NewStats: 3,265,029 , 8,185,372 topics. Date: Friday, 13 June 2025 at 08:08 AM 3h2hn

NIGERIA’S uncanny romance with ethnic militias got an official boost recently when two distinctly dodgy groups, with notorious antecedents of constant brushes with the law, emerged as the chief campaigners for both the sacking of the Independent National Electoral Commission boss, Attahiru Jega, and the reelection of President Goodluck Jonathan. As expected, due to their violent antecedents, both the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra and the Oodua Peoples Congress reportedly disturbed public peace in Awka, Anambra State and Lagos State respectively as they took to the streets to drive home their points.

What was striking about the incidents was the conduct of both groups during their demonstrations. While, in Awka, reports had it that MASSOB’s protest march was relatively peaceful in that people were not harassed, the same could not be said of the conduct of the OPC in Lagos. They were armed and aggressive towards ers-by, mostly workers trying to beat the usual early morning rush to be at their duty posts. Clad mostly in T-shirts with the ruling Peoples Democratic Party inscriptions and President Goodluck Jonathan’s pictures on them, the Lagos protesters, who were interspersed with some Nollywood actors, also wielded weapons, namely guns, knives, machetes, cutlasses and broken bottles.

Although no record of death or injury that usually goes with such outings was recorded, it is however surprising that state security agents, who are often quick to disperse groups, even when the peaceful intent of their gathering is well known, did not so much as raise a finger against an armed group that constituted a public threat to peace. Rather, they gave the protesters armed protection, as they rolled out about 100 buses and held up traffic for hours on end.

A lot seems to point to the ominous nature of this unholy alliance between the President and groups such as the OPC and MASSOB. Barely two years ago, Jonathan had, in a mid-term report to mark the 2013 Democracy Day, told Nigerians, “The nation faces three fundamental security challenges posed by extremist groups like Boko Haram in the North, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra in the South-East, and the Oodua Peoples Congress in the South-West.”

Notably, about a week after the groups marched in solidarity with the President, he has not come out to dissociate himself from them, which is not surprising as the rowdy demonstrators came in buses marked with his campaign banners. Perhaps, Nigerians should now believe that they have turned a new leaf and are no longer the same people he likened to Boko Haram just 22 months ago.

What happened in Awka and Lagos should not come as a complete surprise to those who are familiar with the run-up to elections in this country. During such periods, unscrupulous politicians hire and prop up groups, who are used to fight their battles for them. In many cases, such groups are armed with sophisticated weapons and are unleashed on election days to snatch ballot boxes and chase away voters. Little wonder that the two groups had listed, among their numerous grouses against Jega, the proposed employment of card readers during the elections.

With the new development, it will be difficult to dismiss reports that some of these militant groups had been pencilled in for multi-billion naira security contract awards by the Federal Government, probably to buy them over. In a recent report, the founder of the OPC, Frederick Fasehun, had confirmed that his company was among those being considered for the contracts. It could therefore mean that the outings are perhaps meant to potentially repay the compliment.

But it is also pertinent to cast our minds back to the recent security challenges the nation has been facing, which have been traced, in the main, to the inadvertent creation of violent groups by politicians for the purpose of winning elections. Once the elections are over, such groups suddenly lose their relevance, and are cast into the society to fend for themselves. People who are armed and had been used to being spoon-fed, suddenly have to look after themselves. It is only natural that they fall back on their arms for survival.

The result is the proliferation of violent crimes such as armed robbery, kidnapping and gang wars by groups seeking, in a mafia-like manner, to control areas for the purpose of extorting so-called protection fees. It has also been alleged that both the militancy in the Niger Delta and Boko Haram in the North-East of the country came about through this same means.

From the experience of trying to end militancy in the Niger Delta and Boko Haram in the North, it is clear that such outfits, once created, are usually difficult to eliminate. Under the threat of militants, Nigeria’s oil production quota of over two million barrels per day dropped to about 1.3 million bpd, as the militants sabotaged oil facilities and engaged the Nigerian military in a seemingly unending war of attrition. It was only an initiative of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua to grant the militants lavish cash awards, veiled as amnesty, that ended the insurgency and the bleeding of the economy.

In the case of the Boko Haram terrorists, it has become obvious that the Nigerian Army alone can no longer successfully dislodge the group, after six years of full-blown war has proved abortive in doing so. The country has only been able to make noted progress after going into alliances with her neighbours in Cameroon, Chad and Niger Republic.

If, without official funding, the two groups, the OPC and MASSOB, were deemed to be security threats, what could become of them when empowered with contracts can only be imagined. It is therefore important to sound a note of warning about that dangerous alliance. For now, people can only see the beginning; nobody knows how it will end,

http://www.punchng.com/editorials/jonathans-dangerous-alliance-with-opc-massob/

kasiem:
soldiers never enter lagos una don dey cry already, just chill and see how it will all play out.

wetin una wan play out.

every madness get expiry date.

egift:
5 days to defeat Corruption and send it back to Otueke.

yep

atbu1983:
good write up

yep, ready .......set...........

change will stand above any intimidation

Fellow progressives,

I want to say a big well done to you all, you have held your head up because of what you believed in and not because of financial gains.
you have stood tall in the midst of adversity and as the day goes by, our once dim chances are now so bright that the rulers have become the opposition.we have shown that power truly belongs to the people.
once again, a big well done.

[b]THE NATION, VANGUARD AND PUNCH
my friends in the house, please look at the political standings of the candidates right now, hardly in the history of this country has a single candidate led in the online polls and also in state analysis of three major newspapers, while we are not taking anything for granted, GMB has at least a 60 percent chance of winning compared to PDP 40percent. PDP is really scared and confused.

THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
From New York Times to the Economist to the UK Telegraph, its a common theme, though GMB may not be perfect, he is a better choice.

THE PRES. OBAMA MESSAGE
without mincing words, president Obama has told Jonathan that Nigeria wants a free and fair election without his OPC and MSSOB or SOLDIERS intimidation. the US president has also told us that this election is very IMPORTANT: this is the message of change.


Fellow progressives, pls we have almost reached our destination which is VICTORY.

pls hold your heads high and never be distracted.

our correct president.

[quote
author=noskeybaba post=31915036]Igbos are 100 percent behind GEJ, you
don't sit behind a computer and just make up things you don't know. Even
Rochas in his state is at a very high risk of failing. [/quote]

deceive una sef as una dey deceive oga jonny walker.

change has come to stay

off course , everyone knows that.

the writer is a clown

ABUJA–The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCO) has said that the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, lied on an article in Washington Times that General Mohammadu Buhari was a religious fanatic. APCO said that the article was a hatchet job between the PDP and a one-time US ambassadorial-aide-turned-media-manager, Richard Grenell. The opinion piece had warned that Buhari should not be voted to power for fear of not islamizing the country. In a swift reaction in Abuja on Sunday, Mallam Garba Shehu, APCO’s Director of Media and Publicity termed the “ment” as the handiwork of a failed President and his ruinous party, the PDP to tarnish the hard won credibility and integrity of Buhari.

“The PDP is a troubled-cannon; firing salvos in all directions, accidentally and incidentally, without caution, care or conscience. With the stark reality of defeat staring them in the face on March 28 and April 11 general elections, a reward for their malistration, incumbent President Jonathan and his co-travellers have intensified their global campaign of calumny and outright fallacy – their well-known stock in trade. “Nigerians are yet to forget the phoney phone call to the King of Morocco that never was or the futile effort to stop Buhari from speaking to the world at UK think tank at Chatham House, where their rented crowd confessed to being paid for a hatchet job,” Shehu said. Shehu said the PDP had resorted to promoting irrelevant issues after abandoning serious issues of lack of power, insecurity, disunity, unemployment, infrastructural decay, comatose economy, and dysfunctional educational and health sectors, among others that affect the lives of the citizens and are concrete and poignant to the polls. “How does a former media aide to US Ambassadors to the United Nations, now a partner in www.capitolmediapartners.com suddenly got adorned in the garb of an emissary or envoy by the PDP?” For the avoidance of doubt Richard Grenell is not a US ex-envoy but a former spokesperson for four past US Ambassadors to the United Nations

“According to his bio, in 2009 Richard Grenell launched Capitol Media Partners, an international strategic media and public affairs consultancy. His agency provides strategic counsel for companies and individuals (like Jonathan and the PDP) facing critical media and public policy challenges. Mr Grenell’s firm ”Capitol Media Partners” was recruited by the Presidency and the PDP to say those unfortunate statements about General Buhari. Mr Grenell made those statements not as an envoy or diplomat but as a media contractor for the Presidency and the PDP. You may confirm the authenticity of Mr Grenell from his firm’s website http://capitolmediapartners.com/ ” The APC Spokesman that the lie by the government and the ruling PDP underscored the new low to which Nigeria’s foreign policy drift has sunk under the Jonathan government, which hired all manners of local and global quacks to manage their tattered image marked by cluelessness, incompetence, squander-mania, meteoric corruption and dearth of developmental ideas. He also noted that the laws of Nigeria as enshrined in the Constitution frowned at one religion dominanting another, stressing that Nigeria was a multi religious state and cannot be a theocracy as propagated in Grenell’s a-dozen-for-a-US-Dollar opinion article. “With popular political indicators embracing the APC message of Change, and the PDP losing followership all over the country through mass defections, the drowning men of PDP are clawing to weightless straws for survival. “How can a foreigner without a grasp of the ethics, ethos and ethno-religious diversity of our country be the one to tell us who and how we should be governed as a people? Only a cheap and sleazy government would increase its dastardly mission of increasing disaffection at home, where it has caused split in national institutions such as the Nigeria Labour Congress, National Association of Nigerian Students, Christian Association of Nigeria, Afenifere Group, Arewa Consultative Forum, Northern Elders Association, Ohaneze Ndigbo, among a legion of others by venturing disastrously abroad for global mercenaries. “Buhari in the early 1980s, as a serving General Officer Commanding, led the army that promptly and effectively defeated the Islamic Sect of Maitasine. So for anyone to link Buhari to religious insensitivity and fanaticism is grossly unfair, malicious and libellous. The APC is a party is reflective of the diversities of Nigeria. “The Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, a former state governor, is a Christian; same as the Director General of APC Presidential Campaign, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State. Other stakeholders are Chief Audu Ogbeh, Chief Tony Momoh, Dr. Kayode Fayemi and Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, among others. How can anyone under a democratic dispensation Islamise or Christianise a country in the 21st Century”, Shehu said. - See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/03/apc-campaign-to-pdp-us-envoy-a-hired-spin-doctor-hatchet-jobber/#sthash.KvysKCxB.dpuf

[quote
author=Clerverly post=31895236] And some foolish Taniods were
celebrating a paper weight politician in Rivers State![/quote]


you dey mind the jokers

blackjack21:
Chaii!
Bad news to TANOIDS' ears. Can they sleep well today?



Seun
Lalasticlacla. Do justice.




20:10:28
Sun, Mar 22, 2015

mods,pls do the needful

front of the page pls

ozoigbondu:
Tell me aother story joor.......GEJ everywhere you go........GEJ till 2019.

A bunch of aggrevied men has ed their likes in aggrevied peoples congress.

deceive una sef well well.


the real shockers are coming soon

front of the page o

https://nairaland.macsoftware.info/2209396/daura-indigenes-wash-off-gejs

change is in the air

Remarkable:
Do you know that you are more clueless than Jonathan?

You want to score him on "Poor international relations"?

"Poor communication"?

I sure say the school where you go dey give you report card like that lol "Poor English Language" = .

"Bad comprehension & understanding" = .

Guy, your cluelessness no get part 2. GEJ no suppose be your problem; find way educate yourself more; no surprises nah your type APC dey recruit. lol Like Buhari, like his followers.

pls take handkerchief

SeverusSnape:
THE DAMAGE HAS ALREADY BEEN DONE.



This woman was referring to the average edo girl as a PROSTITUTE. How could she?...This is an insult to edo people.



Who told her widows in the south east are suffering??.... This is an insult to South easterners!... Why didn't she go to Borno or KANO and say "I'm going to stop your children from being suicide bombers"? Nonsense!

deceive yourself well well, there is no damage through fabrications and lies.

if anything it revealed the desperation of pdp.

get ready for first lady aisha

first, a big well done to the progressives in the house.
the task is yet to be accomplished but good to know that we are on the path.
with this statistics and the groundwork, buhari has a very solid chance............................change has come to stay.

Kzealz:


I thought u re wise...but Ur stupidity is workin on 4G network... HD for that matter... fool

oya, take handkerchief

pdp is suffering from obvious defeat syndrome.

oga jona dey go otu..................

sexyjob:

Sorry, you have failed.

take handkerchief

when you have a clueless leader, na real shame

now this is real change.

kogi is dancing change

SeverusSnape:

Sweat because of clownish Jokers??... Hehehehehehehehehehe. Funny

take handkerchief

SeverusSnape:

Leave those jokers.

they be jokers and una dey sweat

correct endorsing

first, mr jonathan and madam patience know more of entertainment than governance so you can understand.

the bigger shame is that on the day the clueless president was raising his leg dancing, about 90 people had just been murdered in benue.



please

vote for

change