11052021 - Insecurity: Bandits attack Katsina mosque, abduct 10

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 11, 2021 — 15 By Chinedu Adonu E NUGU—SPIRITUAL Director of Adoration Ministry, Enugu, Nigeria, Rev Fr Ejike Mbaka on Sunday apologized to the Catholic church and Bishop Callistus Onaga over the vandalization of Bishop's court by adoration faithful. Fr Mbaka who made this apology at Adoration ground while officiating at Sunday mass, says "I do not disobey the church, who am I? How can someone who has been serving the church for nearly 26 years come out and begin to fight the same church? Everything in my life is for the church". Recall that members of Adoration ministry on Wednesday last week stormed Bishop's court at Igbo-Eze street demanding the whereabout of Fr Mbaka who was feared to have been abducted. The protesters who waited for Bishop Onaga to come out and address them, having accused him of knowing what had happened to Mbaka, destroyed properties having exhausted their patience. Hear him, "I, Fr Mbaka standing here, am a child of the holy mother church, and all the faithful are also children of the same mother church. :Vanguard News :@vanguardnews :@vanguardnews NEWS HOTLINES: 08052867023, 08052867058 Mbaka apologises to church, Bishop Onaga "I am a baby of the church and an ordained holy Roman Catholic that is apostolic, universal. I stand here to tell you that nothing can destroy the church. I speak as a messenger of God and a mere servant. He however, reaffirmed his loyalty to the church and Bishop. "Please, I have to clarify this, Fr Mbaka has no problem with the Church and I do not have any problem with my bishop. Enemies want to achieve that by causing discord, but I will not allow it because, there is something in me that will conquer such problems. "That thing is the gift of humility and obedience to the church, to the glory of God. I do not want to tell negative stories about what happened because the incident now belongs to the past. "When the protest continued to gather more momentum that day, I was asked by my bishop to come and take away the protesters to avoid the situation getting out of hand. You know the issue attracted media hype; Fr Mbaka is missing, Mbaka has been kidnapped and all that. But I was never kidnapped. I was at a place that my bishop had asked me to proceed to for personal prayer. "I almost had a terrible accident when I was hurrying to the Bishop's Court after I was asked to come and calm the restive crowd of protesters. I asked the bishop (on phone), shall i move to the Adoration ground? He said yes. And I asked what about the Sunday Mass, he said tell them you will celebrate it with them. I answered, yes my Lord and proceeded. "As we were moving through New Haven, I got another call that I should rush to Holy Ghost cathedral, that another mammoth crowd had entered the cathedral premises and threatening to wreck havoc there if I did not appear to address them in person. I never knew that any damage was caused in Bishop's house. "When I got to the OSI- SATEC (Poly) Roundabout, I saw a thick crowd. I then came out and waved at them. Immediately they saw me, they started following me back. I didn't enter the cathedral. I never knew that even a glass was broken. "What I was praising those that trooped out that day was not about anything that was destroyed but for your ability to search for your missing pastor. "And I beg you, whenever any priest goes missing, please, look for him. If any of our priests is kidnapped, you should not rest! Whether it happened in Onitsha, Aba, Nnewi, even in Maiduguri or Yorubaland, search for him. This is because we share in one priesthood of Christ Jesus. If I hear that my bishop is missing, for instance, I will do everything possible, by the grace of God to find him. "I am taking my time to explain things because there were a lot of mixed information and the devil entered into the story. The church did not kidnap me. So, I wish to apologize to whoever that misunderstood my statement. I didn't clap for anybody for destroying anything. "Again, I praise you people (supporters) for protecting the Sanctissimus; the Blessed Sacrament was not tampered with. And God will bless you because I heard that the 'Search for Fr Mbaka' was highjacked. "I head that some people joined up and started breaking things, and that virtually people of all tribes, Christians and non-christians as well as Catholics and non-Catholics joined in the search. CSR: Why we're supporting fight against malaria —Chevron By Udeme Akpan WITH the experiences of their personnel at various locations, host communities and other parts of Nigeria, some oil companies have over the years, come to perceive mosquitoes, and by extension, malaria, as a common enemy that must be tackled and exterminated. Take the case of Chevron Nigeria Limited, CNL, the operator of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation/CNL Joint Venture as an example. In a document obtained by Vanguard, CNL stated: “In the communities around its areas of operations in Nigeria, CNL invests in initiatives and programmes aimed at improving the health of members of such communities. Through partnerships, leadership and financial resources, CNL continues to assist government and institutions in addressing health issues and has recorded significant success in this regard. CNL works to protect the health and safety of its employees, their registered spouses, dependents and retirees. “CNL is committed to the fight against malaria through initiatives such as the Roll Back Malaria Programs, Malaria in Pregnancy program, training of health workers, distribution of Intermittent Preventive Treatment and Artemisinin-based drugs, and Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Mosquito Nets. The Roll Back Malaria programmes are specifically targeted at infants, children under five years of age and pregnant women who have been worst hit by malaria. CNL’s partnerships with other organisations such as the Corporate Alliance for Malaria in Africa, have helped in enhancing the support of the government’s vision through the National Malaria Elimination Programme, to end malaria in Nigeria. Over the last 13 years, Chevron has also partnered with the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and building of resilient health systems in Nigeria.”
16 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 11, 2021 TRIBUTE It’s a year since my earthly angel answered the call Southern Governors’ Forum: A welcome development By SOLA EBISENI THE news came so subtly and quite unusual with stories associated with such giant news makers: that Governors of Southern Nigeria met on May 4 on the State of the Nation. Fifteen of the 17 Governors were said to have attended, while two were represented by their deputies, with the promise of a follow-up meeting this week. Notwithstanding that it was a virtual meeting, which starved it of the usual fanfare, its proponents deserve commendation by all lovers of peace in the continued threatened corporate existence of this nebulous federation. Following the Resolution at the Berlin Conference, on February 26, 1884, partitioning Africa on the Principle of Effective Occupation by European powers, a British Protectorate Administration was, on June 5, 1885, proclaimed on the territory from the Lagos boundary in the West to the right bank of the Rio del Rey now in the Cameroon. The British Crown resorted to signing new treaties or validating existing Trade Agreements with recognised traditional institutions in the name of Treaty of Friendship and Protection. By 1861, Lagos was annexed by Britain which declared colonial administration thereat in 1862 and by November 29,1895, the colonial Legislative Council extended its authority eastwards through the coastal territory of the present Ondo State to the junction of Okutimakoro and Adabrassa creeks and the Benin River in the present Edo and Delta states. By 1900, British colonial administration was proclaimed on the whole of Nigeria, with the territory divided into the Colony of Lagos, Southern and Northern Protectorates. According to Chief Obafemi Awolowo, in his book, The People’s Republic, on January 1, 1900,when the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria was inaugurated, slave raids, slave trade and slavery were prevalent in most parts and internecine wars continued to be waged. The territory is large and posed great difficulty in finance and personnel in administration. The British also had local Fulani imperialism, which had been in control of the larger part of the territory for about a century to contend with. Lord Frederick Lugard, an Army Captain and appointed British High Commissioner, was able to bring the situation under control within six years with a combination of military force, diplomacy and pacifist administrative strategy of the Indirect Rule system. The Southern part of Nigeria, was made more easily accessible through the Bights of Benin and Biafra, and great lagoons and rivers that criss-cross the territories. By 1900, Christian missionaries, which started operations in many parts of the South since 1840s, have entrenched themselves, opened schools, hospitals, dispensaries and produced elites among whom were adherents of both Christianity and Islam. Relative infrastructural development had taken place such that by 1898, the streets of Lagos had been electrically lit and by 1900, a number of roads have been constructed: Ebute Metta to Ibadan railway completed, Carter and Denton bridges across Lagos lagoon to the Mainland at Iddo also delivered. The two administrative structures of Lagos Colony and the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria were merged in 1906. Captain Lugard who had resigned as High Commissioner of Northern Nigeria in 1906 to take up appointment as Governor of Hong Kong in 1907, was drafted back to Nigeria in 1912, now a Brigadier General and appointed Governor of Northern and Southern Nigeria. For economic reasons of subsidising the deficit budget of Northern Nigeria with the surplus of the South, Lugard was said to have decided to conduct the involuntary marriage between the “rich wife of substance and means” and the “poor husband” resulting in the amalgamation of Southern and Northern Protectoratesin 1914. In spite of its relatively greater diversity in terms of ethnic composition and religion, the far bigger North was kept as one but the union of the smaller South was soon broken by the British into Eastern and The salvation and unity of Nigeria lie in the unity of the South which tribes are, by far, more at peace with one another; the oppressed minority of the North should look up to the South for their own salvation Western regions and kept perpetually apart for Northern domination into Independence in 1960 and ever since. In other words, the monogamous North/ South marriage of 1914 became polygamous of North/ East- West,with the two new wives in such internecine rivalry for easier domination of their oppressive husband they both struggle to impress or eke a token from. The political leaders of the Fulani to whom the British shrewdly handed over Nigeria at Independence were also skilled political craftsmen, scheming to weave together the more ethnically diverse Northern region. A non-existent Hausa/Fulani tribe was coined to give the conquered Hausa majority a false sense of power and influence. The ruling tribe craftily held on to real power while conceding attractive but bogus positions to other groups, also controlled invariably by the oligarchy,thereby sitting on the North while making the South the foot stool. Thus, Sir Ahmadu Bello was content with the Premiership of the North in furtherance of the vision and mission of Uthman Dan Fodio, donating Prime Minister of the uncertain contraption of the Nigerian federation to Tafawa Balewa of the minority. From Borno to Borgu, Katsina to Igala, including the Yoruba enclaves of Ilorin and Kabba Provinces, Sardauna held sway. The hegemony was so effective that the likes of Joseph Tarka of the Middle Belt, Josiah Olawoyin of the Kwara/Kogi region who were allies of Awolowo were seen only as rebels. By 1953, when Enahoro moved the motion for Nigeria’s Independence in 1956, the North, in one accord, said it was not prepared and that the British should only lower its Union Jack flag as soon as practicable. In reaction to the molestation of their members in the House of Representatives, on that score, by people on the streets of Lagos, the North declared Araba, to secede from Nigeria,even if that meant suicide for the landlocked region provided it was secured for the caliphate. Only the counsel of Britain to the contrary pulled back the North. The coup of July 1966 was in reaction to that led by Chukwuma Nzeogwu of January in which the enigmatic Northern Premier was assassinated. The masterminds and executors of the vengeful Northern coup were mainly of minority groups which dominated the military. Even subsequently as military Governors and Heads of State, these minority elements joyfully served the interests of one North and invariably the Caliphate. Evidently incompetent and lacking the political dexterity of his ancestors, President Buhari has not only exposed the diversity of the north, putting a spanner to the carefully knitted northern architectural design, in his lacklustre handling of kidnapping, rape, mass killings and untold criminality against all which are unabashedly traceable to men of his Fulani tribe. From Zamfara, Kebbi, Katsina, Kaduna, Taraba, Plateau, Nasarawa, Benue, Kogi, etc, it is your land for the Fulani herdsmen or your life withthe activeacquiescence of the Presidency and unbridled celebration by the President’s spokespersons. In spite of all of these, the Governors of the 19 Northern States still meet in a Northern Governors Forum, while their Southern counterparts still fragment themselves in geopolitical arrangements of South West, South East and South- South. It is often very convenient for the President to meet with Governors of the North while only sparingly and reluctantly meeting Southern Governors on geopolitical basis. The salvation and unity of Nigeria lie in the unity of the South which tribes are, by far, more at peace with one another. The oppressed minority of the North which, pulled together, are in clear majority, look up to the unity of the South for their own salvation. No tribe in the South has territorial contest with the Middle Belt, or desirous of their conquest for traditional hegemony. At the 2014 National Conference where I was a Delegate, the resolutions reached on major issues were predicated on the unity of the South which gave the Middle Belt delegates the confidence to team up for national consensus. The now effective Southern Leaders/ Middle Belt Forum was borne out of the necessity for national consensus for the inevitable restructuring and re-negotiation of the Nigerian federation and its corporate existence. The emergence of the Southern Governors Forum and of its legislators at the national and states levels is the reinvention of the reality of the entities that birthed the Nigerian union in 1914. Incidentally, the entire South and the Middle Belt, which constitutes over 70 percent of the federation, agree on the inevitability and imperative of the restructuring and re-negotiation of the terms of the Nigerian federation. BY ANDREW OKELEKE HOW time flies! My dear wife, it is already one year since you exited this wicked world through the reckless driver of BRT bus No. 314 at a spot near Agric Bus-stop, Ikorodu Road, Lagos. We spoke last at 7.14pm on that fateful day. And ten minutes later, you had been knocked down while attempting to cross over to the other side of the road to wait for me. Since that day, life has never been the same. The occurrence momentarily brought my world to a close. Darkness took over my space. For days, I was unable to comprehend what hit me that less than 10 minutes after we spoke, you were gone. We were going to meet at a hospital across the road to run a medical check on a new house help. Then suddenly you were no more. Even when I drove past the accident scene to meet you at the hospital as scheduled, little did I know that the gathering I saw around the accident scene was about you. I got to the hospital to ask after you, but no one seemed to give me an answer about your presence at the hospital. But when I called our daughter to confirm whether you changed your mind and returned home, she broke the saddest news ever to me. I found it difficult to believe that you were the victim, just 10 minutes after we spoke. I raced to the scene only to see your lifeless body in a pool of your own blood. BRT bus driver had murdered my dear wife! I must confess that my life without you in the last one year has been thorny. To say the least, it was a mystery that I could survive the spate of incidents that happened to my existence as a widower. The vacuum your absence created in the home is real. The thoughts that you will forever be missing from the home kept going through our minds - your children and I. But it is stronger on me as the relationship of over 30 years cannot be wished away easily. What about the love we shared together; the good times we had even when the resources were scarce? What about the strong support you gave me to climb from the zero rung of the ladder to the point where we would have settled for a glorious evening? What about the peace, love and joy you brought to the entire family, and by extension, to our acquaintances and church members? What about your major role of ensuring smooth running of the home to the delight and progress of the family? That you were in charge of the home, like any other virtuous woman, was not in doubt. You conceptualised; you directed; you executed plans that stimulated our progress within the over 30 years we lived together. Talking about spate of occurrences after your death, they came in a staccato form, to the extent that I likened my life to that of a man born without luck. Worse still, the events seemed to be happening on the same date of 11 of subsequent months. Since you have been gone, I have become particularly suspicious of the 11th of every month. It is for good reason. You left this world on that date; every other month since then, some unsalutary events tried to arrange themselves for that date. It is as if I should “beware of the ides” of 11 of any month. But God has reasons for the occurrences. He is the One that controls the time and our lives. I must confess that my life without you in the last one year has been thorny; my dear Nkem, as we fondly called each other, your untimely exit is difficult to forget even when people around encouraged me to do so *The late Mrs Grace Okeleke Indeed, my trip home on Thursday, the first since your departure, was dry, just as our country home we built together was empty. It was devoid of the bustling of my kinsmen and your relations as well as old friends within the village who hitherto would troop into the house for the usual felicitations. It used to be rendezvous of some sort. You would cook almost endlessly to ensure our guests were entertained. We would have them come at different times; sometimes late. But none of these happened this time round. It was as if they held a meeting to promulgate an unwritten rule that none should visit simply because the “chief entertainer” is gone. They may have imagined who would warmly welcome them with that wifely disposition. I sat in the large living room alone with a reflection of how your gregarious presence attracted them. I recall the financial and material support that we pass on to all. With a feeling of nostalgia, I reminisced on how the warmth of your presence in the village attracted our acquaintances. Only then did I realise that your presence at home was like the honey-comb that constantly attracted the bees. My dear Nkem, as we fondly called each other, your untimely exit is difficult to forget even when people around encouraged me to do so. As the legendary reggae musician, late Bob Marley sang, “he who feels it knows it much”. I feel it; I know how it pains; but only God, the Owner of the whole earth will help the family to cope. Driving past the spot of the tragic accident, constantly throws up some chilling feelings in me. It reminds me of that terrible moment when I felt my world was finished and completely collapsed. We had our evening full of hope; hope of retiring into a quiet life of full-time ministry; hope of helping our children to nurture our grand children; hope of working for humanity. Indeed, the hope of enjoying the home we built together. But that hope was dashed by a careless, reckless and wicked BRT driver exactly one year ago. As I mark the first year of your exit, I pray the Almighty God to grant you eternal rest in His bosom. I pray and believe that we shall be together some day, to part no more. Adieu, my Love! *Okeleke is Head, PR, Globacom
Page 1 and 2: COVID-19: FG re-imposes nationwide
Page 3 and 4: 4 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 11 , 2
Page 5 and 6: 6— Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 11, 202
Page 7 and 8: 8 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 11, 20
Page 9 and 10: 10 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 11 ,
Page 13: 14 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 11, 2
Page 23 and 24: 24 — Niger-Delta Voice, TUESDAY,
Page 27 and 28: 28—Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 11, 202
Page 29 and 30: C M Y Vanguard, TUESDAY, MAY 11, 20
Page 31 and 32: Pirlo’s a dead man walking! •Mi

11052021 - Insecurity: Bandits attack Katsina mosque, abduct 10

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?