.
 13 February – Members of Boko Haram attacked Yakshari, killing 22

people.
 19 February – Two suicide bombers kill at least 24 people and injure 112
others at a market in northern Cameroon.
 February – At least 92 militants were killed in a joint operation carried

out by Cameroon's army and Nigerian Army and over 850 villagers were
freed in the Nigerian village of Kumshe which is close to the border with
Cameroon.
 March
 March – Three female suicide bombers killed 22 people and injured 18 in
Umarari Village, on the outskirts of Maiduguri, Borno State.
 26 March – At least four people were killed during a Boko Haram raid in
the remote village of Tumpun near Lassa in Askira/Uba Local Government
Area.
 30 March – Six soldiers of the Niger Armed Forces were killed and three
others wounded in southeastern Niger in an attack attributed to Boko Haram.
 April
 5 April –
 In an attack in Izige, Nigeria, Boko Haram killed three soldiers and two
vigilante members, but were subsequently forced to retreat by the military.
 Two suicide bombers exploded their devices in a public transport vehicle

that was going to a market in Diffa, Niger. At least three civilians were killed
and several others injured.
 8 April – Nigerian troops killed four suspected Boko Haram suicide

bombers before they could attack the restive northeastern city of Maiduguri.
Three soldiers sustained injuries during the incident.
 20 April – At least seven or eight people have been killed at a refugee

camp in Nigeria after two female suicide bombers blew themselves up. The
bombing took place in the north-east of Nigeria near the border with
Cameroon. Several people were wounded in the attack though details still
remain sketchy.
 24 April – Boko Haram have been reported to have killed a total of 30

people during a raid in Alau village in Borno State.
 May
 11 May – Nigerian army says troops from its 7 Division Garrison,

intercepted a Boko Haram terrorist detonating a suicide bomb in Sulaimanti
community, in the outskirts of Maiduguri, Borno State.
 12 May – A suicide bomber who was stopped from entering a

government compound killed at least six people, including two police
officers, in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri.
 29 May – In Biu, Nigeria a tricycle taxi triggered an old IED, killing 4
civilians and one soldier who died of his injuries. Two were wounded.
 June
 4 June – At least 32 people were killed and 67 injured after hundreds of

members of Boko Haram attacked the city of Bosso and area in Niger. Many
places in the city were torched and shot at. There were also several deaths
and injuries of the attacker's side.
 5 June – A woman was stabbed to death by two men after allegedly

insulting the Prophet Muhammad in Kano, Nigeria.
 6 June – ten fisherman are cut down by Boko Haram in Darak, Cameroon
 12 June – 4 women were killed by 14 assailants after being dragged

outside of their homes in Mairari, Nigeria.
 June – 10 fishermen were killed by militants, and soon after 42 more

were killed by Boko Haram at Lake Chad in Cameroon.
 June – At least 4 females were killed and several abducted after many
Boko Haram militants attacked a village. Some sources say the number of
those kidnapped is four. Many houses were burned down and shot at.
Vigilantes followed the attackers and rescued one of the kidnapped after a
gun battle. A vigilante was injured in Kau-Tuva, Nigeria.
 June –
 At least 24 people were killed and at least 10 injured after Boko Haram
militants attacked a funeral in Kuda, Nigeria
 7 people were killed and 12 injured after an attack on policemen in

Ghafam, Niger.
 20 June – At least 2 people were killed after several Boko Haram

militants attacked Wumbi in Nigeria the second attack there by them in a
week.
 June – At least 4 civilians were killed in another in a series off attacks by

Boko Haram militants in Gouzoudoum and Kaldjiwa, Cameroon.
 June – The Nigerian army claimed they had rescued 5,000 people, mostly
women and children, from four remote villages in north east Borno state
(Zangebe, Maiwa, Algaiti and Mainar) and killed six Boko Haram fighters.
A civilian JTF member was also killed. The army also claimed to have killed
two more Boko Haram fighters in operations at 11 other villages.
 30 June – At least 15 people were killed and dozens injured after a

suicide bombing that targeted a mosque and a video club in Djakana,
Cameroon.
 July
 4 July – Two people were injured when Nigerian troops shot and killed
three female suicide bombers who were targeting internally displaced
persons in northern Nigeria. The injuries came as a result of one of the
suicide bomber's vest exploding.[152]
 8 July – At least 9 people were killed and "dozens" injured after a suicide
bombing attack on a Mosque in Borno. There was also a second suicide
bombing at another Mosque.
 9 July – Boko Haram militants raided a town with guns and explosives,
killing 7 people and damaging buildings.
 12 July – A Boko Haram attack in Borno State was repelled by the

Nigerian Army resulting in the deaths of 25 militants. Two soldiers were
killed during the attack.
 August
 1 August – 13 Christian villagers were cut down by Muslim terrorists,

who also burned three churches.
 10 August – Boko Haram militants burned 60 houses, shot four villagers

dead, and abducted one child.
 19 August – The Nigerian military claimed Abubakar Shekau (leader of

Boko Haram) was fatally wounded and about 300 militants including three
senior Boko Haram commanders (Abubakar Mubi, Malam Nuhu and Malam
Hamman) killed in an air raid on the village of Taye in Borno State.
 20 August – Boko Haram killed 7 people with machine guns, before
abducting dozens more, in the village of Kuruburu
 21 August –
 A Boko Haram attack on a village called Kuburvwa (between Chibok and

Damboa, Borno State) was reported to have left at least 11 people dead.
Women were raped.
 At least 3 people killed and another 24 were injured when a suicide

bombing attack a market in the city of Mora.
 August – A land mine planted by Islamist group Boko Haram killed four
Chadian soldiers on patrol near Chad's border with Niger on Saturday,
security sources said.
 September
 4 September – Camel-riding assailants killed 5 people and wounded

several more before being repelled by local militias. Houses were also
burned.
 14 September – At least 30 Boko Haram militants and 5 Niger Armed

Forces soldiers are killed in clashes near the village of Toumour in Niger's
southeast Diffa Region.
 September – Chad and Nigeri soldiers killed at least 38 insurgents from

terrorist group Boko Haram in Niger. 2 soldiers were also injured in the
operation.
 September – The Nigerian army has dispelled reports that 8 people were
killed in an attack by Boko Haram fighters in Borno state.
 September – members of Boko Harem claimed that they killed 40

Nigerian soldiers battling in Malam Fatori.
 22 September – Three civilians were killed in Cameroon's Far North in

Djakana when a vigilante tried to stop a suicide bomber whose explosive
device detonated.
 September –
 Four soldiers and civilian JTF members died in Borno towns of Miyanti
and Dareljamal in Kaduna State after an ambush on the army by the
insurgents.
 Boko Haram members attacked a Chad National Army position near the
border with Niger. They killed four soldiers and injured six others. Seven
terrorist were killed too.
 September –
 The Nigerian Army lost 1 officer and 3 soldiers to a landmine and

ambush by the Boko Haram on Sunday.
 The Nigerian Army has suffered fresh setbacks in the fight against
terrorists and gunmen with several soldiers and support staff killed during
separate incidents in Borno and Kaduna States.
 October
 11 October – 5 persons were said to have been killed in an attack by

suspected members of the Boko Haram on a village in Borno State.
 12 October – 18 people have been reported dead in an explosion which

occurred in Maiduguri, Borno State.
 October – Boko Haram on Monday claimed it killed 20 soldiers in

northeastern Nigeria.
 24 October – 2 suicide bombers killed three people in Cameroon. The

first of those actions was carried out by a woman causing wounds to five
people in the Far North Region. The other attack was carried out in the
northern locality of Waramide and 3 people were killed.
 29 October – 2 suicide bombers killed at least eight people on Saturday in

the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri.
 November
 1 November – Nine civilians were killed when a car bomb exploded near
a military checkpoint in Northern Nigeria in Gubio.
 5 November – An army officer and six soldiers were killed by Boko

Haram militants in a gunbattle in Borno State, Nigeria.
 8 November –
 A gunman killed more than 30 gold miners in a remote area of northern

Nigeria in Maru.
 4 people have died and 6 others injured after 2 suicide bombers exploded
an improvised explosive device in Maiduguri.
 At least five Nigerien soldiers were killed and three others injured in a
terrorist attack in Banibagou, Niger.
 Two civilians were killed, three soldiers injured and 100 houses were set
on fire when Boko Haram fighters raided a village in Far North Region, in
Cameroon.
 11 November – Two persons were killed today in an early morning bomb

blast in the Umulari area of Maiduguri.
 12 November – 240 Boko Haram fighters surrender in south-west Chad.
 16 November – One other soldier died and eight others were injured in
the Boko Haram ambush that led to the death of B.U. Umar, a lieutenant
colonel.
 November – Boko Haram suicide bombers caused the death of six

persons, injuring many more in multiple bomb blasts.
 22 November – Six soldiers were killed in an attack on a military base,

while the surrounding houses were burned. On the other hand, a woman with
explosives tried to enter an army post next to the Kolofata camp on Monday,
but was shot down.
 23 November – At least two persons were killed in a suicide bomb attack

in Maiduguri.
 24 November – Two young female suicide bombers attacked a town in

Cameroon's far north region early on Thursday.One of the bombs exploded
in Mora, killing the girl and wounding at least four people. Locals killed the
second bomber before her device detonated.
 November – Soldiers killed at least 30 insurgents from terrorist group

Boko Haram.
 December
 9 December – Madagali suicide bombings – Officials say 2 explosions in

Madagali a town Nigeria have killed 57 and injured 177
 11 December – 3 people were killed in two suicide bombing attacks in

Maiduguri.
 13 December – Boko Haram militants attacked a military base in Borno

state village of Kamuya leaving scores dead.
 17 December – A member of the civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) was

injured during operations in Sambisa Forest against Boko Haram.
 23 December – President Muhammadu Buhari has said that The Nigerian

army has driven Boko Haram militants from the last camp in their Sambisa
forest stronghold and that the terrorists are on the run.
 25 December – A suicide bombing attack left at least 2 people dead and

injured 5 others in Mora, Cameroon.
 26 December – 2 suicide bombers struck in Maiduguri.Only one of the

attackers was said to have died, as the other was reportedly captured before
striking.
 December – 31 Boko Haram fighters surrender in southern Niger.
 2017
 January
 4 January – Three girl suicide bombers were killed while attempting to

detonate their vests at market in Madagali, Adamawa. Local officials blamed
Boko Haram for the attempted attack.
 7 January – Boko Haram attacked a Nigerian Army base in Buni Yadi,

Yobe, killing at least five soldiers. Fifteen Boko Haram militants were also
killed after the army launched retaliatory strikes, a military source said.
 7-8 January – Boko Haram clashed with government troops resulting in

the deaths of five government soldiers and 15 terrorists.
 10 January – Two female bombers had killed three persons, alongside
themselves, when they went to the residences in the Kalari area, after
disguising as visitors.
 13 January – Three Nigerian soldiers were killed and 27 others injured as

troops fought off an attack on their position by Boko Haram militants in
Kangarwa village, Borno. Ten Boko Haram militants were also killed in the
attack. Another four suicide bombers killed at least nine people Madagali
town, including themselves.
 14 January –
 Two soldiers were killed in Borno in a roadside bombing.
 3 soldiers were killed by Boko Haram. 10 attackers were also killed in

Borno.
 At least 17 people were killed by Boko Haram militants in Gnam-Gnam,

Cameroon.
 16 January – Two teenage suicide bombers exploded at Nigeria's

University of Maiduguri, killing 3 people, including a professor.
 17 January – Rann bombing – the Air Force mistakenly bombed an

internally displaced persons camp in Rann, Borno killing 115 people and
injuring between 100 and 200.
 21 January – Boko Haram killed two soldiers and wounded seven others
in an attack on a military base in southeast Niger.
 23 January – Boko Haram invaded a village, killed eight people and

abducted an unspecified number of women and children in Borno.
 25 January –
 A suicide bomb attack Borno killed three and wounded two others.
 Boko Haram killed four people in multiple suicide bombing attacks in

Maiduguri.
 January – Boko Haram attacked a convoy of motorists along a recently

secured highway, in Borno, killing at least seven people and injuring many
others.
 January –
 Fifteen people were killed by Boko Haram militants in Maiduguri.
 A man was killed and three others injured in a Boko Haram attack in
Fotokol, Far North Region, Cameroon.
 January – A suicide bomber stormed the Dalori quarters mosque, in

Maiduguri during morning prayers, killing one of their members.
 February
 1 February – A suspected Boko Haram attack along Cameroon's border

with Nigeria killed a U.N. independent contractor and four others.
 7 February –
 Two attempted suicide attack were foiled. The two attackers were
arrested.
 A security personnel and a civilian were killed in a Boko Haram attack.
 11 February –
 7 soldiers were killed and 19 injured in Boko Haram ambush in Borno

State.
 Boko Haram invaded a village in Borno State and set ablaze dozens of
residential houses and a man suspected to be trapped in the attack.
 13 February – Boko Haram invaded Mifa community in Chibok Local

Government Area of Borno State, killing an Islamic scholar and breaking the
hands of a boy.
 17 February – Two civilians were killed by a suicide bombing. Other 8

attackers were killed by the police.
 March
 13 March – Three Nigerian men were executed by Boko Haram militants.

The three men were accused of being Nigerian military spies.
 March – Six people were killed in a suicide bombing in Maiduguri.

 30 March – Boko Haram Islamists have abducted 22 girls and women in
two separate raids in north-east Nigeria.
 April
 2 April – The Nigerian military launched an offensive against Boko

Haram.
 May
 5 May –
 Nine Chadian soldiers were killed in a Boko Haram attack on an army

post in the Lake Chad region. Some 40 Boko Haram militants were also
killed as the army responded to the attack on the Kaiga post, sources said.
 Five people are dead in northeast Nigeria in Maiduguri in an attack by

two female suicide bombers.
 13 May – One person was killed and another injured by suicide bombers
at the University of Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria.
 15 May – Nine members of the insurgent group arrived on motorcycles in

Amarwa, a suburb of Maiduguri, and killed 11 farmers in their fields with
machetes before escaping.
 16 May – Three female suicide bombers have attacked a herding

community in northeast Nigeria, killing two people and injuring seven
others.
 May – Three suicide bombers on Friday detonated explosives inside a

university campus in Nigeria's north-eastern state. The incident took place in
Maiduguri city of Borno state.
 May – At least 7 people are dead and more than 40 injured from gunshots
in separate attacks by Boko haram militant group rampaging within recently
liberated Borno communities.
 June
 2 June – 4 people are dead after two suicide bombers attacked a camp for
those displaced by Boko Haram extremist violence in the region.
 8 June – At least fourteen persons were killed and 24 were injured as
Boko Haram suicide bombers staged multiple attacks targeting mosques
where Muslim worshippers were praying. The attack occurred while soldiers
were trying to repel another group of Boko Haram fighters, who were trying
to invade the city.
 9 June –
 Two teenagers were killed, all boys, and three others injured when a
bomb concealed in a polythene bag exploded.
 A soldier was killed when a female suicide bomber detonated her

explosive vest in a military base.
 10 June – Ten members of the Nigerian jihadist group raided the village
of Hambagba, near Gwoza, on the Cameroon border, kidnapping six people
and killing four others.
 14 June – Boko Haram raided the villages of Komdi and Tuyan, near
Chibok, kidnapping six people and killing ten others.
 16 June – Two civilians were killed in an attack by a Boko Haram suicide

bomber in the Far North Region.
 June – At least 12 people have died and 11 others have been wounded in
attacks by five suicide women in the Nigerian state of Borno, in the northeast
of the country.
 June – Suspected Boko Haram militants killed two people and wounded
six others in an ambush on a police convoy in northeast Nigeria's Borno
state.
 June – A double suicide attack killed six civilians on Wednesday in

Cameroon's restive Far North.
 26 June – Suicide bombers killed nine people and wounded 13 others in

multiple blasts in northeast Nigeria's Maiduguri.
 29 June – Suicide bombers killed two people and wounded ten others in
two blasts in a refugee camp near the city of Diffa, in Niger.
 30 June – A civilian was killed when two Boko Haram suicide bombers
blew themselves up in the city of Kerawa, in Niger.
 July
 1 July – A civilian was killed when four Boko Haram suicide bombers
blew themselves up in the city of Mora, in Cameroon.
 3 July –
 Boko Haram Islamist militants killed nine people and abducted dozens
more in southern Niger.
 A suicide bomber exploded his bomb in the middle of a group of people,

killing four in Homaka, a locality in the Mora subdivision of the Far North
region.
 11 July –
 Boko Haram has publicly executed eight villagers in northeast Nigeria

who opposed the enforcement of its hard-line form of Islam.
 Four Boko Haram suicide bombers killed 19 people and injured 23 in the
northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri.
 17 July – Three Boko Haram female suicide bombers killed 8 people and
injured 15 in the city of Maiduguri, in Borno State.
 July – At least eight people are dead after female suicide bombers
attacked two displaced persons camps in Maiduguri.
 26 July –
 Two gendarmes were killed and several others injured during a Boko
Haram attack in the Far North Region near the Nigerian border.
 Suspected Boko Haram militants ambushed an exploration team working

for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, killing more than fifty
people.
 28 July – One civilian and four Boko Haram terrorists have been killed in
a bomb attack in Meme.
 29 July – 14 people were killed and 15 others were injured when two
suicide bombers blew up themselves in Dikwa, Nigeria.
 August
 4 August – Three suicide bombers detonated explosives at the Simari area
of Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, killing themselves and wounding two
members of the civilian joint task force.
 6 August – A suicide bomber killed at least seven people in a small town

in northern Cameroon near the Nigerian border.
 7 August – At least 31 fishermen were killed by Boko Haram jihadists in

two separate attacks on islands in Lake Chad in north-eastern Nigeria.
 13 August –
 Boko Haram gunmen have killed four people and torched homes in a
night time raid on a village in restive north-eastern Nigeria.
 Two tractor drivers were killed by Boko Haram insurgents in Jere Local
Government Area of Borno.
 15 August – A woman bomber blew herself up and killed 27 others at a

market in the village of Konduga near Maiduguri.
 20 August – Two persons were confirmed dead while three others

seriously injured following an ambush by suspected Boko Haram terrorists
along Damaturu, Biu road.
 August –
 A least four people died and eight others were injured when two terrorists
attacked Maiduguri.
 Boko Haram extremists killed at least 27 people by shooting them and

slitting their throats as they attacked several villages in northern Nigeria's
Borno state.
 August – Suspected Boko Haram militants sprayed a village in remote

Cameroon with automatic fire, killing 15 people and kidnapping eight others
in an overnight raid near the Nigerian border.
 30 August – A person was killed, two others were injured and nine were
kidnapped in coordinated attacks carried out by Boko Haram militants.
 September
 3 September – Boko Haram insurgents attacked an IDP camp in Borno
State, killing eleven people and injuring three persons while also kidnaping
four before fleeing. The attackers used swords and sharp knives to carry out
the acts.
 5 September – Boko Haram members killed four farmers in a drive-by

shooting in Borno state in Nigeria's volatile northeast.
 6–7 September – Boko Haram jihadists killed eight people in a series of

raids on farming communities in northeast Nigeria.
 8 September –
 Two female suicide bombers died in Maiduguri while eight other

commuters close to the explosions received various degrees of injuries.
 At least seven people were killed when Boko Haram jihadists attacked a
camp for people displaced by the conflict in northeast Nigeria.
 13 September – A young woman blew herself up in Cameroon's far north,

killing four people and injuring another.
 17 September – A village chief imam and four others were slaughtered by

suspected Boko Haram members in Borno State.
 18 September – At least 15 people have been killed and 43 others injured

in a suicide attack on Mashimari village in Borno state.
 September – A female suicide bomber killed five people when she blew
herself up in a mosque in northeast Nigeria. Three other worshippers were
injured in the attack.
 September – Two Cameroonian soldiers were killed when a convoy of

civilian vehicles hit landmines in northeast Nigeria.
 October
 October – A suicide bomber kills 13 people and injures five others in the
northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri. According to the police, 13 more
civilians were injured in separate attacks.
 30 October –
 11 civilians were killed by Boko Haram terrorists in Kolofata, Cameroon.

 Five civilians were killed and several other were Boko Haram terrorist
blew himself up in a mosque in Maiduguri, Nigeria.
 Four people, including a mother and her two children, were killed and
nine others were injured when a vehicle hit a mine planted by Boko Haram
terrorists in Banki, Nigeria.
 November
 1 November – Six people were killed and two wounded by a Boko Haram
suicide attack on a mosque in the village of Zamga.
 15 November – At least ten people have been killed and dozens injured in
a suicide attack in a popular market in Maiduguri.
 20 November – At least six farmers were beheaded in Borno State,

Nigeria by Boko Haram terrorists.
 21 November – 2017 Mubi bombing – 50 people were killed in a suicide

attack in the north of Nigeria caused by Boko Haram militants.
 December
 2 December – Fifteen persons were killed and 53 others injured in twin

suicide bomb attacks in a market in Borno State.
 11 December – Two civilians and the bomber were killed when suicide
bombing attacked a mosque after morning prayers in far northern Cameroon.
 13 December – Five people were killed by Boko Haram militants in

Damboa, Nigeria.
 22–23 December – Three people were killed in two attacks in northern

Cameroon by Boko Haram militants.
 December – Boko Haram killed four people near Maiduguri.
 December – A suicide bombing caused by a Boko Haram militant in

Borno State killed at least six people and injured 13 others.
 30 December – Boko Haram fighters opened fire on a group of loggers in

a remote village in northeast Nigeria, killing 25 people. The gunmen also
burned three vehicles laden with firewood heading to Maiduguri.
 31 December – At least two people were killed and 30 more were injured
in an attack by Boko Haram militants in northern Cameroon.
 2018
 January
 1 January – At least three people have been confirmed killed in a blast in

Nigeria's northeastern town of Madagali.
 3 January – 14 civilians were killed when a suspected Boko Haram

militant blew himself up at a mosque in Gamboru, Nigeria. Only the
muezzin has survived.
 8 January –
 At least one civilian was killed in an attack by members of the terror

group Boko Haram in Cameroon's Far North region.
 Gunmen on motorbikes opened fire on a group of loggers collecting

firewood at Kaje village, near the Borno state capital, Maiduguri. 20 People
were killed in the attack and 15 others are missing and presumed kidnapped
by the attackers.
 10 January – At least three people were killed in an attack in Cameroon's

Far North region.
 11 January –
 Two suicide bombers, alleged members of the Islamist group Boko

Haram, detonated their bombs in the Ouro-Kessoum district of Amchide in
Cameroon, injuring two others.
 Four people were killed and two others kidnapped in separate overnight
attacks in the far north of Cameroon. Another one was wounded.
 15 January –
 Four people were killed in Mayo-Tsanaga, a region of the Far North of

Cameroon, during an attack by Boko Haram. The assailants left after burning
down dozens of huts and a church.
 Six people were killed by gunmen who also abducted five girls who
joined the loggers to collect firewood from the Jinene woods.
 Five people, including two suspected fighters of the terror group Boko
Haram, were killed in an attack near Nigeria's north-eastern town of
Madagali. Two others were critically injured.
 16 January – At least two civilians were killed and a dozen others injured
in a suicide attack near a mosque in the Far North Region.
 17 January –
 Two suspected Boko Haram suicide bombers killed 12 people and injured
65 others in an attack in the north-eastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri.
 Suspected Boko Haram fighters killed at least seven soldiers in an attack

on a military post in Niger's south-eastern Diffa Region. Ten others were
injured in the attack.
 18 January – Boko Haram jihadists have killed five people in an attack on

a village in Adamawa state, northeast Nigeria.
 January – At least three people were killed when Boko Haram attacked
the Hyambula village in northeast Adamawa state. Five others were injured
in the attack.
 January – At least two soldiers were killed overnight while fighting off an
attack by suspected Boko Haram jihadists in southeast Niger.
 January – Boko Haram jihadists killed at least five loggers in northeast

Nigeria. Four others were injured in the attack.
 January – Four people were killed and 44 others sustained injuries in

multiple suicide bomb attacks at a Konduga community and the Dalori
Internally Displaced Persons camp.
 February
 3 February – At least two civilians were killed in an attack by the terror

group Boko Haram in Kolofata of Cameroon's Far North region.
 4 February –
 Boko Haram fighters stormed a village in northeast Nigeria and killed

three people. Seven others were injured in the attack.
 One person has been reported dead after Boko Haram terrorists attacked
Kala village, opposite the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in
Dalori, Borno State. The attackers also injured another man during the attack
and burnt down some houses.
 Six people were killed and two others injured in the Cameroonian town of
Hitawa (Far North), following an attack by Boko Haram.
 16 February – At least 21 persons were killed and 70 civilians injured as

three bombers struck Konduga local government area of Borno State.
 19 February – Dapchi schoolgirls kidnapping – About 110 girls were

abducted by Boko Haram from their school in Dapchi, Nigeria.
 20 February – At least six people were killed and five others injured in a
Boko Haram attack in the department of Mayo Tsanaga in Cameroon's Far
North region.
 21 February – Two soldiers, including a captain, were killed in a Boko

Haram ambush in the Lake Chad region of Chad.
 February – Boko Haram terrorists killed six people in different attacks in

Cameroon's Far North region.
 February – At least four people were killed in two suicide bombings by

Boko Haram in the localities of Bourvare and Goumouldi, in the north of
Cameroon. Half a dozen others were injured in the attacks.
 27 February – Two soldiers were killed and two others wounded when a
suicide bomber drove into their patrol vehicle in the Lake Chad region of
Nigeria.
 March
 1 March –
 Boko Haram threatens to harm Leah Sharibu, Presidency Says;

Condemns Killing Of Red Cross staff Boko Haram insurgents abducted three
people from Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa state.
 Boko Haram militants killed at least 11 people including three aid

workers in an attack on a military barracks in the town of Rann in Borno
state. Another three aid workers were wounded and one more kidnapped.
 2 March – A female suicide bomber blew up herself at a mosque in the
Fulatari area of Buni Yadi, Gujba local government area of Yobe state,
killing seven persons and injuring 28 others.
 5 March –
 Insurgents attacked two farmers on their farm and slit their throats in the
village of Gudda in Mafa Local Government Area of Borno state.
 A team of loggers were attacked by Boko Haram while on their way to

the bush to collect firewood in the state of Borno. Three loggers were killed
in the attack, while the rest fled to Dikwa and left behind a pickup van.
 A suicide bomber on a bicycle killed three people when he detonated his

explosives on the outskirts of the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri.
 6 March –
 Four loggers were killed when they stepped on a landmine left by Boko
Haram near Dikwa, 90 km east of the Borno state capital, Maiduguri.
 Three people were killed in an attack in Gamboru on the border with

Cameroon.
 March – At least five people, including four suicide bombers, were killed
and 13 others injured when terrorists attacked Muna Zawuya in the Mafa
Local Government Area of Borno state.
 April
 1 April –
 Terrorists attacked a village in the town of Limani near the border with
Nigeria in northern Cameroon, killing one person and burning several huts.
 Boko Haram militants attacked a military post in the commune of Waza

in northern Cameroon, injuring a soldier. Two suicide bombers who blew
themselves up died.[348]
 Boko Haram fighters attacked a military base and two surrounding

villages near the Nigerian city of Maiduguri in the Jere Local Government
Area, killing at least 20 people and wounding 84.
 2 April – Five Cameroonian soldiers were killed and three others
wounded in an attack on a military post in Sagmé in the commune of Fotokol
in the Far North region of Cameroon.
 22 April – Boko Haram jihadists shot dead 18 forest workers who had
been collecting firewood in Borno State, near the town of Gamboru, on the
border with Cameroon. In another incident, a vehicle carrying civilians
travelling in a nearby army convoy hit a mine placed by insurgents, killing
three people and wounding eleven others near the village of Wumbi.
 April – Six people, including three civilians, a member of the Civilian

Joint Task Force and two suicide bombers, were killed and nine others
injured in an attack by Boko Haram insurgents in the Nigerian city of
Maiduguri. Later another suicide bomber attacked an armored van of the
Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad in the same area, injuring two police
officers.
 April – Boko Haram terrorists attacked a village near Amchide in the

Mayo-Sava department in Cameroon' s Far North region, killing a man and
stealing sheep.[355]
 29 April – At least three soldiers were killed in an attack by Boko Haram

militants in the Diffa region in southeast Niger.
 May
 1 May – 2018 Mubi suicide bombings – At least 86 people were killed in

two suicide attacks at a mosque and a market in Mubi, a town in the state of
Adamawa in northeastern Nigeria. 58 others were injured in the bombings.
 2 May – Boko Haram militants attacked the village of Auno in the

Konduga local government area. No lives were lost, but a vehicle was
burned by the terrorists.
 3 May –
 At least four people were killed and nine others injured when four suicide
bombers attacked Mainari Shuwa and neighbouring Mainari Kanuri in the
Konduga local government area of Borno state.
 At least twenty huts were set on fire and a man was killed in the Mayo-
Sava department in the Far North region of Cameroon.
 5 May – At least 12 people were killed, while 20 others were injured
when two suicide bombers detonated their explosives at a mosque in
Mabanda in the Far North region of Cameroon.
 6 May – Six people, including four government officials and a soldier,

were killed in an attack by Boko Haram jihadists on a Chadian army
checkpoint on an island in Lake Chad.
 17 May – At least four people were killed and 15 others injured in a

suicide bombing at an open-air mosque for refugees in Dikwa in the
northeastern Nigerian state of Borno.
 May – At least three people were killed and seven others injured when
two suicide bombers attacked a community in the Konduga Local
government area in the state of Borno in Nigeria.
 May – At least one person was killed and an unconfirmed number of

cattle were stolen in an attack on herders by Boko Haram terrorists in the
Askira/Uba Local Government Area in the southern part of Borno state.
 May – Five soldiers were killed in an ambush by Boko Haram terrorists

in the Gwoza Local Government Area of the Nigerian state of Borno.
 June–December
 4 June – Three suicide bombers, two women and a man blew themselves
up in Diffa in southeast Niger. The first explosion took place near a mosque,
the second near a Koran school and the third not far from a business centre.
Nine people were killed and 38 others injured in the attacks.
 8 June – At least 10 people were killed in attacks in villages in the

department of Diamaré in the far north of Cameroon. Four Boko Haram
terrorists were also killed.
 9 June – A male suicide bomber detonated a bomb attached to his body,

killing only himself in Maiduguri in the Nigerian state of Borno.
 11 June – At least two people were killed and four others injured when a
Boko Haram suicide bomber detonated his explosives in the city of
Maiduguri in the Nigerian state of Borno.
 13 June – A trader was killed by Boko Haram terrorists armed with
machetes and firearms in the village of Alhadjiri in the department of Mayo-
Sava in Cameroon's Far North region.
 16 June –
 Two suicide bombers were killed when one of them prematurely

activated her explosive device in the town of Limani in the Far North region
of Cameroon. A young boy was also killed in the explosion.
 Two people were killed by terrorists in the village of Tchika in the

commune of Hile-Alifa in northern Cameroon.
 At least 43 people were killed and 84 others injured when six female
suicide bombers detonated their explosives in the Damboa local government
area in the Nigerian state of Borno.
 18 June – Boko Haram militants killed nine soldiers and wounded two
others when they attacked the town of Gajiram, headquarters of the local
government of Nganzai in northeastern Nigeria.
 20 June – Fifteen people were injured when two suicide bombers attacked
military barracks in the city of Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria.
 22–23 June – Boko Haram terrorists attacked the locality of Guid-

Zeleved in the Far North region of Cameroon, slaughtering three people.
 26 June –
 Three civilians were killed and a woman abducted in an incursion led by

a group of armed persons in Oulfo on the border between Cameroon and
Nigeria in the Far North region of Cameroon.
 At least seven people were killed while dozens sustained injuries when
Boko Haram militants attacked them at a village in the local government
area of Damboa in the Nigerian state of Borno.
 June – Boko Haram jihadists killed four people and injured four others
during an attack on a camp for displaced civilians in Banki in the local
government area of Bama in Borno State, Nigeria. Two terrorists were also
killed in the fight and the others fled. Later, two soldiers were wounded
when their patrol vehicle hit a landmine planted by the fleeing jihadists in
the village of Freetown, nine kilometers away.
 20 July – Insurgents swarmed 81 Division Task Force Brigade in Jilli,

near Geidam, Yobe State. Three Nigerian Army officers and 28 soldiers
were confirmed killed.
 8 September – ISWAP captured the town of Gudumbali.
 8 October – Boko Haram attack leaves 15 soldiers dead in attacks near

the Niger Border and around the Lake Chad
 October – Boko Haram killed 15 people in the villages of Kofa, Dalori,

and Bulabrin.
 22 November – Insurgents overran a Nigerian army battalion at Metele

Village in Guzamala Local government in Borno State killing 70 soldiers
 2019
 17 June – 2019 Konduga bombings – Three suicide bombers detonated

near a group of people watching a football game, killing 30 and wounding
over 40.
 2 July – Boko Haram attacked the village of Inates in Tillabéri Region,

Niger, using a suicide vest and guns. The attack killed 18 soldiers and
another 4 soldiers were captured.
 4 July – Boko Haram attacked soldiers near the village of Damboa,

killing five. Another 14 soldiers and two civilians were also wounded.
 18 July – ISWAP ambushed a military vehicle on a road near Jakana,

killing all six soldiers on board.
 19 July – Six aid workers were kidnapped and a driver killed when
militants stopped their vehicle in northeast Nigeria.
 27 July – 2019 Nganzai funeral attack – Militants opened fire on a group

of people walking home from a funeral in Nganzai District, Borno State. At
least 65 people were killed in the attack, many of them while attempting to
chase the militants away. A local government chairman said the attack
happened because a civilian defense group had killed 11 of the militants
during an ambush last week.
 5 August – ISWAP insurgents raided the Borno state town of Monguno,
with the resulting clash with troops leaving three civilians dead.
 6 August – Two female suicide bombers struck a crowd of women

collecting firewood in Mafa, Borno State, killing three civilians and
wounding eight more.
 14 August – In Lac Province, western Chad, a female suicide bomber

activated her explosives at the home of a traditional chieftain, killing four
guards, a soldier, and a civilian and wounding five others. Boko Haram or
ISWAP militants are suspected of carrying out the attack.
 15 August – Boko Haram clashed with the Nigerian military near

Maiduguri killing three soldiers.
 18 August – Militants killed four soldiers when they fired on a military

patrol in a village in east Borno.
 23 August – Twelve villagers were killed in Gueskerou, southeastern

Niger, after a raid by Boko Haram militants.
 26 August – Militants killed four civilians and abducted 12 more in a

village in Borno State.
 27 August – ISWAP insurgents killed 11 construction workers and

wounded several more in Wajirko village, Borno State.
 August – ISWAP insurgents killed eight soldiers in the Gasarwa area near
Lake Chad in Borno State.
 August – Boko Haram militants stormed the Borno State village of

Balumri, killing four and kidnapping six. Four of those kidnapped were later
beheaded.
 9 September – ISWAP militants ambushed a Nigerian military convoy as

it traveled to reinforce coalition troops outside the ISWAP-held town of
Gudumbali. The number of casualties was "huge," but no number or range
was specified.
 13 September – Insurgents killed six Cameroonian soldiers and wounded

nine more in an attack on a military base in Fotokol, northern Cameroon.
 September – ISWAP executed one of the six aid workers the group had
captured and held hostage in July.
 September – An ISWAP ambush on a military convoy outside the town

of Gubio left at least seven Nigerian soldiers dead.
 September – Nigerian and Chadian troops were attacked by ISWAP in

Gajiram, leaving a policeman, a hunter, and six civilians dead. A militant
pickup truck was destroyed in the battle, killing several of the extremists on
board.
 September – Boko Haram fighters killed a soldier and destroyed a

Nigerian military vehicle in Banki, near Cameroon. One other person was
killed and several more were injured when Boko Haram militants stormed
two villages near Kolofata, Cameroon. 2 December – ISWAP insurgents
killed four Chadian soldiers in an attack on their positions along the shores
of Lake Chad.
 10 December – Battle of Inates
 12 December – ISWAP fighters killed 14 militiamen and a police officer

in northeast Nigeria.
 13 December – ISWAP executed four of the six aid workers it has held
hostage since capturing them in July. A fifth had been executed in
September, while only one Action Against Hunger staff member remains
alive.
 14 December – Boko Haram militants killed 19 Fulani cattle herders near

Ngala, along the border with Cameroon, after the herders repelled an attack
on a village earlier, leaving one militant dead.
 17 December – At least 14 people were killed, five were injured, and 13

more were missing, after Boko Haram militants attacked the Lake Chad
fishing village of Kaiga, Chad.
 22 December – ISWAP militants killed six people and abducted five

more, including two aid workers, when they set up a fake checkpoint on a
highway near Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria.
 24 December – Boko Haram militants killed seven people in a raid near
Chibok, a Christian town in Borno State, on Christmas Eve. They also
abducted a teenage girl.
 26 December – ISWAP militants executed 11 Christians, who were

kidnapped from Maiduguri and Damaturu, in a video released one day after
Christmas. The militants said the execution was in response to the death of
Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
 2020
 3 January – Local sources reported that 50 people may have been killed
in an attack by Boko Haram on an island in Lake Chad in late December.
 6 January – 2020 Gamboru bombing – At least 32 people were killed and

over 35 injured when an IED explode on a crowded bridge in Gamboru,
Borno State, Nigeria.
 7 January – Twenty soldiers were killed and more than 1,000 people
displaced when a town in Borno State, Nigeria, was attacked by ISWAP
militants.
 16 January – Three aid workers and other civilians who were kidnapped
on December 22 in northeast Nigeria were released by an unspecified
militant group.
 19 January – A suspected female Boko Haram suicide bomber detonated

her explosives in Kaiga-Kindjiria, western Chad, killing nine civilians. It
was also reported that insurgents killed four villagers and kidnapped four
women around the same area earlier in the month, while 1,200 Chadian
troops returned to Chad from Nigeria in order to defend Chadian territory.
 7 February – Boko Haram militants killed six civilians in Bosso District,

Diffa Region, Niger.
 9 February – Auno attack – At least 30 civilians were killed and many

more abducted by militants in Auno, Borno State, Nigeria. Four soldiers
were killed and seven more wounded in an attack on the same village last
month.
 15 March – Boko Haram attacked a military post in the town of Toumour,

Niger. The attack was unsuccessful resulting in the deaths of 50 Boko Haram
fighters and the injury of one Nigerien soldier. The Nigerien military also
destroyed multiple vehicles belonging to Boko Haram.
 4 March – Four police officers and two militiamen were killed by Boko
Haram militants during a raid on an army base in Damboa, Borno State,
Nigeria.
 17 March – The Niger Armed Forces said they killed 50 members of

Boko Haram when the latter group attacked a military outpost in Toumour,
Diffa Region.
 23 March – March 2020 Chad and Nigeria massacres – at least 50

Nigerian soldiers were killed by Boko Haram militants in an ambush near a
village in Yobe State, Nigeria. Other sources stated at many as 75 soldiers
were killed.
 24 March – March 2020 Chad and Nigeria massacres – At least 92

Chadian soldiers were killed and 24 army vehicles were destroyed by Boko
Haram militants during a seven-hour long battle in the Boma peninsula in the
Lake Chad region of Chad.
 31 March – Operation Boma's Wrath is launched.
 5 April – Two Boko Haram suicide bombers killed seven civilians and
themselves in Amchide, Far North Region, Cameroon.
 6 April – MNJTF troops attacked Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region
killing 19 terrorists.
 8 April – A spokesperson for Chad's army announced that a military

operation, which began on March 31 against armed militants in the Lake
Chad region, killed over 1,000 fighters and left 52 Chadian soldiers dead.
Niger also participated in the operation.
 9 April – President Idriss Déby of Chad said his country's troops will no
longer engage in military operations abroad in order to focus on fighting
militants and rebels at home. Chad is part of MNJTF, which focuses on
fighting extremists in the Lake Chad region, and the G5 Sahel force, which
focuses on fighting extremists in the Sahel region. Thousands of Chadian
soldiers will withdraw from bases in Niger, Mali, and Nigeria by April 22.
 16 April – At least 44 suspected Boko Haram militants were fatally
poisoned while imprisoned in Chad. It was not clear how or why they were
poisoned.
 3 May – Militants attacked a military camp outside Niger's Diffa city,

killing two soldiers and wounding three more.
 5 May – An operation launched by Nigeria has killed 134 militants in

northeast Nigeria since it began on May 1.
 11 May – Niger said it neutralized about 25 militants south of Diffa,

Niger, and about 50 more in Nigeria's Lake Chad region. Only two soldiers
were injured in the operations.
 18 May – Twelve soldiers were killed and at least ten more wounded
after Boko Haram militants attacked their outpost northeast of Diffa, Niger.
Seven of the attackers were "neutralized".
 9 June – Gubio massacre – An attack by ISWAP on the herding village of

Gubio in Borno State, Nigeria, left at least 81 people dead, seven people and
over 1,200 cattle abducted, and the village destroyed. The attack may have
been retaliation for the earlier killing of members of an armed militant group
by local militiamen.
 13 June – 2020 Monguno and Nganzai massacres – ISWAP conducted

two attacks in the Monguno and Nganzai areas of Nigeria's Borno State,
killing at least 20 soldiers in the first location and at least 40 civilians in the
second location. Hundreds of civilians were wounded and many buildings
were torched in the violence, according to local sources.
 27 June – 9 soldiers and 2 militia members were killed in a Boko Haram

ambush.[436]
 June – Six Nigerian soldiers were killed in an attack on their positions by

Boko Haram, who stole weapons in the attack.
 June – Boko Haram ambushed and killed nine Nigerian soldiers in the
town of Damboa.
 2 July – Two civilians were killed and an aid helicopter damaged after
militants raided Damasak, Borno State, Nigeria.
 7 July – An ambush conducted by ISWAP on a Nigerian military convoy
at Bulabulin village, Borno State, Nigeria, killed at least 35 soldiers and left
more than 18 injured and 30 missing. The government claimed at least 17
insurgents were killed in the battle.
 10 July – Boko Haram assaulted Baga and killed about 20 soldiers

stationed there, and then opened fire on a military convoy near Gada Blu,
killing 15 soldiers.
 13 July – Militants killed eight soldiers while attacking a military convoy

near Kumulla, Borno State, Nigeria, and then killed another two soldiers
during a firefight near Kolore village.
 18 July – Gunmen attacked several villages near Chibok, Borno State,

Nigeria, killing three farmers.
 22 July – Five aid workers were executed by armed men who had
kidnapped them last month in Borno State, Nigeria.
 July – three people were killed in a bombing in Maiduguri.
 2 August – Nguetchewe attack – Boko Haram militants attacked an IDP

camp in Far North, Cameroon, killing 16 people and wounding at least seven
more.
 9 August – Kouré shooting – ISWAP killed six French aid workers and
two Nigerien civilians in Kouré, Tillabéri Region, Niger.
 1 September – At least seven people were killed and more than 14 were
wounded when a suicide bomber exploded in an IDP camp in Goldavi, Far
North region, Cameroon.
 20 September – Boko Haram ambushed a convoy of Nigerian troops near

Damboa killing seven soldiers.
 25 September – At least 30 people, including civilians and security

personnel, were killed when militants attacked the convoy of a region
governor near Baga, Borno State, Nigeria.
 30 September – 10 Nigerian soldiers were killed and eight more were

wounded when militants attacked their logistics convoy near Marte, Borno
State, Nigeria.
 25 October – Nigerian troops killed 22 Boko Haram militants in Damboa.
 28 November – Koshebe massacre – About 110 civilians, mostly farm

workers, were massacred by Boko Haram in Koshebe, Borno.
 11 December – Kankara kidnapping – 344 schoolchildren from and all

males boarding school were kidnaped by Boko Haram.
 13 December – 28 people were killed and 100 injured in the town of

Toumour in Niger, Boko Haram then burned between 800 and 1,000 homes
and the central market, up to 60% of the town was destroyed.
 18 December – 35 people were kidnapped and one person was killed

along the Maiduguri-Damaturu Highway, three vehicles were also set on fire
and nine other vehicles were abandoned along the road.
 20 December – Five Nigerian soldiers were killed when boko haram fired
a RPG at a vehicle in a convoy two other vehicles were captured by Boko
Haram in the same attacks.
 24 December – 11 Christians were killed when Boko Haram attacked a

Christian village. They burned down the town church, the hospital, and 10
other houses in the town. They also looted food and other goods and
kidnapped people.
 24 December – 40 Loggers were kidnapped near the town of Gamboru,

so far four of the loggers have been found dead.
 27 December – 10 people were killed after Boko Haram attack on the

villages of Shafa, Azare and Tashan Alade. Boko Haram burned homes,
shops, churches, and a police station where two police officers were killed.
 29 December – 11 People were killed, seven pro-government hunters and

four army personnel when their vehicle hit a landmine in the village of
Kayamla.
 2021
 3 January - Multinational Joint Task Force carried a sweep around

Kolofata, during the fighting three Boko Haram insurgents were killed and
two were captured. Operation Tuka Takaibango was announced by the
Nigerian military.
 4 January - At around 4 am three members of a local vigilance committee
were shot dead by Boko Haram in Mayo Moskota area. One civilian was
killed by Boko Haram in Kolofata area the same morning.
 6 January - Boko Haram infiltrated the town of Geidam. Insurgents were

sighted at the outskirts of Geidam at 1 pm. Rumor about insurgents spread
through town soon and it caused regular activities to be disrupted for an hour
and a half, after nothing happened people continued with their regular
activities. Boko Haram insurgents gathered at strategic locations such as
Geidam market with a coordinated plan at 5:30 PM, soon after they
positioned at those locations they attacked the town. The insurgents abducted
the District Head, injured several civilians and stole food and medical
supplies. Police of the district later found two bodies in a burnt vehicle who
they believe are members of Boko Haram.
 7 January - Operation Tuka Takaibango was officially launched.
 8 January – 14 people were killed when a Boko Haram suicide bomber

detonated their explosives in the town of Mozogo, Cameroon.
 9 January – At least 28 Boko Haram insurgents were killed during clashes

with Nigerian army in Gujba, while several other insurgents escaped, one
Nigerian soldier was killed and one was injured, according to the military
spokesman of Nigeria.
 11 January – 13 soldiers were killed when Islamic State West Africa

Province militants ambushed a convoy in the village of Gazagana, Nigeria.
 14 January – The Nigerian military announced that 64 Boko Haram

insurgents have been killed in multiple operations conducted on 9 and 10
January 2021.
 16 January – ISWAP militants attacked and destroyed a military base in

the town of Marte, killing 7 people. The militants also stole weapons,
ammunition, and six vehicles.
 17 January, seven IEDs were activated against a Nigerian army convoy of

APCs and other vehicles, escorted by a foot patrol in Gorgi, Borno State, in
northeastern Nigeria. Over 30 soldiers were killed. Three vehicles were
destroyed, and an armored vehicle, weapons and ammunition were seized.
 19 January – Four Nigerian soldiers were killed and eight other injured
when their vehicle hit and IED.
 22 January, IS operatives ambushed and fired machine guns at a Nigerian

army patrol in Borno State. Seven soldiers were killed and others were
wounded. In addition, an ATV, weapons and ammunition were seized.
 January, two attacks took place in northern Nigeria. One in the village of
Chabal, leaving 2 policemen dead and two abducted. The second attack
occurred in Dikwa, resulting in the deaths of 2 soldiers and leaving two
female police officers abducted.
 February 5 it was reported that Nigerian troops backed by jets overran

serveral camps of Boko Haram in the Timbuktu triangle, including the Dole
camp.
 They also liberated Talala, which was seized in 2013 by militants and
became their second largest camp, right behind the Lake Chad region.
 Besides Talala they also liberated Buk, Gorgi and overran camps in
Kidari, Argude, Takwala, Chowalta and Galdekore.
 Two high profile ISWAP commanders, Modu Sulum and Ameer Modu
Borzogo, fled along with some fighters during intense fighting but serveral
other commanders and fighters have been killed and many abducted hostages
were rescued.
 February 5 ISIS operatives ambushed Nigerian soldiers in the Goniri

region, near the Nigeria-Niger border. The two sides exchanged fire. Six
soldiers were killed and a few others were wounded. The other soldiers fled.
ISIS operatives seized vehicles, weapons and ammunition.
 February 7, 'bandits' raided two villages in northwest Nigeria's Kaduna

state, leading to the deaths of 19 people, according to the Nigerian
government.
 February 8, ISIS operatives attacked a Nigerian army checkpoint in

Monguno, about 70 km from the Nigeria-Chad-Cameroon tri-border area.
There was an exchange of fire. Three soldiers were killed and several others
were wounded. ISIS operatives seized vehicles, weapons and ammunition.
 February 9, a group of Nigerian soldiers was attacked between Jakana
and Mainok, about 30 km west of Maiduguri. There was an exchange of fire.
Seven soldiers were killed. In addition, two Nigerian army vehicles were
destroyed. ISIS operatives seized weapons left at the site.
 February 9, a Nigerian army checkpoint was attacked in Geidam, in Yobe

State, in northeastern Nigeria, about 30 km out of the Nigeria-Niger border.
The sides exchanged fire. Four soldiers were killed, three were taken
prisoner and the rest fled. ISIS operatives seized weapons left at the site and
set fire to a Nigerian army vehicle.
 February 11, Nigerian soldiers were ambushed in the suburbs of

Monguno, in the northeast of the country. An IED was activated against the
soldiers, followed by an exchange of fire. Three soldiers were killed and
several others were wounded. The rest fled. ISIS operatives seized an ATV
and weapons.
 February 12, a force of a militia supporting the Nigerian army was

attacked in the village of Gur, about 150 km south of Maiduguri in
northeastern Nigeria. There was an exchange of fire. Four militia fighters
were killed. The ISIS operatives set fire to four vehicles and houses
belonging to the fighters.
 February 15, a Nigerian army compound was attacked in Marte, about 40

km east of the Nigeria-Cameroon border, in northeastern Nigeria. Ten
soldiers were killed in the exchange of fire and several others were wounded.
The other soldiers fled. ISIS operatives set fire to the compound, two tanks
and a Nigerian army vehicle. They also seized three vehicles, weapons and
ammunition.
 February 16, a group of Nigerian soldiers was attacked in a village in

Borno State, in the northeast of the country. There was an exchange of fire.
Four soldiers were killed and several others were wounded. The other
soldiers fled. ISIS operatives seized weapons and ammunition.
 February 16, 4 policemen and 7 civilians were killed during an ISWAP

attack on the village of Bayamari Village in Yobe State.
 Also on February 16, an attack was carried out against the headquarters
of a militia supporting the Nigerian army in Gubio, Borno State, in
northeastern Nigeria. There was an exchange of fire. Three soldiers were
killed and several others were wounded. The other soldiers fled. ISIS
operatives seized weapons and ammunition and set fire to vehicles.
 February 17, a Nigerian army convoy was ambushed and targeted by

gunfire in the Karito region, near Lake Chad. Three soldiers were killed and
several others were wounded in the exchange of fire. ISIS operatives seized
weapons and ammunition, and set fire to three vehicles.
 February 19 an attack was carried out against a Nigerian army camp in

Dikwa, about 50 km from the Nigeria-Cameroon border in Borno State. A
total of 15 soldiers were killed in the exchange of fire and several others
were wounded. The remaining soldiers fled, and ISIS operatives seized four
vehicles, weapons and ammunition. ISIS operatives set fire to the camp and
to other vehicles. The camp taken over by ISIS operatives is one of the
largest Nigerian army camps and that many residents left the area in the
wake of the attack.
 February 21, Boko Haram militants beheaded 5 people in an IDP camp in

Borno state.
 23 February - 2021 Maiduguri rocket attacks
 February 25, Gunmen on motorcycles stormed into several villages in

Igabi and Chikun districts of Kaduna state, leaving at least 18 people dead.
 February 26, a midnight attack on a secondary school in Zamfara resulted

in at least 317 schoolgirls being kidnapped.
 February 28, ISWAP ambushed the convoy of the Commandant of

Nigeria’s counter-insurgency operation, Farouq Yahaya, killing at least 2
soldiers.
 March 1, ISWAP took over the town of Dikwa for several hours after
forcing government forces out of the settlement. Whilst in Dikwa, the
militants attacked a Nigerian army base killing six soldiers. The returned the
next day killing another 2 soldiers.
 Also on March 1, ISWAP took over the town of Bukarti, Yobe state. IS
militants also attacked a Nigerian army convoy near Geidam, Yobe state.
The attack left 2 Nigerian soldiers dead.
 March 6, a armed Boko Haram sect invaded Rumirgo community of
Askira Uba local government area of Borno state, causing the death of two
civilians and a security personnel and carted away with a tanker vehicle
loaded with petrol.
 March 10, a series of attacks by 'gangs' occurred in Northern Nigeria

leading to the deaths of 31 people.
 March 10, ISWAP claimed an attack where in which at least 30 Nigerian

soldiers were killed after two explosive-laden vehicles rammed into a
Nigerian army convoy in Wulgo, Borno state.
 March 11, ISWAP operatives ambushed a Nigerian army convoy near

Gudumbali in the Lake Chad region, killing 15 Nigerian soldiers and 4
militia fighters. Of those killed, one was a local vigilante leader and another
was the head of the local Civilian Joint task force.
 March 12, ISWAP militants attacked a Nigerian army checkpoint near

Ngamdu. Six Nigerian soldiers were killed in the attack and several more
were wounded. The remaining soldeirs fled, leaving ATVs, weapons and
ammunition.
 March 14, IS's Amaq Agency released photos of an attack they conducted
against Nigerian soldiers and special forces. At least 12 Nigerian army
personnel were killed in the attack and at least one was captured.
 March 15, the Nigerian army killed 41 Boko Haram militants during an
anti-terror operation between Gulwa and Musuri villages in the northeastern
part of the country. Four Nigerian soldiers were also killed in the operation.
 March 18, IS operatives attacked a Nigerian army base in Damasak. 5

Nigerian soldiers were killed and several others were wounded. IS operatives
set fire to the HQ of the International Red Cross and two of its vehicles.
 March 20, ISWAP forces attacked a Nigerian army post in Wulgo. One
Nigerian soldier was killed and several others were wounded. IS militants
seized weapons and ammunition.
 March 21, ISWAP operatives attacked the town of Goniri near the Niger-
Nigerian border. IS operatives burned down several buildings and killed 2
militiamen during the attack.
• Culled from Timeline of the Boko Haram insurgency from Wikipedia, the
free encyclopedia.
 Counter-Terrorism Measures
Understandably, Nigeria’s Boko Haram militant group, between June 2012 and
April 2013, suffered some significant reversals and setbacks. This invariably led
to the change in tactics in responds to the rise and collapse of Ansar Eddine in
neighboring Mali and the decrease in its own ability to project force inside
Nigeria. The Nigerian government and armed forces, after much hesitation
during 2010-2012, have to some extent developed a policy of containment with
regard to Boko Haram by employing a classic stick and carrot approach.
Nigerian security forces used blunt force attacks on the group’s bases and safe
houses throughout the north—resulting in the killings of substantial numbers of
militants, as well as causing high civilian casualties—while also offering an
amnesty, which was rejected. 7
For the very first time during this period, Boko Haram has demonstrated
verifiable connections with radical groups in northern Mali—al-Qaìda in the
Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa
(MUJAO) and Ansar Eddine—and has caused to have generated what appears
to be a break-off Salafi-jihadi organization of more globalist tendencies,
Jamaàt Ansar al-Muslimin fi Bilad al-Sudan (known as Ansaru). 8 Unlike Boko
Haram, which is based in northeastern Nigeria, Ansaru has operated in and
around Kano, the heartland of the Hausa-Fulani, in north-central Nigeria. The
beginning of Ansaru is likely connected with the paradigmatic suicide attacks
Boko Haram employed throughout the north and central regions, which killed
many Muslims during the fall of 2011 and spring of 2012. 9 For instance, in June
2012, Ansaru leader Abu Usmatul al-Ansari stated: “Islam forbids [the] killing
of innocent people including non-Muslims. This is our belief and we stand for
it.”10
 Patterns of Operation
Anti-terrorism actors in Nigeria against Boko Haram are three-fold – the
Nigerian government, army and police; the Muslim political and religious elites
in northern Nigeria; and the Christian (largely Igbo) minorities in the north and
central regions of the country. Expectedly, Boko Haram has repeatedly struck at
all three targets between June 2012 and April 2013; however, no one has
claimed responsibility for a suicide attack since December 22, 2012.
Boko Haram’s geographic pattern of operations has shifted since the beginning
of June 2012. Of the group’s 29-claimed 5 operations since June 2012, 15 of
these operations were in its home region of Borno and Yobe states (northeastern
Nigeria), while five were in Kano, and four in Kaduna and Zaria. All of the
Kaduna and Zaria operations (all attacks against churches), however, occurred
prior to November 25, 2012. Of these 29 operations, 19 were directed against
Christians—including massacres of Christian villagers throughout northern
Nigeria, suicide attacks and other gun and machete attacks against churches,
Christian gatherings, or Christian neighborhoods. Boko Haram’s leader
Abubakar Shekau stated: “We are also at war with Christians because the whole
world knows what they did to us,” adding that “the group’s successes in killing
innocent civilians indicates they [i.e., Boko Haram] are on the right path.11
It is worth noting, however, that a number of the targets chosen by Boko Haram
have been secular in nature and relate to the group’s adherence to “enjoining the
right and forbidding the wrong” (al-amr bi-l-ma`ruf wa-l-nahy àn al-munkar).
These operations include: attacks against polio inoculation workers on February
8, 2013; the murders and beheadings of three North Korean doctors on February
10, 2013; attacks against park rangers in Sambisa Park (possibly because they
threatened Boko Haram’s base in the area); a campaign against sellers of bush
meat in Maiduguri in January 2013, in which 23 people were killed; 12 and a
suicide campaign against the telephone companies of Kano (Airtel and MTN)
on December 22, 2012. True to the group’s primary opposition to secular non-
Islamic education, some of its operations against Christians have been directed
against schools or universities, in which the Christian students have been
singled out for execution.13
Also revealing are the types of weapons used by Boko Haram – the spring,
summer and fall of 2012 were all characterized by heavy use of suicide attacks
(a total of seven recorded suicide attacks during this period, in addition to those
utilized previously), but there have been no suicide attacks since the attack on
the phone system in Kano on December 22, 2012. Perhaps this change in tactics
has resulted from the discovery of a bomb-making factory by the Nigerian
authorities in early December 2012.14
The appearance of Ansaru, in lieu could have made the use of suicide attacks
doctrinally problematic (because of their indiscriminate nature). Ansaru, for
example, claims that it is against the killing of civilians, as opposed to Boko
Haram’s more indiscriminate targeting selection.
One should also note the similarity to Ansaru in the use of kidnappings. Ansaru
kidnapped seven foreigners on February 16, 2013, and executed them on March
9,15while Boko Haram then kidnapped a French family of seven (including four
children) in Cameroon on February 19, 2013, and then transported them to
Nigeria, where they were freed on April 18. 16 In both cases, the kidnappings
were directed at the outer world and not at Nigerian targets. According to
Ansaru, the executions were revenge for “atrocities done to the religion of Allah
by the European countries in many places such as Afghanistan and Mali.” 17
Boko Haram said that the kidnapping of the French family was in revenge for
the French invasion of northern Mali.18
The most striking conclusions from Boko Haram’s operations during the period
June 2012-April 2013 is the inability (or unwillingness) of the group to carry
out the paradigmatic suicide operations that characterized its rise during the
period 2010-2012. To a large extent, Boko Haram has been confined to the
region of Borno and Yobe states (northeastern Nigeria), with occasional
operations in Kano (north central Nigeria). There have been none of the major
operations that regularly occurred in Abuja or Jos (which is largely Christian,
and is a flashpoint for Muslim-Christian tension). While Boko Haram retains
the ability to carry out deadly operations in its home base region, it appears to
have been cut off from the rest of the country.19
Also indicative of the transition in Boko Haram is that approximately a third of

its major operations are now utilizing machetes and knives (six out of 29
incidents) rather than gun attacks (11 out of 29 incidents), explosives or suicide
attacks (seven out of 29 incidents). Increasingly, Boko Haram appears to be
utilizing more low-tech methods of killing rather than continuing on a trajectory
of ever more complex operations.
 Boko Haram: Collapse, Amnesty or Assimilation?

The prognosis for Boko Haram within Nigeria remains difficult to determine.
For Boko Haram, the evidence suggests that the group’s appeal has dwindled,
and it cannot carry out major operations outside of its home base. Nigeria’s
increased policing of money transfers has taken its toll on Boko Haram’s
financial support,20 compounded by the fall in popular support (most likely due
to the suicide attacks it executed in 2012 against Muslim targets).21
Looking at the larger strategic picture, the future for Boko Haram is not bright.
For most of 2012 until the French invasion of Mali in January 2013, Boko
Haram’s publicity was negated by the successes of Ansar Eddine in Mali (with
effects also in Algeria, Niger and Mauritania). While Boko Haram has only
been able to execute guerrilla attacks, Ansar Eddine was able to hold a
significant piece of northern Mali, including important local cities such as
Timbuktu and Gao, for a period of almost a year. While Ansar Eddine benefits
from close connections with the larger world of radical Islam (including at least
a nominal tie to al-Qaìda), Boko Haram was likely bereft of such connections
at least until 2012.22
Nevertheless, signs that Boko Haram is developing close connections with the
larger field of radical Islam have grown during this recent period. For the first
time, on November 29, 2012, Abubakar Shekau issued a video in Arabic; all of
his previous videos had been in Hausa. 23 When Boko Haram was temporarily
squeezed in February 2013, Shekau is believed to have briefly sought refuge
with Ansar Eddine in northern Mali; it is possible that with his return to Nigeria,
he brought more of a mainstreaming of Boko Haram within worldwide Salafi-
jihadism.* Additionally, the kidnapping of the French family from Cameroon
signals the willingness of Boko Haram to operate outside of Nigeria’s
boundaries for the first time, and to execute attacks for the cause of Ansar
Eddine or AQIM.24
 Conclusion
Boko Haram has been contained to a large extent within northeastern Nigeria.
Although it remains extremely deadly in that region—especially to the Christian
population—it does not seem to have broadened its appeal during the past year.
Indeed, northern Muslim politicians who were suspected of supporting Boko
Haram during 2011-2012 have carefully distanced themselves from the group,
especially as Boko Haram’s message has become more toxic within the context
of Nigerian politics.25 The closest parallel to Boko Haram’s trajectory is that of
the Abu Sayyaf Group in the Philippines—originally also a jihadist organization
which has now developed into more of a criminal element (with Islamic
rationales for operations).26
Such a trajectory raises the question of whether the amnesty offered by the
Nigerian government—effective with regard to the Niger Delta militants in
southern Nigeria—will have any effect on Boko Haram. Most likely it will not
because Boko Haram has developed a sufficiently hardened group of supporters
who are willing to continue their operations even if (hypothetically) the
leadership were to accept an amnesty. In developing ties to Ansar Eddine and
other West and North African radicals, Boko Haram sees the future—after the
French withdrawal from Mali—as being favorable for the continued success of
Salafi-jihadism. As a result, Boko Haram likely sees no reason to surrender at
this time.
(4) Fulani Herders: Terrorism or Manifestation of

Failed State?
Background Studies:
Fulani herdsmen or Fulani pastoralists are nomadic or semi-nomadic Fulani

people whose primary occupation is raising livestock. 27 The Fulani herdsmen
are largely located in the Sahel and semi-arid parts of West Africa, but due to
relatively recent changes in climate patterns, many herdsmen have moved
further south into the savannah and tropical forest belt of West Africa. The
herdsmen are found in countries such as Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Guinea,
Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, and Cameroon. In
Senegal, they inhabit northeastern Ferlo and the southeastern part of the
country. In many of these countries the Fula often constitute a minority group.
Herding system: Movements
Fulani herdsmen engage in both random and planned transhumance movements.

Random movements are usually taken by the pure nomadic Fulani herdsmen,
while planned movements are taken by the semi-nomadic pastoralist. A primary
reason for the migratory nature of the herdsmen is to reach areas with abundant
grass and water for the cattle. 28 The herdsmen also move to avoid tax
collectors, harmful insects and hostile weather and social environment. A major
benefit of the movement for the herdsmen is to maximize the availability of
food resources for the cattle and reduce excessive grazing. 29 Before moving to
new areas, the herdsmen send a reconnaissance team to study the area for
availability of resources such as grass and water.
Conflict with farmers
Historically Fulani pastoralists have grazed in lands around the arid Sahel
regions of West Africa, partly because of the environmental conditions that
limit the amount of land for agricultural purposes, leading to less intense
competition for land between farmers and herders. However, after recurrent
droughts in the arid Sahel regions, Fulani pastoralists have gradually moved
southwards to the Guinea savanna and the tropical forest areas, resulting in
competition for grazing routes with farmers. 30Farmers have also moved north
with the increase in population. 31
Herder–farmer conflicts in Nigeria
Fulani pastoralists started migrating into northern Nigeria from the Senegambia
region around the thirteenth or fourteenth century. 32 After the Uthman dan
Fodio jihad, the Fulani became integrated into the Hausa culture of Northern
Nigeria. Thereafter, during the dry season when the tsetse fly population is
reduced, Fulani pastoralists began to drive their cattle into the Middle Belt zone
dominated by non-Hausa groups, returning to the north at the onset of the rainy
season. But while managing the herd and driving cattle, cattle grazing on
farmlands sometimes occurs, leading to destruction of crops and becoming a
source of conflict.
Nigeria's implementation of the land use act of 1978 allowed the state or federal
government the right to assign and lease land and also gave indigenes the right
to apply and be given a certificate of occupancy to claim ownership of their
ancestral lands. 33 This placed the pastoral Fulani in a difficult position because
most did not apply for lands of occupancy of their grazing routes, and recurring
transhumance movement led to encroachment on the properties of others. The
Nigeria government designed some areas as grazing routes but this has not
reduced clashes. From 1996 to 2006 about 121 people lost their lives in Bauchi
and Gombe states as a result of conflicts between pastoralists and farmers. 34
Thousands of people have been killed since 2016 in clashes between farmers
and semi-nomadic herders. 35
‘Tope Oriola who teaches criminology and terrorism studies at the University of
Alberta, Canada and also a joint editor-in-chief of African Security, in an article
titled: “Criminal Fulani Herders and Insecurity in Nigeria”, explained that there
has never been a better time to reconfigure Nigeria than now. This is because
the issue of Fulani herders has brought out long-standing tensions in the polity.
From all appearances, I want to believe that President Muhammadu Buhari and
his government seem intent on taking Nigeria on the slippery, slippery slope to
Rwanda of 1994 — ethnic conflict and genocide. It would be recalled that in
2018, a Benue State delegation visited President Muhammadu Buhari after the
New Year Day massacre to ventilate their grievances over the menace of the
Fulani herders. After listening to them, Buhari pleaded with them thus: “I ask
you in the name of God to accommodate your country men. You can also be
assured that I am just as worried and concerned with the situation”. 36 To the
grieving and long-suffering Benue people, President Buhari’s response
amounted to an unwritten tacit agreement and support with his tribes’ men.
In 2015, the world body ranked Fulani militants masquerading as herders as the
fourth most lethal terrorist group in the world — behind only Boko Haram, ISIS
and al-Shabaab. There is no reasonable, genuine sign that President Buhari has
done anything to address the security situation in the country so far if indeed he
was truly worried about the menace of his tribe’s men. Yet, this is the same
Presidency that has been quick to condemn anti-open-grazing laws and
anything, including mosquito bites, affecting Fulani herders and the
anachronistic practice of transhumance. It was therefore in this important sense
that Tope wrote: “Through his and the government’s utterances and criminal
silence, Muhammadu Buhari appears to construe himself as herder-in-chief
rather than commander-in-chief, and the president of the Fulani people. Other
Nigerian ethnic groups and law-abiding Fulani people can no longer claim they
have a president.”37
A story was shared how the farm of a retired General was mercilessly invaded
by Fulani herders on multiple occasions. Cattle ate his crops and herders cut
root tubers to feed their flock. He lost millions of naira. Other farmers nearby
were also affected. They urged the General to intervene. The General was said
to have visited the police headquarters in the State. The police commissioner
told him he had also lost his crops to herdsmen. The Commissioner complained
to the General that his hands were tied and that he could not arrest the herders.
He informed the General that the state command had on two occasions arrested
herdsmen caught feeding cattle on citizens’ farms but he received orders from
“the Presidency” to release the suspects.38
Understandably, the Buhari government could not have asked the herders to
destroy people’s farms. However, as Tope critically examines: “ … inaction of
security agents, deployment of soldiers to beat villagers to accommodate
herders and the fear within security agencies that arresting criminal herders
could mean the end of their careers indicate culpability at best and at worst a
sinister intentionality at the highest levels of government. President Buhari has
done a major disservice to his beloved ethnic group. The failure to check the
excesses of the herdsmen has led to more brazen conduct of the herdsmen —
rape, kidnapping and gruesome killings — and negative perception and stigma
across Nigeria.”39 Even the Sultan of Sokoto has argued that seven or eight out
of 10 kidnappers in Nigeria are Fulani.40 The term “Fulani herdsmen” is fast
becoming a criminal franchise — some non-Fulanis are capitalising on the
negative social evaluation and identity to commit crimes and pin it on the
Fulani.41
 The gulf between Fulani rulers and herders
In his article titled: “The Gulf Between Fulani Rulers and Herders”, Akinkuolie
Rasheed explained how the Fulani nation is the only ethnic group in West
Africa that has produced Heads of State in at least five different African
countries – current President of Senegal, Macky Sall, the current President of
Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, the present President of Gambia, Adamu Barrow,
the current Vice President of Sierra Leone, Mohammed Jalloh, the former
President of Cameroon, Ahmadu Ahidjo, the former President of Burkina Faso,
Thomas Sankara, the former Prime Minister of Mali, Boubu Cisse, Diallo Telli
a Fulani from Guinea-Conakry was the first Secretary General of the
Organization of African Unity (OAU) now African Union (AU).42
Other prominent Fulanis, according to Akinkuolie Rasheed are Dame Amina

Mohammed, Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, Professor Jibril
Aminu, former Minister of Petroleum and Education in Nigeria, Dame Kadaria
Ahmed, a brilliant journalist, former President of ECOWAS, Ibn Chambas from
Ghana and countless others holding prominent positions in various fields
worldwide! This spread shows the phenomenon of the Fulani people, their
prominence and clout across many countries.43
It would be recalled that a Fulani Intellectual, reformist and Islamic Scholar,

Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio, established a theocratic Caliphate in the present
Northern Nigeria in the 18th Century, thereby leaving a legacy which has lasted
for over 200 years. Presently, his descendants are traditional rulers, governors,
ministers, and oil magnates, political leaders, who are at the top echelon of
Nigeria’s society. 44
For most of the 60 years of Nigeria’s Indepencence, Fulanis have ruled Nigeria
as President, Vice President or kingmakers. According to Fulani legend and
folklore, the people migrated from the Futa Djalon Highland in Guinea-
Conakry, where they constitute about 40% of the population. Even though the
Fulanis do not hold top political positions in Guinea-Conakry, they are the
intellectuals, entrepreneurs, estate developers, business moguls, skilled artisans,
professionals, mining magnates and technocrats. Their influence also extends to
neighboring Sierra-Leone, where they hold high political positions.45
The Fulanis in Northern Cameroon, especially in Garoua, Maroua, Ngaoundere,

Lagdo area constitute about 90% of the population, and like their Guinean
kinsmen are industrialists, business magnates, industrial farmers and
intellectuals. The farmers grow maize, pineapples, bananas, cotton, cash and
food crops.46
According to Akinkuolie Rasheed:

“During my tour of duty in these countries, I did not observe cattle rearing as
practiced today in Nigeria. The standard of living of Fulanis in most countries of
their sojourn fall within the middle and upper class range, except in Nigeria, where
there is a large population of Fulani poor, beggars, herders and thousands of Fulani
street urchins (Almajiris). If Fulanis are thriving and prospering in other countries,
but live in extreme poverty in Nigeria, Fulani elites of Nigeria should be held
responsible for this anomaly, because they control the wealth of the Nigerian State,
they control blue chips companies in the Private Sector, and choice positions in the
Public and Civil Service.”47
We have observed that Fulani elites in Nigeria have isolated themselves from
their herder kinsmen, and trivialized the plight of those who are herding and
gathering as: ‘their way of life or destiny’. Fulani herders and poor are now
hounded from state to state and community to community in Nigeria, accused of
being responsible for kidnappings, murders and all criminal activities,
irrespective of who committed the crimes. Most of the Fulani herders
unfortunately are pre-teens and teenagers, who should be in school. And this is
particularly tragic because the poverty cycle will not end, except the children
are educated.48
The kidnappings, killings attributed to Fulani herders may just be the tip of the
iceberg of Nigeria’s security problems. It may even be diverting attention from
the actual perpetrators of these crimes. I can recall that, as far back as 1998 (23
years ago) bandits from Chad, mainly the defeated enemies of Idris Debby were
terrorizing towns and travellers along the Baga-Monguno- Maiduguri road. It
was extremely dangerous to travel at anytime of the day on that road axis.49
“I was part of the Nigerian delegation that went to Baga- Borno State to set up the
multi national task force with the armies of Chad and Niger republic to curb banditry
in the region. That was 11 years before the outbreak of the Boko Haram war and
widespread insecurity in Nigeria. The Chadian bandits with other terror groups have
now migrated down south and to other parts of Nigeria, disguised as Fulani herders
or hiding behind them to carry out the military style operations, which certainly
cannot be the handiwork of pre-teens and teenage Fulani herders seen on the cattle
trails all over Nigeria. Of course, there are Fulani kidnappers and other copycat
raiding bands, and making a lot of money by taking people hostage on the highways
or are accomplices to the crimes.” 50
Because of the weak security system and the minimal risk involved, kidnapping
has become an all comers business and a free for all. Individuals have been
busted for organizing their own kidnapping to extort money from family
members.
Fulani herders and poor are now fighting for survival in Nigeria and their
salvation can only come from their affluent kinsmen, a challenge which
hopefully they will undertake as a moral obligation. The herders must now be
settled in ranches and the children enrolled in schools to break the poverty cycle
and prevent them from swelling the ranks of insurgents.
The creation of ranches is now urgent because of the increasing hostility

towards the herders. Several states in Nigeria can host the ranches, especially in
the North, where there is an abundance of land. Niger State of Nigeria for
example is almost three times the size of the five South Eastern States put
together, about 24 times the size of Lagos State, and about the same size as the
entire South Western states of Nigeria. About 70 % of the land mass of Nigeria
is in the North.51
The conflict over grazing land in Southern Nigeria, which has limited space is
therefore avoidable and unnecessary. However, the success of the ranching
system in the North will encourage other states to willingly adopt this type of
animal husbandry for economic reasons.
The enrollment of Fulani children in schools should be mandatory because of
the enormous benefits and public good. This is achievable within a short period
of time, if done in an imaginative and pragmatic manner.
In conclusion, Fulani rulers of Nigeria cannot run away from their

responsibilities towards their poor kinsmen. They should emulate the good
example of other tribal leaders, who are very protective of their less privileged.
MACBAN (Miyeti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria) and the Sarki
Fulanis in communities should be commended for standing out to represent the
interests of Fulani herders. But, their efforts are not enough to handle the huge
existential problem of the herders in Nigeria. Fulani rulers must get involved.
Distancing themselves from the crisis is unhelpful and morally wrong. Fulani
herders must be integrated into the mainstream of the Nigerian social and
economic society. They must be given the opportunity to live a normal dignified
life in Nigeria.
 Timeline on Activities of the Fulani Herdsmen
According to investigations carried out and reported in 2016, attacks by Fulani

herdsmen in the North-central Nigerian state of Benue have led to the killing of
at least 1, 269 persons.52
The report explained that out of the 23 local government areas in the state, the
rampaging herdsmen have invaded and occupied 14 and may invade the
remaining nine unless urgent measures are taken to curb the menace.53
Our findings, confirmed by residents, security officials and the state governor,
also showed that in the North-east Senatorial District of the state, the herdsmen
have invaded Katsina-Ala, Kwande, Logo, Ukum; leaving out Vandeikya,
Konshisha and Ushongo.54
In Benue North-east Senatorial District, the killer herdsmen have attacked all
the other local government councils except Gboko.55
The council areas invaded and occupied by the killer herdsmen include Guma,
Gwer-West, Gwer-East, Buruku, Tarka and Makurdi local government
councils.56
The invasion of Ogbadibo, Agatu and Apa local government areas in Benue
South Senatorial District are however believed to be the most brutal.57
On February 29, for instance, the herdsmen invaded several Agatu villages and
farm settlements in broad daylight, gunning down children, women, men and
the elderly.
At the time the gunshots subsided, over 500 villagers were reportedly massacred
and over 7000 were displaced in 10 villages including Aila, Okokolo, Akwu,
Adagbo, Odugbehon and Odejo.58
The Paramount Ruler of Logo Local Government Area, Jimmy Memme, said
that between July 1 and 16, the herdsmen murdered over 85 persons, including
women and children, from six out of the 10 wards in the area.59
Many Benue indigenes expressed sadness that while the herdsmen had been
killing residents and plundering their communities, the federal government
recently commissioned a military task force to protect herdsmen and their cattle
in Zamfara State.60
They call on President Muhammadu Buhari to expeditiously set up a special

military task force to check the menace of herdsmen, not only in Benue but
across the country.
Below is a timeline of herdsmen attacks on communities and the resultant

killings in the state between 2013 and July 2016.
 Fulani Herders: Timeline on Attacks in Benue State between 2013 and

2016
An attack by Fulani herdsmen on villages in Benue state on the second day of

the year 2018 left 73 people dead, hundreds injured, 40,000 was displaced. 61
unfortunately, the threat of violent herdsmen is not new: in 2016, pastoral
conflicts accounted for more deaths in Nigeria than Boko Haram. And the rate
at which the herdsmen commit these crimes has increased exponentially.
In fact, according to the 2015 Global Terrorism Index, Fulani herdsmen are the
fourth deadliest militant group in the world with a record killing of 1229 people
in 2014.62
Below is a timeline of herdsmen attack across Nigeria from 2012 till date: 63
 September 30, 2012: A Fulani herdsman murdered one Benjamin Chegue

on his farm. The victim was the Director of Personnel Management in the
Isoko North Local Government Council in Delta State.
 February 29, 2013: Many lives were lost after Fulani herdsmen attacked
Agatu, burning Inoli, Ologba, olegeje, olegogboche, olegede, Adana,
Inminy and Abugbe communities in Benue state.
 April 23, 2013: 10 Farmers were killed in an attack on Mbasenge
community in Guma LGA by suspected herdsmen in Benue state.
 May 7, 2013: 47 people were gunned down in Agatu, Benue state while
burying two policemen killed earlier in the week by Fulani herdsmen in
Nassarawa.
 May 14, 2013: 40 people were killed after over 200 herdsmen invaded
Ekwo-Okpanchenyi, Agatu LGA of Benue state.
 July 5, 2013: About 20 People were killed in a “conflict” between Tiv
farmers & Fulani herdsmen at Nzorov, Guma LGA, in Benue state.
 July 31, 2013: Herdsmen invaded 2 villages in Agatu LGA in Benue
Benue state killing 8 villagers allegedly in retaliation for the killing of
112 cows
 November 7, 2013: Fulani Herdsmen invaded Ikpele & Okpopolo
communities in Benue state killing 7 and displacing over 6000
inhabitants.
 November 9, 2013: 36 locals were killed and 7 villages overrun in an
attack by herdsmen on locals in Agatu LGA in Benue state.
 November 20, 2013: Fulani herdsmen attacked some communities in
Guma LGA, Benue state, killing 22 locals and destroying properties
worth millions of naira.
 January 20, 2014: Fulani herdsmen invaded a community in Agatu LGA,
Benue state, killing 5 soldiers and 7 civilians.
 20-21 February 2014: Fulani Herdsmen attacked Gwer West LGA. 35
persons killed. 80,000 displaced. 6 Council Wards Sacked.
 February 24, 2014: Fulani herdsmen attacked a Tiv community along
Naka road, Makurdi, killing 8 people.
 March 6, 2014: Fulani herdsmen killed about 30 people in Kwande,
Katsina-Ala and Logo LGAs in Benue state
 March 12, 2014: 28 people were killed by Fulani herdsmen after they
raided Ukpam village of Mbabaai in Guma LGA of Benue state
 March 10, 2014: Fulani herdsmen attacked Former Governor Suswam’s
convoy at Umenger, Benue state. He and convoy manage an escape.
 March 12, 2014: 22 people were killed after Fulani Herdsmen attacked
Former Governor Suswam’s village in Logo LGA.
 March 23, 2014: Fulani herdsmen killed 25 people and injured 50 people
in Gbajimba, Guma LGA Benue state.
 March 25, 2014: Police recovered 7 corpses following an attack on Agena
village by Herdsmen.
 March 29, 2014: Herdsmen attack 4 villages in Agatu LGA. 19 people
killed, 15 others abducted.
 March 29, 2014. 15 people were killed after Fulani herdsmen made use of
chemical weapons on Sengev community in Gwer West LGA, Benue
state.
 March 30, 2014: 19 people were killed and 15 abducted in Agatu LGA by
Fulani herdsmen.
 April 5th, 2014: Fulani herdsmen opened fire on community leaders and
residents that were meeting in Galadima village. At least 200 people were
killed and an unknown number were injured in the attack.
 April 10, 2014: 6 people were killed by Fulani herdsmen after they
attacked 4 villages in Ukemberaga Tswarev ward of Logo LGA
 April 15, 2014: Fulani herdsmen attacked Obagaji, Headquarters of
Agatu LGA and killed 12 youths.
 September 10, 2014: 20 people were killed at Fulani herdsmen attacked
five villages in Ogbadibo LGA.
 January 27, 2015: 17 people were killed in attacks on Abugbe, Okoklo,
Ogwule & Ocholoyan in Agatu LGA by Fulani herdsmen.
 January 30, 2015: Over 100 attackers stormed 5 villages in Logo LGA,
killing 9 persons in the attack.
 March 15, 2015: Fulani herdsmen invaded Egba village in Agatu LGA
and over 90 locals, including women and children, were killed.
 April 27, 2015: 28 people were killed by herdsmen in an attack on 3
villages at Mbadwem, Guma LGA Benue state.
 May 11, 2015: 5 people were killed in Ikyoawen community in Turan
Kwande LGA Benue state
 May 24, 2015: 100 people were killed in an attack by Fulani herdsmen in
villages & refugee camps at Ukura, Gafa, Per, and Tse-Gusa, Logo LGA
Benue state.
 July 7, 2015: Fulani herdsmen killed one person following an attack on
mourners in Imande Bebeshi in Kwande LGA Benue state.
 November 5, 2015: 12 people were killed, 25 others injured in Buruku
LGA following an attack by suspected herdsmen Benue state.
 Feb 8, 2016: 10 people were killed and over 300 displaced in a clash
between herdsmen and farmers at Tor-Anyiin and Tor-Ataan in Buruku
LGA Benue state
 February 18th, 2016: Five people were killed by Fulani herdsmen at
Okokolo village in Agatu Local Government Area of Benue State.
 Feb 21-24, 2016: Over 500 people were killed and 7000 displaced in an
attack on Agatu LGA by Fulani herdsmen.
 March 5, 2016: About 500 people were killed by the rampaging Fulani
herdsmen after an attack on Agatu local government area of Benue state.
 March 9, 2016: 8 people were killed by Fulani herdsmen in attacks on
Ngorukgan, Tse Chia, Deghkia and Nhumbe in Logo LGA Benue state.
 March 13, 2016. 6 people were killed by herdsmen in an attack on Tarkaa
LGA.
 February 29, 2016: 11 people were killed in Edugbeho Agatu, Benue
state.
 March 10, 2016:2 people were killed after Fulani herdsmen attacked a
community in Agatu.
 April 12, 2016: Fulani herdsmen attacked two villages in Gashaka Local
Government Area of Taraba state and killed 15 people.
 April 19, 2016: Fulani herdsmen allegedly killed over 23 persons in Delta
state. April 25th, 2016: About 40 people were killed by Fulani herdsmen
after they attacked 7 villages in Nimbo in Uzo- Uwani Local Government
Area of Enugu State.
 June 16th, 2016: A 45-year-old renowned farmer was shot by Fulani
herdsmen in Ossissa community in Ndokwa east local government area of
Delta state.
 June 20th, 2016: At Least 59 people were killed following an attack in
Benue State.
 January 24, 2017: 15 people were killed by rampaging Fulani herdsmen,
who attacked farmers in Ipiga village in Ohimini Local Government Area
of Benue State.
 March 2, 2017: 10 people were killed after Fulani herdsmen and farmers
clashed in Mbahimin community, Gwer East Local Government Area of
Benue State.
 March 11, 2017: 7 people were killed when Fulani herdsmen attacked a
Tiv community, Mkgovur village in Buruku locale
 May 8 2017: Three persons were confirmed killed by herdsmen in Tse-
Akaa village, Ugondo Mbamar District of Logo Local Government Area
of Benue State.
 May 13, 2017: Less than one week after many people were killed by
herdsmen in three communities of Logo Local Government Area of
Benue State, armed herders struck again on May 13 killing eight more
people.
 December 31, 2017 and January 2, 2018: 73 persons including seven
members of the Benue State Livestock Guards have been killed in fresh
attacks on Benue communities by suspected Fulani herdsmen after they
invaded Gaambe-Tiev, Ayilamo and Turan all in Logo LGA as well as
Umenger, Tse-Akor and Tomatar near Tse-Abi in Nongov District of
Guma LGA
 January 14, 2018: 10 people were killed as Fulani herdsmen attacked two
villages in the Birnin-Gwari Local Government of Kaduna State.
 January 17, 2018: At least 4 people were killed in an attack on Uhime and
Angyo communities at Dooka in Doma Local Government Area of
Nasarawa State by Fulani herdsmen.
 January 17, 2018: 4 people were killed in a fresh attack by suspected
armed herdsmen in Logo and Guma Local Government Areas on
Wednesday in Benue State.
 January 25, 2018: 6 people were killed in two separate attacks by Fulani
herdsmen on two communities in Plateau State.
 January 30, 2018: Fulani herdsmen attacked NNPC officials, killed one
person in Benue
 February 26, 2018: Fulani herdsmen attacked a community in Delta state
and killed a Couple.
 February 28, 2018: 20 people were killed in Adamawa after Fulani
Herdsmen attacked Farmers.
 MARCH 5, 2018: 10 people were killed by Fulani Herdsmen in Benue’s
Omosu village
 MARCH 7, 2018: 26 people were killed as herdsmen sack Benue village
in a fresh attack.
 March 7 2018: 2 people were killed in Takum, Taraba.
 March 8 2018: 11 people were killed in Bassa, Plateau
 March 9 2018: 9 people were killed in Bokkos, Plateau
 March 12 2018: 26 people were killed, 26 in Bassa, Plateau
 March 13 2018: 5 people were killed in Guma, Benue
 March 14 2018: 32 people were killed in Daima/Omala, Kogi
 March 14 2018: 2 soldiers were killed in Rafiki, Bassa Plateau
 March 14 2018: Herdsmen killed 4 soldiers in Miango, Bassa, Plateau
 March 15 2018: 5 people were killed in Takum, Taraba leaves
 March 19 2018: 10 people were killed in Omala, Kogi
 March 22 2018: Fulani herdsmen attack leaves 3 dead in Jos South,
Plateau
 March 24 2018: 5 people were killed in Makurdi, Benue
 April 4 2018: Family of 4 people were killed in Takum, Taraba
 April 4 2018: Fulani Herdsmen killed 10 in Gwer West, Benue
 April 5 2018: 5 people were killed in Dobga, Taraba
 April 5 2018: 30 people were killed in Gwer, West, Benue
 April 5 2018: more than 50 people were killed in Offa, Kwara
 April 7 2018: Family of four people were killed in Bali, Taraba
 April 7 2018: 2 people were killed in Agatu, Benue
 April 8 2018: 5 people were killed in Birkin Ladi, Plateau
 April 9 2018: 1 Soldier was killed in Guma, Benue
 April 10 2018: 51 people were killed in Wukari, Taraba
 April 12 2018: 2 people were killed in markudi, Benue
 April 13, 2018: 5 people were killed in Bassa, Kogi
 April 14, 2018: 4 policemen were killed in Logo, Benue
 April 17, 2018: 1 village head people were killed in Logo, Benue
 April 18, 2018: 4 people were killed in Bassa, Plateau
 April 20, 2018: 31 people were killed in Guma, Benue
 April 25, 2018: Herdsmen raid and kill 2 priest and 17 others, Gwer East,
Benue
 April 25, 2018: 39 people were killed in Guma, Benue
 April 30, 2018: 2 killed, six others injured in herdsmen attack in Aniocha
LGA, Delta
 May 14, 2018: Fulani herdsmen sack 2 Kogi state communities, killed 10
people
 6 Jun 2018: Fulani herdsmen killed 9 people in a fresh Benue attack.
 Sept 3, 2018: 14 people were killed as herdsmen attack Plateau
 Sept 27, 2018: Armed Fulani herdsmen accompanied by militants in
Nigerian army uniforms killed 17 Christians in their homes in the heart of
Jos, north-central Nigeria.
 26 Oct 2018: Two people were killed by Fulani Herdsmen Attack in
Guma, Benue State.
 22 Nov 2018: 10 people were killed in Katsina state
 Jan 13, 2019: Herdsmen kill fisherman, injure two others in Delta
community
 April 10, 2019: Four people killed in herdsmen attack in Delta
 April 15, 2019: Herdsmen killed 16 in Nasarawa during the naming
ceremony
 Jun 28, 2019: Herdsmen killed a village head in Ogun state.
 Jul 12 2019: Fulani herdsmen kill Fasoranti’s daughter
 Aug 17, 2019: Herdsmen kill 67 yrs old woman in Enugu
 Jan 3, 2020: 23 people killed as herdsmen attack Kogi community
 Jan 22, 2020: Fulani herdsmen killed 2 people in Kaduna
 Jan 27, 2020: Herdsmen killed Nollywood actor in Ilorin
 Feb 19 2020: Herdsmen kill 2 soldiers in Plateau, injure one
(5) Banditry in Nigeria: A Brief History of a Long

War
Joining an inglorious membership of a long (and still growing) list that includes
Boko Haram, cultists, herdsmen, kidnappers and militants, the term “Bandits”
have been admitted as the new bogeyman for insecurity in Nigeria. From
Birnin-Gwari in Kaduna to Tsafe in Zamfara, and to other parts of the North-
West (Nigeria) in particular, bandits are offered as the unfortunate expression
for an intolerable carnage, and the inexplicable haplessness of a Federal
Government that doesn’t appear to care for much. “As this lamentable state
metastasises, it may be worthwhile to reflect on banditry in Nigeria.”64
The term “banditry” is construed to define and/or describe different variants of

outlawry in different parts of Nigeria. But the usage, in reality, according to the
erudite legal luminary and scholar Odinkalu, conflates two underlying problems
– ineffective law enforcement in Southern Nigeria, and the crisis of ungoverned
spaces in Northern Nigeria.65 Successive Nigeria governments since
Independence have had to confront variants of these trends. The evidence over
time suggests a link between governance, its failures, and banditry.66
In his history of organised crime in Nigeria, Stephen Ellis’ book, “This Present
Darkness” traces post-independence banditry in Nigeria to “shortly before the
civil war, when government broke down in some parts of the Western Region
and there was a blurred line between political violence, crime, and organised
insurgency.”67 And Chidi Odinkalu further explains: “At the end of the war, the
military regime of Gowon failed to manage demobilisation. As demobilised
combatants from the war returned home to nothing to do, outlawry became
appealing.”68
Consequently, we have witnessed urban banditry in Southern Nigeria, which

comprises a mere 29% of Nigeria’s nearly 924,000 km² of landmass.
Unsurprisingly, an early manifestation in built-up areas of the country was
incidences of armed robbery activities. The name Ishola Oyenusi, a high-school
dropout who chose to be called “the Doctor” and terrorised Lagos at the end of
the Civil War was notorious. This led the military government then to introduce
mandatory death by firing squad for convicted armed robbers. The first set of
public executions took place in front of Bar Beach, in Victoria Island, Lagos on
April 26, 1971. Less than four and a half months later, on the 8 th of September
1971, Oyenusi was executed at the same location.69
Not only confined to southern part of Nigeria, urban banditry also featured in
the North. Three armed men robbed a bank in Kano of £27,750 in April 1970.70
The speed of public executions rises sharply. Over 400 armed robbers had been
publicly executed by firing squad by 1976. Under the regime of Major-General
Muhammadu Buhari in 1984, there were at least 338 such executions. Over
1,200 of such executions took place in 12 years between 1984 and 1996.
Around the same time, drug trafficking emerged as a major factor in outlawry in
Nigeria.71
It appeared that each succeeding decade saw an intensification of urban

outlawry in different parts of southern Nigeria. In the 1980s, another school
drop-out who carried out indiscriminate violence with a touch of the Robin
Hood marinated in advocacy for the downtrodden was Lawrence Anini. Anini’s
reign of terror in the then Bendel State and surrounding states was made easier
by the complicity of some senior police personnel who helped to provide his
gang with intelligence and made evidence against them to disappear. In mid-
1986 following effective police work, two members of his gang were convicted
which made Anini to turn his guns against the police in an intense rampage of
mass killing, during which 10 police officers in Bendel State died between
August and October 1986. That would prove to be his undoing. General Ibrahim
Babangida, the former military president, turned up the heat on then Inspector-
General of Police, Etim Inyang, famously asking him during a meeting of the
then ruling military council in October 1986: “Where is Anini”? 72 In December
1986, two months later, the police arrested Anini and dismantled his gang,
which included Monday Osunbor, a Police Superintendent. In March 1987, they
were executed.
“In the 1990s, Shina Rambo terrorised parts of South-West Nigeria with similar
escapades. In South-East Nigeria, the Otokoto case in Owerri, Imo State, in 1996
revealed a netherworld of ritualised human sacrifice. By the 2000s, commercial
kidnapping, political violence and assassinations would emerge as dominant forms of
outlawry. The best-known exponents included a man known as Osisikankwu (Obioma
Nwankwo) in Abia State and resource militants in the Niger Delta. In Abia State and
parts of the South-East Nigeria, government broke down and security was taken over
by a bandit, vigilante horde, known as Bakassi Boys.”73
Three additional factors collaborated in launching this new phase.
First, public universities in Nigeria became fertile breeding grounds for outlaws.
The story of how this came about lies in the history of competition between
university-based confraternities. The Pyrates Confraternity, the oldest of these
confraternities in Nigeria would be forced to leave the universities about 1986.
In 1965 or so, the Supreme Eiye Confraternity (National Association of
Airlords) emerged in Lagos as rival to the Pyrates. 1972 witnessed the birth of
In Ibadan, the National Association of Sealords, better known as the
Buccaneers, in Ibadan. The University of Calabar produced the Klansmen
Confraternity and in the University of Port Harcourt, the Vikings emerged. The
growth of these groups coincided with the emergence of articulate civic
activism in the universities led by the National Union of Nigerian Students, later
known as the National Association of Nigerian students. Military rulers used
these cults to disrupt official student activism. Competing groups in the politics
of university administration also found them useful. In the Niger Delta, Stephen
Ellis recalls, they “became a factor in the region’s politics.”74
The second reason could be attributed to Babangida’s transition to civil rule

programme which created a mutual support network between politicians,
robbers and cults. By 2008, when the Rivers State Truth and Reconciliation
Commission presided over by former Supreme Court Justice, Kayode Eso asked
Mujahid Asari Dokubo how the armed youths who traded in violence acquired
their weapons, Asari authoritatively said: “The guns were purchased with
money disbursed by politicians.”75
Third, inept and incompetent management of natural resources exploitation in

both the North and the South facilitated and reinforces the transition from urban
to rural banditry. Mismanagement of the economy did the rest. For example,
Southern Kaduna had been known as being very rich in gemstones, including
diamond, sapphire, quartz, ruby, temaline, and aquamarine. Early-to-mid 1980s,
witnessed a mad rush of artisanal gemstone rustlers who would invade
communities in Jema’a. These rustlers came from as far as Mali, Senegal and
Sudan in search of shiny gemstones that the locals called “devil stones”. 76 In
1986, Newswatch Magazine’s Aniete Usen reported “cases of eliminating by
kidnapping, sudden disappearance of dealers and diggers and a whole range of
other blood-chilling tales. The barons, agents and diggers became fanatically….
fully armed with automatic weapons.”77The weapons they brought into Southern
Kaduna would feature prominently in the first Kafanchan crisis in 1987. Their
methods are easily seen in the descent from artisanal mining to organised
banditry in Birnin-Gwari and Zamfara, three decades later.
The military government of General Sani Abacha introduced guns to quell civic
advocacy for resource justice in the Niger Delta region. Hence, the Joint
(Military) Task Force was deployed in 1994. Nearly a quarter of a century later,
the guns are everywhere and the JTF is mired in an interminable mission.
Nigeria’s Defence Minister, Mansur Dan-Ali, a retired one-Star General,
himself also from Zamfara State, complained on December 21, 2018: “The
issue of (sic) drug abuse, unemployment and governance amongst others
contributes to the deplorable security situation in Zamfara State.”78
Quite clearly, successive regimes in Nigeria have in different ways made

efforts, mostly futile or counter-productive, to address the different kinds of
banditry that they confronted. It appears that the difference this time round, is
that the government of the day seem not to be much bothered by the rising
human toll of the descent into an ungoverned country, nor does it care to tell the
country why it can’t afford to be bothered.
 Bandits, State Actors and Non-State Actors
Nigerians are constantly awash as bandits have taken over parts of the country,
especially the North West, in a determined effort to make banditry the most
lucrative industry in the country. While bandits are united in their efforts and
are growing bolder, the governors of the states are divided. While some
governors see the bandits as victims of ethnic cleansing, others argue that there
should be negotiations, amnesty and compensation for them.79
Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, was one governor whose position
stands out reinforcing what Owei Lakemfa referred to as truth in the DNA of
falsehood.
It would be recalled that in 2016 as bandits ravaged Kaduna State, Governor El-
Rufai, rather than use or rely on the security forces to restore law and order,
choose to negotiate and pay off the killers, in some cases sending state funds to
pay them in neigbouring countries as he personally confessed. He told
journalists this rather bizarre story himself:
“For Southern Kaduna, we didn’t understand what was going on and we decided to
set up a committee under Gen. Martin Luther Agwai (retd) to find out what was going
on there. What was established was that the root of the problem has a history starting
from the 2011 post-election violence.
“Fulani herdsmen from across Africa bring their cattle down towards the Middle Belt
and Southern Nigeria. The moment the rains start around March, April, they start
moving them up to go back to their various communities and countries.
“Unfortunately, it was when they were moving up with their cattle across Southern
Kaduna that the elections of 2011 took place and the crisis trapped some of them.
Some of them were from Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Senegal. Fulanis are in
14 African countries and they traverse this country with the cattle. So many of these
people were killed, cattle lost and they organised themselves and came back to
revenge. So a lot of what was happening in Southern Kaduna was actually from
outside Nigeria… We took certain steps. We got a group of people that were going
round trying to trace some of these people in Cameroon, Niger Republic and so on to
tell them that there is a new governor who is Fulani like them and has no problem
paying compensations for lives lost and he is begging them to stop killing.
“In most of the communities, once that appeal was made to them, they said they have
forgiven. There are one or two that asked for monetary compensation. They said they
have forgiven the death of human beings, but want compensation for cattle. We said
no problem, and we paid some.”80
Nigerians want to know and have the record of the foreign herders he paid as
well as the local farmers and citizens, some of who were also killed with their
farms and homes destroyed. What is the identity of the killers El-Rufai claimed
to have paid and how much were they paid? How are we sure that they did not
use the so-called compensation to buy more arms. However, what is certain is
that the terror attacks did not abate. That was the position of El-Rufai then.
Today, many northern state governors are still re-echoing similar views.
Jerrywright Ukwu, in his piece, “NGOs accuse some Northern Governors of
Turning Kidnapping into Business”, explained that more condemnations
continue to trail decisions by authorities in northern Nigerian to negotiate with
bandits. A group of civil society organisations in the north has rejected the
move saying it is a form of corruption; further accusing some northern
governors of using the abductions as a source of siphoning public funds.81
The groups under the umbrella of Non-State Actors Consultative Forum

(NOSACOF) made the accusation at a press briefing in Kano state. Governor
Matwalle of Zamfara was one of the governors mentioned by the groups.
While speaking at the briefing, the co-convener of the coalition, Mr. Ibrahim
Waiya, alleged that political actors in north Nigeria have devised a new strategy
to swindling public resources through negotiation with bandits.82
ThisDay quoted him as saying: “We believed that negotiation with bandits is
not the best option because it is another form of corruption. “Because of the
corruption involved, the governors, who are also benefiting from the loot, will
never want the government to deploy a full military application to end the
banditry.”83
In a related development, former Anambra state governor Peter Obi has

frowned at reports of the government paying bandits ransom to free those
sequestered by the criminal gangs. Obi a former vice presidential candidate,
said such actions by the government are inimical to the economic growth of
Nigeria. Similarly, former minister of youth and sports, Barrister Solomon
Dalung has said that the All Progressive Congress (APC)-led federal
government has failed on its promises to address the remnant insecurity
challenges in the country, particularly in northern Nigeria.
In what appears a U-turn from his earlier stand, I was enamoured with El-
Rufai’s principled, foresighted and statesmanlike position as he disagrees with
his colleagues, arguing that bandits are criminals who must face the wrath of the
law and justice. He said rather than negotiating with them, bandits and other
criminal elements “must be degraded and decimated to a state of unconditional
submission to constituted authority”.84 He submitted that criminal gangs,
bandits, insurgents and ethno-religious militias in making a conscious decision
to challenge the country’s sovereignty and terrorise the citizenry must be wiped
out immediately and without hesitation. He says banditry has driven farmers
from their land, putting food security at risk, displaced communities, stolen
property and deprived people of their right to life and that a stop must be put to
these criminal acts so the people can live in peace.85
To achieve these objectives, El-Rufai advocates better training and equipment

for the security forces, increasing their numbers, upgrading them
technologically and modernising their armaments. He argued that the security of
communities depends on the robust projection of state power and the ability to
overawe and deter criminals. He emphasised that: “The prerogatives of the state
need to be asserted, not merely proclaimed. The people we put in uniform must
never be placed in avoidable danger, outgunned or outnumbered by non-state
actors.”86
He also made the sensible argument that policing a large country like Nigeria
with a 923,768 square-kilometre land-mass in a unitary manner is not
pragmatic. So, the establishment of state police and other levels of policing are
inevitable.
He regretted the lack of synergy among the governors in the North West on how
to fight banditry, pointing out that a: “State like Zamfara adopted a policy of
dialogue with the gunmen, giving them amnesty, which I don’t believe in. With
this, we have differences on how to tackle the situation.” 87 He submits that: “It
is deceitful to believe that a person who is now counting millions as gains from
ransom will embrace dialogue and return to his previous lifestyle where he saw
little money occasionally.”88
He warned his fellow governors who are prevaricating that if they do not unite
and let the Federal Government provide the states with soldiers and police to go
after the bandits in the forests and eliminate them it will be difficult to defeat
banditry.
So which of the El-Rufai positions is his true position? Is it the one he made
five years ago when he presented the bandits as victims for whom he crossed
borders into countries like Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Senegal not only
to ask them to forgive Nigerians, but also pay them to stop coming to kill
Nigerians, or what he is espousing now which is that these killers are mere
criminals with whom there should be no negotiations, no amnesty given and no
ransom paid? Did he have a change of mind, in which case he needs to so
express and explain why? I think as humans, we can make mistakes, but he
should own up to his mistakes and not to act as if this has always been his
position.89
Is El-Rufai’s current position that banditry should be taken headlong and

stamped out a principled one or one dictated by the 2023 presidential election
which he is rumoured to be interested in either as candidate or running mate?
REFERENCES
1. Given the importance of clarity and definition in this regard, for the
purposes of this presentation, terrorism had been defined as the
premeditated use or threat of use of violence by an individual or group to
cause fear, destruction or death, especially against unarmed targets,
property or infrastructure in a state, intended to compel those in authority
to respond to the demands and expectations of the individual or group
behind such violent acts. Their demands or expectations may be for a
change in status quo in terms of the political, economic, ideological,
religious or social order within the affected state or for a change in the
(in) actions or policies of the affected state in relation to its interaction
with other group or states. See also Terna Loryue Venda, “Terrorism and
Internal Security in Nigeria: The Boko Haram Challenges”,
intellektualtourist.wordpress.com
2. Feedom C Onuoha, “Boko Haram’s Tactical Evolution”, African
Defence Forum, Vol. 4, No. 4, (2012), p. 28.
3. The Jihadi Websites Monitoring Group, “Africa” Periodical Review,
http://www.ict.org.il/Portals/0/Internet%20Monitoring
%20Group/JWMG_Periodical_ Review_March_2010_No.2.pdf, 2
March 2010, p. 14
4. See for instance, A.Adesoji, The Boko Haram uprising and Islamic
revivalism in Nigeria, Africa Spectrum, Vol. 45, No. 2, (2010), pp.95-
108; M.O. Sodipo, “Mitigating Radicalism in Northern Nigeria”, Africa
Security Brief, No 26, (2013).
5. F. Chothia, Who are Nigeria’s Boko Haram Islamists? BBC, 11 January
2012, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13809501; Y. Ndege and
A. Essa, The rise of Nigeria’s Boko Haram, Al Jazeera, 30 September
2013,
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/09/201397155225146644.ht
ml [accessed 8 January 2014]
6. see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Boko_Haram_insurgency
7. David Cook, “Boko Haram: Reversals and Retrenchment”, Combating
Terrorism Centre, April 2013, Vo. 6, Issue 4.
8. “Nigeria’s Boko Haram Rejects Jonathan’s Amnesty Idea,” BBC, April
11, 2013; Tim Cocks and Isaac Abrak, “Heavy Fighting in Northeast
Nigeria, Death Toll Unclear,” Reuters, April 22, 2013.
9. Eric Schmitt, “American Commander Details Al Qaeda’s Strength in
Mali,” New York Times, December 3, 2012; Mark Doyle, “Africa’s
Islamist Militants ‘Co-ordinate Efforts,’” BBC, June 26, 2012.
10. “Multiple Bomb Blasts Hit Northern Nigerian City of Kano,” Los
Angeles Times, January 20, 2012.
11. “New Islamist Group Emerges in Nigeria, Claims ‘Different’
Understanding of Jihad,” al-Arabiya, June 3, 2012. Although one can
note that Ansaru’s methodology does not preclude the slaughter of
Westerners—such as the seven British, Lebanese, Italian and Filipino
hostages it killed on March 9, 2013—there are close parallels in the
splintering between Boko Haram and Ansaru and the Algerian paradigm
of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and the Salafist Group for Preaching
and Combat (GSPC) in 1997. In this latter case, the GIA’s indiscriminate
killings of civilians led to the breakup of the parent group and the
establishment of a new strategy that was to avoid indiscriminate killings,
at least initially. Ansaru has stated that it will not target Muslims or
Nigerian governmental bodies (which is not entirely consistent with their
record), or even Christian churches, but said that the “rampant massacre
of Muslims in Nigeria will no longer be tolerated and that they will never
attack any religion or government institution that did not attack them and
their religion.” These comments should be seen as an implicit critique on
the part of mainstream Hausa-Fulani radicals located in and around Kano
against Boko Haram. For the ethnic angle, see Freedom C. Onuoha,
“Jama’atu Ansarul Musilimina Fi Biladis Sudan: Nigeria’s Evolving
Militant Group,” Al Jazeera Center for Studies, April 7, 2013. Most Boko
Haram members are believed to be of Kanuri ethnicity (spread in the
region of Borno, and into Cameroon and Chad).
12. There are a large number of violent operations that take place in northern
and central Nigeria which may or may not be the work of Boko Haram
(because local rivalries between Muslims and Christians and/or tribes
versus settled are also a factor). Therefore, to assess its methodology,
only those operations for which it has taken credit will be discussed.
13. “Malam Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram Leader-Proclaim War With
Christians,” Nigerian Civil Right Movement, March 20, 2013.
14.Bush meat is from animals caught in the wild, which is popular
throughout Africa. These animals are not slaughtered according to the
Islamic laws of halal.
15. “Boko Haram Massacres Christian Students in Nigeria,” CBN News,
October 7, 2012.
16.“Gunmen Kill Five in Borno as Sect Leader Speaks on Global Jihad,”
Osun Defender, December 1, 2012.
17. Tim Cocks, “Nigerian Islamist Group Posts Video of Hostages’ Bodies,”
Reuters, March 11, 2013. One should note that Ansaru has kidnapped
other Westerners in the past.
18.“Kidnappers Free French Family Abducted in Cameroon, Officials Say,”
CNN, April 19, 2013.
19.Ibid.
20.John Irish and Bate Felix, “Islamists Threaten to Kill French Kidnapped
in Cameroon,” Reuters, February 25, 2013; “Video Claims French
Family Kidnapped by Boko Haram,” France24, February 26, 2013.
21.The recent revelation of a plot to blow up the Third Bridge in Lagos in
April 2013, however, would be, if true, a major move toward operations
in the south. See “Boko Haram Planned To Bomb Third Mainland
Bridge,” Nigeria News, April 9, 2013.
22.“Nigeria to Pursue Boko Haram Financiers,” United Press International,
August 22, 2012; “Boko Haram’s Funding Sources Uncovered,”
AllAfrica.com, February 14, 2012.
23.“Northern Leaders not Supporting Boko Haram Killings –ACF,” Punch,
April 5, 2013. As far as gauging Boko Haram’s actual support, this is
problematic. One only has the Gallup poll of February 2012, which
revealed that approximately 34% of the interviewees in northeastern
Nigeria held views identified as anti-Western. See “Northern Nigerians
Differ With Boko Haram,” NOI Polls, February 13, 2012. This, however,
does not reveal Boko Haram’s actual support, but it is interesting that this
number is higher than the other northern regions (but only half of the
68% negativity in the southeast, the region of the Delta).
24.Schmitt; Doyle. Some believe that there has been a connection with al-
Shabab in Somalia, leading to the use of suicide attacks during the period
of 2010-present, and the unique martyrdom video of September 18, 2011.
There is no significant evidence, however, that this was the case.
25.J. Smith, “Boko Haram Leader Salutes Global Jihadists in Video: SITE,”
Agence France-Presse, November 29, 2012.
26. “Are Abu Sayyaf Rebels Linked to Bin Laden?” Voice of America,
October 29, 2009.
27.Ismail Iro (1994), “From Nomadism to Sedentarism: An Analysis of
Development Constraints and Public Policy Issues in the Socio-Economic
Transformation of the Pastoral Fulani of Nigeria”, (Thesis) Howard
University.
University.
University.
30.Steve Tonah (2002), “Fulani Pastoralists, Indigenous Farmers and the
Contest for Land in Northern Ghana”, Africa Spectrum, p. 37.
31.Emmanuel Akinwotu, “Nigeria’s Farmers and Herders Fight a Deadly
Battle for Scarce Resources”, The New York Times, Achieved from the
original on March 24, 2019. Retrieved March 24, 2019.
32.Steve Tonah (2002), “Fulani Pastoralists, Indigenous Farmers and the
Contest for Land in Northern Ghana”, Africa Spectrum, p. 37.
33. https://ctc.usma.edu/boko-haram-reversals-and-retrenchment/
34. https://ctc.usma.edu/boko-haram-reversals-and-retrenchment/
35.https://ctc.usma.edu/boko-haram-reversals-and-retrenchment/
36.’Tope Oriola, “Criminal Fulani Herders and Insecurity in Nigeria”,
PremiumTimes, 12 February, 2021.
42.Rasheed Akinkuolie, “The Gulf between Fulani Rulers and Herders”, The
Guardian, 16 February, 2021.
52.The statistics of the killings was obtained from local journalists,
community leaders and the Movement Against Fulani Occupation
(MAFO). See also Infographics prepared by Adekunle Adedeji and David
Ndukwe.
Ndukwe.
Ndukwe.
Ndukwe.
Ndukwe.
Ndukwe.
Ndukwe.
Ndukwe.
Ndukwe.
61. Gbaradi, “Fulani Herders: Timeline on Attacks in Benue State between
2013 and 2016”, Gbaradi, “Fulani Herders: Timeline on Attacks in Benue
State between 2013 and 2016”, www.gbaradi.com
62.Gbaradi, “Fulani Herders: Timeline on Attacks in Benue State between
63.Gbaradi, “Fulani Herders: Timeline on Attacks in Benue State between
64.Professor Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, “Banditry in Nigeria: A Brief History
of a Long War”, Punch, 27 December, 2018.
67.Stephen Ellis (2018), “This Present Dackness: A History of Nigerian
Organised Crime”, Oxford University Press, USA.
78.Nigeria’s former Defence Minister, Minsur Dan-Ali have laid complaint
that the issue of drug abuse, unemployment and governance amongst
others contribute to the deplorable security situation in Zamfara State.
79.Owei Lakemfa, “Truth in the DNA of Falsehood”, Vanguard, 22 March,
2021
80.In 2016, Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State told journalists his
rather bizzare story of how he sent state funds across to pay bandits from
neighbouring countries to desuade them from attacking his citizens in
Nigeria.
81.Jerrywright Ukwu, “NGO’s Accuse Some Northern Governors of
TurningKidnapping into Business”, LegitNews, March 2021.
82.Jerrywright Ukwu, “NGO’s Accuse Some Northern Governors of
TurningKidnapping into Business”, LegitNews, March 2021.
83.See ThisDay Report on how some northern governors siphon billions of
naira under the pretext of settling Bandits and criminal elements to
release kidnapped victims.
84.El-Rufai made a U-turn calling that Bandits and other criminal elements
“must be degraded, and decimated to a state of unconditional submission
to constituted authority”.
85. Owei Lakemfa, “Truth in the DNA of Falsehood”, Vanguard, 22 March,
2021
2021
2021
2021
2021
PART FOUR: MORAL OBLIGATION TO RESIST
COLLECTIVE EVIL
Chapter 9: Stride towards Freedom

“When people are desperate and feel that they cannot have confidence in the
ability of government to provide security for lives and properties, they will take
recourse to anything and everything that can guarantee their security individually
and collectively” – Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, former President of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria
“Fulanis have declared war against indigenous Nigerians and grabbing our
lands in North and Middle Belt and we playing games with Buhari… the game should
be up now!” – General T.Y. Danjuma
(a) Background Studies:
These three words are relational – death, grief and tears! Each of these words
begets the other. In that order, death comes first because it is the agent
provocateur. Tears come last because they flow limitless as the loss of a loved
one becomes a personal bereavement to millions of well-wishers.1
Between death and tears is grief because when it descends, it stings and clings
permanently. Such was the grief which struck Governor Orthom of Benue State
and the people of Benue on the day the mass burial of the 73 men, women and
children massacred by the suspected killer – Fulani herdsmen. And the grief
worsened thereafter because the killings had continued unabated. While the
Federal Government under Buhari watch is procrastinating in taking decisive
actions to stop the carnage. 2
The Nimbo massacre in Enugu State left a good number of families in the state
and other concerned Nigerians in a state of bereavement. 3 Killings in Taraba,
Abia and other communities in Nigeria and the one in Plateau State that claimed
the lives of some 200 innocent Nigerians including men, women, (including
pregnant ones) and children have exposed the injustice being visited on the
innocent citizens through the war of genocide by a group that clearly appeared
to have the backing of some conspiratorial patrons. 4
And, when the body language of officialdom suggested bias or tacit support for
the agent provocateur, some poodles misread the horizon and play along.
So, instead of making statements that should help to douse tension, they
justified the killings through hate speech, including verbal insults by describing
an embattled governor whose subjects were decimated as a “drowning man”,
feeling that such was the officially recognized position. And so the orgy of
killings continued with its attendant griefs and tears among the helpless natives.5
The security situation in Nigeria is such that every living Nigerian is a walking
corpse on each side of his grave because the activities of the Fulani herdsmen
have rendered the country killing field. All these are happening under the watch
of Buhari and no serious effort to address the situation. It is quite obvious that
the security architecture of the country have been compromised. But is
President Muhammadu Buhari actually incompetent? Put differently, in what
important sense can we ascribe incompetency to Buhari and his APC
government?
Buhari may not necessarily be ascribed as incompetent in handling the security

situation in the country. But Buhari, I want to believe, has a completely
different agenda from what the ordinary Nigerians who voted him to power
have. What is happening in Nigeria is a systematic set up for ethnic cleansing as
was the case of the Rwandan genocide. Buhari is acting the script of Rwanda.
Buhari’s Fulani population in Nigeria is not more than 7% of the total Nigerian
population of an estimated 200 million people. Buhari’s complacency and
lackadaisical attitude about the murderous and rampaging Fulani herdsmen
across the Middle Belt region and the South is acting the Rwandan script.
Buhari happens to be a man inflicted by a dangerous version of tribalism, a

recidivous nepotist. Evidence of his nepotism is that he sees Nigeria as his
personal fief, an opportunity to enthrone supremacy of his Fulani people over
and above others and finally impose Islam on Nigeria. 6 Evidence to this claim
abounds.
Renewed Jihadism Is Sweeping Across Christian West, East, Central &

Southern Africa:
As never recorded in recent times, Islamic Jihadism is now ravaging the

Christian West, East, Central and Southern Africa. It looks like a regional
project with powerful sponsorship and state protection where jihadist elements
are in charge of political and military powers. Today in Congo DRC, a country
with largest Catholics in Africa, there is ongoing jihad. In Central African
Republic, a country with dominant Christian population, jihadists are
substantially in charge. Similar situations are found in Burkina Faso, Angola,
Mozambique, Congo Republic and Togo; to mention but a few. Like in Libya in
1969 and Sudan in 1989, the jihadists are penetrating and gaining grounds,
aiming at capturing state power and changing the socio-legal secular status quo
to brutal Sultanate and Shariah regimes.7
Unmasking the Fulani Herdsmen

The militant Fulani Herdsmen are the armed terrorist and Islamic jihadist
department of Fulani Herdsmen in Nigeria, the country’s primitive cattle
herders. They were created and funded and are still funded by some extremist
Northern politicians and security chiefs and made more devastating and jihadist
in 2010. The formation and funding of the now world’s fourth deadliest terrorist
group were achieved using the draconian and age-long Fulani rural cattle
grazing networks in Nigeria. The jihadist branch of the Fulani Herdsmen in
Nigeria is also strongly believed to have been joined by ‘imported’ jihadists
made up of ‘Shuwa Arabs’ or ‘Cowmen’ from Chad and Sudan, etc. 8
The Fulani jihadist group is likened to ‘Sudanese Janjaweed’ and different from
‘machete and dagger-armed’ wandering cattle herders or the ‘Fulani Herdsmen’.
The age-long grazing networks of the Herdsmen, spanning the country’s
rainforest regions of Southeast, South-south, Southwest and North-central
including Christian parts of Northwest and Northeast, will in the nearest future,
if not months away, serve as area intelligence and grounds for full scale jihadist
attacks or violence in old Eastern Nigeria and other Christian settlements in the
Southwest, FCT, etc.9
Under these, too, the country’s four main Jihadist groups: militant Herdsmen,
Boko Haram, ISWAP and Ansaru; and even embryonic “Zamfara/Birnin
Gwari” Terror Bandits with state cover and protection can successfully launch
jihadist attacks anywhere in Nigeria. As a matter of fact, the Fulani Herdsmen
in the country are today serving as ‘rain forest intelligence suppliers’ to the four
main jihadist groups. It must also be remembered that the movement for
formation of jihadist department within the ranks of the country’s primitive
cattle herders or ‘Fulani Herdsmen’ was dated back to 2001, two years after
Nigeria returned to civil rule in 1999. 10
Difference between Fulani Jihadists & Herdsmen

The major difference between the Fulani Herdsmen and their jihadist
component strictly lies on their modus operandi and the role of the state actors.
The original Fulani Herdsmen operated and still majorly operate with machetes
and daggers used in cutting foliages and clearing bush paths for their cattle and
guarding their cattle against malicious attacks especially from their rival farmers
and cattle rustlers. They also engaged in seasonal grazing usually during dry
seasons and hardly settle or live in their host communities. The Fulani
Herdsmen are well known serial wanderers (Fulani Daji) and different from
sedentary Fulanis or ‘Fulani Ngida’. The clashes between Fulani Herdsmen and
farmers before now were usually rag tag and seasonal; with zero state actor
involvement except in settling disputes between them and their host farmers or
other rivals. 11
However, the malicious state actor regimentation, militarization and

radicalization of militant segment of the Fulani Herdsmen or formation of their
jihadist department in Nigeria started rearing their ugly heads from the year
2001, with Jos area of Plateau State as one of their earliest crime scenes. They
were among those fingered as malicious actors in the orgy of sectarian violence
that ravaged Plateau State in 2001, 2002, 2004, 2007 and 2008. They moved
closer to full jihadism in 2010 and got fully transformed with state backing,
cover and protection in mid 2015, following the emergence of Mr. Muhammadu
Buhari as Nigeria’s sixth President. It was also from that period that southward
movement of Fulani Herdsmen increased with rapid speed to the extent of the
Herders becoming ‘sedentary in foreign land’, strictly for purpose of supplying
area intelligence and grounds for their jihadist brothers. 12
Aided by forests’ mapping exercise reportedly carried out by the Nigerian Army
in 2015, it has become much easier for the jihadist Herdsmen to infiltrate and
occupy (using night movements) the marked Southern bushes and forests
including those located in Southeast and South-south. These they now do with
alarming speed with backing from malicious members of the country’s security
forces. Since then, they have become ‘untouchable’ and vicariously, if not
directly aided by the state to invade, confiscate, loot, plunder and takeover any
land(s) or property(ies); and abduct, torture and kill any person or group of
persons or rape and sexually abused (including forced pregnancies for jihadist
intents) any woman or group of women of sexually active age bracket. It must
be recalled that the Nigerian Army had reportedly carried out forests’ mapping
throughout Nigeria in 2015, originally for purpose of ‘effective
counterinsurgency operations’. Critics say the exercise was later found to be
reportedly done for religiously malicious motives.13
Nigeria’s Fulani Herdsmen presently operate under the three major umbrellas of
‘the Miyatti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria-MACBAN’, ‘the
Miyatti Allah Koutal Hore Association of Nigeria’ and ‘the Fulani Nationality
Movement-FUNAM’; all federally registered organizations in Nigeria.
‘MACBAN’, for instance, was registered on 12th Feb 1986, while ‘Fulani
Koutal Hore’ got registered around 2010. The jihadist intents of the Fulani
Herdsmen took another dimension in 2018 when they announced the renaming
in Fulfulde and Arabic and formal occupation of indigenous communities and
villages violently attacked and seized from Christian dominated populations in
Plateau State mostly between 2010 and 2015; with eight others earlier seized in
2001. In the Vanguard Newspaper report of 30th June 2018, no fewer than 54
communities mostly belonging to Berom Tribe were renamed. Also renamed
were eight communities in the State attacked and seized between September 7
and 10, 2001. In Southern Kaduna (32 villages lost between 2016 and May
2020), Plateau and Benue States, no fewer than 300 Christian communities and
villages have been devastatingly attacked and razed by the Fulani Jihadists.14
 Nigeria’s 36 States & FCT Ranked in Order of Land Surface Area (Km2)
Reflect on this: 15
1. Niger State 76,363KM²
2. Borno State 70,898KM²
3. Taraba State 54,473KM²
4. Kaduna State 46,053KM²
5. Bauchi State 45,837KM²
6. Yobe State 45,502KM²
7. Zamfara State 39,762KM²
8. Adamawa State 36,917KM²
9. Kwara State 36,825KM²
10.Kebbi State 36,800KM²
11.Benue State 34,059KM²
12.Plateau State 30,913KM²
13.Kogi State 29,833KM²
14.Oyo State 28,454KM²
15.Nasarawa State 27,117KM²
16.Sokoto State 25,973KM²
17.Katsina State 24,192KM²
18.Jigawa State 23,154KM²
19.Cross River State 20,156KM²
20.Kano State 20,131KM²
21.Gombe State 18,768KM²
22.Edo State 17,802KM²
23.Delta State 17,698KM²
24.Ogun State 16,762KM²
25.Ondo State 15,500KM²
26.Rivers State 11,077KM²
27.Bayelsa State 10,773KM²
28.Osun State 9,251KM²
29.Federal Capital Territory 7,315KM²
30.Enugu State 7,161KM²
31.Akwa Ibom State 7,081KM²
32.Ekiti State 6,353KM²
33.Abia State 6,320KM²
34.Ebonyi State 5,670KM²
35.Imo State 5,530KM²
36.Anambra State 4,844KM²
37.Lagos State 3,345KM²
Consider this: 16
 Anambra + Enugu + Abia + Imo + Ebonyi = 29,525KM²
 Kogi = 29,833KM²
 Ogun + Oyo + Osun + Ondo + Ekiti = 76,320KM²
 Lagos = 3,345KM²
 Niger alone = 76,363KM²
 Niger State = Entire Southwest States - Lagos
 The entire Southeast is a little less than Kogi State only.
(b) Politics of Protection in Nigeria
A Preliminary Statement:
Terrorism remains the worst form of crime against humanity as the bastardly
acts are often targeted at a defenceless populations, often for flimsy reasons like
drawing attention to a cause or enacting a political change or gaining political
leadership.
The world today has identified various type of terrorism: State terrorism,
terrorism rooted in ideology (left or right), criminal terrorism, dissent terrorism
and religious terrorism.
All of these are, however, new to our country until the last two decades when
the last two - religious and dissent Terrorism, crept into Nigeria, and since then,
Nigeria’s peace has been stolen.
Apart of these notable crimes i.e “Terrorism” and “Insurgency” other forms of
criminality in Nigeria such as the gruesome activities of the Fulani herdsmen,
ritual killings/murder, kidnapping, gang violence, rape etc. call for urgent
concern as they constitute gross impediments to the growth and development of
the Nigerian economy and its role as the main hub of economic activities in the
West African sub region.
Nigerians have advanced several reasons for this state of affairs ranging from
high level unemployment to acute poverty in the land, ill equipped Police Force,
ineffective Policing or what the sultan of Sokoto referred to as the collapse of
internal security architecture. Quite frankly the solution to all our several
security challenges lies in our adoption of a people-oriented security network.
Apart from the Gowon administration which had (in war time) the misfortune of
the pogrom what some call attempt at ethnic cleansing, no other government in
Nigeria’s history has really had the lives and properties of its citizens so much
at risk as under this unfortunate propagandist regime of President Muhammadu
Buhari-led APC government. Something has to be done. Pracctically, some
sections of the country has opted out of the police of the nation – the Amotekun
regional security outfit for the Western region of the country, the Eastern
Security Network instituted by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s IPOB superintending the
eastern region, and the Operation “Shege-Ka-Fasa” for the northern region. All
these are symptoms of a very big malaise in our society.
The Nigerian Police Force is legally constituted to maintain law and order in
our society. The Nigeria Police Force and the State Security Service (otherwise
known as the Department of State Security) which are part of the executive
organ of government are organs constitutionally instituted to guarantee law and
order and provide security in our society, under the Police Act, Cap. 359 and the
National Security Agencies Act, Cap 279, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria,
1990 which are Existing laws under section 315 of the Constitution of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.17 Under and by virtue of section 4 of the
Police Act:
The Police shall be employed for the prevention and

detection of crime, the apprehension of offenders, the
preservation of law and order, the protection of life and
property and the due enforcement of laws and regulations
with which they are directly charged and shall perform such
military duties within and without Nigeria as may be
required by them by, or under the authority of, this or any
Act.18
However, administratively and operationally, the Force is centrally controlled

under the presidency. The Nigeria Police has been criminally neglected in vital
areas and grossly ill-equipped to carryout effective policing of the civil society.
Many Nigerians have expressed dissatisfaction and lack of confidence in the
Force. Whereas the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has been shouting itself hoarse,
saying; “make una call police o!” many such distress calls by the citizens have
often gone unheeded. According to the former Anambra State Governor,
Chinwoke Mbadinuju, “when armed robbers are operating somewhere and the
people call the police, they will ask, call your governor”. That in varying
degrees has been the experiences of a number of victims. Sufficiently
disappointed with the performance of the Nigeria Police, the former governor
invited the Bakassi Boys (a home-grown vigilante-militant group” to lay down
their unorthodox ground rules to make Anambra State crime-free. That is the
essence of having a grass-rooted policing network which state policing,
community-policing and/or regional policing readily call to mind.
The security situation in Nigeria has now reached a critical stage with the
insurgency in the North-East spreading rapidly to other parts of Northern
Nigeria. Similarly, there are communal clashes in the Middle Belt kidnappings
in the South-West, thugs and cultists are having a field day in the South-South.19
The current security arrangement seems to be inadequate, inappropriate or

simply not working. The idea of state police or community policing comes to
mind, as one of the ways on the short and long terms to curb these criminal
activities.
It would be recalled that the existence of state police, other than the central
police is not new in Nigeria. It existed during the First Republic as Regional and
Native Authority Police Forces. As Ambassador Rasheed Akinkuolie reminds
us, “The officers were derived from the communities and with the advantage of
shared common language and culture, crime prevention and containment at the
early stages were relatively easy. Federal police officers, on the other hand, till
date are posted randomly to states where the cooperation of the local populace
is essential in carrying out effective policing.”19
The abolition of regional and native authority police to form a unified police
force significantly weakened security at the grass roots level, and in some cases
badly managed local crises eventually escalated to major insurgencies. It is
therefore in this important sense that the restoration of state police as another
tier of law enforcement has become imperative.
The governor as the Chief Security Officer of the state will control the state
police in collaboration with traditional rulers and local government authorities.
Recruitment exercise should also follow the federal one and the two could co-
exist simultaneously, each with its job-description as prescribed by law.
However, one of the major complaints against the state police is the abusive use
of the force by state chief executives to oppress political opponents. This should
not normally happen, since the overriding interest of a political leader is to rule
over a state, where the people go about their daily activities in peace and the
government is also at peace. Even without the use of state police, bad politicians
and leaders still use thugs to harass and intimidate their people and political
rivals.
The state police can become a legal and constitutional body by an Act of
National Assembly, which the lawmakers would willingly pass into law in the
national interest, especially if it will promote the cause of peace.
“The decision of the Federal Government to organise community
policing under the leadership of a Police Commissioner is a good
decision, but this can only be an interim measure to stop the
deteriorating security situation in some parts of the country.
Community policing is also confronted with the challenges of
discipline, training, remuneration, management, organisational
structure and legality. The personnel could however be screened and
those who qualify and are found suitable may be coopted into the state
police force.
The overriding advantages of a state police cannot be overemphasised.
The threats posed by insurgents, murderers, bandits, kidnappers,
suicide bombers and other criminals are real and all measures in
whatever form taken to confront these threats should be
embraced.”20(Punch, 3 June, 2019)
(c) National Security: The Need for a Fundamental

Restructuring and Re-Orientation of Nigeria
Armed Forces
Experts in military politics have predicted that there cannot be a democratic

order in Nigeria under the prevailing composition and orientation of her armed
forces. Nigerians should not forget so quickly the profound pronouncement on
the armed forces which Olusegun Obasanjo made as soon as he was released
from Abacha’s gulag in 1998. It was a moving statement when Obasanjo
confessed how he was part of the “victim” and “witness” of the action of the
highly politicized and ethnicized armed forces of Nigeria. Decoding the
message Obasanjo was passing across, what many Nigerians have been calling
the Nigerian Armed Forces was a political army whose interest was to guarantee
the continued stay of a section of the Nigerian society in power. Those who are
initiated know that Nigeria ceases to have a professional army since 1966,
especially after the civil war. To them, what Nigeria has since 1966 is a political
army with a regional political agenda. No Nigerian government, civilian or
military, since the end of the Civil War has been able to resolve the ratio of the
defense budget. Nigeria does not have a well spelt-out defense policy. Nigeria
does not really know what a professional army really is. There has been a fierce
debate as to the role of the army since the end of the war which has never been
resolved with series of armed intervention in politics since seventies, eighties
and nineties.21
The way to really confirm what Obasanjo was referring to is to revisit the past
of the Nigerian army and the ramparts it guards. If the military had respect for
human rights and if it were representative of all ethnic nationalities in Nigeria
Chief M.K.O. Abiola’s mandate would not have been annulled in 1993 and
sustained after 1993; Professor Omo Omoruyi would not have been served with
death notice for speaking too much in defense of June 12, 1993 presidential
election, for the sole aim of covering the facts. Chief MKO Abiola would not
have been allowed to die in Abacha’s gulag; General Obasanjo would not have
been framed up and later jailed; the Ogoni 9 including Ken Saro Wiwa would
not have been victims of extra-judicial execution; Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, the
wife of Chief M.K.O. Abiola would not have been murdered; many Nigerians
would not have been forced into exile. The same reason why Dr. Alex
Ekwueme was frustrated and forced out of the People Democratic Party (PDP)
was the same reason for the annulment of June 12 presidential election.
Possibly, the reason why Olu Falae was not accepted was the same reason for
the annulment of June 12 elections. The main reasons why General Obasanjo
could be President were the same reasons why Chief Abiola could not be. Dr.
Ekwueme and Chief Olu Falae, like MKO Abiola met the “written”
qualifications for becoming the President but they did not meet the “unwritten”
qualifications which Obasanjo met. Which are these unwritten qualifications?
These are the issues in the annulment. They are part and parcel of the ramparts
being guarded by the military. 22
This is the moment of truth. Now, it is glaring that the present composition of
the armed forces of Nigeria does not really favor a Southerner becoming the
president of Nigeria since he would be completely at the mercy of the Northern-
dominated armed forces. The solution lies in the fundamental restructuring of
the so-called Nigerian Armed Forces. If anyone is in doubt of this truth, ask
General Obasanjo and especially Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan of their
experiences if they would be willing and eager to tell their tales! Osinbajo, the
acting President of Nigeria is currently under the mercy of the cabals in Aso
Rock who are bent in frustrating him:
“First, there is an urgent need for a fundamental restructuring of the
armed forces to make the so-called Nigerian military representative of
the Nigerian ethnic nationalities. It is a fundamental issue which is at
the root of the survival of the federal system. This is an opportunity for
the areas marginalized since 1970 to make sure that they are not left
out this time and complain later. Specifically, Ndigbo, the Southern
minorities and the Yoruba should ensure that the pre-eminent
leadership of the army by a section of the country is not allowed to
perpetuate itself at the expense of others. The Federal Character
Commission should be involved in determining the composition … to
ensure that they meet the Federal Character of Nigeria. The National
Assembly should ensure that the Federal Character Commission does
its work. This is one guarantee to ensure that we are not just
producing a new set of a political army drawn exclusively from one
part of the country. Second, there is an urgent need for a fundamental
re-orientation of the armed forces to make the officers and men
accountable to a democratic order.”23
The training program of the armed forces should be part of the fundamental re-
orientation of the political class and a fundamental restructuring of the society.
The relationship between the fundamental reorientation of the armed forces and
the political class on the one hand, and the fundamental restructuring of the
society on the other should not be neglected. As it were, those relationships are
at the root of the lingering political problems in Nigeria crying for discussions
and resolutions. We need to address these problems if democracy is to survive
in Nigeria.24
(e) Formation of Regional Security Network
 “Operation Amotekun”: The Western Nigeria Security Network

Why is it that almost everything in Nigeria no matter how well-meaning ends
up getting ethnicized, or politicized, or faith-based? The Western Nigeria
Security Network code-named “Operation Amotekun” whose recent launch by
the Governors of the South West, on January 9, 2020 has thrown up key
questions at the heart of the Nigerian dilemma as well as the fault lines of the
Nigerian state.
“Operation Amotekun” was incubated, hatched and birthed by the Yoruba

ethnic nationality through the instrumentality of the six states governors in the
region. This this the regional response to massive killings in the region, albert
some sort of ethnic cleansing, allegedly engineered and spearheaded by the
Fulani herdsmen, Fulani ethnic militias and bandits operating in the western
zone of Nigeria. Hundreds and thousands of innocent Nigerians have been
killed allegedly by these herders most of whom were not Nigerian nationals.
The response of Nigeria government and her security apparatus have been
largely ineffective, ineffectual, and inefficient and perceived to have been
compromised.
As it were, the Federal Government, through the Attorney General of the

Federation, has declared the establishment of the regional security network as
illegal, unconstitutional. This declaration by the Attorney General, Mr. Salami
and those other inflammatory statements and verbages from some elites of the
northern extraction has led the Oduduwa people to stage a solidarity
demonstration in support of “Operation Amotekun”. 120
Unbeknown to the Federal Government and unintended too, her declaring

Operation Amotekun “illegal” has simply further divided the country along
geographical lines: North vs. South; and provided fuel for the politics of
solidarity in the South and the Middle Belt and the oxygenation of identity
politics in the South West.
On the declaration of “Operation Amotekun” illegal the following questions

suffice: Do the people of Nigeria, whatever may be their ethnicity, have a duty
to make useful contribution to the well-being of their communities as stated in
Section 24 of the Constitution? Is the Attorney General of the Federation also
aware that President Muhammad Buhari reaffirms the value of this section of
the Constitution each time he proclaims that national security requires the
contribution of every Nigerian and every community?
As it were, “Operation Amotekun” is a product of the politics of protection and

the failure of the same Nigeria Police that the AGF Malami seeks to protect. It
has been said that Amotekun is an attempt to create state police or regional
police. If so, what is even wrong with that? We need to be reminded that state
police or regional police is not such an abstraction as many make it out to be.
Operation Amotekun is a community response to the challenge of insecurity in

Nigeria. President Muhammadu Buhari says ensuring security of lives and
properties is an important part of his three-dimension pact with the Nigerian
people but Nigerians still feel very insecure. His harshest critics compare the
present situation in the country to the season of anomie that was the civil war of
1967 – 1970. Hence, “Operation Amotekun” was formed, given the spike in
banditry, pastoralist vs. farmers’ conflicts, kidnapping, insurgency, armed
robbery and terrorism.
 The Sunday Igboho Factor
The same way this government mismanaged our diversity, it has mismanaged
the agitation for a more equitable Nigeria. Many calm people who were not
traditionally with Igboho now sympathise with him – and the government
should be worried. Making an Igboho out of majority of the Yorubas is what the
Buhari government has done. Everyone, outside those who benefit from the
dysfunctional present, has sat up. Nigerians are now more aware that they live
in a very wicked country where region and religion determine what is right and
what is wrong. They see that what the Nigeria-state is doing to the southern
strongmen who are taking it on is to melt their steel. And positions are getting
hardened. The more the threat, the stronger the resolve to challenge it!
Most Yoruba youths appear to have been hardened by the way the Buhari
government is treating Sunday Igboho. As a commentator once said: “I hope
this government – the president, his cabal, everybody – know that the usually
‘well-behaved’ south west has spinned out of control. The Abuja people think
they are too far away to suffer the vibrations of the threats in town. They may
be right. The walls around them are too impregnable for the rabble to breach.”
Why is it difficult for the Nigerian state to sit back and ask itself the reason
people like Igboho have crowds and street support? Why was there no Igboho
throughout the day before yesterday when Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, a Fulani
from Buhari’s Katsina State, was president of Nigeria? Are Igboho’s Yoruba
agitation activities that bad as to justify the very wicked treatment he and his
cats and his household got from the Buhari government? Or is he just being
taught a lesson for being too stubborn and foolhardy?
 The Formation of Eastern Security Network
Background Studies:
There are not less than 350 Igbo communities, villages and other locations now
invaded and permanently occupied by the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and
‘imported’ Shuwa Arabs, also called ‘Cowmen’ in Arabic. The number of Igbo
communities forcibly occupied by the Jihadists has recorded exponential
increase from about 139 in August 2019 to alarming 350 in May 2020. 124 The
jihadist occupation is vicariously, if not directly aided by the Government of
Nigeria and its security agencies especially the Army and the Police. By the
combined accounts of the Association of the Eastern Town Unions, the Alaigbo
Dev Foundation and the Eastern Outlook Newspaper, “as at August 2019, 139
Igbo communities, villages and locations have been occupied by Fulani
Herdsmen, out of which Enugu State has the highest number with 56, followed
by Anambra with 24, Imo 17, Ebonyi 12 and Abia seven. In Igbo areas of Delta
and Rivers, there are 15 in Delta and nine in Rivers”.125
But in our recent detailed review and update, the number has exponentially
increased from 139 in August 2019 to not less than 350 in May 2020, out of
which 318 were factually located and presented below while 38 others were
added as ‘dark figures’ or “factually existing but not captured figures” 126. The
’32 added dark figures’ are likely to be found in Imo and Ebonyi States, with a
fraction in Enugu State. The breakdown of the current figure of 350 invaded and
occupied Igbo Communities show that Enugu State has the largest number with
72 communities, followed by Anambra with 70, Imo 61, Abia 43, Ebonyi 36,
Igbo Delta 21 and Igbo Rivers 15; totaling 318 and 350 when added with a
‘dark figure’ of 32.127
The geographical and geopolitical implication of this is that the Jihadist

Herdsmen have roughly invaded and violently occupied two States in Igbo
Land. This is on account of the fact that Enugu and Anambra State have total of
368 autonomous communities; with 187 in Enugu and 181 in Anambra, as
against 350 of them already occupied by the Jihadist Herdsmen. In grand
summary, while most of these 350 Igbo communities, villages and other
locations have been invaded and violently occupied, some are already under
attacks or on a verge of invasion and violent occupation.128
The Research Did Not Include Northern “Economic Refugees” In Igbo Land
Granted that there presently are hundreds of thousands of “economic refugees”

of Northern extraction now flooding the cities and towns in Igbo Land; some of
them surviving victims of Boko Haram/ISWAP, Ansaru, ‘Zamfara/Birnin
Gwari’ Bandits and Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen anti Christian butcheries in the
north; but they are strictly not included in our research categorization of
invading “Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and Shuwa Arabs”. In other words, those
engaged in meaningful means of livelihood in Igbo cities and towns are not
included; even though some, if not many of them are potential security threats
to Igbo Land and her indigenous natives and their properties.129
Purposes of This Research Report
Following serious concerns especially the fear of imminent jihad recently

expressed by the general Igbo population of ‘home and abroad’; on account of
organized movement or flooding of mostly uneducated and radicalized young
Islamists (dubbed Alamajirai) to different parts of old Eastern Nigeria mainly
Igbo Land using the cover of ‘COVID-19’; we have deemed it necessary to set
the record straight to the effect that: though the general fears and their ascribed
intents are well understood, but the current worrying situation did not start with
the said ‘COVID-19’ movement of Alamajirai. It started way back in 2016 with
the full knowledge and conspiracy of the Igbo Governors and community
(traditional rulers and town unions’ presidents) and church leaders.
Not setting the record straight at this point in time would expressly mean
creating escape routes for the Govs and community leaders. Another purpose of
this research work is to intellectualize the consciousness of the general Igbo
population to the effect that such violent invasion and occupation are not
ordinary. They are done with clear jihadist intents and defy all geographical and
geopolitical excuses. It is also one of the purposes of this research work to
expose the conspiracy of the Igbo Govs and community leaders and the
hypocrisy of the today’s church leaders (today’s ‘faith profiteers’) in Igbo Land.
This work is further intended to alert the ‘attentive’ Igbo public (policy makers,
political actors and the educated class) and the ‘un-attentive’ Igbo public or
larger population to be on extreme alert, as the old saying goes “Hausa abatago
Awka”. Setting the record straight in this respect will further make the general
Igbo population to be in the know of those who have abominably compromised
to sell the Igbo Nation out to jihadist enemies.
Finally, the research work is a clarion call on those in charge of Nigeria’s

Presidency and security establishments to immediately retrace their steps from
their steady match toward breeding of ‘war of anybody against anybody’ or
religious war and throw in towel if they are tired of piloting the affairs of the
country. From the way things are speedily unfolding, the country is likely to be
thrown into the Rwandan style genocide and other forms of mass bloodletting.
We demand and insist that the country be strictly governed with full forms and
characteristics of modern limited government where citizens must enjoy their
inalienable liberties and be allowed and protected by the State to freely and
constitutionally practice religion of their choice outside the confines of state
aided jihadism. 130
State Aided Movement of Fulani Jihadists to Old Eastern Nigeria
The movement of Fulani Jihadists commenced in 2016, but reached its peak
between 2017 and 2019. The movement had involved: non state actor ‘move in
and settle or occupy’ and state actor ‘security forces aided yearly movement’,
facilitated through the Nigerian military’s annual regional exercises, usually
held between Sept and Oct-Dec. The exercises, which first commenced in 2016,
were initially code named: ‘Python Dance’ for Southeast and ‘Crocodile Smile’
for South-south; and later renamed in 2019 as ‘Atiliogwu Udo’ for Southeast.
Through the combination of the reported Nigerian Army forests’ mapping of
2015, state security forces aided movement of the jihadists and the existing
Fulani grazing routes and networks throughout the country’s rainforest regions,
not less than 350 communities, villages and other locations in Igbo Land have
been invaded and violently occupied by the Fulani jihadists as at May 2020.131
Vicarious Involvement of the Nigerian Government & Its Security Agencies
First is the fact that Igbo Land has the least land allocation in Nigeria with
29,525km2 and estimated 20,000 others for her outpost population; as against a
Northern State of Niger that has 76,363km2; roughly three times more than that
of the entire five States of the Southeast. So land issue is out of it. Second is the
fact that the Buhari Presidency had in the same 2016 when the movement for
jihad in old Eastern Nigeria started, requested to govern Nigeria with
‘emergency powers’; thereby tending to castrate the Constitution including its
Human Rights Chapter. Since then, the 1999 Constitution has been applied in
such mode alongside the country’s various treaty laws. Third is that the
Nigerian Army had in same 2016 announced the introduction of ‘Army
Ranching’ throughout the country’s military formations. This was how Fulani
Herdsmen seemingly became a branch of the Nigerian Army and other security
agencies.132
Fourth was the establishment by the Federal Government of Nigeria in 2017,

2018 and 2019 of ‘RUGA’ or ‘Rural Fulani Settlement’ and the ‘National
Livestock Transformation Plan’; a grand disguise to forcibly facilitate the
movement of the Jihadists who hide under ‘cattle herders’ to force themselves
into indigenous populations and violent takeover of their farmlands and forests
throughout Nigeria. Sixth is the grossly lopsided composition of the country’s
top security positions at Federal, regional and state levels. These are to the
extent that as at Sept 2019, 18 of the country’s 22 security, policing & justice
positions were occupied by Muslims; out of 26 top military commanders
manning strategic formations in the Southeast, 18 were Muslims; out of six
senior police commanders in the Southeast, four were Muslims and out of five
State directors of SSS in the Southeast four were Muslims.133
In the South-south, out of 22 senior military commanders manning key military

formations in the region, 14 were Muslims; out of its eight senior police
commanders, five were Muslims; and out of its six State directors of SSS, four
were Muslims. It was so bad that wherever there was new Fulani Herdsmen
settlement in any part of Igbo Land during the Military Python Dance/Atiliogwu
Udo, there must be established a new military or MOPOL roadblock near such
settlement. A typical example took place in 2017 in Umu-Ura Forest (in Ogwe
Community) Ukwa West LGA of Abia State where an Army roadblock was
created by the corner of the thick forest hosting a new Fulani settlement.134
Conspiracy of the Igbo Governors & Community Leaders
It must be clearly understood that violent invasion and occupation of not less
than 350 Igbo communities, villages and other locations by Jihadist Herdsmen
has the trio of state and security backing and conspiracy of Igbo Govs and most
of the community leaders. Community leaders include traditional rulers and
presidents general of the town unions and the Government appointed or selected
chairmen of various local government areas. The Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen
movement Southward is also heavily funded clandestinely. Such conspiratorial
involvements of the Govs, community leaders and council chairmen include
‘conspiracy of silence’, inaction, cover-up, ‘donation’ of lands or procurement
of same through moles or compromised third parties, receiving criminal cash
sums from leaders of the Jihadists or collection of monthly royalties, and
exhibition of fears and cowardice, among others. As a matter of fact, the Igbo
Govs saw all these coming but covered same up so as to ‘retain’ and ‘finish
their office tenures’. 135
There are only few instances in Igbo Land where community leaders including
traditional rulers and presidents general resisted and still resist them. These few
communities include Arondizogu in Ideato South LGA (ikpa-ocha debacle),
Issele-Ukwu in Aniocha North LGA (Delta) and Umuchu in Aguata LGA. In
Issele-Ukwu, a mole was hired to procure and ‘donate’ a parcel of land for
“private Hausa Market” but the Community stood its ground in the contrary. In
Umuchu, a group of violent Fulani Herdsmen, accompanied by an Army officer,
were caught recently negotiating a forest path in the Community in a bid to
settle in same. The police authorities in the areas were alerted and on
interrogation, they claimed to have come from ‘Abia’ and after a phone call
with the Abia State Police Command, they were ordered to be returned to Abia
State while the Army officer was picked and taken to Anambra State Police
Command headquarters, Awka for further investigation.136
In Umuzu, Ogbaru LGA of Anambra State, a sum of N200, 000 was recently
paid to Fulani Herdsmen for ‘their two missing cows’. In Umunnachi,
Dunukofia LGA of Anambra State, a highly placed citizen and personality of
international repute recently told Intersociety that the Fulani Herdsmen have
just invaded and settled at the top of a hill from where they monitor local
maidens and young married women farming in the farms for possible abduction
and sexual violence including rape and forced pregnancies. It was also found
that some times, the natives and leaders of concerned Igbo communities are
taken unawares by the Jihadists, only to wake up one morning to discover that
their distant farmlands and forests have been taken over by the Jihadist
Herdsmen. News of their occupation only breaks out when some of their natives
are reported missing, or abducted, or raped, or killed.137
In furtherance of their sexual violence, the Jihadist Herdsmen use three

malicious methods: enticement with cash sums where necessary and false
promises where necessary; use of charms where necessary and use of violence
where necessary. Once succeeded in forcing their victims to be pregnant, they
will insist on ‘inheriting both the forcibly impregnated local maidens or young
married women and their pregnancies or children. A number of these young
girls and married women are strongly believed to have fallen victim to them in
Awka (Agu Awka), Ayamelum, Uzo Uwani, Ezeagu and some parts of Ebonyi
State; and when rarely complained to Christian or community leaders or
Government actors, they would be told to retire to their fate so as to ‘to avoid
being hacked to death or have their families or villages wiped out’. Many, if
not most of the church leaders in Igbo Land, on their part, have also become
more of ‘faith profiteers’ than ‘defenders of faith’. They are busy chasing after
money while the House of Jesus crumbles under their watch.138
Names of Occupied 350 Igbo Communities and Villages
Enugu: 72 Locations: Ibite Ogbaku, Akpugo, Achi, Inyi, Nachi, Ukpabi-Nimbo,

Ukpata, Akegbe-Ugwu, Ugwuoba, Eka Aku, Igbo-Etiti, Amagunze, Amaechi
Idodo, Ugwu-Onyeama, Egede, Adada, Nkpologwu, Afa, Uvuru, Ugwu Aboh,
Waziri Estate-Nsukka, Enugu-Ezike, Neke-Uno, Akpogasi, Ugwuogo, Ekpebe,
Madonna University Layout, Ihuokpa-3-Corner, Akwuke, Industrial Layout-
Emene, Unity Layout, Ibagwa-Nike City Layout-Amokwe, Heritage Layout-
Oyoho-Nike, Odo Rice-Emene, New Zion State Layout-Ugwu Onyeama, Phase
11, Independence Layout, 4-Corner (Enugu), Redemption Layout (Enugu),
Amokpo, Ugbaka-Nkanu, Aninri, Umuabi (near FRSC Regional Training
Headquarters in Udi), Awgu, Nenwe (in Aninri LGA) and Amiri Village in
Nkanu West LGA. Others are: Eziani (Nsukka LGA), Ugwuogo-Nike, Oyoho
Village (Nike), Ngwo, Ibeagwa Community (Enugu East LGA), Amaoji (Enugu
East LGA), Okutu (Enugu North) and Akwegbe-Agu (in Igbo-Etiti LGA);
Imezi-Owa, Umuna-Ndiagu, Umuna-Ndiuno, Oha-Ndiagu, Okpogho-Mgbata,
Amankwo-Ndiagu, Amansiodo-Ihuonyia and Owa Communities; all in Ezeagu
Local Government Areas; and Adani, Igga, Urobo, Ugbene-Ajima, Nkpunator-
Nkpologwu, Umulokpa, Adaba, Opanda, Ojor and Asaba in Uzo-Uwani Local
Government Areas. 139
Anambra: 70 Locations: Nteje, Ogbunka, Ndiukwuenu-Obaeze (location of

Mamu River Forest), Amaetiti, Ufuma, Ezira, Umunze, Ozubulu, Oba,
Umuchukwu, Akpu, Ndikeilionwu, Ogboji, Ndiowu, Mmiata-Anam, Achala,
Ebenebe, Ogbunike, Ihitte (Orumba South), Umunnachi (hilltop), Okija, Ihiala,
Dunukofia, Agulu, Neni, Ogbu, Awkuzu and 3-3 Area of Nsugbe. They have
also violently settled in Atani, Akiri-Ogidi, Akiri-Ozizor, Aminyi, Mputu,
Obeagwe, Ohita, Ogbakuba, Umuodu, Ossamala, Ogwu-Aniocha, Umunankwo,
Umuzu and Ogwuikpere; all in Ogbaru LGA (using Odekpe/Atani/Oba/Ozubulu
Forest Swamp as their main base).140
It is strongly suspected too that the Herdsmen have infiltrated and settled in
Ukpo, Lilu, Akwa Ihedi and Unubi (in Nnewi South LGA); all owing to their
difficult terrains or topographies. Other Anambra Communities involved are
Amanuke, Ugbene, Ugbenu, Amansii, Urum, Ukwuru, Isu Aniocha and
Mgbakwu, all in Awka North LGA; and Umuawuru, Awka, Isiagu, Ntoko,
Ndikpa and Nibo in Awka South LGA. In Anambra East LGA, they have
infiltrated and settled in Aguleri, Nando, Nsugbe and Igbariam and in
Aghamelum (Ayamelum) LGA, they forcibly settle in the whole eight
communities of Anaku, Omor, Umueje, Omasi, Igbakwu, Umumbo, Umuerum
and Ifite-Ogwari.141
Imo: 61 Locations: Onuimo, Ehime and Isiala Mbano, Ndegwu and Orogwe in
Owerri West, Ogbaku in Mbaitoli LGA, Amakaohia-Ubi and Obokofia (Owerri
West LGA), Obudi-Agwa Community (Ohaji/Egbema LGA), Okohia Village of
Umuduruodu-Okwelle (Onuimo LGA), Ejemekwuru, Eziorsu, Izombe and
Agwa Communities (Oguta LGA), Nkwerre, Eziama, Obaire, Amaigbo and
Umozu in Nkwerre and Nwangele Local Government Areas, Oru (Ahiazu
Mbaise), Ikpa-Ocha (Arondizogu-Ideato South LGA) and Agbala Community
(Owerri North LGA), Umuekune-Irete Community (Owerri West LGA),
Umuchima, Ugwuaku-Ezinnachi and Umuowa-Ibu (Okigwe LGA), Umuoma
(Ihitte Uboma LGA), Naze Cluster (Nekede) and Nekede Old Road Forest.142
They also include: Osina, Obinze (near Military Barracks); Umundugba,

Nkume and Abba Communities in Orlu Local Government Areas; Mbieri and
Ubomiri in Mbaitolu LGA; and Agbabo Village in Umulolo and Mechanic
Village; all in Okigwe Local Government Area; Uratta (Owerri North),
Emeabiam and Amakohia-Ubi in Owerri West, Umuanyim Village (Onumiri)
in Ngor-Okpala LGA, Achicha Community in Ngor-Okpala LGA, Olokwu na
Umusu Village in Owerri West, Umunakara Village in Ngor-Okpala LGA and
Ngwuru Village in Ngor-Okpala LGA. 143
Also out of the 24 Communities in Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area, over

half of them or at least fifteen are now occupied by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen.
They are Umuagwo, Oloshi, Umunkwaku, Umapu, Obile, Obitti, Opuoma,
Mgbirichi/Abakuru, Assa, Awara, Ikwerede, Umuokanne, Obiakpu, Oroba,
Obosima, Abackeke, Abaezi, Ekugba, Obeakpu, Obiakpu, Mgbara, Umuoji and
Mmahu-Opuoma. The Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen violent settlement in the area
follows high presence of military and police roadblocks mounted because of
crude oil exploration; to the extent that from Obinze/Umuagwo to Elele in
Rivers State, there are no fewer than 44 roadblocks including at least ten
military (Army and Navy) roadblocks. The route to Port Harcourt is a journey
of not more than one hour under normal circumstances.144
Abia: 43 Locations: Leeru, Ohambele-Ndoki (Ukwa East), Nkpa, Ohafia,

Bende, Ubakala and Owerre-Nta, Obohia-Ndoki (Ukwa East LGA), Aru
Umuonyeukwu in Aru-Ngwa (Osisoma LGA), Umuora/Umuchichi (Osisioma
LGA), Owaza Village (Ukwa West LGA), Ebem/Okagwa Ohafia (Ohafia
LGA), Ihechiowa (Arochukwu LGA), Ututu Village-Arochukwu (Arochukwu
LGA), Lokpanta (Isuochi LGA), Eberi Omuma (Abia State), Umuenye Village
(Isiala Ngwa LGA), Ama Oji, Isiokporo (Isiala Ngwa LGA), Abiriba-Uzo
(Ohafia LGA), Igbere (Bende LGA), Ugwueke (Bende LGA), Abam (Bende
LGA), Alayi (Bende LGA), Item Village (Bende LGA), Omuma-Uzo (Ukwa
West LGA), Umuorie (former site of old Imo Airport) Isiala Ngwa South LGA),
Ozu Item and Ozu Abam (Bende LGA), Obeaku City (Ukwa West LGA),
Amaeke-Abiriba (Ohafia LGA), Ndiebe Abam (Bende LGA), Mkpa
Community (Bende LGA), Uzuakoli (leprosy center) Bende LGA, Alaojii
Village (Obingwa LGA), Assenentu Village (Ugwunagbo LGA), Umuakpiti-
Nkara (Isiala Ngwa LGA), Umuokpo Village (Obingwa LGA), Mkpuko
Ohuhu-Ala (Isiala Ngwa LGA), Umuako Nsirimo (Umuahia South LGA),
Umuakuma Umueze (Isiala Ngwa South LGA), Umumba Nsirimo (Umuahia
South LGA) and Umuerim Nsirimo (Umuahia South LGA).145
Ebonyi: 36 Locations: Emoha, Nkalagu, Afikpo, Izzi, Ezza, Ezzaegu,

Ezamgbo, Ukpo, Ekeimoha, Akpoha, Abomege, Onicha, Ohaukwu, Umuogudu-
Akpu, Ukwagba-Mgbo Community (Ohaukwu LGA), Uburu (Ohaozara LGA),
Okposi (Ohaozara LGA), Aga Village (Ohaukwu LGA), Ama Nguzu in Nguzu
Edda (Afikpo South LGA), Ama Oso Edda (Afikpo South LGA), Eziedda
(Afikpo South LGA), Amangwu Edda (Afikpo South), Oso Edda (Afikpo South
LGA), Owutu Edda (Afikpo South LGA), Agharosa Village (Izzi LGA),
Ndiohia Iboko (Izzi LGA), Ezza Egu Ndebo (Izzi LGA), Ishiagu (Izzi LGA),
Amuzu Igeagu (Izzi LGA), Nkaleke Igbeagu (Izzi LGA), Ndu Nwanphu
Igbeagu (Izzi LGA) and Uzashi Igbeagu (Izzi LGA), Ndiakpurata
Oguzereonwiya (Igbeagu) in Izzi LGA, Ndiegbe-Onuebonyi, Igbeagu (Izzi
LGA) and Nwanwu-Igbeagu (Izzi LGA).146
Delta (Anioma Land): 21 Locations: Agbor, Olor, Ewulu, Okpanam,

Iselleukwu, Oshimmili, Onicha-Ugbo, Ndokwa, Umunede, Ogwasiukwu, Ibusa
(forest), Kwale, Obiaruku and Igbo-Akiri (boundary Igbo towns with Edo),
Asaba (rural), Ella, Ubulu-Ukwu, Ubulu-Unor, Abor, Akwkwu-Igbo and Issele-
Azagba. While they have infiltrated and lived in the named 21 communities,
they violently operate in 20 Delta Igbo communities spread across Aniocha
North, Aniocha South, Oshimiri North and Oshimiri South LGAs of the State.147
Rivers: 15 Locations: Onuimo, Ugurunta, Omoku, Ahuada, Omuha (Umoha),

Emeoha, Okehi, Isiokpo, Oleh, Umuechem, Agbomchia Farm Road/Pipeline,
Eleme, Emeagwa Int’l Airport area, Ubima/Nval War College (Isiokpo LGA)
and Elele148 (Website: www.intersociety-ng.org)
The Formation of Eastern Security Network
Following the inability of South-East governors, to float a security outfit like

the Amotekun of the South-West, the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB,
weekend, floated a security outfit named Eastern Security Network, ESN.
IPOB in a statement by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, said
that the security outfit is not Biafran Army neither is it for forceful declaration
of Biafran Republic, but rather to guard the whole of south-east against the
menace of killer herdsmen and other criminal groups.149
IPOB added that the aim and objective of the new security outfit is to halt
criminal activity and terrorists attack in Biafraland. IPOB’s statement read,
“We the global family of the Indigenous People of Biafra IPOB, under the command
and leadership of our great leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, wish to announce with
delight, that IPOB has floated a special security network to guard and protect the
whole of Biafraland from the rampaging killer herdsmen terrorists activities and
other criminal groups in our land.” 150
What is the aim and objective of the newly established Esatern Security
Network?
 To halt every criminal activity and terrorists attack in Biafraland;

 This outfit which is a vigilante group like the Amotekun in the South
West and the Miyetti Allah security outfit in North will ensure the safety
of our homes, forests and farm lands which terrorists have converted into
slaughter grounds and raping fields.
Since the South East and South South governors have failed to float a regional
security outfit unlike their counterparts in the South West despite the worsening
insecurity in the country, the leadership of IPOB decided not to wait endlessly
while our mothers and sisters are continually raped and slaughtered like fowls
by terrorists in our land.
“We can’t watch helplessly while those we are agitating to liberate from bondage are
gradually being eliminated by terrorists. “We therefore, advise every robber,
kidnapper and other criminals to steer clear from Biafra land or brace up for the
worst. We must defend Biafra land no matter the price.”151
The IPOB family made the following request on the Biafraland:152
 “Biafra Security Network personnel will release special phone numbers

for people to call whenever there is any case of criminality including
kidnapping and robbery activities in the whole of Biafraland. Every
resident in Biafraland should use the numbers to report any criminal
activity anywhere in Biafraland for prompt response.
 “Killer herdsmen attack on our mothers and sisters must stop in our land
with immediate effect. Unnecessary police brutality on innocent citizens
also must stop. Police and Army check points which have since been
converted to extortion points should be dismantled.
 “Security agencies should stop milking our people of their hard-earned
resources. Let the check points be set up in the North East where criminal
and kidnapping activities are in high demand.”
 “Operation Shege-Ka-Fasa”: The Politics of Northern Regional
Security Outfit
Despite criticisms by some northern leaders about the formation of a security

outfit in the South West, codenamed Amotekun, a northern group, known as
Coalition of Northern Group (CNG) has formed a security outfit called “Shege-
Ka-Fasa”.
It is literally embedded with the strength of a roaring lion, like that of a leopard
in Amotekun.
“The outfit, codenamed “Shege Ka Fasa” is designed to be the vanguard of the

entire north encompassing every ethnic group and religion, and to be deeply
patriotic in its operation in addition to performing general complimentary tasks
for enhancing security in the region,” the group said.155
Unveiling the Shege-Ka-Fasa at a press conference, spokesman of the group,

Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, said if northern governors and leaders from the region
fail to give them the necessary support, they would seek the Federal
Government assistance for legal backup.
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33.A professor of English at Carleton University and social commentator,
Pius Adesanmi, has condemned the invasion of Nnamdi Kanu’s house by
men of the Nigeria Army.
34. A professor of English at Carleton University and social commentator,
Pius Adesanmi, has condemned the invasion of Nnamdi Kanu’s house by
men of the Nigeria Army resulting in a serious confrontation. He made
his thoughts known on Facebook as he blasted the military for
enchroaching on civilian spaces. See also, Thandiubani, “Nigeria
Military’s Invasion of Nnamdi Kanu’s House Is Foolish”, tori.ng, 11
September 2017.
35.Evelyn Okakwu, et al., “Police React as Soldiers ‘Storm’ Nnamdi Kanu’s
Residence”, PremierTimes, 10 September, 2017.
36.Abdul Oroh, “Nigeria: Odi Massacre Statements, 12/23/99”, being the
Text of a Press Conference by Leaders of Human Rights and Civil
Society Groups Who Visited Odi, Bayelsa State on Wednesday
December 8th 1999.
37.Fact-finding mission that visited Odi after the massacre made these
revelations.
December 8th 1999.
December 8th 1999.
40.The then Minister of Defence, General T.Y.Danjuma made a brief of the
Ministerial Conference on November 25 where he explained Operation
Hakuri II on Odi and other communities of the Niger Delta.
December 8th 1999.
December 8th 1999.
December 8th 1999.
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rights?" (PDF). amnesty.org. 2002. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
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74.Ciboh, Rodney (2014). "Newspaper Inquest into Tiv-Jukun Conflict
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fate". vanguardngr.com. 2011. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
78.Zaki-Biam invasion: Victims demand N41.8b damages".
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82.International Sociey for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, “Obigbo
Massacre: Over 30 Identified Killed and Over 90 Injured by the Army”,
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96.Updated Slain Victims of Obigbo Army Massacre. Also the names of the
deadly injured were published by the Principal Officers of the
International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law.
97.Updated Slain Victims of Obigbo Army Massacre. Also the names of the
deadly injured were published by the Principal Officers of the
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protesters in Lagos". BBC News. 15 November 2020. Archived from the
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November 2020.
115. Featherstone, Stephanie Busari, Nima Elbagir, Gianluca
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Muhammad Darwish and Oscar. "Analysis of CCTV footage from Lekki
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2020.
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LCC MD". Latest Nigeria News, Nigerian Newspapers, Politics. 3
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121. Reuben Abati, “Nigeria: Amotekun-The Politics of Protection”,
AllAfrica, archived from ThisDay, 21 January, 2020.
122. Reuben Abati, “Nigeria: Amotekun-The Politics of Protection”,
AllAfrica, archived from ThisDay, 21 January, 2020.
123. Jude Egbas, “7 Things to Know about Amotekun, South West’s
New Security Outfit”, Pulse, 7 October, 2020.
124. “State-Backed Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and Shuwa Arabs Now
Occupy 350 Igbo Communities and Villages – Inter-Society”,
ElomahNews, 27 May, 2020. www.intersociety-ng.org
125. See the combined accounts of the Association of the Eastern Town
Unions, the Alaigbo Development Foundation and the Eastern Outlook
Newspaper as at August 2019 indicated that 139 Igbo Communities,
villages and locations have been occupied by the Fulani herdsmen.
126. In May 2020, the Alaigbo Development Foundation, Association
of Eastern Town Unions, and the Eastern Outlook Newspaper recently
reviewed upwards indicated that at least 318 were factually located while
38 others were added as “dark figures” or “factually existing but not
captured figure”.
149. IPOB Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful made explanations that
the new security outfit – the Eastern Security Network – is not a Biafra
Army but a security outfit to guard the whole of south-east against the
menace of killer herdsmen and other criminal group.
150. IPOB statement quoted in Seun Opejobi, “Security Network’ll
Operate Without You – Nnamdi Kanu Fires Back at Sout-East
Governors”, DailyPost, 22 December, 2020.
155. Noah Ebije, “Northern Coalition Plans Regional Security Outfit,
Shege-ka-Fasa”, TheSun, 6 February, 2020.
156. Noah Ebije, “Northern Coalition Plans Regional Security Outfit,
Shege-ka-Fasa”, TheSun, 6 February, 2020.
PART FIVE:
WHEN TYRANNY BECOMES A LAW,
REBELLION BECOMES A DUTY
Chapter 10: BIAFRA: The Struggle for Freedom
After a series of pogroms in which people from the former Eastern Region of
Nigeria living in other parts of that country were massacred between 1966 and
1967, the region seceded in 1967 and proclaimed an independent Republic of
Biafra. A bitter war ensued as Nigeria fought to foil the secession of the oil-rich
region. After three years of war and the loss of more than two million lives, the
nascent republic lost its struggle for independence and was reabsorbed into
Nigeria in January 1970. The leader of the republic, Oxford educated General
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, went into exile, but later returned to
Nigeria in 1983 under special pardon. In 1969 Biafra adopted one of the most
progressive national constitutions in Africa at the time. The Constitution or
"Principles" drew heavily from traditional communal modes of governance but
was also informed by progressive political developments in other parts of the
world in the 1960s, and the ideology of "Non-alignment" adopted by several
post-colonial states during the Cold War. It also provided a platform for the
country to criticise the West for its role in the plight of the rest of the world and
to set out the ideals of the young nation.
The Ahiara Declaration: The Principles of the Biafran Revolution, commonly

known as the Ahiara Declaration, was a document written by the National
Guidance Committee of Biafra and delivered as a speech by the Head of State
of Biafra Emeka Ojukwu in the Biafra town of Ahiara on June 1, 1969.
Document
Modeled on Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere's 1967 Arusha Declaration,1 it

was one of multiple documents drafted by Biafra's National Guidance
Committee, a body including renowned author Chinua Achebe. The declaration
criticized corruption in both Nigeria and Biafra, as well as imperialism on the
part of outside countries, and encouraged patriotism among the Biafrans.2
According to Alexis Heraclides in her book The Self-Determination of

Minorities in International Politics, the declaration signaled a shift to a more
politically radical phase in Biafra's short history.3 General Ojukwu lambasted
Britain, and in particular the "Anglo-Saxon branch of [the white] race", for
having repeatedly "sinned against the world" in the form of numerous
genocides, including that of the Biafran people:
“For two years we have been subjected to a total blockade. We all know how bitter,
bloody and protracted the First and Second World Wars were. At no stage in those
wars did the white belligerents carry out a total blockade of their fellow whites. In
each case where a blockade was imposed, allowance was made for certain basic
necessities of life in the interest of women, children and other non-combatants. Ours
is the only example in recent history where a whole people have been so treated.
What is it that makes our case different? Do we not have women, children and other
non-combatants? Does the fact that they are black women, black children and black
non-combatants make such a world of difference?”4
The tract encourages the Biafran people to persist in their efforts, assuring them
of the moral value of their sacrifices. Ojukwu emphasizes the difference
between this revolution and other revolutions, in that the world seems to be
unified against their cause; economic and political interests, as well as racist
indifference to the suffering of black-skinned noncombatants, are the especial
challenges of the Biafran movement. The "Nigerianism" against which they
were struggling was merely a system of opportunism and exploitation:
“Our struggle has far-reaching significance. It is the latest recrudescence in our time
of the age-old struggle of the black man for his full stature as man. We are the latest
victims of a wicked collusion between the three traditional scourges of the black man
- racism, Arab-Muslim expansionism and white economic imperialism. Playing a
subsidiary role is Bolshevik Russia seeking for a place in the African sun. Our
struggle is a total and vehement rejection of all those evils which blighted Nigeria,
evils which were bound to lead to the disintegration of that ill-fated federation. Our
struggle is not a mere resistance - that would be purely negative. It is a positive
commitment to build a healthy, dynamic and progressive state, such as would be the
pride of black men the world over...”5
When the Nigerians violated our basic human rights and liberties, we decided
reluctantly but bravely to found our own state, to exercise our inalienable right
to self-determination as our only remaining hope for survival as a people. Yet,
because we are black, we are denied by the white powers the exercise of this
right which they themselves have proclaimed inalienable. In our struggle we
have learnt that the right of self-determination is inalienable, but only to the
white man.6
51 years after Nigeria-Biafra civil war, the guns may have been silent, but are
the people silent? After 51 years of the civil war, there is nothing to suggest that
the people of Biafra are fully integrated and are genuinely part and parcel of the
commonwealth called Nigeria. The basis of unity in Nigeria is conspicuously
absent. Unity is or should be based on the willingness of the people to be part of
the union, and on the willingness of the government to be fair to all its citizens.
A government which refuses to protect some of its citizens cannot claim to be
fair and has abdicated its responsibility. Therefore the people who have been
rejected have the right to choose the type of government they want to live
under, and in their own independent state where they can be guaranteed
protection and feel secure. That was the case for Biafra.
It is important to respond the critics of Biafra’s secession who tried to draw

parallels between Biafra and Katanga. There were fundamental differences
between the two. The secession of Eastern Nigeria (otherwise known as Biafra)
was a consequence or, rather, in response to the pogroms in Northern Nigeria
and other parts of the federation, but mostly in the north, which claimed and
estimated 30,000 - 50,000 lives in about three months in 1966. It was not
foreign-inspired to break up Nigeria. If anything, the Western powers,
especially Britain supported the “unity” of Nigeria only for one reason – protect
their political and economic interests.7
On the other hand and simultaneously, Katanga’s secession was engineered by

Western powers to secure their political and economic interests by detaching the
mineral-rich province from the rest of the Congo which they feared could be
ruled by a staunchly pro-African nationalist government that would threaten
their interests. As it were, while Moise Tshombe, the Katangese leader and
Western puppet, was a traitor, Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the
Biafran leader, was an African patriot trying to save his people from oppression
and possible extermination by other Nigerians who hated the Igbos reminiscent
of the plight of the Jews under Hitler in Nazi Germany. As one of the two most
educated ethnic groups in Nigeria and one of the most industrious and business-
oriented, together with the Yoruba in Western Region, the Igbos were being
punished for being successful. Even a number of Nigerian leaders made that
clear. As one representative in the regional legislature of Northern Nigeria,
Mallam Muhammadu Mustapha Maude Gyari, emphatically stated in the
February-March 1964 session:
“On the allocation of plots to the Ibos, or the allocation of stalls, I would like to
advise the Minister that these people know how to make money and we do not know
the way and manner of getting about this business.... We do not want Ibos to be
allocated plots I do not want them to be given plots.”8
He was roundly applauded by other representatives in the Northern Regional

Assembly, including the Northern Premier himself, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the
Sardauna of Sokoto, who was also the most powerful man in the Nigerian
federation at the time. The federal government was controlled by northerners
who dominated the federal legislature where the Northern People’s Congress
(NPC) had the majority of the seats. Half of them were occupied by northerners.
The party was dominated by Ahmadu Bello who also controlled Federal Prime
Minister Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, a fellow northerner and leader of
the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) in the Nigerian federal parliament.9
And it is important to remember that the anti-Igbo sentiments in the Northern

Regional Assembly in February-March 1964 were expressed almost two years
before the Igbo-led military coup of January 15, 1966, which triggered the
massacre of tens of thousands of Igbos and other Easterners in Northern Nigeria
in the following months. The anti-Igbo venom spewed in the Northern
Legislative Assembly had also been preceded by the massacre of hundreds of
Igbos in Jos in 1945 and in Kano in 1953.10
Therefore, there was a history of anti-Igbo hysteria in Northern Nigeria, and

even in other parts of the country, long before the 1966 military coup; a history
which puts in proper perspective the secession of the Eastern Region as an
inevitable response to the cumulative impact of Igbophobia on the people of
Eastern Nigeria that had infected large segments of the federation. 11 It is also in
this context that Tanzania’s recognition of Biafra was understood at the time, in
order to understand why the government of Tanzania reached this momentous
decision. As President Julius Nyerere stated in recognizing Biafra:
“The Declaration of Independence by Biafra on the 30th May, 1967 came after two
military coups d’etat - January and July 1966 - and two pogroms against the Ibo
people. These pogroms, which also took place in 1966, resulted in the death of about
30,000 men, women, and children, and made two million people flee from their homes
in other parts of Nigeria to their tribal homeland in Eastern Nigeria. These events
have been interspersed and followed by official discussions about a new constitution
for Nigeria, and also by continued personal attacks on individual Ibos who have
remained outside the Eastern Region”.12
The basic case for Biafra’s secession from the Nigerian Federation is predicated
on the fact that people from the Eastern Region can no longer feel safe in other
parts of the Federation. They are not accepted as citizens of Nigeria by other
citizens of Nigeria. Not only is it impossible for Igbos and people of related
tribes to live in assurance of personal safety if they work outside Biafra; it
would also be impossible for any representative of these people to move freely
and without fear in any other part of the Federation of Nigeria.13
Are these fears not genuine and deep-seated? Can anyone say they are
groundless? The rights and wrongs of the original coup d’etat, the rights and
wrongs of the attitudes taken by different groups in the politics of pre- and post-
coup Nigeria, are all irrelevant to the fear which the Igbo people and others
from the region feel.
And Biafrans in Eastern Nigeria can point to too many bereaved homes, too
many maimed people, for anyone to deny the reasonable grounds for their fears.
It is these fears, which are the root cause both for the secession, and for the
fanaticism with which the people of Eastern Nigeria have defended the country
they declared to be independent.
Fears such as now exist among the Igbo people, do not disappear because
someone says they are unjustified, or says that the rest of Nigeria does not want
to exterminate Igbos. Such words have even less effect when the speakers have
made no attempt to bring the perpetrators of crimes to justice, and when troops
under the control of the Federal Nigerian authorities continue to ill-treat, or
allow others to ill-treat, any Igbo who comes within their power. The only way
to remove the Easterners’ fear is for the Nigerian authorities to accept its
existence, to acknowledge the reason for it, and then talk on terms of equality
with those involved on the way forward.
When people have genuine reason to be afraid how can you reassure them
through the barrel of a gun? Why not engaged with them in a genuine heart-to-
heart discussion with a view of winning them over? It is no use the Federal
authorities demanding that the persecuted should come as a supplicant for
mercy, by first renouncing their secession from the political unit. It is important
to note that secession was declared because the Igbo people and other easterners
felt it to be there only defence against extermination. In their minds, therefore, a
demand that they should renounce secession before talks begin is equivalent to a
demand that they should announce their willingness to be exterminated. If they
are wrong in this belief, they have to be convinced. And they can only be
convinced by talks leading to new institutional arrangements, which take
account of their fears.14
The people of Biafra have announced their willingness to talk to the Nigerian
authorities without any conditions. They cannot renounce their secession before
talks, but they do not demand that Nigerians should recognize it; they ask for
talks without conditions. But the Federal authorities have refused to talk except
on the basis of Biafra surrender. And as the Biafra’s believe they will be
massacred if they surrender, the Federal authorities are really refusing to talk at
all. But do human beings voluntarily walk towards what they believe to be
certain death? I have my doubts!
“The Federal Government argues that in demanding the renunciation of secession
before talks, and indeed in its entire ‘police action,’ it is defending the territorial
integrity of Nigeria. On this ground it argues also that it has the right to demand
support from all other governments, and especially other African governments. For
every state, and every state authority, has a duty to defend the sovereignty and
integrity of its nation; this is a central part of the function of a national
government.”15
Unfortunately, Africa accepted the validity of this point, for African states have
more reason than most to fear the effects of disintegration. It was on these
grounds that Africa watched the massacre of tens of thousands of people,
watched millions being made into refugees, watched the employment of
mercenaries by both sides in the civil war, and accepted repeated rebuffs of its
offers to help by mediation or conciliation.
But for how long should this continue? Africa fought for freedom on the
grounds of individual liberty and equality, and on the grounds that every people
must have the right to determine for themselves the conditions under which they
would be governed. We accepted the boundaries we inherited from colonialism,
and within them we each worked out for ourselves the constitutional and other
arrangements, which we felt to be appropriate to the most essential function of a
state - that is the safeguarding of life and liberty for its inhabitants.
When the Federation of Nigeria became independent in 1960, the same policy
was adopted by all its peoples. They accepted the Federal structure which had
been established under the colonial system, and declared their intention to work
together. Indeed, the Southern States of the Federation - which include Biafra -
delayed their own demands for independence until the North was ready to join
them. At the insistence of the North also, the original suggestion of the National
Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) that Nigeria should be broken
up into many small states with a strong centre, was abandoned. The South
accepted a structure, which virtually allowed the more populous North to
dominate the rest.16
But the constitution of the Federation of Nigeria was broken in January, 1966,
by the first military coup. All hope of its resuscitation was removed by the
second coup, and even more by the pogroms of September and October, 1966.
These events altered the whole basis of the society; after them it was impossible
for political and economic relations between the different parts of the old
Federation to be restored. That meant that Nigerian unity could only be
salvaged from the wreck of inter-tribal violence and fear by a constitution
drawn up in the light of what happened, and which was generally acceptable to
all the major elements of the society under the new circumstances. A
completely new start had to be made, for the basis of the state had been
dissolved in the complete breakdown of law and order, and the inter-tribal
violence, which existed.17
The necessity for a new start by agreement was accepted by a conference of

military leaders from all parts of the Federation, in Aburi, Ghana, in January
1967. There is a certain difference of opinion about some of the things, which
were agreed upon at the conference. But there is no dispute about the fact that
everyone joined in a declaration renouncing the use of force as a means of
settling the crisis in Nigeria. Nor does anyone dispute that it was agreed that a
new constitution was to be worked out by agreement, and that in the meantime
there would be a repeal of all military decrees issued since January 1966, which
reduced the power of the Regions.18
There was also agreement about rehabilitation payments for those who had been
forced to flee from their homes, and about members of the armed forces being
stationed in their home Regions.
The Aburi Conference could have provided the new start, which was necessary
if the unity of Nigeria was to be maintained. But before the end of the same
month, Gowon was restating his commitment to the creation of new states, and
his determination to oppose any form of confederation. And on the last day of
January, the Federal military authorities were already giving administrative
reasons for the delay in the implementation of the Agreements reached at Aburi.
It was in the middle of March before a constitutional decree was issued which
was supposed to regularize the position in accordance with the decisions taken
there.19
But unfortunately this Decree also included a new clause - which had not been
agreed upon - and which gave the Federal authorities reserved powers over the
Regions, and thus completely nullified the whole operation. Nor had any
payment been made by the Federal Government to back up the monetary
commitment for rehabilitation, which it had accepted in the Ghana meeting.
In short, the necessity for an arrangement, which would take account of the
fears created during 1966 was accepted at Aburi, and renounced thereafter by
the Federal authorities. Yet they now claim to be defending the integrity of the
country in which they failed to guarantee the most elementary safety of the
twelve million people of Eastern Nigeria. These people had been massacred in
other parts of Nigeria without the Federal authorities apparently having neither
the will nor the power to protect them.20
When they retreated to their homeland they were expected to accept the
domination of the same people who instigated, or allowed, their persecution in
the country which they are being told is theirs - i.e., Nigeria.
Surely, when a whole people are rejected by the majority of the state in which
they live, they must have the right to live under a different kind of arrangement
which does secure their existence. States are made to serve people; governments
are established to protect the citizens of a state against external enemies and
internal wrongdoers.21
It is on those grounds that people surrender their right and power of self-defence
to the government of the state in which they live. But when the machinery of the
state, and the powers of the government, is turned against a whole group of
society on grounds of racial, tribal, or religious prejudice, then the victims have
the right to take back the powers they have surrendered, and defend themselves.
For while people have a duty to defend the integrity of their state, and even to
die in its defence, this duty stems from the fact that it is theirs, and that it is
important to their well-being and to the future of their children. When the state
ceases to stand for honour, the protection, and the well-being of all its citizens,
then it is no longer the instrument of those it has rejected. In such a case the
people have the right to create another instrument for their protection - in other
words, to create another state. This right cannot be abrogated by constitutions,
or by outsiders.22
The basis of statehood and of unity can only be general acceptance by the
participants. When more than twelve million people then were well convinced
that they were rejected, and that there was no longer any basis for unity between
them and other groups of people, then that unity has ceased to exist. You cannot
kill thousands of people, and keep on killing more, in the name of unity. There
is no unity between the dead and those who killed them; and there is no unity in
slavery or domination.
Africa needs unity. We need unity over the whole continent, and in the
meantime we need unity within the existing states of Africa. It is a tragedy
when we experience a setback to our goal of unity. But the basis of our need for
unity, and the reason for our desire for it, is the greater well-being, and the
greater security, of the people of Africa. Unity by conquest is impossible. It is
not practicable; and even if military might could force the acceptance of a
particular authority, the purpose of unity would have been destroyed. For the
purpose of unity, its justification is the service of all the people who are united
together. The general consent of all the people involved is the only basis on
which unity in Africa can be maintained or extended.23
The fact that the Federation of Nigeria was created in 1960 with the consent of
all the people does not alter that fact. That Federation, and the basis of consent,
has since been destroyed.
Nor is this the first time the world has seen a reduction in political unity. We
have seen the creation of the Mali Federation, the creation of a union between
Egypt and Syria, and the establishment of the Federation of Rhodesia and
Nyasaland. And we have also seen the dissolution of all these attempts at unity,
and the consequent recognition of the separate nations, which were once
involved. The world has also seen the creation of India and Pakistan out of what
was once the Indian Empire. We have all recognized both of these nation states
and done our best to help them deal with the millions of people made homeless
by the conflict and division. None of these things mean that we like these
examples of greater disunity. They mean that we recognize that in all these
cases the people are unwilling to remain in one political unit.
“Tanzania recognizes Senegal, Mali, Egypt, Syria, Malawi, Zambia, Pakistan and
India. What right have we to refuse, in the name of unity, to recognize Biafra? For
years the people of that state struggled to maintain unity with the other people in the
Federation of Nigeria; even after the pogroms of 1966 they tried to work out a new
form of unity which would guarantee their safety; they have demonstrated by ten
months of bitter fighting that they have decided upon a new political organization and
are willing to defend it.”24
The world has taken it upon itself to utter many ill-informed criticisms of the
Jews of Europe for going to their deaths without any concerted struggle. But out
of sympathy for the suffering of these people, and in recognition of the world’s
failure to take action at the appropriate time, the United Nations established the
state of Israel in a territory, which belonged to the Arabs for thousands of years.
It was felt that only by the establishment of a Jewish homeland, and a Jewish
national state, could Jews be expected to live in the world under conditions of
human equality.
“Tanzania has recognized the state of Israel and will continue to do so because of its
belief that every people must have some place in the world where they are not liable
to be rejected by their fellow citizens. But the Biafra’s have now suffered the same
kind of rejection within their state that the Jews of Germany experienced.
Fortunately, they already had a homeland. They have retreated to it for their own
protection, and for the same reason - after all other efforts had failed - they have
declared it to be an independent state.
In the light of these circumstances, Tanzania feels obliged to recognize the setback to
African unity, which has occurred. We therefore recognize the state of Biafra as an
independent sovereign entity, and as a member of the community of nations. Only by
this act of recognition can we remain true to our conviction that the purpose of
society, and of all political organization, is the service of man.”25
The preceding statement by President Julius Nyerere was issued by the

government of Tanzania on April 13, 1968, the day Tanzania recognized Biafra.
It was also published in the ruling-party’s (TANU’s) daily newspaper, The
Nationalist, whose editor during that time was Benjamin Mkapa who later
became president of Tanzania from 1995 - 2005, and the country’s third head of
state since independence in 1961. The statement was also published in another
daily newspaper, the privately-owned Standard, whose editorial staff I joined in
June 1969 when I was a 19-year-old high school student in Form V (standard
13, what Americans would call grade 13). They were also the country’s two
major newspapers and some of the largest and most influential in East Africa.26
President Nyerere also explained Tanzania’s position on Biafra in another

statement, which was substantively the same as the preceding one, but with
other nuances to his central argument. The statement was published in a British
newspaper, in a country that was the biggest arms supplier to the Nigerian
federal military government during its war against Biafra, and played a critical
role in sustaining the conflict and wreaking havoc across the secessionist region,
as much as Soviet-supplied MIGs flown by Egyptian pilots did. As Nyerere
stated in “Why We Recognised Biafra,” in The Observer, London, 28 April
1968:
“Leaders of Tanzania have probably talked more about the need for African unity
than those of any other country. Giving formal recognition to even greater disunity in
Africa was therefore a very difficult decision to make. Our reluctance to do so was
compounded by our understanding of the problems of unity - of which we have some
experience - and of the problems of Nigeria. For we have had very good relations
with the Federation of Nigeria, even to the extent that when we needed help from
Africa we asked it of the Federation”.27
But unity can only be based on the general consent of the people involved. The
people must feel that this state, or this nation, is theirs; and they must be willing
to have their quarrels in that context. In as much as a large number of the people
of any such political unit stop believing that the state is theirs and that the
government is their instrument, then the unit are no longer viable. It will not
receive the loyalty of its citizens.
It is, indeed, the citizen’s duty to serve, and if necessary to die for, his country
and his stems from the fact that it is his and that its government is the
instrument of himself and his fellow citizens. The duty stems, in other words,
from the common denominator of accepted statehood, and from the state
government’s responsibility to protect all the citizens and serve them all. For
states, and governments, exist for men and for the service of man. They exist for
the citizens’ protection, their welfare, and the future well-being of their
children. There is no other justification for states and governments except
man.28
In Nigeria this consciousness of a common citizenship was destroyed by the

events of 1966, and in particular by the pogrom, in which 30,000 Eastern
Nigerians were murdered, many more injured and about two million forced to
flee from the North of their country. It is these pogroms, and the apparent
inability or unwillingness of the authorities to protect the victims, which
underlies the Easterners’ conviction that they have been rejected by other
Nigerians and abandoned by the Federal Government.29
Whether the Easterners are correct in their belief that they have been rejected is
a matter for argument. But they do have this belief. And if they are wrong, they
have to be convinced that they are wrong. They will not be convinced by being
shot. Nor will their acceptance as part of the Federation be demonstrated by the
use of Federal power to bomb schools and hospitals in the areas to which people
have fled from persecution.30
The Biafra’s now feel that they cannot live under conditions of personal security
in the present Nigerian Federation. As they were unable to achieve an
agreement on a new form of association, they have therefore claimed the right
to govern themselves. The Biafra’s are not claiming the right to govern anyone
else. They have not said that they must govern the Federation as the only way of
protecting themselves. They have simply withdrawn their consent to the system
under which they used to be governed because that system cannot guarantee the
safety of lives and properties.
Biafra is not now operating under the control of a democratic government, any
more than Nigeria is. But the mass support for the establishment and defence of
Biafra is obvious. This is not a case of a few leaders declaring secession for
their own private glory. Indeed, by the Aburi Agreement the leaders of Biafra
showed a greater reluctance to give up hope of some form of unity with Nigeria
than the masses possessed. But the agreement was not implemented.
Evidently, the Igbos indeed made the most determined attempt to secede from
Nigeria but they were not the first of Nigeria’s main ethnic groups to demand
secession. They were, in fact, the last. The first people who wanted to pull out
of the federation were northern Nigerians, for no apparent reason, other than the
fact that their region was more backward in terms of education and economic
development than the other two regions - East and West in the south - and
therefore could not compete with the rest of the country for jobs and other
opportunities on the basis of merit.
It would be recalled that the northerners, as far back as 1950, argued that the
amalgamation of the North and the South was a “a big mistake,” and that the
country should return to the boundaries established in 1914 when the two parts
were virtually different colonies in terms of administration. Each had its own,
separate, colonial administration. And throughout the 1950s, they continued to
make secessionist demands, now and then, and seriously threatened to withdraw
from the federation unless independence was granted on their terms and the
federal government was dominated by them. Southerners conceded, in order to
save the federation from falling apart.31
A few years after independence in the late sixties, northerners wanted to secede
and, in fact, almost did, during the second military coup of July 1966 executed
by northern military officers who, with the full backing of Northern politicians
and other leaders, almost dissolved the Nigerian federation and declared
independence for the North.
Besides Northern Nigeria dominated by the Hausa-Fulani, the predominantly

Yoruba region of Western Nigeria also threatened to secede in the 1950s. In
fact, Chief Awolowo, the leader of Western Nigeria, in August 1953 at the
constitutional talks held in London on the future of Nigeria - to whom should
power be transferred at independence - attended by Nigerian leaders from all
three regions, threatened to pull his region out of the federation if Lagos,
located in the West, was not incorporated into the Western Region.32
Lagos, the federal capital of Nigeria until the 1980s, had been designated as
federal territory by the colonial authorities since its founding, and was therefore
not under the jurisdiction of the Western Region. And when British Colonial
Secretary Oliver Lyttelton ruled that Lagos would remain federal territory,
Awolowo stormed out of the conference in London, threatening secession of the
Western Region from the rest of Nigeria. Had the British not been in control of
Nigeria, the Western Region would probably have seceded from the
federation.33
As late as the 1990s, threats of secession also resonate from all parts of Nigeria
and continued through the years, although in varying degrees and in muted form
in some cases, as different ethnic groups complained of marginalization by
other groups in the giant federation. The Igbos, who never regained their former
position when they were reintegrated into the Nigerian society after the end of
the civil war (1967 - 1970), talked of another Biafra or an alternative
arrangement - including confederation - which would give them complete
control over their own destiny and equal access to power and the nation’s
resources within the federation to end their marginalization. And other
Nigerians, especially the Hausa-Fulani, were determined to keep the Igbos on
the periphery after Biafra lost the war; a policy of marginalization and
containment of the Igbos which continued through the years even after the
1990s.34 As George Ayittey states in his book Africa in Chaos:
“In Nigeria, this insidious tribalism has retrogressively evolved into what Nigerian
columnist Igonikon Jack called a ‘full-blown tribal-apartheid,’ in which people of a
particular tribal, regional, or religious origin enjoy more privileges than their fellow
indigenous compatriots, the Christian Ibos of the Southeast. The Ibos, who lost the
Biafran War, are the most disadvantaged and discriminated against. The
Northerners, who are of the Hausa-Fulani ethnic group and predominantly Muslim,
have ruled Nigeria for 31 out of 35 years of independence (won in October 1960) and
the military has also been dominated by the Northerners for 25 years.”35
Nigerian journalist, Pini Jason, concurred, saying:

‘Since the North controlled political power, it also controlled, decided and
manipulated the allocation of posts, resources and values. And with this power it kept
the competition for the crumbs alive in the South and the cleavages and political
disunity very wide. The fact that the North, like the Tutsis of Burundi (and of Rwanda
since 1994), controls the military and uses its military might to monopolize political
power, and is not willing to part with the privileges power has brought the North over
the years, makes many Nigerians fear a possible blood-bath a la Burundi.’”36
Northern political control of the Nigerian federation theoretically ended in May

1999 when former military ruler Olusegun Obasanjo, a Yoruba from the
southwest, became Nigeria’s democratically elected president after 16 years of
military dictatorship by Northern soldiers. The last civilian government - also
headed by a northerner, President Shehu Shagari, a Fulani - was overthrown in
December 1983, by a fellow Fulani-northerner, General Mohammed Buhari.
But even Obasanjo’s election did not end the northerners’ hegemonic control of
the federation.
His candidacy was backed and bankrolled by powerful northern generals and
politicians, including former military dictator Ibrahim Babangida - one of the
richest men in the world, reportedly worth more than $30 billion siphoned off
from petrodollars - who felt that, as a fellow soldier and former military ruler
himself (he was Nigeria’s head of state from 1975 - 1979), he would be
sympathetic to them and protect their interests. And, to certain degree, they
were not disappointed.37
But the transfer of political power to the south also had other consequences.
Although northerners remained influential and the dominant force in the
federation headed by a southerner - the vice president was a northerner, as was
the defence minister and other key cabinet members and other high-ranking
officials - the mere fact that the presidency had been handed over to the south
rankled many northern Nigerians, including former military rulers. They were
determined to undermine the new dispensation and found a ready weapon in
religion.38
Northern Nigeria is overwhelmingly Muslim, and the south predominantly

Christian and animist. But Nigeria is a secular state. Yet, northerners invoked
religious rights guaranteed by the federal constitution to introduce Islamic law,
known as sharia, in all the predominantly Muslim states, a move that virtually
amounted to the establishment of theocratic regimes in a secular nation. And the
defiance by northerners, clearly demonstrated by their refusal to abandon sharia,
posed a serious challenge to the federal government. It was unquestionably a
deliberate attempt by northerners to undermine federal law in the northern
states, and a repudiation of federal authority tantamount to secession, even if in
a limited way.39
If the introduction of Islamic law in the northern states was of paramount

concern to northerners, and religion the only reason why they introduced sharia,
why didn’t they do so when northern military officers and civilian rulers such as
President Shehu Shagari were in control of the federal government? They didn’t
convert to Islam just recently after Obasanjo, a Christian and a Southerner
became president. It was only after a southerner, and a Christian on top of that,
became president in 1999 that an Islamic revival swept the north, threatening all
institutions of federal and secular authority in the region.40
All this, together with the marginalization of many ethnic groups in the
federation, led many people to question whether Nigeria would really be able to
survive as a nation, prompting some to ask: Should Nigeria break up?
The threat to Nigerian existence came from other groups as well, besides the
three major ones - the Igbos whose independent Republic of Biafra lasted for
about three years; the Yorubas who felt marginalized even under the democratic
presidency of a fellow Yoruba, Olusegun Obasanjo, which many of them
believed was controlled by northern generals and political heavyweights; and
the Hausa-Fulani and other northern Muslims who resorted to religion,
employing Islamic law as a guerrilla tactic to undermine federal authority in
their states and force southern Christians to leave Northern Nigeria and return to
the south; a religious and ethnic conflict which cost thousands of lives between
1999 and 2002 in the northern states, especially Kano and Kaduna.41
The Ogonis and other groups in the oil-producing states of the Niger Delta
were, and continue to be, some of the most exploited and marginalized groups
in Nigeria. In spite of the vast amount of oil pumped right from under their feet,
earning Nigeria billions of dollars every year, they are among the poorest
people in the world. They get nothing, or only a trickle, from the federal
government and the oil companies. But such neglect also has had dire
consequences. Groups of Ogoni and Ijaw youths among others have resorted to
sabotage through the years, targeting pipelines and other oil installations, and
kidnapping oil company employees, to dramatize their plight and extract
concessions from the federal government and oil companies.42
The militants have not only demanded money for development and provision of
basic services, but also for cleaning up pollution. The environmental devastation
wrought by the oil companies with the blessings of the federal government has
taken a heavy toll on the people of the oil-producing states in terms of lost lives,
disease, polluted water and dwindling fish supplies as well as lost vegetation.
The neglect has been going on for decades since oil was found in the Niger
Delta in the 1950s and has prompted some members of these minority groups to
demand secession. And their minority status in a federation dominated by the
three main groups - the Hausa-Fulani, the Yoruba and the Igbo - only
compounds the problem.43
One of the Niger Delta residents who eloquently expressed their plight was Ken
Saro-Wiwa, an Ogoni writer and activist of international stature, who was
hanged in November 1985 by the putative military dictator Sani Abacha
because of his relentless campaign against the depredations suffered by the
people of the oil-producing states at the hands of the oil companies and the
federal government; their plight compounded by their minority status. As he
stated in one of his last statements, in an interview with a Nigerian newspaper,
the Lagos-based Guardian: “My only regret is that I was born a minority in
Nigeria.”44
The idea of establishing independent ethno-states is probably very appealing to
oppressed ethnic groups, but terrifying to African countries almost all of which
are multiethnic societies. It may even be argued that they are multi-national
states, if ethnic groups are considered to be nations, or micro-nations.45
2. Biafra Secession and the Rights and Limits of Self-Determination:
Biafran students in the United States meditated on the “philosophy of the

Biafran revolution” just as Biafra was collapsing in January, 1970 and the civil
war was drawing to a close. The Biafran revolution has raised a fundamental
issue in the entire politics of unity in Africa.
On the 26th of May 1967, when the Eastern Region of Nigeria voted to secede,
consequent upon which the then military governor of the region, Lt. Col.
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, made an announcement declaring Biafra
an independent state in the name of The Federal Republic of Biafra, some
curious minds ask: “Can Africa be better unified on the basis of a colonial
boundaries or could a lasting unity be achieved on the basis of self-
determination for the various African peoples?
Backed by the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, the Federal Military
Government under Yakubu Gowon, waged a brutal war against the breakaway
republic of Biafra for almost three years. By the time the republic finally
surrendered on 12 January, 1970, a catalogue of human and material loses were
recorded as a result of a devastating blockade of the “land-locked” territory, for
many Biafra had become a symbol: of the exhaustion of colonial optimisms, of
the horrors of civil wars, of the starving African child and of the emergence of a
new sensibility that in the 1970s would help to produce both an Journal of
Genocide Research, 201446
The Nigerian-Biafran Civil war also provoked a wide-ranging discussion in

international forums, among governments of the west, social scientists and
political activists over the meaning of genocide, the legitimacy of succession,
the definition of state viability, and limits of self-determination. For Biafra
sympathizers, the carving of a new state out of the remnants of Nigeria offered
an opportunity to challenge the dominant conception of self-determination as
nothing more than an act of decolonization. But to the supporters of Nigeria,
Biafra was an omen of things to come if more expansive definitions of self-
determination gained traction in international law and state practice, threatening
state fragmentation and the balkanization of the African continent. For better or
for worse, the Biafran secession raised a number of critical questions which
bother scholars and diplomats long ago on self-determination elsewhere.47
 Who or what is a people (and were the ‘Biafrans’ a people)?

 Who, if anyone, has the right to self-determination, and does this
right extend to minority groups within established states (and did
the minority Igbo community have this right)?
 How do the international communities decide or define whether a
territory is viable enough to merit self-determination (and did
Biafra meet this threshold of state viability)?
The Nigerian civil war raised but could not answer these fundamental questions
about the nature and direction of decolonization, and their possible application
to the south-eastern region of the country. Instead, it only brings to the fore the
ambiguity and contested nature of sovereignty and self-determination, and the
ability of groups such as the Igbos to exploit their indeterminacy in an effort to
achieve their aims. In this book, we shall highlight these ambiguities by
examining the nature of Biafran claim to self-determination and the critique of
its opponents, as well as the ways in which these claims and counterclaims
evolved over the course of the civil war, especially in response to charges of
genocide made by Biafran supporters. Finally, this book will explore the lessons
that both sympathizers (supporters) and critics (opponents) of Biafra drew from
its collapse regarding the nature and limits of self-determination. 48
 The Biafran Claim For Self-Determination and Its Critics

Having attained political independence in 1960, Nigeria became Africa’s
largest, most populous and wealthiest country. However, Nigeria is a
heterogeneous state, like many of its neighbours – in which political and social
conflicts often bore both cultural and regional coloration – with ethnic Igbo,
Yoruba and Hausa/Fulani dominating the eastern, western and northern parts of
the country, respectively. These local and ethnic loyalties had a devastating
effect on building a strong national identity, resulting to frequent threats of
regional secession and, in 1963, the federal system of government was
introduced to strengthen the country and allays fears of domination. The
Nzeogwu/Ifeajuna coup of 1966 led to the massacre of the Igbo and this
suggested to some that this structure precluded effective political representation
for minority communities. It was, therefore, no surprise that Nigeria’s Eastern
Region declared its independence as the Republic of Biafra in May 1967 and
the Biafra leaders framed their claims in terms of self-determination. But this
principle is a deeply contested terrain and largely debatable.49
Unfortunately, however, while the Biafra leaders spoke of self-determination,

much of the world leaders heard secession. While the United States and its
European allies, China, the Soviet bloc, and the nations of the postcolonial
world often violently disagreed on the nature and scope of self-determination
since 1945, there was something approaching genuine international consensus
on the danger of secession. Much of the Social Science literatures on self-
determination begin to spread in the sixties and seventies which lay at the heart
of the postcolonial settlements and the emergence of independent states from
the remaining of former colonial territories. It is evident that many anti-colonial
and non-western leaders sought to enshrine self-determination as a legal right in
the human rights conventions and other assorted resolutions of the General
Assembly it rather appears the fact that the United Nation charter only
mentioned self-determination in passing and the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights excluded it from consideration entirely. Although many western
observers framed their understanding of self-determination in liberal, individual
terms as little more than representative self-government, before 1945, scholars
such as Alfred Cobban showed clearly a courteous optimism about the
prospects of self-determination as a principle that might ease the path from
colonialism to self-government. The prospects of self-determination were so
strong that even the worrying signs of early partitioning of Palestine and India
did not significantly dampen such enthusiasm. Though the UN member states
moved to condemn colonialism and enshrine self-determination as a human
right in the early sixties, and as decolonization accelerated in earnest, so too did
worries that flow down heavily against self-determination claims within anti-
colonial movements might lead to increased pressure for secession. The UN,
with African members in the lead, repeatedly condemned attempts by
secessionist movements to redraw the borders of often fragile multi-ethnic
states, and explicitly or tacitly authorize the Congo, Nigeria and other countries
threatened by such movements to take whatever actions necessary to preserve
their territorial integrity. 50
In the early 1960s, the rapid decolonization of much of Africa brought to the
fore many of the most pressing questions concerning the nature and limits of
self-determination. In 1960, at the founding conference of the Organization of
African Unity (OAU), anti-colonial leaders heatedly debated whether the pan-
African ideals of unity, anti-colonialism and self-determination required the
maintenance of colonial borders or their dissolution in favour of pan-African
federation or some other formation. The OAU eventually took a strong and
unequivocal stance in favour of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of
member states and the preservation of existing borders partly out of fear of state
fragmentation and partly at the insistence of smaller states fearful of border
disputes with and territorial claims by their larger neighbours. While insisting
on the ‘inalienable right of all people to control their own destiny’ the charter
placed respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity among its founding
principles. Given the ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity of many
postcolonial states and the often arbitrary definition of colonial borders, both of
which raised the specter that acknowledging a right of secession might lead to
the unraveling of the postcolonial African system, this, indeed, was a reasonable
stance. But it appears many African countries bought into the idea as one
Kenyan official told an OAU summit conference in 1963 that ‘the principle of
self-determination has relevance where foreign domination is the issue. It has no
relevance where the issue is territorial disintegration by dissident citizens’. 51
The stance of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) reflected the deep
unease spawned by the Congolese civil war (1961-63) and the attempted
secession of Katanga province, justified by Moi se Tshombe’ on the basis of the
universally recognized right to self-determination.
 “… The secessionist state of Katanga indirectly backed by numerous western
governments and mining firms, was defeated in January 1963, just a few months
before the OAU’s formation. Many African leaders saw the Katanga secession as an
attempt by former colonial powers to foster the emergence of weak postcolonial states
and postcolonial self-determination (at least as best described by them) as a mask for
the promotion of imperial and commercial interests. Katanga served as a powerful, if
sometimes contradictory, precedent for Biafran leaders and their supporters, who
pointed to its existence both as a justification for their own attempt at secession and
as a counterpoint to what they argued were the more legitimate circumstances
animating their claims. The Congo crisis also underlined the political economy of
self-determination claims and the ways that these often served as shorthand for
conflicts over the control of vital natural resources such as oil and other extractive
commodities. The Nigerian civil war erupted less than a year after the UN General
Assembly adopted the covenants on civil and political rights and economic, social,
cultural rights, capping fifteen years of often bitter negotiations in the Human Rights
Committee. Article I of each covenant famously declared that ‘[a]ll peoples have the
right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political
status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development’. The
covenants enshrined self-determination as the ‘first right’ from which all others
derived, though its substantive meaning remained unclear and open to fierce
contestation.”52
From the very beginning, the Biafran leaders anchored their claims to
legitimacy on these terms. Biafran leaders made a four-fold argument defending
their right to self-determination.53
 They cast their efforts as the latest chapter in the history of African
decolonization and as part of ‘the heroic struggles of all peoples all
over the world for their national freedom’, all of which ‘have been
motivated under identical impulses of self-determination’.
 Perhaps, more importantly, they suggested that self-defined
linguistic and ‘tribal’ groups, rather than colonial borders, were the
logical units of organization and governance in Africa. In short,
Biafran officials rejected the imperial premises of decolonization
and argued that ‘progressive’ African leaders should be willing to
consider solutions that accorded to African rather than
metropolitan realities. As such, they argued, the ‘best hope for a
satisfactory solution to the problems of Nigeria lies in the
recognition and preservation of the separate identity of the various
tribal or linguistic groupings and their rights to develop each along
its own line and at its own pace’. The emphasis on minority rights
hearkened back to the post-World War I period, when the
European powers employed similar logic to justify the creation of
ethnically or linguistically homogeneous states out of the remnants
of the Hapsburg and Ottoman empires. It also reflected the often
regional and ethnic character of the Nigerian decolonization
process. As Bonny Ibhawoh has observed, the Freedom Charter
drawn up in 1943 by the National Council for Nigeria and the
Cameroons 9and based on the 1941 Atlantic Charter) ‘particularly
stressed the right to self-determination’. Biafran leaders
emphasized this long history of regionalism, noting that in
negotiations over a new constitution following the 1966 military
coup, representatives of the north, west and eastern states had
insisted, as the north’s proposal put it, that the ‘right of self-
determination of all people in the country must be accepted’ and
that ‘these rights include the right of any State within the country
to secede’.
 Following from above, Biafran leaders insisted ‘that recognition of
Biafra’ sovereignty’ was ‘in keeping with the best practice of the
concept of territorial integrity of all nations’, the actual intent of
which was to ‘neutralize the ambitions of those states which adhere
to it with regards to the territories of one another’ – in order words,
to prevent strong states from absorbing their smaller, weaker
neighbors. Even the OAU charter, they insisted, recognized ‘the
right of a new state to emerge from a state through a process of
self-determination’ and did not explicitly rule out secession in all
instances. In any case, the history of British-sponsored federations
(West Indies, Malaysia, Central African Republics etc.), suggested
both that colonially sponsored federations were doomed to fail and
that their dissolution could be accomplished without bloodshed.
 Finally, Biafran officials suggested that the Nigerian state, which
had proved unable and unwilling to protect residents of Eastern
Nigeria and afford them full democratic rights, had forfeited their
loyalty. ‘When the Nigerians violated our basic rights and liberties’
argued columnist Simon Anekwe, ‘we decided reluctantly but
bravely to found our own state, to exercise our inalienable right to
self-determination as our only remaining hope for survival as a
people’. Here Biafran secessionists made a novel case that the
violation of their right to liberal, individual self-determination by
the Nigerian state compelled them to exercise their right to
collective self-determination. Such an argument flies in the face of
the claims by human right scholars that by the 1960s anti-colonial
leaders had abandoned individual or liberal understandings of self-
determination in favor of collective ones. Throughout the civil war,
self-identified Biafrans continued to insist on both the right to
liberal, individual self-determination within Nigeria, through the
exercise of local self-rule, and their right to exit it through an act of
collective self-determination.
The lukewarm international reaction to Biafra’s declaration of independence

suggested that most of members of the international community rejected both
the premise and substance of its claims. Nonetheless, Biafra was not without its
supporters from the international communities. On 30th of July 1968, France
announced its support for Biafra independence (although it did not officially
recognize Biafra), and Paris quickly emerged as the largest supplier of food and
weapons.54 Through its loud and public support, as Lasse Heerten has argued,
French official‘re-narrated’ the story of French Imperialism ‘ as one of the
benevolent guidance of colonial ‘‘nations’’ towards self-determinations’. The
former French diplomat and Parliamentarian, Raymond Offroy, in the Bulletin
of the Comite’ d’ Action pour le Biafra said that France has always defended
the people’s right to self-determination’, effacing the bloody memory of
Algeria’s war for independence and the tortured questions regarding French
national identity and the meaning of self-determination that the conflict raised. 55
Perhaps more importantly, the French Foreign Ministry believed that Britain
had ‘made a mistake in giving the territories around Lagos their independence
as a federation’ – a seemingly peculiar British preference – rather than as
independent states. As the civil war dragged on, the Sino-Soviet split widened,
with China joining the fray, denouncing ‘imperialist’ and ‘revisionist’ (i.e.
Soviet allied) powers for supporting Nigeria while giving ineffectual lip service
to Biafra self-determination. Portugal allowed relief organizations seeking to aid
Biafra to use the island of Sa’’o Tome as a trans-shipment point, much to the
dismay of the United States and Britain, but offered only lukewarm statements
concerning recognition. Although they never recognized the territory, South
African officials also occasionally spoke in favor of self-determination for
Biafra, mostly to make the case for apartheid and the creation of the Bantustans,
arguing that ‘enforced integration of people of different tribal backgrounds
inevitably leads to friction and bloodshed, with Nigeria providing only the most
recent example’.56
Only five nations officially recognized Biafra – Haiti, Tanzania, Ivory Coast,
Gabon and Zambia – and they did so for a wide range of reasons. It is worthy to
note that Julius Nyerere’s Tanzania offered the most significant support and
encouragement, extending official recognition to the Republic of Biafra in April
1968 band framing his decision in terms of support for self-determination.
“Tanzanian officials were careful to reiterate their support for Nigeria’s sovereignty
and territorial integrity as well, observing that in service of these principles ‘Africa
has watched the massacre of tens of thousands of people, has watched the
employment of mercenaries by both sides in the current civil war, and had accepted
repeated rebuffs of its offers to help by mediation or conciliation’. The fundamental
question raised by the Nigerian civil war, as it would be raised by the East Pakistan
crisis a few years later, was whether there existed a threshold of state repression
beyond which a people ‘have the right to create another state’. In this case, Nyerere
suggested the answer was yes, though he stated both publicly and privately that
recognition was intended as a spur to negotiations, not a solution to the conflict. He
argued that the denial of individual self-determination to Igbos by the Nigerian
government legitimized an act of collective self-determination, though not necessarily
liberal democracy …” 57
3. 50 Years On, Biafra’s Pain Is Still Fresh
50 years after the Nigeria-Biafra civil war, the call by activists for independence
of the former eastern Nigeria otherwise known as Biafra still resonates but
successive Nigerian governments attempt to contain it.
On 30th of May 2020, pro-Biafra groups and their supporters celebrated the
anniversary of the declaration of the Biafran Republic on May 30, 1967, by Col.
Odumegwu Ojukwu—a 33-year-old Oxford University-educated historian-
turned-military officer. During this period, public events were cancelled and
private memories were shared with others. Prayers were said in remembrance of
the dead, the war’s victims and survivors as well as posts and images on social
media were made, sparking more support for the Indigenous People of Biafra
(IPOB), a group that has long been agitating for an independent state of Biafra.69
It would be recalled that for more than five years now, IPOB and other pro-
Biafra groups have been organizing peaceful protests across the country and
demanding self-determination. Led by Nnamdi Kanu, a British Nigerian
activist, IPOB blames the central government for leaving the region
marginalized and consequently seeking a peaceful referendum to break away
from Nigeria and create a separate state. But the present government led by
Muhammadu Buhari had zero tolerance on anyone seeking to balkanize the
Nigerian state and he made no pretense about that; insisting that the unity of
Nigeria is not negotiable! 70
In October 2015, political tensions increased tremenduously when Kanu was

arrested by Nigeria’s security forces on treason and secession charges on his
return to the country from the United Kingdom, where he is based. Kanu runs
Radio Biafra—an online radio station that broadcasts from London, where he
agitates for a referendum and communicates with his followers and admirers to
the embarrassment of the federal government.
Consequently, Kanu’s arrest sparked nationwide protests among his followers

nationwide. Each day, the Nigeria-nation witnessed to her bewilderment as
thousands of pro-Biafra agitators and supporters, hoisting flags and chanting
Biafra songs, moved across the country, demanding his unconditional release.
The protests often turned bloody with brutality and extrajudicial killings by
security forces. Amnesty International, in 2016 did accuse Nigeria’s security
forces of embarking on a “chilling campaign of extrajudicial executions and
violence resulting in the deaths of at least 150 peaceful pro-Biafra protesters in
the south east of the country.” And beyond Nigerian shores, Kanu’s supporters
staged protests at Nigerian embassies and high commissions in mainly the
United States, United Kingdom, and Europe.71
Kanu was released in April 2017 with stringent bail conditions that restricted his
movements after spending more than 18 months in jail, but yet the agitation
grew even louder with more peaceful protests and rallies.
The federal government run by President Muhammadu Buhari, a northern

Muslim from the Fulani flock, has strongly rejected any call for a referendum
and stated that his administration would not bow down to demands for
separatism, saying the country’s unity is “not negotiable.”
In August 2017, the government launched “Operation Python Dance” which

changed the trajectory of the pro-Biafra movements and agitations – a military
operation that led to the deaths of several pro-Biafra activists. Kanu’s home in
Afara-Ukwu Umuahia, in the country’s southeast, was invaded and raided by
security forces, which IPOB said was a “calculated attempt to assassinate him.”
Kanu was spirited away by his supporters during the invasion and was hidden
until he reappeared in Israel in October 2018 before returning to the U.K.72
Subsequently, in September 2017, IPOB was proscribed and declared a terrorist

organization by a kangaroo high court in Abuja. But the United States, United
Kingdom and the European Union have said they do not see the movement as a
terrorist organization, as its protests have been largely peaceful, although
Washington and others have maintained that it is committed to a “united”
Nigeria.
The proscription and clampdown by security forces seemed to have emboldened

and hardened the resolve of the IPOB and it insists that it will keep agitating
until an independent state is achieved.
The pain of Biafrans is understandable. The Buhari government is a case study

of how to divide a country. The government has yet to hold any serious
conversation to address growing grievances and some of the fundamental issues
that led to the civil war in the first place. Many in the southeast say they have
never received justice for the more than 2 million people killed during the war.
According to analysts, conversation or dialogue about the war could be a way of
healing old wounds and forging reconciliation, building trust and national
alliances. But Buhari does not appear to be interested in all of these.
“Nigeria is still deeply divided along ethnic and religious lines, and this has played
into many national and regional engagements. Marginalization, unequal political
appointments, and ethnic and religious tensions are still brewing division. Since
Buhari came into power in 2015, the south has criticized the president’s major
political and military appointments, which have often favored individuals from the
north, further deepening the divide.”73
In his book, “Biafra’s Struggle for Survival – A Personal Account of the War”,
Christopher Ejiofor, a former Biafran soldier and military advisor to Ojukwu,
said:
“There was sadness in the heart of every single Igbo family. Nobody in the Eastern
Region had not lost somebody,… The blood of the innocent children who died due to
starvation during the war is still seeking vengeance.”74
Ejiofor went further to say: “The Nigerian-Biafra civil war should have never
happened in my estimation.”75
It would be recalled that after the 1994 Rwanda genocide that led to the deaths
of some 800,000 people, the Rwandan government set up the memorials and
national day of remembrance in Rwanda. On the contrary, Nigeria doesn’t see
the need to officially commemorate the war in honour of the dead following the
genocide orchestrated by the blood festivals between 1967 and 1970. However,
there are private efforts—such as the Centre for Memories, located in the
former Biafra capital city of Enugu, which holds exhibitions each year to
commemorate the war—and there have been past gestures.76
The Biafra agitation, now led by mostly young people, is just getting hotter as
the days go by. Yet, even after five decades, the present government, like most
of those before it, has no interest in reconciliatory moves such as holding a
roundtable dialogue with the agitators or in leading a national conversation to
address the grievances that have left the country still divided. Agitators believe
a new breakaway is imminent—but the government’s answer may yet again be
the use of force.
 Shocking Re-Arrest of IPOB Leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu – the Extra-

ordinary Rendition, the Looming Chaos
Extraordinary rendition also called irregular rendition or forced rendition is the
government sponsored abduction and extrajudicial transfer of a person from one
country to another with the purpose of circumventing the former country’s laws
on interrogation, detention, extradition, and/or torture.
Nigerians were shocked to receive the news that the leader of the Indigenous
People of Biafra (IPOB) was abducted and have been arraigned in court to face
his charges of treasonable felony. A lot of controversy and conspiracy theories
followed his re-arrest. His younger brother, Kingsley was the first person to
confirm that Nnamdi Kanu was actually arrested in Kenya.
Following his re-arrest, Kingsley said Kanu has been “subjected to the most
serious violations of international law” because of his quest for self-
determination. Explaining further, Kingsley narrated:
“Whilst visiting Kenya, Nnamdi Kanu was detained and handed over to the
Nigerian authorities who then flew him to Nigeria,” he said.
“My brother has been subject to extraordinary rendition by Kenya and
Nigeria. They have violated the most basic principles of the rule of law.
Extraordinary rendition is one of the most serious crimes states can commit.
“Both Nigeria and Kenya must be held to account. I demand justice for my
brother, Nnamdi Kanu.”77
In another development, Kanu’s lawyer who visited the IPOB leader at the
custody of the Department of State Service, DSS, said his client was arrested
and detained for eight days by Kenya’s Special Police Force, before he was
eventually handed over to their Nigerian counterpart.
Recall that the DSS had earlier permitted Kanu’s legal team to visit the fugitive
where he is been detained.
Shortly after the visit on Friday evening, Ejiofor said his client was arrested in
Kenya on June 18 but was detained and tortured until last Sunday when he was
flown back to the country.
• A disgrace to the Rule of Law?
A Biafra-born Canadian Minister of Justice and Solicitor-General of the

Government of Alberta, Canada, Kelechi Madu, has slammed the Nigerian
Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Abubakar Malami, over the re-arrest
of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, and Nnamdi Kanu.
In a post on his LinkedIn page, Madu was quoted to have said that if reports that
Kanu was abducted from Kenya were true, Malami was not only a disgrace to
the rule of law but also not worthy to be a public officer. According to Madu
who as a Canadian official, and also the Deputy Government House Leader:
“… Nigeria and Kenya violated international law in the manner Kanu was
extradited and called on world leaders to apply appropriate sanctions.”78
According to him, Malami “…has shown himself to be a bigot who does not
understand what it means to live in a pluralistic society governed by the dictates
of the rule of law,” he wrote.
He also requested the international community and leaders of nations to use all
their power to ensure “real consequences for these arbitrary violations of
internationally accepted democratic norms and rules that govern civilized
people.”
Expressing his concern in what is playing out in the land he was born, Madu
added: 79
“Nigeria is burning, and the people of Nigeria, except those who are holding
the country down, want out.
“You cannot destroy the hope and aspirations of a people destined for
greatness and expect them to bow down in servitude.
“You cannot destroy a generation of people and expect them not to fight for
their freedom. The power of guns, state-sponsored terrorism will not achieve
peace or the preservation of Nigeria.
“The Igbo and other ethnic groups in Nigeria who are calling for Nigeria to
be renegotiated do not seek violence or war. They seek peace. They seek
progress and the advancement of their people. They seek fairness, safety,
equity, and justice for their people.
“They seek the opportunity for their children to grow up and achieve their
God-given abundant potential.
“They seek the rise of a people with the work ethic, intellect and capacity to
be a truly global super power on the continent of Africa. They seek dignity
over inhumane treatment. They seek life over death.
“Friends of the black world must unite and liberate the people of Nigeria
from this bondage and from the claws of corrupt and inept politicians who
have no business being near the corridor of Nigeria’s political power.”80
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4. External links
5. Godfrey Mwakikagile, “Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era”, New Africa
Press, March 2010 (See Chapter Nine: Tanzania Recognizes Biafra)
6. Mallam Muhammadu Mustapha Maude Gyari, a member of
representatives in the regional legislature of Northern Nigeria in
February-March 1964 session emphasise their unwillingness to allocate
plots/stals to Igbos.
10.Godfrey Mwakikagile, “Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era”, New Africa
18.The preceding statement by President Julius Nyerere was issued by the
government of Tanzania on April 13, 1968, the day Tanzania recognized
Biafra. It was also published in the ruling party’s daily newspaper
(TANU).
19.See also Standard Newspaper in Tanzania.
20.Julius Nyerere, “Why We Recognized Biafra”, The Observer, London, 28
April, 1968.
25.In August 1953 at the constitutional conference talk held in London on
the future of Nigeria, Awolowo threatened to pull the Western Region out
of the Federation if Lagos was not incorporated into the Western Region.
26.See the 1953 Constitutional Conference talk in London.
28.George N. Ayittey, “Africa in Chaos (1997), USA: Palgrave
29.A Nigerian journalist Pini Jason quoted in Godfrey Mwakikagile,
“Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era”, New Africa Press, March 2010 (See
Chapter Nine: Tanzania Recognizes Biafra)
39. Brad Simpson, “The Biafran Secession and the Limits of Self-
Determination”, www.tandfonline.com. See also Werner Distler and
Julian Heise (2021), “Secessionist Conflicts: Unresolved Legacies of
United Nations Trusteeship, Journal of Intervention and States Building,
pp.1-20.
40.Brad Simpson, “The Biafran Secession and the Limits of Self-
pp.1-20.
pp.1-20.
pp.1-20.
43.Ibid., see also “The Secession of Katanga”, Global Security.org
44.Biafran leaders anchored their claims to legitimacy on a four-fold
argument defending their rights to self-determination.
45.On 30th of July 1968, France announced its support for Biafra
independence (though it did not officially recognize Biafra) suppilied
weapons and food.
49. Lasse Heerten, “The Dystopia of Postcolonial Catastrophe: Self-
Determination, the Biafran War of Secession, and the 1970’s Human
Rights Moment”, January 2014, www.researchgate.net.
50.Brad Simpson (2014), “The Biafran Secession and the Limits of Self-
Determination, Journal of Genocide Research, 16:2-3, 337-354.
53.Lasse Heerten, “The Dystopia of Postcolonial Catastrophe: Self-
54.Lasse Heerten, “The Dystopia of Postcolonial Catastrophe: Self-
55.The former French diplomat and Parliamentarian, Raymond Offroy in the
Bulletin of the Comite’ d’Action pour le Biafra, said that France has
always defended the peoples’ right to self-determination.
56.The US Secretary of States, William Rogers in 1969 while meeting with
French officials suggested that the US in principle supported self-
determination for Biafra but remarked that it was one with potentially
catastrophic implications for other multi-ethnic states. See also Brad
Simpson (2014).
57.Chibuike Uche, “Oil, British Interests and the Nigerian Civil War”, UK:
Cambridge University Press, onlinepublication, 23 April, 2008.
64.Charles L. Sulzberger quoted in Brad Simpson, op.cit.
65.Charles L. Sulzberger quoted in Brad Simpson, op.cit.
66.Brad Simpson (2014), op. cit
67.Ibid.
68.Ibid.
69.Patrick Egwu, “50 Years On, Biafra’s Pain Is Still Fresh”, FP Dispatch,
11 June, 2020.
11 June, 2020.
11 June, 2020.
11 June, 2020.
11 June, 2020.
74. Christopher Ejiofor, “Biafra’s Struggle for Survival – A Personal
Account of the War”, www.prlog.org, November 3, 2012.
75.Christopher Ejiofor, “Biafra’s Struggle for Survival – A Personal
76.Christopher Ejiofor, “Biafra’s Struggle for Survival – A Personal
77.In an interview with BBC Pidgin, Governor El-Rufai made some
clarifications why people should not perceive the clamping down on
Southern activists to be compared to terrorism in the north.(see John
Ogunsemore, “Comparing bandits to IPOB like comparing apples to
oranges – El-Rufai” The Herald, 11 July, 2021)
78.“Nnamdi Kanu: Malami, a disgrace to rule of law, says Madu, Canadian
Justice Minister”, Vanguard, 6 July, 2021.
Chapter 11: Genocide in Nigeria: Calling it What It Is

“Growth is painful, change is painful, but nothing is as painful as remaining enslaved” –
IPOB
“By means of your democracy, we shall invade you; by means of our religion, we shall
dominate you” – An Islamic Scholar stunned Christian audience
“Muhammadu Buhari is an agent of destabilization, ethnic bigot and religious fanatic

who, if given the chance would ensure the destabilization of the country. His
ethnocentricism would jeopardize Nigeria’s national unity” – Bola Ahmed Tinubu in
2003
There is an unfolding genocide sweeping across the Nigeria-state. 1 Examples of

tragic statistics show as follows:
 Since 2020: Boko Haram killed 43,000; Islamist Fulani killed 19,000.2
 Since June 2015: 12,000 Christians killed; 2000 Churches burnt down.3
 January – June 2020: Southern Kaduna 300 Christian massacred (this
figure is inferior to reality today).4
 May 2020: 350 Igbo Villages were Occupy by Fulani herders and
militias.5
In June 2020, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for International

Freedom of Religion or Belief in the Parliament of the United Kingdom
launched a report entitled “Nigeria – Unfolding Genocide?” which should be
have concern to Nigerians and of course the Federal Government. The report
concluded that there is an on-going genocide against Christians and minority
ethnic groups in Nigeria with lines like “The APPG’s inquiry found that
Nigerian Christians are experiencing devastating violence, with attacks by
armed groups of Islamist Fulani herders resulting in the killing, maiming,
dispossession and eviction of thousands.”6
To be clear, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) is a grouping in the

Parliament of the United Kingdom that is composed of members of parliament
from all political parties. The APPG for International Freedom of Religion or
Belief is therefore across political divides so the views they expressed cannot be
dismissed as being that of narrow interest. Its members are not riff-raff being
the representatives of the people, which mean they speak for their country and it
is, therefore, safe to attribute the views expressed in their report to their
country.7
2. Is Genocide Happening In Nigeria As The World Turns A Blind Eye?
The world has witnessed, in recent six years, two clear cases of genocide
atrocities. The first occurred in Syria and Iraq, perpetrated by Daesh against
religious minorities such as the Yazidis and Christians. Myanmar is another
place were genocide atrocities perpetrated by the Burmese military against the
Rohingya Muslims and other religious minorities. Yet, there are evolving
stations where mass atrocities may be occurring and that appear to be neglected.
One such example is in Nigeria.8
The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) opened a preliminary

examination into the situation in Nigeria on the 18 th of November, 2010. The
primary inquiry followed several communications received by the Office of the
Prosecutor (the OTP) which suggested that mass atrocities had occurred,
involving Boko Haram militants based in Nigeria. Having identified multiple
issues which require closer scrutiny, the OTP named six potential cases where
Boko Haram had committed crimes against humanity and two cases where such
crimes were committed by the Nigerian security forces. The six cases include
Boko Haram9
 targeting non-believers which resulted in several deaths;

 kidnappings, abductions, and imprisonment of civilians, as
associated with murder, torture and inhuman and degrading
treatment;
 attacks on schools, other buildings designated for education and
attacks against students and teachers;
 recruitment and use of child soldiers;
 attacks on women and girls;
 Intentional targeting of buildings designated for religious practices,
including churches and mosques.
Thousands have been affected by the litany of mass atrocities perpetrated by

Boko Haram. However, among the staggering statistics, the fates of those
suffering are lost. The fate of people like Leah Sharibu gets lost among the
suffering of thousands of people.
A 15-year-old Nigerian girl, Leah Sharibu was one of the 110 schoolgirls
abducted by Boko Haram from their school in Dapchi, Nigeria, in February
2018. Boko Haram refused to let Leah go despite the fact that most of the girls
have now been released. According to one of the other girls, Leah declined to
renounce her Christian faith. This is the reason Boko Haram continues to
enslave her. Attacking women and girls is a signature tactic of Boko Haram.
Women and girls were subjected to physical and mental abuse, rape and sexual
violence, forced labour and much more by the Boko Haram. Among the
atrocities of Boko Haram were those of a religious nature which are significant
too and cannot be neglected.10
Nonetheless, the atrocities perpetrated by Boko Haram are not the only mass
atrocities in Nigeria that require urgent attention.
It would be recalled that on the 15 th of June, 2020, the U.K. All-Party

Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief (APPG), a
cross-party group of parliamentarians representing both houses of the U.K.
Parliament, released a report about the mass atrocities perpetrated in Nigeria by
the Fulani militia. As the report “Nigeria: Unfolding Genocide?” notes:
“The exact death toll is unknown. However, thousands of civilians are thought to
have been killed in attacks led by Fulani herders and periodic retaliatory violence.
Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust report that over 1,000 Christians were killed between
January-November 2019, “in addition to the estimated 6,000+ deaths since 2015.”11
According to an estimate made by Amnesty International between January 2016

and October 2018 “at least 3,641 people may have been killed, 406 injured
[and] 5,000 houses burnt down. Local groups, such as the Christian Association
of Nigeria, report higher figures: between January and June 2018, over 6,000
people were killed by Fulani herders.”12
Fulani militia continue to perpetrate mass atrocities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt.

Their crimes continue to go unreported. This is why earlier this year, Lord
Alton of Liverpool, Baroness Cox, Fiona Bruce MP and many other British
Parliamentarians wrote to the ICC sending further evidence of the atrocities for
the OTP’s consideration. At this stage it is not clear whether the cases will be
considered by the ICC. However, it is clear that the Nigerian Government will
not address the crime adequately or at all. Indeed, according to a statement by
President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesperson, Garba Shehu, the “false
allegations of persecution of Christians” are “a most misleading campaign.” If
the Nigerian Government is blind to the issue of religious persecution in the
country, it is clear that the issue will not be addressed. However, the
international community cannot be blind to the reports of atrocities and must
ask important questions. How will the Nigerian Government explain the mass
killings in Nigeria as recorded by several international organizations? What are
the Nigerian Government doing to ensure that the acts are investigated and the
perpetrators prosecuted? 13
There are several steps that need to be taken to address the atrocities and the
APPG’s report maps these, including comprehensive investigations and
prosecutions. However, the comprehensive response will not happen until we
recognize, once and for all, the nature and severity of the atrocities. The crimes
must be recognized for what they are and “a most misleading campaign” is not
that name.14
In terms of lives lost, families separated, people imprisoned, and churches shut
down, the 21st century has, so far, been the worst period of persecution against
Christians in recorded history. Among the hottest persecution hot-spots is
Nigeria. According to religious freedom watchdog Open Doors USA, Nigeria
ranks at #12 worldwide for persecution of Christians.15
Islamic terrorist organization Boko Haram is the known villain in Nigeria, and
justifiably so. They are among the most brutal Islamist radical terror groups in
the world. Just last week, attacks in northeaster Nigeria by a Boko Haram
splinter-group left dozens of soldiers and civilians dead. Back in January, the
group beheaded Nigerian pastor Lawan Andimi. Kidnapped from his village
and forced to negotiate for his release with the government, Andimi wouldn’t
break. Instead, he turned his hostage video into a stunning testimony to Christ.16
Though Boko Haram is indeed gratuitously offensive and evil but much of the
recent bloodshed in Nigeria has been perpetrated by militant Hausa-Fulani
herdsmen. This exclusively composed Muslim ethnic group specializes in night
raids on Christian villages in Nigeria’s Middle Belt. In June 2019, Nigerian
Christian leaders claimed that “over 6,000 persons—mostly children, women
and the aged—[have been] maimed and killed in night raids by armed Fulani
herdsmen.” They also described the “continuous abduction of under-aged
Christian girls by Muslim youths” for forced marriages.17
Nigeria ranks one of the worst nations in the world when it comes to Christian
persecution on Open Doors USA's 2020 World Watch List. Accordingly, the
Chief Executive Officer of Open Doors USA, David Curry, has warned during a
press event that the rise of Islamic extremism in Nigeria is spilling over into
Cameroon and Burkina Faso.18 (https://www.christiantoday.com/newsletter
The U.S. State Department added Nigeria for the first time to its "special watch
list" of countries that tolerate severe religious freedom violations in December,
2019.
A U.S. Ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom, Sam

Brownback told reporters at the time:
"We are designating [Nigeria] special watch list for the first time because of all of the
increasing violence and communal activity and the lack of effective government
response and the lack of judicial cases being brought forward in that country,"
"It is a dangerous situation in too many parts of Nigeria. The government has either
not been willing to or have been ineffective in their response and the violence
continues to grow." 19
Several human rights and religious freedom activists are calling on U.S.
President Donald Trump to appoint a special envoy to monitor the situation in
Nigeria and the Lake Chad Region.
In January, 2020 following the beheading of Rev. Lawan Andimi at the hands
of Boko Haram, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) issued sharp words of
criticism for the Nigerian federal government due to its inability (or rather
unwillingness) to thwart attacks and abductions carried out against Christians by
Boko Haram and the Islamic State's West Africa Province in Nigeria's
northeast.
“Andimi, a Church of the Brethren pastor and chairman of CAN's chapter in the
Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa State, was abducted by alleged Boko
Haram militants in early January.
Days later he appeared in a ransom video pleading with church and government
leaders to secure his release. However, the pastor was said to have been executed
because the underserved Christian community could not raise enough funds to meet
the ransom demands of his captors. Additionally, sources say that Andimi refused to
renounce his faith in Christ.”20
According to Open Doors, these attacks are essentially “religious cleansing,”

attempts “to eradicate Christianity” from the region. According to Nigerian
Christians, the more appropriate word is genocide.21
The term fits.

The term “Genocide” has been carefully defined by the International
Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, and the word
should not be tossed around carelessly. Genocide is action intended to destroy
in whole or in part “a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.”22
Clearly, genocide is what Boko Haram and the Fulani herdsman are after in
Nigeria. Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari, however, denies this. In a
recently issued statement, he insisted that “false allegations of persecution of
Christians” are “a most misleading campaign.” President Buhari, by the way, is
the son of a Fulani chief.
Some voices in the international arena are taking the plight of Nigerian
Christians seriously. The U.K. Parliament released a report putting the G-word
front and centre. Entitled, “Nigeria: Unfolding Genocide?” the report issues a
stirring call to Britain and the world “to speak out on behalf of all the survivors
and victims of violence,” and “to highlight the seriousness of the situation and
the level of injustice that Nigerian Christians face.”23
Describing the report in Forbes (and by the way, good for Forbes for covering
this story), one human rights activist called for “comprehensive investigations
and prosecutions” by bodies like the International Criminal Court. But, she
insisted, the first step has to be that the world admits “the nature and severity of
the atrocities. The crimes must be recognized for what they are and ‘a most
misleading campaign’ is not that name.”24
The U.S. must lead the way. Earlier in his administration President Trump
issued an Executive Order which made religious freedom a foreign policy and
national security priority. It’s now time to make act on those words. Nigerian
Christians can’t afford to wait much longer.
Besides calling this crisis what it is – genocide, the U.S. could ease the process
for asylum-seekers and immigrants from Nigeria. Nigeria was among the six
countries President Trump added to the travel and immigration ban in February,
2020 and, currently, Nigerian refugees hoping to flee to the United States must
prove their need by submitting an exhaustive stack of paperwork. Those in
danger should not have to go to so much trouble to demonstrate what the world
should already know.
3. Is Genocide against Christians Silently Unfolding in Nigeria?

Kester Kenn Klomegah in his “A Genocide against Christians is Silently
Unfolding in Nigeria” published in August 28, 2020 said that the International
Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, – a Nigerian-based non-
governmental organization that monitors human rights violations and advocates
for peace and integrated society, – has asked the United Nations (UN), the
Commonwealth Secretary General, the African Union (AU) and Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and other international
organizations to step up efforts to address rising armed attacks mostly on
civilians in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.24
Kester made reference to the latest letter, a copy made available to Modern
Diplomacy, titled “Calling For Urgent International Intervention To Stop State
Protected Fulani & Other Jihadists From Wiping Out Christians In Nigeria” and
was addressed to H.E. (Mr.) Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United
Nations, Rt. Hon (Madam) Patricia Scotland, QC Secretary General of
Commonwealth, H.E. (Ms) Fatou Bensouda, Chief Prosecutor of the Int’l
Criminal Court Office of the Prosecutor, ICC Headquarters, among others.25
It said in part: “We, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of
Law, are a federally registered human rights group in Nigeria, formed in 2008
with thematic mandate of campaigning for promotion and advancement of
democracy and accountable governance, civil liberties and rule of law and
public security and safety”.26
However, since 2010 Intersociety has followed, monitored (including patterns

and trends of anti-Christian butcheries), researched, investigated, documented
and published or exposed inter faith and intra faith intolerance and violence
including massacre of Christians by Jihadists in Nigeria or any part thereof and
persecution of Shiite Muslims by Sunni Muslim political and security actors.27
Whether in principle or in practice, Intersociety however strongly opposes the

use of violence for religious propaganda and adoption of any particular religion
as a state religion by any sitting Government or its security and law
enforcement agencies.
In its latest letter, a copy made available to Modern Diplomacy, titled “Calling
For Urgent International Intervention To Stop State Protected Fulani & Other
Jihadists From Wiping Out Christians In Nigeria” and was addressed to His
Excellency (Mr.) Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations,
Rt. Hon (Madam) Patricia Scotland, QC Secretary General of Commonwealth,
His Excellency (Ms) Fatou Bensouda, Chief Prosecutor of the Int’l Criminal
Court Office of the Prosecutor, ICC Headquarters, among others, Intersociety
said:28
 That Christians are at high risk of being wiped out by state protected
Islamic Jihadists, especially the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen, parented by
three major Fulani associations (Miyatti Allah, FUNAM and Fulani
Houta lHore), all recognized and registered till date by the present central
Government of Nigeria. Other jihadist groups massacring Christians in
Nigeria are: Boko Haram, ISWAP, Ansaru and Jihadist “Bandits”. Of the
named Jihadist groups, Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen enjoy full state cover
and protection and are also independently found dominating other jihadist
groups.30
 That from January to July 2020, Jihadist Herdsmen have been responsible
for no fewer than 1,027 Christian deaths and destruction or burning of
thousands of houses and hundreds of worship and learning centres
belonging to Christians. All their victims since 2015 and before then are
Christians. The Jihadist group is further responsible for over 15,000
Christian deaths and destruction or burning of at least 1,500 churches and
Christian learning centres in Nigeria since 2009.31
 That combined with anti-Christian killings by other Jihadists including
Boko Haram, ISWAP, Ansaru and Jihadist “Bandits”, over 32,000
Christian lives and more than 17,000 churches and Christian schools have
been lost since July 2009. Owing to the inaction and strongly suspected
conspiratorial role of the present central Government of Nigeria since
mid-2015, the number of Jihadist groups in Nigeria has also increased
dangerously and uncontrollably from three (BH, Ansaru and Herdsmen)
in mid-2015 to not less than 20 including splinter and autonomous
jihadist groups.32
 That this is to the extent that they now operate, kill, maim, torture, rape,
massacre and convert Christians and loot, plunder, burn and destroy their
churches and other properties at will; with Nigeria’s central Government
and its security forces looking the other side or doing little or nothing.33
 That specifically, Your Excellences’, a total of1,421 Christians have been
hacked to death by Nigeria’s Jihadists in Jan-July 2020; a period of seven
months. The breakdown of the massacre carefully monitored by
Intersociety, shows that Jihadist Herdsmen accounted for 1,027 Christian
deaths, Boko Haram and Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP)
310 Christian deaths and Jihadist Ansaru and Jihadist “Bandits” over 60
Christian deaths. Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen also accounted for over 9,000
Christian deaths since mid-2015 when the present Government of Nigeria
came on board.34
 That in Southern Kaduna alone, 683 Christian lives have been lost to
Jihadist Herdsmen in the past 570 days or 19 months (1st Jan 2019-31st
July 2020). Not less than 363 Christian lives were also lost to Fulani
Jihadists in the past seven years or 1st Jan-31st July 2020 and in July
2020, alone, no fewer than 175 Christians were butchered by the same
Jihadist group in the State.35
 For more details, Your Excellences’, please access the follow links
concerning the on-going butchering of Christians in Nigeria and strongly
suspected complicity of the present central Government of Nigeria and
some State Governments in the troubled areas including the present
Government of Kaduna State.36
o Our latest report, dated 3rd August 2020: 1,421 Christians Hacked
To Death By Nigeria’s Jihadists In Jan-July 2020:
o Our updated Statistical Data File backing our recent reports on
massacre of Christians in Nigeria, updated on 3rd August
2020:http://intersocieng.org/phocadownload/2019/file
%20containing%20statistical%20sources2-converted%20new.pdf
o Our recent statement, exposing eight major indicators vicariously
and directly linking the present central Government of Nigeria to
Fulani & BH Jihadist in the country, dated 31st July
2020:http://intersociety-ng.org/component/k2/item/558-eight-
major-indicators-vicariously-linking-the-present-government-of-
nigeria-to-herdsmen–bh-jihadism
o Our recent letter to Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police urging
the NPF to intervene and end ceaseless massacre of Christians in
Southern Kaduna, dated 22nd July 2020: http://intersociety-
ng.org/component/k2/item/557-killing-of-300-christians-in-200-
days-of-2020-1st-jan-20th-july-2020-in-southern-kaduna
o Our updated version of the periodically reviewed reports on
massacre of Christians in Nigeria, released on 12th July and
updated on 24th July 2020 (1,202 Nigeria’s Christians Hacked to
Death by Jihadists in Jan-June 2020): http://intersociety-
ng.org/component/k2/item/556-nigeria
 Our writing, Your Excellences’ is in recognition of Your Excellences’’
respective international mandates for promotion and sustenance of global
peace, security and stability. Going by enormous powers and
responsibilities at Your Excellences’’ disposal, it will be gravely
calamitous to sit and watch by and allow Nigeria, a country of multi-
ethnicity and religions with explosive population of over 200m people; to
explode into ‘complex humanitarian emergencies’; incapable of being
managed if allowed to explode.37
 To UN Secretary General: We therefore urge the Secretary General of
UN, H.E., and Antonio Guterres, to consider the situation in Nigeria as
dicey and a time-bomb and adopt effective measures to reverse same.
These include investigating the massacre of Christians in Nigeria by the
country’s Jihadists and the role of the present Government of Nigeria as
well as doing the needful by briefing the UN Security Council and
recommending to same to act without further delays. Totality of these is
in line with the Principles and Purposes of the United Nations including
international peace and security. The situation in Nigeria is a serious
threat to international peace and security under the UN’s Principles and
Purposes.38
 To Commonwealth Secretary General: We urge the Secretary General of
the Commonwealth, Rt. Hon Patricia Scotland, QC, to act by
investigating the state actor and non-state actor roles in the Nigeria’s anti-
Christian butcheries. The Secretary General is reminded about the Harare
Commonwealth Declaration (1991) which affirmed that human rights are
among the fundamental political values of the Commonwealth. … The
Commonwealth Charter, agreed to by the Commonwealth’s Heads of
Government in 2012 also underscores the commitment of Member States
to Commonwealth principles and values inclusive of human rights.
Nigeria, as a key member of Commonwealth, must not be allowed to
transform into and exist as a jungle.39
 To the ICC’s Chief Prosecutor: We urge the Chief Prosecutor of ICC,
H.E. (Ms) Fatou Bensouda to break its long years of silence and inaction
regarding the on-going butcheries in Nigeria. The delays by the ICC to do
the needful in Nigeria since 2010 when it “opened its investigations on
Nigeria” are technically responsible for the loss of over 32, 000
Christians and 17,000 churches and Christian schools and tens of
thousands of Christian houses and hectares of their ancestral lands.40
 Such delays are also technically responsible for the massacre of
thousands of Muslims by fellow Muslim radicals including victims of
Jihadist Banditry attacks and state actor massacre of over 1300 Shiite
Muslims and over 480 Judeo-Christians dominated by Igbo citizens. In
line with the plain wording and language of the ICC Statute of 1998,
ratified by Nigeria in Sept 2001, “crimes against humanity including
massacre of Christians; war crimes and genocide (including anti-Christian
butcheries) have been committed in ‘industrial scale’ in Nigeria by state
actors and non-state actors and are still on-going”. We, therefore, urge the
ICC to act immediately.41
However, it is important to state that these claims largely verified and verifiable
have been challenged by some vested interests.
4. History of Igbo Massacre (City/Town and Year)43
1. Jos 1945
2. Kano genocide 1953
3. 1966 pogroms- over 60,000 civilians were killed
4. May 29th 1967- over 200,000 civilians were killed.
5. 1967-70 – over 3, 100,000 killed during the bloody civil war (including
the Asaba Genocide).
6. Kano 1980
7. Maiduguri 1982
8. Jimeta 1984
9. Gombe 1985
10.Zaria 1987
11.Kaduna & Kafanchan 1991
12.Bauchi & Katsina 1991
13.Kano 1991
14.Zangon-Kataf 1992
15.Funtua 1993
16.Kano 1994
17.Kaduna 2000
18.Kaduna 2001
19.Maiduguri 2001
20.Jos Maiden Crisis-Setember 2001
21.Kaduna 2002
22.Jos-November 2008
23.Beheading of Gideon Akaluka in December of 1996 in a POLICE
STATION in Kano
24.Saint Moritz killed December 2001
25.Post April 2011 Presidential Election: 10 youth-corps men & women and
numerous citizens murdered because a Christian Southerner was elected.
26.Jos Christmas Eve 2010
27.Madalla Christmas day 2011
28.Mubi January 6 2012
The many Igbo deaths were caused by Boko Haram (which of course has the
full backing of the northern elites).
And the list goes on. By the time you read this more would have died. The
situation is getting out of hand and the Nigerian government has shown that it
lacks the will and the capability to protect the life and property of Igbos in
Nigeria, and those of other Nigerians.
The killings must stop. If you are Igbo and you are still playing the ostrich, it
could be you tomorrow, me, or your loved ones.
5. The Biafra Genocide and Its Aftermath: The tragedy of Africa’s

Unlearned Lessons
A Biafra-born, world-class historian – Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe, wrote in his

books, “Biafra Revisited” and “Readings from Reading: Essays on African
Politics, Genocide, Literature” about how the perpetrators, of what were
unquestionably crimes against humanity appear to have got off free. From all
appearances, the consequences of the Igbo genocide for Africa have been
catastrophic.
Hardly had the world honoured the memory of the 21 st anniversary of the
liberation of Auschwitz and made the customary solemn declaration of
‘Never, Never Again’ in 1966 than Nigeria desecrate that season of
reflection, sympathy and hope. The Igbo (Biafra) genocide – otherwise
perceived as the foundational genocide of post-(European) conquest of
Africa – was planned and executed by Nigerian military officers, the police,
Hausa-Fulani emirs, Muslim clerics and intellectuals, civil servants,
journalists, politicians and other public.44 This also doubles as Africa’s most
devastating genocide of the 20th century where at least some 3.1 million Igbo
people, a quarter of this nation’s population at the time, were murdered
between 29 May 1966 and 12 January 1970.
As this wanton destruction of human lives, raping, sacking and plundering of

towns, villages, and sacking of community after community in Biafra and
elsewhere were going on, most African countries and the world stood by
almost nonchalantly and watched, hardly critical or condemnatory of the
carnage and crimes against humanity being perpetrated against the Igbos
(Biafrans). As Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe chronicled in his books, “Biafra
Revisited” and “Readings from Reading: Essays on African Politics,
Genocide, and Literature”:
“Most Igbo were slaughtered in their homes, offices, businesses, schools, colleges,
hospitals, markets, churches, shrines, farmlands, factories/industrial enterprises,
children’s playground, town halls, refugee centres, cars, lorries, and at bus stations,
railway stations, airports and on buses, trains and planes and on foot, or starved to
death – the openly propagated regime-‘weapon’ to achieve its heinous goal more
speedily. In the end, the Igbo genocide was enforced, devastatingly, by Nigeria’s
simultaneously pursued land, aerial and naval blockade and bombardment of Igbo
land, Africa’s highest population density region outside the Nile Delta. Earlier on in
1945 and 1953, under the very watch of British occupation, the Hausa-Fulani
political leadership had carried out two premeditated pogroms on Igbo immigrant
populations in Jos and Kano in opposition to the Igbo vanguard role in the struggle
for the restoration of Nigerian independence from British conquest. Hundreds of Igbo
were murdered on each occasion and tens of thousands of pounds sterling worth of
their property looted or destroyed. Neither in Kano nor Jos did the occupation regime
apprehend or prosecute anyone for these massacres and destruction. Tragically,
these pogroms turned out as ‘dress rehearsals’ for the 1966-1970 genocide.”45
Unfortunately and regrettably too, Africa and the world have refused to
demand accountability from the perpetrators of these heinous crimes –
clearly crimes against humanity and many of these criminals have
subsequently seized and pillaged the rich Nigeria economy and brought the
country on its knees. The consequences for these crimes for Africa have
been catastrophic. Several regimes elsewhere in Africa appear to have been
emboldened and ‘convinced’ of the conclusions that they have drawn from
this crime by their Nigerian counterpart:
“We can murder targeted constituent people(s) at will within the state we control …
Haul off their prized property and livelihood … Comprehensively destroy their cities,
towns, villages, communities – precisely their age long, priceless, inheritance ...
There will be no sanctions from Africa – and the world”.46
Consequently, as Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe puts it, “the Igbo genocide becomes
the clearing site for the haunting killing fields that would snake across the
African geographical landscape in the subsequent 40 years, with the murders
of additional 12 million Africans, since January 1970, by regimes in further
genocide in Rwanda, Darfur and Zaïre/Democratic Republic of Congo and
other killings in Liberia, Ethiopia, Congo Republic, Somalia, Uganda, Sierra
Leone, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Chad, South Sudan and Burundi.” 56
Ekwe-Ekwe went further to reveal the reason behind the genocide:

“The records of those who carried out the Igbo genocide make no pretences, offer no
excuses, whatsoever, about the goal of their dreadful mission – such was the
maniacal insouciance and rabid Igbo phobia that propelled the project. The principal
language used in the prosecution of the genocide was Hausa. The words of the
ghoulish anthem of the genocide, published and broadcast on Kaduna radio and
television throughout the duration of the crime, are in Hausa:
‘Mu je mu kashe nyamiri
Mu kashe maza su da yan maza su
Mu chi mata su da yan mata su
Mu kwashe kaya su
(English translation: Let’s go kill the damned Igbo/Kill off their men and boys/Rape
their wives and daughters/Cart off their property).”47
Elsewhere, genocides’ documentation on this crime is equally malevolent

and brazenly vulgar. A study of the genocide-time/‘post’-genocide era
interviews, comments, broadcasts and writings on the campaign by key
genocides’ commanders, commandants and ‘theorists’ and propagandists
including, particularly, Yakubu Danjuma, Ibrahim Haruna, Yakubu Gowon,
Benjamin Adekunle, Olusegun Obasanjo, Oluwole Rotimi, Obafemi
Awolowo, Allison Ayida and Anthony Enaharo is at once revealing and
profoundly troubling.
As rightly reported by Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe, Adekunle, a notoriously

gruesome commander, had no qualms; indeed, and in boasting about the goal
of this horrendous mission he told an August 1968 press conference,
attended by journalists including those from the international media:
“We shoot at everything that moves, and when our forces march into the centre of I
[g">Bo territory, we shoot at everything, even at things that do not move”48.
With clinical precision, Adekunle duly carried through his threat both on his
‘everything that moves’-targeting, especially in south Igboland where his
forces slaughtered hundreds of thousands, and on the ‘things that do not
move’-assault category. Indeed, Adekunle’s gratuitous destruction of the
famed Igbo economic infrastructure, one of the most advanced in Africa of
the era, was indescribably barbaric.
In his memoirs titled, “My Command”, General Olusegun Obasanjo made a

brief review of his contribution that focuses on his May 1969 direct orders to
his air force to destroy an international Red Cross aircraft carrying relief
supplies to the encircled and blockaded Igbo is crucially appropriate.
Obasanjo had ‘challenged’, 49 to quote his words, Captain Gbadomosi King
(genocidist air force pilot), who he had known since 1966, to ‘produce
results’ in stopping further international relief flight deliveries to the Igbo. 50
Within a week of his infamous challenge, 5 June 1969, Obasanjo recalls
nostalgically, Gbadomosi King ‘redeemed his promise’. 51 Gbadomosi King
had shot down a clearly marked, incoming relief-bearing International
Committee of the Red Cross DC-7 plane near Eket, south Biafra, with the
loss of its three-person crew. Obasanjo’s perverse satisfaction over the
aftermath of this horrendous crime is fiendish, chillingly revolting.
According to Obasanjo:
“The effect of [this"> singular achievement of the Air Force especially on 3 Marine
Commando Division [the notorious unit Obasanjo, who later became Nigeria’s head
of regime for 11 years, commanded"> was profound. It raised morale of all service
personnel, especially of the Air Force detachment concerned and the troops they
supported in [my"> 3 Marine Commando Division”. 52
Yet, as Ekwe-Ekwe writes, despite the huffing and puffing, the raving
commanding brute is essentially a coward who lacks the courage to face up
to a world totally outraged by his gruesome crime. Instead, Obasanjo, the
quintessential Caliban, cringes into a stupor and beacons to his Prospero,
British Prime Minister Harold Wilson (as he, Obansanjo, indeed
unashamedly acknowledges in his My Command), 53 to ‘sort out’ the raging
international outcry generated by the destruction of the ICRC plane...
 What ‘Internal Affairs’? Whose’ ‘Internal Affairs’?

There was an extensive coverage of the Igbo genocide in the international
media throughout its duration. The United Nations though never condemned
this atrocity unequivocally. U Thant, its secretary-general, consistently
maintained that it was a ‘Nigerian internal affair’. And, according to Ekwe-
Ekwe,
“The United Nations could have stopped this genocide; the United Nations should
have stopped this genocide instead of protecting the interests of the Nigeria state, the
very perpetrator of the crime. In the wake of the Jewish genocide of the 1930s-1940s
during which 6 million Jews were murdered by Nazi Germany, Africa was, with
hindsight, most cruelly unlucky to have been the ‘testing ground’ for the presumed
global community’s resolve to fight genocide subsequently, particularly after the
1948 historic United Nations declaration on this crime against humanity.” 54
He went further to acknowledge:

“Only a few would have failed to note that U Thant’s reference to ‘internal’ was
staggeringly disingenuous as genocide, as was demonstrated devastatingly 20-30
years earlier on in Europe, would of course occur within some territoriality
(‘internal’) where the perpetrator exercises a permanent or limited/partial/temporary
socio-political control (cf. Nazi Germany and its programme to destroy its Jewish
population within Germany itself; Nazi Germany and its programme to destroy
Jewish populations within those countries in Europe under its occupation from 1939
and 1945). Between 1966 and 2006, the world would witness genocide carried out
against the Igbo, the Tutsi/some Hutu, and Darfur in ‘internal’ spaces that go by the
names Nigeria, Rwanda, and the Sudan respectively. The contours of the territory
where genocide is executed do not therefore make the perpetrators less culpable nor
the crime permissible as the United Nations’s crucial 1948 genocide declaration
states unambiguously”.55
It is the belief of many that

 “… the very central role played by Britain in support of the Igbo genocide no doubt
reinforced the scandalous failure of the United Nations to protect Igbo people during
this catastrophe. Britain, a fully-fledged member of the United Nations – indeed a
founding member of the organisation who enjoys a permanent seat on its security
council and participated in drafting the anti-genocide declaration – supported the
Igbo genocide militarily, politically and diplomatically. It is extraordinary that in his
otherwise informative study, ‘Crimes Against Humanity: The Struggle for Global
Justice’ (London: Penguin Books, 2006), Geoffrey Robertson, a British human rights
lawyer, a queen’s counsel, does not discuss the Igbo genocide anywhere in his 759-
page text nor Britain’s instrumental role in perpetrating this foundational genocide of
post-(European) conquest Africa.” 56
Britain was said to have been deeply riled by the Igbo lead role in terminating
its occupation of Nigeria and had since sought to ‘punish’ them for this. A
senior British foreign office official was adamant that his government’s position
on international relief supply effort to the encircled and bombarded Igbo was to
‘show conspicuous zeal in relief while in fact letting the little buggers starve
out’.57 Indeed as the slaughtering of the Igbo progressively worsened, Prime
Minister Wilson was unashamedly unfazed when he informed Clyde Ferguson
(United States State Department special coordinator for relief to Biafra) that he,
Harold Wilson, ‘would accept a half million dead Biafra’s if that was what it
took’ Nigeria to destroy the Igbo resistance to the genocide. Such was the
grotesquely expressed diminution of African life made by a supposedly leading
politician of the world of the 1960s – barely 20 years after the deplorable
perpetration of the Jewish genocide. As the final tally of its murder of the Igbo
demonstrates, Nigeria probably had the perverted satisfaction of having
performed far in excess of Wilson’s grim target… Predictably, it was to Wilson
that the Nigerians turned to, in 1969, to ‘sort out’ the international revulsion
generated by the latter’s destruction of the ICRC aircraft as we have already
stated.58
 Arms Ban
Without British active involvement in the perpetration of the Igbo genocide, it
was highly unlikely that this crime would have been committed. Nigeria did not
have an arms-manufacturing capacity then to embark on this terror without
external support. Forty-five years on, Nigeria still does not have such an internal
military capability. It still relies heavily on Britain, currently the world’s leading
arms exporter to Africa, for its supplies. 59 One immediate move that Britain,
the West, and the rest of the world can make to support the on-going efforts by
peoples in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa to rid themselves of the genocide-
state is to ban all arms sales to Nigeria and the rest of Africa. 60 Nigeria and other
Africa genocide-states require the political and diplomatic support from abroad
and the deadly array of arms ever streaming into their arsenal from Britain and
elsewhere to exist and terrorise the people(s) in their territories. This is part of
the cardinal and enduring lessons of the Igbo genocide. The legacy has indeed
been catastrophic.
I agree with Ekwe-Ekwe’s submission that comprehensive arms ban on Africa

will radically advance the current hectic quest on the ground by peoples across
the continent to construct democratic and extensively decentralised new state
forms that guarantee and safeguard human rights, equality and freedom for
individuals and peoples – alternatives to the extant genocide-state. Africans
know very well that there are alternatives to the genocide-state. They have both
the vision and the capacity to create these alternatives. For Africans, indeed, the
creation of these alternatives is imperative in this age of pestilence. Nothing
else! 61
6. The New and Emerging Genocide against the Indigenous People of

Biafra
 Background Studies:
Libya, Syria and Afghanistan were reported as the deadliest places on earth.
And, according to global medical and security specialists, International SOS has
projected that these places would retain the record by the end of 2021.62
The United Nations, in April 2021, reported that extremist attacks in

Afghanistan caused close to 1,800 casualties, including 573 deaths, a 29 per
cent increase with the same period in 2020. Syria, Libya and Yemen, too, are
also haunted by a legacy of sectarian violence that appears to have exhausted
the world’s care and attention.63
Race to the bottom
For over a decade Nigeria has been struggling with insecurity. Against
reasonable expectations six years ago when President Muhammadu Buhari was
voted in, things have deteriorated.
Evidently, the picture is changing dramatically since Buhari assumed leadership

in Nigeria, especially in the last six months (January – June 2021). With nearly
four times the populations of Syria, Libya and Yemen combined Nigeria
appears to have joined the race to the bottom. Indeed, events since January
could force a reassessment of the global insecurity map, with Africa’s most
populous country firmly in contention for the bloodiest title.64
According to the Council on Foreign Relations between February and June

2021, 3,915 persons have been killed in violent attacks across Nigeria mostly by
the Fulani terrorists otherwise baptised as “herder-farmer clashes” and what,
quite frankly, now appears to be killing for sport. Staggering casualties have
been recorded in Northern states of Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger, Borno,
Yobe, Zamfara and Benue.
No part of the country has been spared. While a common thread of insecurity runs
through, each of the three main regions appears to have its own peculiar franchise:
banditry, farmer-herder clashes and kidnapping for ransom in the North; kidnapping
and deadly herder-farmer clashes in the South West; and in the South East, random
killings and systematic attacks on police stations, personnel and state institutions,
including courts and electoral commission offices. 65
The situation in the South East, also the hotbed of resurgent separatist agitations
in the last few years, has deteriorated so sharply that the five states in the
region, home to Nigeria’s third largest ethnic nationality, have virtually become
a war zone.
Recently, a former presidential adviser and Northern politician, Ahmed Gulak,

who was visiting the East, was murdered in daylight, raising ethnic tensions.
The murder has also lengthened the list of unresolved violent murders in a
region where at least 127 police and security personnel have so far been killed
this year (and counting) and extra-judicial killings of innocent civilians have
become rampant.
Two states, Imo and Anambra (the most populous states in the region), have
witnessed, is witnessing the most brazen and extraordinary assaults by
“unknown gunmen”, the latest official description for violent criminals who
have overwhelmed the security forces for whatever perceived wrongs they want
to avenge. The dangerous anti-North rhetoric by the Indigenous People of
Biafra, IPOB, has indeed inflamed passions and appears to have inspired the
brutal murders of innocent residents from the North.66
Even indigenes have not been spared.

One widely circulated and verified video last week showed gunmen in Enugu State
dragging a man out of his car in daylight at a road junction in the city centre. They
gunned him down with automatic weapons and then casually drove off.
The man, whose life was so casually and bestially taken, was a retired judge of the
Enugu High Court, Justice Stanley Nnaji. The “unknown gunmen” are still at large
and still unknown.67
Heart of the matter
According to Conversation with Azu, a cross-section of the elite in the region

has blamed the rising violence on three major factors: 68 (a) the ascendancy of
illegitimate politicians installed by hook and crook; (b) the tone-deafness of
Buhari’s administration and his politics of spite and, (c) the irresponsible
conduct of leaders from the region, who have mismanaged the resourcefulness
and energy of the teeming youths.
It’s difficult to say which factor has been the most telling. When the leadership
of the political parties, especially the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC,
was selling party positions to the highest bidders before the last general
elections, most sensible people feared there would be consequences but didn’t
know when or how.
The cohorts bought party tickets and wherever they could not buy votes during
the election, bullied or suborned their way to office. Now the fruit of their
corrupt harvest is keeping the region’s teeth on edge. Also, the boys used as
electoral fodder by politicians have not only become men, they have become
monsters.
“Buhari’s tone-deafness and insensitivity have not helped matters. He has
mismanaged the country’s ethnic diversity so badly that however loudly other
nationalities may complain, none has been treated as shabbily, unfairly and
disdainfully as the Igbo.
It’s been argued in some quarters that the Igbo have no reason to complain because
Nigeria gave them extraordinary opportunities before the civil war. That’s nonsense.
The Igbo earned what they got before the war on merit and bona fides. After the war,
they fought to re-establish themselves by the straps of their own shoes. They are not
asking for quota or preferential treatment, but justice and equity.”69
And so, when the President insists that he has nothing against Igbos and invokes
his government’s infrastructure record as witness, yet unbeknown to him, what
he does by soft power – like passing over the Igbo man who is the next most
qualified general after the death of the former army chief or his recent tweet,
which evokes unpleasant memories of the civil war, or referring to an
indigenous people as a dot in a circle – makes it difficult to believe him.70
Worse still, Buhari does not seem to make a distinction between the so-called
“separationists” and their sympathisers on the one hand, and on the other, South
Easterners genuinely alarmed and repulsed by the mayhem being unleashed on
the region.
The so-called elites in the region have not helped matters. They have been
driven into silence and have been increasingly viewed and suspected to be
willing tools in the hands of their political masters in the north. Virtually all the
leaders of the region, rightly or wrongly, have been tagged Caliphate-compliant,
only doing the biddings of their political god-fathers just to remain relevant and
be allowed to rule.
“They have preyed on the youth with their politics of opportunism and mismanaged
the legacy of enterprise and industry inherited from their past. They have squandered
state resources on a scale that defies belief. Perhaps the icon of this madness was
former Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State who built a statue to every known
god of profligacy.”71
Nnamdi Kanu has only cynically exploited the catastrophic gaps in the failure of
leadership at the national and state levels.
 The Unfolding Genocide:
The Elder disclosed that so far, over 5,000 Igbo youths have been killed in the
South East, while more than 10,000 others are languishing in horrible detention
camps in different parts of Nigeria under questionable circumstances. Yet, none
of the victims was a member of IPOB and ESN.72
The Elders alleged that non Igbos are fuelling the crisis in the region so they
could destabilize the region and make Nigerians and the world believe that the
region is not in peace and won’t be able to produce the next President in 2023.
At a press conference in Abuja, Chukwuemeka Ezeife registered the concerns of

the Igbo Elders while calling for immediate halt of military operations in the
region which unfortunately have led to several deaths and displacement.
According to him:
“The current military onslaught against the Igbos will not bring the much needed
peace and stability in the South East in particular and Nigeria in general. Rather,
dialogue, consultations, conferences , respect for one another, rule of law and
fundamental human rights, democracy, accountability, transparency and good
governance, as well as immediate restructuring of the country, resource control,
equity, justice and fairness in all government policies, programmes, projects and
appointments in the public service are the most feasible path to sanity, peace, unity
and progress of Nigeria.
“We, therefore, call on the President, Muhammadu Buhari, the United Nations, the
European Union, African Union, ECOWAS, United States of America, United
Kingdom, Russia, China and the entire international community to take urgent and
necessary actions to stop the current genocide against the Igbos in the South East and
other parts of the South-South in the interest of peace, stability and unity of Nigeria.
“The use of military force has never restored peace anywhere, hence the need to
explore dialogue and other effective strategies that have worked elsewhere. The Igbo
Elders Council are available and ready to be part of this process if given the
opportunity to participate. ‘A stitch in time saves nine’ is a utilitarian adage in this
context and at this time.”73
The Elders, however, insisted that current militarization and wide spread
carnage in the South East have precipitated unprecedented fear, tension and
untold hardships on the people in the zone, thereby aggravating the security
challenges in the land.
“We condemn without any reservation the destruction of public property in the South
East because it’s not in our character to indulge in arson and brigandage. We
believe, however, that it’s unfair and unjust to use a sledge hammer to kill harmless
flies as many victims of this joint security agencies onslaught are innocent Igbo
youths and other citizens, who have become victims of circumstances.”74
The Elders said that available information to them had revealed that despite the
recent directive of the National Security Adviser (NSA) Gen Baba Gana
Mungono (Rtd) to dismantle all check points throughout the federation, the
security agencies in the South East still stop motorists at illegal checkpoints,
search them in most dehumanizing manner in the guise of fishing out presumed
members of IPOB and ESN, arrest youths, especially boys and march them to
unknown destinations, most of whom never return alive.75
The allegations continue that security agencies, indiscriminately, invade private

homes at odd hours in the guise of fishing out presumed IPOB and ESN
members, arrest, maim, and, sometimes shoot innocent and hapless youths, and
cart away their corpses to unknown destinations, thus denying them the
opportunity of burial.
The Elders however submit:

“The Igbo tradition values burial rites for the repose of the soul of the dead, yet our
young victims of the military onslaught are denied that opportunity”. 76
Recently, there were heavily alarming stories of the arrival of several military
aircraft at the Sam Mbakwe Airport, Owerri. The Nigeria Army brought war
equipment shortly after President Muhammadu Buhari threatened to “speak to”
the Igbo people of the South East “in the language they understand”. 77
Shortly before their arrival, the South-East has witnessed, is witnessing wanton
destructions of lives and properties mostly belonging to the police and other
government institutions. Many police personnel and the soldiers have lost their
lives due to the activities of the unknown gunmen in the region. The police
operatives and the soldiers in the region appeared to have been completely
overwhelmed. They no longer report on duty wearing their uniforms for safety
measures. Their presence in the cities and towns of the region has been declared
persona non-grata by the IPOB elements who accused the police and the
soldiers of exploitation and extra-judicial killings of the indigenous people of
the land.
The military was first invited by the governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma, to
fish out those he referred to as the trouble makers in Orlu. They raked the
bushes after heavy air bombardment in search of the operatives of the Eastern
Security Network (ESN). The military recorded some casualties after their
engagement with the ESN operatives.
The second arrival of the military in Owerri, Imo State is sequel to a

presidential order given to deal with the hot-heads of the indigenous elements
“in the language they understand”. The arrival of the military intensified the
operation of the “unknown gunmen” who stepped up to challenge the military
and other security operative drafted in the area. Casualties have been recorded
on both sides with two commanders of ESN shot dead – one called Dragon on
the battle field, and the other, Ikonso who was betrayed, traced to his house and
killed. The killing of Ikonso intensified the harvest of mayhem and catastrophe
as blood continues to flow.
The response of the security operatives in the area was quite beserk. As I’m
writing, a great deal of extra-judicial killings of the young Igbo sons and
daughters has been going on under the pretence of securing the area and
fighting crimes. It has been reported that security operatives have been
dispatched to all nooks and crannies of the geo-political space, sort out young
Igbo men and execute them extra-judicially under the pretence of bursting
crimes. A lot of civilian casualties have been reported. A lot more have been
reported missing. Hear is Reno Omokri Tweet;
“The report that 90% of those killed by security forces in the SE are innocent is a
vindication of what I said a month ago. You can’t quell the Eastern uprising by killing
the innocent. You are speaking “the language they understand” to people who don’t
understand”.78
And just recently, the military (Air force officers) invaded an Igbo-dominated
Ladipo spare parts market killing and maiming innocent traders over an issue of
a kick-starter spare part bought from an Igbo trader from Ladipo spare parts
market in January, 2021. The military officer claims that the spare part is
developing faults and wants replaced but was not given some attention and
respect. He then organised his men and unleashed mayhem on traders in the
market for the “sin” of trader who sold the spare part to him since the governing
body in the market did not show him enough respect and recognition and
promptly acceded to his request. This left the Ladipo market in a state of
pandemonium and confusion.
Unless sanity comes into play, the systematic slaughter of innocent, unarmed
people and the destruction of their properties will continue in the heart of Igbo
land and elsewhere where Igbos are domiciled and do their businesses. So, why
has the relationship between the Federal Government and the Igbo nation within
six years of Buhari presidency deteriorated to the point where a second civil war
is being talked about?
 An Appraisal:
Looking at Buhari’s six years in power, did the Igbo nation make a mistake in
withholding their votes from him? Did their vote for Shehu Shagari, Olusegun
Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’ Adua and Goodluck Jonathan who were not their
kinsmen not supposed to be a patriotic expression of their “Nigerianness”? Is it
possible that Igbo rejection of, and resistance to Fulanisation is at the root of the
problem? They said “no” to RUGA and every effort to take their land and give
to the Fulani pastoralists who have been killing and destroying farmlands
without the Federal Government raising a finger to stop them. Why would the
South East, which is smaller in landmass than most states in the North but with
over 40 million people, yield the little they have to violent strangers and
foreigners? If the situation were reversed, would the president and his people
accept the treatment they are forcing down other people’s throats?
Another “sin” of the Igbo was that the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB,
which the Federal Government has popularised among the Igbo youth and
elders alike, formed the Eastern Security Network, ESN, to guard their forests
where no less than 350 herdsmen camps were identified immediately after the
COVID-19 shutdowns last year. ESN has never attacked law-abiding and
peaceful Northerners or anyone in Igboland. Even Mazi Nnamdi Kanu strictly
forbids attacks on law abiding and peaceful Northerners residing in the South
East. So, when a top northern politician, Ahmed Gulak, the former political
adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan was blamed on the activities of
the unknown gunmen in the East, the governor of Imo State pointed declared
that it was a political assassination that has nothing to do with any element in
the East. Even the son of the slain Gulak collaborated with the suspicion of the
leader of IPOB that Gen. Monguno (retired) should be held responsible for the
death.
ESN operatives are strictly in the forests protecting the land and the people
because the law enforcement agencies refused to do their job. Instead, they
allowed these cancerous elements in the name of Fulani herders to flood
Southern forests during the lockdowns. Self- defence is the first law of nature.
Who indeed in his right senses would fault Igbo people for developing a
template for self-defence?
Yet another “sin” is the activities of the so-called unknown gunmen. I can never
excuse the activities of these terror gangs who have been killing law
enforcement officers and destroying police and security establishments and
electoral edifices. How I wish we knew who these people were! The security
and law enforcement agencies should do their work.
There is always the temptation to blame Igbo youth for the activities of the
unknown gunmen, but strangely, Governor Hope Uzodimma, an arch enemy of
IPOB, has disclosed that 70 per cent of people arrested for the attacks in Imo
State “are not Igbo”! Who are they? Is it possible that some of the attacks were
sponsored by enemies of the Igbo nation as a pretext to punish them for their
above-mentioned “sins”? 79
We have shouted ourselves hoarse that if Buhari means well towards Igbo
people, he can still solve the security situation in the South by tackling it at the
roots. He keeps asking: “What do these people want”? We (Nigerians) want him
to end his extreme nepotism and bring back our Nigeria. It is not true that
Nigeria belongs to the Fulani; it can NEVER happen. Nigeria belongs to all of
us! We want this Fulanisation agenda dropped immediately. It will not work. It
will only expose innocent people to danger and destruction. There is enough
land in the North where the Fulani are indigenous to, for the establishment of
countless RUGA and all its romanticised benefits. Don’t force it on those who
don’t want it.89
Again, the Northern political leaders should seriously consider the question of a
referendum? It is a democratic and peaceful demand. A referendum will give
the Minorities of the South-South the “opportunity to reject Biafra”. It will also
enable the Igbo people who have property all over Nigeria to shun Biafra. But if
they opt for a tiny, landlocked Biafra where (as we hear) they will starve, kill
themselves and perish, why not let them? Those who hate them will achieve
their objective of Igbo extermination by letting them go into Biafra and perish.
Why not allow nature to do your dirty work for you?
May I sound a note of warning! Those who are watching with excitement the
deployment of the military against fellow Nigerians, the unarmed Igbo
population, should get ready. Whatever goes round comes round. Fulanisation is
not only aimed at Igbo land. They also want yours. They are also killing you.
The difference is that, unlike the Igbo people, you are crying and expecting your
prospective conquerors to save you!
“Yoruba, Ijaw and other Nigerians should be thanking God for the Igbos;
they are the reason Nigeria hasn’t been Islamized yet”. – Olusegun
Obasanjo
Buhari gave an interview and called people from Niger Republic “my first
cousins”, and in the same interview, he insults Nigerians of Southeastern Igbo
origin, denigrating them as a dot in circle, and repeating his genocidal line of
speaking to them “in a language they understand”. Remember, he once vowed
not to treat those who gave him 97% of votes in his electoral victory the same
way he treats those who gave him 5% of the votes. 97% +5% = 102%!
Nigerians should be discerning enough to enquire and know about the 2%
leftover which he attempts to surreptitiously smuggle into Nigeria through
subterfuge for his Fulanisation agenda to take over the forests of the South-East
and others in the South. How does he or any reasonable, conscientious human
expect the Igbos not to want to seek for self-determination in the face of such
obvious hatred, injustice and man’s inhumanity to man?
 “Dot in a Circle” and/or “Dot Nation”: How the Presidency Goofed!
Words are potent determiners of peace and war. They can draw kola nuts from
the pocket of the pleased; they can also provoke bullets from the barrel of the
insulted.
In an interview with Arise TV broadcast, President Muhammadu Buhari has

described the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as “a dot in a circle, claiming,
the group is isolated in its call for secession.80
He claims to have been assured by “the elderly people” and “the youths” from
the south-south part of the country that the region has no intention of seceding.
According to Buhari, IPOB will not have “access to anywhere” even if they
eventually secede from the country.
The president then reiterated his statement that IPOB members will be treated in
the “language that they understand”.
“I was encouraged by what I heard, nobody told me. Two statements from the south
south: one by the elderly people, they said this time around there would be no
(secession). And again the youth made the same statement; such encouragement,”
Buhari said.
“So that IPOB is just like a dot in a circle… Even if they want to exit, they’ll have no
access to anywhere. And the way they are spread all over the country, having
businesses and properties. I don’t think IPOB knows what they are talking about.”
“In any case, we say we’ll talk to them in the language that they understand. We’ll
organise the police and the military to pursue them.”81
IPOB has been agitating for the secession of the south-east. Recently, unknown
gunmen, suspected to be members of IPOB recently took up arms against the
country, attacking security formations and public property.
In an interview with BBC Pidgin, El-Rufai said those demanding swift attacks
on bandits as has been done to Kanu and his IPOB were wrong. He spoke as if
northern bandits and terrorists are ghosts without tractable tracts. According to
him:
 “No! No! No! No! People are comparing apples to oranges. Nnamdi Kanu is the
leader of IPOB, a proscribed organisation. He is identifiable, in constant
communication and everyone knows where he is. Let’s take Boko Haram for instance.
Shekau was in hiding and for the past 10 years and the military had been waging a
war to get him. It is not like Shekau was in Saudi Arabia, sitting in one place,
tweeting about the break-up of Nigeria or asking Boko Haram to go and kill Helen
and Nasir el-Rufai. Nnamdi Kanu is in one place while Shekau is waging guerrilla
warfare. The insurgency is still going on and the Federal Government is not giving
up. Regarding bandits, they are not centralised under one leadership. Who is the
head of the bandits? Who is the equivalent of Nnamdi Kanu with banditry? Bandits
are just collections of independent criminals. It is a business for them. It is not a case
of Nigeria must break up. I want to challenge anyone to tell me the central leader of
bandits in the same position as Kanu.” 82(see John Ogunsemore, “Comparing bandits
to IPOB like comparing apples to oranges – El-Rufai” The Herald, 11 July, 2021)
Now, how more insensitive can people be and how many more Nnamdi Kanu
and Sunday Igboho have this arrogance of sectional power created? Indeed,
democracy kills; there is poison in its medicine.
REFERENCES
1. Philip Agbese, “The Truth about APPG’s Christian Genocide in Nigeria”,

2. Julia Bicknett, “Boko Haram has Killed More Than Islamic State in Iraq
and Syria Combined”, World World Monitor, 29 July, 2020.
3. A Special Report (Dedicated to Victims of Islamic Jihad in Nigeria): A
Killing Field of Defenseless Christians: 350 Killed in January and
February, 2020 … 11,500 and 12,000 Died in 57 Months (Since June
2015), 4 million – 5 million Fled and over 2000 Churches Lost”,
Intercity; The Nigerian Voice, 8 March, 2020.
4. Andrew Mcgrego, “The Fulani Crisis: Communal Violence and
Radicalization in the Sahel”, Combating Terrorism Centre, February
2017, vol. 10, Issue 2.
5. Obinna Ezugwu, “Jihadist Fulani Herders Occupy 350 Igbo
Communities”, Business Hallmark, 28 May, 2020.
6. Lydia Blaha, “Nigeria: Unfolding Genocide? New APGG Report
Launched”, Christian Persecution News, 15 June, 2020.
7. Philip Agbese, “The Truth about APPG’s Christian Genocide in Nigeria”,
8. Dr. Ewelina U. Ochab, “Is Genocide Happening in Nigeria As The World
Turns A Blind Eye?” www.forbes.com, 15 June, 2020.
9. Dr. Ewelina U. Ochab, “Is Genocide Happening in Nigeria As The World
Turns A Blind Eye?” www.forbes.com, 15 June, 2020.
10.Dr. Ewelina U. Ochab, “Is Genocide Happening in Nigeria As the world
turns a blind eye?” www.forbes.com, 15 June, 2020.
11.“Nigeria: Unfolding Genocide?” An inquiry by the UK All-Party
Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief”;
See also ANS Editor, “UK Politicians Highlight Nigeria’s Unfolding
Genocide”, 15 June, 2020, OpenHeaven.com, Kingdom Transformation
From Religion to Relationship, UK.
12.Amnesty International made estimates that at least 3,641 Nigerians have
been massacred between January 2016 and October 2018 by the Boko
Haram whilst 6,000 killed by Fulani Herders between January – June
2018.
15.See Open Doors USA, a religious freedom watchdog ranks Nigeria at #12
worldwide for persecution of Christians.
16.John Stonestreet et al, “Genocide in Nigeria: Calling It What It Is, Calling
for It to End”, cnsnews.com, 25 June, 2020.
18. See https://www.christiantoday.com
19.Sam Brownback, a US Ambassador-at-large for International Religious
Freedom in the US State Department added Nigeria for the first time to
its ‘special watchlist’ of countries that tolerate severe religious freedom
violated in December, 2019.
20. “Boko Haram Executes Pastor Who Turned Hostage Video into
Testimony”, www.christianitytoday.com, January 2020.
22.According to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the
Crime of Genocide in its Article II subscribes to the definition made.
for It to End”, cnsnews.com, 25 June, 2020
24.Kester Kenn Klomegah, “A Genocide against Christians is Silently
Unfolding in Nigeria”, Modern Diplomacy, 28 August, 2020.
28.Intersociety, “Calling for Urgent International Intervention to Stop State-
Protected Fulani & Other Jihadists from Wiping Out Christians in
Nigeria”, oblongmedia.net, 4 June, 2017.
42. See Wikipedia on massacre, www.wikipedia.com
43.“History of Igbo Massacre Across the Northern Nigeria”,
oblongmedia.net, 4 June, 2017.
44.Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe, Biafra Revisited (Dakar and Reading: African
Renaissance, 2006) and Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe, Readings from Reading:
Essays on African Politics, Genocide, Literature (Dakar and Reading:
African Renaissance, 2011).
46.Ibid.
47.Ibid.
48.Ibid.
49.The Economist (London), 24 August 1968.
50.Olusegun Obasanjo, My Command (Ibadan and London: Heinemann,
1980), p. 78.
51.Ibid.
52.Ibid. p. 79
53.Ibid.
54.Ibid. p. 165
55.Cf. Hugh McCullum, ‘Biafra was the beginning’ (accessed 14 June
2010).
58.Roger Morris, Uncertain Greatness: Henry Kissinger & American
Foreign Policy (London & New York: Quartet Books, 1977), p. 122. See
also Michael Leapman, ‘While the Biafrans starved, the FO moaned with
hacks’, The Independent on Sunday (London), 3 January 1999
59.Morris, Uncertain Greatness, p. 122.
61.Ibid
62.Azu Ishiekwene, “What is the Endgame in Nigeria’s South-East?”,
Sahara Reporters, 3 June, 2021.
73.Fred Ezeh, “South-East: Over 5,000 Youths Killed, 10,000 Languishing
in Detentions, Says Igbo Elders”, The Sun, 10 June, 2021.
78.Ochereome Nnanna, “Looming Genocide in South East”, Vanguard, 9
June, 2021.
June, 2021.
June, 2021.
81.“Biafra: Buhari Calls IPOB, ‘A Dot in a Circle’”, NigerianEye,
BizWatchNigeria.ng, 10 June, 2021.
82.“Biafra: Buhari Calls IPOB, ‘A Dot in a Circle’”, NigerianEye,
BizWatchNigeria.ng, 10 June, 2021.

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A NATION

PART 1: THE GATHERING STORM AND AVOIDABLE SHIPWRECK

Chapter 1: Nigeria: An Experiment in Nation Building

Chapter 2: Historical Perspective of Hatred across Ethnic Nationalities of

(1) Background Studies

Chapter 3: Nigerian Union Disputes and Dialogue: Impact and Significance of

(1) Background Studies

PART TWO: A CONSPIRACY TO ENSLAVEMENT AND

CHAPTER 4: Nigeria in the Belly of the Vulture

CHAPTER 5: The Cost of Politics and Governance in Nigeria

CHAPTER 6: Nigeria in the Belly of the Vampire

Chapter 7: Renegotiating a New Nigeria

PART THREE: “FULANISATION” OF NIGERIA AND

PART FOUR: MORAL OBLIGATION TO RESIST COLLECTIVE EVIL

Chapter 9: Stride towards Freedom

(i) Background Studies

PART FIVE: WHEN TYRANNY BECOMES A LAW, REBELLION

Chapter 11: Genocide in Nigeria: Calling It What It Is

I am honoured and humbled to write about Africa’s supposedly most important

Fortunately, (or rather unfortunately for Nigerians), we no longer need to

As I’m penning down this point, information is reaching us about Nigeria’s

A cross-fertilization of ideas among Nigerians have revealed that most

However, twelve years ago, the American Intelligence apparatchiks predicted

We have a national crisis of values dressed in hypocrisy. National values

It therefore presupposes that our decisions – both as individuals and/or as a

As Nigerians were still flabbergasted about the “Pantami conundrum”, enters

Instead of us challenging the vicissitudes and concatenations of aggravated and

Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia and countries predominated by

About 79,000 Nigerian Muslims spent $5,000 each to go to Saudi Arabia to

Questions will definitely be asked by posterity about what this generation of

However, it is germane and fundamental to appreciate the fact that no society

Nigeria is be-devilled by humanities oldest problem – the fear of the other

We appear to have completely lost, or rather fixated in linguistic in exactitudes

The 1999 Constitution appears to be the most blatantly fraudulent document

The attitude of the Buhari-led APC-controlled Federal Republic of Nigeria

It is therefore germane and fundamental to pause and ask as one of my mentors,

Warning! There is too much turbulence ahead! A competent helmsman knows

A referendum or a Plebiscite is necessary for the indigenous peoples of Nigeria

It suffices that as far as human associations are concern these break-ups do

In September 2014, the people of SCOTLAND went for a referendum in which

Consequently, this situation allegedly created population imbalance between the

Consequently, it presupposes that our Founding Fathers chose not to go their

1. Pastor Tunde Bakare is known for his statement and criticism of

Charles Emmanuel Nnaemeka Akujieze is nothing but a divine “project” that

I highly appreciate unreservedly and unapologetically, my beloved wife Juliet

To Shekinah, Shalom, Fortune and David my children – you inspire me to

To my brothers and sisters, your contributions, advise, prayers, and solidarity

My good, and faithful friends – Cosmos Udechukwu and Christopher Anuforo,

I am absolutely nothing except the breath of the Creator in me. If there is

Each son or daughter of a given nation has a responsibility. Writing about

I admit that I am a part of this generation and the failure of my generation is

To all the innocent victims of our collective madness called Nigeria

The day I received the message requesting me to write a foreword to Charles

A careful perusal of Akujieze’s books would clearly reveal an intrinsic Nigerian

I recommend the book to every person living or residing in Nigeria, and

Cyriacus Nnaji is a Senior Editor at the AUTHORITY Newspapers Limited,

 Nigeria and the Four Winds of the Earth

 The State of the Nigeria Nation

Politics in Nigeria is poisonous. In Nigeria politics, any politics, anything and

The Nigeria’s National Assembly is a pliant, slavish, rubber-stamp congress of

Nigeria is on the throes of economic collapse. The slenderest tinctures of

The government’s responses to security situation in Nigeria are very weak.

It would be recalled that in 2013, security Officers uncovered weapons linked to

In 2018, a ship travelling from Russia to Nigeria was intercepted in South