Terrorist attack on Nigeria Defense Academy: A Monumental National Embarrassment

by Eze Eluchie

 

PRESS RELEASE BY THE IGBO NATIONAL MOVEMENT (INM) ON THE TERRORIST ATTACK ON THE NIGERIA DEFENSE ACADEMY, KADUNA.

 

The Igbo National Movement (INM) views the audacious attack by terrorists on Nigeria’s premier institution for the training of military and security officers, the Nigeria Defense Academy, by terrorists, which resulted into the killing of two officers, the abduction of one officer and the injury of several officers and soldiers as a monumental source of national embarrassment and concern. The embarrassment and concern is made more manifest when the international dimension and status of the NDA, as a center where military officers and security personnel from across Africa and the Middle East are trained, is factored in.

 

The INM frowns at the reference to the vile characters who perpetuated these attack as ‘bandits’. This was the same appellation given to the terrorists who shot down a Military Jet a few months ago. We all, Nigerians and interested members of the international community, must be alive to the reality that vicious international terrorists with capacity to take down military jets and storm military formations are now in operation in Nigeria.

 

In condemning the terrorists actions at the NDA, INM is also worried by the lackluster response of the Federal Government to the attack, particularly when compared with the overly robust and drastic reactions by the same government to attacks which occurred in the South East region.

 

Of particular mention is the response of the Federal Government to a so-called jailbreak at the Owerri Federal Correctional Center during which over 1,800 prisoners were allegedly released by spurious persons who, the President, the Army Chief and Inspector General of Police, termed without the slightest investigations or proofs being presented, as members the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra Eastern Security Network (IPOB/ESN). The President had whilst convalescing in London (where he was when the alleged jailbreak occurred), immediately ascribed the jailbreak to IPOB/ESN and promised to ‘deal with them in a language they will understand’; the IGP followed up by ordering his men to shoot-at-sight and crush ruthlessly, any members of IPOB/ESN, and on their part, the Military deployed hundreds of troops and military air arsenal to Imo State. All these cumulated in unleashing a period of mass atrocities, killings and rape and maiming of peoples of Imo State, a devastation which the peoples of the State are yet to recover from.

 

In contrast, absolutely nothing has been heard from the President, his Service Chiefs save for a terse statement from the NDA media office that the military is in pursuit of the terrorists.

 

INM calls upon the Federal Government to ensure that the real terrorists who threaten the peace and stability of the Nigeria State are effectively tackled by the authorities and the Government should refrain from conduct which fuel suspicion that the Federal authorities are in any way sympathetic, abetting and or complicit with unwholesome terrorist activities under any guise.

 

INM further calls for more devolution of responsibilities as it regards security to the State and Local Government areas and even to the extent of involving Communities as critical stakeholders in ensuring security. In recognition of the fact that the Federal Government, in whom all armed security authorities is currently vested in, has severally proved to be incapable of securing and guaranteeing the security of lives and properties of Nigerians, INM supports the call by the Governor of Katsina State, that Nigerians be allowed to arm themselves to safeguard their lives in the face of increased insecurity in the country.

 

 

Graduating Cadets at the Nigeria Defense Academy, Kaduna

Nigeria's Islamist Governments desperate craving to seize lands for Fulani Herdsmen: A catalyst for Nigeria’s demise and disaster

 by Eze Eluchie, Esq.

 

A close scrutiny of the various land-grab schemes of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration reveals a very uncanny desire to appropriate lands belonging to other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria for the interest of Fulani Herdsmen, putting a lie-badge on Mr. Presidents avowal during his inauguration in 2015 that ‘I am for nobody and for everybody’.

 

First it was the ‘Grazing Routes’, which the President and his Minister of Defense claimed, the blockage of which were the cause of the atrocities being perpetuated by Fulani Herdsmen militia against indigenous mainly in the Middle Belt region of Nigeria; thereafter came the Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) Settlement Project wherein each State of the Federation was to carve out a minimum acreage for use of Fulani Herdsmen; then followed the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP), same old wine of using public resources to forcefully appropriate lands for Fulani Herdsmen; the highly obnoxious ‘Nigeria Waterways Bill’ which sought to bring all rivers and their surrounding banks within the control of the Federal Government (also in direct contrast with the provisions of the Land Use Act; and now this latest brainwave of a rephrased ‘Grazing Route’ with the President and his handlers coming up with an imaginary 368 such routes. Like the schemes before, it, this too must fail.

 

In response to the statements contained in the recent announcement from the Office of the President contained in a Press Release signed by the Press Secretary to the President, Femi Adesina, regarding President Buhari’s directive that so-called ‘368 grazing routes across 25 States of Nigeria’ be documented with ‘dispatch’ ‘to determine the level of encroachment’ amongst other issues, the Igbo National Movement (INM) wishes to state as follows:

 

1. Blatant disregard of Constitutional provisions:

It is with utter dismay that INM observes the constant acts of brazen disregard, disrespect and utter contempt with which the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, General Muhammadu Buhari, has been treating the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended, as it relates to the custody and ownership of lands and the authority duly vested with lands in the country. This impunity is indicative of either a realization by the President and his handlers that the Constitution is now defunct and thus can be breached with impunity, or outright mischief intended to create disaffection and rancor amongst Nigerians.

May we remind President Buhari that the entirety of the powers and attributes of the President of the Federal Republic is founded in the Constitution, and constant derogation therefrom will only serve to impugn on the integrity, relevance and utility of the said office and by extension, all other elected political offices and our efforts at democratic governance

 

2. Vesting of Lands:

The Nigerian Constitution, unequivocally, vests all lands in any State of Nigeria in the State Governors (for lands in urban areas) and in the Local Government authorities (for lands in rural areas) {Section 1 of the Land Use Act, which by Section 315(5) of the Nigerian Constitution, is an integral aspect of the Constitution of the Federal Republic}

The same Land Use Act which is made an integral aspect of the Constitution by Section 315(5) of the Constitution. The tenor of Section 26 of the Land Use Act, renders null and void all previous laws regarding control and ownership of lands in Nigeria. This means explicitly, that whatsoever pre-1970 legislations Mr. President and his handlers are relying upon as basis for whatsoever ‘grazing routes’, has lapsed, is extinct and now rendered null and void.

 

Considering the fact that the Vice President of the Federal Republic, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, and the Attorney General and Minister for Justice of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, are both senior lawyers, it can be presumed that the explicit provisions of the Constitution which vests all Lands in the country in the State Governors and Area Council authorities must have been brought to the knowledge of the Presidency before the release of the provocative Press Release on the spurious ‘385 grazing routes’.

 

3. Buhari’s desperation encourages brazen conducts by Fulani herdsmen across Nigeria:

INM is deeply worried by the fact that the continuing efforts by the Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government to appropriate lands belonging to other indigenous ethnic nationalities in Nigeria for the benefit of Fulani Herdsmen is directly encouraging the said Fulani Herdsmen to act in audaciously brazen manners across Nigeria, acting in manners to suggest they are above the laws and basically getting away with the commission of mass atrocities.

 

INM has observed with consternation the direct effects of the Federal Governments ill-advised continuing efforts at land-grab for Fulani Herdsmen in Benue, Kaduna, Nasarawa and Plateau States amongst others, where Fulani Herdsmen militia now forcefully occupy lands which they had seized from indigenous owners, in most cases wiping out entire settlements. In a revelation into the bizarre mindset and reasoning of the President and his handlers, the same Femi Adesina had publicly admonished indigenous ethnic nationalities not to challenge Fulani Herdsmen quest to seize their lands at the risk of being slaughtered, saying: “You can only have ancestral attachment to land when you are alive. If you are talking about ancestral attachment, if you are dead, how does that attachment matter”? Oddly enough, the Federal Government and its various security agencies inclusive of the Military, have whilst restraining the indigenous owners of these seized lands to Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camps, have acquiesced and tacitly encouraged the Fulani Herdsmen to ‘enjoy’ their loot/conquest.

 

4. No Grazing Routes in Igboland

INM categorically asserts that no grazing routes exist in Igboland and thus urges the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to steer clear of extending this desperation to seize lands for Fulani Herdsmen away from Igboland. In Igboland, open grazing of whatever domestic livestock is abhorred and in most communities’ sanctions are placed against owners of livestock found openly grazing or loitering t=in the community.

 

INM seizes this opportunity to state that the Governor of Ebonyi State, being the only Igbo man on the ‘technical committee’ empaneled by the President which had recommended the so-called ‘grazing routes’, was clearly on a personal frolic in assuming such unconstitutional duties and his actions and membership thereof and the recommendations emanating are just in pursuance of extant objectives harbored by the President, General Buhari.

 

Conclusion:

INM calls on the Muhammadu Buhari-led government to desist from its parochial, bigoted and clannish efforts at seizing lands from indigenous ethnic nationalities with the intent of handing same over to Fulani Herdsmen under whatsoever guise. Governments continuation on this unconstitutional and unlawful vocation of attempting to seize lands will be vehemently challenged and resisted by the people.

 

 

General Muhammadu Buhari,a herdsman and ethnic Fulani, has exhibited extreme bigotry towards his ethnic group.

Ongoing Boko Haram, ISIS/ISWAP terrorists 'mass surrender' in Nigeria is an act of deception, be prepared for the next phase

by Eze Eluchie, Esq.

As several thousand Boko Haram, ISIS/ISWAP terrorists ‘surrender’ to Nigerian Government forces, anyone with a knowledge of Islamic Warfare and ideologies understands that something very terrible is in the offing.

 

The Holy Prophet, Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), once asserted ‘War is Deceit’! This assertion has received many interpretations by diverse Islamic clerics. This is however not a post on theology, but rather on realities presently facing the Nigerian State.

 

The Taliban victory over the United States and her allies in Afghanistan earlier this week, gives further impetus on the fact that deceit in war pays off handsomely. Whilst the Talibans were feigning ‘Peace Talks’ in Qatar with the US and Afghan government, the Talibans knew all such talks were nonsense. The US, UN and the international community were deceived even to the extent of holding useless 'Peace Talks' in Qatar, until the minute the Talibans were taking over the Presidential villa in Kabul.

 

 

Those rejoicing and celebrating the mass surrender by thousands of Boko Haram, ISIS/ISWAP terrorists in Nigeria are either the undiscerning and gullible or those who are complicit in the tactic of ‘war being deceit’

 

The ‘surrender’ by terrorists in their thousands is merely an act of deception to hoodwink the masses.

 

The next phase of attacks against non-adherents of the Islamic faith, particularly in the Southern parts of Nigeria and the so-called Middle territories, will be shockingly gruesome and make previous attacks look like Tea parties.

 

Gird your loins, for the ‘deception’ is about to become full blown

Pix: Some of the surrendering terrorists - some have cardboard sheets with messages written in English, a language they not only do not against, but war against (Boko Haram ordinarily means 'No to Western education')

Press Release by Igbo National Movement on the So-Called Sit-at-Home Calls Announced by some IPOB Members.

Dear President of Town Unions/Association

Dear Chairmen of Village Meetings

Ndi Nna na ndi Nne al’Igbo

 

Anyi ekele kwa onye-öwula. Ndu mmiri, ndu azu; Onye biri, ibeyá biri.

 

PRESS RELEASE BY IGBO NATIONAL MOVEMENT ON THE SO-CALLED SIT-AT-HOME CALLS ANNOUNCED BY SOME IPOB MEMBERS.

 

K’anyi wepu aka enwe n’ofe tupt ówuó aka mmadu - A stich in time saves nine

 

Without doubt, nd’Igbo have legitimate grievances against the outright vindictive and discriminatory policies and practices visited on us by the structure of and those who have ruled over the affairs of Nigeria, the country we were enmeshed in via fiat of British colonial governments. Practices which have served to push many of our young men and women to extremes in their natural quest for existence;

 

Without any doubt, nd’Igbo have a legitimate and internationally recognized right to self-determination and to have unhindered control over the management and administration of our lives and those of our future generations. A right, the actualization has become imperative due to the continuing aggressive anti-Igbo posture of and structure of the Nigerian State which has become an existential threat to nd’Igbo;

 

Without doubt also, under the present rulership of Nigeria, more than ever before except perhaps when the Nigerian State embarked on genocidal war of attrition against nd’Igbo, the very existence, homeland, lives and sustenance of nd’Igbo have come under sustained and persistent assault, making continued stay in the Nigerian territory an existential threat to nd’Igbo. An existential threat which, as our forebears will advise: like a bee perched on the scrotum has to be confronted with tact, lest our adversaries have cause to smile over our travails.

 

It is this issue of tact to address our common issues that has compelled the Igbo National Movement (INM) to address this correspondence directly to our customary age-old institutions for which nd’Igbo are unique amongst the peoples where they reside (our Community/Town Unions), and our Family units, in the believe that we will be able to abstain from self-destructive practices that will primarily be injurious to our people and not serve to attain intended objectives.

 

Due to impairments foisted on our customary institutions, the voices of reason amongst our People have been apparently drowned in an avalanche of vociferous emotion-driven babble which, feasting on the urgent desire of millions of our youth for emancipation, have embarked on paths that are fundamentally detrimental to our peoples and play into the general desires of those who do not wish nd’Igbo well.

 

Without any iota of doubt, the commemoration of the sacrifices of past martyrs is a universal practice and observance, whether it be sanctioned by the State or not. Nd’Igbo have for long, paid similar respect and reverence to their heroes’ past

 

What is however irrational are efforts to cut off one’s nose in order to spite one’s face – the meaningless call for a so-called ‘sit-at-home’ for specific days over unspecified durations for doubtful objectives. An old Igbo adage posits thus: okenye anaghi anu n’obodo ewu amuó n’óbu (an elder will not be around and allow a goat to deliver in tethers). It thus becomes incumbent for voices of reason to speak up, lest we are consumed by irrationality. 

 

By design, the rulers of the territory we presently find ourselves within under international guidelines/recognitions, Nigeria, have adopted policies which basically confine the vast majority of nd’Igbo to fending for self, via self-employment, and thus desirous to maximize returns per day.

 

For an entity claiming to be interested in the welfare and wellbeing of nd’Igbo to embark on activities geared towards reducing the number of days during which a self-employed may work, and following up with not just threats of violence for those who do not agree with such irrational decisions, but following up with actual destruction of private properties, harms to the individuals and in some instances, killing fellow nd’Igbo whose sole ‘wrong’ is the desire to provide for themselves and their families beats the imagination and call for sober reflection and outright condemnation by those with the overall best interest of nd’Igbo at heart.

 

Already, resulting from the first forced observance of this ‘sit-at-home’ on Monday 9th August, the losses suffered by nd’Igbo, in addition to loss of lives, properties and incomes estimated at several million US Dollars, include the disruption of academic opportunities for children in secondary schools in the Igboland who missed out on crucial examinations.

 

What can be claimed to have been achieved by observing/enforcing the said ‘sit-at-home’? Absolutely nothing but wastage and loss of lives, properties and incomes by nd’Igbo!

 

Must this path of folly be continued? Certainly NO! Continuing will only lead to more deaths, harms on nd’Igbo, losses and destructions all within Igboland – with no impact whatsoever either on other parts of the Nigeria where no sit-at-home is observed/enforced or on the cause for Igbo self-determination.

 

In keeping with yet another age-old adage of our people urges that ‘agbakó ñuo mamiri, yáá gbá ufufu’ (in unison more can be achieved), INM hereby calls on the proponents of the weekly sit-at-home campaigns to reassess their actions, retrace their steps, utterances and modus operandi and eventually be part of wider Igbo efforts at actualizing self-determination. The current ‘Eze-onyeagbalam’ (the all-knowing monarch) posture being displayed by the proponents of the sit-at-homes is self-injurious, counter-productive and ultimately un-Igbo.

 

To the leadership of Community and Town Unions and Associations spread across Igboland, and our Parents whose wards, children and possessions will bear the brunt of the continued ill-thought sit-at-home calls, we urge all to reach out to the proponents of this Call with the purpose of ensuring that commonsense and better tact prevails.

 

Igbo gáádi.Udo