The Pacesetter Frontier Magazine

Tag: Buhari

  • The Ministry of Condolence Affairs

    The Ministry of Condolence Affairs

    -By Abdul Mahmud

    Death has always had impeccable timing in Nigerian politics. Campaign managers, pollsters and party apparatchiks are never consulted, although the political class somehow receives the message; before the condolences’ registers announce themselves at the entrances of the houses of mourning, convoys begin to gather with punctuality, funeral ceases to be a private moment and becomes constituencies.

    The passing of the former Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, together with the death of the police aide attached to Senator Seriake Dickson, brought forth a familiar national ceremony in which the departed were mourned, of course, but quickly found themselves sharing attention with a far more energetic spectacle, as the road leading to the senator’s residence became a political expressway and every arriving vehicle carried not only condolences but also calculations.

    Television cameras understood the assignment, social media performed with customary enthusiasm, photographs multiplied by the hour, videos travelled across WhatsApp with astonishing speed, and a casual observer unfamiliar with the identities involved could easily have concluded that the visitors were the principal victims of the tragedy, while the deceased had quietly become supporting actors in the production mounted in their honour.

    The renowned Nigerian writer, the late Chinua Achebe, once echoed the proverb that mourners should not cry more than the bereaved. Modern politics has revised the proverb. Contemporary Nigerian mourners have however taken his caution on board: they do not always cry; they pose for the cameras as soon as they arrive carrying faces carefully prepared for public consumption. The ritual begins outside the gate, temporarily stops with the departure of the television crews, and resumes in the media office where photographs are inspected before the familiar caption, “Standing with my brother in this difficult time,” is finally approved.

    Grief has acquired a press secretary.

    Nobody asks whether the family has eaten, while almost nobody notices the exhausted relatives who have repeated the same account of the death fifty times before lunch, because every important arrival demands receptions, handshakes and photographs that capture every audience. Silence, which once belonged to mourning, then struggles to secure an invitation.

    Nigerian politics possesses the extraordinary elite gift for converting every human experience into attendances: weddings become declarations of loyalty, births attract congratulatory delegations, while funerals offer something even more valuable because nobody argues with mourners and nobody accuses a visitor of campaigning while standing beside a coffin. Death provides a temporary halt to the political, even if subtle. Every political camp understands the arithmetic. Expressions of sympathy seldom remain the expressions of sympathy for long. Public attention either drifts towards those who attended, who stayed away, or whose faces were captured by waiting cameras, until the funeral is discussed less as an occasion of grief than as evidence of political movement, with some political associates announcing that the gatherings demonstrate political strengths, although nobody stoops to ponder the uncomfortable reality that they demonstrate only the certainty that everyone eventually dies.

    The pilgrimage has now shifted towards Rotimi Amaechi following the death of his mother, the route has changed, yet the script remains untouched. Convoys once again gather with solemn efficiency, with familiar faces who emerge wearing expressions perfected through years of public service and private ambition. Every arrival carries sympathy wrapped carefully around political significance; but nobody says so aloud because nobody needs to. Cameras click and roll. Photos and videos are posted on social media. Political commentators immediately begin searching the background of each image with forensic determination, discovering that some leaders smiled too warmly, and accidental seating arrangements suddenly become evidence of national realignments.

    The deceased deserves remembrance.

    Only the presumed chief mourner receives the larger audiences of mourners who turn funerals into annual general meetings in which they appear more as political shareholders in bright and variegated colours, and less as companions in grief than as officials of the Ministry of Condolence Affairs.

    The Ministry could hardly function without a training school. There, public figures would receive instruction not in the difficult art of consoling the bereaved but in the more profitable discipline of public mourning, leaving with the practised understanding of where to stand, whom to embrace, how long to remain within the frame, and the precise moment at which sympathy should give way to publicity. The most accomplished officials would soon distinguish themselves in the field. A house of mourning would become their natural place of deployment, where success would depend neither upon familiarity with the deceased nor sympathy for the bereaved, but upon an instinctive knowledge of where the cameras had been placed and how best to remain within their gaze without appearing to seek it. Political parties would, in time, discover that funeral attendance provides a more reliable measure of commitment than the labour of reading a manifesto or defending a legislative record, with advancement increasingly reserved for those whose presence at high-profile bereavements has been faithfully documented, leaving the unfortunate politician who arrives after the television crews have departed to wonder whether the journey had served any political purpose at all.

    Nigerians have become unwilling spectators in this performance because scarcely a day passes without the social media delivering fresh photographs of political visitors and preserving every embrace for public inspection, until the country begins to treat proof of attendance as a greater civic obligation than the quiet expression of sympathy from which such visits once derived their meaning. The long nights that descend after the visitors have departed seldom attract similar attention because cameras lose interest once the speeches have ended and the convoys have disappeared, leaving behind a family learning to accommodate an absence that no photograph can soften and no public procession can relieve.

    The public life of every society demands gestures of compassion, and no reasonable person would question the duty of politicians to console associates in moments of bereavement, although a clear distinction remains between a visit undertaken to comfort the grieving and one calculated to communicate political relevance, because the former belongs to the ordinary decencies of human conduct while the latter gradually transforms private sorrow into another stage upon which ambition seeks public approval. The dead deserve better than becoming silent participants in political choreography, while the bereaved deserve the privacy that allows grief to unfold without constant interruption from visitors whose principal concern lies beyond the condolence they profess to offer.

    Nigeria may never establish the Ministry of Condolence Affairs, although experience suggests that such an institution already exists in unofficial form, operating with remarkable efficiency and requiring neither legislation nor a budget because its work is carried on by those who instinctively recognise every prominent funeral as another engagement in the long campaign for political relevance, with its permanent archive preserved not in official records but in photographs and videos that survive long after the mourning itself has passed.

    May the departed sleep well.

  • Silence Finally Learns to Speak

    Silence Finally Learns to Speak

    -By Abdul Mahmud

    There is a special kind of silence that follows power everywhere it goes. It is not the gentle quiet of the monastery or the eerie quiet of mourning. It is the awkward, accusatory silence of a phone that once overheated from devotion and now lies cool, innocent, and suddenly uninterested. Such is the fate of the phone of Yusuf Buhari, son of the one-time military ruler and former President, who recently lamented that ever since they vacated the Presidential Villa, his phone has fallen into an eloquent silence. “After Goodluck Jonathan made that call to my dad to congratulate him on his victory as Nigeria’s next president, I used to receive up to 2,000 calls a day from different people. The calls would start coming in as early as 4 a.m. – from old classmates, acquaintances, extended family members, former maids, and servants who had once worked for the Buhari family at some point. There were also callers with bogus, untraceable explanations, but my assistant would simply come up with polite excuses to end those conversations quickly! But the moment my dad left power and handed the baton to His Excellency Bola Tinubu, the calls dropped dramatically to about 100 a day. After my dad was buried, they reduced even further to around 20 daily – usually just from siblings and business associates. The phones no longer ring. Nobody truly cares”.

    Yusuf Buhari’s lament is therefore not merely a personal reflection, it is indeed a public service announcement about the aura of power in Nigeria.

    Once upon a presidency, the phone rang like a Pentecostal bell on Sunday morning. Calls came in torrents. Old classmates rediscovered brotherhood. Distant cousins suddenly remembered shared ancestors. Former house helps developed emotional attachments that demanded urgent reconnection. Even strangers arrived armed with stories so creative they deserved the Nigerian Prize for Literature. Everyone wanted to talk. Everyone needed a moment. Everyone was important. The phone became the national shrine. Then came the unthinkable tragedy. Power packed its bags. The baton of power was handed over. Democracy did its modest little dance like Jimmy Bo Horne’s dance across the floor. And something even more devastating occurred. The phone began to rest. From two thousand calls to one hundred. From one hundred to twenty. From the roar of affection to the whisper of obligation. From the expressive euphoria of power to the familiarity of family group chats. This is not just decline. This is the austerity of pretend affection in the absence of power.

    Let us pause and admire the honesty of Yusuf Buhari. The phones no longer ring. Nobody truly cares. It is a brave thing to say out loud what the entire country already knows but pretends not to know. In Nigeria, love is renewable only when it is connected to power. Affection is strongest where one is close to the power. Once power goes, the allure of friendship wanes.

    This discovery is not unique to Nigeria. In the United States of America, it was made with cheese. Lyndon B. Johnson, once the most powerful man on earth, reportedly complained that after leaving the White House, senators who once hovered like loyal furniture suddenly developed hearing problems. The phone that rang relentlessly during legislative battles and war briefings became suspiciously quiet. Johnson, a man who could bend Congress with a stare and a threat, learned the old lesson in a new accent. Arms twist only when there is something left to extract. Power had been the caller, not friendship. Jimmy Carter also encountered the same silence, though he dressed it in Southern politeness. After leaving the White House, he once noted how Washington’s warmth cooled, how invitations thinned, and how the phone lost its urgency. Carter, a man who traded power for principle and later built houses with his own hands, learned that integrity is admirable but not bankable. Washington respects power more than character. When the office disappeared, so did the interest. The calls, it turned out, had been for the presidency, not the person. The meaning that Yusuf Buhari’s lament provides is that relevance only obeys the law of power. If you have power, or close to power, the laws of things will bend over to your wishes. Relevance in public life has very little to do with ideas, values, or service. It has everything to do with power. You call he who has power that can move the mountain for you. Who can whisper your name into the right ears at the right time. When that ability expires, so does the crowd.

    Power in Nigeria is a balm. It heals old grudges. It restores forgotten relationships. It multiplies cousins like loaves of bread. It turns silence into urgency. When you have it, people call at four in the morning to check on your spiritual wellbeing. When you lose it, they discover the importance of respecting your privacy. The pattern is so consistent. The same society that will not answer calls from the powerless will accuse them of being inaccessible. The same people who once dialed endlessly will later say they did not want to disturb you in your grief. Courtesy suddenly appears when usefulness disappears.

    But let us be fair. This is not cruelty. It is efficiency. Why waste airtime on someone who cannot move a file, sign a paper, influence a contract, or secure a favour. Friendship must also eat. Concern must have logistics. Sympathy needs a budget. The phone, after all, is not just a device. It is a moral instrument. It measures value in real time. It rings for the important and sleeps for the irrelevant. It is democratic only in theory. In practice, it obeys hierarchy. What makes this moment cheesy is the shock that accompanies the discovery. As if the silence is a betrayal rather than a curriculum. As if the phones were ringing out of love rather than calculation. As if two thousand daily calls were ever sustainable without the fuel of power. This is the Nigerian lesson that no civics class teaches. Power is the loudest ringtone. Without it, even your obituary struggles for attention. And yet, there is something profoundly instructive in this quiet. For the first time, the silence is honest. The remaining calls are few, but they are real. Siblings call because blood still remembers. Business associates call because interests endure. Everyone else has returned to their natural habitat, which is waiting for the next powerful number to save.

    In this silence, truth clears its throat. It tells us that many of our public relationships are seasonal. They follow office terms, not human bonds. They are loyal to chairs, not people. They are attached to corridors, not conscience. The lie which underlines Yusuf’s lament is that care is proven by ringing phones. But care has always been something else. Care is presence when there is nothing to gain. Care is the call that does not need to be returned. Care is the visit that cannot be monetised. By that standard, the phones were probably not ringing with care even at their loudest. So, maybe this is not a fall from grace. Maybe it is a graduation. The fact which stays stark is that silence strips away the noise and leaves behind a smaller, sturdier circle. It replaces the choruses of opportunists with a handful of humans. It enthrones reality.

    If those who inhabit the high chambers of power would cure themselves of this peculiar affliction, they must first reconcile with the enduring truth: it is when power recedes that solitude reveals its sharpest edge. They must learn to dwell within the natural order of things, where silence, long suppressed, at last finds its voice. They must accept that the kingdom of power admits no rival sovereign; there are never two kings upon its throne. Until that wisdom is embraced, every departure from office will be accompanied by the same bewildered lament, uttered only in differing accents.

    The phones no longer ring.

    They will never ring for the reason that Yusuf knows: “Soja go” with old friends; and Soja arrives with new friends who in turn arrive with new ring tones.

  • Burying Buhari – By M.O Ene

    Burying Buhari – By M.O Ene

     

    Humans are made up of body and soul. The body is of the earth. The soul is divine. The body dies. The soul lives. The body is buried to dissipate the distress. The soul is a spirit; no one knows better. Faith enters the equation: Don’t speak ill of the dead. The death of one diminishes humanity. Such cultural mumbo-jumbo emissions help to heal the heart of the grieving.

    I understand not speaking ill of the dead. It is of no use. The deceased has lost the physical ability to counter. Yet, the memories of life cannot be swept away. Interestingly, the speed with which we forget the dear departed is alarming. Lucky are those of whom the living still recall just months after they leave the scene. Therefore, the focus is on learning the lessons of the life lived—not rehashing rabidly the actions of the deceased.

    So let it be with Muhammadu Buhari.

    It is not easy to recall the good deeds that Buhari did with the great opportunities he had. As a military muscleman, his laudable ‘war against indiscipline’ turned into draconian decrees, including ludicrous long jail terms for political prisoners, muzzling of mainstream media, and shocking retroactive public execution of petty drug dealers!

    On his second coming, Buhari dashed the hopes of Nigerians by unleashing more corruption, bandits, and terrorist herdsmen with AK-47. He visited his signature violence of dogs and baboons on EndSARS protesters. He was particularly harsh on the Southeast, “the dot” in his warped ethnic estimation, which is to be visited with threats of another genocide. When censored for the vile statement, he banned Twitter (now X). Not even on his way out would Buhari forgive Nnamdi Kanu, Sunday Adeniyi Adeyemo (Igboho), and El Zakzaky, the Shi’a Muslim cleric. On the other hand, he treated the butchering Boko Haram terrorists with mittens!

    Buhari died peacefully in London, where he had spent many moons receiving good medical attention. His wife, who had been living in Dubai, reportedly relayed a plea for forgiveness. Fair enough: forgiven, not forgotten. Meanwhile, MNK (whom courts in Kenya and Nigeria have freed) languishes in jail because Buhari would not forgive a simple juvenile insult. What will it take for men to accept mistakes and make amends while the good gods guarantee life! I hope that Yakubu Gowon is listening and learning, not adding more insults of lies to injuries he caused and failed to heal.

    When the present emotions ebb, Nigerians must rise against medical tourism. It is ridiculous that Nigeria cannot set up topnotch medical facilities to treat its top executives. Putting Nigerian leaders at the mercy of foreign pharmacological firms is a screaming shame and a stupid security risk. Ironically, Nigerian medicos who offer commendable care abroad can offer better care in Nigeria.

    President Ahmed Bola Tinubu should establish decent hospitals at which prominent politicians get great care and die peacefully when the time comes—as it will come inevitably. We had two former heads of state in London, possibly getting care from exiled Nigerian doctors they could not keep in the country. The cost of retrieving the remains of Buhari and transporting people to and from the UK is enough to equip a set-aside standard clinic in Abuja, FCT.

    Before he jets out to France again, President Tinubu must learn the lasting lessons of the current bala-blu (hullabaloo) and think of legacy, a bequest for the memory of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari.

     

    #moe, 7.15.25

  • Africa Is a Cemetery for Africans

    Africa Is a Cemetery for Africans

    -By Abdul Mahmud

    The phrase, “Africa is a cemetery for Africans,” falsely credited to Vladimir Putin, has long taken a meaning that goes beyond the dubiety of its source. But, whoever couched it and pushed it into the virtual space, acquiring its virality in the process, must have seen further than most of us. It isn’t just a phrase about the continent’s history of slavery, war, famine and the brutality of tyrannical rulers. It isn’t even just about the millions who die needlessly from hunger or curable diseases. It is, more sharply, a commentary on the kind of men who govern the continent. Men who live off their people and die in lands far away from them. Men who snatch the people’s hope, supplanting it with indignity, and burying their future.

    To call Africa a cemetery is to point fingers at the power-holders who turn statehouses into slaughterhouses. At men who transform democracy into dictatorship, and public trust into private holdings. It is to hold the mirror up to the likes of Jean-Bedel Bokassa, who ruled the Central African Republic like a butcher, crowned himself emperor in a lavish ceremony modelled after Napoleon, then died quietly in exile. Or Paul Biya of Cameroon, who has ruled from Geneva’s five-star hotels longer than from his country’s capital in Yaoundé. Kamuzu Banda of Malawi, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Edgar Lungu of Zambia, and our own Umaru Yar’Adua and Muhammadu Buhari. These men, whose names merely make up one half of the cycle of rulers, ran their countries into the ground and found their final comforts abroad. And the other half of the cycle is squared by current rulers who not only have ruined what is left and are making weekly and monthly detours to foreign lands as medical tourists. President Tinubu are you there?

    It is a tragedy. A continent that raised these men must now bury them in soils they once betrayed. They left in luxury. They returned in caskets. In many ways, these rulers are a symbol of something far more enduring and sinister. They represent a political culture that rewards oppression and celebrates impunity. In their hands, power isn’t a tool for service, it is an instrument of self-preservation. Here, governance becomes nothing more than the extraction of value from the state to feed a narrow circle of cronies. The people? Forgotten. Their suffering? Just background noise to the wailing of sirens and the clinking of champagne glasses at state dinners.

    The facts have been consistently laid bare in the public space. Let’s recall a few here. African presidents are some of the most travelled in the world. Not for diplomatic shuttles; but for healthcare. They build no functioning hospitals at home, but they travel to London, Paris, Berlin and Dubai for treatment. They abandon their people in crowded and understaffed clinics, but they fly first-class overseas to seek the best medical attention money can buy. And when their bodies fail them, as all bodies must, they breathe their last far from the people they ruled. Far from the streets they never fixed. Far from the schools they underfunded. Far from the hospitals they refused to equip.

    What else can one call it but medical tourism, the grim betrayal dressed as privilege? The brutal irony lies in this: men who, in life, denied their citizens the dignity of basic healthcare, now claim in death the full embrace of global medical excellence. It is a perverse reward system, where rulers who left their nations gasping for breath are themselves intubated in sterile wards abroad. Since the days of Bokassa, Banda, and Nyerere, whose memories now live mostly in footnotes and faded eulogies, a new figure has emerged to personify this legacy of abandonment. Buhari. His memory stands today as the emblem of that cold, clinical disregard. He will forever remain the poster child of the paradox: a ruler absent from his people in sickness, yet ever-present in their sufferings. In his eight years in power, he spent over 200 days in London receiving medical treatment. No one knew the nature of his ailment. No one knew the cost. He never spoke of it. But the planes flew, and the presidential entourage never grew smaller. At home, doctors were going,  coming, and going on strikes – in that endless cycle of going. Patients were dying. Hospitals were gasping for life support. But the president was always in the UK, wrapped in the quiet of Harley Street clinics. When he eventually left office, he slipped out of the country again, reportedly for medical treatment. He died there. In a land not his.

    What kind of man does that? What kind of ruler spends more time receiving treatment abroad than fixing what’s broken at home?

    This is the paradox: they die abroad. But they are always buried here. They want our earth, but not our air. Our soil, but not our service. They want the glory of being mourned by the people they abandoned. State burials, public holidays, military salutes and obsequious rituals designed to lend dignity to the undignified. Even in death, they take from the people. But, come to think about it, which country buries its own betrayal with such fanfare? Nigeria. There’s a point to note just as well about a good number of these rulers who die nameless deaths in luxurious suites abroad. Their final breaths are heard not by the nurses in their own public hospitals, but by foreigners whose names their citizens will never know. Then, after death, the surreal drama begins: the flag-draped coffins, the sorrowful national broadcasts, the endless condolence registers. The body returns. But the damage remains.

    The story always morphs into a drama that repeats itself. Over and over. New rulers emerge, promising change. Promising health reforms. Promising to stay at home. But in time, the lure of the nanny-state; the state that pampers and provides for their every private need draws them in. They forget the people. They remember only their pleasures. Governance in Africa, to these men, is not duty. It is privilege. The State becomes the nursemaid. It feeds them, bathes them, tucks them into presidential suites, and sends their children abroad to elite schools. It handles their birthdays and bankrolls their funerals. Even in retirement, the State remains their slave.

    This is what all Africans must call out. This nannyhood. This warped conception of public office as a private inheritance. This sucking of the breast of the nation until it runs dry. There is no nobility in dying abroad, far from the people you led. No honour in returning as a cargo on a presidential jet. No dignity in a life that denied others theirs. Yet, how many more must we watch go this route? How many more African leaders will fail to understand that leadership is not about luxury? That power is not about self-protection?

    Africans know what good governance looks like. They see it in countries that invest in their people, in their institutions, in their futures. They see it in leaders who die among their people, not above them. But Africa has been denied this reality for too long. Too many of its rulers rule like monarchs and flee like fugitives. Their names decorate airport lounges and stadiums. But their legacies rot in the ruins they left behind.

    Africa needs a new kind of leadership. One that sees the presidency not as an escape, but as a service. One that understands that a hospital bed in Lagos is worth more than a thousand hospital visits to London. That education for all is better than scholarships for the few. That the real measure of leadership is not in miles travelled, but lives touched. Until then, the cemetery metaphor remains. And the burials will continue. Not just of bodies. But of dreams. Africa deserves more than being the final resting place for men who ruined it. Africa deserves leaders who will live for her, suffer for her, and if they must, die with it. Not in exile. Not in a foreign suite. But on the soil they swore to serve.

    That, perhaps, is how Africa must escape the cemetery.

  • Buhari meets Tinubu ahead of presidential campaign kick-off

    Ahead of the official kick-off of the the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), President Muhammadu Buhari, late Sunday night, met with the party’s flag bearer, Bola Tinubu and National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    After a two-week medical visit to London, the President had flown into Abuja Sunday evening. While in London, he had met with King Charles III of England at Buckingham Palace.

    Special Assistant to the President on Digital Communications, Bashir Ahmad, on his verified Twitter handle, @BashirAhmad tweeted “JUST IN: President Muhammadu Buhari is currently meeting with our presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Chairman of great party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, ahead of the formal presidential campaign flag-off later in the week”.

    Speaking on Monday morning, Ahmad said he was unable to provide specifics of the discussions at the meeting but could confirm that they were aimed at finalizing preparations for the party’s Tuesday launch of its presidential campaign, which is set to take place in Jos, Plateau State (tomorrow).

    “All I know about the meeting is that it was for the preparation towards the kick-off of the campaigns taking place in Plateau tomorrow”, Ahmad said.

    (Sun)

  • President Buhari set to commission Pinnacle Oil Tank in Lagos

    President Buhari set to commission Pinnacle Oil Tank in Lagos

    Chetanne Chinelo, Enugu

    President Muhammadu Buhari is set to commission an FZE Terminal belonging to Pinnacle Oil and Gas Limited in the Lekki Free Trade Zone Terminal.

    In a brief statement made available to Pacesetter Magazine, the Presidential commissioning is set to hold on Saturday, October 22, 2022 by 11am at the Lekki Free Trade Zone, Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, and will be performed by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    The terminal is a major disruptive innovation which would transform the whole downstream value chain.

    The CEO of Pinnacle Oil and Gas Limited also described the terminal as a resilient infrastructure with the capacity to export and import from the same pipeline.

    Meanwhile, he expressed optimism that Nigeria would soon become a net exporter of refined products.

    “We have built a resilient infrastructure. We have the capability to export and import from the same pipeline.

    “We believe that over time, with the investment we are seeing, Nigeria will become the net exporter of refined products,” he said.

    Pinnacle is an Indigenous Oil and Gas company active across the entire downstream value chain, with emphasis on the petroleum trading, marketing, distribution and retail segments of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Sector.

    The company was founded in 2004 with headquarters in Lagos, one of Africa’s largest business hubs. 

    Commencing operations in 2008, Pinnacle has a 23 percent leading market share in the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry.

    The Chief Executive Officer of Pinnacle Oil and Gas, Mr. Peter Mbah, is the 2023 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate for Enugu State.

    More details later…

  • Buhari, Osinbajo, service chiefs, NSA meet over Kanu’s release

    Buhari, Osinbajo, service chiefs, NSA meet over Kanu’s release

    The National Security Council, on Friday, said it was “considering the appropriate action to be taken” on the recent release of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.

    It also backed the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, who clarified that Kanu’s release was not equivalent to an acquittal.

    The Minister of Police Affairs, Mohammed Dingyadi, disclosed this to State House correspondents shortly after the NSC meeting chaired by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), at the Aso Rock Villa.

    Dingyadi, who spoke alongside his counterpart in the Ministry of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, said Kanu was only discharged.

    He added that the Federal Government would explore other legal instruments to pursue the matter.

    However, he noted that the council did not discuss a possible political route that Malami had raised last November.

    The council, he said, only discussed the Appeal Court judgment, noting that solutions to such matters could be considered so far as they were not subjudice.

    It was reported that the Court of Appeal in Abuja on Thursday upheld the appeal of the detained leader of the proscribed group and ordered his release.

    But a statement signed by the AGF’s spokesperson, Dr. Umar Gwandu, asserted that “Kanu was only discharged and not acquitted.”

    “Consequently, the appropriate legal options before the authorities will be exploited and communicated accordingly to the public,” the statement added.

    Briefing journalists on Friday, Dingyadi echoed the AGF’s stance saying the Federal Government was considering other options.

    “The issue of Kanu has also been raised and Council was briefed on the state of things on the matter and it was observed that Kanu was discharged, but he was not acquitted.

    “So, the government is considering the appropriate action to be taken on the matter and Nigerians will be notified of the position that will be finally taken on the matter in due course,” the minister stated.

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha; National Security Adviser, Maj. Gen. Babagana Monguno (retd.); and the Chief of Staff to the President, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, attended Friday’s meeting.

    Also in attendance were the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor; the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Farouk Yahaya; the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo and the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Isiaka Amao and Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba.

    The Minister of Defence, Maj. Gen. Bashir Magashi (retd.); Director-General of the Department of State Service, Yusuf Bichi; Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ahmed Abubakar and the Chief of Defence Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Samuel Adebayo were equally present.

    Meanwhile, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, lawyer to the IPOB leader, Kanu, has asked the AGF to comply with the order of the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal.

    He also advised Malami to consider voluntary resignation for allegedly exposing the Federal Government to international embarrassment and ridicule.

    He was responding to the statement by the Special Assistant (Media and Public Relations), to the AGF, Dr. Umar Gwandu, in reaction to the Appeal Court judgment which quashed the charges of terrorism preferred against him.

    According to him, the reference by the AGF to the charge pending against Kanu before he left Nigeria in 2017 and the indication that the Federal Government may continue with the charge “really showed his total disconnect with the law, with greatest respect to his office.’’

    Malami had said that the Federal Government was considering various legal options, including proceeding with the counts that were pending against Kanu before the invasion of his house by soldiers on September 14 2017.

    But Ejiofor said the AGF “should be appropriately guided in law.”

    He said, “I implore him to meticulously read the full judgment of the Court of Appeal, immediately comply with orders made therein and possibly consider the most appropriate option of voluntarily resigning, for exposing the Federal Government to this international embarrassment and ridicule.

    “Now, for the avoidance of doubt, the Federal Government has no options. It has only one option, namely, to appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court. And the exercise of this latter option shall not constitute a bar to immediate compliance with the order of the Court of Appeal which directed the immediate and unconditional release of Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

    “The order made by the learned Justices of the Court of Appeal is sacrosanct and must be obeyed immediately without further ado.’’

    Arguing that no further charges can be sustained against his client, the defence lawyer stated, “On appeal, the Court of Appeal struck out the whole charge and held that the lower court had no jurisdiction to try Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

    ‘’That being so, that charge that has been pending against MNK since 2015 and contains counts of alleged offences committed by him before he escaped being killed in Nigeria in 2017, no longer exists. It has been struck out.’’

    Ejiofor in a live Facebook broadcast also flayed the Department of State Services for not releasing his client 24 hours after the court orders, describing their action as illegal.

    ‘Release Kanu immediately’

    The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, has said it was disappointed in the response of the AGF to the court judgment releasing Kanu.

    The council spokesperson for the organisation, Chief Alex Ogbonnia, in an exclusive interview with the reporter said it would be in the interest of the nation to release Kanu following the order of the court.

    Ogbonnia said, “As minister for Justice or Attorney General of the Federation, Malami is supposed to be in the position to assist the Presidency with good governance and justice. His duty, as a matter of fact, is to make sure there is justice. When we speak to this, there is nothing one can do without achieving peace.’’

    Also, a socio-political organisation, Alaigbo Development Foundation, hailed the judgment, describing it as a positive development.

    Its Secretary-General, Chief Abia Onyike, said, “It is a positive development. It shows that a peaceful resolution of the Igbo question in Nigeria is feasible.”

    Speaking in the same vein, IPOB urged the President to obey the orders of the court and release its leader.

    It reminded Buhari of his pledge to not interfere with the judicial process.

    The IPOB’s spokesman, Emma Powerful, in a statement on Friday, also commended the appellate court justices.

    According to the group, the Appeal court discharged and acquitted Kanu from all charges because of “Nigeria’s executive rascality in kidnapping and extraordinarily renditioning him from Kenya to Nigeria.’’

    The group also urged the Federal Government to fix a date for a referendum.

    Meanwhile, the Imo State government on Friday said that Governor Hope Uzodimma didn’t fault the appeal court judgment which discharged Kanu.

    The Commissioner for information and Strategy, Declan Emelumba, in a statement, said that the news content circulating online stating that Uzodimma disagreed with the verdict freeing Kanu was sponsored by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party in the state.

    But the PDP spokesperson, Collins Opuruzor, replied that the main opposition party was busy with planning to rescue the state from bad governance in 2023.

    (Punch)

  • Buhari rules out bail option for Kanu

    Buhari rules out bail option for Kanu

    The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on Thursday, ruled out bail for the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.

    He said Kanu, who is currently on trial, was being given every opportunity under the law “to justify all the uncomplimentary things said against Nigeria while he was in Britain.”

    This was as he reiterated his commitment to leave office for the next administration in May 2023.

    According to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, the President said this at a bilateral meeting with the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, on the margins of the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kigali, Rwanda.

    The statement was titled ‘Another term for me? No! The first person who tried it didn’t end very well.’

    On notions that Kanu was not allowed to see his lawyers privately, the President said the detained separatist is being given every opportunity under the law “to justify all the uncomplimentary things he said against Nigeria while he was in Britain.

    “He felt very safe in Britain and said awful things against Nigeria. We eventually got him when he stepped out of the United Kingdom, and we sent him to court. Let him defend all that he said there.”

    He said considering Kanu’s jumping of bail earlier, the Federal Government may not consider granting him such a privilege anymore.

    Buhari said, “His (Kanu’s) lawyers have access to him. Remember he jumped bail before, how are we sure he won’t do it again if he’s admitted to bail?”

    On the keenness expressed by the PM to help Nigeria in the area of security, the President said helping to stabilise Libya could be an initial good step, as the fall of Muammar Gaddafi after 42 years in power unleashed his armed guards on countries in the Sahel, “and they are causing havoc everywhere, as the only thing they know how to do is to shoot guns.”

    On the Boko Haram insurgency, Buhari said there is a serious effort to educate the people on the fact that only an unserious person could kill innocent people, “and say Allah Akbar (God is Great). God is justice. You can’t take innocent souls, and ascribe it to God. The education process is working and the people now understand Boko Haram as anti-God, and not about religion.”

    On his part, the British PM, obviously not quite familiar with the maximum two-term limit, asked if Buhari would run for office again.

    “Another term for me? No! The first person who tried it didn’t end very well,” Buhari said amidst general laughter.

    PM Johnson said he was delighted about the good news on trade between the two countries, adding that the UK was further reducing tariffs on some goods going to Nigeria.

    He described the relationship between the countries as “very strong attachment,” adding, “I just want to be sure that we are doing enough. It’s a massive partnership for us and we need to capitalise on it.”

    Johnson offered condolences on some recent attacks in Nigeria, particularly on churches.

  • 2023: Nwajiuba, Onu, Akpabio Resign Following Buhari’s Directive

    Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba; Minister of Science, Technology and Innovations, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu; and Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, yesterday, resigned from their respective positions following the directive by President Muhammadu Buhari that ministers in his cabinet who were desirous of running for elective offices should resign forthwith.

    However, Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, said he would have to consult with his constituents and the president before resigning his appointment.

    Other ministers affected by the presidential directive, who were yet to resign included Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, and Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, both of whom have joined the presidential race on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Others are Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, who is seeking to contest the governorship position in Kebbi State; Minister of State for Mines and Steel, Uche Ogah, who is running for governorship in Abia State, and Minister of Women Affairs, Paulline Tallen, who declared her ambition to contest for a senatorial seat in Plateau State.

    With few days to the party primaries ahead of the 2023 general election, Buhari yesterday ordered ministers in his cabinet who were nursing the intention to run for elective offices to resign.

    However, it was gathered that Nwajiuba had tendered his resignation letter on April 28, after the purchase of nomination and expression of interest forms for him by a group. On their part, Onu and Akpabio, it was also gathered, submitted their letters of resignation to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha.

    Briefing journalists after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided by Buhari, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the president directed that ministers with political ambitions had up till Monday, May 16, 2022, to resign.

    But presidential spokesman, Mallam Garba Shehu, in another interview, said the president’s directive to the ministers was with immediate effect.

    Speaking with journalists after the cabinet meeting, the information minister said, “The mandate I have from the president is to announce that all members of the FEC contesting for elective office must resign their ministerial cabinet appointments on or before Monday, the 16th of May, 2022.”

    Asked if the directive affected the vice president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, who had declared interest in the presidential race, Mohammed declared, “The vice president was elected, he was not appointed.”

    On the fate of other political appointees, like Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, who might also be contesting the presidential election, the minister explained that the directive was likely to be extended to non-cabinet members.

    He stated, “As of this moment, the mandate I have is for members of the Federal Executive Council. Subsequently, it might affect other political appointees, but that will be made known. If there is going to be any amendment or any inclusion, you will be informed in due course.”

    Commenting on the issue, the presidential spokesman said Buhari, at the FEC meeting, asked the ministers with political ambitions to toe the footsteps of Minister of State for Education, who had resigned before the FEC meeting.

    Shehu, who spoke in Hausa after the cabinet meeting, said, “The president has given a directive to ministers who purchased nomination forms to contest for the presidency.

    “He told them to follow the example of Minister of State for Education, Nwajiuba, who purchased form and tendered his resignation. The president said anybody who bought form to contest any elective position, excluding the vice president, should immediately resign and face his ambition. That is the directive he gave.

    “First of all, anyone aspiring for the presidency should not remain in position. What I want people to understand is that whether there is law or no law the president is the one who appoints and he has power to remove any appointee. He has asked them to immediately resign, so we are waiting to see what they will do.”

    He added that a circular would soon be issued by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to explain the category of political appointees to be affected by the presidential directive.

    Shehu said, “I will advise that you wait for the circular that would be issued by the secretary to the government. The circular will explain in details those affected.”

    While reacting to the development, Ngige said the president gave a window for those that needed clarification on his pronouncement to meet him, adding that he would meet Buhari for explanation. He added that the ministerial position he occupied was held in trust for the government and his state, adding that he would consult them before taking any decision.

    Ngige said, “I have no reaction for now because the president said if anyone wants clarifications, the person should meet him.

    “So I have to consult him and consult my constituents, Anambra State, because I am holding the office for the government and my constituents.”

    Meanwhile, a coalition of civil society organisations (CSOs) commended Buhari’s instruction to the ministers with political ambitions to resign.

    The CSOs had on Tuesday asked the president to relieve the ministers with interest in vying for elective offices of their duties or face a mass action from Nigeria.

    A statement from the CSOs yesterday read, “The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), and the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) commend Mr. President for taking this laudable step and listening to the call of Nigerians towards a free and fair election, following the issuance of his directives that all members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) running for elective office must submit their letters of resignation on or before Monday, the 16th of May, 2022.”

    The statement added, “We hope that this directive takes full effect pending legislation on the Court of Appeal’s decision to void Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act 2022, which made it mandatory for political appointees to resign from office before they could vote as delegates or vie for any elective position.

    “It is worthy of note to mention that this action puts to bed worries of complicity in the impunity with which some political appointees have expressed their political interests ahead of the upcoming general election in total disregard for the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and the sensibilities of Nigerians whose collective resources have been diverted to satisfy personal political ambitions.

    “These illegalities have been well condemned by the public and the president’s decision at this time is, indeed, a welcome one and reflects a responsiveness to the yearnings of the citizenry.”

    The CSOs also called on all political parties to demonstrate ethical and moral standards that ensure a democratic election and avoid the commercialisation and proliferation of money politics, which disqualified patriotic Nigerians from partaking in the elections.

    (thisdaylive)

  • Buhari denies ordering Senate to remove Section 84(12) from Electoral Act

    President Muhammadu Buhari, on Thursday at a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, denied ordering the Senate to remove the contentious Section 84 (12) from the amended Electoral Act 2022.

    The President’s denial which was contained in a counter affidavit filed on his behalf by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, (SAN), in response to a suit filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), against him and 12 others, noted that he only expressed reservations and concerns in respect of the aspect of the Act.

    In the joint counter affidavit signed by Buhari and Malami to dismiss the PDP’s claims in the suit, the AGF explained that the President, on February 25, “gave a proper, full and unconditional assent to the amended Electoral Act with the particular section 84 (12) which reads:

    “No political appointee at any level shall be a voting delegate or be voted for at the convention or congress of any political party for the purpose of the nomination of candidates for any election.”

    In the counter suit, Buhari averred that the claims of PDP in its suit against him and the Federal Government on the Electoral Act were “totally false and replete with gross untruths aimed at misleading the court to give judgment against them.”

    “The first defendant (President Buhari) assented to the Electoral Bill but did not give conditions or directives to the National Assembly in the manner erroneously deposed to by the plaintiff (PDP),” the counter affidavit said.

    “At no time did the first defendant give any directive to the management or leadership of the National Assembly as regards the removal of section 84 (12) of the Electoral Act 2022 from the Act.

    “On March 8, 2022, the first defendant officially wrote the Senate President and House of Representatives Speaker to express his concerns about Section 84 (12) of the Electoral Act and formally requested for amendment to be effected on the section so as to eliminate area of infraction with the Constitution.

    “I am aware that the National Assembly neither accepted nor acted on the opinion or suggestion of President Buhari,” it added.

    The AGF added that only the Court of Appeal can restore Section 84 (12) into the Electoral Act, 2022, insisting that the PDP only challenged the legality or otherwise of the National Assembly tinkering with the Electoral Act, after it had been signed into law by President Buhari.

    (Ripples)

  • Imo explosion: Buhari orders clampdown on illegal refineries

    President Muhammadu Buhari has described the explosion that rocked an illegal crude oil refinery in Abaezi forest in Ohaji-Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State as a national disaster,.

    He, therefore, directed the armed forces, security and intelligence agencies to intensify clampdown on illegal refineries following reported deaths of tens of people in the disaster.

    According to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, Buhari said responsibility for the loss of lives and property must squarely lie with the sponsors of the illegal refinery, “who must all be caught and made to face justice.”

    Conveying his condolences and the full depth and range of the nation’s shock and trauma, to the families of the victims, the Ohaji Egbema community, and the government and people of Imo State, the president urged community leaders, the police, and the secret service not to allow occurrence of the heart-breaking incident in any part of the country again.

    (Sun)

  • Presidency: Bishop Kukah’s utterances dividing Nigeria

    The Presidency, yesterday, knocked critics who have accused President Muhammadu Buhari of nepotism, poor leadership and graft.

    Particularly, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, in his Easter message, had lamented that the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government had destroyed Nigeria, impoverished and divided citizens along ethnic lines.

    But spokesman for the president, Mr. Femi Adesina, in a tweet, defended his boss saying: “Those who divided Nigeria with their mouths, with evil, unguarded speaking, are the ones now accusing President Buhari. How sad! Their wicked intentions shall not come to pass.”

    However, Nigerians have flayed Mr. Adesina. President of Middle Belt Forum, Dr. Pogu Bitrus, last night accused him of engaging in propaganda to earn his salary. He said what Kukah said was correct to the extent that for the first time, people have come to openly profess hatred for a particular tribe, a trend never witnessed in the contemporary history of the country.

    “Even the Hausa have come to hate the Fulani because of the actions of this government. Today, tribalism and nepotism have become the rule in appointments. So, what Kukah said is correct. We have never been as divided as we are today. Let the government’s spokesman continue with his propaganda. He has to say what he said to earn his salary, but the truth remains. We pray that within the remaining days of this government, the president will do the needful. We feel he still has an opportunity to mend fences and leave a country where all the people will see as their own, not one where people feel divided, marginalised and hate other tribes because of what is going on,” he said.

    President of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Yerima Shettima, said Kukah was not saying anything different from the realities faced by Nigerians owing to the failure of the President Buhari’s government. But he said the Catholic cleric cannot extricate himself from the ongoing crisis, having failed to raise the alarm before the 2015 election.

    He said government had not done well and called on Nigerians not to make the mistake of 2015 in 2023 because any attempt to do that would spell doom for the country. “What we should do is to sit down and reflect on how to forge ahead.”

    National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndibo, Chief Alex Ogbonnia, said government’s anger with Kukah was more about the person who said it and how it was said. “The economy is poor and there is no security. We are talking about people that were displaced from their homes, unknown gunmen, terrorists, Boko Haram, kidnappers, cost of living, epileptic nature of electricity, school that is not in session and general dilapidation of Nigeria, but we are saying that in all these, we have a team that can put things in order and that team is the Igbo. Igbo are creative, resourceful and with that tenacity, there will be a turnaround in Nigeria,” he said.

    Former president, Aka Ikenga, Chief Goddy Uwazurike, also berated Adesina for passing the buck by accusing Bishop Kukah of destroying Nigeria. He advised other Islamic and Christian cleric to join the Sokoto Catholic cleric to speak out against all the evils going on in the country.

    “Femi Adesina completely misunderstood the meaning of the sermon. Sermon means the ability to speak out to the congregation and that is what Kukah did…Kukah is not destroying anything; he is actually speaking out as a man of conscience, and any clergyman, whether of the Islamic or Christian conscience, who does not speak out about what is happening in Nigeria is a charlatan.”

    Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) also backed Bishop Kukah. In a statement by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, it said:“The respected Catholic bishop was on point when he said every aspect of our national life has been grossly broken since President Muhammadu Buhari came into office in May 2015. Everything he said cannot be further from the truth.

    “In all ramification, the president and his entire cabinet have failed in the government’s primary responsibility, which according to Section 14 (2)(b) of the Nigerian constitution, is: ‘The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government’.

    “Monthly, vicious insurgents, killer herdsmen, and gunmen slaughter hundreds of innocent Nigerians in Kaduna, Zamfara, Borno, Yobe, Plateau, Taraba, Imo, Enugu, Ebonyi, and other states. Sadly, these terrorists and enemies of the country walk freely, unarrested and unprosecuted by the Buhari regime while security agents pander around, sparing the killers while the president gives empty marching orders and unsympathetic condolence messages.”

     

    •Failed country

    Anglican Bishop of Nike Diocese, Enugu State, Rt. Rev. Christian Onyia, said it was right to refer to Nigeria as a failed state because the three basic things that keep a nation alive have collapsed. He listed those basic things as economy, education and security.

    Speaking at a pre-synod press conference of the diocese in his office, he said the situation needed not just prayers by Christians, but the faithful living out their Christian lives in a manner that challenges and corrects the anomalies in the country.

    “I say it and can go to any length to maintain that Nigeria as a nation has failed because the three basic things that make a nation survive have collapsed. Our economy has collapsed, our school system has collapsed and there is no security; these are the three things that make a nation either great or fail. Because our economy has failed, this morning as I was listening to news the president is asking for more borrowings, he wants to borrow more. You know Nigeria now lives on borrowed money and will continue to borrow… The Church has prayed and prayed, let’s stop deceiving ourselves, let’s wake up and act the prayer. That is why I have been mobilising our people here to go get their voters card because it is time. We’ve prayed enough, let’s now demonstrate it, let’s choose our leaders, those we feel will have at least the fear of God, who are ready to die.”

    (Sun)