OPENING
SHOT:
Dear fellow-citizens,
welcome to this issue of THE MANDATE MONITOR, Nigeria’s soar away political
news story platform gauging the standard of political conduct, actions and
inactions of those in political leadership (both the elected and appointed).
The Buhari Presidency
is one week old, Hurray! And all over the country the people are just WAITING
for change or so our finding show. THE MANDATE MONITOR interactions with
Nigerians reveal diverse views and feelings both from pro and anti Buhari’s apologists.
Re Buhari supporter
has been furious with our request to comment on the first seven days of the
Retired General, “I will comment after the first 100 days” she said. G enerally
we noted some level of disappointment in her facial expression but being a
leader of the change movement, she respectfully reserved her comment till after
the first 100 days in office. But talking to a core Gejite, she lambasted the
new regime and its party thus, “APC and Buhari planned thoroughly what they
will do if they lose the election, but they didn’t plan what to do if they win
the election” she said. This very vocal Gejite alleges that if the APC had lost
the elections, it would not have taken 24 hours before Nigerians feel the
impact of that loss.
So, as an ordinary
Nigerian on the street, what do you think about the delay of President Buhari
conclusively forming his government? Do you think Nigerians are being too
impatient with the new administration?
PDP vowed to remain in
power for 60 years. Leading to the just concluded elections, they were so up
there and Nigerians were down there. Their arrogance and lack of creativity in
governance was so visible Nigerians wanted anything but PDP. In fact, certain
school of thought insists Nigerians didn’t vote for Gen. Buhari, they claim
that Nigerians simply voted against the PDP and their Presidential candidate,
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
So where is the PDP
now? Their absence or better still, their silence is indicative of the fact
that there was never a party but a group of people overseeing the sharing the
national wealth. Presently, even facebook activists play the role of opposition
to APC better than the PDP.
So, ladies and
gentlemen, if you are a blogger or facebook personality, join us beacaus we are
the new opposition.
The
7th National Assembly wound up 24 hour earlier, and the high point
was the passage of 46 bills within a space of 10minutes but that is not the
story now. Presently, attention of Nigerians, especially the political elites
is turned to the National Assembly complex once again as candidates’ slug it
out over the Senate Presidency (Saraki and Lawan) and House of Representatives
Speakership (Femi Gbajabiamila, and Yakubu Dogara). Reports
emerging from the 3 Arms zone shows that members still divided on choice of
candidates.
It
is clear that members of the 8th National Assembly will be choosing
between EXPERIENCE, CAPACITY AND CHARISMA on the one hand and INDEPENDENCE the
other hand. So as a concerned Nigerian, what will you be choosing? Whom would
you like to see as the next Senate President? And whom would you like to see as
the nes Speaker of the House?
“Be not afraid of change for it is constant.
Believe that life is all about change and therefore worth living, and your
belief will help create the life you want.” ----- OBUESI PHILLIPS
WHAT IS TRENDING:
46 Bills In 10
Minutes
Did
the Senate pass 46 bills into law within 10 minutes? Oh yes they did and it came
like a bang from the blues, I mean the news that barely a day before the end of
their tenure, as the 7th Senate, Nigerian senators on Wednesday
passed 46 bills within 10 minutes at a sitting. Though the bills had recently
been passed by the House of Representatives and transmitted to the Senate for
concurrence, the Senate waited on the last day to act on the bills.
To
pass all these bills in 10 minutes, the Senate suspended Order 79(1) of its
Standing Orders, which allowed it to suspend regular procedures.
For
us at THE MANDATE MONITOR, the 7th Senate under Sen. David Mark
behave rather irresponsibly to have waited for so long. It is for us an
extremely poor exercise of their mandate as Senators of the Federal Republic.
The take-away from this is that for the 8th National Assembly soon
to be inaugurated, all eyes will be on them when they begin loitering around
aimlessly, we will remind them of this 46 bills in 10 minutes saga.
Leadership
Vacuum?
It
is still less than one week into the new administration, and Nigerians online
have been agog finding one fault or the other in the actions and inaction of
the country’s new leadership. Presently, Nigerians are accusing the President,
Gen. Buhari and the Vice President, Prof. Osibanjo of abdicating their offices
to travel outside the country at the same time. It will be recalled that in
searching for answer toi the Boko Haram menace, the President had made Chad and
Niger Republis his first point of call as the President of Nigeria.
Furthermore, at the same time while Mr. President was away, the Vice President,
Prof. Osibanjo was on a state visit to Sudan.
Nigerians
have argued that by this singular act, both Nigerian leaders created a
leadership vacuum never seen in the history of Nigeria. We think this is a
fleeting error on the part of those who administer both leaders and may have
accepted invitations with jointly perusing the legal and political
implications.
While
this argument may be plausible, it must be allowed to die away in our opinion
because the proponents of this argument it seems do so with intense hatred and
malice towards the present regime. President Buhari obviously is eager to bring
change and we must allow him that time and space to do his work
Senate Passes
“Sex With Minor” Law?
There have been accusations and counter
accusations. The argument is simply on the content of the recently passed
Sexual Offences Bill 2015. Many insists Senator Chris Anyawu is the brain behind
a sex with minors law, while others think that the online information is an exaggeration
of the whole episode.
According to Leadership.ng/4382 reports
monitored online,
“The Senate on Wednesday passed the
Sexual Offences Bill 2015 which prescribes life imprisonment for rapists and
those who have sexual intercourse with those less than 11 years.”
Reacting to this report, some have
shouted “It is a lie!”
While the confusion persists, and is
trending, indications have emerged that the ‘sex with minors law” may have been
read out of context by overzealous reports who didn’t take time to go through
the new bill before crying blue murder.
was caused by some illiterate,
uneducated reporter who did not read the document very well.. Just said the law
will punish anyone who has sex with a girl "under 11"..which means
from 12 is ok...and hell broke lose.. .. Go and read plz. Section 7 tags
penetration with a minor as 'defilement'. 7 (2) covers girls of 11 and below, 7
(3), covers between 12 and 15; and 7 (3) protects those between 16 and
18...EVERY VIOLATION CARRIES A LIFE SENTENCE.
OUR MAIN REPORT
AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL MAY BE PLAYING A SCRIPT OF INTERNATIONAL CONSPIRACY AGAINST
NIGERIA
We
have monitored reports and statement posted on Amnesty International’s website
as at the 3rd of June, the report is titled "Stars on their shoulders. Blood on their hands: War crimes
committed by the Nigerian military" , showed
that top Nigerian military hierarchy committed what they termed as war crimes.
According
to the report, since March 2011, more than 7,000
young men and boys died while in military detention and more than 1,200 people
were unlawfully killed since February 2012. Amnesty International further
opined that as the fight against Boko Haram continued, young men were arrested
indiscriminately by military officers and are tortured or out rightly executed
without any evidence to prove that they were indeed Boko Haram members.
The
report finally concluded that the Nigerian military, including senior military
commanders, must be investigated for participating, sanctioning or failing to
prevent the deaths of more than 8,000 people murdered starved, suffocated, and
tortured to death,
Reacting
to this very negative picture painted by Amnesty International, the Nigerian
Army released a statement:
“The Defence
Headquarters has noted with dismay the gruesome allegations made by the Amnesty
International against some senior military officers serving and retired of the
Nigerian Armed Forces. It is unfortunate that all effort made in the allegation
was geared towards continuation of blackmail against the military hierarchy in
which the organisation had embarked upon as far back as the inception of
military’s action against terrorist in the North East.”
For
us, we are deeply concerned and are afraid that AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL may be
playing a script of international conspiracy against the Nigerian state here.
While not absolving the Nigerian Army of whatever accusations of human rights
abuse that they may have been involved in, we deeply frown at the methodology
being employed by Amnesty International to deceive the global community about
the situation in Nigeria on two grounds:
1. BEYOND MILITARY
UNIFORMS, THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT THOSE COMMITTING THE ATTROCITIES WERE
NIGERIAN SOLDIERS
We know that hundreds of Nigerians
soldiers sympathetic to the religious ideologies being pursued by Boko Haram
were systematically “donating” their military uniforms and weapons to the
terrorist group. We have come across series of video evidence showing Boko
Haram fighters in military fatigues, attires and using military hardwares etc.
From the video evidence posted on the
Amnesty International’s website and watched privately, there is no conclusive,
verifiable evidence that in fact and indeed, the soldiers were Nigerian
soldiers.
Now, assuming without conceding that
they are, since Boko Haram is a well established terror organisation, and have
exploited “propaganda” in its effort to destroy the Nigerian state, they have
the means and resources to “use” Nigerian soldiers sympathetic to their cause
to achieve whatever objectives they purpose.
2. CONTINUED
REFERENCE TO BOKO HARAM AS INSURGENTS
The core challenge of the video posted
which evidently is the “best evidence” available to Amnesty International is
the continued reference to Boko Haram as a group of insurgents. According to
the video –
“The Nigerian Army is currently engaged
in operations hunting down and fighting heavily armed INSURGENTS of Boko Haram who are trying to establish Islamic rule
in North of the country.”
The present Amnesty International’s
report on the activities of the Nigerian military is beclouded by a failure of
definition. We are convinced that If the group is sincerely able to properly
situate the definition of Boko Haram and what they stand for, their report will
carry a different tone. For the avoidance of doubt, Boko Haram is not a group
of insurgents but a well established and funded TERROR GROUP.
The
Amnesty International as it is report has far reaching implications, foremost
amongst which is that Boko Haram is allowed free space to run-rings around the
Nigerian state unchecked, while Amnesty International and their Nigerian
sympathizers and sponsors of Boko Haram go into a media and publicity frenzy
accusing the Nigerian military of incapacity to curtail the excesses of Boko
Haram.
It
is instructive to note that Amnesty International have not taken the pains to
look the direction of Boko Haram in search of Human Right abuses because if
they have done that, they will not sincerely come up with this report. We have
seen graphic details of life in Gwoza and other towns initially under the
control of Boko Haram.
Furthermore,
it is clear that Amnesty International relies solely on REPORTS, INFORMATION
and RECORDs provided by HEAVILLY prejudiced socio-political activists having an
axe to grind with the Nigerian establishment and sympathetic to the agenda
being pursued by Boko Haram. There are information in the public space of
certain Nigerians moving from country to country with videos scripted to
implicate and disparage the Nigerian state, the Nigerian leadership and the
Nigerian military.
The
whole intention is to greatly diminish the Ngerian state in the eyes of the
international community. We have no hesitation in concluding that all these
(including the Amnesty International report) are part of international
conspiracy intended to bring the Nigerian state, the Nigerian military high
command and its leadership to disrepute.
For us at THE MANDATE
MONITOR, it will be a pipe dream to continue to refer to Boko Haram as
insurgents and hope to defeat them.
OBUESI PHILLIPS
2014 Dream Prize Winner
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