Jonathan Blames Mass Media For His Government’s Poor Performance, Says It Is Unreliable And Politicized

President of NUJ, Pres. Goodluck Jonathan and Nigeria journalists during the last NUJ delegates conference

President Goodluck Jonathan today announced a new rebranding scheme for officials of his government, blaming the mass media for its poor image.
Mr. Jonathan was speaking at the Presidential Villa where he unveiled a new performance assessment scheme for his ministers, a mechanism which, he said, will help highlight government’s targets and achievements in all sectors of governance.
He blamed the necessity for the new performance evaluation mechanism on the mass media, which he said no longer reflects the voice of the ordinary man.
“Before, the media used to be the voice of the ordinary people,” he said in his speech.  “But now, the media is the voice of those who own the media houses and those who owned the media houses have private jets and those who own private jets are not ordinary people.”
The remarks came at a time that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who leads the opposition Action Congress (ACN), and who owns newspapers of his own, was describing the government Jonathan leads as a massive bureaucracy suffering from “elephantiasis.”
Mr. Tinubu was in Washington DC, and speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on the subject, “Current Developments in Nigeria; The View of the Opposition.”
The former Lagos State governor has emerged as one of the most vocal critics of the Jonathan administration.  Mr. Tinubu is also known to be working with other opposition parties towards unseating the PDP federal administration in 2015.
He told his American audience that the federal government is too powerful, and that this has led to deeper corruption as well as other problems.
Said Mr. Tinubu, “We are at our worst poverty level, education is degenerating, industries are moving out of Nigeria, we have zero capital development project, the only thing the government is doing is borrowing, and we have Boko Haram.”
He spoke about the need to decentralize political power as a panacea for these problems, pointing out how Mr. Jonathan has authority over the federal legislature, a pattern that he said has been the case since the PDP assumed control in 1999.
Mr. Tinubu cited some examples to illustrate how the federal government ignores other political voices in the country, stressing that Mr. Jonathan ignores such suggestions because he is a beneficiary of the system.
“You can’t fight corruption because the government itself is corrupt,” he said.  “Majority of the perpetrators made financial contributions to ensure the president wins the election, so he cannot prosecute them.”
He said that as a result of the record of the PDP, Nigerians have lost faith in government, stressing,
“Enough of PDP in our lives, they have been tagged as Poverty Development Party.”
On the current insecurity in the country, he said that as leader of the opposition, the ACN has made proposals to the federal government, including subsiding farming, especially in the North, so that Boko Haram will no longer be able to recruit the unemployed and beggars.
 “If they have jobs, they won’t be going about killing people, and it will improve their nutrition value,” he said of the militants.  “Concerning Jos, all the federal government needs to do is create another local government for the people.
Mr. Jonathan’s blame of the media returns attention to the subject of his performance in office, as he has so far failed to honour any of his electoral promises, including fighting corruption and providing jobs.  Only last month, he refused to declare his assets publicly, which gave an additional black eye to his government.
“So the same man who says he does not give a damn about declaring his assets wants to blame the media for not polishing the awful image of his government?” a media analyst asked today.  “And now he wants a “performance evaluation” designed and implemented by his government that will make the government an achiever?  Why does he not begin by giving a damn?”

FG Worried Over Renewed Onshore/Offshore Dichotomy Debate

Goodluck Jonathan

The Federal Government has expressed worry over the recent debate on onshore/offshore abrogation law, saying that action is mischievous and is aimed at causing disaffection among the people.
"Some of the pronouncements are disruptive, outrightly mischievous, and aimed at causing disaffection,” it said in a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati.  “The Presidency strongly advises such politicians to desist from playing up sectional and ethnic sentiments, over a matter that was addressed eight years ago to the benefit of all parties concerned.”
The presidency described the situation as an attempt by some politicians to heat up the polity at a time when the government was working hard to resolve security challenges in parts of the country.
"Those who are issuing threats and counter-threats over every issue, are obviously not just re-inventing a controversy, they seem determined to fuel acrimony and needless conflict,” it said.
It would be recalled that governors from the northern states have been complaining about the onshore/offshore dichotomy, saying that matter must be revisited.
Full text of the statement:


"The Presidency views with grave concern the current attempt by some politicians to heat up the polity by seeking to reopen fresh conflict and controversy over the onshore/offshore abrogation law which was enacted by the National Assembly in 2004. 
"Some of the pronouncements are disruptive, outrightly mischievous, and aimed at causing disaffection.
 The Presidency strongly advises such politicians to desist from playing up sectional and ethnic sentiments, over a matter that was addressed eight years ago to the benefit of all parties concerned.
" At a time when the government is working hard to resolve security challenges in parts of the country, the political elite across board is expected to cooperate with the Federal and state governments to promote the cause of peace, stability and national transformation.

" Those who are issuing threats and counter-threats over every issue, are obviously not just re-inventing a controversy, they seem determined to fuel acrimony and needless conflict.
"Government is working tirelessly to ensure the full enjoyment of fundamental rights by all Nigerians, in an atmosphere that is free of rancor and tension. No individual, political interest or group should attempt to violate this, either overtly or covertly.
"
The Federal Government wants to reassure all Nigerians that while it respects every individual’s right to the freedom of expression, it is equally duty bound to forestall any attempt to undermine the peace and security of the country, under whatever guise. "

Jonathan jets off to Senegal tomorrow!

President Goodluck Jonathan will on Wednesday pay a two-day official visit to Dakar, Senegal.

This was disclosed in a press statement issued by the Special Adviser to the president on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati.
According to the statement, the President will be received at the Leopold Sedar Senghor International Airport, Dakar by Senegalese President, Macky Sall.
Mr Abati further said that both leaders will hold a tete-a-tete at the Presidential Palace, Dakar, on how to deepen cordial relations and promote trade between the two key countries in the West African sub-region.
He said President Jonathan is expected back in Abuja on Thursday.

Ibru, George, others to lose national honours • Tafa Balogun, Erastus Akingbola also on compiled list

Chief Bode George

There were indications on Monday that President Goodluck Jonathan had ordered the compilation of the names of holders of national honours awards who had been convicted or were facing trial for criminal offences. Findings by The PUNCH showed that the directive was preparatory to having the honours withdrawn from such awardees.
The PUNCH learnt in Abuja that Jonathan’s directive was contained in a letter to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim.
A source in the Presidency confirmed to one of our correspondents on Sunday that, “There is a letter to that effect, with a directive to find out the names of those who were indicted and who have (national) honours awards. I think the job is ongoing and almost being concluded. The office of the SGF has been mandated to find out the names of those who were indicted and have national honours.
“It is not all the people indicted that have national honours awards. For instance, you cannot strip somebody of a national honours award when he has none in the first place, even if he has been indicted. So the Office of the SGF is on it.
“Mr. President has given instruction that the names of the people should be compiled to bring them out. As soon as the list is out, the President will do something about their case. The SGF is sorting out the names of those who were indicted and have national honours.
“For instance, the former Managing Director of Oceanic Bank Plc, Mrs. Cecilia Ibru, falls within the category. So also is the ex-MD of Intercontinental Bank, Mr. Erastus Akingbola.”
Apart from Ibru and Akingbola, The PUNCH learnt that those on the list of awardees to lose their national honours include a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Bode George; and a former Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Tarfa Balogun; as well as other ex-managing directors of banks who had been convicted after they were conferred with national honours.
George, a one-time Vice-National Chairman of the PDP, was sentenced in 2009 to a 30-month jail term by Justice Olubunmi Oyewole of the Lagos High Court. Oyewole found George guilty of contract splitting and inflation when he was the chairman of the Board of Nigerian Ports Authority.
Balogun, however pleaded guilty to eight counts of money laundering charges in 2005 and was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment by Justice Binta Nyako.
Ibru, once feted in the nation’s banking sector, was in 2010 convicted by Justice Dan Abutu of the Federal High Court in Lagos of bank and securities fraud. She was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment and made to forfeit over N150b in assets and cash.
The development came as three major opposition political parties, the Action Congress of Nigeria, the Congress for Progressive Change and the All Nigeria Peoples Party, challenged Jonathan to withdraw honours bestowed on some convicted Nigerians.
The CPC and the ANPP in particular said it would be difficult for Jonathan to withdraw the honours because some of the affected convicts used proceeds of their crime to fund elections of top members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.
Speaking in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents, the National Publicity Secretary of the CPC, Mr.Rotimi Fashakin, noted that if the Constitution could forbid ex-convicts from holding elective office, then it must be deductible that such people should also lose the privileges that previous national honours conferred on them.
He said, “In some of the cases, like that of Mr.Tafa Balogun; and a chieftain of the PDP, Chief Bode George, they were just not what could be treated as a ‘family affair’.
“Under normal circumstances, if the constitution forbids a criminal ex-convict from holding elective office, it is deductible that the individual should also lose the privileges that a previous national honour confers.”
In his own remarks, the National Publicity Secretary of the ANPP, Chief Emma Eneukwu, said the government of Jonathan was not serious about its claim of fighting corruption.
He said, “You must know that this government does not have the will to fight corruption. Taking away the national honours from these listed persons including George requires the determination to fight corruption without regard to sacred cows.
“This simply shows that the present government is paying lip service to the issue of corruption.”
ACN’s National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, called on Jonathan to immediately withdraw the honours from all undeserving persons who had either been convicted or were facing trial for crimes.
Akande listed Balogun, George, and some former managing directors of banks in the country among those that should lose their honours.
Akande, who spoke through his media aide, Mr Lani Baderinwa, said, “If they are honourable themselves, they should have dropped the awards once they are convicted but such a courageous action is far from Nigeria.
“The President should do what is right. In civilised countries, honour cannot be given to thieves.”
Only on July 19, the House of Representatives also passed a resolution, specifically asking Jonathan to withdraw the national honours bestowed on former bank MDs who had been tried or convicted for their roles in the collapse of their banks in 2009.
The House had passed the resolution after adopting the report of its Ad Hoc Committee on the Near-Collapse of the Nigerian Capital Market headed by Mr. Ibrahim El-Sudi.
The report of the panel endorsed by the House, stated, “That all former bank executives who are recipients of national honours and who are currently being prosecuted for crimes and unethical practices which led to the collapse of their banks be stripped of their national honours by the President and Commander-in-Chief in line with Section 7 of the National Honours Act, LFN and international norms.
“The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission/Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission and the courts should hasten their prosecution to serve as a deterent and to help restore investors’ confidence in the(capital) market.”
Efforts made to speak with the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, were not successful on Sunday as he was said to have travelled outside the country.
His deputy, Mrs.Binta Masi-Garba, did not respond to calls made to her telephone. She also did not respond to the test message sent to her.
But, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, told one of our correspondents on the telephone that the claim by opposition parties that Jonathan refused to strip indicted persons of national honours because they donated to his campaign was a continuation of an “orchestrated campaign of calumny” against the President.
Okupe said, “There is no evidence linking any of those people to donation for Jonathan’s campaign.
“How much do you need for a campaign? Which of those mentioned has sympathy for the PDP? It is a continuation of an orchestrated campaign of calumny against the President.
“Opposition parties in Nigeria are mentally lazy and intellectually feeble. They don’t put efforts where they suppose to do so. They only look for cheap things and malign personalities.
“The President has shown capacity to distance himself from such sentiments. Which of those people mentioned can claim to be more important to Jonathan than Tukur when he is still the chairman of the PDP and he will need his support if he wants to re-contest? It is not true.”
The President himself, last year expressed concern over the depreciating value of the national honours, saying that it was high time government bestowed the honours on only deserving persons.
He had said, “Two days ago, I presided over the 2009 National Honours Awards ceremony where Nigerians from all walks of life and every part of our country were honoured.
“I said the national honour was an institution worth preserving but based on the critical observations of Nigerians we will raise the bar so as to further challenge compatriots to strive towards excellence and thus making it a greater national idea.”

President Jonathan’s Spokesman, Reuben Abati, Further Sidelined

Reuben Abati

Presidency  sources, one of them close to Reuben Abati, a special adviser on media affairs to President Goodluck Jonathan, have told SaharaReporters that Mr. Abati has been sidelined recently and openly shares his apprehensions about being fired anytime.
One source, a confidante of the president, told SaharaReporters that Mr. Abati’s fears are well-founded. “Mr. President is only waiting to be sure that Dr. Abati does not pose any threat to his second term ambition before sacking him,” said the source.
Last Friday, Mr. Abati spoke with State House correspondents on the chronic fuel crisis that has engulfed Abuja, the nation’s capital. But a few hours after the briefing, the embattled presidential spokesman realized that what he told the media conflicted with the views expressed by two of Nigeria’s powerful ministers, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Finance and Diezani Allison-Maduekwe, the Minister of Petroleum. Both ministers are currently at loggerheads over illegal and inflated payments to fuel importers.
Shortly after realizing the faux pas, Mr. Abati made frantic efforts to contact reporters and implore them to ignore his views on the fuel crisis. One reporter told SaharaReporters that Mr. Abati pleaded that the security of his job could be threatened unless they stood down his briefing.
SaharaReporters learnt that some of the reporters asked Mr. Abati to call their editors since their reports had been filed several hours before his call came, and since they were in no position to instruct their superiors to drop stories.
A senior journalist with a Lagos-based newspaper who is close to Mr. Abati told SaharaReporters that the presidential spokesman “has not been enjoying a smooth relationship with members of President Jonathan’s kitchen cabinet since the appointment of Dr. Doyin Okupe as Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs.” Mr. Okupe has since assumed the role of the president’s attack dog.
Presidential office sources said First Lady Patience Jonathan had expected that Mr. Abati would be a robust attacker of the president’s opponents, and that she was furious that the former chair of the editorial board of The Guardian decided to stand aloof as opposition parties and newspaper critics went to town against both Mr. Jonathan and his wife. Mr. Okupe was brought in at the insistence of Mrs. Jonathan who felt that Mr. Abati had failed to stand up to many forces who assailed the First Lady for recklessly spending public funds to acquire funds for a meeting of First Ladies of African nations.
“The First Lady complained several times that she had received verbal bashing from the media without Dr. Abati coming to her rescue,” said one source.
A reporter who covers the Presidency told SaharaReporters that, in an effort to minimize the risk of saying something that might rile the president’s inner circle, a rattled Mr. Abati recently responded to inquiries about the fuel crisis that has grounded Abuja by directing the reporter to Mr. Okupe.
“Dr. Okupe did not disappoint, as he quickly issued a statement, appealing to Nigerians to continue to stick with the government as the fuel crisis is resolved.”
A source in the Presidency disclosed that one of the recent signs that Mr. Abati’s days are numbered is the planned appointment of Ken Wiwa, Jr., the son of hanged writer and environmental agitator Ken Saro-Wiwa, to a newly established office of “senior special assistant on civil society and international media.” The post puts Mr. Wiwa on the same level as Mr. Abati, and gives him primary responsibility for managing the president’s international image and contacts with foreign reporters.
Before now, Mr. Wiwa as well as Bolaji Adebiyi worked under Mr. Abati’s management. “With Ken’s elevation, it will be clear that Dr. Abati’s role in the Villa is as good as useless,” said a source who is close to the president. He said that Mr. Okupe has taken charge of the domestic sphere and that Mr. Wiwa would assume control of foreign media relations for President Jonathan, leaving Mr. Abati in a sinecure.
We asked a close friend of Mr. Abati’s whether the presidential spokesman would resign in order to avoid the humiliation of being fired. The source ruled out that option. “Dr. Abati is definitely not considering the option of resignation. That’s out of the question,” the source insisted.

Philippine top minister feared dead in crash

President joins mass search for interior secretary Jesse Robredo, one of three people missing after plane crash at sea.

Philippines interior secretary Jesse Robredo was among the four people on the plane that crashed [Reuters]

Helicopters and divers were searching for one of the most powerful Philippine ministers who was missing and feared dead after a light aircraft he was travelling in crashed into the sea.
President Benigno Aquino took the lead on Sunday in the search for Jesse Robredo, the country's interior secretary, a day after his plane went down near the central island of Masbate.
Aquino flew to Masbate where military divers and helicopters located the crash site and a survivor by Saturday evening, Al Jazeera's Marga Ortigas reported. Debris from the Piper Seneca four-seater plane were found about 500m from the shore. The plane was supposed to make an emergency landing at Masbate airport after the pilot radioed in to say he was experiencing engine problems.
Four people were on the private plane. Robredo's aide, Jun Abrazado, was the only rescued survivor and Aquino said he was conscious and had sustained only a few injuries.
"The survivors said the plane broke into pieces as it touched water," Ortigas said.
The United States has contributed two ships at crash site and a diving team to help with the search.
Mar Roxas, the transport secretary, who accompanied Aquino, said special sonar equipment had also been flown to Masbate to help in the search operation.
"We just want to do everything we can to save him [Robredo]," Roxas said in a message on Twitter.
The government also called a prayer vigil at a Roman Catholic chapel in Manila for the 54-year-old cabinet member, a father of three daughters and a former city mayor.
He is considered to be one of the most influential Philippine politicians and a close presidential aide.
Corruption fighter
As interior secretary, Robredo was in control of the country's 143,000-strong national police force which has long been dogged by accusations of corruption and abuse.
In recent months, he had ordered investigations into alleged financial irregularities over the construction of police stations and purchase of helicopters and rescue boats.
Robredo was also playing a key role in the dismantling of private armies allegedly deployed by some powerful provincial governors and city mayors ahead of congressional and local elections in 2013.
A former official at an ice cream company, Robredo was elected mayor of Naga City in the strife-torn Bicol region, south of Manila in 1988 at the age of 29, making him the youngest mayor in the country at the time.
His success in turning the once-sleepy city into a trading, housing and education centre won him many honours including a 2000 Ramon Magsaysay award, considered Asia's version of the Nobel Prize.
After serving nine years as a city mayor, he joined Aquino's successful campaign for the presidency in 2010, endorsing his reformist platform. Robredo was subsequently appointed to the cabinet.

CAN secretary under fire for Jonathan resignation call

President Goodluck Jonathan

There were indications on Monday that crisis might have engulfed the Northern Christian Association of Nigerian over the call on President Goodluck Jonathan to resign.

The assocation had on Sunday called on the President to resign for   saying he could not crush the Islamic sect, Boko Haram. The president reportedly said, “They are our siblings and you cannot set the army to wipe out your family”.
The Northern CAN had expressed shock and disbelief at the President’s statement despite that the sect had killed several innocent Nigerians, particularly Christians, wondering why his administration could not descend on the sect.
The spokesman for the body, Mr. Sunday Oibe, had said, “Jonathan has failed us Christians, he has failed Nigerians and he should resign as president because by this statement, it is very clear that he is not capable of handling the danger posed by the Boko Haram insurgency.”
Our correspondent learnt that the Northern CAN spokesman had come under fire over the statement credited to him.
A source within the leadership of the organisation, who would not want his names in print, told our correspondent on the telephone that “when I called the young man, he said he didn’t  mean that our president should resign. We in the Northern CAN would not want to do anything that will cause crisis for President Goodluck Jonathan.”
However,  Special Adviser to Governor Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State on Religious Matters, Reverend Joseph Hayab, on Monday warned religious leaders across the country against overheating the nation’s polity with inflammatory statement that could cause disaffection in the country.
Hayab, in  a statement in Kaduna on Monday, said the statement urging the President to resign was capable of inciting  “Northerners and especially Christians against the Jonathan Administration,” warning that religious leaders must not overheat the Nigerian polity.
The governor’s aide, a former Secretary-General of the Kaduna  CAN, said, as a former Secretary  of CAN  Kaduna State and  also a former PRO of CAN 19 Northern states and the Federal Capital Territory, added, “Northern CAN has no quarrel with the statement from President Jonathan that it would not be the preference of the Federal Government to send in soldiers to wipe out Boko Haram for the simple reason that Boko Haram are faceless and when soldiers are sent in to wipe out a faceless group it is the innocent that suffers.”

Jonathan should resign – Northern CAN

President Goodluck Jonathan

Christians in the North have asked President Goodluck Jonathan to resign over his comment on Boko Haram.
Jonathan was quoted to have said he could not crush the Islamic sect because “they are our siblings and you cannot set the army to wipe out your family”.
In a statement by its spokesman, Mr. Sunday Oibe, the Northern Christian Association of Nigeria said the comments credited to Jonathan was an indication that the country  was in a helpless situation as the President “does not seem to understand the aim of the sect to destabilise his administration.”
According to the CAN, it is shocking   for  the President to say he will not deploy the military to deal  with terrorist who have  been killing other Nigerians and threatening the corporate existence of the country.
The body argued that it was clear that the President has been shielding the group at the expense of the lives of innocent people, urging Nigerians to have a rethink on the type of president that is governing the country at the moment.
The statement read in part, “What he is telling us now is that there is nothing he can do about it, but we know that the Federal Government has the capacity to stop the madness being unleashed on Nigerians. However, it is now obvious that the President will rather shield criminals.
“Every Nigerian can recall how former President Olusegun Obasanjo reacted when the Niger Delta militants attacked soldiers in Udi.  Even though the militants were asking for their legitimate right, Obasanjo dealt with them squarely for resorting to criminality in agitating for their right. No country in the world will allow its soldiers, trained to defend the territorial integrity of the nation to be killed by a gang of criminals and get away with it.
“Nigerians can also recall that in Zaki – Biam, Benue state, the same  Obasanjo as President sent troops to deal ruthlessly with the people there for allegedly killing soldiers.
“Now on a daily basis soldiers, police and other security personnel are being killed by Boko Haram members and the President has the effrontery to tell us that these murderers are members of the family and he cannot mobilise the army to deal with them.
“Jonathan has failed us Christians, he has failed Nigerians and he should resign because by this statement, it is very clear that he is not capable of handling the danger pose by the Boko Haram insurgency.”
Also, the Anglican Communion, Kaduna Diocese  said illiteracy, unemployment and poverty  in the North  were not responsible for various crises in the region.
In a  10-point – communiqué issued  at the end of the 1st session of the 19th Synod of the Diocese and signed by the Diocesan Bishop, Rt. Rev Josiah Idowu –Fearon, insisted that illiteracy, poverty and unemployment were never the cause of the sundry crises in the region as many were wont to believe.

NIGERIA: A nation Charred by insurgency

Just take a look; and then imagine.
Take a very long, hard look; and then imagine that your brother, or sister or any member of your extended family had been a victim or had been lost to the insurgency in those areas marked on the face of the map of Nigeria as areas of insurgent attacks.
To understand the magnitude of the crises confronting the Nigerian nation, just imagine for how long this had gone on and the attendant magnifying spectre of extremism and criminality, as well as the increasing helplessness of many a people.
Then try to make sense of the ridiculous spat between a former military President and Commander-in-Chief in the person of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, and an Ijaw leader and elder statesman, Pa Edwin Clark, over who is not speaking out loud enough in condemnation or who is making a senseless statement and ask:  To what extent would their show of shame solve the problem? You can add to this the seeming shambolic approach of government in containing what is turning out to be an insurgency of extremism, clearly far from politics and poverty that some people are reading into it.
Last week, the Jamaatu Ahlil Sunna Lidawati wal Jihad, otherwise known as Boko Haram, demonstrated to President Goodluck Jonathan that it can be very audacious.  Having called on Jonathan to either resign or convert to Islam, the sect went to town to inflict maximum terror:  an attempt on a Muslim leader, an Emir, to planting bombs in the domain of the caliphate in Sokoto, the killing of soldiers via ambushing, visiting terror on fellow Muslims during Ramadan lecture and the slashing of the throats of Christians, is President Jonathan still wondering what the insurgents are asking for.  Even the dreaded Maitatsine bunch was dealt with decisively by the Shehu Shagari administration in the early 1980s.
But it must be admitted that these are different, complicated and more dangerous times.
With the advent of Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda In The Islamic Magreb, AQIM, Al Shabab and the linkages which terror groups have established and are establishing, the training received by Boko Haram members in North Africa and the increasingly glaring reality of the sophistication of the insurgency in the North, it does not need rocket science to understand that the check point approach of this administration merely fits the expectations of the insurgents – avoid the areas of checkpoints and ‘carry go’.

And to the United States of America, USA, the number one global terror policeman, Nigeria must look.  In looking up to the Americans, this administration had flip-flopped between seeking assistance and condemning public terror alerts issued by the same Americans.
Well, Sunday Vanguard has been reliably informed that an ambassadorial encounter at a very high level which brought home the realization of why shambles have become this administration’s approach, “left the Americans with no option but to go public with terror alerts”.
Whatever the encounter was, with whom, where, when, why and how it happened was not disclosed by the diplomatic source.  But the source maintained that “the encounter was very, very, embarrassing”.
And whereas the Americans have labeled three leaders of Boko Haram terrorists, it has refused to tag the group a FOREIGN TERROR ORGANISATION, FTO.
There are so many issues involved here.  If the administration of Barack Obama has decided that it can not just intervene in Syria where an average of over 80 people are killed everyday, with strategic partnership interests at stake and likely to suffer if it makes a false move, why should it dabble into the controversy over tagging Boko Haram an FTO?
The first interest to be protected is American and America’s.
If Nigeria likes, she can continue to fiddle while insurgency takes over the entire land, why should America “give a damn”?
If the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, continue to allow itself to be seen as an appendage of the presidency, but would like Nigerian Christians and peoples of other faiths in the country to see it as fighting the good cause, why should America’s Obama “give a damn”?
The leadership of CAN was in America to attend a congressional hearing where it pushed the FTO agenda. Yet, Johnnie Carson, America’s Under-Secretary of State for African Affairs, who was in attendance, and the State Department, have their logic. But the logic is grandly illogical and incongruous because how do you label three leaders of a group as terrorists and refuse to tag the group an FTO?
It is either because of the coming elections in November, or just a statement of criticism of Nigeria’s handling of the state of insecurity that has become so pervasive.  By the admission of a General Officer Commanding, there are joint military operations being carried out in 33 states in a country of 36 states – this represents over 90% of the entire country.
During the congressional hearing, Carson’s understanding of Nigeria as a largely Muslim nation and that the country stands to surpass other Arab nations in terms of the faith in less than a decade, was laid bare.
Sunday Vanguard learnt that Carson had had a running against the Yar’Adua administration over some issues of national security over biometrics.  He has found acceptance which verges on messianic accommodation by the present administration and, therefore, is entitled to wax pontifical about Nigeria. (READ ENCOUNTER AT THE CONGRESSIONAL HEARING)
Well, Hon. Smith, who chaired the sub-committee hearing, would not allow himself to be hoodwinked if members of Nigeria’s government engage a slavish mentality in their dealings with America. Smith sought clarity from Carson on why leaders of a group are tagged terrorists and the group is not deemed to be a terrorist organization (Details of the hearing will shock you).
Meanwhile, last week Thursday, at the State House Abuja, Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, was in a closed door meeting with President Jonathan and his security chiefs and the main discussion of the day was centred around Boko Haram and FTO status, as well as – you guessed right – CORRUPTION. Still, there is also the increasing theft of crude oil in the South South region to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
In this package, you will read the widening scope of Boko Haram’s activities and some contradictions in America’s perception of the crises in Nigeria. Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor’s plea to the Americans and the letter written to Hillary Clinton by some scholars who insist that designating Boko Haram an FTO would not solve Nigeria’s problem but would, rather, embolden and further radicalize the group – that, in fact, such a designation would be an endorsement of the might of Boko Haram; these would come up in subsequent series and would enlighten you the more. But before the next series you will also read about the carnage in Damaturu, Yobe State; and the killings in Okene, Kogi State – all by Boko Haram
This is a multi-series package that would run for a while in every edition.