Imo has become a crime paradise under Rochas -: Says HURIWA

A leading pro-democracy and Non-governmental body – HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has condemned the systematic and systemic deterioration of security in Imo state, describing the state under Governor Rochas Okorocha as a paradise for criminals from all over the country.

The Rights group has particularly deplored the rising phenomenon of targeted assassinations that have heightened in this campaign period in Imo state even as the Rights group has charged the law enforcement agencies, the community leaders and the Imo state government to stop the decline in the respect for the right to life and activate constructive, comprehensive and workable measures to stop the growing incidence of crimes and criminality in the state.

HURIWA which criticized the Imo state police command, the Department of State Services (DSS) in Imo state and all other military and Para-military bodies with presence in Imo state, for abandoning their statutory duties to enforce law and order, check violent crimes and encourage harmonious con-existence in the state to pursue short term financial benefits from political office seekers.

HURIWA said the lackluster approach to the security of lives and property of the citizenry by Federally controlled security agencies in Imo State makes the argument for the establishment of state police very attractive even as the Rights group charged the hierarchies of the armed security services to wake up from slumber and fight crimes with the 21st century compliant skills. HURIWA condemned the Rochas Okorocha's administration for not prioritizing security and for not acquiring sophisticated state of the art functional technology driven facilities for crime fighting such as drones and helicopters but asserted that the Imo state governor has been busy chasing vain glories and building castles in the air such as the illegal purchase of a moribund and dysfunctional civilian aircraft which it leased to Dana air without legislative approval.

HURIWA spoke against the backdrop of recent suspected politically motivated assassination of Mr. Sunny Ejeagwu a council official of the All progressives Congress in Ideato North local government and a contractor and the killing by armed robbers in Nkwere of the Catholic Cleric Reverend Father Jude Egbuom who was until he was gruesomely murdered, headed the Saint Patrick’s Catholic Parish Amucha in Njaba local government of Imo state. HURIWA expressed regrets that statiscally over 900 reported cases of attacks on persons have reportedly happened in Imo state last year alone according a study it sighted from the Bireau of statistics.

HURIWA, quoting the media, stated that the gunmen equally murdered a young man whose identity could not be ascertained immediately.

The murdered cleric hailed from Umuwala, a village in Nkwere Community even as he was attacked around 8pm when he went to a barber’s shop on Anara-Nkwere Road in Nkwere town.

HURIWA believed that the different segment of the security forces operating in Imo state have lost focus and are heavily engaged in partisan politics for pecuniary gains or are being deployed to go after soft targets such as the unarmed members and sympathizers of the Indigenous peoples of Biafra (IPOB).

“It is said that the security force in much of the South East of Nigeria and especially in Imo state are really not committed to wage determined battles against violent crimes but are either actively engaged in setting up road blocks to harass, intimidate, extort and brutalize road users or are involved in one politically motivated activity or the other such as going after peaceful protesters.”

“The speedy decline in security is also caused by the lack of good governance, lack of accountability and transparency in Imo State’s administration and the expanding frontiers of Joblessness, youth restiveness, political corruption by Imo state officials and the abandonment of the constitutional mandate of protecting and safe guarding lives by security forces in Imo state.”

Is It Sunset for Buhari’s Regime? By Emmanuel Onwubiko

One of the mainstream presidential hopefuls preparing for next year’s general election Tanimu Kabiru Turaki, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, made the most profound and deeply philosophical affirmations yesterday when he visited the governor of Kwara State.

He had also made similar assertion when on July 3^rd this year he visited the corporate head office of his political party.
The former Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Relations, Alhaji Tanimu Turaki, (SAN), said that he is better educated than President Muhammadu Buhari and therefore in a better position to lead the country in 2019, reports the media.

Turaki, who is a presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, spoke in Abuja when he visited the national headquarters of the party.
He was at the headquarters of the party to intimate to members of its National Working Committee his aspiration.
He said he could match President Buhari’s much-talked-about integrity, adding that he had what the President didn’t have.

The former minister said, “I can match President Buhari’s integrity for integrity and I have what he does not have: I have education, I have the knowledge, I have the fear of God, which he doesn’t have.
“Even if you have a good sales team, you need a good product. And I am that product.  I can assure you that I am not made in ‘Taiwan’.

“Nigerians are crying, weeping and dying and they believe that the only party that can save them from this malady and psychological trauma is the PDP.”

While reminding members of the NWC of the great task ahead, Turaki said the PDP needed a good product to confront the ruling party in the Presidential election.
According to him, “Since 2015 that we lost the election, many things have changed. It is no longer about the platform alone but also about the candidate.

“We must be able to come up with a candidate that has the strength of character to wrestle Buhari and pin him to the ground (should he emerge APC Presidential candidate).”
On the security situation in the country, Turaki blamed Buhari’s government for declaring victory over the insurgents; a development he said made the people take government’s position hook, line and sinker.

He said, “APC has lied over the flushing and defeat of insurgents and when they (people) relax,  they are picked up in soft targets and killed by insurgents,” adding that until killers were made to face the wrath of the law, the reign of terror would not abate.

This profoundly impactful statement by this Kebbi State born lawyer and technocrat, resonates with millions of Nigerians who are sick and tired of the multiple policy flip flops of the current administration and the litany of inconsistencies noticed in the implementation of programmes by the government. Even as this illustrious lawyer spoke in Kwara state in Borno state the boko haram terrorists struck, killing scores of people and reportedly hijacked a passenger's bus with about 20 people. This is despite government's persistent claims that Boko Haram terrorists have been technically defeated. There are other areas that the consistently inconsistent policy implementation has signposted a government that has come to it's tragic end due to paucity of ideas and gross lack of vision to achieve good governance.

Take for instance the critical sector of the real economy whereby lots of manifest errors are visible even to the eyes of non-initiates in the field of economics.
These policy flip flops are indeed so irritating so much so that most observers are beginning to ask questions regarding the competences of the members of the Buhari’s economic team.
These apprehensions have heightened with the disclosure that the minister of Finance Mrs. Kemi Adeosun may have been parading fake exemption certificate from the National Youth Service Scheme.

My considered opinion is that if the lady who manages the economy for the current government is alleged or found wanting in such a very serious case of forgery of a certificate, how are we to have faith in her decisions and body of advice to the president of the federal Republic who is said to have very limited academic credentials?

A key question is why the current government has accumulated serious debts from multi-lateral finance institutions and China whilst at the same time the federal Inland Revenue service; the Customs and EFCC keep bombarding Nigerians with a so-called rich resume of an agency that has netted in tons of Naira as taxes from corporate bodies and individuals and tales of recovery of several billions of dollars from looters?

Another side of the coin is the question of why this government irrationally took the decision of sharing the Sani Abacha's recovered loot to poor Nigerians but in the very same week, the president jetted off to china to sign a loan of the same amount which has further enslaved Nigeria?

For the avoidance of doubts here are the greater details of these policy flip flops.
The Buhari's administration said that the recovered $322 million stolen fund by the former military leader, Sani Abacha will be returned to the rightful owners – the masses.

This the government planned to do through the Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT) - a so-called  welfare programme reportedly aimed at ameliorating poverty through the transfers of money to persons who meet certain criteria.

Tukur Rumar, representative of the National Cash Transfer Office said the disbursement will be made to 302,000 poor households in 19 states of the federation in July 2018.
The states are Niger, Kogi, Ekiti, Osun, Oyo, Kwara, Cross River, Bauchi, Gombe, Jigawa, Benue, Taraba, Adamawa, Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Plateau, Nasarawa, Anambra and Internally Displaced Camps (IDPs) in Borno.

Rumar made this known at a roundtable on assets recovery organized by the Swiss Embassy in Abuja.
The repatriation and confiscation of the Geneva funds followed the conclusion of an agreement in July 2014 between Nigeria, the Swiss government and the Abacha family.
It was agreed upon that the recovered loot will be spent on social protection programmes in the country.

If the monitoring is not effective, the funds will be returned to the Geneva authorities. Buhari's administration understanding of social protection means sharing public fund to political loyalists in an election period to enhance his chances at the polls. The government does not believe in the saying that it is better to teach a man how to fish than to give him fish.

And then suddenly, the same government has gone to pick up a toxic loan of same amount from China.
The government claimed it was part of efforts to grow Nigeria's Information and Communication Technology sector that the Export-Import Bank of China will provide a loan of $328 million to support the country.

A statement by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, revealed this recently.

According to the statement, President Muhammadu Buhari and Chinese President Xi Jinping will sign the agreement during the former's current visit to the country.
The agreement will be between Galaxy Backbone Ltd., a Nigerian company and Huawei Technologies of China.

The statement read in part: "During the 6-day official visit of the Nigerian President, he is expected to join his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping to witness the signing of an agreement on the National Information and Communication Technology Infrastructure Backbone Phase 11 (NICTIB 11) between Galaxy Backbone Limited and Huawei Technologies Limited (HUAWEI) at the cost of US $328 million facility provided by the Chinese EXIM Bank.

"The bank facility is for the development of NICTIB 11 project which is consistent with the current administration’s commitment to incorporating the development of ICT into national strategic planning under the National Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).

"President Buhari and his Chinese host will also witness the signing of the MOU on One Belt One Road Initiative (OBOR). It may be recalled that in 2013, the Chinese leader proposed the initiative of building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, with a view to integrating the development strategies of partnering countries.

"During the High-Level Dialogue between Chinese and African Leaders and Business representatives on the margins of FOCAC, the Nigerian delegation is also expected to sign no fewer than 25 MOUs, including those proposed by the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA)."

As far as rational reasoning is concerned, it is inexplicable in logic to imagine that government could recover stolen fund and decides to fritter the cash away by way of what they termed conditional transfer to poor homes when there is no transparency and accountability.

Aside logic, there is also the aspect of enslavement of Nigeria due to these range of policy flip flops which at best can be termed as running a voodoo economy.

Erstwhile World Bank’s vice president and Nigeria’s former education minister Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili has also added her voice to question the rationale in the approach of government to collect Chinese loan.

Oby Ezekwesili described President Muhammadu Buhari’s signing of a $382 million loan deal with the Chinese Government as a bad move.

In a series of posts shared on her personal Twitter page, the erstwhile Minister and former VP of the World Bank implied that the Chinese loan is risky to Nigeria. This is because “Chinese attitude to indebtedness is the hardest in the world”, she said.

She further stated that it is annoying to see countries like Nigeria continue to collect loans from the Asian hegemon; despite the risks involved.

According to Dr Ezekwesili, the Chinese are calculative and deliberate when they give loans to African Governments. They know exactly what they are doing when they design the loans to cover their exposure levels in case of uncertainties, she said.

Unfortunately, African leaders such as President Buhari continue to borrow recklessly and without recourse to all the inherent dangers.

As Ezekwesili observed, the scale of public debts is increasing steadily just as present-day politicians continue to behave like their predecessors who piled up debts.

For me, it makes little or no economic sense to go borrowing when at the same time agencies of this same government continue to churn out statistics of tons of billions netted in by them.

In April the chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) said his agency picked up the sum of N1.171 trillion between January and March 2018 – N393 billion more than it collected during the same period in 2017.

Sometime in June, the Nigerian Customs Service reported that it generated highest monthly revenue of N100 billion.

If this government is picking up so much revenues from different sectors of the economy including the penalties running into several billions of dollars picked up by Central Bank of Nigeria from defaulting banks and MTN company over alleged financial misdemeanor, how come Nigerians have become the poorest in the world and how come the current president has continue to collect all sorts of loans? Has Buhari run out of idea and has the Sun set to his inglorious regime due to crass incompetence?

Those who know have even warned about what they called overborrowing syndrome which is the trap that president Buhari’s administration has entered.

In the book; "Economics: Making sense of the modern economy" edited by Simon Cox, the book argues thus: “It is easy to see how this cycle of excess gets out of hand, but what starts it in the first place? Any news that spurs a rush of optimism can get things going. One potential catalyst is financial liberalization, the very thing that first opens the credit taps. This has been known for decades. A classic text on development finance, by Ronald McKinnon of Stanford University, spelled out the dangers some 30 years ago.”

“A later volume of Mr. McKinnon’s again drew attention to the risks. Published six years before the crisis of 1997-98, it recounted South Korea’s previous experience with overborrowing in the mid-1960s. Starting in 1965, financial and trade liberalization had stimulated South Korea’s growth, prompting a fundamental reappraisal of the country’s prospect by foreign investors (not long before, economists had compared South Korea’s prospects unfavourably with the North’s). Liberalization allowed capital to rush in, but the surge was too great; it forced inflation up and left the country struggling with the problem until the early 1980s.”

“Having started, and grown bigger, why does the bubble eventually burst? All it takes is a shift in perceptions, reversing the one that started it all off. After a few years of overborrowing, balance sheets start to look stretched. At some point, borrowers begin to think enough is enough. Here and there, asset sales begin as firms try to restore financial ratios to something closer to normal. Prices stop rising and then start falling. Inflows of capital slow and the currency comes under pressure.”

As Nigerians eagerly awaits the coming election in which the incumbent so desperately plots to hang on to power even with the monumental economic crises that the administration’s poor economic policy implementation has unleashed on Nigeria, it is time for Nigerians to do a general Introspection and ask question whether the sunset has come for the Buhari’s regime or whether Nigerians will choose to remain in economic bondage until 2023.

*Emmanuel Onwubiko heads the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) and blogs @www.emmanuelonwubiko.com; www.huriwanigeria.com.

Bianca Ojukwu is qualified for Anambra Senate: - HURIWA

A leading pro-democracy and Non-Governmental body – HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has upbraided the step children of Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu over their opposition to the senatorial ambition of their step mother and wife of their late father Late Chief Odumegwu Chukwuemeka Ojukwu on the ground of her state of origin.

The Rights group has equally asked the step children of Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu to settle their internal issues privately without dragging the immortal and legendary image of their great father to the mud on the political turfs for alleged pecuniary benefits. The group reminded the squabbling step Children creating media controversy over the political ambition of Mrs Bianca Ojukwu that their late father was not just their father alone but was the father of Igbo nation and a legend to millions of people around the World including human rights practitioners.

In a statement by the Rights organization authorized by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA said Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu by virtue of her legal status as wife of Ikemba Odumegwu Ojukwu is validly and constitutionally qualified to seek the mandate of Anambra South Senatorial Zone.

The Rights group has also tasked the step children opposing Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu’s political aspiration to represent Anambra South, to meticulously read chapter three of the Nigerian Constitution and chapter four of the same grund norm to see the futility of their political witch-hunt against a lady of distinction Mrs Bianca Ojukwu who was consistently loyal to her husband till death and event went on to represent Nigeria as our Ambassador in Spain.

HURIWA referred the warring opponents of Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu’s political aspiration to section 25 (1) of the constitution which provides thus: “The following persons are citizens of Nigeria by birth, namely; every person born in Nigeria before the date of independence, either of whose parents or any of whose grandparents belongs or belonged to a community indigenous to Nigeria: provided that a person shall not become a citizen of Nigeria by virtue of this section if neither of his parents nor any of his grandparents was born in Nigeria; every person born in Nigeria after the date of independence either of whose parents or any of whose grandparents is a citizen of Nigeria: and every person born outside Nigeria either of whose parents is a citizen of Nigeria.”

Besides, HURIWA cited section 42 (2) which rubbishes the opposition to Bianca Ojukwu’s political aspiration because constitutionally, “No citizen of Nigeria shall be subjected to any disability or derivation merely by reason of the circumstances of his birth.”

HURIWA affirmed that constitutionally, Bianca Ojukwu qualifies to run for the office of senate to represent her people in Anambra South of Anambra State where she is married into because section 15 (2) of the supreme law states thus: “Accordingly, national integration shall be actively encouraged, whilst discrimination on the grounds of place of origin, sex, religion, status, ethnic linguistic, association or ties shall be prohibited.”

Aside the constitution, the Rights group reminded the step children of Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu that traditionally and legally a wife by virtue of valid marriage has become one and the same with the husband even as the group reminded them that professor (Mrs.) Ngozi Okonjo Iweala became minister twice on the status of being from Abia State, her husband’s state even when her state of birth is Delta.

HURIWA recalled that speaking with journalists in an interview, Dr. Ike Ojukwu, who is one of the directors of Ojukwu Transport Company Limited, believes that it will be a letdown to allow Bianca who is from Ngwo in Enugu State to represent Anambra South senatorial district where you have several prominent people in the Senate.

HURIWA recalled that Dr. Ojukwu queried: “Is she from Nnewi? She is from Ngwo in Enugu State. If you ask me, I would prefer someone who is a son of the soil, and because I come from Nnewi, I would like an Nnewi indigene to represent us.”

HURIWA however dismissed these sentiments as primitive, retrogressive; unconstitutional; despicable and shameful just as the Rights group challenged the step sons to also obtain nomination forms and contest for elective position rather than engage in the past time of operation pull her down politically which according to the group is a gross disrespect to the iconic personality of their late father and the husband of Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu.

DEBTS: ROAD TO SECOND SLAVERY By Emmanuel Onwubiko

Obi Nwanodozie is a little less than four years and is born into a farming family with tremendous landed assets in a rural community near the commercial heart land of Abia State known as Ntigha in Isiala Ngwa Local government Area.

Obi’s father, Mr. Eze is a big time farmer but had made up his mind to go into the business of importation from one of the core Western European nations just as he had the limitations of not been blessed with enough cash to back up his dream line of business.

The quick thinking rural farmer who planned to diversify his trade then approached a big man in a nearby community of Aba. The man who was approached to raise Mr. Eze a working capital in form of a loan, has the challenge of not having enough land in his family due to the extended size of that family which meant that land he inherited was so small.

The lender then demanded that Obi should tender his huge landed assets as collateral for the loan which he must pay back with less than five percent interest after seven years. The deal was sealed but not without reaching a legal agreement that should there be a default in payment the ownership of these massive family land will change hands to the lender in place of his N100 million loan he gave to the lendee.

Walking away resplendently, Eze then proceeded to embark on his new business trip and made success out of the first few trips but the sixth trip became a huge problem.

Mr. Eze fell into wrong hands of professional dupes who took all his money and left him in penury.
This tragedy happened incidentally in the sixth year into his loan agreement but he made frantic effort to reschedule the repayment without success because the big man was actually eyeing those lands.

The bigger tragedy happened when the time for repayment arrived but Mr. Eze has no money to repay but had to surrender the ownership of his land. This was exactly when his son was almost getting ready to enroll into college. Mr. Eze became so poor that he could not meet basic financial obligations to his family.

Ironically, the man who was rich in landed assets now became homeless and impoverished because of wrong investment choice and his encounter with the wrong business partners who were dubious.

The above story is the likeliest situation that Nigeria could face in the near future if the nation due to current high level of corruption cannot repay the massive loans the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has continued to generate in the guise of building strategic infrastructures but which ended up been stolen by his thieving officials. Recall that few years back the United Nations Office on Drugs And crime (UNODC) estimated that Nigeria has lost to government thieves over $400 billion revenue generated from exports if crude oil in the last four decades.

The signal Nigerians are now getting even from official quarters is scary and shows a nation whose leaders have gone a borrowing with little or no plan on how to repay these loans.

Ironically, just before 2015 when Buhari came on board, the nation had exited the bad club of heavily indebted poor countries by virtue of the fact that the Finance Minister during the then Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala (Professor) successfully negotiated with Nigeria’s multilateral creditors for soft landing.

A development policy review published on September 5^th2013, edited by Geske Dijkstra of the Erasmus University Rotterderm had celebrated the so-called exiting from this inglorious club of debtors by Nigeria.

The researcher had asked what did 18 billion dollars achieved? That is the 2005 debt relief to Nigeria. The researcher said the aim of this paper is to assess the contribution of the 2005 debt relief agreement to Nigeria to this higher growth. This agreement eliminated Nigeria’s US$ 30 billion to Paris Club creditors; the creditors cancelled an unprecedented US$ 18 billion, while Nigeria paid US$ 12 billion.

The agreement he argued was concluded in the midst of intensive international campaigns for more aid and more debt relief.

He recalled that the G8 summit had just decided to eliminate all multilateral debts for countries that had fully complied with conditions for the Initiative for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC initiative).

He recalled too that together with the HIPC initiative itself, this new Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) hugely reduced the external debts for the involved low income countries.

But there was a big snag. Nigeria's case was different. It was not a HIPC country, mainly because of its huge oil income, and most of its debt was with bilateral creditors. Debt cancellation for Nigeria was heavily disputed at the time, the researcher noted.

The researcher told us vividly that an important argument against it was precisely that Nigeria was oil-rich and that the country could easily pay its debts.

Another objection, he said was Nigeria’s bad reputation in terms of policies and governance, which made it highly unlikely that the country would use the debt relief savings well.

On the other hand, he noted, it was argued that Nigeria was a low income country (in 2003, GDI per capita was US$ 320) with 54% of its about 150 million people living in poverty, and that the debt cancellation was necessary in order to help the country achieve the Millennium Development Goals (Moss et al., 2004; Okonjo-Iweala, 2008; World Bank, 2005).

Not done. This financial historian recalled that some analysts also claimed that the creditors should have cancelled the debt a long time ago, since most debt was arrears (Rieffel, 2005).

Again, the writer said given the conflicting views on debt cancellation to Nigeria, it is the more relevant and interesting to assess what it has meant for economic growth and poverty reduction in the country.

"This paper traces the three possible impact channels of debt relief, namely the flow channel (reduced debt service), the stock channel (removal of debt overhang) and the conditionality channel (Dijkstra, 2008)."

The researcher reminded us that by carefully establishing the most likely counterfactual scenario for each of these channels, the paper concludes that the debt relief agreement played a key role in the country’s improved economic performance.

"The conditionality channel was in fact most influential. It was the anticipation of possible debt cancellation the broke the political deadlock that had prevented policy reforms for a long time."
Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo got lots of plaudits from this brilliant move that saved Nigeria the much sought after $18 billion debt relief.

Although this writer then forcefully opposed the decision of Nigeria to pay off that huge chunk of foreign reserves to service the then $30 Billion credits which was reduced to just $12 Billion, the decision earned the government praises for at least saving the face of Nigeria and pulling us away from the enslavement of being a debtor.

Few years down the line, the current government has literally gone back to accumulate heavy debts.
By its own mouth, government of Muhammadu Buhari told us that Nigeria’s external debt commitment rose by $11.77bn in the last three years.

According to debt statistics obtained by the media from the Debt Management Office, the country’s external debt rose from $10.32bn in June 30, 2015 to $22.08bn as of June 30 this year.
This means that the country’s external debt commitment has grown by 114.05 per cent in the last three years.

Although multilateral debt made up $10.88bn or 49.28 per cent of the country’s external debt profile, most of the increases in the last three years occurred in the area of commercial loans, the newspaper reported.
According to the DMO, commercial foreign loans, which stood at $1.5bn as of June 30, 2015, had risen to $8.8bn as of June 30 2018.

This according to the newspaper means that in the last three years, the country’s exposure to commercial foreign loans has risen by $7.3bn or 486.67 per cent.
With a commitment of $8.47bn, the World Bank is responsible for 38.36 per cent of the country’s foreign portfolio, it asserted.

The media uncovered that apart from the World Bank Group, Nigeria is also exposed to some other multilateral organizations such as the African Development Bank with a portfolio of $1.32bn and the African Development Fund with a portfolio of $843.47m.

Others are the International Fund for Agricultural Development with a portfolio of $159.44m; the Arab Bank for Economic Development with a portfolio of $5.88m; the EDF Energy (France) with a portfolio of $64.96m and the Islamic Development Bank with a portfolio of $16.92m.
On the other hand, the newspaper affirmed, bilateral debts make up $2.39bn or 10.87 per cent of the country’s external debt exposure.

The bilateral agencies to which the country is indebted are the Export-Import Bank of China with a portfolio of $1.91bn; the Agence Francaise de Development with a portfolio of $274.98m; the Japan International Cooperation Agency with a portfolio of $74.69m; the EXIM Bank of India with a portfolio of $4.76m; and Germany (KFW) with a portfolio of $132.24m.

However, the media stated that unlike the foreign debt, the domestic component of the country’s total public debt decreased marginally recently as a result of moves to rebalance the local/foreign debt ratio.

According to the DMO, a major highlight in the latest public debt data was the decrease in the Federal Government’s domestic debt, which declined from N12.59tn in December 2017 to N12.58tn in March 2017 and N12.15tn in June 2018.

The DMO said the reduction in the FGN’s Domestic Debt Stock arose from the redemption of N198bn Nigerian Treasury Bills in December 2017 and another N639bn between January and June 2018.

A total of $3bn was raised through Eurobonds to refinance maturing domestic debt as part of the implementation of the debt management strategy for the purpose of substituting high cost domestic debt with lower cost external debt to reduce debt service costs for the government, the DMO said.

It also explained that the implementation of the Public Debt Management Strategy, whose overall objective was to ensure that Nigeria’s debt is sustainable, was already yielding positive results.

The ill-advised decision of Buhari to lead Nigeria blindly into another debts trap is dangerous because apart from massive corruption by the officials, the government has yet to plug the gaps in the crude oil sector which makes it possible for multinational companies to continue to milk Nigeria dry off the revenues from our crude oil resources and other sectors such as Maritimes even as the current administration continue to pile up foreign debts that will inevitably return us to second slavery.

Specifically, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) had expressed worry on foreign dominance in the nation’s shipping subsector, saying that 95 percent of income goes to foreigners.

The Director General of the agency, Dr. Peterside Dakuku, said this at a one day seminar with the theme: Local Content Development in Shipping, Oil and Gas Logistics Operations in Nigeria, organized by Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN) in Lagos.

Dakuku who was represented at the event by Assistant Director, Shipping Development, Mrs. Hannah Akpan said, 95 percent of the income from the annual throughput of 150 million metric tons transactions, goes to foreigners.

He said, “Industry statistics shows that the country generates an estimated annual cargo throughput of 150 million metric tons with freight earnings in excess of $50billion in her international trade transactions.

“95 percent of this income is earned by foreigners, with the job deprivation to the country that goes with it.
“The same dominance by foreigners, is also extended to the domestic shipping market where the estimated $3 billion annual marine related spending in the oil and gas production activities are virtually earned by foreigners.”

Let it be recorded that Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has warned against this enslavement that Muhammadu Buhari's administration is leading us into especially the components of these loans from China which will mortgage our crude oil resources and further impoverish the citizenry. We must halt these maddening rush for foreign loans that end up being stolen by government officials in the current dispensation.

*Emmanuel Onwubiko heads the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) and blogs @ www.huriwanigeria.com; www.emmanuelonwubiko.com.

Youthful electioneering towards 2019 By Emmanuel Onwubiko

President Muhammadu Buhari has a mixed bag of a unique legacy regarding the landmark passage and bringing into being of the legendary not-too-young to run Act of 2018.

Buhari shares this glory with such political leaders like Senate President Bukola Saraki, his deputy and a foremost constitutional reformist Professor Ike Ekweremadu and the obviously youthful speaker of the federal parliament Mr. Yakubu Dogara, who incidentally is a litigation lawyer of repute from the North Central state of Bauchi.

I called it a mixed bag of legacy because rather than allowing the fuller essence and philosophical import of this not-too-young to run Act, to be fully manifested, the old people (old brigade) who run things at the top most echelons of the political firmament in Nigeria have erected formidable obstacles that might frustrate the actualization in real time of the gains of this fresh law which is targeted at mainstreaming youth participation at the political leadership platforms of Nigeria.
Proverbially, the bad political old guards gave out a carrot with one hand but used heavy stick to retrieve it from the hands of the new breed political aspirants.

This is so because of the economic indices that shows that poverty amongst the younger population is much because millions of the young persons churned out from the respective public and private universities and secondary schools have no employment opportunities and so are left to wander around in squalid poverty in the urban areas scampering for survival and searching for the proverbial greener pastures locally. Others chose to migrate to foreign jurisdictions to places where the threats of insecurity and instability does not constitute a grave threat to their lives. In Nigeria a combination of the twin evils of political instability and national insecurity have constituted grave threats to the fundamental right to life that the citizens are entitled to under the law. Because of this reality, a lot of youth are on their ways to move abroad. The few left behind are now impoverished and too poor to be able to pick up the expensive nomination forms of the big parties and in Nigeria only the two big parties have big money bags to be able to withstand the vicissitudes of elections and the extremely expensive campaigns that characterized general elections and since political godfathers are those who anoint candidates the poor youth are alienated from the reach of these rich godfathers just as only the children of the rich Nigerians will then be in a position with the appropriate funding support to run the expensive campaigns that herald general elections in Nigeria. This is why Rochas Okorocha whose election 7 years was funded by moneybags has become suddenly rich to now become the godfather who wants to throw money around to brailroad his son in law into office by hook or crook as his successor in Imo state already heavily impoverished and ruined economically by Rochas Okorocha and his gang in the last 7 years. In Nasarawa it is rumoured although without proof that the richest black man in the World the Kano state born Aliko Dangote plans to install his managing Director into office as governor. The Nasarawa state governor had to arrange a media publicity to deny that he got bribed to the tune of N10 billion by the multibillionaire to actualize the big man's political plot. Aliko Dangote is media shy so he has yet to deny or affirm but as is well known Aliko Dangote like most billionaires pay the bills of most political aspirants who go on to win plump/juicy political positions. Millions of impoverished Nigerian youth have no access to these billionaires to be able to muster the kind of humongous cash required for electioneering activities in this part of the World.

The first salvo was fired by president Muhammadu Buhari even whilst endorsing the bill when it had already scaled through the crucibles of legislative firestorms of the national Assembly when he told the youthful audience invited to monitor the symbolic signing of this law not to eye the office of president until after 2023 apparently banking on the power of incumbency to retain office for the second and final constitutionally allowed tenure after next year’s general election.

The President is however not alone in this game of political deceit and deception because the major political parties including the ruling party that produced president Buhari erected unattainable demands as a necessary pre-condition for qualification to seek for political offices under their platforms.

The two leading parties (APC/PDP) have made and are implementing outrageous asking prices for the nomination forms that pre-qualifies Nigerians to run for the respective offices in the 2019 poll.
Only those cashbacked by godfathers and who are rich are buying these forms. The youth are simply nowhere near these offices of these political players but have managed to play at the fringes with most of them joining forces to register Political parties since under the current uncoordinated and rudderless leadership in the Independent National Electoral Commission it is easier to register Political parties than to buy a rural bicycle. The big political players are billionaire quarters for now even with the law passed to bring about an all-inclusive political game that will see the youth getting involved as aspirants and candidates and even going ahead to win seats in the diverse political power configurations.

All progressives congress (APC) went to the ridiculous extent of hiking fee for presidential form at N55 million which Mr. President with all the security votes available to his beck and call running into billions has stated that paying N55 million to buy a nomination form to run for the office of presidency is way too high. Most rational Nigerians have taken his words with a pinch of salt however.

Don’t ask me how president Buhari managed to put up a multibillion naira housing asset in the Central Business District of Abuja as his campaign office.

The campaign office of President Buhari was inaugurated with pomp and pegeanty by Buhari and his vice accompanied by such state governors like that of Kogi and Plateau including a large entourage of cabinet level ministers including the central scribe of the federal government Mr. Boss Mustapha.
The youth were as hired audience to clap hands for the old guards. Same way the youth were paid to pay solidarity visits to Muhammadu Buhari when he spent over three months on medical vacation in London on our bills which is not even disclosed even with the freedom of information request made by many Nigerians. These youths were so misguided that they picked up crumbs from the Presidency to cheer the president shortly after he made snide remarks that Nigerian youth are mostly lazy and don't want to work.

So in their determination to alienate the youth from the mainstream of political positioning, the All Progressives Congress also scaled up the nomination fee for office of state governor to almost N22 million which most of the governors kicked against even when a greater percentage of these non-performing governors have been alleged by Economic and Financial Commission of diverting huge and indeed humongous amounts of public fund to their private accounts.

The chairman of the governor’ forum who is the Zamfara state governor has a date with EFCC for alleged fraud running into several billions.

The anti-graft body had alleged that he diverted public fund belonging to his state from the Paris fund refund to build an exotic housing estate in a part of the United States of America and imposing hotel facilities in a choice area of the commercial capital of Nigeria which is Lagos.

The Finance Commissioner and many close allies of the Imo state governor Rochas Okorocha have had brushes with the EFCC even as most northern governors have grossly mismanaged the resources of their people. But these corrupt governors have even protested over the high nomination fees charged by the head offices of All Progressive Congress.

Similarly, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which is the beautiful bride in the area of presidential primary election because of the high turnover of aspirants who jumped ship from APC because of lack of internal democracy, have been asked to cough out N12 million whilst governorship candidate are not paying less than N10 million.

These are predictable obstacles meant to rubbish the gains of the untested not-too-young to run Act which is aimed at bringing about youth participation in politics at the highest levels in line within constitutional provisions.

Section 14 (2) (c) of the constitution states as follows: “the participation by the people in their government shall be ensured in accordance with the provisions of this constitution.”

The aforementioned sub-section is an essential element of the chapter two of the constitution which in effect are the fundamental principles of state policies in which the supreme law obliges political office holders thus: “It shall be the duty and responsibility of all organs of government, and of all authorities and persons, exercising legislative, executive and judicial powers to conform, to observe and apply the provision of this chapter of the constitution.”

The question that logically flows from the deliberately sowed infractions against the newly minted not-too-young to run law by the government and political associations registered under the constitution, is why did we spend so much time, resources to pass and sign the law to mainstream youth participation in strategic elections but turned back to frustrate the law from coming into fruition?.

Why did President Buhari disrespected the law by cajoling the would be beneficiaries not to aspire to become president until after he had left office when he would be in his 80’s going by his official age? By the way the minister of youth affairs is a man in his sixties. Talk of hypocrisy in Nigerian politics.
 Another corollary question to ask political leaders is why they embarked on this grand scale political deception of bringing about the youth friendly law only not to be committed to its enforcement?.
President Muhammadu Buhari celebrated the signing of this law elaborately even as his media spin doctors went overdrive and overboard with propaganda to praise the president for being the political savior of the youth. This same President who think most Nigerian youth are lazy. The President read the following celebratory remarks to herald the signing of this not too young to run bill into a law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the consequent amendments to relevant constitutional provisions to harmonize these incongruent provisions with the unambiguous provisions of the new law.

In a jubilant mood as if he has just won the senior World cup, Buhari told Nigerians that First, he would like to welcome his hired audience including some young persons all to the State House.

He said that the day was a significant day for all of us in Nigeria, and most especially our young people – and the role they play in our democracy, politics and national life; which is why We are gathered here for the signing of the “Not Too Young To Run Bill”, a landmark piece of legislation that was conceived, championed and accomplished by young Nigerians; The coordinators of the Not Too Young To Run movement have now established a formidable legacy – which is that, in our maturing democracy, if you really want to change something in Nigeria, and if you can organize yourselves and work hard towards it – you can achieve it.

The President said the outcome of such efforts is this remarkable feat; These efforts have resulted in the heroic task of enshrining in law, a reduction of the minimum ages for elective office in Nigeria; a. Eligible age for aspirants for members of the State Houses of Assembly will be reduced from 30 to 25 years; b. Eligible age for aspirants for members of the Federal House of Representatives will be reduced from 30 to 25 years; and c. Eligible age for aspirants for Office of the President, will be lowered from 40 to 35 years;  Surprisingly, the age limits for Senators and Governors was not reduced, as originally proposed by the sponsors of this Bill.

The President said this failure to affect a reduction in ages for Federal parliamentary positions is an issue that may need to be addressed going forward; but nevertheless, he told the youthful audience that "your focus and contributions have now successfully increased the quality and maturity of Nigerian democracy and expanded the playing field for youth participation in politics; You, the young people of Nigeria, are now set to leave your mark on the political space, just as you have done over the decades in entrepreneurship, sports, art, media entertainment, technology, and several other fields; You are undoubtedly Nigeria’s most important resource – not oil, not agriculture, not solid minerals – but you and all of us".

"Your energy, intelligence and talent are what will drive and develop Nigeria, long after we are all gone; This is an opportunity for me to affirm that this Administration will continue to do everything in its power to make Nigeria work for you; You may all know that the Bill I just assented now becomes an Act of the National Assembly; Thus, it may be tempting for you to think of this as the end of the journey. However, it is only the beginning; there is still a lot of work ahead, towards ensuring that young people take full advantage of the opportunities provided not only by this constitutional amendment but also through Nigeria’s boundless prospects; You should inculcate the spirit of self-help."

The President admonished the young people that those who complete their training should not just sit down and wait for government or private sector to employ them but should be innovative and turn their hands to any legitimate work that will enable them to sustain themselves.

Buhari affirmed that young persons present at the venue of the signing of the law may have noticed already that every one of them represents one of our 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory.
The President said this is so because that day was about preparing for the bright future of our country even as he stated that he is confident each one of the youth will transform Nigeria in their own way – whether through media, agricultural enterprise, economists, engineers, or as lawmakers in your States or at Federal levels, or as State Governors – and even someday, as President. Why not?

He fired the first major salvo against the fresh law he had only just signed by stating thus: "But please, can I ask you to postpone your campaigns till after the 2019 elections!; Finally, let me say how proud I am, and how proud the entire country is, of what you have accomplished.
Congratulations and best of luck with continuing to work to make Nigeria a greater country for us and future generations of Nigerians; God bless all the young people of Nigeria and God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria."

What need to be done is for the young persons who are now running their own political parties to mobilize other vibrant young people to team up with them and sensitize millions of other youth to capture the momentum of achieving the legal and constitutional milestone of lowering the ages for strategic offices by breaking the bondage of the two party gangsters constituted by APC and PDP.

If the entire youth will refuse to sale their votes for plates of soup as was done in Ekiti, Edo, Ondo and Anambra States, the newly registered political parties may as well become mainstream political parties and maybe we will have five major national political parties which will lead to the lowering down of the fees for nominations and reduce campaign costs. The developed world need to help the youth to draw inspiration from that new law but first Nigeria's suffocating poverty and collapsed infrastructures must be fixed. The industrialized nations must put the necessary legal frameworks to halt the capital flights out of Nigeria most especially the high incidences of money laundering by political office holders who are taking these fund offshores.

*Emmanuel Onwubiko heads the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) and blogs @ www.huriwanigeria.com; www.emmanuelonwubiko.com; www.huriwa.blogspot.com. 

NYSC, national integration and diasporan unity By Emmanuel Onwubiko

For two weeks in June 2018, yours faithfully sojourned in the United Kingdom on my annual vacation and an integral aspect of my vacation workload was to conduct empirical researches and a cocktail of interview sessions with some Nigerians.

Those Nigerians were basically and randomly chosen to reflect the diverse ethno-religious affiliations that characterize Nigeria.

The core question asked was to ascertain the contribution that their involvement as former participants in the National Youth Service Corp scheme has helped shaped the horizone of their world views (weltanschauung) of integrating fully and in real time with members of the different socio-cultural communities from Nigeria who reside legitimately and are engaged in legitimate tasks in the different cities of the United Kingdom and beyond. The inquiry was motivated by the generally agreed consensus that Nigeria now has a serious challenge of divisiveness which can be resolved if national integration is mainstreamed into our daily way of life as citizens of Nigeria in Nigeria and wherever we find ourselves around the global community of humanity. There is also the consensus that Nigeria over the past few decades have witnessed progressive brain drain of Nigerian graduates who had moved to overseas nations around the World, settled and are in most cases very successful in their professional careers. The study i did was primarily to ascertain the place of the NYSC's experiences for these kinds of Nigerians based abroad with specific reference to how they relate with each other so as to provide possible guide to solving the ever expanding issues of divisiveness amongst Nigerians living in our homeland. In going about this task, yours faithfully took over one week to search for the resource persons willing to participate since it is more of a personal patriotic initiative to use an institutional example to try to find panacea to our troubling times.

Luckily, Emeka Nwaobasi Okonkwo, James Musa, Bankole Adebowale and Smart Odion were the persons that yours faithfully interviewed in the different areas around London, the internationally acclaimed tourism capital of Western Europe.

Emeka who was the first of the four interviewed told this reporter that he took part in the NYSC scheme over two decades ago even as he narrated how his foray in search of higher post graduate qualifications took him to Manchester City in the United Kingdom over 17 years back.

“A factor that shaped the fundamentals of my outlooks on life and social interactions amongst the diverse people of Nigeria remains the lessons of constructive and positive national integration I learnt whilst serving in the then capital of Borno State of Maiduguri.”

“My one year stay in Maiduguri brought me face-to-face with virtually persons from approximately 45 percent of the ethno-religious configurations that make up contemporary Nigeria.

NYSC gave me the practical lesson on how to relate, interface and socialize with persons of diverse affiliations as people united under one nation by God.

James Musa, unlike Emeka who hails from Imo state, comes from Gombe but met his wife whilst serving in Obolo Afor in Enugu state who has now given him three beautiful children.

Mr. James who spoke with this writer over some Cups of Coffee in Oxford Street Central London, was full of praises in the area of national integration that we got about fifteen years back in NYSC.” He further narrated to me how he and his wife are top members of the diaporan community in the United Kingdom and how they have remained committed and profoundly faithful in their zeal to ensure that the NYSC is not allowed to die.

For the NYSC which he attributed to the quality interactions he now engage with many Nigerians from the different communities living in East London.

“I think am deeply appreciative of the times we spent serving within the framework of the NYSC scheme there is positivism in the pragmatic lessons.

Bankole Adebowale spoke with this writer in company of his wife who he told me served in Makurdi, Benue State about ten years even as he did his twelve calendar months service in Calabar, Cross Rivers State.

Bankole told me that it may have been the commonality of their lessons imbibed during their respective NYSC schemes that fastracked their union.

The wife, Mrs. Aisha who also spoke informed this writer that they met at the post graduate campus of a university in Scotland and started exchanging ideas on what was learnt or otherwise during their ‘splendid’ periods of NYSC.

“Now I no longer see a person from outside of my Igala Community in Kogi state as a strange person.

Mr. Bankole told this writer that he has rich recollections of how most of the people he met whilst serving in Makurdi, Benue State were more than willing to embrace him as an uncle just as he disclosed that his beautiful memories of his service years have positively made him a patriotic Nigerian who has consistently thought about the positive things his family will bring on board to contribute to civilization and sustainable development in Nigeria.

Mr. Bankole further recalled that the Director-General, National Youth Service Corp (NYSC), Brig.-Gen. Suleiman Kazaure had urged corps members to actively participate in skills acquisition trainings in order to make them self-reliant.

Kazaure he told me gave this charge in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Sokoto. To him, this initiative makes a lot of sense in such a way that a way has been found to marry the virtues of national integration with skills acquisitions which in effect makes economic empowerment of the youth very integral in the scheme of things at an institutional level.

“More than eight skills acquisition programmes were designed for corps members in collaboration with some agencies to facilitate the training programmess,” the director-general was quoted by Bankole to have said. Bankole told me that he has consistently followed development in NYSC closely even from his base in London.

Kazaure he said noted that the skills acquisition trainings were introduced to promote self-reliance and encourage entrepreneurship to enhance the nation’s economic growth.

He, however, cautioned corps members against unnecessary travellings and urged them to be disciplined in their relationships with the NYSC authorities and their host communities.

The director-general said that he was at “Wamakko Orientation Camp” to ensure corps members’ well-being and motivate them for the lined up programmes, aimed at preparing them for the future challenges.

Kazaure advised them to put the nation’s development first; promote virtues and downplay sentiments in the interest of national unity. Bankole told this writer that he heard it on good authority that there has been impressive Improvement of the state of the various orientation camps nationwide. Under his watch all the hostel in all NYSC Orientation camps are wearing new looks with fans installed in the hostels. The quality of food cooked and served in camps is like never before. Corps members confess that they are served with Chicken and egg regularly in the camp.

"The DG is intensifying on his advocacy visits to the various state government without Permanent NYSC Orientation camp for them to build in their state with at least 5000 capacity. The advocacy visits is indeed yielding positive dividends with some states indicating their interest to build a state of the earth orientation camps" On my return i met some key officials who are not necessarily close to the Director General but who are nevertheless vast with the workings of their institution over the years and these persons confirmed the veracity of the above claims on the building of skills acquisition centres by the management so as to aid national integration which is at the heart of the NYSC.

Of all the people spoken to, Mr. Smart Odion perhaps volunteered what can be considered a very smart suggestions. He called on the hierarchy of the NYSC to open skeletal liaison offices in some first class embassies in Germany, France, United Kingdom, Canada, United States and Malaysia and staff each with at least two persons to coordinate the interfaces between higher institutions in those jurisdictions that produces the largest chunk of participants in the scheme. He is of the opinion that the mandate of these liaison offices should include the face to face verification of certificates tendered by these prospective participants in the NYSC scheme so as to cut down on costs and quicken the process of actual verifications of standards and validity of such qualifications amongst other salient mandate that should include mapping out strategies and necessary partner institutions that the director general and his very limited number of management staff would from time to time pay working visits to these institutions to familiarize with the standards and educational mechanisms in place in those institutions that are known to churn out greater percentage of would be participants in the NYSC scheme.

These working visits abroad should also be transparently used to scout for funding partner institutions that can assist the NYSC achieve the blueprints of evolutionary developments put in place to progressively reposition the NYSC to become increasingly self-funding in some critical areas so as to help government reduce funding abuse, he narrated.

The debate around the issues of national integration has resonated in the work done by ONIFADE, Comfort Adenike (Corresponding author) of the Department of Communication & General Studies, Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Nigeria. Those spoken with in United kingdom informed me that the research I'm about to cite resonates with the lessons of integration as the core objective of their NYSC days in Nigeria vis a vis their ability to navigate the thorny issue of enjoying constructive interfaces with other Nigerians from diverse Ethno Religious affiliations also living in the UK.

The aforementioned authors wrote as following: "Since the inception of the Nigerian nation, Nigerian governments, past and present, have made serious efforts to propagate policies and programmes that are geared towards national integration".

Despite such well-intended and unity-oriented programmes and policies, Nigeria’s unity has continued to be plagued and threatened by embedded socio-cultural, religious and political dichotomies, he noted.

According to these scholars who seems to have backed what those Nigerians living in the UK told this writer, unless efforts are made to checkmate these divisive tendencies towards national integration, the long expected and loudly proclaimed oneness and indivisibility of Nigeria will remain a utopia.

This paper, silhouetted against the backdrop of structural functionalism, advocates the necessity for national integration and the factors that are militating against the much desired national unity in Nigeria. These authors indeed took the exact words of those Nigerians spoken to by me out of their mouths and embellished their research literally.

In the study under analysis, the authors just like the resource persons spoken to in the UK gave suggestions on how Nigeria can achieve national integration.

"This paper believes that achieving national integration is contingent on jumping the hurdles of ethnicity, corruption, a narcissistic political leadership, weak institutions and others. It concludes that to claim the victory for an integrated Nigeria, the people must lead the vanguard of change and that for the continued existence of Nigeria to be guaranteed probably for another centennial, consensual agreement must be reached by its diverse ethnic nationalities."

Nation-building or national integration they stated has long been seen as an important focus for postcolonial African governments.

As some scholars noted, upon African decolonization in the 1950s and 1960s, social scientists were concerned about the need for what was then called "national integration" in societies with multiple ethnic, religious and racial cleavages (Binder, 1964; Coleman & Rosberg, 1966; Zolberg, 1967).

Quoting Bandyopadhyay & Green (2009)who  argued that this concern has been more recently resurrected by Miguel (2004), Collier (2009) and others who have advocated for national integration as a policy to promote state building in a continent now notorious for and rife with political instability and economic throwback, these authors just like my interviewees restated their call for proper mainstreaming if national integration as a collective national ideology for all Nigerians both at home and in the DIASPORA communities.

They recalled that as Ifeanacho & Nwagwu (2009) observed, Nigeria’s efforts at achieving national integration have remained largely unrealized.

In their words, the history of democratization in Africa, in general, and Nigeria, in particular, has remained the history of national disintegration. Thus, the integration crisis facing Nigeria is manifest in the minority question, religious fundamentalism and conflicts, ethnic politics, indigene-settler dialectic, resource control, youth restiveness and militancy and the clamour for a (sovereign) national conference or conversation about the terms of the nation’s continued unification.  My interviewees in the UK canvassed the acceptance of the NYSC scheme as a strategic component in our collective aspirations to create a harmonious and peaceful society because of the centrality of the thematic virtue of national integration.

The status quo they said has convulsed the productive sector, limited the impact of government’s economic programmes on the people, threatened food insecurity, complexified social insecurity, deepened the deterioration of physical and social infrastructures, distressed the living standards of a vast majority of Nigerians, militated against the educational system and resulted in the ostracisation of the generality of Nigerians and their exclusion from the political and economic space, among other glitches. The entire social matrix in Nigeria is characterized by inter- and intra-community, inter and intra-ethnic, and interand intra-religious strife. Some of these conflicts are as old as the history of the Nigerian nation.

Like India, a federal state with its pluralized ethnic, religious and cultural status, these researchers reasoned that Nigeria is a deeply divided and plural society (Ojo, 2009).

Many scholars they recalled have tried to put a figure to the number of ethnic groups within the polity at well over 250 (Attah, 1987; Onwujeogwu (1987); Kirk-Green, 1969:4; Otite, 1990; Suberu, 1998). Ojo (2009) contends that “Nigeria has a unique problem not experienced by any state in the world past or present.

"The problem is that of achieving solidarity in action and purpose in the midst of hundreds of ethnic nationalities each exerting both centrifugal and centripetal forces on the central issue of the nation, bound in freedom, peace and unity where justice reigns.”

They recalled that although the British colonialists and the Nigerian elite that succeeded them used ethnicity to perfect their political strategies and notch up some socio-economic and political gains, as Emelonye & Buergenthal (2011) observed, poverty and ineffective governance in Nigeria today have further sharpened ethnic divisions leading to misunderstanding between ethnic and religious groups who see themselves as rivals that must be surpassed by any means, thus hampering national integration. My interviewees then pointed to the kind of positive lessons of integration passed on to them during the NYSC scheme as a key factor to resolving these fundamental challenges of nation building process alluded to by the aforementioned University researchers who work we are relying on to lay the solid framework to the issues that played up throughout the interview sessions i conducted in the United Kingdom on the proper place of NYSC lessons of national integration on their relationships with other fellow citizens.

The authors add that because the Nigerian state is beginning to lose legitimacy and authority, the fear of uncertainty has increased to the extent that citizens now resort to self-help, seeking security and solidarity in their own ethnic, religious or regional affiliation and identity.

According to them, a new dimension to Nigeria’s ethno-religious violence is the increasing recruitment and mobilization of ethnic and regional militias, vigilantes and other armed groups: the Oodua People’s Congress in Yorubaland, the Arewa People’s Congress in the north, the Bakassi Boys in the east, the Egbesu in the south, and the emergence of a supercilious army of terror merchants who represent contending interests to Nigeria’s detriment.

"The implication of these hydra-headed conflicts is that national integration suffers, there is increasing insecurity of citizens and property in the country, foreign investment is deterred and economic development is stymied".

This issue of national integration in Nigeria, they repeat, highlights programmes aimed at achieving it and examines innate challenges that frustrate the process of integration in the country.

In a pragmatic sense, NYSC has a central role in shaping the depth of national integration as a collective ideology for all. As i was putting pen to paper, one of Nigeria's most celebrated musicians known with the stage name of DAVIDO was captured in the media registering to participate in this ongoing NYSC scheme even as a thought flashed through my subconscious to task the management of NYSC to work out ways of using this flambouyant but successful young Nigerian talented singer to unveil a project to be centred around devoting some of his service periods to preach national integration to fundamentally and most profoundly bring into practical fruition the essence of the core objective of the National youth Service scheme. This opportunity must never be missed. This is because of Davido's global reach as a popular brand in the World.

Emmanuel Onwubiko heads the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) and has just returned from the United Kingdom. He can be reached on www.huriwanigeria.com.

Herdsmen killings are act of terrorism: blame yourself, not the media -: HURIWA tells Buhari.

A prominent pro-democracy and non-governmental organization – HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has tasked President Muhammadu Buhari to blame himself and not the Nigerian media over the escalating terrorism of armed Fulani herdsmen against mostly northern Christian farmers.

HURIWA said the prevarication and the policy ambivalence of President Muhammadu Buhari over the deadly attacks of armed Fulani terrorism against famers should be blamed for the spike in the violence and the bloodcuddling nature of the coordinated attacks and not the professional job of reporting the killings by the media is the cause of the crises. The Rights group asked President Muhammadu Buhari to appreciate the enormity of the violence and view the killings as senseless acts of terrorism and not mere farmers versus herders’ conflicts as his administration has continuously dished out false propaganda about the incidents that have resulted in over 6000 deaths. The Rights group reminded President Muhammadu Buhari that armed Fulani herdsmen have also gunned down over 50 armed security forces which should have informed his administration of the urgency of the now to take decisive steps to curb the menace.

In a statement made against the back drop of the latest twist introduced in the debacle of armed Fulani terrorism by the Nigerian president whilst visiting china in which he blamed the media for misrepresentation of facts regarding the armed Fulani attacks, the Rights group stated that the current government has continued to treat the grave national security threat posed by armed Fulani terrorism as if it is a mere family misunderstanding.

HURIWA blamed president Buhari for elevating his ethno-religious interest above national interest by his government’s persistent failure to declare the Miyetti Allah Cattle Owners Association as a terrorist organization that it is for backing the armed Fulani killings targeting most of northern Christians. "A government that hurriedly branded a totally unarmed members of Indigenous peoples of Biafra (IPOB) as a terror group has so far refused to brand the killers of over 6000 Nigerians and over 50 armed security operatives as a terrorist group and now the President is crying foul against the media when he should situate the blame properly within his office for failing to act in line with the tenets of rule of law".

“We find it unbelievably shocking that President Buhari who is a Fulani and a Moslem has decidedly appointed an all Fulani/Hausa Moslem dominated national security team and has failed to declare armed Fulani herdsmen as terrorists but has continued to provide incoherent defence for the mindless acts of violence, by the herdsmen.”

“May we once more asked president Muhammadu Buhari to read the text of his constitutional oath of office to realize that his soft handling of the serious threats posed by activities of armed Fulani herdsmen constitute a breach of the law which is tantamount to impeachable offences.”

HURIWA said it was incredible that president Buhari has continued to misrepresent the armed Fulani terrorism as a mere inter-ethnic conflict between herdsmen and farmers when in actual fact the armed Fulani herdsmen are rated as the third most deadly world terror group.

“May we inform Mr. president that he is the person to blame for the misrepresentation concerning the terrorism of armed Fulani killer gangs because his administration has handled this serious national security threat like a family affairs by not taking appropriate legal steps to crush the armed Fulani herdsmen and by failing to make the appropriate declaration of Miyetti Allah Cattle owners forum as a terrorist group.”

“There are two steps to stop the killings which are still going on in North Central states. The president must declare armed Fulani herdsmen as a terror organization and order the military and law enforcement agencies to decisively deal with them in line with the law and secondly, all the killer armed Fulani herdsmen must be prosecuted and punished.”

“The national security team made up of persons from one section of the country whereby the suspected Fulani killers hail from have compromised by not arresting the killers and stop the proliferation of weapons. The media has played excellent role in line with section 22 of the constitutions”.

HURIWA recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari accused media organizations of bias in reporting conflicts in the country. He made the accusation during an interactive meeting with the Nigerian community in China.

HURIWA recalled that Buhari said while security agencies were doing their best to curtail clashes, the Nigerian media should complement the efforts through objective and informed re-portage.

HURIWA quoted President Buhari as stating as follows: “To my disappointment, the members of the press in Nigeria do not make enough efforts to study the historical antecedents of issues that are creating national problems for us,” the president said.

HURIWA however exonerated the Nigerian media of any blame because they have continued to display maturity and responsible journalism by reporting accurately the sad phenomenon of uncontrolled and mindless killings by armed Fulani herdsmen who enjoy federal government's protection.