Urgent Solutions and Constitutional Responsibilities of the Nigerian Government.

Since the Child Rights Act has been domesticated in Nigeria and recognizes all rights and privileges of the girl-child, the onus of enforcement of the laws protection of this endangered species rests squarely on all governments! It is their joint responsibilities to ensure free early health care and primary to secondary education, conducive welfare and housing facilities, for them and their parents, portable water supplies, neighbourhood security arrangements, etc.
We are very much aware that the implementation of the letters of the Act through the existing Child Rights Implementation Committees across the nation had been enormous, but not insurmountable; therefore it becomes mandatory for them to invoke all government machineries and apparatuses at their disposal to compel all government agencies to implement all of the set out suggestions, especially in the areas of tight security arrangements for the girl-child at home, school and recreation! We also suggest that at the grassroots and communities levels, the local chiefs and elders should involve the services of vigilante groups who would watch over their own kith and kin, without allowing them to be exposed to predators whether at the streams, markets or even playgrounds!
But it is saddening that the Nigeria Police Force, which is an integral member of the Child Rights Act Implementation Committees and on which the major duty of implementing security duties for safety of the girl-child squarely rests, has defaulted in the KATSINA ABDUCTION CASE which is still trending! The Commissioner of Police of that State told the World that his organisation had no prior knowledge of the illicit and criminal abduction of a minor into the purported child marriage but had, after "thorough investigation", advised the minor (now a guest of the Emir), to return to her parents! This decision and conclusion of the Commissioner is unacceptable to all well-meaning and patriotic Nigerians - most especially members of the Change Administration of President Buhari!
We advise that the Inspector General of Police takes over the case, rectify all harms done and save the new image of the Force by enforcing all relevant laws to send the minor back to her parents before she was subjected to all manner of inhuman treatments since she had no constitutional rights to make a "consent" decision in respect of such sensitive issue as marriage!

The Word of God says that, “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD; and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate." (Psalm.127:3-5).
THE GIRL-CHILD IS OUR INSURANCE FOR THE NEXT GENERATION - SHE MUST BE SHIELDED FROM EXTINCTION! Amen.

By Dr Tunde Olufon. 08130669886, 08058436756 dvdolufon@gmail.com.

The Health Hazard of Vesico-Virgina Fistula (VVF)!

When a girl-child, though neither biologically matured nor prepared for sexual activities and child-bearing but brutally forced into the act, the resultant damage is the rupture of her uterus that gives rise to VVF and other complications. VVF is an abnormal communication between the bladder and the virgina causing urinary incontinence which results in unrestricted urination as a result of such damage! It is very instructive for the insensitive and demonized male adults who disregard the tenderness of the female physique and anatomy to violate them brutally, that the girl-child in any part of the world possess similar biological features and as the weaker vessels should therefore, have the right to protection, psychological stability and a decent healthy life without such harassments!
Since the domestication of the Child Rights Act by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and 22 other States, several Non-governmental Organisations (NGO's), and Civil Society Organisations (CSO's), have advocated that other State governments should follow suit and exercise the political will to implement not only the letter but also the spirit of the Act so that these innocent children would not continue to experience uncertain existence like the lower mammals which were permanently at the mercy of human predators! We believe that there could not be a better time than now for governments to fulfil the social contract promises documented in their political manifestoes by ensuring the principles of gender equality and empowerment of the girl-child through sound and qualitative education!
We also advocate the elimination of negative cultural, traditional and forceful culture of child marriage, child labour, female genital mutilation, sexual exploitation and abuse, including the unholy attitude of treating the girl-child as inferior to his male counterpart!
In July 2000, the Child Rights Act which incorporated all rights and consolidated all laws which provided for the protection and care of the Nigerian child into a single law was passed by the National Assembly and signed into law by President Olusegun Obasanjo.
In 2003, according to UNICEF's Report, Nigeria adopted the Child Rights Act to domesticate the Convention on the Rights of the Child and was subsequently passed at the Federal level, but in spite of all these documental efforts, not much effect of protection of the girl-child had been recorded in the country.
An Africa Union Report, quoted by UNICEF on the rights and welfare of the Nigerian child, revealed that 6.000 children were in prison and detention centres across the country and that girls made up less than 10% because their involvement with the law was always as result of criminal acts committed against them, such as Rape, Sexual exploitation and Trafficking!

By Dr 'Tunde Olufon. 08130669886, 08058436756. dvdolufon @gmail.com.

THE GIRL- CHILD OF THE INFAMOUS NIGERIAN "CHILD RIGHTS ACT"!

The pro-creation vessel is in danger of extinction! She is in a dire strait; being battered from all angles! The GIRL-CHILD cannot defend herself from the invasion of her privacy; neither can the Nigerian law protect her from human wolves in sheep clothing and adult predators! When it is not a household enemy - like a father, uncle, cousin, male sibling or houseboy that forcibly took away her pride of purity, it was a boy in her school, a male teacher or kidnappers! Though the GIRL-CHILD is the cradle of life expectancy and source of population increase and sustenance, this endangered species was always a vulnerable prey to the warped and unsound mind! The other day, 14-year-old Ese Oruru was dutifully supporting her mother with chores at their local food restaurant when an older male customer brain-washed and took her on a long journey from Bayelsa to Kano State, where she was forcibly initiated into conjugal rites and became a girl-wife and a nursing mother!
The case of another 14-year-old who was also recently abducted to Katsina State and married off to an older man without her parents' consent was still generating a lot of debate on the social media at the time of this publication, yet, the Nigerian 2003 Version of the Child Rights Act, which was incorporated and adopted from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF's) Charter for universal laws on child protection was supposed to be actively in existence! From time immemorial, when civilization was alien to the shores of Nigeria, historians said that child-marriage was a common phenomenon amongst diverse tribes and religious beliefs and cultures, but were always contractual and with the expressed permission and consents of all families involved. During those dark days, it was said that because those girls were minors - between 9 to 13 years when betrothed, - they were usually put into the custody of their spouses' parents to nurture until they were fully matured into womanhood.

But in the 21st Century when there were international laws to protect the girl-child, caution had been thrown to the wind while even a distinguished and educated former Nigerian governor and presently a serving Senator brazenly married and bragged about his "conquest “over a 13-year-old minor whom he took for a "wife" because the said Child Rights Act was an exclusive Federal Legislation which had no binding force of law amongst the States, since only 22 out the 36, had domesticated the statute!
Gone are the days when woman purity was highly esteemed, cherished, protected and defended as a sacred global culture that should be preserved until the first night of married couples! Not long ago in August, 2016, a Ugandan herbalist was arrested for having illicit carnal knowledge with over 100 young girls with the consent of their parents who paid him handsomely for the despicable acts in fulfilment of certain cultural/ritual beliefs of procuring fruitfulness in marriage!
Nigeria on its part had condoned for too long, the proliferation of commercial "girl-child baby factories" in virtually all the six geo-political zones of the nation, which consistently provided safe havens for the endangered species who were either products of broken homes or peer group negative influences/pressures! There is of course the issue of girl-child physical abuse when engaged as house-help or slave and also the trafficking of innocent minor into prostitution at very tender age which had taken phenomenal dimensions mostly in African and Asian countries with the connivance of some parents, guardians or close relatives in view of the inducements of commercial gains.
Recently in Nigeria, 21 out of the 218 Boko Haram-abducted teenage Chibok Secondary School girls of the North East State of Bornu, were released after over two years of incarceration since 14th April, 2014, but it is disheartening that they had been debased, dehumanized, randomly and severally abused, physically, mentally and forcibly initiated into motherhood by their captors! All the same, we give glory to God that they have been reconciled to their loved ones as we look forward to another batch of 83 whose release was still being negotiated by the Federal Government.

By Dr 'Tunde Olufon. 08130669886, 08058436756. dvdolufon @gmail.com.

The British Broadcasting Corporation [BBC], can boast of a wealth of experience in qualitative, incisive and factual reportage of several decades in the broadcasting industry of dissemination of breaking/trending news or personality interviews across the globe and might not be challenged or faulted.
But what this outfit could not boast of, was the expression of their genuine intentions in the frequent broadcast of controversial news or personality interviews that could ignite domestic political or international wranglings of far-reaching dimensions and consequencies of acrimony and disunity between otherwise stable polities!
It is in the public domain that the First Lady of Nigeria, Mrs. Aisha Muhammadu Buhari, granted an interview to the BBC Hausa Section which the Nigerian Government politely requested the agency not to broadcast because of its controversial content and that the Nigerian President and his party had been on the receiving end of local and international criticisms over BBC 's blunt refusal!

We recall how this same agency quoted British ex-Prime Minister, David Cameron, who told Queen Elizabeth II, during her 90th birthday cocktail that Nigeria and Pakistan were the most corrupt nations in the world while he (Cameron), hosted the President to an anti-corruption conference summit in London!

What can BBC boast of as its corporate gain in the ongoing acrimonious and most-detrimental negative comments against the President who was on a State visit to the Federal Republic of Germany at that time?

Why did it turn down the humble and genuine request of an administration of a Change Government which had begun to make impact in charting a new standard of life that would enable the citizens to relegate (to the background), the issue of pecuniary gains as a priority of life or was it an interview with ulterior agenda?

Could it be that the BBC would have preferred the scenarios of past administrations which were characterized by instititional corruption in which all manner of political and official appointments were predicated on political patronage of "who knows who", because the crux of the grouse against the present administration was its uncompromising stand of neither SHARING OFFICIAL POSITIONS NOR THE MONEY!

We believe that the present crop of Changed Nigerians are those who would not sell their patriotic birthrights FOR PLATES OF RED POTTAGE; therefore those charlatans that have troubled the First Lady with multitude of complaints of not being politically rewarded for their "contributions", to All Progressives Congress party's success at the 2015 polls should be reminded that their rewards are embeded in the overall implementation of the party's manifesto in spite of the temporary economic recession and hyper inflation being generally experienced!
We can categorically inform all Nigerians that the rumours surrounding the HIJACK BY A CABAL WITHIN THE APC 's GOVERNMENT as postulated by Senator Saraki and his cohorts is nothing short of the figments of their imagination because the GRAPE HAS TURNED SOUR FOR PILFERERS OF THE COMMON WEALTH who pressured unsuccessfully to scrap the Treasury Single Account (TSA), for their covetous advantage!

Do we need to remind BBC of marital spiritual injuction which state's that: "........What therefore what God has joined together, let no man put asunder"?

By Dr ‘Tunde Olufon. 08130669886,08058436756. dvdolufon@gmail.com.

WHO IS AN ASS? THE LAW, THE INTERPRETER, OF THE ENFORCER?


The Nigeria Judicial Council (NJC) is the only Constitutional Body responsible to INTERPRETE the law for disciplinary action against erring judges; therefore, every complaint against them must be reported to the body for necessary actions and sanctions against indicted members of the revered Bench. The DSS is an Agency empowered under an amended Act of the National Assembly (NASS), to both investigate and ENFORCE the law in matters relating to crimes, corruption and threats to national security and since judges occupy sensitive positions in the dispensation of justice while the Judiciary is regarded as the "last hope of the common man", it is imperative for both bodies to work in unison.
But it took THREE DAYS of almost 72 hours for the NJC, to condemn and issue an official statement in respect of the DSS sting operation against the suspected corrupt judges because of their complicity in the entire episode as follows: (1) NJC was informed of the planned DSS sting operation in February 2016, when it faulted the submissions which were not accompanied by a sworn affidavit! (2) DSS went to a court of competent jurisdiction to swear on oath that all allegations of corruption against the judges were authentic and backed with genuine and proven evidences, but it took the operatives about two months to get an approval! (3) NJC requested for time to STUDY, SCRUTINIZE, ANALIZE, VERIFY and AUTHENTICATE all submissions for necessary disciplinary action! As at the time of the nocturnal sting operation on 8/9th October, 2016, NJC was still studying DSS documents and evidences submitted by DSS with sworn affidavit in March 2016!
Who is the ASS - the foolish or the stupid in the entire scenario? The bold move to arrest and detain the "untouchable judges" by the DSS is a re-awakening call to the Change Government and Nigerians at large that it was high time to expunge all obsolete, archaic, anachronistic and time-wasting laws that still our legal shelf to allow for up to date and efficient statutes that are trending in the 21st Century digital universe! Presently, some very corrupt serving legislators, and yet to be unmasked, civil servants of the Executive Arm are still walking free and earning salaries and allowances from the sweat, labour and taxes of the TALAKAWAS of this nation because the LAW IS AN ASS! What an irony of life! The Word of God says: "THOU SHALT KNOW THE TRUTH, AND THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE." (John.8:32). The truth is that President Buhari and his Vice, Prof. 'Yemi Oshinbajo - a distinguished Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), MUST PRIORTIZE A SPECIAL BILL TO AMMEND ALL RETROGRESSIVE LAWS THAT WEAKEN THE "MODUS OPERANDI" OF OUR VARIOUS INSTITUTIONS which portray Nigeria as a laughing stock among the comity of nations and quickly forward same to the National Assembly for urgent passage into fresh, workable and unambiguous laws!
THE WAR AGAINST CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA MUST REMAIN WHOLISTIC! Imagine if some American Judicial Council had placed some clog in the wheel of progress of the FBI in their regular sting operations, this world power would not always remain a reference point! A Word is enough for the Wise!

By Dr 'Tunde Olufon. 08130669886,08058436756. dvdolufon@gmail.com.

STING OPERATION AGAINST SOME JUDGES BY DSS!


The latest and most recent criticism of the APC Government was in respect of the "Sting Operation" against SEVEN alleged corrupt High and Supreme Court judges, by operatives of the Department of Secret Service [DSS], which was adjudged as reckless, barbaric and an abuse of the rule of law against such eminent personalities of high calibre because it was forcibly carried out in the night through the breaking down of doors and barriers, in order to gain entrance into their homes; contrary to Section 37, Fundamental Rights of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Constitution, 1999! First to vehemently condemn the operation was President of the Nigerian Bar Association [NBA], followed by all contracted critics of the opposition party, the Rivers State Governor, who obstructed the operatives from searching a judge's residence, where it was alleged that about $2 million USD was secretly removed to an unknown destination, while he, (the governor), stalled them! The Chief Justice of the Federation diplomatically described the whole episode as "unfortunate and sad ", while former Head of State, Dr. Yakubu Gowon, opined that if due process was not followed, it would amount to a "threat to democracy"! The Nigerian Judicial Council [NJC], which is the disciplinary body of the Judiciary, met for THREE consecutive days before making the following pronouncements! All said and done, what are the implications of regarding some citizens of Nigeria as "sacred cows", while the under privileged down-trodden who bear all the brunt of the society were usually castigated as inconsequential’s? Outside of the constitutional immunity clause, which shields the President, his Vice, State Governors and their deputies, from criminal prosecution, SHOULD ANY NIGERIAN BE PLACED ABOVE THE LAW OF THIS DEMOCRATIC NATION?

According to Wikipedia, a sting operation by the Federal Bureau of Investigations [FBI], in the 1980s, code-named "Operation Greyford unearthed massive corruption in the Cook County Courts in which almost 100 lawyers and judges who were eventually sent to jail, disbarred or suspended for their illegal actions; while one who could not bear the shame (in another operation), committed suicide! It is instructive to inform our readers that sting operation is not limited to members of the BAR and BENCH, but extends to all illegal activities from labour union corruption to drug trafficking, organized crime activity etc. According to the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, the DSS operatives acted within the frame work of the rule of law because they had well- documented warrants of search and arrest and even when prevented by the sitting governor of Rivers State from carrying out their legitimate duties, they exercised professional restraint to avoid a calamity!

DSS sources also threw more light on the "Sting Operation" as follows:
1. That investigations into allegations of corrupt enrichment and bribe takings by the Judges in question had been on for over six months.
2. That litigants who were solicited for bribes by these suspected Judges co-operated with the operatives by meeting the demands of the Judges who were monitored and evidences in form of videos, phone conversations, banks statement of accounts, and several incriminating evidences including Closed Circuit TV camera footages, were collated against them before the surprise operation of 8/9th October, 2016, was carried out!
3. Some of the accused Judges opened bank accounts in the names of their wives, daughters, sons, etc. for the illicit funds but were exposed through Bank Verification Numbers [BVN], in which pictures of account owners were captured!
4. One particular Judge was alleged to have camouflaged in a funny dress to meet and collect some US dollars bribe from a litigant at a shopping mall without suspecting that he was captured by a CCTV camera lens!
5. Incriminating evidences in forms of bank documents, and monies in local and foreign currencies totalling a sum of over N93 million naira was recovered as evidence against the accused judges during the said operation!
6. Some of them co-operated while others did not, but the good news was that, they were all granted bail in self recognition within 24 hours of the operation and interrogation and were to report back to the investigators at appointed times.
It is very true that these eminent jurists are very important personalities in the society, it is also true that they should be accorded due respect but not at the expense of jeopardising justice and internal security of the masses whose work and sweat pay their salaries!

By Dr 'Tunde Olufon. 08130669886, 08058436756. dvdolufon@gmail.com.

Since the advent of the new Change Administration, there had been an orchestrated gang-up of vicious criticisms by some unpatriotic Nigerians against every move made by the President and his economic team to sanitize the polity of the stench and rot of endemic institutional corruption bequeathed by past military and civilian governments in 54 years of the post - independent nation! No one was put in doubt, right from the campaign period of the 2015 General Elections, in what direction the All Progressives Congress [APC], was headed: (1) Total war against and elimination of corruption; (2) Resuscitation of the fledging and ailing economy; and (3) The re-engineering, overhaul and re-organisation of all security agencies for the enabling strategies to contain, defeat and totally eliminate the national insecurity created through six, very bloody years (2009-2015), of Boko Haram insurgency which almost destroyed the very foundation of democratic governance of Nigeria! And, of course, the massive support and unprecedented turn out for the APC, on all election days, (in spite of rigging gimmicks, delaying tactics and money-induced voting pattern, employed by the then ruling People’s Democratic Party [PDP] ), were very clear indications of where the pendulum swung and favoured the populist Party into a landslide, convincing and undisputable victory, which prompted Dr. Ebele Jonathan to congratulate his opponent before the official announcement of final results by Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC]!

Those who swore by the "graves of their ancestors", that President Muhammadu Buhari, would never win the election, were all infuriated with former President Jonathan, faulted and scolded him for not refusing the authentic results; and have in the last 17 months, become "thorn in the flesh" of the new administration in the area of persistent baseless and unwarranted criticisms of every move of government! They have criticized, him for embarking on several unnecessary international journeys, not rescuing the over 218 Chibok Secondary School Girls, abducted by Boko Haram terrorists, since 14th April, 2014, even when 23 of them were rescued recently; for failing to revive the economy which snow-dived due to international crude oil glut and price somersault from $100 - 48 USD, in 2014; for being a religious bigot who planned to Islamize Nigeria; for loop-sided Federal appointments which favoured the Northerners; for employing security agents to harass only Southern politicians; for "unleashing" the EFCC, DSS and POLICE against PDP Opposition members; for employing "incompetent" ministers who have no solutions for the current economic recession; for not inviting former economists who served under former Presidents Obasanjo and Jonathan, who piloted the economic ship of the nation and ran it aground; for the failures in the power, roads, housing and health sectors; for not listening to the advice of distinguished, revered and eminent Nigerians at home and the Diaspora on matters relating to economic competence; for not respecting the constitutional laws of separation of powers between the Executive, Legislators and the Judiciary; etc. Though, these contracted critics had refused to see anything good in the APC Government, they were unable to stop the successes that have been recorded so far in respect of the steady and tacit defeat of terrorism by Boko Haram, the quick diversification from oil to agricultural income within the short period, and all welfare programmes specifically geared towards the alleviation of mass poverty, amongst women, children and the elderly, in spite of the lean purse of government at inception. Presently, more money was being pumped into the economy to support the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMSEs), which are the backbone and foundation to economic buoyancy of any serious administration which is poised to fulfil its social contract obligations to the citizenry. Apart from the monies looted by Nigerians and deposited in foreign banks, which are being recovered, the World Bank is prepared to support the APC Government with some favourable loan to overcome the travail of the transient economic recession. Enough of these criticisms against Buhari!

By Dr 'Tunde Olufon. 08130669886, 08058436756. dvdolufon@gmail.com

IS NIGERIA'S LEGISLATURE THE "WEEPING OR THIEVING CHILD”?

At every fora where the Nigerian Legislature fell under criticisms for inferior performances in the quality and content of its constitutional duties of law- making for the peace, order and good government of the Federation, the Nigerian Legislator never missed the opportunity to repeat the well-rehearsed parliamentary rhyme that; "Nigeria's Legislature was always the unfortunate weeping child of the three tiers of government in all past military aberration because it was usually prevented from functioning through the suspension of the Constitution." It is not in dispute that duties of the Legislature are very complex, intricate and deserve diligence, painstaking approach and dedication, but it is also very instructive for Nigerians to reject the doctrine that it has failed to perform optimally in its constitutional duties of law-making, investigations and oversights now because it was the "weeping child" which was stripped from performing its duties in almost 30 years of military rule, while both the Executive and the Judiciary functioned consistently and judiciously! Patriotic citizens do not need all the time in the world to prepare to serve their nations if they have sincere intentions!
Though Nigeria began its political experience as an independent and democratic nation in 1960, and though it was short-lived through military interregnum and that the First to the Third Legislative Assemblies failed, (in view of the coupists allegations of maladministration), yet those short periods were documented and would always remain in the annals of history as point of reference for present generation of Nigerians and for posterity! We strongly believe that intending legislators should have prepared adequately for the enormous task ahead through sound political education and orientation; though they might not have monopoly of continuity except that they were re- elected and such checks would always throw up fresh and new entrants who would have to learn the ropes in the arena of legislative environment from the beginning, yet, such unavoidable process should not diminish the quality of service and the purposeful and patriotic determination to serve the nation with diligence!

THE WEEPING CHILD OF MILITARY COUPS!
Nigeria experienced SIX military coups in 56 years of its independence as a nation during which the LEGISLATURE was usually castrated and the CONSTITUTION suspended to make way for martial laws and military dictatorship! At such periods all forms of politicking remained banned and suspected defiants were hunted and detained at the mercy of the Head of State while some stooges and boot lickers were hand picked to support military aberration, excesses and abuse of the rule of law, from among the civil servants for executive convenience and members of the JUDICATURE, to support "kangaroo justice"!
At the restoration of the present democratic experience which has now clocked over 17 years, Legislators still felt short-changed and had to make up for all salaries, allowances, emoluments etc, which eluded them for about 30 years and the ripple effects of their greed have been reflected in annual gaguantous appropriation, now at N150 billion naira as RUNNING COST, which has wiped out all their tears as most of them have become multi-millionaires and billionaires within the very short period! The Constitutution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,1999, Constitution approves 360 Geo-Political Constituency legislators for the House of Representatives, (HOR), and 109 Senators for the Upper Chamber, to jointly make laws for good governance of the nation but recent revelations of financial recklessness in the HOR by a ranking member, have confirmed several years of speculations and allegations of a secret Appropriation Office, which was not subjected to Revenue Mobilisation Allocation And Fiscal Commission's (RMAFC), scrutiny or control! The former Clerk of the National Assembly, Mr. Maikasuwa, who was jointly charged with Senators Saraki and Ekweremadu, in the celebrated forgery case of the Senate House Rules, was ordered by an Abuja High Court, in March 2015, to make available to a Non-Government Organisation, Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP), NASS SECRETIVE CONSTITUENCY ALLOWANCES earned by Nigerian Lawmakers, but because he appealed the judgement, the matter was yet to be put to rest!

However, the Editorial Board of the weekly Zion B-BC Newsletter wish to draw attention of the TALAKAWAS - the TAX PAYERS and the ELECTORATE - to the following revelations by Abdulmumin Jibrin, a ranking member and an insider in the House of Representatives whom the LORD has opened his mouth to expose the rot of financial mismanagement in the hallowed House, even at this austere period of national economic recession because his uncontrollable outbursts are the answers to our several prayers and supplications to the Almighty God over institutional impunity in government! The unedited version of his submissions to the WORLD are reproduced below unedited:

"HOW WE SHARED NIGERIA MONEY BY HON. Abdulmumin JUBRIN "I got N650 million as my running cost as the Chairman of Appropriation Committee. Speaker Yakubu Dogara got N1.5 billion, His Deputy Yusuf Lasun got N800 million. House Majority Leader Femi Gbajabiamila got N1.2 billion; Deputy Majority Leader Buba Jibrin got N1.2 billion. House Whip Alhassan Ado Doguwa got N1.2 billion, Deputy House Whip got N700 million. House Minority Leader Leo Ogor got N1.2 billion, Deputy Minority Leader Onyema got N800 million. Minority Whip got N700 million, Deputy Minority Whip got N700 million. I have documents to back up all these.

"TO ALL HONOURABLE MEMBERS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ABUJA.
My dear Colleagues, BURDEN OF PROOF OF EVIDENCE: RUNNING COST OF HONOURABLE MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
"I wish to draw your attention to the fact that since you suspended me yesterday and the suggestion of the Ethics Committee report that my allegations were generalized and without proof, I have come under intense public scrutiny and pressure to prove that there exists systemic corruption in the House. I have taken it as a responsibility to prove to the public that the House is a den of systemic corruption. As colleagues, I have bound with many of you and built a life long friendship.
"I have some of you that I hold in high esteem. If you end up at the receiving end of the actions I will be taking up in the next few days, I want you to know there is nothing personal but commitment and fervent desire to ensure that corruption is wiped out of the House and reforms that will restore the battered image of the House and take back the House to the Nigerian people is implemented. Consequent upon the above and before I proceed with the aggressive steps I intend to take, I hereby DEMAND that if you have illegally taken or stolen any money meant for the RUNNING COST OF YOUR OFFICES FOR YOUR ENTIRE STAY IN THE HOUSE, YOU SHOULD RETURN THE MONEY WITHIN ONE WEEK TO THE CLERK OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY AND FOR THE PURPOSE OF CLARITY, I AM REFERRING TO ABOUT 10 MILLION NAIRA YOU COLLECT FROM TAX PAYERS' MONEY MONTHLY. THE CLERK WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH OFFICIAL ACCOUNT DETAILS, FAILURE OF WHICH I WILL TAKE NECESSARY ACTION TO ENSURE THAT YOU RETURN ANY MONEY STOLEN AND STAND WITNESS AGAINST YOU IN CASE OF PROSECUTION.

"I have written to the Clerk of the National Assembly to stand by in anticipation. In the face of the revenue challenges and biting hardship the country is currently facing, there is no better time the country needs such money than now. In the case of the Presiding and Principal Officers, in addition to my demand in this letter which applies to them too, I have written them yesterday and gave them 72 hours ULTIMATUM to make public the total amount they have received as running cost in their entire stay in the House, failure of which I will proceed with necessary legal action to compel them to make the total amount each of them have received public. There are other issues of monumental corruption in the House that I will be raising in the following weeks which we must all deal with, but first let’s get done with this one.
"Thank you. God bless. Hon Abdulmumin Jibrin Ph.D, MBA. APC-Kano, Kiru-Bebeji Federal Constituency, Kano."

URGENT SOLUTIONS NEEDED TO MOVE THE NATION FORWARD!
Nigerians from all walks of life had always played lip service to the agitation for the blockage of wastages of funds by the three tiers of government but from these developments, which are so glaring to all TALAKAWAS that they were being taken for a ride by their so-called representatives, it was high time that drastic measures was taken by President Buhari and his determined Change Team to attack this malaise frontally, by instructing crime detection agencies of government, who already have copies of Jibrin's Petitions, to swing into action, recover all fraudulently-acquired monies from the now SMILLING LEGISLATORS, and prosecute all who are found culpable in the shameful racket!
We also suggest that there could not be a better time than this, for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), to propose a bill for a BI-CAMERAL LEGISLASTIVE HOUSE, which will consist of only TWO REPRESENTATIVES from each State of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and which will be remunerated according to the Civil Service Financial Regulations, so that only patriotic and genuine citizens would go into politics to serve their nation. It is also expedient for the Nigerian government at this austere period of economic recession to mop up all exposed illicit monies stashed abroad by Nigerians and those yet to be recovered from fraudulent politicians at home as exposed by Hon. Jibrin, to shore up and fill all deficits in the 2016 Budget as it works assiduously to defeat the temporary economic set back. As it is written, "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach unto any people." (Proverbs.14:34).



I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

To Stop All Forms Of Insurrection And Save The Economy, All Illicit Arms Must Be Recovered And Confiscated By Federal And State Governments!  

The perennial challenge of illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW), again drew global attention at the recently concluded, 71st United Nations General Assembly, in New York, from19th – 24th September, 2016, when Nigeria's President, Muhammadu Buhari, solicited the collective resolve of other Head of States and Governments, to beat back terrorism in all its forms No one could have been in a better position to court the co-operation of his fellow world leaders than President Buhari in whose domain lie 70% of SALW in the West African sub-region inspite of the global movement against gun violence!
There was public outcry in August 2016, by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), when news broke out that there was in Nigeria, stockpile of SALW of an alarming 350million, out of the 500 million discovered to be hosted by the entire ECOWAS countries of the West Africa sub-region, and it was yet to be established that collective regional embargo had produced any meaningful impact against the terrifying menace! Judging by the activities of terrorists and militant groups within the ECOWAS countries, one was bound to wish that more stringent measures be employed by concerned governments in unison to block and man the porous borders of their territories. Beginning with Nigeria, other countries on the West African coasts, like Mali, Togo, Cote d'Ivoire, apart from hosting large proportions of SALW, are still being infiltrated by armed groups which caused social, infrastructural, economic and collateral damages, each time they struck! The outcry of August 2016, was sequel to the alarming revelation of arms stockpile in Nigeria during the United Nations Regional Peace and Disarmament In Africa, and Presidential Committee (PRESCOM), Summit on Small Arms and Light Weapons, held in Abuja, which also disclosed that SALW were in the hands of non-state actors who used the weapons to threaten lives and properties of their compatriots.

According to a Daily Trust report, three   inadequacies were identified as responsible for the outrageous statistics: 
(1). Ineffective management of the nation's porous borders;
(2).Stock pile mismanagement by security agencies, where weapons meant for government work were lent or sold to armed robbers and non- state agents and
(3) Obsolete laws used in regulating the arms.   

The current law against prohibitive arms and ammunition in Nigeria is still the 1958 Colonially-inherited and archaic Fire Arms Act which prescribed inadequate penalties for offenders in a 21st Century "wild wild west", scenario! Way back in 1966, following the January military coup de tat of Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, when violence was introduced into an otherwise peaceful communities of Nigeria through the proliferation of SALW, from internal and external vendors due to the elongated 60month-old- Biafra war, armed robberies rapidly gained momentum while internal security was thrown to the dogs! When "democracy" was briefly allowed a space between 1979-1983, the party with the highest numbers of SALW held sway at the pools through ballot boxes snatching and political brigandage that was totally alien to the electorate and Nigeria was forcibly admitted into the global union of insecure nations! Porous borders of which Nigeria can boast of over 400 of them, had been identified as the major entry points through which the SALW find their ways unhindered to spit fire and snuff out lives of innocent citizens who had always been the unfortunate victims of the maladministration in all governments - military or civilian, but unpatriotic security agents also regularly connived with arms merchants to smuggle in the weapons of mass destruction into the country for pecuniary advantages!

If three hundred and fifty million of the five hundred million illegal arms on the West African coast are hidden in Nigeria, should anyone be surprised about the high rates of crime and criminality in which sophisticated arms were usually employed to confront security agents with much professional audacity! Until the advent of the APC Government, under the determined leadership of President Buhari, Boko Haram boasted of taking over the North East Nigeria and almost did! Kidnappers and assassins are on the rampage in every state of the federation; the Niger Delta Region is under heavy bombardment of several militant groups who are bent on destroying the economy because PDP was no longer on power!

If government ever decided to dispose assets as being proposed, they should be sold through shares to masses of the public who are the "hewers of the wood and drawers of the water"! The Word of God says, "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn". (Deuteronomy. 25:4) Common Nigerians have a stake in this government of Change and we strongly believe that President Buhari and his exemplary team, would not fail them! Amen.  


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390.  08080243066   g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

MUST NIGERIA CLOSE HER BORDERS OR DISPOSE CRITICAL INFRASRTUCTURES TO SURVIVE ECONOMIC RECESSION?  

Nigeria's National Assembly (NASS), resumed plenary after eight weeks recess and the two chambers went in different directions that barely had relevant contents to improve the state of the economy which is in a temporary recession! The Senate, in an attempt to outsmart the Executive, through Senate President, 'Bukola Saraki, proffered that outright sales of critical government infrastructures would assuage the challenges of the present economic recession. The House of Representatives (HOR), on its part went into a rowdy session when Hon .Aminu Jibrin, the arrow head of the HOR 2016 Budget Padding, raised a motion and insisted that some major principal officers, including the Speaker and the Majority Leader, should step down to make way for proper investigation into his several unproved allegations against Speaker Dogara and others! But while NASS was on recess, the grapevine rumored that the Federal Government toyed with the idea of raising funds through the sales of some very active and strategic infrastructures, like the NNPC, NLNG and or the AJAOKUTA STEEL INDUSTRY, to beef up dwindling revenues from crude oil! Though government had neither confirmed nor denied the rumours making the rounds, it is instructive to note that members of the National Economic Council (NEC), are working round the clock to maintain the tempo of revenue gains from the non-oil export earnings in the agricultural, mineral resources, industrial, manufactured/food products, and transport sectors, whose productive capacities have been enhanced since the much serious drive for diversification from crude oil! And according to an authoritative Presidency source, if such a drive was ever considered by government, there would definitely be a provision for the “buy-back" option when the economy improved! Saraki who submitted that, Executive should raise capital from assets and others sources to shore up foreign reserves had been widely criticized by sound economists who believed that such policy would tantamount to robbing unborn generation of Nigerians of their inalienable national heritage of immense economic values when other options through diversification were already yielding fruits! The HOR on their part adjourned plenary last Thursday, 20th September, 2016, without meaningful debates on neither the state of nation nor of the economy!  

CLOSE THE BORDERS NOW?

Other economists and political pundits claimed that a drastic approach, like what the Chinese and Korean Socialists countries which "closed their borders" to other nations, adopted between the 19th-20th Century to  forcibly entrench socialist ideologies on a largely illiterate population, could work for Nigeria of the 21stcentury, as an option instead of discarding critical assets for pittance to political predators who are waiting on the wings to buy them with their illicit gains from OIL MONEY! According to these schools of thought, Nigerians must henceforth embrace Nigerian products and shun any form of importation in all forms in order to allow local industries to thrive with the campaign slogan drive of, “What we don’t produce, we don’t need!”  

What Are The Options Left To Salvage The Economy?

First it is important for all patriotic Nigerians to believe that the recession challenges are temporary and would be surmounted sooner than envisaged. Second, advocacy in respect of the true perspective and position of the recession must be explained by the federal government through all its information media and orientation agencies to the grass root and solicit for patience and perseverance. Third, concerted efforts should be employed by all stakeholders in the economy to stop the wastage of precious funds through criminal vandalization of the crude oil commercial pipelines in the Niger Delta Region of the country because, acts of terrorism of any dimension would always KILL THE ECONOMY of any nation; no matter the number of its natural assets! Fourth, purposeful efforts should be made to maintain the tempo of agricultural export products which had begun to pick up towards the tail end of the second quarter with encouraging statistics released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), recently. Jigawa State, according to reports had taken the lead to produce seven "Agriculture millionaires""within the past one year through bumper harvests which accrued to them for embracing generous loans from the Nigeria Bank of Industry (NBI), and that all cash crops had reduced with at least 30% in prices! We solicit an aggressive replication of the Jigawa State example in all states of the federation for the diversification policy to agricultural, minerals, industry, mining, textiles, etc. to be pursued by governors with patriotic zeal.  


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390.  08080243066   g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

THERE IS NEED FOR MASSIVE PUBLIC ADVOCACY OVER CONSUMPTION OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS (GMOs) IN NIGERIA!

Genetically Modified Foods (GM Foods), are in the Nigerian markets in spite of resistance by some Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and concerned citizens who believe that such hybrid victuals could be highly toxic, cancerous and therefore not fit for human consumption! Controversies being generated over the origin, scientific theories, official backing and approval for massive production and consumption of GM Foods in Nigeria, is shrouded in a well-articulated diplomatic pouch by government while the masses are sidelined and oblivious of arguments, for or against the necessity for that kind of alien food invasion! The fundamental concept of GM Foods was predicated on the "greater advantage" of mass agricultural production of cash crops in high demands by farmers to flood the markets with consumables and simultaneously, the much-needed export produce for foreign exchange earnings and definitely NOT because there was a dearth or shortage in supplies of foods for the teeming population!

1. What are GM Foods? They are products of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), that have changes introduced into their DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid; i.e., the chemical at the centre of the cells of living things, which controls the structure and purpose of each cell and carries the genetic information during reproduction), using the methods of genetic engineering techniques which allow for the introduction of new traits as well as greater control over traits than previous methods such as selective and mutation breeding.
2. What is "gene"? The "gene", is a part of the DNA in a cell which contains information in a special pattern received by each animal or plant from its parent and which controls its physical development, behaviour etc.
3. What is mutation? Mutation is a process through which genes change and produce permanent differences; and,
4. What is organism? Organism is a single living plant, animal, virus etc.
GM Foods or genetically modified foods produced from organisms that have had changes introduced into their DNA, using the methods of genetic engineering as opposed to the traditional cross-breeding, had been the vogue in the United States, since the first approved product was engineered to have longer shelf-life through "antisene gene" that delayed ripening in 1995. Potato was also approved for cultivation - making it the first pesticide-producing crop also in the US, in that same year.

Other genetically modified crops that received government approval in that year, according to our research, included, canola with modified oil composition (Bt maize), cotton resistant to herbicide, bromoxynil Bt cotton, glyphosate-tolerant soya beans, virus-resistant squash and another delayed ripening tomato.
By the year 2010, twenty-nine countries had planted commercialized bio-tech crops while a further 31 countries had granted regulatory approval for transgenic crops to be imported, while the US remained the leading country in the production of GM Foods in 2011, with 25 GM Crops, having received regulatory approval and last year (2015), 92% of corn, 94% of soya beans and also 94% of cotton produced in the country, were genetically modified strains! The catalogue of successes recorded in the scientific field of bio-tech advancement in genetically modified organisms further continued in 2015 when "AquAdvantage Salmon" first aquatic animal was transformed with a "growth homone", enabling it to grow all-year-round instead of during spring and summer alone and approved for food use!

In Nigeria, the introduction of GM Foods had generated a lot of controversies in the public domain, but within very insignificant percentage of the population. Opinion poll shows that the few anti-proponents of GM Foods have partially succeeded to confuse both members of the public and government officials through dissemination of falsehood that consumers of the foods would be afflicted with CANCER! The World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agriculture Organization, (FAO), Codex body, have not found anything hazardous in the use of GMO, but still not minding that position, Nigeria will ensure thorough laboratory test before releasing other GM Foods into the market to increase food production. One of the activists posited in a radio programme that the infiltration of GM Foods into the Nigerian market was a government uncertified policy which posed great danger to the nation since farmers would be "enslaved to the Western countries of US and its allies, which have patented most of the GM seeds and crops" adding that, "by accepting to consume GM Foods, the Nigerian Government has opened the gates of the country to an invasion of cancer-causing foods".
There was also an allegation that a foreign company named MOSANTO was wrongly issued with a certificate to market GM Foods in Nigeria.
However, a female Scientist, and Professor of Biology who was also on the radio programme, described the activist's alarming allegations as "half truths and mischievous" and also debunked rumours that the GM Tomatoes that were available in Nigerian markets since early 2016 were of "nylon material" in texture! She explained that the GM Tomato seeds that were distributed to Nigerian farmers were pesticide-resistant and poisonous to pests and not to human beings, and added that pests that consumed the tomatoes would die while the highly nutritious fruit would enhance the human health positively and categorically dismissed rumours that GM Foods would cause cancer as being peddled! She also said that the issue of GMO, though sensitive in nature, was beneficial to Nigerians and that those opposed to the policy could not pretend to love the citizens more than the government!
The Director General (DG), of the Nigeria Biotechnology Development Agency (NBDA), - an organization of the Federal Government, positioned to regulate and ensure safe use of biotechnology for increased food production in Nigeria and application of modern techniques to ensure that GMO's neither contradicted biodiversity nor procure any risk to human health, in an interview also confirmed the Professor's position and disclosed that Mosanto was duly appointed from 1st May, 2016, - seven months after due consideration of its application with others.
It is a fact that no manner of deaths attributable to consumption of GM Foods had been recorded in the United States of America which had championed the research into the Foods, which had been acknowledged worldwide as the best in nutrients and vitamins since 1994 till date! From all indications, the grouse of the anti-proponents of consumption of GM Foods in Africa and the Far East was not based on the advantages of mass production of nutritious food for healthy citizens but on the financial gains that would accrue to them as surrogates to some dubious foreign detractors who would prefer to import finished exotic conventional foods meant only for the elites rather than the poor masses!
They have persistently and vehemently opposed the debut of GM Foods in Nigerian markets, by insisting that Western food corporations were determined to further exploit Africa and enslave the farmers instead of enriching them and claimed that GMO's were not the best science and technology for food production and survival of the continent, but the reverse which would entail massive destruction of both soil and human existence! The NBDA Director General, dismissed all such allegations and disclosed that the GMO seeds would be distributed to Nigerian farmers free of charge and that they would become self- sufficient in the long run through harvesting and preservation of some seeds for the next planting seasons! Although, those activists had advised against Nigeria's signing of the Biosafety law that would allow the country from full participation in the GM Foods commercialization, we believe that it is in the best interest of the Change Administration to fully embrace the policy to checkmate the malnutrition deficiency and deficit in the nation - most especially among children in the IDP's camps of the North East and across the nation!

We disagree with the anti- proponents of GM Foods that the adoption of a uniform law for African nations under the umbrella of African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), was aimed at seed colonization of Africa; but instead, a right step to actually liberate the teaming poverty-stricken masses from mass extinction through non-nutritional junk foods that had been the hallmark of the economically backward continents for ages! Africans must understand that GM Foods are neither manufactured nor are they synthetic materials; they are just normal plants or animals that have been improved upon through technology to achieve a particular purpose. Genetic modification or gene technology in food production aims to identify a particular gene or a particular trait character from any organism and then move that particular gene to another organism, so that, that organism inherits that trait for nutrient enhancement. Genetically engineered organisms are generated and tested in the laboratory for desired qualities as enunciated earlier and the most common modification is to add one or more genes to an organism's "genome" - less commonly genes are removed or their expression is increased or silenced or the number of copies of a gene is increased or decreased. Once satisfactory strains are produced, the producer applies for regulatory approval to field-test them. Presently, Nigeria is marketing GM Foods that are disease and pest resistant but herbicide-tolerant, such as Maize, Soy Bean, Kanola and Cotton which are the major ones while others such as tomato, oranges and mangoes still on field testing, would soon swell the list - but GM Foods have been imported from America, Belgium and other countries to augment present local supplies.
Efforts at commercial sales of genetically modified foods is supported by a National Assembly, (NASS), Act, which was hastily passed in Nigeria at the tail end of the last administration, but fresh efforts are being mooted to re-visit the Act for possible amendment. We are aware of specific concerns which include mixing of genetically modified and non-GM products in the food supply of GMO's on the environment, the rigor of the regulatory process and consolidation of control of the food supply in companies that make and sell GMO's, but we believe the testimony of the DG who maintained that no ill-effects had been documented in the human population from GM Food. According to his position, there is a scientific consensus that currently available food derived from GM Crops, poses no greater risk to human health than conventional food; but that each GM Food needs to be tested on case-by-case basis before introduction.

However, we advocate for more enlightenment programmes by the National Orientation Agency (NOA), and the Information Ministries at all levels of government, that would explore more support for the Change Administration, whose main economic thrust is to feed all citizens with highly fortified nutritional foods! It is written: "When the righteous are in authority, people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn." (Proverbs. 29:2).
We prophesy urgent restoration of the ECONOMY, to its lost glory under the righteous government of President Muhammadu Buhari and his righteous team. Amen.



I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

World inhabitants would have been extinct long ago, but for the divine wisdom of procreation through the established institution of marriage! Past and present environmental/ecological, disasters which have devastated all countries, from coast to coast and had not ceased from threatening everyone from day to day, support this assertion. Explorers, navigators and scientists over the centuries have successfully proved that the world is a global planet made up of continents and a mass of waters inform of oceans, lakes and lagoons; but could neither establish nor authoritatively disclose how the hidden CONTENTS IN THE EARTH'S CRUST have turned out to become the "bane" of God's creations!
Past and recent natural disasters across the world have proved that "the contents in the belly of the earth" cannot be tamed by ecologists, environmentalists or scientists because their potent activities are beyond human comprehension.
According to Biblical records, the entire global land mass was covered up with waters during creation, until GOD said:
"Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place and let the dry land appear, and it was so.
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called the Seas and God saw that it was good. (Genesis.1:9-10).
Though, the world witnessed all forms of collateral damages through territorial ambitions of some self-acclaimed world powers, the worst types constantly occurred through the Earth and the Seas, which complement each other in unstoppable chain of disasters across all nations!
From the crust of the Earth flow the natural disasters of EARTH TREMORS (precursorto ) EARTHQUAKES, LAND SLIDES AND VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS; while the depth of the Seas, belch forth, FLOODINGS, TYPHOONS AND TSUNAMIES, all combined to consume world's inhabitants!
Scientists who claimed that underground vibrations normally led to violent shaking of the earth's surface which triggered magma, hot liquid rock found below the surface of the earth to suddenly release energy in the earth's crust that creates seismic waves to explode and destroy lives and properties round-about, have also proved that certain regions of the earth - especially Asian countries of Japan, and China, visited by violent typhoon this September, and most Caribbean Islands - are more prone to natural disasters than others; but that no region was immune!

Nigeria's Record of Earth Tremors.
When earth tremors occurred in quick succession recently in JABA Local Government Area of Nigeria, most Nigerians were shocked to the marrow because they were ignorant that the nation had a record of several frightening earth tremors of the past, which further confirmed the position of the scientists that volcanoes could erupt even from seemingly idle mountains and Nigeria has many of them - including that of neighboring Mount Cameroon which molten and destructive lava always caused havoc in close-by Nigerian villages!

Oyo State - 2016. In June 2016, residents of SAKI, a peaceful community in Oke Ogunarea of Ibadan in Oyo State, experienced recurrent earth tremors that took the day-light from them and registered permanent fear on all and sundry. Eye witnesses said all houses in the area were shaken to foundation but that it had been an intermittent occurrences since April 2016 and majority of the residents have departed to "safer “areas!

Kaduna State - 2016. Also between 10th and 11th September, 2016, residents of Sambang Dagi in Jaba Local Government of Kaduna State, experienced an earth tremor barely 24 hours after the first which occurred at Nok Village about 20 kilometers from Sambang.

According to The News Agency of Nigeria, the second vibration occurred around 4am Monday, leaving shocked residents scampering for safety without recorded casualties; but according to official procedure, the State Governor pacified the residents and informed, "Relevant authorities"!

Previous Records of Earth Tremors in Nigeria.
The records which show that Nigeria had experienced earth tremors in 1933,1939,1964, 1984, 1990, 1994 1997, 2000, and 2009, have never been disputed but there had not been strong evidence that consecutive administrations placed much emphasis on scientific geographic research to unravel the myth behind those occurrences!
Even the recurrent challenge of flooding, which had become perennial over the years, was treated with kid gloves until very recently in 2012, when the worst kind of flood disaster hit the nation!
There was a Nigerian Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and other Geological Agencies, which were exposed to inadequacies, insufficiency, and inefficiencies when terrible losses were recorded in 2012 and again in 2015! Delay in putting in place, all necessary strategic and preventive measures, had always proved to be very dangerous in ecological or environmental management of flooding/typhoons or earth tremors/earthquakes because whenever they had fulfilled full circle of maturity to explode, they become very disastrous, devastating and unstoppable in their rage to destroy anything or anybody in their path! Up till date, there was no record of a full-blown earthquake disaster in Nigeria but that should not make our Ivory Tower scientists and researchers to go to sleep because the evil day might not be far off! We are very much aware that natural disasters cannot be prevented from occurring but adequate and strategic preparations could be put into position to avoid massive loss of lives and properties because as it takes up to, (or) over a century for an earthquake to become full-blown; so should the full advantage of such lengthy period of incubation of looming disaster not be used to put all requisite palliatives in position to reduce casualties?

Nigeria Should Adopt Japan's Strategy Of Confronting Natural Disasters!
The Far East country of Japan, though notorious for natural disasters of earthquakes and volcanoes, still found its rank among the Asian Tigers which occupy the topmost positions among the 20 most economically viable countries of the world.
In 1923, ten years before Nigeria's first experience of an earth tremor, Japan had its most devastating earthquake in which 100.000 persons died and though- each year since then, - countless of earthquakes still occurred, - they remained on their toes to avoid casualties or reduce them to barest minimum!
Japanese geophysical scientists at the Mt. Sarakujima Volcanic Centre, with the support of their British counterpart have detected an accelerated build up of magma inside Mount.Sakurajima after a new research, that a 1914 eruption might re-occur in2031 and have
disclosed that the eruption would pose a significant threat to a neighboring city ofKagoshima! Twenty- five years may seem far but a timely warning of this type will serves a good opportunity to put all safety gadgets in place and avoid any form of causality.
Nigeria's first experience of tremor was 83 years ago, (1933), and therefore, was high time that its geophicisical scientists and researchers awaken from inactivity, or sloveness to save the nation from an impending national disaster of multiple and devastating full-blown earthquakes of high magnitudes that would be worse than all insurgency, terrorism or militancy acts put together!

There Is Always A Way Out!
The new Change APC Administration should declare national emergency on environmental matters and deploy with immediate effect all serious-minded and patriotic scientists to all sites (old and new), of earth tremors since1933, with modern equipments to identify most susceptible areas where full-blown earthquakes could occur and take advantage of early warning to put strategic plans of safe evacuation of people and their movable properties away from such prone areas -years before the disasters occurred!
WE BELIEVE THAT THIS GENUINE TEAM OF PRESIDENT BUHARI WOULD DOTHE NEEDFUL IN JESUS CHRIST'S NAME!


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

TO AVOID FRESH HOLOCAUST, NIGERIA SHOULD NOT BE GULLIBLE TO SWALLOW ABUBAKAR SHEKAU'S STORY ABOUT CHIBOK GIRLS!

Nigerians at home, the Diaspora and the international communities were witnesses to the unprecedented violence and brutality unleashed upon this most- populous African nation, by the Islamic Boko Haram terrorists, whose heinous crimes of "man's inhumanity against man" between 2009-2015, was worse than Nazi's holocaust against the Jews during World War I and II, and are therefore wiser not to believe any utterance by the barbaric and beastly group! Much as President Muhammadu Buhari and his Change Administration, all concerned and patriotic Nigerian citizens, especially the biological parents, pressure and peer groups of the abducted Chibok Girls, would wish for a quick swap of Boko Haram hardened criminals in exchange for the unfortunate female youths, great caution and diplomacy at the highest level of government, must be exercised without sentiments to avoid a major set-back to the tremendous victories already achieved by our combined security forces against the terrorists! After the first anniversary of the abduction of over 250 Chibok Secondary School girls from North East Bornu State, on 14th April, 2015, Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, boasted that the kidnapped girls would never be found again because he had married them off to his followers and sold them to suitors across the world for handsome fees! In several internet broadcasts thereafter, he confirmed over and over again that the unfortunate teenagers were far from the shores of Nigeria but now that he had been overthrown by ISIS Terrorists leadership to whom he owed allegiance, he wants to re-group with the release of his captured accomplices in government's detention by trading with "Chibok Girls"?
But now, and according to his latest video posting, four months after the second year anniversary of the missing girls, Shekau claimed that he was prepared to swap about 50 of the girls who were still alive in Sambisa Forest with his commanders in Nigerian prisons' custody. He claimed that the Nigerian Air Force recent aerial bombings had claimed the lives of some of the girls!


What blatant lies and which Chibok girls is Shekau talking about?
The desperation of Shekau is very open to discerning minds since his "commanders" in Federal Government's detention are the devious technicians behind the local manufacture of most of the Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), which had sent hundreds of hundreds of innocent Nigerians to early graves! Nigeria's brave, gallant and resilient Federal soldiers must be congratulated for liberating all 14 local government council areas in the North East previously captured by Boko Haram terrorists who even hoisted their flag; and for driving them out from all Nigerian territories, within the first year of the Change Administration of President Muhammad Buhari to establish the current peaceful atmosphere being celebrated all over the geo-political zones. The present combined military campaign by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), and the Nigerian Army ground forces marshalled to flush out the remnants of the offensive terrorists from the Sambisa Forest, and which was well co-ordinated with the precision of aerial surveillance to avoid civilian casualties, had destroyed all of their arms and fuel depots and kept them on the run and scampering for safety! The combined counter-terrorism security agents are in control of the theatre war now as they dictate the tempo of engagement and were able to identify, track down secret locations and hide outs of the remnant Boko Haram terrorists, dislodged and destroyed their cells with military precision! FROM RELIABLE INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION AT OUR DISPOSAL, THE ABDUCTED CHIBOK GIRLS WHO ARE STILL ALIVE ARE NEITHER IN A GROUP NOR ANYWHERE CLOSE TO THE SAMBISA FOREST AS CLAIMED BY SHEKAU WHO IS ONLY STALLING FOR MORE TIME TO RE-ORGANIZE HIS GROUP WHICH IS ONE OF THE THREE, NOW IN EXISTENT! Shekau is in a dire strait and very desperate to re-group and unleash fresh terror in the North East, since he has become a figure head and a spineless leader who sold his accomplices allegiance without their consent to the Islamic Terrorist Group (ISIS), in North Africa!

We Oppose Any Form Of Negotiation (Stick or Carrot), With Terrorists And Militants!
Any form of negotiation with terrorist will be a big slap on the face of the new, combined, formidable, determined, re-invigorated and encouraged security team, under the watchful eyes of Mr. President who is the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria! How can the Boko Haram terrorists, who had destroyed thousands of lives, properties worth billions of naira and placed citizens on the edge for over a period of almost seven agonizing years brazenly turn round to demand release of detained ranking leaders of the militant group in prison incarceration in exchange for less than one sixth of about 275 Chibok Girls abducted between 2013-2014 in the war-torn North-East States of Bornu, Yobe and Adamawa! The news making rounds is that President Muhammadu Buhari, a retired military General of great experience, could be willing to use THE STICK AND CARROT APPROACH to open a channel of dialogue and negotiation with the ruthless terrorists who slaughtered Nigerians citizens irrespective of age, religion, tribe, culture or gender like animals and posted such horrible and heinous crimes against humanity on internet videos and we opine that neither President Buhari nor any Nigerian Government Security Agency, individual or group, should ever dialogue or negotiate with Boko Haram terrorists!

We suggest the following cogent, reasonable and truthful reasons for non- negotiation:
1) That this terror group is on "REVENGE MISSION"!
2) That in October 2014, when the militants structure had virtually collapsed for shortage of military hardware supplies, their sponsors deceived the failed Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Administration into a cease-fire agreement only to re-equip, refurbish, re-organize and re-group to unleash further havoc on the populace of that region!
3) That the Chadian President was said to have negotiated on behalf of that administration at an Saudi Arabia location but from denials and rebuttals, it turned out to be a hoax and an easy avenue of BLOOD MONEY for the purported “negotiators”!
4) That whosoever sponsored a dialogue negotiation was a “mole” who wanted to cash-in on the President’s inaugural speech which promised proper attention to the Chibok School Girls' issue with express dedication of resources at securing their release.
5) That over 600 people were killed since that inauguration speech; should they have killed more people before seeking for a swap?
6) Between Saturday 4th, and Tuesday 7th July, 2015, alone, 400 deaths were recorded when terrorist suicide bombers struck in some remote villages of Bornu State, attacked a church in Potiskum, Yobe State, detonated twin bombs in Plateau State and also another attack in Zaria, Kaduna State.
7) Let us assume Boko Haram key leaders are exchange as requested, what next? Would they go into limbo? Would they surrender or cease fire? Would the insurgency sieve like the Biafra War which ended in January, 1970?
The militants are out to BUY TIME and re-equip like previous times but this is the time to deal the decisive blow on these enemies of Nigeria, their sponsors and collaborators.
9) If Nigeria negotiates, what becomes of its Commander's role in the Multi National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to which it is a signatory and to which millions of US dollars had been committed?
10) Should our friendly neighbors who have shown such solidarity just pack their bag and baggage and return to their homelands while we negotiate with revengeful, heinous and unrepentant terrorists? God forbid!

How Were Terrorists Dealt With In Other Climes?
How had the United States, Britain, Israel and other serious foreign countries in Europe and Asia coped with insurgency and terrorism issues in their various nations without dinning with their enemies? The answer is simple; they built, sponsored and financed formidable security and intelligence gathering institutions of patriotic, fearless and dedicated men and officers who were well-motivated, as expressed in earlier analysis, to take extreme defence measures to protect their countries and citizens - even with their lives when unavoidable! These governments regularly appropriated sufficient monies into the defence, security and intelligence gathering sectors, procure, employ and install the latest, newest and top grade state-of-art technological equipments like the satellite-controlled Close Circuit Television (CCTV), cameras, metal and bomb detectors, in all government structures, on the highways, streets, motor parks, amusement and fun-centers, including all shopping malls and open markets, public conveniences in all locations up to the rural areas! In addition these governments subsidized customized versions of these security gadgets, especially the CCTV cameras for installations on all private and commercial residences, schools, hospitals and health care centers! The United States has 50 independent States and none is bereft of these security devices that have helped to prevent, detect and solve crimes in its 240 years of independence!

The Opportunity To Finish Off Terrorism Is Now!
This is Nigeria’s opportunity to go for the “KILL” and smash the Boko Haram cells once and for all because they are in disarray! They must not be allowed to regroup; their food supply network must be identified and blocked; their arms and ammunition supplies including communication links must be intercepted and cut off; they must not be given any breathing space at all! The remaining numbers of the Chibok Girls (who are not together in one location), would all be located in due time, through a well-co-coordinated intelligence gathering strategy, which has revealed that, most of the girls were married off into neighboring countries of Niger, Cameroun and Chad while some were forcefully married to the terrorists and had become mothers just like AMINA ALI, who was rescued with a baby and a "husband" in May 2016! We are aware that the erstwhile Chief Security Officer (CSO), has some explanations for President Buhari over the 2014 one billion dollars mis-appropriated fund for military hardware and also, proper briefing on a seized helicopter tranche of $9.3 million dollars hard currencies, property of the Federal Government, now in the custody of the South African Government which suspected a crime of money laundering, but the Commander-In-Chief, must as a matter of utmost priority release funds through due process to address the very urgent supply of security hard and soft ware of CCTV cameras, metal and bomb detectors, thermal imaging, etc., to the North East for faster intelligence gathering and crime detection to crush these enemies of the State of Nigeria without further delay! “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans. 8: 31).



I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

The doctrine of male chauvinism that: "It Is A Man's World", is fast frittering into oblivion because DEFIANT AMAZONS have punctured that propaganda balloon with political prowess, sagacity and integrity in matters of global leadership positions! Determined women with proven antecedents, pedigree, character and track records invaded governance and politics of their various countries both in the public and private sectors in droves at the turn of the 19th Century, and now many have, through dedication, resilience and dint of hard work, occupied the number one positions as Presidents and Heads of States across the world! On 13th July, 2016, there was a change of guards in Britain and a distinguished Amazon in the person of Theresa May, who was Home Secretary and had been in government for about 30 years, climbed the rostrum and announced her debut as the New Sheriff In Town through a consensus agreement when the Britain Exits (Brexit), European Union referendum, called and lost by David Cameron, thrust her in the saddle she had passionately coveted since her youthful days at Oxford University!
Apart from Theresa, there was Margaret Thatcher, the first female and longest serving British Prime Minister, (1979-1990), who restructured her country's economy at a time of global recession during the 20th Century and not forgetting the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth, who had ruled Great Britain for 64 years and who at 90 years of age is still waxing strong on the throne! The swiveling political searchlight is presently beamed on the United States of America where a former First Lady and former Secretary of State during President Obama's first term, Mrs. Hilary Clinton, is poised to contest, for the second time in eight years, the presidential number one seat position, with the controversial and chronic male chauvinist candidate of the Republican Party, the man, Donald Trump! As the taboo that a Black person could never preside over the affairs of the most powerful and greatest economic investment destination of the world was broken when Barack Obama, who was not only a black man but also had his antecedent/root in Kenya's Black Africa, as the preferred candidate of the Democratic Party, won the Presidential Election of 2008, to become the 44th President of this World Power, so also can HILARY CLINTON, break the taboo to become the first white female President in America!

American politics is unique in several ways:
First, the literacy level of the citizens - especially among the electorate - which is very high, provides the necessary critical interaction between government and citizens who are very sensitive to all government’s socio-economic and political policies as they affected their lifestyles. Americans would without hesitation resist any government that failed to meet their aspirations, maintain and improve on their welfare and livelihood in areas of job opportunities, education and housing, which are adjudged to be the best in any part of the world!
Second, they were able to monitor and score every administrative policy in the areas of foreign policies and defence to ensure that America would always remain the top dog and "nulli secondus" to the Communist East in any form of aggression to subdue stubborn nations that would not abide by the rules of the world "super power!"
Third, the American "mood" must always be put in the proper perspective by both the technocrats and the politicians whose "barometer" must not malfunction and should be able to press the right buttons to court their votes!
For instance, Hillary's opponent, Donald Trump, hit the charts in the early period of the campaigns across the 50 States, with all manner of his impetuous and belligerent outbursts on every domestic/global issue and subsequently became a thorn in the flesh for his campaigners and the American electorate! He accused Hillary of exposing official secret/classified matters to the public domain through the use of her electronic mail address as Secretary of State from 2008-2012 and this led to an interrogation of the Democratic Candidate by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for three and a half hours and when she was finally endorsed by her party, Trump described her as "the devil"! We have it on good authority that most Americans are fanatical about voting a determined female like Hillary Clinton, to occupy the covetous number one seat of the United States of America just as they achieved the feat of ensuring that a Black man was voted to becoming the President at the dawn of the 21st Century after 232 years of White supremacy in America! This Amazon is the one to watch out for at the November 2016 American polls which is just around the corner because she has gained the trust of the electorate just as her female compatriots who now "rule the World" as presidents! Women had always proven to be the best administrators from time immemorial because they always perceived leadership positions as honourable challenges that must be handled meticulously with diligence, expertise and dexterity. It is instructive to consider the scripture which says, "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; MALE AND FEMALE created He THEM. "And God blessed THEM, and God said unto THEM, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing, that move upon the earth." (Genesis.1:27-28), an indication that both gender have equal opportunity to rule the earth! By creation the first woman, EVE was "an help meet" or companion of her male counterpart, Adam, in Genesis 2:18-25, and had much influence to apply diplomacy in persuading him to eat the forbidden fruit in Genesis 3:6 without much fuss in spite of the divine instruction for her to be submissive to the husband who should rule over her while both of them should rule over the earth as presidents and heads of state! The Amplified Bible Version mentions the dignified position and role of the Virtuous Woman in the Book of Proverbs 31:10-31, and those enunciated sterling characteristics are the very important ingredients that usually moulded her societal roles to prepare her for leadership positions from the beginning of time!
"A capable, intelligent (and) virtuous woman - who is he who can find her? She is far more precious than jewels (and) her value is far above rubies (or) pearls. "The heart of her husband trusts in her confidently (and) relies on and believes in her securely, so that he has no lack of (honest) gain or need of (dishonest) spoil.”She comforts, encourages, (and) does him only good as long as there is life within her. (Verses 10-12); etc.
Women in top elective positions as Presidents across the globe including those who occupy strategic and sensitive offices are in quantum; they have proven their mettle honourably and performed creditably in all given opportunities of service to their nations! Margaret Thatcher got the acronym, "Iron Lady" because she was the most outstanding and first among equal in administrative sagacity during her years as the first British female Prime Minister! According to Lauren Kent, the 2015 United Nations Data, specified that there were 18 female world leaders including 12 female Heads of government and 11 elected female Heads of State which accounted for about one-in-ten of leaders of UN Member States to hold the highest positions in their various countries and that while the number of female leaders had more than doubled since 2005, sixty-three of 142 nations studied by the World Economic Forum, have had a female head of government or state at some point in the 50 years up to 2014.

The following countries of the world have been effectively ruled by women since 1940:
People's Republic of Tannu Tuva; Mongolia; China; Argentina; Bolivia; Iceland; San Marino; Malta; Guinea Bissau; The Phillpines; Haiti; Nicaragua; East Germany; Ireland; Burundi; Sri Lanka; Liberia; Equador; Guyana; Switzerland; Latvia; Panama; Finland; Indonesia; Serbia; Georgia; Austria; Chile; Israel; India; South Africa; Gabon; Lithuania; Kyrgyzstan; Costa Rica; Brazil; Kosovo; Mauritius; Serbia; Malawi; South Korea; Central African Republic; Croatia; Mauritius; Nepal; Marshal Islands; Bangladesh; Germany; Trinidad and Tobago; Kosovo; Denmark; Jamaica; Slovenia; Cyprus (North); Senegal; Norway; Chile; Poland and Great Britain.
Current female presidents as at January 2015, were 22 in number and according to Rulers org. WorldStateman.org, we are currently under a record- high number of simultaneous female world leaders who are performing creditably in office. Who says that the Amazons are not in charge? No one should forget that the woman is the hand that rocks the cradle, she is the vessel of procreation, she is the one who also calls the shot at the home front - she had been in charge from creation- she is still in charge now! Man should stop fooling around and accept the divinely allotted role of being the "head" of his wife and not the bona fide head of the world! America should give Hillary Clinton her deserved opportunity to become President of the most powerful country of the world while Nigerian women should braze up and not give in to male intimidation to become executive president of the most populous country in black Africa in not too distant future to keep the righteous government of Change on track!
The following glowing testimonial of endorsement for Hillary Clinton was delivered by her husband, Bill Clinton, the 42nd American President, (1993-2001), who paid resounding tributes to his wife at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday 27th July, 2016, is worthy of emulation by all gender friendly men across the world:
"In the spring of 1971, I met a girl..... The first time I saw her we were, appropriately enough in a class on political and civil rights. She had thick blond hair, big glasses, wore no make-up, and she had a sense of strength and self-possession that I found magnetic. After the class I followed her out, intending to introduce myself. I got close enough to touch her back, but I couldn't do it. Somehow I knew this would not be just another tap on the shoulder, that I might be starting something I couldn't stop........
"We've built up a lifetime of memories. After the first month and that first walk, I actually drove her to meet her family and see the town where she grew up, a perfect example of post World War II middle class America........Hillary opened my eyes to a whole new world of public service by private citizens... Then in our last year in law school, Hillary kept up this work....Always making things better....We were married.....on October the 11th 1975. I married my best friend...after about four years of being around her...On February 27th, 1980....Chelsea was born before midnight....my daughter had the best mother in the whole world....Hillary will make us stronger together. You know it because she's spent a life time doing it.... I hope you will elect her...The reason you should elect her is that in the greatest country on the earth we have always been about tomorrow. Your children and grand children will bless you forever if you do. God bless you. Thank you." Bill Clinton's outstanding commendation of his wife's ambition to occupy the White House just as he did between 1993-2001, is worthy of emulation and it is also Nigerian men who should take up the gauntlet and support NIGERIAN AMAZONS in like manner!
WITH GOD NOTHING SHALL BEEN IMPOSSIBLE!



I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED!

Speedy trial in pursuit of the dispensation of undelayed justice should not be deemed to be a process deliberately employed in courts to always favour the prosecution in order to undermine the assumed innocence of the accused persons or defendants until the contrary was proved! The Judiciary, according to the 1999 Federal Republic of Nigeria's Constitution, is the third arm of the Federal three-tier system of the democratic government and is expected to play the role of an arbiter in every dispute brought before it whether they be civil or criminal litigations; however a lot of hue and cry including castigation of Nigeria's judiciary by patriotic citizens - with the exception of criminally-minded corrupt politicians - had become commonplace for decades since independence from British colonial administration! In most recent times especially in the 14 months of the Change Administration, the No.1 Citizen in the person of President Muhammadu Buhari, have had cause to both solicit the co-operation of the Judiciary in the onerous fight against corruption and also to criticize the reticent and lukewarm attitude of the respected body towards the crusade! Specifically, he complained that delay tactics adopted by judicial officers and lawyers to stall progress in the dispensation of justice in the "ongoing fight against trials of corruption suspects", which he said could create the negative impression that crime pays. Nigeria is blessed with a President who has his ears to the ground and craves to sooth social injustices caused through judicial dereliction of duty to the larger masses on whom his government heavily depended for socio-economic and political success of his Party's lofty policies and ideologies. The truth remains that the ripple negatives effects of all forms of social injustices through the courts like, unlawful detentions, etc, were usually borne by the masses who have been continuously short-changed in matters of dividends of democracy. Who are the "awaiting trial detainees" that have congested Nigerian prison yards and various Police cells across the nation other than the derogated common men and women of our societies who could not obtain bail without bribing relevant officials while the courts and judges on whose doorsteps lied the root cause of social injustice and prison congestion have decided to blow hot and cold and threaten to make scape goats of media practitioners whom dared publish any detrimental news about frivolous court injunctions by the eminent jurists!

Should The Common Man Still Hope For Justice In Nigeria's Judiciary? Majority of the awaiting trial detainees, held in the various Police cells across Nigeria and who have been refused bail, have since died incarcerated! Sometime in 2014, a Committee set up by the Interior Minister reported that the Nigerian Prisons were congested because they housed more than a triple number of inmates specified, adding, “the slow process of trial of inmates by the courts was also responsible for more than 90per cent of prison population in urban centres.” The Committee concluded that Nigerian prisons were unfit for human habitation as most detainees were usually ill because they were kept under inhuman conditions, shackled and manacled like condemned dangerous criminals! These awaiting-trial detainees are the poor masses of our societies, as no rich man or woman ever waited for any trial since favourable and pre-determined judgments were courier-delivered to their homes, in some cases, by crooked judges!
In his petition to the Judiciary President Buhari reminded the learned benchers that they should be in the fore front of efforts to develop right- based jurisprudence as an element in the multi-disciplinary approach advocated in the fight against corruption by enforcing applicable laws to avoid delay in ensuring criminal justice administration because corruption cases filled by government were not progressing as they should! He also complained that in spite of the Criminal Justice Act of 2015, the courts allowed some lawyers to frustrate the Reforms introduced by law and called for a change of attitude for a collective action in building a new Nigeria in the face of dwindling revenue by tackling two ILLS - Waste and Corruption simultaneously! "To this end the Judiciary is under a duty to keep its house in order and ensure that the public which it serves sees this," he added.
We are aware that the Presidential counsel did not go down well with some members of the Judiciary - especially those who were still loyal to the past very corrupt consecutive administrations, but we know that sooner than later they would be shown the door as their skeletons are exposed to all Nigerians! Judicial powers of the Nigerian State, both at the Federal and State levels, are vested in the JUDICATURE, which consist of the superior courts of record, established for the Federation, according to Section 6, subsection (5) (a) to (i) of the 1999 Constitution.
These consist of the following: the Supreme Court of Nigeria, the Court of Appeal, the Federal High Court, the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, a High Court of a State, the Sharia Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, a Sharia Court of Appeal of a State, the Customary Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and a Customary Court of Appeal of a State.
A search-light into the activities of some of these COURTS revealed dirty, sordid and gruesome manipulation and perversion of the course of justice by corrupt judges! According to an insider, a retired President of the Court of Appeal, the Nigerian Judiciary harbours corrupt elements who are politicians and government apologists who attend all manner of social gatherings and frolic even with litigants with pending cases before their courts!
How can judges decide cases against their political parties and people they wine and dine with?

As a guest speaker at a lecture titled, “Nigeria at Centenary: A Nation In Bondage”, the retired President of the Court of Appeal said that the noble efforts of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, to sanitize and rid the judiciary of corrupt elements were frustrated by “the crop of people calling the shots at the Nigerian Judicial Council [NJC],” adding that some dishonourable people, “not fit to be judges and senior lawyers, got into the system, made it to the highest level of the judicial career and subsequently frustrated the common man’s quest for justice and equity!”
He also claimed that it was an open truth that, both serving and retired judges acted as the “arrangees” or couriers, who reached out to “purchase justice on behalf of crooked litigants” and concluded that the problems with the Nigerian Judiciary might be compounded or unresolved for a long time because Nigerians naturally hated the truth and whoever dared voice the truth was marked for destruction!

We salute the courage of this fearless retired President of the Court of Appeal whose entire professional career at both the Bar and the Bench, remained untainted and impeccable like the likes of Justices Chukwudi Oputa, Bobakayode Eso, Ayo G.Irikefe, John Idowu Conrad Taylor, Ovie Whiskey, Chiefs ‘Tunji Braithwaite and Gani Fawehinmi etc; because what we have today are judges who have made Nigeria’s justice system by itself very criminal.
However all is not lost because the present crop of eminent jurists of the National Judicial Council (NJC), are men of proven integrity who have vowed to support the Change Administration to destroy corruption at all cost. Recently, FOUR JUDGES, have gone through the disciplinary hammer for various offences of judicial misconduct - two in April and another two in July, 2016, respectively - in Lagos, Niger, and Osun States.
We have this official statement also by the Economic And Financial Crimes Commission [EFCC], that some serving judges are deeply immersed in corrupt practices. This high-profile revelation should alarm all Nigerians, especially the down-trodden whose last hope is rested on the judiciary as their final ARBITER!
It was a divine miracle that the EFCC, which was notorious for not respecting the Masses Petitions, decided to probe the myriads of petitions levelled against the said judges and traced into their accounts, hundreds of millions of naira!
These fraudulent judges who also possess multi-million naira worth of assets are alleged to have adopted unconventional methods, such as accepting VALUE CARDS and PIN NUMBERS from criminal litigants, who approached them for FAVOURABLE JUDGEMENTS in order to beat the various anti-corruption agencies!

The malaise which has dented the image of the Judiciary, is no doubt an indictment on past administrations, which encouraged corruption in all its ramifications through the under-staffing and under-funding of anti-graft agencies which should check-mate any form of fraudulent venture by any citizen of this great nation!
At the Federal level, Mr. President appoints the judges, while the Governors perform this exercise at the State levels according to constitutional principles, but the practice was that the judges’ remunerations were bound to the whim and caprice of their EMPLOYERS who held the REMOTE CONTROL for the judgement of litigations which must favour them and their cronies until now that the body is financially independent!

Is The Nigerian Judiciary Beyond Redemption?
With the Change Administration of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the President refused to interfere with the independence of the Judiciary as the third tier of government but had insisted that quicker dispensation of justice would signal hope and peace of mind for the downtrodden, either as defendants or litigants as justice delayed is as good as justice denied! The Change Administration should be more pro-active in funding the EFCC to pursue all of its investigations to logical conclusion, expose all allegations of graft against these judges and publicly bring them to justice in order to purge and cleanse the judiciary, restore her reputation and establish a deterrent to others of their ilk! Of the late Supreme Court Judge, Bobakayode Eso, (1925-2012), were the following WORDS ON MARBLE crafted: “He was an Icon even in death; Nigeria may never have his replacement – a very rare breed. Justice Eso was an untainted Judge with high integrity; one of the great Nigerians, incorruptible, academic, intelligent, serious-minded patriotic, scandal-free. A courageous judge and a consistent advocate for an independent judiciary whose long and exemplary life was dedicated to the service of law and order and the dispensation of true justice, equity and fairness to all.”
We need more of the Eso’s, Conrad Taylors, Gani Fawehinmi’s, Oputas in our modern judiciary to re-build and restore the lost confidence of the COMMON MAN in Nigeria’s judicial system. We have a crop of patriotic legal minds, men and women of proven integrity who are ready to serve our great nation without soiling their hands and family names! What are the expectations of GOD in respect of Judges’ ethics when conducting themselves in office?
(a)They should be capable and God-fearing.[Exodus.18:21; 2Samuel.23:3; Ezra.7:25].
(b)Truthful.[Deuteronomy.16:19].
(c)Must have hatred for covetousness. [Exo.18:21].
(d)Must be of a disposition to refuse bribes.[Exo.23:8].
(e)Wise and understanding.[Deut.1:13].
(f)Articulate and impeccable.[Deut.1:13,16].
(g)Having love of justice and judgment.[Deut.1:16,16:18-19,27:19,Zechariah.7:9-10].
(h)Without respect of persons.[Deut.1:17;16:19;25:1;Isaiah.5:23].
(i)Fearless.[Deut.1:17].
(j)Conscientious.[Deut.1:17].
(k)Strong and courageous. [Joshua.1:7].
(l)Obedient to the law.[Josh.1:7-8].

Nigeria had in the past produced some and very few decent, brave, fearless, intelligent, impeccable and incorruptible judges, who avoided filthy lucre, treaded the path of integrity and lived above board! We can still groom such patriotic citizens in this new Change Dispensation; but all hands must be on deck to expose all acts of corruption not only in the Judiciary but also in the Executive and the Legislature for a better Nigeria that our posterity would be proud of, to thrive! Amen.



I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

The clamour for the POLITICAL RESTRUCTURING of the geographical landscape of Nigeria had gathered the momentum of a wild fire through the instigations of political jobbers and had blindly attained a ridiculous national proportion which is utterly unacceptable, very unfriendly and inimical to our collective sensibilities! For any kind of restructuring to take place, it must be backed by a constitutional amendment which would need two thirds majority votes of both Chambers of the National Assembly and also an additional two thirds majority votes of the 36 States Houses of Assembly and that is why it has thus become more intriguing; because it is either that the agitators were completely ignorant of these salient facts or they were being deliberately mischievous!
What kind of political restructuring do small and selfish groups of the 250 identified Nigerian tribes of varied, social, cultural, and political ideologies who speak over 500 different tongues within the acclaimed "largest economy in Africa" bent on proposing or prescribing other than a break up? Some proponents believed that the creation of more States would solve the problem of ethnicity and marginalization while others proffer a return to the post independence Regional order in which the regions were self-sufficient; others solicit that the present Geo-Political Zones would strengthen the economic potentials of those areas and weaken the enormous financial influence of the government at the centre! Yet, there are those who preferred that the existing federating States should become autonomous, to manage all of their God-given economic resources and pay commensurate taxes to the Federation Account for the Federal Government to run constitutional statutory duties, to prove their emphasis on the crave for, DEVOLUTION OF POWER, RESOURCE CONTROL, DERIVATIVE PRINCIPLE, STATE POLICE, etc; which translate to FISCAL FEDERALISM! But recently, some other groups have emerged to agitate that restructuring was synonymous with SECESSION!

WHAT IS RESTRUCTURING?
To restructure is to organize a system, an entity, a company or business concern in a new way to make it operate more effectively and efficiently! In the case of the Nigerian nation, what is manifest in almost all agitations of restructuring are insincerity, selfishness, egotism, hidden agenda for financial/economic exploitation, tribalism, unhealthy rivalry and massive deceit of the illiterate, ignorant and most vulnerable poor masses, who wallow in abject poverty and whose opinions were never sought nor sampled! Can any government operate in a vacuum without its human resources to actualize political, social and economic empowerment? Can a group of people with inordinate political ambition force their interest on the majority in a democratic setting? Can the use of force prevail over the purposive Will of God?
For the people of a country to come together and dwell in peace, harmony, tranquility and prosperity, a global norm of the binding force of a CONSTITUTION, must be in place as the testimony of agreement and it is through such sacred document that law, order and good governance could be established!
Nigeria is not an exception to the rule and that is why the 1999 Federal Constitution remains the acceptable norm of her very existence as a corporate nation! Therefore for any agitation to attain national recognition, it must conform with the provisions of the constitution and receive the attention of the National Assembly legislators who as representatives of the people, would give such issue the due attention it deserves through open debates and wide consultations among all stake holders across the nation!
Recently, Vice President, Professor 'Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, was widely criticized for not supporting agitations of political restructuring of Nigeria in spite of his previous stand as the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, in Lagos State, that political restructuring of the Nigerian federation was negotiable; but he was quick to defend his present position which he asserted was not different from the previous by stating that "any form of restructuring in Nigeria must follow constitutional due process".
In his words to an audience during the 13th Annual Daily Trust Dialogue in Abuja, titled: "50 Years After 1966: Is Nigeria Rising?” the Vice President said, Nigeria's size was not just formidable in the African continent, but also globally. "Our country has the potential not just to be the giant if Africa but a major economic giant in the world, adding that it is that giant of a nation that the Nigerian elites have a duty to deliver". He also said, among other things, that the size of Lagos State alone was larger in terms of economy than several African countries, and submitted that: "......Nigeria is better staying together and maintaining our unity."
At another forum hosted by TVC News recently, Professor Osinbajo, also put to rest, the criticisms that he was against the restructuring of the country and described the notion as unfounded. According to Sahara Reporters, he called for a deeper understanding of the current restructuring debate in the country, and supported the idea of having State Police in the country according to his spokesman, Mr. 'Laolu Akande who also stated that there had been different interpretations, meanings and purposes to which the restructuring debate was being put to. The Senior Special Assistant on Media, quoted the Vice President as saying that restructuring of the nation should not degenerate into elitists political rhetoric’s especially when the country's economy was at its lowest ebb adding that greater energy should be devoted to massive diversification to agriculture and harnessing of the abundant natural solid mineral resources available nation-wide, because whether more money was allocated to the States to strengthen their financial bases or that the States were to control their internally -generated resources of oil and mineral wealth and pay taxes to the Federal Government, nothing meaniningful would be achieved except the country united together to pull through the present economic quagmire!

Constitutional Amendment Is The First Point Of Call!
Without the backing of constitutional amendments, the whole clamour for any meaningful restructuring of Nigeria would amount to a scenario of "all motion but no movement", which will be most unsuitable, especially now that it is getting more difficult to execute almost every aspect of the 2016 Budget successfully due to the continued vandalization of crude oil pipelines in the Niger Delta Region!
Constitutional amendments which are regular occurrences of the National Assembly, suffered major setback at the close of the 7th Assembly when Ex President Jonathan refused the executive assent on a very sensitive bill which affected the masses of the people in respect of the "......introduction of compulsory and free education and health services for Nigerians", due to power tussle between the executive and the legislature over presidential veto over such amendments which could have ushered the "Fourth Alteration Bill" into law.
Because of the President's veto over that bill, all outstanding bills of the Seventh Assembly were invalidated through the rule of abatement without any consideration for all funds that went down the drain! It is therefore very expedient for legislators to quickly initiate an amendment that would ensure a continuum of parliamentary administration for bills to be carried over to new assemblies in order to avoid civil acrimony against parliamentarians and also the colossal wastages of scarce funds.
The same scenario should not be witnessed in this new dispensation; a repeat of past errors should be avoided in view of the fact that monies which ran into some billions of naira was wasted and because such amendments would begin from the scratch; that is, from the proposal levels to general plenary debates, then to committee levels and back to plenary for approval of two thirds majority votes by both houses of parliament; then, another two thirds majority votes of States House of Assembly, before the Presidential assent which could either be given or denied! Therefore, the most expedient and rational action in respect of further agitations for restructuring of the Nigerian project should be for all stakeholders to pursue their legitimate interests which should not suggest secession, through the appropriate quarters of the National Assembly and wait patiently for the process to pass through the rule of law in order to give peace and tranquility the desired place in the polity!

The Military Constitution for Democracy!
The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which ushered a fresh hope for viable democracy like the 1960 Independence Constitution was enacted by "meddlesome interlopers", who pretended to have socio-economic and political interests of the masses at heart, but were in actual fact very smart to have crafted " a labyrinth of jigsaw puzzles" that would ensure their permanent vested interests in the nation's natural and especially crude oil resources, which administration was corrupted from the very onset! The 1960 Constitution was crafted by a British Order-in-Council for it to be in force from 1st October, 1960, and which retained the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, as titular Head of State; and the 1999 Constitution, was by the last Military Administration of General Abubakar, who with his junta claimed to be the, "We the People of the Federal Republic of Nigeria:
HAVING firmly and solemnly resolved: .....", the preamble on page one of the document, which can be legally described as institutional forgery - seventeen years on - because of the various lapses like the ambiguity created in the issue of whether presidential assent or veto was actually necessary before a bill of the parliament could be passed into law or rejected! It is now very important that the rule of law must come to the fore in the Change Agenda in order to rectify all ambiguities created in the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, which had more or less thrown more "spanner into the work" as regards our diversity which should unite instead of creating a wide gulf, or chasm of incessant misunderstanding at every corner of our collective pilgrimage on this earth!
"COUNSEL IN THE HEART OF MAN IS LIKE DEEP WATER; BUT A MAN OF UNDERSTANDING WILL DRAW IT OUT." (Proverbs.20:5).
We hear that President Muhammadu Buhari has employed series of counseling strategies to calm strained nerves of all agitators - especially those who have gone to the extreme to take up arms against their fatherland! It is written, “Where no counsel is, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety." (Proverbs.11:14). Did the grape vine say that some disillusioned soldiers were thinking of overthrowing this anointed government of God? WOE BETIDE THEM SAYS THE LORD OF HOSTS, BECAUSE THEY WILL PERISH WITH THEIR THOUGHTS WHICH WILL NEVER MATERIALZE! Amen.


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

Unknown to mere mortals who are very ignorant of divine spiritual doctrines, UNITY was displayed as an attribute of God in the creation of Man in Genesis.1:26-27, when He said: "Let us, (the Trinity, ie, God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit), create man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth. "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them." The Psalmist in Chapter 133:1-3 also emphasized the necessity and importance of unity amongst men when he declared: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it us for brethren to dwell together in unity! "It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard; that went down to the skirts of his garments "As the the dew of Hermon and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore." And the Lord Jesus Christ in His prophetic prayers for His disciples said: "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou has sent me." (John.17:21).
On Wednesday 6th July, 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari, as the oracle of God, boldly told all those clamouring for secession, especially the Niger Delta oil pipe vandals that, "The Unity Of Nigeria Is Non-Negotiable" and regretted that while the anti- terrorism war was being won, the issue of militancy in the Niger Delta resurfaced! He also called on looters of the nation's treasury to return such stolen wealth through plea bargain, before the force of the law was brought to bear upon them! During his address, to Nigerians in the Diaspora about a year ago, he promised to defend the unity of Nigeria at all cost when he recalled the harrowing and gruesome experiences of the 30-month "Biafra War", (1967-1970), of which he was an active participant, when he said, and we quote: "I was in the war front for 30 months during the Civil War. I lost relatives and loyal people to the war. Considering that two million Nigerians died during the war, nobody should come forward to talk about a break up of the country. "My administration would kill corruption before it wrecks the nation. Nigeria would remain one country since God has given him another opportunity to re-organize its affairs. "What brought me back is the love for my country, APC will secure the country and improve its economy, create employment.

Political Pundits and Confused Ideologies!
A lot of outcry greeted the President's declaration of the gospel truth which was very categorical that, "To keep Nigeria one, is a task that must be done!" Beginning with the Nobel laureate, Professor 'Wole Soyinka, the Yoruba's Afenifere, the Igbo's Ohaneze, Niger Delta Avengers, IPOB and MASSOB; every group faulted the President's divine assertion and capitalised on carnality and frivolity! Let us assume that the Niger Delta Region or all oil producing South-South States seceded, would they all transform to same TRIBE, LANGUAGE, CASTE, CULTURE, TRADITION or ETHNIC GROUPS etc,? How many fragments would they break into after secession for sectional independence? The call for secession is not new to Nigeria! The Igbos of the old Eastern Region broke off from the rest of Nigeria in 1967 without any consideration for the views and agreement of the smaller ethnic groups like the Deltan Ijaws, Urhobos and Itsekiris; the Ishans of Agbor/Asaba, Auchi, and Etsako; the Efiks, Annangs, and Ibibios of the Cross River area; and after 30 months of unnecessary bloodshed, Lt Col. Phillip Effiong, NOT AN IGBO MAN, announced the surrender of "Biafra”, on Monday 12th January, 1970, following the escape of his Commander-In-Chief, Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu, who deserted his troops in the face of defeat and sought asylum in Ivory Coast (Cote d'ivoire).
Excerpts of Effiong's statement are reproduced below:
"We have always believed that our differences with Nigeria should be settled by peaceful negotiations. A delegation of our people is therefore ready to meet representatives of Nigeria Federal Government anywhere to negotiate a peace settlement on the basis of the OAU resolutions. Any question of a government in exile is repudiated by our people............" "I Major-General Philip Effiong, Officer Administering the Government of the Republic of Biafra, now wish to make the following declaration: "That we affirm that we are loyal Nigerian citizens and accept the authority of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria. "That we accept the existing administrative and political structure of the Federation of Nigeria. "That any future constitutional arrangement will be worked out by representatives of the people of Nigeria. "That the Republic of Biafra hereby ceases to exist." (15th January, 1970). Phillip Effiong died on 6th November, 2003, at the age of 78. After several years in exile Ojukwu was pardoned and given amnesty to return to his fatherland Nigeria, was re-absorbed into the Nigerian Army, paid all his statutory gratuity and all benefits due to him, died peacefully, about eight years after Effiong, on the 26th November, 2011, in the United Kingdom, at the age of 78, after a brief illness and was given a befitting burial in Nigeria! Can any place ever compare to one's birth place and heritage! During the terrible 30 months of civil war, the greater casualties of about TWO million dead, were the peasants, who either died through the bullets or hunger/starvation due to complete ceasation of food and medical supplies! Whilst they survived on reptiles, birds, insects, and dead bodies of beloved children, parents or loved ones, the secession leaders and their top hierarchy manouvered through and survived with reserved victuals for as long as it lasted, but eventually surrendered when the heat persisted for longer than they envisaged! Neither the old nor the present South West is comprised of the Yoruba Tribe alone! They have the Aworis, Eguns, Ilajes, Akoko Edos etc, to contend with; which translates to the fact that without the collective support of the minority groups, the three major tribes, Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and the Igbos would find it difficult to secede!
Can cultural unity of inter-tribal/state marriages between the over 250 tribes of about 500 languages of the Nigerian State be divorced from political unity because the wild fire of current agitations for secession; permutations, confederations and amalgamations, of tribes and languages, would birth about 150 States out of the present 36 States of Nigeria and there is no doubt that IKENNE, the birth place and hometown of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Vice President Professor 'Yemi Osinbajo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, (SAN) would cut a niche!

Would all inter-marriages then be dissolved against divine injuction which states:
"And therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh." (Genesis.2:24), become a nullity? It was credited to Chief Awolowo that the clamour for States agitation would never come to an end until his native town, Ikenne, became a Nigerian State! The lesson to learn here is that those who plan secession or break-aways hardly suffered the consequences of their senseless rebellion predicated on avarice and greediness for short-cuts to illegal wealth but the foolish peasants who always supported such agitations forgot that they were doomed to be slaves and fifth-rated citizens under the smart 'guys' even if they succeeded and that positions of authority, political, economic and monetary gains from the venture would never be shared with them! Is it not an irony of fate that descendants of the major players during the "Biafran War" of the same old Eastern Region are now ready to damn the consequences of another bloody confrontation with the Federal Government of Nigeria in spite of the Olive Branch of peaceful resolution being extended to them by no other personality than President Buhari himself?

The Present Agitators Are Not Saying Anything New!
Lopsided Federal Government appointments; neglect of the principles of Federal Character of proportional sharing of all bureaucratic, economic, media and political posts at all levels of government; principle of derivation and resource control, fiscal adjustment of the sharing formula from the federation account etc. are their rantings. Was Biafra before the civil war an Utopia? Were there no lopsided appointments, neglect of principles of Republic Character of proportional sharing of major and minor posts at all levels of government etc,?
Secession Agitators Are Ungrateful To God!
Twenty-six of the existing 36 States are barely viable and almost gone comatose! They have deliberately refused to generate funds internally but only collect monthly oil revenue allocations from the Federation Account instead of digging their God-given soils for agricultural products, and solid mineral resources with which all States are endowed with! For over one year of the new Change Agenda, State Governors still go cap in hand to beg Mr. President for financial bail-out and yet, some renegades still want to secede! Bayelsa State's workers have agreed to collect only 50% of their monthly salaries since the second coming of Seriake Dikson, because they were indebted several months of arrears of payment during his first term! Rivers State which swims in the ocean of crimes criminality, large scale militancy and agitations for secession is also neck deep in unpaid workers salaries indebtedness! The same challenge is applicable to other southern states that are spoiling for break-away! Latest reports show that the following 10 States have regularly paid workers salaries and allowances without fail; and they are: Edo, Lagos, Delta, Eboyin, Anambra, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Kano, and Enugu. When as States duly recognized by the1999 Nigerian Constitution, they are bedeviled by such irresponsibility’s, how would they fair when they become militant juntas where jungle justice would become the order of the day!

There Could Be A Permanent Solution!
If the agitators and their sponsors could for one moment put on their thinking caps and embrace dialogue, the following suggestion would proffer permanent and everlasting peace: Resource Control, Derivation Principle and Fiscal Federalism which translates into restructuring of the Nigerian Federation to produce stronger federating units that would explore, and exploit agriculculture, solid mineral resources, entertainment and the tourism industries within their borders for internally generated revenues and become fiscally responsible to contribute meaningful percentages to the Federal Government which is saddled with the greater responsibilities of overall national security and the effective control of the economy, without seceding would be appropriate and embraced by the agitators for peace to reign in the Niger Delta and for the economy to pick up again in the overall interest! The 2014 National Conference failed to recommend meaningful solution to the imbroglio which they described as very technical and should therefore be handled by a technical committee to be set up by the government and this omission had constituted the crux of present agitations by militants but we suggest that the Change Government should make an urgent pronouncement on these three critical issues to favour the Niger Delta States which represent the GEESE THAT LAY THE GOLDEN EGGS and pursue vigorously the aggressive diversification of the economy to the farmlands and encourage the local farmers who are the food engineers of the nation with modern agricultural equipments for the quick and expected turn around from an importing to an exporting nation, not only in food export but in textiles and solid mineral products to increase our dwindling and depleting foreign reserves and definitely peace will reign in Nigeria! Let all patriots say NO to secession!
RENDER TO CAESAR THE THINGS THAT ARE CAESAR'S AND TO GOD THE THINGS THAT ARE GOD'S! (MATTHEW.22:21).


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

REFERENDUM SHOULD SERVE AS A PANACEA TO AVOID CIVIL UNREST AND BLOODSHED!

Between 931 and 587 BC, the nation of Israel was divided against itself and had to pass through a national period of incessant crisis of internal wars, invasions and an eventual captivity by foreign powers, of both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms, contrary to the purposive will of God! "To your tents O Israel..." was the rebellious call, by a renegade called Jeroboam in I Kings 12:16b, to a palace gathering due to disagreement against King Rehoboam's stringent policy of national "war against indiscipline", in the Old Testament Bible times and which birthed the schism that lasted for 444 years, inclusive of the 70 years of Exile under foreign Kingdoms of Assyria and Babylon which perpetrated continuous bloodshed, massive destruction of lives and properties - a period regarded as the darkest in the history of God's chosen people! Jeroboam was an insurgent who neither believed in the principles of democracy which spells out rule of engagement in respect of conflict resolutions nor in the amicable application of referendum as a democratic tool against civil disobedience or unrest and his unilateral action cost the nation of Israel its worst anguish! The Jews of the Dispersion cried to God during the long, hard years of shame and sorrow in exile and were graciously returned to their homeland as one united people in ideals and purpose, thoroughly purged of idolatry, greed, covetousness, corruption, unpleasant rivalries, tribalism, nepotism, maladministration, high handedness, and all forms of acrimonies etc, which were chief sins of national magnitude! The new settlers wasted no time in applying the principles of consultations as means of settling disputes, disagreement or conflicts quickly and in no time, Israel of the 20th/21st Centuries, turned out to become one of the major world powers of high reckoning and repute in all areas of social, political, economic, energy and military developments and conquests.

Brexit: Britain Exits The European Union Club!
1. The United Kingdom remains at a crossroad inspite of a partially successful referendum which was conducted to exit the nation from the European Union (EU)! To remain or not to remain a member of the EU would still be in contention for a long time to come though the referendum of 23rd June, 2016, midwifed a majority decision of 53.4 % for England and 52.5% for Wales, to opt out of the club. The exact process for the withdrawal under EU's law, could take longer than TWO YEARS according to Article 50. which gave right to such decision since 2007, but expects approval of the leaving agreement by at least 72% of the continuing member states representing at least 65% of their population and the consent of the European Parliament! The reason for that window period was meant for such outgoing member the opportunity for a re-think or change of mind in the case that earlier reasons for disengagement might have been ameliorated! Presently, both Scotland and Northern Ireland which, together with England, Wales form the UK, have declined to endorse the referendum and also refused legislative consent to dropping EU law which meant that they maintained status quo and membership, according to reports.
It had become an acceptable way of life that people disagree to agree and vice-versa, agree to disagree but collective decisions had to be made regularly as panacea for mutual political, economic, and social progress!
BREXIT is a pithy abbreviation for "Britain Exits" the EU after 43 years of membership! What went wrong? Was UK short-changed, side-lined, or marginalized in the process of time? It is reported that the EU is Britain's biggest trading partner and that British citizens were free to work in any EU country. EU funding is spent on supporting farmers, boosting jobs in the UK, redeveloping rundown areas and grants for university research. The EU has also contributed to cheaper travel by challenging monopolies and boosting competition. It has reduced the cost of mobile data roaming and set water quality standards in Europe but critics believed that Britain was being held back by EU and that it got little in return for its huge financial contributions and would be better off in taking back the control of its borders! Critics also said that EU had taken too much power from the UK government and that its regulations were costly to the British economy and without them, Britain would be able to sign other trade deals with growing economies like CHINA and INDIA! "EU wastes 180 million Euros (£136m) taxpayers’ money annually on excessive bureaucracy in monthly trips to Strasbourg", they concluded. Britain contributed £8.5billion or 12.6% to EU coffers in 2015 according to Treasury figures!
Conservative British Prime Minister David Cameron who canvassed fruitlessly for the UK to remain has thrown in the towel and would hand over to a successor by October, 2016, to keep his integrity intact since he failed to convince the electorate! He wanted his country to remain in the EU if certain changes were made to the rules - including lower benefits paid to migrants and greater protection for states not in the euro zone. In the past, the UK opted out of some key EU decisions like the single currency (euro), and the Schengen Treaty which relaxed border controls. The EU was formally known as the European Economic Community (EEC), or the "Common Market", a platform to foster economic cooperation and political partnership involving several advantages among 28 European member states with a total population of more than 500million! EU was designed as a trading forum after World War II to encourage economic partnerships and discourage mundane issues of military superiority that could lead to another war and had since inception in 1957 grown to become a veritable avenue for international market among member states and a binding force that united them like one indivisible nation!
EU apart from its currency, the euro which is of legal tender in 19 member countries, also has a Parliament, a Commission, a European Council and Court of Justice; all of which engage in social issues including agriculture, transport, communications, consumer rights etc. The ECC, according to a BBC report, started out as a trading bloc - with free movement of goods and services within the Common Market but now its interests include reducing regional inequalities, preserving the environment, promoting human rights and investing in education and research.

Display Of Voters Ignorance!
It is reported that majority of the 17.47 million Brexit voters were totally ignorant of the reasons for the referendum, they just followed the crowd of "popular opinion" because from all available records and statistics, the UK stood to gain more benefits for its citizens - especially the immigrants, middle class workers and farmers. The possibility of a fresh referendum when a new Prime Minister takes over in October 2016 should not be ruled out but we advocate that voters education must be vigorously pursued through relevant agencies as post Brexit agitation still favours UK's continued membership!

What Lessons For Nigeria's Many Political Crises?
A civil war of secession which lasted for 30 months engulfed Nigeria between 1967-1970, when the then Eastern Nigeria decided to opt out of the family and over one million people died while quantum critical government and civilian properties were vandalized and dastardly destroyed! Descendants of the secessionists who did not witness the "Biafra War" have begun to agitate for the actualization of the sovereign state of another Biafra which should be carved out from the present Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo and Abia States of Nigeria. This Movement which includes another group identified as Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) had lost hundreds of members in confrontational protests against institutional law enforcement authorities and agencies since 1999! Emerging militant groups of the Niger Delta Region were also agitating for secession so that they could take over 100%, the entire crude oil exploitation and keep all accruable revenues for their social development which have been neglected by consecutive administrations. Yoruba Elders of the Oduduwa Fraternity in the South West, irked by incessant invasion of the region's farmlands, by Fulani Herdsmen, had declared that they would reconsider their position in the Nigerian Project and possibly opt out of the federation if urgent action was not taken by the Federal Government to redress the very horrible situation!
Before all of the above, there was the Kano Riot of April, 1953 triggered by lack of consensus between the North and the South over the debate on "self government" in which 36 people were killed and a motion by the joint Northern Assembly and the House of Chiefs over the conflict, if passed in the month of May of that same year would have led to secession of Northern Region from the Federation! Another disagreement was the Census Crisis Of 1962/1963 in which the North had a population which doubled those of the West and East put together but was diplomatically but not amicably resolved to make room for peace! Also on the list of crises were the following: (a) Action Group Crisis, 1962; (b) Federal Elections Crisis, 1964; (c) Western Nigeria Election Crisis, 1965; (d) General Election Crisis, 1979; (e) Kaduna State Executive/Legislative Crisis, 1981; and (f) General Election Crisis, 1983. All of the above could have been avoided if care was taken to allow for dialogue and consensus of opinions!

National Conference Recommendations of August 2014.
If the Chief Convener of the 2014 National Conference ex-President Ebele Jonathan were sincere and had not flown the event as a kite for his political inordinate ambition for the 2015 Presidential Elections, critical, sensitive, thorny and controversial issues like Resource Control, Derivation Principle, Land Use Act, National Security, Public Finance/Revenue Allocation, Immunity Clause, and even "Self Determination/Government" etc, could have been amicably thrashed out without rancor!

Critical Issue of Referendum or Plebiscite.
Since referendum is a vote in which all the people in a country or an area are asked to give their opinion about or decide an important political or social question:
1. Were all Israelites in agreement with Jeroboam's rebellion?
2. Are all Igbo Tribe in support of secession?
3. What about the Niger Delta militants, on whose behalf are they vandalizing the crude oil pipe lines? Are all the poverty-stricken, weather-beaten, and acid-rain battered citizens of that region behind these vandals?
4. Not all the Yoruba’s would support the statement of the Odua Yoruba Elders in respect of secession of the tribe from the rest of Nigeria!

Hear what God said to the Israelites: " Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. (Isa. 1:18-20.KJV). If God would humble Himself to dialogue with Man, while would men detest one another and always settle scores with battles and wars?


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

No man can be an island unto himself because the entire universe has become a global village where the constant need for human interactions, integration, communal co-operation, cordial communications, and the marriage of arts, cultures and traditions will always occupy the front stage!
There was once upon a time when some socialists/communists ideologically-oriented do-gooders decided to segregate some free people of the world in Russia and China against their wishes from interacting with their kith and kin from across the universe but their plan failed because the wishes of the electorate was not put into consideration while working out their crooked ideologies! Before the close of the 20th Century, the Soviet Union, and the Chinese Republic fell like pack of cards according to the prevailing forces of the common wish of the peoples to interact with other races, dwell in economic comfort and peace with their families!
A similar scenario is now playing out in Nigeria as a disgruntled group of very selfish and greedy politicians of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who did not succeed in rigging the last 2015 General Elections and are now in the opposition, are bent on rocking the boat of democracy! Secession, like the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), Independent People Of Biafra (IPOB), and Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), is their sing-song! Shortly before the National Assembly's three-week Ramadan break, the clueless caucus members, 48 of them, released a statement signed by four Senators on 21st June, 2016, that it would no longer "support the APC government until they cease the belligerent attitude towards PDP members".
It has been revealed that there was a clandestine plan by this group of legislators in the upper chambers, to unilaterally heat up the polity and plunge the nation into a fresh economic crisis without seeking any approval from their constituencies! They had neither regard nor respect for the Constitution and the masses of people who normally suffered in the event of needless show of rivalry and power tussle between the two arms of government!

The five-point official complaint against the Executive included,
(a) Unwarranted threats and intimidation to the legislative arm particularly the Senate leadership through illegal deployment of State instruments of coercion and intimidation;
(b) Glaring witch-hunt of the opposition and loop-sided and selective war against corruption especially the freezing of the account of Ayo Fayose, the Ekiti State Governor;
(c) Probing of campaign funds which should not be limited to the PDP but extended to the All Progressives Congress (APC);
(d) Accusation of Executive acts of lawlessness typical of military dictatorship; and
(e) Need for the APC-led government to concentrate on the existing economic and security challenges that was threatening the survival of the nation.
Although the APC promptly dismissed the accusations and threat by the PDP Senate caucus and had also challenged the group to petition security agents in respect of any of the APC's members involved in corrupt practices, the issues involved are more delicate and sensitive in nature and must be handled with great care!
An African adage states that, "When a bird perches on a rope, both the bird and the rope would be threatened and stressed"; and another states that," If a rat finds it difficult to eat unharvested groundnuts, it would despoil the nuts by digging, scattering and rendering them unfit for consumption"; while yet another states that, “He who is down fears no fall!"
PDP members were desperate to be relevant since they lost woefully in the last general elections and they grabbed with both hands, Saraki's offer of Senate's deputy presidency position to perfect his "coup de tat" for an ephemeral and transient position of life! Though they supervised over the 16 years of institutional corruption (1999-2015), in a free-for-all, roller-coaster, unbridled accumulation of illegal oil wealth that festered competitive rivalry amongst emerging Nigerian multi-billionaires of the 21st Century and also the amassing and proliferation of sophisticated weapons into wrong hands to maintain their status quo, yet they do not want to give account of their stewardship through anti-corruption probes! The kind of insurgency and militancy witnessed in the country during that period in question and till date were not experienced during the 30 years of military rule which proved that the desperate political class of the PDP's ilk cared less whether Nigeria survived or perished and they were quick to fit into the alliance of the APC black sheep who would sell their birthrights for coveted political positions and temporary offices!
The PDP Senate caucus are only 48 bitter Nigerians who are representing themselves and not the 48 Districts within the larger Constituencies of the 170 million population but who are determined to heat up the polity and rock the boat of Nigeria's new democratic government which is being commended globally for its determination to restore the economy through righteousness, probity and accountability if care was not taken!
It is to the credit of this new administration that looted monies and immovable properties illegally acquired, were being returned voluntarily by those who connived with the past PDP Governments to ravage the treasury! It is also to the credit of the Buhari Administration that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), recorded 164 convictions in just one year of the war against corruption which must be intensified!

The Hidden Agenda Of The Caucus!
Grapevine revealed the following: *Vehement opposition against the raging fire of the anti-corruption crusade which was bound to consume most of the PDP politicians who have skeletons in their cupboards! *Disguised support for militancy and continuous criticism of APC's Government inability to improve on the economy and the reverberating new PDP's slogan tagged "CHANGE THE CHANGE"; that the anti corruption crusade should give way for more corruption in 2019, when they believed to "regain power"!
Subtle support for the purported rumour credited to the Niger Delta militants, of a planned military coup against the incumbent administration, by the Nigerian Army, which had been denied by Government and the Military High Command as the figment of the imagination of detractors!
A desperate plan to instigate orchestrated disaffection against the person of President Buhari through allegations that his wife, Aisha Buhari, was involved in the Halliburton Bribe scandal, which indicted three former Nigerian Heads of State, a former Vice President and several high ranking government officials, but which had not been investigated since 2002! Deliberate attack on the health condition and comportment of President Buhari, before, during and after the elections that brought him to office and insinuations that he was not well disposed to rule the country!
And most recently, another smear campaign in respect of President Buhari’s academic qualifications!
There is no doubt that there is a well calculated attempt by the PDP Senate caucus to heat up the polity and truncate the gains so far made by the incumbent administration, but we must advice for uttermost caution by the APC leadership in handling the very delicate and fragile situation which is a time bomb!

Issues To Be Sorted Out Before Next Plenary!
There is divine angle to the imbroglio since God is very patient with His creation whom He preferred should be saved than perish! Those impetuous Senators have been given a window of opportunity to repent since it is very obvious that they had acted without the mandate of their constituents and would never enjoy their approval! All PDP Talakawas are President Buhari's strong supporters!
The Word of God which states that, "If my people which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land"; (2 Chronicles. 7:14), is very instructive for a moment such as this! We therefore advocate that before the next plenary of the National Assembly slated for 12th July, 2016, a middle ground for reconciliation and amelioration of all grievances must be ploughed for peace to reign and for the economy to improve! The two Parties must unite for the sake of the Nigerian TALAKAWAS!
Since the militants of the Niger Delta region took to vandalization of the crude oil pipelines, economic prosperity of the nation sank more and more into the "miry clay". These renegade Senators are capable of causing similar harm if the Executive stuck to their guns that they could pilot the boat alone! APC should be told that the household enemies within their fold are ready tools to be bought over to truncate Nigeria's nascent democracy because what they failed to achieve during the NASS inauguration by producing all principal officers to form a formidable opposition against the ruling party, could still happen!
All Saraki needed do is to jump ship with the rest of the APC black sheep and return to their parent PDP fold! Before the Rammadan Break, the Senate rejected the Executive List of all Ambassadorial Nominees over the flimsy excuse that it did not follow due process! It was high time both parties worked together in the interest of the suffering masses who are finding it very hard to make ends meet!
In spite of the present economic crunch, the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary, are all enjoying payment of salaries and allowances while all public and private sector workers wait grudgingly for crumbs from the masters table! Both APC and PDP are servants to the people to whom the sovereignty belongs! The time to sheath their swords is now but everyone must go through the cleaners of the rule of law and be purged if found culpable!
"If the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? (I Corinthians.12:15).
A WORD IS ENOUGH FOR THE WISE!
I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

APC'S FREE PRIMARY SCHOOL FEEDING PROJECT IS A MISPLACED PRIORITY!

The All Progressives Congress (APC), has put the cart before the horse in its education policy by introducing free primary school feeding instead of catching pupils young through a reading culture of well-studded school libraries and compulsory computer literacy for early exposure of the future leaders to global civilization! Apart from the provision of basic amenities of life, through an opportunity to secure adequate means of livelihood as well as adequate opportunity to secure suitable employment, health, medical and safety guarantees which must be safeguarded and not endangered, as entrenched in Nigeria's 1999 Constitution, so also should Government direct its policy towards ensuring that education opportunities was equally adequate! According to Chapter II 18- (3), Government shall strive to eradicate illiteracy; and to this end Government shall as and when practicable provide - (a) free, compulsory and universal primary education; (b) free secondary education; (c) free university education; and (d) free adult literacy programme. The good intentions of the ruling party is not in doubt but such "laudable" policy would neither amount nor translate to anything without incisive and detailed feasibility reports or blue prints that would analyze the entire project from incubation to fruition through expert administrators!

From all of our researches, the following are the available information:
1. Federal Government intends to feed only pupils of primaries one to three of some 18 unidentified States without others in Primaries 4-6!
2. It is yet to be disclosed whether the children would be served free breakfast or lunch.
3. We are aware that pupils in most primary pupils in Nigeria spend between five to six study hours daily, Monday through Friday; but we are yet to know how many hours would be spent to feed a population of 850 pupils of a rural school or 2.500 of a city school and by how many caterers per school on daily basis!
4. It is yet to be ascertained whether caterers would carry prepared "nutritious" meals to the schools or would prepare such meals within school premises under the watchful eyes of appointed nutritionists and official supervisors because Government was yet to publish any feasibility documents in respect of this gagantuous project that would gulp at least billions of naira annually at such an austere period of a lean purse and deficit budget!

More Than One Billion Naira Daily On Eggs Alone?
The Minister of Information and Culture would not seize to amaze Nigerians with contrary outbursts in respect of very serious government policies; below are excerpts of some of his outbursts on the daily free meals:
(a) "Deregulation of Petroleum Downstream Sector would improve on the School Feeding Programme first through the employment of 500.000 unemployed graduates.
(b) "Second, employment of 100.000 non-graduates, technicians and artisans;
(c) "Third is one- meal-a-day programme targeting 5.5 million pupils all over Nigeria. This is the most exciting of all our programmes. Even if we are going to give these children one egg a day - it means we will need 5.5 million eggs and in one calendar year of 200 days, we will need over a billion eggs"!
From the information at our disposal one standard egg, even in the rural area costs N30 naira, while the Federal Government intends to spend the sum of N70 naira per pupil per day which translate to N165,000,000million and N385,000,000 million naira respectively on daily basis! Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State who had embarked on the free primary school feeding claimed that the pet programme would save parents a sum of N3.7billion naira annually while his Osun State counterpart claimed that a total of N2.2 billion naira would be disbursed annually for the feeding programme which is also on stream in his State!
Feelers from the All Progressives Congress (APC), Social Welfare Change Camp, has revealed that the Acting President, 'Yemi Osinbajo, on Thursday 9th June, 2016, launched the much publicized National Home Grown School Feeding And Health Programme (HGSFHP), at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja, with several State Governors in attendance. The project was one of the several campaign promises of the ruling party to feed millions of primary school children with highly nutritional foods that would enhance their learning capabilities, battle hunger among the less privileged families, attract and entice out of school children back, and make learning more conducive and comfortable! Professor Osinbajo was quoted to have said at the occasion that the Federal Government School Feeding Programme, among other benefits, would create 1.4 million jobs, increase food production by 530.000 metric tons annually and attract fresh investments of up to N980 billion naira.

The Education Sector in Nigeria had no doubt suffered tremendous set backs in the area of funding by previous administrations which treated the acquisition of knowledge with so much disdain and levity through a platform that produced mediocres, even at the tertiary level to the extent that most Nigerian graduates were unemployable due to inadequate tertiary knowledge, educational and mental capabilities!
The result of deliberate discrepancies of short-funding had over the years birthed thousands of restive illiterate youths in virtually all the six geo-political zones of the country who possess distorted or concocted world views on every topic or subject under the sun!
1. Boko Haram's ideology posits that Western education was harmful and detrimental to their religion.
2. The Niger Delta Avengers believed that the destruction of critical government infrastructures would be the only avenue to attract the leaders attention for a truce and peace dialogue!
3. Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), posit that it was only through outright secession of the South-East Geo-Political Zone from the rest of Nigeria that peace could be ascertained!
4. All misguided militants of the Niger Delta Region believe that there would be peace only if they had 100% resource control of all crude oil extracted from the region without amending the nation's Constitution!
5. All detractors of the APC Change Government constitute themselves to ignorant arm-chair critics of every government policy and insisted that the Party had failed in its first year of administration but are very clueless on the way forward in view of global recession caused by international crude oil price fall since 2014!
According to the United Nations (UN) 2015 statistics, Nigeria has over 10 million out-of -school children, a figure that is regarded as the highest in the world - with the Northern States accounting for majority of the outrageous number! Whether the information in respect of the HGSFHP launch was true or false, was yet to be seen, felt or confirmed by all stake holders - schools authorities, parents, pupils, farmers associations caterers or event managers of the targeted States! As stated earlier, only 5.5 million pupils of 18 out of the 36 States of the Federation, would benefit from the "Father Christmas" largesse while others would watch from a distance and just "lick their tongues" or petition their Governors who have failed to pay workers salaries for the past five to twelve months in most cases, except their own salaries including all manner of allowances and those of their political jobber partners/cronies, for redress and inclusion!
HGSFHP in all intent and purpose constitutes a misplaced priority that is bound to create more disaster that would aggravate the flagging economy as a drain pipe! Meaningful and sound education for the grassroot children is what is needed to groom these endangered species who from now on must take their rightful place as future leaders in this multi-cultural and multi-ethnic egalitarian society which had drifted gradually into an abyss of the educationally backward nations!
The Word of God says: "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." (Proverbs. 22:6). The biblical emphasis is on training of the boy and girl child and not on institutional luring with ephemeral things like food instead of a more enduring divine gift of acquiring information, inspiration, education, reformation and transformation into the 'crème' de la crème’ of the society instead the dregs, misinformed and misguided! Parents could be gainfully employed or financially empowered by government to continue to feed their wards - a duty they have fulfilled from time immemorial no matter how poor they were!
FREE SCHOOL FEEDING IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH SERIOUS LEARNING AND THE KIND OF EDUCATION NEEDED FOR GRASSROOT CHILDREN! IT IS A BIG DISTRACTION BECAUSE MUCH PRECIOUS QUALITY TIME FOR ASSIMILATION WOULD BE LOST TO THE MUNDANE! WE NEED WIZKIDS NOT DULLARDS WHOSE ONLY INSPIRATION FOR ATTENDING CLASSES WOULD BE HINGED ON ONE-FREE-MEAL PER DAY! Governments have no business in feeding pupils but since APC made such a blunder of electioneering campaign commitment, all it needed do was to back-pedal and explain the impossibility of fulfillment to the electorate and reveal palliatives that would be more economically viable to the pupils as suggested in the first paragraph! Every primary school should be equipped with text books on all subjects - which could be borrowed on agreeable terms by pupils to enhance their studies while computer education should also be made compulsory with the provision of the sufficient hardware and educationally enhancing software from primary one! This would form the legacy for equitable spread of quality education from the primary to the tertiary and the immense benefits would be unquantifiable to all and sundry as these youngsters would acquire and cultivate not only the art of reading but also of studying from that tender and formative ages to become learned and patriotic future leaders who would show gratitude to the country that had properly educated them and not those we now witness in Boko Haram of the North East, the crude oil pipeline vandals of the South-South and secession agitators of the South-East States of Nigeria! Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo in 2015, was reported to have toyed with the idea of feeding at least 25 million children in a programme christened, "Home Grown School Feeding Programme," aimed at "improving their nutritional intake" but failed before it could take off for the enormous infrastructural financing and outrageous logistics involved! President Buhari should not create a fresh avenue for massive corruption across the nation by turning the laudable caring youth programme into a GREEK GIFT that would turn out be the undoing of his party! WOULD APC SPEND THE ENTIRE N5 BILLION INTERVENTION FUND ON THIS FRIVOLOUS AND CONTROVERSIAL PROGRAMME ALONE? A WORD IS SUFFICIENT FOR THE WISE!


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

KEN SARO-WIWA WAS AT THE OGONI LAND CLEAN-UP, FLAG-OFF CEREMONY!

Ken Saro-Wiwa, President of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), was executed along with eight of his members, globally acclaimed as the "Ogoni Nine", by the Military Government of General Sani Abacha, over 20 years ago for allegedly inciting murder of five prominent chiefs of the land, but his agitation for a clean and unpolluted environment of his birth place, Ogoniland did not die with him but miraculously resurrected through President Muhammadu Buhari, who eventually flagged off the clean-up exercise at Gokhana Local Government Area of Rivers State on Thursday, 2nd June, 2016!
Represented by the Vice President, Professor 'Yemi Osinbajo, to execute the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) report, submitted to the Federal Government of Nigeria since 2011, and which recommended urgent rehabilitation and clean-up of over 200 locations in which were found that impacts of the 50 years of oil production in the region, extended than previously thought because of oil spills, oil flaring and waste discharge! Presently the alluvial soil of the Ogoniland is no longer viable for agriculture or fishing due to both surface and ground water contamination with high levels of hydrocarbon and several toxic-related chemicals.
In 1990, under the leadership of Saro Wiwa, MOSOP, a non-violent group and member of the United Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO), petitioned the Federal Military Government and requested that international oil companies should stop further land exploitation and degradation through a document titled, "The Ogoni Bill of Rights", which was submitted to the authorities for implementation according to the World Health Organisation(WHO), guidelines but he and some of his organisation, were instead arrested and incarcerated for several months for charges of unlawful protests and assemblies!
The Ogoni people have been victims of human rights violation since 1956, when Royal Dutch/Shell in collaboration with Britain, Nigeria's Colonial Masters, began commercial production two years later in 1958. Traditionally, the Ogonis were agriculturists who also traded in animal husbandry of livestock, herding, fishing and palm oil cultivation but between 1976 and 1991, a period of 15 years, the Oil Company reportedly recorded 2,976 oil spills of about 2.1 million barrels in Ogoniland, the worst in any part of the world which had now destroyed the entire land scape with all soil and earth nutrients! According to UNEP estimates, it could take up to 30 years to rehabilitate Ogoniland to its full potential at an enormous cost of $ 1billion US dollars per every 5years totaling $6 billion or more in all!
Previous and present Nigerian Constitutions are replete with government’s commitments to the citizens and also the citizens' fundamental rights and civic responsibilities to government but military administrations suspended such rights and treated the people with so much brutality as it turned out for MOSOP whose members were imprisoned at random for months on end!
President Buhari in his testimony at the occasion recalled that as a Military Head of State, he commissioned a large fish pond and also planted a tree to commemorate the occasion, and a sign of the Government's commitment to the Niger Delta but unfortunately the degradation of the land, water and air has done huge damage to the fragile ecosystem of the Niger Delta - especially Ogoniland. "Oil exploration has been going in Nigeria for about six decades and Nigeria has benefitted immensely from it.....but the great damage to the region, to the ecosystem is either due to lack of will or willful rules non-compliance with environmental rules, acts, enactments, laws and guidelines given to operators of the oil industry".

President Buhari in this statement did not only confirm a lawful agitation by Saro-Wiwa and MOSOP, but also stated as follows:
"The environment was put in jeopardy", he said, noting that the various communities - noting the negative impact of oil production and the lack of consideration for best practices quite rightly commenced the struggle for justice and fair play in the conduct of business by the oil industry operators.
"This process unfortunately led to loss of lives and properties. International concern was raised whilst past governments were urged to take decisive steps in addressing the damage", he noted. Imagine if Ken Saro Wiwa, the non-violent Vice President of UNPO and an internationally acclaimed environmentalist, writer and government critic was accorded the legitimate request that the expatriate oil companies must be compelled to not only clean every oil spill but also adhere to corporate responsibility statutes of regularly rehabilitating host communities by providing all adequate facilities of clinics, hospitals, shelter, schools, and ensure local contents through job employments that guaranteed living wages, the Niger Delta Region would have been an Eldorado - these 56 years of Nigeria's independence and not a WAR ZONE where drop-outs and miscreants of the society now hold sway as mushroom militants who even have the audacity to threaten President Buhari's life! Military aberration of 30 years robbed all citizens all fundamental rights to life, dignity of human person, personal liberty; right to fair hearing, private and family life, to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; right to freedom of expression and the press, to peaceful assembly and associations, right to freedom of movement and from discriminations, as enacted in the various Constitutions which were usually abrogated while the Parliament remained suspended!
And this was why a peaceful MOSOP agitation in respect of the fundamental rights of association, expression and movement was misconstrued by the Abacha administration as confrontation against government!

Ken Saro-Wiwa led a non-violent campaign against environmental degradation of the land and waters of Ogoniland by the operations of the multi-national petroleum industry - especially the Royal Dutch Shell Company and was also an outspoken critic of the Nigerian Government which he viewed as reluctant to enforce environmental regulations on the foreign petroleum companies operating in the area. At the peak of his non-violent campaign he was tried by a special military tribunal by allegedly masterminding the gruesome murder of Ogoni Chiefs at a pro-government meeting which he vehemently denied! He was imprisoned for over a year before being found guilty of incitement and hanged in 1995 with eight others by a specially convened tribunal of the military junta of Sanni Abacha all because of the enormous wealth which accrued to his government through oil exploitation of Ogoni land by Royal Dutch Shell!
The execution provoked international outrage and resulted in Nigeria's suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations for over three years but did not matter to Abacha who turned out to be the worst military ruler of Nigeria because he brazenly carted away into foreign countries all of the commonwealth in the coffers of the Central Bank in TRAILERS, AIRCRAFTS, BOATS, SHIPS, FRIGATES and all manner of articulated vehicles and left the nation high and dry at death!
In November 2015, the Federal Government disclosed that the total amount recovered from the Abacha loot was $26.4 million dollars and £19 million British pounds respectively apart from those already recovered by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Governments of 16 years and also looted by the predators of those era because they were not accounted for! According to reports in respect of Saro Wiwa's execution on 10th November, 1995, it was said that he did not give up the ghost until the fifth time of the hanging process which was carried out by muscular and masculine ARMY PERSONNEL, and at each time they changed the ROPE, he asked his assailants, "What have I done to deserve death....I have committed no crime."
Royal Dutch Shell denied any form of collaboration with the Abacha junta in the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa, but paid $15.5million dollars to his family as compensation on the eve of litigation with company! It is true that both Saro-Wiwa and Abacha are dead, but it is certain that the present generation of Nigerians now know who the real murderer was among the duo in view of revelations of Abacha's greed and of man's inhumanity to man because of avarice!
We strongly believe that the biblical story of Lazarus and the Rich Man in the Gospel of Saint Luke, Chapter 15:19-31; has come to play because; all of the unfolding events have proved the innocence of Saro-Wiwa since the 1995 hanging of the Ogoni Nine and definitely all those who participated in the Kangaroo Court of jungle justice of an illustrious son of Nigeria whose struggle for the emancipation of his people will remain in the annals of Nigerian and international history for ever, will face divine punishment sooner than later!

The good news however is that, Kenule "Ken" Beeson Saro-Wiwa's agitation for the cleanup of Ogoniland has taken off in earnest in memory of this illustrious son of Nigeria who gave his life that others might have a healthier and prosperous agrarian life which had been their inalienable right from ancestral occupation and settlement! We believe that President Buhari who has exhibited much passion in the project would ensure that funding by the Nigerian Government and other counter-part funds from international communities and especially Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company would not fail!
THIRTY YEARS IS JUST AROUND THE CONNER! THE FIRST STEP WHICH IS THE FLAG-OFF CEREMONY HAS BEEN TAKEN!

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, 08130669886, 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

A GIANT LEAP YEAR OF SUCCESS FOR BUHARI IN SPITE OF TSUNAMI CRITICISMS! (SPECIAL EDITION TO COMMEMORATE PRESIDENT BUHARI'S 366 DAYS IN OFFICE)

In spite of the very many grand promises of Nigeria's ruling Party in both its Mission Statement and Manifesto, two terribly vexatious challenges stared President Buhari in the face on assumption of office on 29th May, 2015! The first and most worrisome was the state of insecurity created by the persistent Boko Haram insurgency which blew out of proportion from the year 2009 into large scale terrorism that swept the nation with fearful panic from Maiduguri to Lagos and from Port Harcourt through the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, to the Sokoto Caliphate! The second was the unprecedented state of massive institutional corruption that had crippled the economy which was handed over to the new Change Administration, with a virtually empty treasury! It is one full leap year of the All Progressives Congress (APC), government under Buhari who had attracted an avalanche of criticisms more than those of his predecessors who in fact created the loads of economic woes being forced down the throat of the common but resilient man, woman and children on the street!
The masses are groaning under the pains of insecurity of life and property, commodity inflation, national energy loss and incessant power outages, absence of potable water, motorable roads, modern health facilities, poor management of agricultural, solid minerals and educational sectors, and a completely vandalized crude oil sector in both outright embezzlement of accruable monetary resources and physical destruction of pipelines through organized cabals of 1999-2015! Inflation rate skyrocketed to 13.7% in April, 2016 as against 9.6% in January of the same year; also 67.63% increase in fuel prices from N86.50 to N145.00, per litre, on 13th May, 2016, further compounded the inflation challenges! Transparency International's corruption perceptions index for 2015 (released in January 2016), ranked Nigeria in the 136th position out of 168 countries as the most corrupt nation in the world, a position it maintained since 2014; which indicated that corruption was endemic in the country! In his own assessment, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, alluded that Nigeria and Afghanistan were "fantastically corrupt countries" during a conversation with the Queen at a reception in celebration of her 90th Birthday anniversary at the Buckingham Palace, shortly before the International Summit on Anti-Corruption, hosted by Britain - Thursday 12th May, 2016! After that derogatory comment, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby intervened to say," But this particular president is not corrupt..... he's trying very hard." In Nigeria, the erstwhile Co-coordinating Minister of the Economy who also doubled as the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Federal Government under President Jonathan, were ordered by a Lagos High Court, on 23rd May, 2016, to provide information on the spending of an allegedly missing N30 trillion as requested by Social Economic Rights Agenda, (SERAP), in a suit No.CS/196/2015, instituted by the pressure group! The judgment delivered by Hon. Justice Ibrahim Buba, was instituted in 2015 by a former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Charles Soludo, who alleged that at least N30 trillion, had either been stolen or unaccounted for or grossly mismanaged over the last few years under Iweala's watch!
Also in the same week, it was revealed by the Minister of Solid Minerals and Chairman of the Board of Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI)! Dr. Kayode Fayemi, that a sum of N2.23 trillion, was not remitted to the Federation Account by the NNPC, according to a 2013 Audit Report of the Oil and Gas as well as the solid minerals sectors. This consisted of $9.75 billion and N378.67billion earning from various aspects of its operations in 2013 which were supposed to be remitted to the Federation Account! Another ex-CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, now the Emir of Kano, during his tenure also accused the NNPC of non-remittance of $20 billion US dollars to the Federation Account under the watch of Mrs. Iweala and was promptly sacked by the Jonathan's Administration for opening his mouth too wide!

Critics of the present administration believed that Nigeria's economy had never had it so bad in the last one year and one could not completely fault their arguments because it is very obvious that the economic window dressing and the media-propped governments of 16 years of PDP's maladministration as earlier enunciated above, came crashing down in the first year of the new administration! The latest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Annual Growth Rate announced on Friday 20th May, 2016, by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), revealed that growth indices shrank by 0.36 % year-on-year in the first three months of 2016, compared to a 2.11% expansion in the previous period and way below forecasts of 1.7% growth and the trend was attributed to slowdown in the services sectors, due to a weakening naira while lower oil prices kept dragging the oil sector down. Under Iweala's watch, Nigeria re-based GDP estimates for the year 2013 which was adjudged as Africa's largest economy and the 26th globally, was put at $ 510billion US dollars or N80.3 trillion naira, was debunked because on per capita basis, Nigeria was placed in the 121st position since its workforce of about 100 million persons dwelt in abject poverty of meager $1.5 US dollars per day! The deficit 2016 Budget is another issue of criticism because, it could not successfully address the dominance of recurrent over capital expenditures and critics vehemently claimed that Executive financial wastage was still pronounced - especially in the Presidency and the National Assembly (NASS)!
Inadequate national health and housing facilities were other areas of criticisms in view of the fact that the rural communities are still marginalized because child and maternal mortality statistics were still on the high side and the issue of about 17 million housing deficit, due to social contract neglect by past administrations remained outstanding! They also criticized the recalcitrant issue of unemployment - especially tertiary institutions graduates- in Nigeria under the present administration and described it as unacceptable. President Buhari's two-pronged attack on national insecurity and declaration of war on corruption right from his investiture, on 29th May, 2015, was the necessary foundation and panacea to establish urgent economic revival from the ashes of 16 years of terrible maladministration! However, critics cannot dispute the following positive achievements of the APC Government, which had to be addressed through diplomatic corridors and unregulated market forces, no matter how hard they tried:
(1). Within 365 days regional military co-operation sought through early foreign journeys to neighboring countries of Niger, Cameroon, Chad, and Mali by President Buhari, yielded positive results of the virtual defeat of the Boko Haram insurgency which had subsided to very minimal level in which the terrorists, who held sway between 2009-2015, have reluctantly accepted defeat and are on the run! (a) Many of them voluntarily surrendered to the Federal Forces and are being "rehabilitated in safe corridors".(b) Two of the Chibok Secondary School girls, one of them mother of a baby girl, had been rescued from the Sambisa Forest, along with her suspected Boko Haram "husband" who had given useful information to the security agents.
(c) Security agents have successfully blocked all of the terrorists routes of food, arms, medical and communication supplies; a move that actually destroyed their base in the Sambisa Forest, within the leap year! (d) Another Regional Security Summit was held by Buhari in Abuja on 13th May, 2016, to further strengthen the military agreements of the Military Joint Task Force (MJTF), between Nigeria's neighboring countries which had produced much gains and successes! (e) The campaign for military support for Nigeria against the Boko Haram terrorists was not limited to the West African Sub-region, but extended to the United States of America and European Union countries, through which concrete modern military support in the form of hardwares and intelligence gathering, had been favourably received and acknowledged!

(2). The war on corruption is in full swing and according to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Switzerland would repatriate $300m US dollars deposited by money Nigerian launderers to the Federal Government. All monies recovered so far through "plea bargain" from fraud suspects would soon be made public while criminal prosecution of those who have been apprehended was at the peak! (a) Some of the big swindlers are already tenants of the various Nigerian prisons while several others are going through competent court processes. (b) The President also made other international trips to the Arab countries of United Arab Emirate,(UAE), Saudi Arabia and to China to seek both economic and financial investments support to take Nigeria out of the imminent quagmire of economic recession, which had now begun to take its toll because of the unpatriotic attitude of past managers who celebrated the culture of national institutional corruption! (c) At the recently concluded International Anti-Corruption Summit in London, (12th May, 2016), President Buhari, in spite of the reproachful comment of his host, appealed to all foreign countries to retrieve and repatriate all laundered, looted and embezzled monies by Nigerians and deposited in their bank vaults, to the country to boost its economy. (d) The re-introduction, implementation and entrenchment of the Treasury Single Account (TSA), within the period of 366 days under review in spite of vehement opposition by former treasury looters was a landslide victory of a righteous government under the divinely-anointed servant, Muhammadu Buhari!

(3). Though it took a whole quarter of the year to put the "socialist" 2016 Budget into operation, the yoke of annual padding by the technocrats was completely broken once and for all and the culprits were shown the door! (4). On assumption of office, many States of the Federation were unable to pay backlog of monthly salaries for up to 10 months in some cases and had to request for financial credit bailouts to avoid social unrests - which he gladly obliged without querying what happened to all of their Internally Generated Revenues (IGR), but still, 27 States are owing workers!

Unregulated Market Forces Of Supply And Demand Will Salvage The Economy!
It has been revealed that the Federal Government was completely pushed to the wall over the various challenges of the dwindling economy and had no alternative option than to allow the Petroleum Downstream Sector flow with the tide of market forces of supply and demand which in economic terms meant, that the price modulation mechanism, would enable the petrol's new price to find its level in the international market without let or hindrance! Since, Wednesday 11th May, 2016, when the new price regime debuted, there had been abundant supply of the product all over the country and scarcity stopped permanently! It is strongly believed by economic analysts that in less than one month from the price increase operative date, market forces would lead to competitive prices at all filling stations and consumers would embrace the best options and the numerous palliatives would flow to cushion any manner of challenges that might surface.

***Snippets from President Buhari's First Leap Year Anniversary Message.
A N500 billion Social Protection Programme already appropriated for in the 2016 Budget was launched as a social intervention policy for the recruitment and training of 500.000 Teachers, 100.000 Artisans; Conditional Cash Transfer to provide support for 100.000 vulnerable beneficiaries, including 1million market women 460.000 Artisans and 200.000 Agricultural Workers nationwide! The President announced the Education Grand Scheme for Universities and Polytechnics and paid tribute to the gallant men and women of the Armed Forces. There will be more snippets of the anniversary speech in our subsequent editions. LET US SUPPORT THIS AMIABLE, RIGHTEOUS, FAITHFUL AND CHARISMATIC LEADER WHO IS ON THE RIGHT TRACK TO SAVE THE ECONOMY OF NIGERIA FROM ABSOLUTE RUINS! GOD WILL AVENGE THE POOR MASSES FROM THE PIPELINE VANDALS WHO ARE BENT OF DESTROYING THE ECONOMY IN JESUS CHRIST NAME! AMEN. (Romans. 12:19.)


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A.Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

PIPELINES VANDALS ARE HOUSEHOLD ENEMIES! THEY MUST BE DEFEATED TO SAVE NIGERIA'S FLAGING ECONOMY!

Some Nigerians who are sold to Satan in the Niger Delta region are on the rampage again! They have christened themselves as "Niger Delta Avengers" (NDA), and in two consecutive, devious and terribly destructive operations they vandalized the Forcados Export Line which supplied crude oil to the Warri and Kaduna refineries. They also burst gas pipelines supplying the product to gas-fired Thermal Plants across the nation with the resultant effect of a drop in production from 2.2 million barrels per day, which the 2016 Budget was predicated, to 1.4 barrels as at Monday, 16th May, 2016, because 800.000 barrels of the mono-economic product was lost per day to vandalism! Not only that, electricity megawatts have also dropped from 2.500 to about 1.400 since the last blow-ups of the same damaged pipelines that had just been repaired by NNPC Engineers at exorbitant costs and risks while the nation had been thrown into utter darkness! The NDA vandals' grouse is that Federal Government had consistently denied their region of all basic amenities under various pretexts and that the Ogoni Land compensation judgment including the land degradation clean-up agreement by responsible international oil companies had all been reneged!
Therefore they decided to take laws into their own hands by ensuring that production lines were continuously vandalized to prevent other parts of the federation from benefitting from the supply of the products but forgetting in the process of unjustifiable anger, that the oil spillages would become toxic wastes over the farmlands and fishing waters of the majority poor masses who have never enjoyed any social benefits from oil exploration in the region! During political events that led to the last general elections, ex-militants in the persons of Asari Dokubo, Tompolo, Ateke Tom and Boyloaf all of the same region vowed to make Nigeria ungovernable if the former president, Ebele Jonathan failed at the 2015 Presidential polls, but these demonized youths have claimed no affinity with all the old foxes but made it abundantly clear that they were independent in their operations and would not attack the people but only oil pipelines! According to the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, government was committed to ensuring that all destroyed facilities were repaired and effectively protected, and that it would work hard to resolve all grey issues in respect of the deregulation of the downstream sector of the industry and get the 2.2 barrels per day production back on stream! In three different administrations, beginning from Obasanjo to Jonathan, those renegade militants blackmailed government that they would be the most suitable people to protect the oil pipelines being sons of the soil and indigenes who understood the terrain more and for peace to reign, they were contracted and have all become millionaires/billionaires; but now that the contracts have expired, they turned out to become monsters and enemies of the state!
Billionaire militant, Mr. Government Ekpemupolo alias, Tompolo who is believed to own a private jet aircraft and a warship, is on the wanted list of the EFCC and being tried in absentia, for defrauding Federal Government of N47 billion naira from the pipeline surveillance contract agreement, though boasted to return to the creeks to vandalize pipelines, is on the run! However one of his allies, Ateke Tom, former Commander of the Niger Delta Vigilante has promised President Buhari to guarantee protection of the vandalized pipelines during and after the repairs! He described the so-called Niger Delta Avengers as frustrated, faceless and desperate masked group! He also appealed to the elders in the region to call the criminal youths to order to avert further sufferings of the poor masses!
Kachikwu was very straight forward with the facts concerning why it was so easy for the vandals to gain access, destroy the pipelines and escape apprehension and justice this far: In his words,"There are still a whole lot of things we need to pay attention to; infrastructure is key, but we have not as a country over the last 20 years invested in infrastructure in the oil sector. Our pipelines are 35 years old and none has been replaced; we have not been able to put gas infrastructure in place, our refineries are next to comatose and old and we are working hard on them.
"Our critical facilities are at a breakdown stage, so no serious infrastructure has taken place. No country in the world will expect that the price system in the country will benefit its citizens if it doesn’t invest in infrastructure. So the energy we put on PMS we need to begin to focus on building massive infrastructure all over the country. I know how much efforts it has taken to pump products from the south to the north, to the east and to the west. It has been one battle after another, but the time has come to invest in proper pipelines, proper tracking, proper buried levels and begin to move with the world". Previous administrations, for 30 years, neither constructed new pipelines nor made efforts to follow international mould and depth specifications in respect of existing ones to increasing laying and burying depth procedures, it was very easy for criminals to vandalize and escape with much ease. Why would it be so difficult for the Federal Government to ensure fool-proof security of these pipelines at this auspicious moment when it needed every accruable revenue from all God-endowed sources to escape glaring "brokerage"! The heart of man is exceedingly wicked, otherwise, why should some youths decide to compound an already bad situation of national insecurity at a time when every Nigerian was expected to support the new Change Government's populist policies?
Before the global Flood recorded in the Old Testament Bible, God saw that the wickedness of ante-dilluvian man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually and He decided to destroy that evil generation because it was corrupt and filled with violence! (Genesis.6:5-13). It's over 6.000 years since that divine intervention, but has corruption and violence ceased, or had the evil imagination of the thoughts of man been reformed in today's global earth? In comparison, crimes and criminalities of the ante-dilluvian generation can be best described as child's play to present day scenarios of global acts of terrorism, gun attacks, suicide bombings, bank robberies, human kidnappings, abductions, and traffickings, fornication, adultery, murders, assassinations, contract killings, increasing statistics of gang rapes, oil thefts, pipeline vandalism, money laundering, high seas piracy, massive frauds and embezzlement of public funds, election riggings, examination malpractices, false declaration of assets by public officers etc. All over the world, no government, country, nation, society, community or family is spared from experiencing the ordeal and corresponding trauma of the listed crimes! From the North to the South Poles, and East to West of the Equator the sordid stories are the same!

Several years before the insurgency of the Boko Haram which began in Nigeria in 2009, some organised Niger Delta Militants also took up arms to agitate against exploitation of crude oil natural resource of the South-south region, degradation of farmlands, pollution of the fishing seas through oil spillages, marginalization in terms of basic infrastructures of good roads, schools, potable water, adequate health facilities of modern health care centres, clinics, hospitals, housing programmes etc, and they moved into the Creeks to vandalize oil installations, oil rigs, oil wells, oil pipelines of the NNPC and those of the international oil companies as well, to buttress their anger against the alleged injustices! And so the cycle of senseless agitations as against peaceful negotiations have continued since the military era of Generals Babangida and Abacha and the poor masses of that region in the past 30 years, had been the worst for it because in all these years of agitation their farm lands and fishing waters remained further polluted like what is being witnessed with more oil spillages, courtesy of Niger Delta Avengers scoundrels!
It is reported that NNPC had lost N2.4billion in February to the Forcados pipeline vandalism which is strongly believed to be the handiwork of some unpatriotic sponsors who must be quickly exposed. It is also being suggested by NUPENG, and the Nigeria Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), that tougher penalties should be meted to pipeline vandals who are both criminals and terrorists and that government should quickly fish out the masterminds! Supply of gas also declined of 70 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscf/d) to power plants in the same month due to vandalism of 48inch Forcados Export Line, in its February oil and gas report which also showed that the Warri Refinery was not in working order in January and February, while Kaduna Refinery did not produce in February. According to NUEE, Nigeria is one the countries that kept suffering from power poverty because the international best practice specification of the supply of 1.000 megawatts of power to one million population was recommended, but the country had at one peak period, only 3.000 megawatts for 170 million people! There can be no better time than now to unleash the Federal might on these scoundrels if they refused to accept the "Olive Branch" being personally offered by Mr. President for dialogue and a peaceful resolution to the imbroglio! However we still believe that the larger majority of the very poor masses in the Niger Delta Geo-Political Zone deserve a better life of modern social amenities as compared with other zones!
We have been reliably informed that President Buhari, will flag off the CLEAN-UP OGONI LAND PROJECT, to which N10 million had been earlier dedicated, in the second week of June, 2016. This is a cheering news and a right step in the right direction to show those wicked youths that it was better that the land be recovered for farm land than further pollution through pipelines vandalization! Crude oil, gas, and all solid mineral resources extracted or mined in Nigeria, still remain Nigeria's major foreign exchange earner according to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, Second Schedule, Exclusive Legislative List and by implication, the Federal Government's prerogative. Militants of all categories - especially the so-called Avengers, should be constitution-compliant and patiently wait until necessary constitutional amendments were made to increase their 13% derivative formula earnings or until they become stronger federating units for them to keep most of their oil revenue!
Pipeline vandals are vicious criminals, they must be quickly apprehended by combined security operatives of the Federal Government and be prosecuted as economic saboteurs if they rejected all entreaties to surrender peacefully and embrace dialogue!
NIGERIANS ARE TIRED OF THE INCESSANT BRAGADO OF THESE NIGER DELTA CRIMINALS WHO ARE SO MYOPIC AND PARANOID TO REALISE THAT CRUDE OIL AND GAS ARE NO LONGER THEIR EXCLUSIVE PRESERVE! CRUDE OIL HAS BEEN DISCOVERED IN LAGOS, EDO, ANAMBRA, AND THE CHAD BASIN OF THE BORNU STATE AND WOULD EVENTUALLY BE EXTRACTED IN COMMERCIAL QUANTITIES!
DIVERSIFICATION FROM CRUDE OIL TO AGRICULTURE, SOLID MINERALS EXTRACTION, FILM INDUSTRY, ENTERTAINMENT, TOURISM, etc. as foreign exchange earner products are also in the front burner in other states of the Federation! The "Avengers" madness must stop immediately and permanently!



I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

NIGERIANS MUST "GO FORWARD" IN SPITE OF HARSH FUEL PRICE DEREGULATION!

Patriotism which is an attitude of deep love for one's country should be cultivated with an understanding that leaders in government would always seek the welfare of the citizenry through sound economic policies and judgments not predicated on selfish interests or avarice! On Wednesday 11th May, 2016, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), announced an upward adjustment from N87.00 to N145.00, which turned out to be a total removal of subsidy by government on the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS or Petrol), since it was not even captured in the just signed 2016 Budget; but 99.9 per cent of Nigerians were not actually surprised because they had always agitated for regular supply of the product even if they had to pay more! Not surprisingly, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, ( IPMAN) Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria ((PENGASSAN), and Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), had welcome the new price regime and promised to cooperate with government by ensuring regular supply of the products and selling not beyond N145.00 across the nation. But the National Assembly, (NASS), Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), which were privy to government's plan to expunge the subsidy had been very diplomatic in condemning the price hike and promised to take appropriate action like organized protests!
WE MUST WARN THE GOOD CITIZENS OF THIS GOOD NATION THAT THE PRICE FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE COULD BE PAINFUL AND ENTAIL GREAT SACRIFICES/HARDSHIPS, BUT IN THE LONG RUN EVERYONE WHO PERSEVERED WOULD BE BETTER OFF IN RESPECT OF THE GOOD DIVIDENDS OF DEMOCRACY! FELLOW NIGERIANS, PLEASE ENDURE AND FOREBEAR! SHUN ANY KIND OF ORGANISED PROTESTS BY NIGERIAN LABOUR CONGRESS AND TRADE UNION CONGRESS BAND WAGON WHO DWELL IN OPULENCE AND COOL COMFORT BUT WOULD USE THE POOR MASSES AS PUNS FOR THEIR OWN GAINS BY INSULTING THEIR SENSIBILITIES! HOW MANY OF THEIR MEN DIED IN PROTESTS THEY ORGANISED IN 2012 WHEN JONATHAN'S ADMINISTRATION PARTIALLY REMOVED FUEL SUBSIDY? NONE OF THEM DIED! WHY WOULD THEY PROD YOU TO DIE FOR THEM TO ENJOY YOUR DIVIDENDS OF DEMOCRACY ALONE? GOD FORBID! AMEN?

In our Volume 3. No. 82 of 08-03-15, titled," Petroleum Subsidy Is A Monumental Fraud Against Nigerian Masses", we discredited government policy of forcing the masses to painfully pay for their deliberate dereliction of duty by failing to build more crude oil refineries.

In another edition of Vol. 4. No. 123 of 20th December, 2015, we published another Newsletter titled, “Nigerians Must Swallow The Bitter Pills Of Total Fuel Subsidy Removal In 2016 To Save The Economy", having researched deeply to finding a lasting solution to that recurrent issue which has outlived all governments of Nigeria - military and democratic! Below are some excerpts from the 123rd Edition
"Corruption in Nigeria is a Hydra-Headed Monster that must be attacked and destroyed not by government alone but by all patriotic citizens who should be determined to resist the temptations and allurements of illicit monetary gains that could be manipulated to turn them into accomplices by unfaithful operators in the various sectors of the economy! Since the determined effort by the new leadership to recover all stolen and embezzled funds by officers of past administrations, lots of billions of naira have been recovered through probes and investigations while some were voluntarily returned into the Treasury through plea-bargains
".......but the biggest head of the monster that urgently needed the full support of all patriotic citizens to be cut off and destroyed is the total removal of illegal payment of Petroleum Products Subsidy which had been the most daring robbery of government treasury since the turn of the new millennium!
" THIS SUPPORT WILL TURN OUT TO BE BITTER PILLS, BUT IT IS OUR FERVENT BELIEF THAT IF QUICKLY SWALLOWED AT THIS OPPORTUNE TIME, NIGERIANS WOULD IN THE SHORT AND LONG RUN ENJOY FULL BENEFITS OF THE DIVIDENDS OF DEMOCRACY UNDER A RIGHTEOUS GOVERNMENT OF PRESIDENT BUHARI

"APC had very good intentions for good governance which prompted the leadership through its flag bearer, President Muhammadu Buhari to promise:
2. "That the massive corruption and impunity of the past 16 years of PDP governance would be wiped off..!
4. "That PETROLEUM PRODUCTS ( premium motor spirit or petrol and kerosene to consumers without continuous payments through the largest corrupt drain-pipe of the outlandish FUEL SUBSIDY PAYMENTS which gulped about SEVEN TRILLION NAIRA in four years (2011-2015), according to recent World Bank Report on the state of the Nigerian economy!
"SINCE GOOD INTENTIONS WOULD NOT AMOUNT TO GOOD GOVERNANCE, ALL NIGERIANS SHOULD READ THE HANDWRITING OF PRESENT ECONOMIC REALITIES AND CO-OPERATE WITH APC MANAGEMENT TEAM TO SWALLOW THE BITTER PILL OF THE TOTAL REMOVAL OF FUEL SUBSIDY PAYMENT ROBBERY INTRODUCED AS PARTY PATRONAGE BY PDP FOR THEIR CRONIES, ONCE AND FOR ALL IN 2016! "

Prophet Moses, the deliverer of the tribe of Israel from the 400 years bondage of Egyptian's servitude at a critical stage of his divine assignment was sandwiched between two unacceptable options - either to move on and perish with his contingent in the deep Red Sea ahead of them, or remain static, be recaptured and taken back into slavery, by the angry and violent Pharaoh-led Egyptian Army, which had encamped behind the over two-and-a-half million frightened vulnerable men, women and children! Going through the biblical records in Chapter 14:15-16, of the second Book titled Exodus (Greek word which means, "outgoing", the LORD told Moses:
"Wherefore criest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel that they they go forward: "But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea." The scenario above clearly depicted that God could not be separated from the affairs of men because He owns them and everything in creation organic/inorganic; and would always intervene to ensure that events worked out according to His purposive Will and that His world was not overrun by evil persons at any time!
In obedience, "Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided."(verse 21). President Muhammadu Buhari is the Moses of our time! He has been divinely prepared for such a time as this to rescue the over 80 per cent of Nigeria's impoverished citizens from the few neo- colonialist predators who had enslaved them through selfish grip on all sectors of the economy since independence in 1960!
1. Why is the Power Sector still comatose? Because the importers of all electric generating sets in Nigeria are the economic saboteurs and their cronies in government establishments where management decisions are taken!
2. Why would Nigeria fail to build more crude oil refineries but depended on importation of finished products from abroad? Because the importers are people in positions of authority who shape economic policies to favour payment of fraudulent subsidies which had virtually run the economy aground!

It has taken Buhari 31 years to get back to the saddle of power to accomplish the divine mandate of setting up a righteous government since he was chased out of office and later incarcerated during his first outing in 1984/85! Buhari could decipher the economic challenges to know exactly what panacea to introduce at every point! He met on ground an almost empty treasury and immediately opted for the Treasury Single Account (TSA), which would proffer better accountability. He exposed the terrible corruption in the Oil and Gas sector and promptly identified the controversial issue of payment of subsidies on petroleum products as the worst of the conduit pipes through which lots of foreign exchange reserves were stolen unnoticed and having paid off the "outstanding subsidy debts" in 2015, braced up for frontally attack the monster by cutting of its head through total removal of the rougish subsidy to allow for free market price regime that would eliminate product scarcity permanently.
Nigerians are all aware that they were being ripped off through payment of petroleum products because in spite of the deal they always suffered to acquire the products all year round! When NUPENG OR PENGASSAN did not strike over some frivolous demands, the Tanker Drivers Association or Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) would hoard the products and create artificial scarcity in order to earn more illicit money! Why was is so difficult for consecutive Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Administrations to diversify the economy from the mono-crude oil product to agriculture and solid minerals extraction; entertainment and tourism industries which are abound in all 36 States of the federation?
Because the money bags who made free illicit monies through allocation of OIL BLOCKS which constitutionally belonged to all Nigerians, had flooded local markets with foreign goods of all categories from foods, to cosmetics, exotic wines, jewelries, farm products like rice, beans, millet, corn, potatoes, oranges, guavas, paw-paws, coconuts and cocoa-related confectioneries like chocolates and sweets, candies, electronics, clothing’s for all category of peoples, motorcycles, tri-cycles, cars, buses, lorries, exotic jeeps, with laundered monies from illicit sources of drugs, oil thefts, gambling, prostitution, stolen subsdies etc. and Nigeria became the dumping ground for all foreign unwanted foreign goods at the expense of the Nigerian industrialists and manufacturers local products!
With this bold step by Buhari to take up the gauntlet and "GO FORWARD" with the total removal of the fuel price subsidy as commanded by God, the nation will eventually take its rightful place among the 20 economically-viable comities of nations even before the year 2020!
Let all hands be on deck to destroy the cancerous wound called fuel subsidy and march with assurance into the Promised Land! IT IS NOW OR NEVER, FORWARD EVER, BACKWARD NEVER AGAIN FOR NIGERIANS! AMEN. TOTAL DEREGULATION IS THE ONLY SOLUTION TO PETROL SCARCITY AND FILLING STATIONS QUEUES.IT IS THE BRIDGE WE MUST CROSS NOW!


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

WOE BE UNTO THE PASTORS THAT DESTROY AND SCATTER THE SHEEP OF MY PASTURE! SAITH THE LORD. (JER 23:1).

Most Nigerians have penchant for religiousity! They worship God from different spiritual perspectives. Some statistics state that Christians and Muslims dominate the religious space while those who prefer the Traditional mode of worship occupy a negligible portion of about five per cent! Since religion is the belief in the worship of the GOD of Heaven by Christians and also the worship of traditional gods fashioned through man's imagination by idol worshippers, and because it is assumed to be a peaceful vocation, governments classify it as a fundamental and inalienable human right of freedom of worship which should neither be legislated against nor tinkered with, because of its sensitivity and sacredness!
Nigeria proudly boasts of the biggest Pentecostal Church in the world with the auditorium capacity for 500.000 worshippers seated at every service and hundreds of forests/wilderness Christian religious gatherings hosting unlimited and unrestricted adherents running into over five million in some weekly/monthly REDEMPTION meetings across the nation in which it is believed that thousands of such lives were always surrendered to the authority of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, through unction of the Holy Spirit! However, the annual escalation of crime statistics which portrayed graphic rise in cars and bank robberies, human kidnappings, assassinations, arsons, murders, insurgency, militancy, violent crimes of cultism, drunkenness, fornication, adultery, wife-battering, child abuse/molestation, gangsterism and most recently, the ravaging and rampaging of private farmlands across the nation by Fulani herdsmen, armed with sophisticated military weapons who operate like the Boko Haram terrorists, through gun attacks, dispossess defenseless villagers of their farmlands, killed them in their scores without pity, and burnt down their homes, has given much concern as to whether, Christians prayers were ever answered by the God of Heaven, since people of His creation, whatever their religious belief, perpetrate these heinous crimes!
We cannot but also mention the persistent Boko Haram terrorism which had devastated the Nigerian landscape, people and the economy for seven years on! With about 85million Christians, 30 million Churches and about 40 million Pastors in Nigeria, faithfully worshipping the God of Heaven, should there be such a gory scenario as we practically experience today, in which no one is spared of pain and agony, except the rich, affluent and powerful in the government and society who surround themselves with State security apparatuses 24 hours daily! Christians tag their weekly and monthly mammoth gatherings, in those far-flung forests, "redemption atmosphere for lost souls" and we wonder why since the 1990s till date when the fire of Pentecostal Christianity had raged relentlessly, lost souls remained unredeemed and unredeemable in Nigeria! Did you know that though those forest/wilderness mammoth crowd were fashioned after the Lord example of preaching and feeding of 5.000 people, but because new generation pastors could not attain to miracle feeding like the Lord, they always abandoned the multitude of people to feed themselves during every break of the all night vigils which in most cases were held for a whole week! On those occasions, the congregation could hardly wait for the spiritual food to be distributed before declaring open their bazaars and barbecues to serve grilled chickens/assorted beefs, fried/jollof rice, "isi ewu" pepper soup delicacies, various exotic snacks and chilled red wine brands to calm strained and stressed nerves from "spiritual ecstasies"! If the General Overseers or Superintendents claimed ignorance of the regular break-time jamborees, and the bad character influence of the old believers over the fresh converts at such gatherings, what about the hundreds of ushers and assistant pastors who mingle with the multitude to ensure orderliness and godly behaviors throughout those occasions? Our research pointed in one direction, which is that an unchristianly attitude of backpedaling on one's spiritual belief, which is termed APOSTASY, has not only crept into the Church, but has taken the front seat from where it operates conveniently from the pulpit teachers (2Timothy.4:3; 2Peter.2:1-19; Jude.4,8,11-13,16), to Galatian congregations of the present age! (Galatians.3:1-5f).
Biblical apostasy ( 2Timothy 4:3-4), is a religious rebellion against the Body of Christ, which tenets are founded on holiness, righteousness, truth and perfection of God the Father, it is a falling away by Christians from the faith and not the outward profession of Christianity! ( 2Timothy.3:5). It is an act of a professed Christian who deliberately rejects revealed truth as to the Deity of Jesus Christ and redemption through His atoning and redeeming sacrifice on the Cross. ( I John.4:1-3); Philippians.3:18; 2Peter.2:1). Apostasy in the Church, as in Israel (Isaiah. 1:5-6; 5:5-7), is irremediable and awaits judgment (2Thessalonians. 2:10-12; 2Peter.2:17,21; Jude 11-15; Revelation.3:14-16). On noticing the unending cycle of human religious retrogression and the Scripture which states that those who pay lip service to the Lord Jesus Christ, would not spend eternity in the Kingdom of God, (Matthew.7:21), we embarked on marathon intercessory prayers for God to quicken the spirits of His faithful and devoted remnants whom He had always preserved for His Holy name for immediate intervention because there was no way that the sinful man can ever measure up to God's plan for the ages and please Him throughout all different dispensations, and fulfill His purposive Will! In a similar case of apostasy in Israel, Fire Prophet Elijah the Tish'bite was told by God: "Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all knees which have not bowed unto Ba'al, and every mouth which hath not kissed him". (I Kings.14-18). What were our prayer thrusts? That the Shepherds of the Christian Flock in Nigeria should boldly preach the TRUTH! That they should tell members of their congregation about God's expectations of complete obedience to His holy laws without any form of compromise because of ephemeral financial or property gains that should accrue to them through tithes, offerings and very expensive gifts! That they should be rigid and fearless to preach the Word in and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all longsuffering against gluttony, immoral tight-fitted dressings that enhance and pronounce their cleavages in or out of church, the use of attractive lip sticks, sensuous beauty make-ups, outrageous and repulsive perfumes; but emphasize the doctrine of moderation in all manner of human behaviour!

We did not have to wait long, for God raised a lone voice from the wilderness in the person of Pastor William Kumuyi, of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry, aka."Deeper Life", whom the Holy Spirit recently used as His vessel to voice a timely warning against the dangers of coveting or romancing the Spirit of Apostasy in the Christendom and shouted unequivocally at the top of his voice to his million of millions members of congregation and by extension to all Nigerian christians/all good people of the good nation; and we quote his exhortation in a recent sermon in Lagos titled: "Heaven's Response To Earth's Request", which was in fact God's speedy answer to our request in the preceding paragraph!
Pastor Kumuyi in the strongly-worded sermon on 24th April, 2016, warned Deeper Life members that Hell would be hotter than normal for them if after being regularly fed with God's Word, they missed the opportunity to repent and did not make heaven adding that the hottest part of hell would be reserved for them because they knew the truth and did not do them! "Turn away from your secret sins; I don't know how you can be in a church like this and there is fornication, adultery, lying and others in your hands. All your work in the church will be useless if you don't repent of your sins. You need to run away from your sins and run into Jesus. If you say you have repented, you will not continue to spend stolen money. You need to restore all the stolen money if the repentance is genuine. Those who steal church money and government money have not truly repented; except they repent they would go to hell"!
This a challenge to all other "God's Generals" who control mammoth weekly/monthly forest/wilderness crowds to preach the truth and nothing but the truth like Pastor Kumuyi and save their naive multitudes who are so mentally and spiritually lazy to study the bible to show themselves approved unto God, workmen/women that needed not be ashamed and rightly dividing the word of truth at all times from spending their eternity in the deepest part of hell fire! (2 Timothy. 2:15; Revelation. 21:. Did you remember that Prophet Moses, the Deliverer, who was divinely assigned to lead the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land with all his spiritual forthrightness, fire for the holiness and righteousness of God, faithfulness, resilience and diligence to the mandate, lost the over two million able-bodied men of war, their wives and children in the 40-year wilderness wanderings? He also did not enter into the Promised Land not because of bad leadership but because of righteous anger that led him to disobey God's instruction to "speak to the rock" and not smite it as he did! (Numbers.20:7-13). If the present generations of Christians would miss eternity with Christ, it should not be adduced to the fact that millions of millions perished in hell fire due to the Pastors' selfish pursuit for illicit wealth through the cunning and deceitful collection of tithes and offerings for aggrandizement in trendy fashion outfits, state-of -the-art automobiles, most expensive houses, modern jet aircrafts; dining and wining with corrupt politicians for filthy lucre through false prophecies etc. This is the time for those of them who are still alive to preach the truth, save lives and rather dwell in penury instead of coveting Jacob's RED POTTAGE that would steal, destroy their anointing and blessings together!

Must Worshippers Perish In The Wilderness To Make Pastors Rich?
Are there spiritual takeaways from these forest/wilderness vigils? The answer is a capital NO! The whole exercise is nothing short of robbing Peter to pay Paul! For instance, the biggest church auditorium can sit only half a million people! If on the average offertory falls between N200 and N500 per member/worshipper, inclusive of regular payment of tithes from genuine living wages and not BLOOD MONEY, total collections would translate to some millions and not billions of naira which some pastors were always targeting to live big like their European Union and United States counterparts! Therefore their solution to that challenge lied in the forests/wilderness vigil gatherings to fleece worshippers of their monies, possessions and all means of livelihood through night vigil false prophesies, instead of feeding them with the solid Word of Truth! We were able to establish that clever USHERS/CASHIERS in charge of the EXCHEQUER at those gathering are also members of the Millionaire Club!
For the past quarter of a century Christian evangelical crusades took the front burner of religious activities in the Christendom yet, more Christians are languishing in prisons yards at home and abroad. They are all over Italy, USA and the EU countries engaged in prostitution, drug and human trafficking, crude oil bunkering, money laundering, internet fraud activities etc. They are not the replica of the EARLY CHURCH! (Acts of the Apostles.2:41-47; compare verses 14-40). It is time to bring true believers back into the Church structures and Home Cells as practiced in India where everyone would imbibe the true doctrine of the Word of God under the tutelage of genuine pastors like the BEREA Christians of the early Apostolic period, who had opportunity to be taught and to cross-check the Word of God in their homes to prove its authenticity! IT WAS HIGH TIME NIGERIAN CHRISTIANS DEPARTED EVIL FORESTS AND WILDERNESS VIGILS IN ORDER TO ESCAPE THE ANIMALISTIC INTUITION AND MENTALITY WHICH IS DEVOID OF THE KNOWLEDGE AND TRUE EXISTENCE OF THE LIVING GOD AND HIS EXPECTATIONS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AMONG HIS HIGHER CREATION!

If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, don’t miss this great opportunity as you pray this prayer: Lord Jesus; I confess that I am a sinner who needs to be saved through the grace of the New Testament of your Blood, shed on the Cross at Calvary; I renounce every sin in my life and accept you as my Lord and Saviour. Please forgive me and write my name in the Book of Life. Amen. If you prayed this prayer, you have been admitted into the family of sons and daughters of God, who are born-again. Congratulations.

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

Nigerian Judas Kicks Against Chinese Loan to Nigeria!
Ayodele Fayose needs no further introduction as an enemy of the State of Nigeria! He has never had respect for constituted authority and was always quick to pour vindictive and verbal abuses on elder statemen and even on the incumbent highly respectable and dignified personality of President Muhammadu Buhari whom he swore would never win a presidential election in Nigeria.
In a strongly-worded letter dated 12th April, 2016, Fayose requested Chinese President, Xi Jingping, to cancel the US 2 billion dollar loan being purportedly sought by the Federal Government in view of the fact that "Nigerians were totally opposed to increment of country's debt burden which was already being serviced with 25% of Federal Government's annual budget." One copy of the letter was delivered by Fayose's aides to the Chinese Ambassador in Nigeria while another copy was taken by him (Fayose), to China, to be delivered personally to the Chinese President!
He also said that some of the projects which included the Lagos-Calabar (Chinese-partnership) rail project, for which the loan was being sought, were not captured in the 2016 Budget for which a total sum of N1.84 trillion was needed to execute; adding that he was concerned about the great debt burden that would be transferred to the economy by 2017 when the country would begin to service additional debt to be incurred in 2016 which only portrays insincerity in the fight against corruption!
The Governor alleged that hundreds of millions of British pounds in foreign aid to Nigeria to combat Boko Haram insurgency was diverted to fund "a witch-hunt" against opposition politicians and that the future of Nigerians should not be mortgaged by an autocrat in the person of President Buhari "who has travelled outside of Nigeria for 28 times in ten months of assumption of office at a cost of 50million US dollars!" We are not surprised at Fayose's vituperations against President Buhari because he was opposed to a righteous government being part and parcel of the corrupt Peoples Democratic Party's (PDP), 16 years administration which allowed for free embezzlement of government funds and we know that in a matter of the next three years, would lose his immunity and face the pending fraud case against him in the law courts! "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation."(Romans.13:1-2).
President Buhari is the anointed of God and on special mission to clear the Augean stable in Nigeria; he is a spiritual moving train which no human power can stop until he arrived divine destination! An enemy of Nigeria and Ekiti poor masses like Fayose would promise "stomach infrastructure" but renege, collect with the connivance of the State Assembly, a whooping sum of N19.6 billion of naira in Bank Loans within SIX MONTHS of assumption of office as governor for basic infrastructure, social amenities and payment of backlog of workers salaries but veered into elephant projects to build an International Airport and flyovers of several kilometers in a poverty-stricken State whose workers and pensioners are virtually living from hand to mouth, while the patriotic President of the Talakawas travelled round the world to seek succour for his friends and would never rest until they were nourished nurtured and pacified! The day of reckoning and judgment is closer than Fayose thinks, who was one of the political jobbers who almost destroyed Nigeria's economy through massive institutional corruption believes, when the Almighty God will "give every man according as his work shall be." (Revelation. 22: 11-12).


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

NIGERIA'S ROMANCE WITH CHINA, THE SECOND LARGEST ECONOMIC NATION, IS BEARING FRUIT!

It may be too early to assess the rate of Nigeria's economic growth in the area of diversification from the sole crude oil foreign exchange earner to agriculture and solid minerals mining, but we can assure Nigerians that, a silent revolution by the new economic team is underway to replace oil monopoly and take the nation out of the woods! In November 2015, Nigeria was rated as the 22nd world's largest economy by International Monetary Fund, (IMF), yet classified as a poor and developing nation all because of the infrastructural decays of many decades and the mismanagement of the nation's finances through endemic grafts, but in spite of this gloomy picture there lies a bright light at the end of the tunnel with the strategic economic plans of this new administration!
Although a lot criticisms had trailed the several overseas trips of President Buhari since his assumption of office, we make bold to state that those trips were geared towards bridging economic deficit gaps through strategic feasible foreign loans and diversification through domestic resources to sustain the ongoing efforts to revamp the economy at a time when the global economic recession remained unabated in view of crude oil glut which resulted from the worst and lowest international prices ever experienced in 12 years! President Buhari just returned from China, which had invaded Africa's developing and under-developed countries on a rescue mission to set them free from self-inflicted poverty to economic viability through the template which catapulted them to becoming one of the current world powers and respected economic blocs - in fact, the second largest after the United States! Several bi-lateral economic agreements were signed between the two countries and efforts were made to quickly bridge the trade imbalance of 80 - 20 per cent in favour of China, due to Nigeria's penchant for "CHINCO" export products, within a very short time to reverse the trend for massive Nigerian exports to China!

Dividends Of The 5-day State Visit.
Beijing signed agreements to develop infrastructure in Nigeria as part of a drive to deepen its ties with Africa and has offered a loan worth Six billion US dollars to fund infrastructure projects.
President Xi Jingping assured Buhari that there was huge potential for economic co-operation with Nigeria in oil refining and mining.
In view of this developments, Nigeria would soon commence issuance of the cheaper Panda bonds (mainly Yuan denominated) as against Euro bonds and Nigeria-China lopsided trades, which accounts for over 70% of imports into Nigeria would now be concluded in Yuan, while Nigerian traders and businesses, which import mainly from China would conclude their transactions in the Chinese currency, the Renminbi (Yuan), instead of the dollar!
Nigeria's opportunity to trade in the Chinese national currency, the Renminbi (Yuan), instead of the US dollar in a swap deal is geared to shore up investment opportunities that would favour Nigerian businessmen, educational and health care opportunities in China and also, a move to break the dependence of Nigeria on the dollar for international financial and business transactions!
Previously, over 90% of international trades and financial transactions between Nigeria and other countries of the world was done in dollars which exerted much pressure on the naira but CBN would now diversify a huge chunk of Nigeria's foreign reserve from dollars to the Yuan to perfect the agreement and ensure its free flow among the banks as one of the foreign exchange currencies that could be sourced from the foreign exchange reserves of Nigeria! This agreement on Yuan transaction which would create a window for the resuscitation of the Naira slump against the US dollar since January 2016, was signed between the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited and the Central Bank of Nigeria on 13th April, 2016, in Beijing, to include the currency into Nigeria's foreign exchange reserves, an indication that President was determined to transform Nigeria into an exporting and no longer a consuming nation and also a fulfillment of the promise to strengthen the Naira against the US dollar!
Yuan financial transactions is not new to Nigeria because in 2014, there was a move by the Central Bank to increase its Yuan foreign reserves to seven per cent, but in view of this present move by the Buhari Administration to break the US dollar jinx, the percentage might increase to over thirty digits for better international business leverage between Nigeria and its African peers!
Nigeria is now in league with other African countries like Ghana, South Africa and Zimbabwe and also Kazakhstan and Argentina which had integrated the Yuan into their financial markets which at this rate of spread, has become a most-likely replacement to the US dollar, not only in Africa, but globally in settling international trade deals. It is heart- warming to note that Nigeria would become the clearing house for Yuan denominated transactions for the whole of Africa following the agreement with the Chinese Government.


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

SARAKI'S FALSE DECLARATION OF ASSETS CASE SHOULD FACE THE ACID TEST NOW AND BE PUT TO REST!

The Legislature as the representative assembly of the citizens of a country is empowered by their Constitution to enact, revise or repeal the laws and statutes regularly to ensure political/socio-economic advancement of the people in comparison to acceptable international standards. It is therefore imperative that such a body must exude top-notch, efficient and qualitative administration laced with some degree of expertise and specialization by the elected legislators who should be proven professionals in their various fields to match the growing complexities of a modern world! But Nigeria's distinguished body of legislators of the 8th National Assembly - most especially - the exalted upper house of the bi-cameral arrangement (Senate), has woefully failed the nation since inauguration on 9th June, 2015 through a coup-de-grace against the ruling party that brought 'Bukola Saraki on board as Senate President! Barely four months into his newly conquered office precisely 11th September, 2015, the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), filed a 13-count charge No.ABT/01/15, against Saraki before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), for offences of anticipatory declaration of assets, false declaration of assets while Governor of Kwara State (2003-2011), failed to declare some assets acquired as governor, acquiring assets beyond his legitimate earnings, operating foreign accounts while being a public officer, among other charges, and the upper legislative chamber, had remained in turmoil because the very weighty accusations against him by the Federal Government was a jolt out of the blues, for a house that was divided against itself since inauguration! Saraki, who was eventually arraigned on 22nd, September, 2015 and his apologists have claimed that the pressed charges were nothing short of "political witch-hunt" to punish him for defying Party supremacy and by installing himself as Senate President with the succinct connivance of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), opposition members who captured the deputy president's position in the bargain! The mammoth crowd that trooped to court with Saraki on his first court appearance was evidence that most legislators and civil servants were equally in default of the CCB Act and had to show solidarity with such impunity!

The Biblical History of the Mixed Multitude!
The mixed multitude syndrome which is very visible within the APC dates back to the biblical times when the Israelites were liberated by God to depart Egypt after 400 years of slavery and servitude. They were to move into a promised land flowing with "milk and honey" and dwell forever in peace and tranquility, but a mixed multitude from Egypt followed them out on their journey and caused them not only great discomfort, but also led them to all manner of sinful pleasures which ultimately separated them from God who loved them so much as to use them as His show piece to the world! (Exodus.12:38-39; Numbers11:41-28; I Corinthians.10:6-12).
Majority of all those who moved out of PDP led by Saraki are the mixed multitude now trying very desperately to rip All Progressives Congress (APC), asunder if great care is not taken by the divinely chosen managers of the Party led by President Muhammadu Buhari! Political watchers all agree that 'Bukola Saraki is a die-hard and core PDP faithful because he reluctantly joined APC when it was certain that he would lose his senatorial position if he remained in the PDP since the whole State had defected to the Change Party!

The Genesis Of Saraki's Travail!
Having enjoyed two terms as PDP Governor of Kwara State (2003-2011), through the popularity of his philanthropist father, late Dr.Olusola Saraki, Bukola gunned for the Senate Chambers seat through the Kwara Central Senatorial District and was duly elected to take over from his half sister, Gbemi, who aspired to become the first female governor of Kwara State, but failed! Bukola returned to the Senate in 2015 under the banner of the APC with a determined but hidden agenda to occupy the prestigious number three seat of Nigeria as Senate President to equal his father's record of Senate Presidency of the Second Republic from 1979-1983! To achieve this feat he had to disrespect the APC President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and entire Party hierarchy which invited him to a caucus meeting to caution him on his inordinate ambition since that position was already zoned to the North East but he dodged the meeting which was to be held two hours before the inauguration of the 8th National Assembly, disguised himself, drove a private vehicle to the National Assembly and got seated in the hallowed chamber with his "coup plotters" while he was still being expected at the Party caucus meeting! At 10am on the said day, the Clerk of the Senate began proceedings for the inauguration of the 8th NASS without forming a quorum because almost all APC elected Senators were at the Party's caucus meeting and in the process of time, the shocking news that Bukola Saraki had emerged as the Senate President of the 8th NASS with opposition candidate Ike Ekweremadu, as his vice, hit global air waves as the rudest shock of the 21st Century! The unfolding commotion and ripple effects of that "coup-de-grace" are still reverberating and would not settle until 'Bukola Saraki vacates that seat honorably or dishonorably!

Call It Witch Or Wizard Hunt, Certain Facts Are Very Germane:
That 'Bukola Saraki during his 8-year tenure as Kwara State Governor actually filled and filed those Assets Declaration Forms in question. That he had neither questioned nor denied the validity of the information on the said forms but had queried the lapse of time between 2011 and 2015, before CCB decided to bring up the charges against him. That he had fundamental rights to have been notified of any of the discrepancies allegedly discovered on the said forms. That CCT Judge, Justice Danladi Umar, lacked jurisdiction to try him and for those reasons, his team of 79 lawyers - mostly senior advocates - advised him to challenge the suit from the High Court up to the Supreme where he lost all appeals.

The Supreme Court Judgment!
On Friday, 5th February, 2016, the Supreme Court's Seven-man Panel, presided over by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, unanimously ruled in its judgment that Saraki's appeal against the jurisdiction of the CCT and the competence of the charges, lacked merit. Justice Walter Onnoghen, who delivered the lead judgment, dismissed all Saraki's seven grounds of appeal, affirming that the charges instituted against him were valid and that the tribunal was validly constituted with requisite jurisdiction to try him!

Show Me Your Friends Mr. Senate President!
The embattled Senator, is blessed with scores of friends, who would go the extra mile to see him out of his self-imposed travails, no matter the cost! First, Kwara friends who voted for him at all elections since his debut into the political turf and regularly queued up to collect annual Rammadan/Sallah food items, clothings and cash gifts as rewards, even at the risk of their lives during human stampedes that regularly marred the philanthropic gesture! It is on record that between 2010-2016, at least 67 people including seven of his campaigners died in such gory incidents according to newspapers reports which queried several cover-ups by the Police of credible figures of deaths!
'Bukola followed up in the footstep of his late father, a philanthropist who often distributed those items during the annual Muslim celebrations to the poor, needy, widows and the aged of Ilorin communinities until his demise on 14th November, 2012. Second, political associates and praise-singers who have immensely benefited through juicy Senate Committee appointments for their loyalty and support in his drive to the number three position! Third, legal team friends made up 79 wise men who assured him of judicial victory provided all professional fees were settled up-front. Though they were well informed as "learned brothers" that there was no provision for declarants to be invited by CCB to clear grey areas in their filed forms, yet they assured Saraki of his fundamental rights and tried fruitlessly to disqualify the Judge from sitting over the case for lack of jurisdiction, until they totally crashed and lost at the apex court! Fourth, the camaraderie of 84 distinguished senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria at the early stages of the trial which - seven months - have dwindle to less than 12 at the last hearing on 22nd April, 2016 since the trial Judge, Justice Danladi Umar had ruled that trial would be held daily from Monday 18th April 2016, to its conclusion without any entertainment of adjournment! Fifth, a lone-ranger Senator friend who stood up to challenge the very enactment of the CCB/CCT Act and introduced a controversial bill on the floor of the house to whittle down the powers of the constitutionally constituted body and transfer its control from the Executive to the National Assembly though aware that beginning from the CCB, all the 14 Federal Executive Bodies are the responsibities of the Federal Government (Third Schedule.Part I. A-M). The first time Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, representing Delta North Senatorial District prayed that the CCT should no longer treat false declaration of assets and other related breaches in the CCB Forms as criminal trials but as mere civil matters that would attract only fines! With the support of mixed multitude in the Chamber, it was smooth sail from first to second readings and passage to the Committee on Judiciary within a week of submission knowing fully well that the Senate had no power to initiate retroactive laws and that Saraki would in no way be favoured even if they succeeded in pushing through the very ambiguous and pro-corruption bill!
An investigation by Sahara Reporters of New York revealed that Nwaoboshi who is a lawyer had ulterior motives for sponsoring the bill to decriminalize corruption by public officers! One was that he was equally guilty of non-declaration of several assets which he acquired as Political Adviser to James Ibori, former governor of Delta State now serving jail term for corruption in the UK and whom he regularly visited because he also secured his senatorial ticket from jail! Saraki and Ibori according to the investigation are close friends. The other reason had to do with self preservation since Senator Nwaoboshi allegedly bought a Delta Government property in Lagos in a shady deal and which he failed to declare in his CCB Assets Declaration Forms! The avalanche of public outcry over the VODOO BILL almost brought the Heavens down and the "most distinguished Senators" had to discontinue action! FOR HOW LONG WILL THE NATION BE TAKEN THROUGH THE RIGOURS OF DECEIT BY THOSE WHO CLAIM TO BE ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES OF THE MASSES BECAUSE OF THE LACK OF STRONG INSTITUTIONS?
The specified punishment which the Code of Conduct Tribunal may impose on a person convicted of charges of false declaration of assets and other related offences under the Fifth Schedule, Part I, Section 18(1) (2) (a)(b)(c) are as follows: Vacation of office or seat in any legislative house as the case may be, Disqualification from membership of a legislative house and from the holding of any public office for a period not exceeding ten years, and Seizure and forfeiture to the State of any property acquired in abuse or corruption of office and 18(3-7) which state that the sanctions mentioned above shall be without prejudice to the penalties that may be imposed by any law where the conduct is also a criminal offence. That guilty persons shall have right of appeal but that nothing shall prejudice the prosecution of such officer or preclude him/her from being prosecuted for an offence in a court of law and that the provisions of the Constitution relating to prerogative of mercy shall not apply to any punishment imposed in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 18(1-7).
The good people of Nigeria do not deserve legislators selected through bribery and corruption; who are UNFIT, UNEDUCATED, AND CLUELESS! No one should blame 'Bukola Saraki for exercising his "fundamental human rights" in a system that is fraught with institutional corruption which is still is being entrenched in the system by the mixed multitude who are APC members in the day time and PDP in the night! Legislators are empowered to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Federation and not to contradict the Constitution according to Section 4((9). 'BUKOLA SARAKI'S CASE IS THE LITMUS TEST ALL PATRIOTIC NIGERIANS HAVE BEEN PATIENTLY WAITING FOR! Thy will be done in Nigeria O Lord!

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

The Defence Ministry in a recent statement told Nigerians that all Boko Haram terrorists who voluntarily surrendered to the Military Joint Task Force (MJTF), would be provided a SAFE CORRIDOR where they would be rehabilitated and reintegrated into the mainstream of the society! Could this be an “Amnesty” formula through the backdoor?
The Word of God supports benevolent moves because He does not wish that sinners should die but that they would repent and be saved; ( Ezekiel. 18:23; 2 Peter. 3:9), but caution should be employed to separate the "sheep from the goats" that is, to separate those who were conscripted and genuinely repentant, from the fundamentalists, fanatics and demon-possessed who could be faking repentance!
Measures must also be taken to ensure that the "surrender move" was not the enemy's ploy to infiltrate the rank and file of the Federal Forces and elongate the war, taking into consideration the recent internet news "threat" by Boko Haram that they could attack the Presidential Villa! Who is vested with the power of Amnesty, the Ministry of Defence, the Commander-in-Chief or the National Assembly?

I am, yours sincerely, Dr David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

The Benue State Internal Revenue Department had come up with an ingenious method of increasing Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), through annual taxes to be paid by private owners and commercial users of generating sets for polluting the OZONE LAYER in the State! Private owners would pay N50.000, annually and the commercial users, N150.000, to offset government expenses on environmental pollution of the ozone layer!
The Ozone Layer is a layer of air high above the Earth, which contains a lot ozone (poisonous form of oxygen), and which prevents harmful ultraviolet light from the sun from reaching the Earth. How can Benue State which can neither boast of constant electricity nor adequate portable water supply to its citizens; of modern health facilities nor good roads/markets “maintain” the global ozone layer from Makurdi? We have one advice for these revenue geniuses; they should also tax all private owners of WATER WELLS and FARMLANDS in order to ganner more monies from the indigent but determined peasants who do not even believe in the existence of the State government!
IS THIS THE CHANGE AGENDA OF APC IN BENUE STATE WHERE THE AGATU PEOPLE ARE STILL MOURNING THEIR DEAD?



I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

They are all heartless, unempathetic, selfish, insensitive, wicked, callous and very ruthless; those politicians and technocrats in leadership positions, who without iota of self remorse or moral condemnation, still collect monthly double and triple salaries from governments even at this austere period when almost all States of the Federation could hardly pay their workers stipends! What do we make of a civil servant school principal who on retirement moved on to become a politician and got elected as a legislator and much later, a governor of his State and who now collects, on monthly basis, two pensions as a retiree and also governor's salaries and allowances simultaneously! Or of governors turned senators or executive ministers or vice-versa at the Federal level who have become multi millionaires in the unhindered corruption of double/triple payments which is having a free-run in the polity. Outside of this unchecked and officially-backed shameful rip-off of the nation's dwindling coffers, unfaithful and unrighteous civil servants remained unrepentant in defrauding the Federal Government of millions of naira in monthly organized salary fraud! It is on record that government is presently probing no fewer than 23.306 civil servants and some commercial banks who have been accused by an official panel of investigators of collusion in the scam! We are all conversant with the cliché, "ghost workers" but what we might not understand is how such spirit beings operate in working places! Ghost workers are the dubious creation of living workers who register fake identities on the centralized payroll of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), called Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information Systems (IPPIS), in Nigeria for the sole purpose of eliminating such scams of multiple payments, but who still succeeded in hacking the system to have their way undetected for a period of time!
Recently, an unemployed couple were arraigned before a law court for having collected ghost workers monthly salaries of N600.000 each, for six consecutive years from one of the Federal Ministries before being detected by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC); it is as bad as that! In the Nigerian Senate, there are not less than 15 ex-governors who are enjoying triple salaries in addition to mind-bugling gratuities/ severance allowances already paid into their kitties by their State Governments including imperial mansions in their state capitals and at the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and fleet of state-of-the-art automobiles that are renewable regularly!
This is the worst kind of an officially-backed colossal racket being perpetrated against the Electorate which had clamoured for change of the corruption attitude of the past 16 years of bad governance by voting the All Progressives Congress (APC) to power at the centre and in 23 States of Nigeria! The Executive also has its own fair share of some four ex-governors enjoying double/triple salaries and possibly President Muhamadu Buhari who is a retired Military General/Head of State who is also entitled to double or triple salaries, now as the incumbent President and Commander- in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria! Former President Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo had a two-term stint from 1999-2007, but it is yet to be verified if he collected double salaries as a retiree Military General/Head of State during his tenure! Since President Buhari and his Change Government promised to block all loop holes of financial wastages in governance and expose, investigate and prosecute all indicted persons involved in financial malpractices and economic crimes, this should serve as a wake-up call for him to take up the gauntlet and bring the BROOM symbol of APC to sweep clean the Augean stable by empowering the Civil Service Panel already in place to also probe the Executive Arm and put all records straight!
Doctors in Osun State went on strike in respect of unpaid salaries and allowances for a period of SEVEN MONTHS only to return to work early April 2016, without receiving one kobo from Rauf Aregbesola's Administration, which claims to be utterly broke but could maintain two serviceable HELICOPTERS which transport Mr. Governor on official trips across the nation on regular basis! It is also on record that Osun State civil servants like their counterparts in other States of the Federation, are owed over nine months salaries in arrears without the hope of payment in spite of the Federal Government's bail out support of 27 States with N662 billion in 2015 whereas all the elite members of the Executive, Legislative, and the Judiciary, had not missed one month's salary plus all requisite allowances/appurtenances to date in spite of the general complaint of low funds from Oil revenue, Agriculture and Solid Minerals!

Resident doctors across board are also planning to embark on nation-wide strike for similar reasons while one of the two factions of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), is also threatening a one-day warning strike against the abnormal hike of electricity tariff across the nation! The Word of God says: "...... And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts. (Malachi.3:5b). We are not ignorant that there are legislations against collection of double/triple salaries by employed civil servants, but are they being implemented even though the Provisions of the ICPC Act 2000 extant laws are very much valid?

It is time for positive judgment action against these bare-faced robbers of the nation's lean coffers and these inordinate/heartless political jobbers and the immediate recoveries of all excess double/ triple salaries from all beneficiaries at least from 1999-2016! Who should bell the cat if not President Buhari who should quickly inform the nation of his position whether he is culpable like the legislators and if not, swing into immediate action to recover and plough back the officially-backed loots of several years into the Treasury Single Account (TSA), to service the 2016 Budget of Hope which is going through the last Presidential scrutiny before assent!
In addition, we also urge the President to urgently publish the full list of all recovered and repatriated ABACHA LOOTS from overseas countries with dates and the accounts in which they are deposited in order to dispel the rumours that the monies had been corruptly shared among the politicians! What about the $USD 9.5 arms deal cash which was transported from Nigeria and seized in South Africa during the last administration and yet to recovered since 2014? Patriotic Nigerians are patiently waiting to get the TRUTH directly from our trusted President Muhammadu Buhari without the slightest delay!



I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

KIDNAPPERS HAVE THREE CHOICES - REPENT, ROT IN JAIL OR FACE THE HANGMAN!

High profile kidnapping of persons in Nigeria gained international prominence and dimension when, militants of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MENDS), combined abductions of expatriate oil workers with the vandalization of pipelines to ventilate their disgust and anger against social injustice, exploitation, marginalization and ecological degradation of the region through crude oil exploration! They accused the Federal Government (military/ democratic), and the foreign oil firms of collusion to keep their region in perpetual enslavement and abject poverty through continuous exploitation without infrastructural development that would provide the imperative social amenities of health facilities, portable water, arable lands for agriculture, motorable roads, electricity power for industrialization, qualitative education etc, for the people to show for their sacrifices and sufferings!

In the height of the tussle, the Federal Government established a Ministry of the Niger Delta Development Corporation to cater for all the issues of contention raised by the militants but which the agitators condemned and labelled as most inefficient to meet their demands and virtually ineffective! In all honesty, the Niger Delta area of Nigeria, in spite of the stupendous wealth derivable from its natural resources of CRUDE OIL remains a sorry sight to behold with regard to environmental pollution and degradation through massive oil spillage, acid rains and devastation of most of the arable lands! Their successive governors did not help matters either, as some of them in Bayelsa and Delta during their tenures, illegally diverted development funds into their private accounts abroad! MENDS capitalized on the ugly situation and made billions of naira and dollars through those abductions and thus signaled other defiant groups across Nigeria that KIDNAPING of men, women and children was a big time and very lucrative business in the country! Discreditable politicians also cashed into the unsavory situation by procuring arms for jobless youths to perpetrate election malpractices of ballot box snatching, kidnapping of their opponents and rioting during elections at all levels during which human blood always flowed like rivers of water unabated!
Abia, an oil producing State in the South East, soon became very notorious as the leading kidnapping State of Nigeria and the escalation of the crime became a daily occurrence before the Federal Government intervened to capture the notorious kingpins of the booming industry of the obnoxious business!

The Advent of a Sinful World!
Though vices are as old as life itself, but how Satan successfully lured Adam and Eve into a grievous sin of disobedience to God's command shortly after they were created in goodness and absolute innocence, would still remain a mystery to the human mind but the most perplexing part is that Satan is still left in the world to contend man's imperative and unflinching obedience to God his creator!
It has gotten even worse now in Dispensation of Grace which is biblically described as "perilous times", because men have forgotten that the same God that then was, is still the same now and would not withhold the chastisement of sinners for one second! The world end-time atrocities had exposed the violent attitudes of men's greed, through avarice, covetousness, pride, disobedience to God, parents and lawful authorities, bribery, institutional and societal corruption, kidnapping and abduction of fellow human beings, indulgence in unnatural affections of homo sexualism, murder, arson, election malpractices through violent rigging, cyber crimes, etc. as predicted in the Word of God, but must be redressed and reversed by obedient children of God through prayers, fasting and eternal vigilance! These kidnappings and forcible abduction of human beings whether or not for ransom had posed yet another threat to the nation's political stability because the continuous North East six-year-long Boko Haram insurgency had witnessed the worst kind of wholesale abductions of men, women and children especially the over 250 CHIBOK SECONDARY SCHOOL GIRLS, of Bornu State, on 14th April, 2014, and who are yet to regain their freedom in spite the strenuous efforts of the security agencies!
These inhuman and heinous crimes had taken its toll on the economy and had scared several willing and serious investors away from the Nigerian shores for the fear of being kidnapped to go through the painful deprivation of their freedom and liberty and possibly killed in the process of negotiations for ransom! Although, all of the above societal malaise had repeatedly manifested across board because of the love of money, which the Word of God described as "the root of all evil", the recent escalation of the crimes of kidnappings and abductions were heightened because of the explosion of jobless youths in the labour market, the economic recession which had created general scarcity of foreign reserves due to diminishing revenue from international crude oil sales which price hangs between $USD 40 & 45 dollars per barrel, the dwindling patronage of local goods and services due to cost inflation, the slow flow of foreign investments into the country and general cash crunch of purchasing power among the poor masses of the population!
Since over 250.000 graduates from all tertiary institutions of higher learning in Science and the Arts are churned out annually into the labour market without the hope of any form of employment and in the absence of regular crime contracts from politicians and the looters of the treasury, some jobless youths with seared consciences would make merchandise of their fellow citizens, rich or poor, even family members, all for the sake of money!
A long list of kidnappings and abductions in which huge sums of ransom payments have exchanged hands had adorned the tabloids and the social media in the past four months and public outcry against the menace had been very loud and devastating!

The following kidnappings out so many, took place in several parts of the federation, between the months of January and March 2016;
Three Pastors on their way to a meeting in Abuja from Kaduna were abducted by gunmen. Two of them were recently released probably due to conclusive negotiations, while one was found dead!
An eight-year-old school boy was kidnapped between Orozo and Nyanyan, a suburb of the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC). After much negotiation, a ransom of N400.000 Naira was paid to the abductors before they were arrested by diligent officers of the Nigeria Police Force who trailed all transactions!
A serving Colonel of the Nigerian Army was kidnapped from his vehicle on his way to Kaduna and his dead body was later discovered on the following day on the outskirt of the city without any demand for ransom! The Nigerian Army High Command had vowed to get to the root of the crime and fish out the perpetrators for justice!
In Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, a primary school boy abducted his friend for a ransom of seventy-thousand naira but was caught during the process of negotiation by police detectives who monitored the crime from the beginning of report!

Though MENDS had seized to perpetrate acts of militancy in the Creeks, the seed of kidnappings which they planted thrives very much in the prosperous South-south oil States where abductors were known to net millions of dollars in ransom payment on regular basis if they escaped arrests!
Before the 2015 General Elections pirates abducted nine people in the Delta region while in Ogun State, gunmen killed a German construction worker and abducted another. An Indian and two Pakistani expatriate workers were also kidnapped in Bayelsa State during the period in question. It has been widely reported that the cattle rustlers who had of recent been overwhelmed by the superior counter-criminality strategies of the security agencies, are the master-minds of most of the kidnappings across the nation and since the reasons for the escalation of this global crime of kidnapping had been identified as joblessness, poverty, political squabbles, ethnic and religious differences, we advocate that this heinous crime of man's inhumanity to man should be categorized as godlessness according to the following Word of God:
"KNOW YE NOT! THAT TO WHOM YE YIELD YOURSELVES SERVANTS TO OBEY, HIS SERVANTS YE ARE TO WHOM YE OBEY; WHETHER OF SIN UNTO DEATH OR OF OBEDIENCE UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS." ( Romans.6:16).
Man was a moral agent from the beginning of creation, because he had permission to either obey God or follow his instincts and intuitions as recorded in Genesis.3:1-24, contrary to God's commandment in Genesis.2:16-17!
No one should therefore be surprised about the attitude of the kidnappers who chose to serve Satan instead of God because of the ephemeral things of life but we must exhort that obedience to God's holy laws and His commandments is more preferable and rewarding than the possession of illegal wealth and blood money through abductions!
Kidnapping of persons which is classified under Section 361 of Nigeria's Criminal Code as "Deprivation Of Liberty" states that: "Any person who, unlawfully confines or detains another in any place against his will, or otherwise unlawfully deprives another of his personal liberty, is guilty of a misdemeanor, and is liable to imprisonment for two years"; but it must be proved that the accused actually confined another in a place against his will; that the detention was unlawful and that the victim had been unlawfully deprived of his personal freedom and liberty! The Police Commissioner of the Federal Capital Territory (FTC), in a recent Radio programme said his Command had unraveled a strange form of kidnapping which he described as, "SELF KIDNAPING" in which the supposed victims actually master-minded their own fake abductions and later shared ransom with their supposed "kidnappers" which emphasizes the love of money which is a biblical sin and the crave for earthly wealth which deprives the infatuated person of eternal life with the Lord Jesus Christ!

Jobs For The Jobless!
We recommend massive job creation platforms by all governments of the federation to cater for all idle hands in the labour market and advocate a more stringent punishment of life imprisonment and death penalties in order to stop the perpetrators of this heinous crime of deprivation of freedom and liberty, once and for all from their nefarious activities which are detrimental to godly virtues if they refuse to repent! We should all be vigilant and close ranks in order to identify and unravel the evil doers amongst us before they can strike at any time again and bring them to justice!
If God be for us, who can be against us?

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066 g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.