INSECURITY IN NIGERIA: THE TERROR BY NIGHT, THE ARROW BY DAY, THE PESTILENCE IN DARKNESS, AND EVEN IN LIGHT.
First, Happy New Month. Now let's go!
This Morning, I read the statement by the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yoruba land, Chief Gani Adams who raised an alarm on the level of insecurity in Nigeria and really, it's getting very scary in this country. Just last week, we read about the murder of a guard attached to the Presidential brigade by terrorists. We also read about the attack by terrorists at an army checkpoint, killing many soldiers. Not that alone, the terrorists also threatened to kidnap President Muhammadu Buhari and the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai. There are also plans by this same terrorists to plan counter attacks on the SouthWest and South East as they plan to takeover the country. Just yesterday, the DSS and the other security agencies arrested a top Boko Haram commander in Abeokuta, Ogun State who took the job of a security in order to spy and get adequate information for his colleagues coming from the North. It's safe to say that some parts of this country, if not all, should be put under a critical state of emergency.
The Abuja/Kaduna train attack and the Kuje prison break are also part of the handiwork of these terrorists. Federal Schools in Abuja, if not all schools according to reports, have been shut down to combat the security crisis in the Federal Capital Territory. Even the Federal House of Representatives embarked on a six week holiday primarily because of the security crisis in the city. Although some Abuja residents happen to claim that things aren't as bad as pictured in the news, they cannot deny that they are not seeing signs and warnings of terrorists taking over their once peaceful city. A viral picture on Twitter showed terrorists lined up on motorcycles and armed with guns, riding into Abuja from one of the connecting states. We can delay the news about these attacks but we can't continue to deny it. There's a lot going on. An interview with one of the terrorists at a time confirmed that some government officials are the godfathers of these terrorists and the more the insecurity, the more they earn. This is sad. Extremely sad. Why should people we elected turn against us because they want to make money by all means? We're really in some deep shit in Nigeria.
What is Mr President doing about all these things? Nothing specifically. Just security briefing meetings, mostly for the media and nothing more. Interior Minister, Rauf Agregbesola said that the Federal Government received about 44 warning signs from the security agencies before the Kuje prison attack. But what was done? Nothing. I've said what I'm about to say over and over again and I'll continue to say say it. Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai said something. He said that they know a lot of these terrorists, they monitor a lot of their movenment, they track and record their calls amongst themselves and their hideouts are well known, but nothing is being done to combat them. This is disappointing. In a country with Armed Forces. We might just have a sleeping government because I do not seem to understand why a supposedly responsible government has continued to delay action in combating these terrorists. For instance, today we read that some of the terrorists are in-between Osu forest and Ile Ife, Osun state, fully armed with various ammunition and they are also present in the forest between Abeokuta and Ibadan planning to attack the southwest. A responsible Government should declare an operation within the Nigerian Army to hunt this maniacs down and protect our lands. But nothing has been done. All we see on the news are pictures of army chiefs with polished boots, going in and out of the State House, Abuja holding a more like ceremonial meeting with Mr President.
According to statistics from Premium times, bandits and terrorists have killed at least 65 police officers in the first half of this year (January-June). Asides that, at least 92 other security operatives were killed in this same period. These include 81 soldiers, two correctional service officials, two NDLEA officers, five officers of the NSCDC and two FRSC officials. These are statistics recorded by the media as there are no unreported figures here, meanwhile there are unreported killings of soldiers and law enforcement officers by these blood sucking maniacs. Yet there's no strategy in place by the Federal Government and Buhari, the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces to tackle this development. This 157 killed security officials are among the thousands of people that were killed in the first half of 2022 with about 3,000 people killed in the first three months. If we do not do something about this diaster, we could as well be slowly collapsing off the world map.
I just hope that we wake up to reality and act as we should. The Security agencies should wake up to their responsibility to protect Nigerians from the hands of this wicked terrorists.
Also, the Government on their side should reward our security officials appropriately in order to ensure that they do not collaborate with bandits. And as for You and I, let's ensure we open our eyes in our communities. We should report suspicious persons and movements to the authorities.
God Bless, and Protect Nigeria.
AND FOUR OTHER THINGS.
ASUU EXTENDS AN ALREADY ELONGATED STRIKE.
ASUU this morning announced an extension of the ongoing five-month-old strike by another four weeks.
The announcement was made in a statement issued on Monday and signed by the National President of the union, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, citing the failure of the Federal Hovernment to fulfill its promises and heed to their cries. The statement noted that the decision was taken during an emergency meeting of the union’s National Executive Council on Sunday at its headquarters located on the campus of the University of Abuja.
Not Surprised. It's expected. We keep going. God help us.
FG BANS SIM CARD IMPORTATION.
The Federal Government has announced a total ban on the importation of SIM cards in Nigeria. The Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Ali Isa Pantami made the announcement on Monday in Oniru, Lagos. He spoke at the Nigerian Telecommunications Indigenous Content Expo (NTICE) organized by the Nigeria Office for Developing Indigenous Telecoms Sector (NODITS) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
Pantami said Africa’s biggest country should not be importing things that could be produced within. To me, it's a good move but my question comes thus "Will they be able to maintain it?"
SENATE, REPS READ BILLS FOR 63 MORE TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS AMID ASUU STRIKE.
About 63 bills have been tabled before the Senate and the House of Representatives for the creation of new universities, polytechnics, colleges of education amidst the ongoing and freshly extended ASUU strike.
However, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics and the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union all warned the government against the establishment of new institutions while failing to fund the existing ones. Nigeria currently has a total of 49 federal universities. The official data from the National Universities Commission also revealed that the country has 59 state universities and 111 private universities.
Though the number of Universities are not enough, the creation of new Universities should not be in sight because the existing ones are not even taken care of, properly.
CAF POSTPONES NIGERIA VS GUNIEA BISSAU AFCON QUALIFIERS.
The Confederation of African Football after a long wait confirmed yesterday that the double header games between Nigeria and Guniea Bissau has been postponed.
The second phase of the AFCON qualifiers was originally scheduled for September, but it suffered a postponement with the 2022 World Cup in Qatar holding for the first time in the latter part of the year, between November and December.
Here's a statement from CAF's Official Website:
“The Confederation of African Football Executive Committee has approved a revised Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire 2023 revised qualification calendar. This was necessitated by the Executive Committee’s commitment to making room for the African nations that have qualified for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 in November/ December 2022 to prepare adequately. Consequently, the September 2022 Africa Cup of Nations match day three and match day four qualifiers have been moved to March 20-28, 2023. Match-day five will now be on June 12-20, 2023 while match day six will be played on September 4-12, 2023.”
