Introduction
This presentation begins with the various reasons why Amalgamation took place in
January 1, 1914 and since then 104 after, Nigeria has “under-re-sourced, sapped by
corruption and distrusted by the population” kleptocracy and government dishonesty
have corrosive effect on popular confidence in government. Nigeria’s security
apparatus seemed determined to turn Nigeria from a Democracy to an Islamic Sharia
State.
The unfortunate aspect of this strategy is that no matter what the South or
democrats do to improve the country for the benefit of all, Sharia proponents have no
wards of encouragement, appreciation or gratitude.
There is no doubt that even if there is secession today, Nigeria and what is left will still
be part of West Africa, with the same climates and neighbors – West Africans.
Therefore it is necessary that Nigerians examine why amalgamation and why we got is
wrong. Insecurity across the country as a result of impunity and disregard for the rule of
law has eroded state legitimacy.
Reasons for Amalgamation
Lord Scarborough, chairman of the Niger Company was reported by Lord Lugard
as having declared “that the coast ought to pay for the development of the
interior, any other will be a suicidal policy.”
Lugard said “the country is essentially one” – which Kirk-Greene described as “a
far cry from the decisive feeling often voiced in 1966 and 1967 indicative of grave
doubts whether any fundamental basis for unity existed at all.”
Movel pleaded for amalgamation when he wrote “that the present dual system of
administration with its artificial territorial boundaries, its differing methods and its
inevitable rivalries has served its turn and should be brought to an end as
speedily as possible.” [ED Movel, Nigeria and its People and its Problems, 191]
The Times of Nigeria 1914 wrote “that unification of 1914 is broadly speaking, the
conquest and subjugation of Southern Nigeria by Northern Nigeria. Northern
Nigeria System, Northern Nigeria laws, Northern Nigeria Land Laws, Northern Nigeria Administration” must be made to supersede every system in Southern Nigeria.- In the novel, Greenmantle [1916], Buchan the author described Islam as a
“fighting creed repreented by the Mullah who will stand in the pulpit with the
Quran in one hand and a drawn sword in the other.”
Perhaps no other country in the modern world is more a creature of empire than
Nigeria. This creature (Nigeria) must not be killed or allowed to self-destruct.
The people of the Nigeria (had) come under the protection of the British flag with
their eyes shut “when their eyes are open to appreciate the significance of the
raising of the flag (British), they may have reason(s) to be grateful for its
presence”. This is to shut our eyes the more from the move of Democracy to
Sharia.
The two parts of Lugard (dual mandate) were (a) to make money; and (b) to
develop the colonies for the benefit of the indigenous people themselves, which
suggest that both the colonialists and the people can benefit from colonialism.
The North largely depended on the annual grant from the Imperial Government
and was barely able to balance its budget while the South had a surplus thus the
anomaly was a country with an aggregate revenue equal to its needs, but divided
into two by an arbitrary line of latitude”. The North was dependent on a grant paid
by the British taxpayer, which in the year before Amalgamation, stood at
£136,000, and had averaged £314,500 for the 11 years ending March, 1912.
Loyalty throughout the war of Muslim rulers Lugard wrote, “it has been
remarkable and arose from genuine conviction”.
Indirect rule worked with good result in the North so Lugard decided to introduce
it to the South.
Position as regards Education Lugard wrote: “Of the many problems which
Amalgamation presented there was none comparable in importance and urgency
with that of education. The problem differs so profoundly in the North and South
not merely in its history and the stage which had been reached, but in some
respects in its very nature, that it is desirable to review briefly the conditions of
each Administration separately”. In Southern Nigeria, of which the coast area
had been open to European influence for upwards of half a century, there were
(as might be expected) a very large number of schools, by the agency of which a
great part of the coast population had attained a degree of education varying
from a few barristers and doctors who had qualified in England, to the less than
half educated school boys who, with a smattering of English and arithmetic, seek
admission to the lower ranks of the clerical and other services. In 1913, the
average attendance at Government schools in the South was about 4,600 and, in
assisted mission schools about 12,500. To these must be added a number of
pupils vaguely estimated at from 20,000 to 30,000 in unassisted schools, which
were under no control or inspection by Government, but of whose very numbers
or existence the Government had no precise information.”
Education in Northern Nigeria was as has been stated elsewhere, it was only in
1903 that the Moslem States in the North were conquered, and access to them
became possible. The task of organizing an Administration absorbed all the
energies of the small staff, while the natural suspicion and dislike with which the
Christian Government was at first regarded by the Moslems rendered it
inadvisable, even if it had been possible, to embark on any educational efforts at
first. The earliest attempts to formulate a policy were made in 1905, but it was not
till 1909 that Mr. Hans Vischer was able to form a small class of pupils at Kano,
whose ages varied from 6 to 60. They were mostly sons of chiefs and men of
influence¸ who had been brought from various provinces under pressure by
Government. An industrial class was also formed by bringing artisans from Kano
city, who plied their native trades and gave some instruction to pupils. The
experiment was, however, regarded with intense suspicion and dislike by the
Moslem chiefs, who thought they saw in it some deep-laid plan to subvert their
religion; and the fact that Mr. Vischer had formerly been a missionary in Nigeria
is said to have accentuated this fear. Moreover, the obligation to send their sons
to a distant province was very unpopular among the chiefs in outlying districts.
Towards the close of 1913, I was to create two new schools (at Sokoto and
Katsena), so that when Amalgamation took place there were, in all three
Government schools, an average attendance of 354 pupils, all in the Moslem
area. Meanwhile, many different missions had arrived to reinforce the efforts of
the Church Missionary Society. They had opened altogether 43 schools, with a
total attendance of about the same as that of the Government schools, and were
almost entirely confined to the non-Moslem districts. No financial assistance had
been given to these schools, and they were subject to no inspection or control by
Government. Thus, at this time of Amalgamation, the total number of pupils in
Government or mission schools was between 700 and 800, out of a population of
some nine million. Government did not interfere in the indigenous Koranic
schools, in which reading and writing in the Arabic and Ajemi character, and
memorizing passages from the Koran formed the curriculum. They were
estimated at some 25,000 with over a quarter of a million pupils. These Koranic
schools had produced a literary class know as ‘Mallamai’, learned in Arabic and
the teachings of the Koran and commentaries, from whose ranks the officers of
the Native Administration, the judges of the Native Courts, and the exponents of
the creed of Islam were drawn. They are a very influential class, some of them
very well read in Arabic literature and law, and deeply imbued with the love of
learning.
Influence of Missions Lugard wrote: a review of the Administration would be
incomplete without a reference to Christian missions, which, in the South, have
exercised so great an influence on the development of the country, and borne so
predominant a part in educational progress.
The above shows very clearly, the political and educational status of both Northern and
Southern Nigeria at the time of Amalgamation 1914.
Dual Citizenship in Nigeria
There is no clear evidence that amalgamation unified the status of Northern and
Southern Provinces into one country of equal citizens. While the South provided the
finance for the development of the two Protectorates, the North had the privilege of
special treatment. Missions in Northern Provinces, Lugard wrote: “at the time of the
conquest of the Mohammedan Emirates in 1903, I declared that the British Government
would not interfere with the religion of the people, and ‘every man should be free to
worship God as he chose’. The Emirs, though they have not been very consistent in
the matter, no doubt view with dislike and distrust the efforts of Europeans to convert
their people to Christianity, the more so that the administrative and judicial systems, and
the social life of the people is to such a large extent based on the teaching of the Koran,
and so intimately associated with religion, that the Emirs not unnaturally fear a
weakening of their authority and a breakup of the social system if their religion is
undermined. The Government, in these circumstances, has considered it right to be
guided by the wishes of the Emirs and their councilors, who have given such abundant and striking proofs of their loyalty during the War, in which their co-religionist, Turkey, is opposed to us. While cordially recognizing mission activity in Pagan areas, the
Government has desired to discourage propaganda in Moslem districts.”
In conclusion, Lugard himself had very strong views about Nigeria. He was a believer in
deeds and, like so many of the most ardent imperialists, mistrusted, cerebral
indulgences. He was committed to the British Empire and supremacy, although he
happily entertained Nigerian friends at home in Surrey in his retirement in the 1930s.
The ambiguity of Lugard’s position was common to imperial servants. They were often
friendly with 'natives', while maintaining, openly, the superiority of the British. It is very
easy to discover what Lugard thought about the empire because, in his retirement, he
was one of the most prolific authors and theorists of imperialism. He coined the phrase
the 'dual mandate' in the colonies, which simply recognized that the colonial powers,
particularly Britain, had not colonized Africa and Asia merely through philanthropy. Let
it be admitted at the outset that European brains, capital and energy have not
been, and never will be, expended in developing the resources of Africa from
motives of pure philanthropy; that Europe is in Africa for the benefit of her own
industrial classes, and of the native races in their progress to a higher plane.
[Emphasis Supplied] [Kwasi Kwarteng Ghosts of Empire, pgs. 288 – 289]
Lord Lugard's bias for Status
In a lecture at London's Birkbeck College in 1928, Lugard stated firmly that 'only those
institutions will survive which are in harmony with native mentality and tradition'." He
praised what he called the 'African system of Indirect Rule', in which rulers would
continue to be under the guidance of a 'higher civilization'. He recognized that they
would 'not be fitted for independence within any period of time now visible on the
horizon'. His attitudes to race shared some of the patronizing assumptions of his time:
he urged that native culture should be protected from the disintegrating effect of the
impact of civilization'. --- The emirs who ruled the Hausa people of Northern Nigeria
were not particularly liberal or enlightened. They were absolute rulers who were nearly
always at war with one another. Yet these were the very people whom indirect rule
benefitted. Once the British had subjugated Northern Nigeria, they gave back to the
emirs and chiefs many of the powers which they had taken away. [Kwasi Kwarteng,
Ghosts of Empire, pg. 291] The reason for this is that it is only through indirect rule that the few British officers can colonize such a large population over a vast territory.
Unfortunately now that there are sufficient educated Nigerians, minority rule of one tribe
and one religion still persists. All attempts to broaden rulership by democratic process
is being resisted.
The above conclusively is the crux of Nigeria’s problem - a caliphate system in a
democratic Nigeria paid for with oil from the Niger Delta and sponsor Sharia as the
alternative source of legislation.
Why would anyone contemplate Emergency Law just after Independence in 1960?
Chief S. O. Ighodaro, then the Attorney-General, Western Region at Independence in
1960 requested Dr. Ajayi the legal draughtsman, third in rank to the Attorney-General in
the Ministry in Ibadan after Sir Darnley Alexander who was then the Solicitor-General
and Permanent Secretary, to provide for him, the AG, a legal opinion on the extent and
limit of the emergency powers provision in the Independent Constitution. Upon further
enquiry, Dr Ajayi was informed that the Western Regional Government had heard
rumors “that the Federal Government was planning to create a situation where they
would be able to declare that a state of emergency existed in Western Nigeria whereby
they would then proceed to dissolve its Government and Houses of Assembly and
Chiefs and then govern the Region directly through Federal-appointed functionaries”.
The legal opinion was submitted by Dr. Ajayi after consideration of sub-Section (1) to
(4) of Section 65 of the independent Constitution of the Second Schedule to 1960,
Statutory Instrument No. 1652 of 1960, issued by Her Majesty, Queen in Council in
England.
In Sub-Section (3) period of emergency was defined as follows:
the Federation is at war;
there is in force a resolution passed by each of the Houses of Parliament
declaring that a state of public emergency exists; or
there is in force a resolution of each House of Parliament supported by the votes
of not less than two-thirds of all the members of the Houses declaring that
democratic institutions in Nigeria are threatened by subversion. That under the well-known rule on statutory interpretation known as Noscitur a sociis, paragraph
(b) of Sub-Section (3) above-mentioned would need to be considered in the
context of the existence of a situation similar to that referred to in paragraph (a)
which referred to the Federation being at war and paragraph (c) which referred to
a situation whereby a Parliamentary resolution declares that democratic
institutions in Nigeria were threatened by subversion. It was, therefore, Dr. Ajayi’s
view that any Parliamentary resolution which declared that a state of public
emergency”, must undergo the above test.
The NCEF following information contained in various publications that Boko Haram
executes another aid worker to keep Leah Sharibu as slave on October 15, 2018 thus:
“Boko Haram insurgents have fulfilled their threats of executing another aid worker, to
keep Leah Sharibu as a slave for life. The Islamic State West Africa Province
(ISWAP), a faction of Boko Haram, executed Hauwa Leman, an aid worker with the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and this was confirmed in a short clip
seen by a special correspondent of TheCable. The executed aid worker, was forced to
kneel down, with her hands tied inside a white hijab which has a crest symbol, and then
shot at a close range. Leman, a 24-year-old nurse was a student of health education at
the University of Maiduguri and she was abducted in the attack, that left four soldiers,
four policemen and three humanitarian aid workers dead. Confirming the execution of
the aid worker, ISWAP said; “We have kept our word exactly as we said, by killing
another humanitarian worker, Hauwa Leman, who is working with the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that were abducted during a raid on a military
facility in Rann, Kala Balge in March 2018. “Saifura and Hauwa were killed because
they are considered as Murtads (apostates) by the group because they were once
Muslims that have abandoned their Islam, the moment they chose to work with the Red
Cross, and for us, there is no difference between Red Cross and UNICEF. “If we see
them, we will kill the apostates among them, men or women, and chose to kill or keep
the infidels as slaves, men or women.”
Emergency Administration of Western Nigeria, May 29, 1962 to December 31, 1963,
from facts available to the National Christian Elders Forum, the Forum is of the view that
after the declaration of the state of emergency in Western Nigeria on May 29, 1962, not
a few are still saying that that was the day when the wrong turning was taken in
Nigeria's political history leading later to the controversial Western Nigeria elections of
1965; the people's bloody revolt against the rigged results; the first ever attempted
military coup- d’état in the country on January 15, 1966; the first Military Regime from
January 17, 1966, the counter coup d’état of July 29, 1966; the Nigerian Civil War of
1967 to 1970 the prolonged succession of military regimes and the consequential
strangulating of the democratic culture and its practitioners; indeed all the current topical
issues that are encapsulated in the expression the National question.
Till this day no document have been released by Government to justify the declaration
of emergency and the written natives by those present at the time suggest without an
iota of doubt that the crisis was contrive and this practice continue till this day. Only
recently, November 28, 2018, a crisis was contrived in Akwa Ibom House of Assembly
as reported in The Guardian, part of which reads: “The peace in Akwa Ibom State was
shattered yesterday morning when the State House of Assembly invaded. There were
rumours that there were weapons of war around the citadel of democracy, the state
legislature. Five estranged lawmakers belonging to All Progressive Congress (APC)
stormed the Assembly complex and attempted to remove the governor, Mr. Udom
Emmanuel, in a commando style. For about two hours, the state literally saw war, in a
raw replay of a former governor’s alleged threat. --- In the ensuing confusion, security
personnel fired gunshots to scare way people. Journalists, Assembly workers and other
visitors scampered for safety. --- Shocked by the development, Governor Emmanuel
accused the Nigerian Police of declaring war on the state following a foiled attempt by
the sacked five lawmakers to take over the Assembly and impeach the governor. Visibly
agitated, the governor addressed a world press briefing at Government House. ---We
have reported this to the Inspector General of Police, to the Presidency, to all the
security agencies and nobody has taken any steps to address it. So they are leaving
Akwa Ibom people to defend themselves. Meanwhile we are using our own oil
resources to maintain security. --- We want the whole world to know that whatever
happens in this state is caused by the police, and not any other arm of security agency,
but the police and perpetuated by the State Commissioner of Police. --- However, the
State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Odiko Macdon denied the allegations that it
was the Commissioner of Police who led the five sacked members to the Assembly.
The Commissioner of Police is a professional policeman, so there is no way he could
have escorted those five members into the Assembly. Those members went on their own to the Assembly. The Commissioner of Police deployed policemen to maintain
peace and the Assembly was opened for everybody who has something to do in the
complex,” he said. Meanwhile peace has returned to the House of Assembly as Luke-
led 21 members went on to sit briefly and called for the removal of the State
Commissioner of Police.”
It is clear from the above that there are some Nigerians who do not wasn’t Democracy
and this issue of Democracy vs. Sharia need to be settled at a conference, jaw jaw
rather than violence.
Abusive Revenue Allocation and Representation, Northern and Southern Nigeria:
Rewarding non-contributors
The following statistics are thought provoking even as some will brand the write up “evil
and a lie”, but facts and numbers don’t lie. Mathematics they say is a universal
language.
A study of the following will set the records straight as it unravels the deep seated
injustice that defines our existence as a Nation – Nigeria. Out of the total of 360 House
of Reps members, the entire South has 169, while the North has 191.
Here is the breakdown:
South-East - Imo 10 Reps; Abia 8 Reps; Ebonyi 6 Reps; Anambra 11 Reps; and Enugu
8 Reps Total 43.
South-South - Akwa Ibom 10 Reps; Bayelsa 5 Reps; Cross River 8 Reps; Delta 10
Reps; Edo 9 Reps; and Rivers 13 Reps Total 55 Reps.
SOUTHEAST & SOUTHSOUTH GRAND TOTAL =98 only.
South West - Ekiti 6 Reps; Lagos 24 Reps; Ogun 9 Reps; Ondo 9 Reps; Oyo 14 Reps;
and Osun 9 Reps Total 71 Reps.
North West - Kano 24 Reps; Kaduna 16 Reps; Jigawa 11 Reps; Katsina 15 reps; Kebbi
8 Reps; Sokoto 11 Reps; and Zamfara 7 Reps Total 92 Reps.
North East - Adamawa 8 Reps; Bauchi 12 Reps; Borno 10 reps; Gombe 6 Reps; Taraba
6 Reps; and Yobe 6 Reps Total 48 Reps.
North Central - Benue 11 Reps; Kogi 9 Reps; Kwara 6 Reps; Nassarawa 5 Reps;
Plateau 8 Reps; and Niger 10 Reps Total 49 Reps.
FCT 2 Reps
GRAND TOTAL OF THE NORTH =191
The question is, how dare you upstage this people in a vote? Even if South-East,
South-South and South-West joined together cannot upstage the North.
A large portion of the revenue generate in Nigeria is from the South but the allocation
details tell a different story altogether as the figures below portrays.
Revenue Allocation
North Central receives 20%; CONTRIBUTES 0.00%.
North East receives 16%; CONTRIBUTES 0.00%.
North West receives 21%; CONTRIBUTES 0.00%.
Every month, the 19 Northern states receive a minimum of 57% of 100% of oil revenue
to which they CONTRIBUTE 0.00%.
South West receives 16%; CONTRIBUTES 3.97%.
South East receives 11.00%; CONTRIBUTES 25.07%.
South South receives 15.00%; CONTRIBUTES 70.64%.
Abusive Local Government Creation
Nigeria has 774 LGAs.
This is another glaring unjust exercise deliberately arranged to create more Local
Governments in Nigeria in order to create more revenue for the North.
The North has 19 states, and the 19 states have 419 LGAs while the South has 17
states, and the 17 states have 357 LGAs.
Working with the data from the office of the Accountant General as published by the
Ministry of Finance (2013 April), the 357 LGAs of the 17 southern states receive 45.1%
of even as they provide almost 100% of the revenue conversely the 419 LGAs of the 19
Northern States receive 54.9% when they provide 0.00% with the existing situation the
North will never allow restructuring because they know that they cannot survive if justice
is done.
Now we can see that the North is seriously draining and stifling the development of the
South ad this is why one Nigeria as it exists is the biggest fraud ever.
We CANNOT be silent about all these because he that is silent in the days of the
adversity of the oppressed, has taken the side of the oppressor.
In the Vanguard newspaper of November 28, 2018 in an article titled MELETE
MASSACRE: Sack Service Chiefs, probe defense allocations — AFENIFERE, it
was reported thus: “Akure—THE Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere,
yesterday called for the immediate removal of the three Service Chiefs and the Chief of
Defense Staff over the killing of soldiers in Melete, Borno State by the Boko Haram
terror group. It said the sack should be followed “with a probe of what has happened to
defense allocations. Rising from its monthly meeting in Akure, the country home of its
National Leader, Pa Reuben Fasoranti, the group described the killings, which occured
a week ago, as devastating. Reading the communiqué, Afenifere’s National Publicity
Secretary, Yinka Odumakin said: “The massacre of our ill-equipped troops by the evil
sect raises serious concerns about the state of our armed forces combat readiness in
spite of the unappropriated $1 billion the government claimed it disbursed months back
to equip our military against insurgency. We were more pained at this tragic and
monumental loss by the high insensitivity the Federal Government displayed on this
matter. First, it kept quiet for six days after the incident and when it found its voice there
were no soothing words for the bereaved families. Afenifere demands, as a first step,
the immediate removal of the Service Chiefs, who are already in their retirement years
but are still kept in service, by the President in what many have interpreted as partisan
needs as we move towards the next elections. --- Herdsmen attack in Yorubaland: On
herdsmen attacks in Yorubaland, the group decried “the continuous criminal activities of
armed herdsmen in the South West as evident in the kidnapping of six Ondo indigenes
on November 14 as they were returning from Akure to Ikare Akoko. “These unhinged
security challenges continue to daily show that the country’s security architecture has collapsed under the crushing weight of unitary arrangement that concentrate the
country’s Security apparatus only in the hands of the Federal Government.”
Reps probe spending of Counter-Insurgency Funds
The House of Representatives yesterday ordered an immediate probe into the use of
funds appropriated for the war against insurgency in the country.The resolution followed
the adoption of motions moved by Mohammed Sani Abdu, Isaac Gyang and Hassan
Saleh during a debate on the recent Boko Haram attack, which killed dozens of Nigerian
soldiers in Metele, Borno State. The investigation, which is to be conducted by a yet to
be constituted ad hoc committee, will look into possible operational lapses responsible
for the large number of casualties. --- Speaker Yakubu Dogara, who presided over the
deliberation, expressed worry on the loss. He noted that something must be amiss as
smaller countries like Chad, Cameroon and Niger secure their borders effectively. He
wondered whether the multinational joint task force comprising Chad, Niger, Cameroon
and Benin Republic is still in place to contain Boko Haram activities in the Lake Chad
region. Abdu particularly sought proof that the $1 billion recently appropriated by the
National Assembly to prosecute the insurgency was spent judiciously.” [The Guardian
November 28, 2018]
Again, to make Democracy safe in Nigeria
In a democratizing social formation, the need to entrench democratic principles in
practice cannot be over-emphasized. --- This comment has become pertinent because
in the last couple of months, there have been obvious manifestations of partisanship by
state institutions. One, in the conduct of both Ekiti and Osun gubernatorial elections, the
deployment of state security forces was perceived not by a few as intimidation of
political parties other than the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) with a
consequent constriction of the democratic space. Two, there have been reports of
seizure of light weapons and military camouflages by customs officials in different
locations across the country. And three, during the recent commencement of campaigns
by the APC, all the service chiefs were present, calling into question their neutrality in
the ongoing electoral process. --- It is important to reiterate that liberal democracy has
claims to value. These values include limited government, rule of law, political rights and
freedom, common citizenship and equality before the law, social inclusion, accountable
government, free and fair elections and popular participation. Since this form of government is enshrined in the 1999 Constitution as amended, all must respect its
principles in practice. The security forces and institutions of the state are not outlaws:
they are the servants of the people and not merely the government of the day. ---
Therefore, all stakeholders, young and old should enjoy benefits of history of political
dispensations in the country. --- We only need to conquer ourselves – to make
democracy safe. And so, in the name of everything that is decent and orderly,
democracy should again be celebrated after next year’s elections.” [The Guardian,
November 28, 2018]
The NCEF is convinced that it is the interference of Sharia proponents in the Security
and Intelligence Service that are responsible for the distortion in democratic practices
since independence in 1960.
Governors, state legislators and democracy
No doubt, the verdict is that state legislatures have not discharged their duties properly
and conscientiously in line with the letter and spirit of the Nigerian constitution. They
have invariably slept on their watch, preferring to be at the beck and call of governors.
That way they enjoy financial largesse from the system and everybody smiles to the
bank- at the expense of the citizenry. This has had severe implications on the
entrenchment of democracy in the land. --- Serving state governors turned the state
coffers into their private vaults? When they would rather listen to the Islamists than their
people yearning for Democracy. Treasured funds of the states were not properly
accounted for? ‘constituency projects’ --- Legislators are the authentic and true
representatives of the people. They are not bound to the whims and caprices of the
executive. They are created to check the excesses of the executive arm of government.
--- House of Assembly in recent memory has taken this function seriously. If anything,
they have been in cahoots with the executive in plundering state funds. --- kowtowing to
the governor --- royalty dispensing favours to minions. --- governors are too powerful,
almost dictatorial in their domain. --- special budgetary --- The governors also arbitrarily
control the judicial arm at state level. --- Philosopher Edmund Burke said, “in effect, to
follow, not to force, the public inclination; to give a direction, a form, a technical dress,
and a specific sanction, to the general sense of the community, is the true end of
legislature. --- “the way to secure liberty is to place it in the people’s hands, that is, to
give them the power at all times to defend it in the legislature and in the courts.” --- The
governor should not be seen, nor should he carry himself as a tin god. He should not,
either by design or default, dictate to the House of Assembly. --- independent
candidates into different strata of political positions. --- Currently, most Houses of
Assembly are an extension of the executive arm of government. This is not the
intendment of the constitution. --- It is a time to be vigilant about survival of this
democracy.” [The Guardian, November 28, 2018]
The Islamists do not believe in Democracy and Rule of Law is negated by Unity of
Legislative and Judiciary Arms with the Executive – Omo Omoruyi, Statement of Saleh
N30bn Chad Basin Oil Search faces Fresh Hurdles
The aggressive push to make the North join league of oil producers through commercial
oil discovery in Chad basin has hit a fresh brick wall, as geologists and consultants to
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) who had earlier deserted the site
refused plea for them to return. --- Over 30 billion had been expended for the 30 years
preliminary works on the site and the refusal to return to site by consultants including
the three lecturers of University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) abducted on July 25, 2017 by
suspected Boko Haram terrorists in Magumeri, Borno State, has heightened criticism by
financial experts who now see the adventure as a waste of time and resources.
Between 2011 and 2013, Prof. Jerry Gana, then chairman of the Northern Economic
Summit, said it got a $240 million approval for oil and gas exploration activities in the
Lake Chad Basin and other areas of the North including the Benue Trough, Bidda Basin
and the Sokoto-Rima Basin. Exploration soon commenced in the region and in 2013,
following former Vice President Namadi Sambo’s declaration that “oil prospecting in the
Lake Chad Basin is yielding promising results and may lead to commercial exploitation
of oil and gas,” an additional $100 million was earmarked for the project in addition to
the N27 billion he claimed had been spent. Despite pressure from politicians and power
brokers from the North, the site is deserted and no one is ready to return there,” the
geologists close to the deal told this newspaper, adding that the hindrance posed by
Boko Haram insurgency to the oil search has not subsided.” [The Newtelegraph,
November 26, 2018]
Conclusion
Nigeria’s problem as can be seen above is Islamic supremacy as contained in the
Quran. Islamic Supremacism: belief that Islam is superior to every other culture, faith,
government, and society and that it is ordained by Allah to conquer and dominate them:
“And whoever desires a religion other than Islam, it shall not be accepted from him, and
in the hereafter he shall be one of the losers.” (Q 3:85):
“Ye are the best of Peoples, evolved for mankind.” (Q 3:110)
Non-Muslims are “the most vile of created beings” (Q 98:6)
Be “merciful to one another, but ruthless to the unbelievers” (Q 48:29)
“It is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its law on all
nations and to extend its power to the entire planet.” (Hassan al-Banna, founder
of the Muslim Brotherhood)
“Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant.
The Koran should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only
accepted religion on Earth.” (Omar Ahmad, Council on American Islamic
Relations co-founder/Board Chairman, 1998)
Democracy and Islam
Any system of man-made law is considered illicit under Islamic law, for whose
adherents Allah already has provided the only law permitted, shariah. Islam and
democracy can never co-exist in harmony. “And if any fail to judge by the light of what
Allah has revealed, they are no better than unbelievers.” (Q 5:47) “Sovereignty in Islam
is the prerogative of Almighty Allah alone. He is the absolute arbiter of values and it is
His will that determines good and evil, right and wrong.” (Mohammed Hashim Kamali,
Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence, 3d rev. ed., (Cambridge, UK: The Islamic Text
Society, 2003), 8.) “The shariah cannot be amended to conform to changing human
values and standards. Rather, it is the absolute norm to which all human values and
conduct must conform.” (Muslim Brotherhood ‘spiritual leader’ Yousef al-Qaradawi)
There is need for reconciliation and only a Christian president can achieve this based
on the performance of General Yakubu Gowon, General cum President Olusegun
Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan. This is what NCEF expects from our
preferred candidate. Democracy, Democracy and Democracy.
