The Muslim who risked all for his Christian neighbours

By Olu Jacob April 23, 2011 10:01PM

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As the rampaging youth pursued the woman into the street, men dragged their wives and children inside and locked their doors. The rioters finally caught up with the screaming woman and began to beat her; they tore up her clothes and pushed her to the ground. Then they raised her up again and were dragging her off when a slightly built man in caftan and skull cap approached, shouting at them to stop, his arms flailing. Men looked out from inside their rooms in amazement.

"They said later that they thought I was out of my mind, approaching these boys, all drugged on something, carrying petrol and burning down buildings," said Adamu Bologi.

Mr. Bologi himself had not thought of the consequences of his action. He dragged the woman away from the boys and took her to a nearby mosque, hiding her by a side entrance through which the Ladan usually enters. Of course, he made sure she took off her shoes first.

When he came out, he saw another harassed woman running with two children, stumbling along the road. Her husband is the pastor of a church, the Conqueror's House, around the same area where the Christian Corpers Lodge and a church were burnt last Monday in Minna.

Mr Bologi looked around him. There was no one else apart from the rioters in the street.

"It was suddenly like midnight," he said. "The whole place was so quiet, not even a child could be heard, although it was just about 2pm. The world seemed empty and these boys were in charge."

He saw smoke from a burning church behind the crying woman on the opposite street; he saw some other miscreants approach; and he saw that soon she would run into them. Mr Bologi ran towards her and took one of the children. He tried to lead her to his house, but she was inconsolable.

"She kept screaming about her husband, saying, ‘They are too many. They are beating him, please help him before they kill him.' She finally agreed to follow me home after I promised to go for the pastor afterward."

After he took her home, where another victim he took there earlier was already settled, watching a movie, he went back to check on the pastor but the place was unapproachable. The boys were breaking windows, destroying the building and stealing church equipment. How to approach such a scene?

Mr Bologi said the pastor fought valiantly; there was blood on his hands where he kept blocking the blows from the cutlass wielded by one of the boys as the rest hit him with hockey sticks. The whole place was full of smoke.

"I was alone," said Mr Bologi. "There was no way I could handle those boys. I had no stick, no knife, nothing."

Suddenly, someone pointed at him, asking where the woman was and some in the gang began to spread around to look for her.

"So I went back to look after my family and the woman. But when she saw me she started screaming about her husband again, asking me if he was dead already, begging me to help him. So I got out again."

But by the time he went back, the pastor was no longer there. The boys were still screaming, still stealing, still vandalising but there was nothing he could do. He went past the church searching for the pastor. The streets were deserted save for the urchins, and he was about to return home when he saw a man walking through some kind of haze.

"He had obviously been looking for his family," said Mr Bologi. "When I approached him, he stood there with bandaged hands, still defiant. ‘Are you the pastor of the burnt church?' I asked. He said, ‘So what if I am?' So I told him his family was in my home and that I could take him to them."

But that took a while because Mr Bologi couldn't just walk the bleeding pastor to his home - they would be seen. So they devised a way to get to the house by indirection, going sideways, like a crab's walk.

"When the woman saw her husband, I have never seen such joy," he said.

There was a police barracks near the place, perhaps 300 metres away. Mr Bologi told the pastor that soon the boys would come to look for him there and he won't be able to stop them, alone. He had to get them to the barracks; the pastor's family, and the woman he had ensconced in the mosque. On the way, they heard sirens, a vehicle filled with policemen approached and the motley crew of victims and their surrogate looked up in hope, but the policemen were on their way to the governor's residence nearby.

When Mr Bologi returned from the barracks, he saw that the boys have all gathered by his house.

"I thought, ‘well, this is it.' The only thing standing between me and harm was my long dress," he said.

They were not after him, however.

"There is a building opposite where I stay and the whole people there are Ibos. The boys were attacking the place. They were breaking the windows, television, everything," he said.

The example to follow

Earlier on, the people had met Mr Bologi to seek permission to move into his compound, but there were too many of them.

"I suggested they all move to the police barracks and I followed them there to scout the road. They had to wait at the junction while I checked if the boys were around," he said.

When he saw that their rooms were under attack, Mr Bologi again pleaded with the boys to move on, that there was no one there. They ignored him. By this time, his brave efforts and constant imprecations had brought four other men from their homes and they helped in urging the boys to desist.

"That was when this man came running out of his room and they caught him. They began to beat him up but we went closer. We were shouting, ‘don't kill him, don't kill him.' They said they would kill him unless he said, ‘Laila la'ilallah.'

"The man tried, but he couldn't say the words. I told them this was unIslamic and they got more angry, accusing me of conniving with unbelievers, threatening me.

"It was during this back and forth that one of those wielding a machete went behind and hit the man on the neck, leaving a wide gash as the man crumbled to the floor..."

At this point in his narration, Mr Bologi's voice crumbled, and he couldn't go on. His eyes misted over.

"It is not right," he said. "It is not right to do that to another human being, and no religion I know permits such a thing. No religion says that for no reason you can machete an innocent man."

I asked Mr Bologi what happened after this.

"I started crying," he said.

"It was all too much. I saw the blow and for a second, the collar-bones were all white and then the blood started gushing. I became so weak."

When he rallied, Mr Bologi had attempted to push the man into the Mosque but the boys stopped him. So he dragged the man to his house.

"There was all this blood and my wife wasn't finding it funny. She said, "What are you doing? You bring some and you take them out and you go and bring others?"

So why did Mr Bologi, a young librarian at the state newspaper house, Newsline, a man without any obvious physical strength stand up to over 30 vicious young men, holding clubs and machetes?

"I kept remembering the prophet, Mohammed," he said. "He urged us to live our lives in such a way that other people would come to admire our way of life and become Muslims themselves. Is anyone going to become a Muslim with the kind of violence shown by those boys?"

And why did the rioters not learn the same lesson?

"They are mostly boys, you know, without families, without the kind of home training we got. Many of them are twelve, fourteen and fifteen-year-olds."

Afterward, Mr Bologi and some other neighbours, mostly Muslims, joined hands to put out the fires in the churches and to take all the injured to the hospital. Mr. Bologi still looked exhausted the day after.

"I kept thinking of the prophet," he said. "One day some men came to kill him and failed. As they fled, the prophet noticed that they were going in the direction of his more militant supporters, Saidi na Ali and such. So, he told them not to go that way, to avoid the route because they might get themselves killed. He helped them make good their escape. That is my example. That should be our example as Muslims."

The letter that killed ACN/CPC alliance

                           Pastor Tunde Bakare. 

By Idris Akinbajo April 24, 2011 02:14AM

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The refusal of Tunde Bakare, the vice presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), to sign a postdated letter of resignation, has been largely blamed for the collapse of the alliance talks between the CPC and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). NEXT has obtained an exclusive copy of the contentious letter. Had Mr Bakare signed the letter, dated June 7, 2011, the clergyman would have been under compulsion to step down as vice president after eight days in the post if his party had won the last presidential election.

In an arrangement that would have made Mr Bakare the briefest occupier of the vice presidential office in Nigeria's history, a nominee of the ACN would have succeeded the clergyman, in line with the terms of the alliance agreement.

But while the presidential candidate of the CPC, Muhammadu Buhari, and other chieftains of his party were satisfied with the letter, according to a source close to the talks, Mr Bakare refused to sign the letter despite entreaties from Mr Buhari, other party chiefs, and the ACN delegation to the talks. Some unnamed northern elders were also said to have "begged" Mr Bakare to sign the letter in the interest of the nation and democracy.

The one-page message, written under the letterhead of the CPC, was entitled ‘Resignation from Office as the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria', and addressed to the "President and Commander in Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria," whom the party believed would be Mr Buhari, its presidential candidate.

The letter read, "I have to this end appreciated the need for me to promote the desired national interest which by my principles override any other individual interest to make a supreme sacrifice of resigning my position as the Vice President of Nigeria to allow for the accommodation of the broader alliance that I strongly believe is required to move our country forward."

Bakare writes his own letter

But the CPC vice presidential candidate spurned the letter, preferring to write a different one which the ACN delegation believed would have given him room to renege on the terms of the alliance deal. The other signed letter written by Mr Bakare, also exclusively obtained by NEXT, was dated April 13, 2011 and addressed to Mr Buhari.

In it, Mr Bakare told his principal that "if at any time during the course of our joint efforts to move our country forward to the promised land, you consider it necessary for me to step down as the Vice President, please feel free at your sole and absolute discretion to accept this unilateral offer of resignation from me to that effect."

The source stated that the ACN refused this letter.

"They said it did not demonstrate enough willingness by Mr Bakare to vacate office," the source said. "They said the letter leaves everything to the discretion of Mr Buhari and wondered why Pastor Bakare simply refused to resign."

CPC responds

When our reporter contacted Mr Bakare by phone, he said, "I can't attend to any information, any news now. I have too much I'm trying to sort out. Thank you."

Contacted on Friday, Rotimi Fashakin, spokesperson for the CPC, refused to confirm or deny the existence and contents of the letter(s). In a telephone interview, Mr Fashakin stated that "the (refusal of Mr Bakare to sign the letter) was the reason given by the ACN for the breakdown of the negotiation."

He explained that there was still enough room to negotiate over the writing of a letter when the ACN suddenly called off the alliance.

"The negotiation period was supposed to be a process. If somebody does not meet your requirement, it is not enough to call off the negotiations.

"It will be correct to say that they were just looking for the flimsiest of excuses to align with the PDP," Mr Fashakin said.

Northern leaders mediate collapsed talks

After the conclusion of the National Assembly polls, the ACN and the CPC continued discussions on the possibility of an alliance before the presidential elections. The talks, according to a source, were held in two locations: the Lagos House in Asokoro, Abuja, and another location in Wuse 2 area of Abuja. The two parties had, months before the general election, also held several alliance talks without reaching any conclusion. The results of the National Assembly elections, however, showed that unless both parties worked together, their chances of upstaging the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) during the presidential polls were slim. The PDP had already garnered more than half of the National Assembly seats declared. The 11-hour alliance meeting commenced on the evening of Monday, April 11, and was reportedly facilitated by top northern leaders.

"General Babangida (former head of state), General Abdulsalam Abubakar (former head of state), and General (Aliyu) Gusau (former national security adviser) were among the northern leaders that brokered the meeting, and they were all there during the negotiations," another source close to the talks told NEXT.

After two days of negotiations, however, the alliance failed and both parties on Wednesday, April 13, announced to the world that each of them was presenting its own candidates for the election.

Accusations and counter accusations

The ACN and the CPC have accused each other of causing the collapse of the alliance talks. ACN chieftains led by its national chairman, Bisi Akande, were the first to address the press on the collapse of the talks. Mr Akande, in a press conference on April 13 at the party secretariat in the Wuse area of Abuja, told the world that the ACN did not cause the collapse of the talks. The party's national secretary, Lawan Shuaib, also said, that same day, that the refusal of the CPC to honour its side of the agreement on the resignation of Mr Bakare caused the failure of the alliance. Later, the ACN national publicity secretary, Lai Mohammed, joined the fray. He said in a statement that "we bent over backwards every inch of the way, especially in the three days of intense negotiations before the election. We risked everything: our candidate agreed to step down in the national interest, at the risk of the damage that will be done to his candidacy if the alliance fails, and that was exactly what happened."

Mr Mohammed added that "all we demanded from the CPC during the last days of intense negotiation, when we kept all our national leaders in Abuja for three straight days, was to allow us to produce the vice president after the election, and it became too much for them. Simply put, these people wanted us to amputate our two hands for them, while they could not even afford to lose a finger!"

Mr Buhari, the CPC presidential candidate, stated his own version of events when he told journalists prior to the elections that "the talks...ran into difficulties when the ACN insisted that the only condition for agreement was that they must produce the vice president. By the electoral laws, this was virtually impossible before this election."

Mr Buhari further stated that "we suggested that they should let us jointly go into the elections and jointly form the government after our victory. But our friends were not ready to take us on our honour and went to the media."

If the alliance had worked, the ACN and CPC would have presented one presidential candidate to challenge the incumbent and eventual winner of the elections, President Goodluck Jonathan.

Click here to view a copy of the proposed resignation letter.

Click here to view a copy of Pastor Bakare's letter to General Buhari.

McCain, Obama unite for 9/11 memorial

SEPTEMBER 11, 2008
WASHINGTON - As Americans pause today to remember victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, it will become something else, a presidential campaign stop.

In a rare display of political unity in a tense election season, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain will visit Lower Manhattan to commemorate the seventh anniversary of an event that killed more than 2,700 people in New York and transformed American politics.

"All of us came together on 9/11 -- not as Democrats or Republicans -- but as Americans. In smoke-filled corridors and on the steps of the Capitol; at blood banks and at vigils -- we were united as one American family," Obama and McCain said in a joint statement.

But don't expect the bipartisan goodwill to last -- the stakes are simply too high.

Obama said on Wednesday there's nothing cheeky about accusations he directed a sexist slur against McCain's running mate by comparing GOP promises of political reform to putting "lipstick on a pig."

Facing Republican demands he apologize to Sarah Palin, Obama instead denounced McCain's campaign for using a "made-up controversy" to win favour among female voters.

The latest tempest to engulf the presidential campaign began Tuesday when Obama used a time-worn political put-down to denounce McCain's policies.

"John McCain says he's about change, too. Except, and so I guess his whole angle is, 'Watch out, George Bush, except for economic policy, health-care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy .... We're really gonna shake things up in Washington,' " Obama said. "That's not change. That's just calling the same thing, something different. But you know, you can put lipstick on a pig; it's still a pig."

McCain's campaign maintained Obama's was clearly aimed at Palin, the 44-year-old rookie governor and self-described "hockey mom," who captured headlines when she said the only difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull terrier was lipstick.

Presidential candidate on trial for fraud

BY GOWON EMAKPE April 22, 2011 01:38PM

The only female presidential candidate in last Saturday’s presidential election, Ebiti Onoyom Ndok, was yesterday arraigned before a Magistrate Court in Abuja for allegedly issuing dud cheques to different hotels were she lodged.

Ms Ndok, the National Chairperson of the United National Party for Development and the presidential candidate of the party, has been in detention in Keffi, Nasarawa State, following a court order, and remained in detention during the presidential polls. She was arraigned in Abuja yesterday by the police and is standing trial under Section 322 of the Penal Code and Section 1 (1) of the Amended Cheque Act 2004.

She faces a three-year imprisonment if convicted of the charges. The prosecution said she lodged in a hotel from November 30, 2010 to January 24, 2011, for which she raised a cheque of N1, 287,500 to offset the bill, but it was dishonoured by her banker. She was said to have equally lodged in another hotel this year, during which she incurred another bill of N790,619 but wrote a cheque of N595,000 for part payment. It was also returned unpaid.

The Magistrate, Ahmed Shuaibu, however, adjourned hearing in the matter till May 12, 2011 after the prosecutor, S.A. Bandawa, told the court that investigation into the case is yet to be completed. The accused is standing trial for “cheating and issuance of dud cheque contrary to section 332 of the penal code law and section I (1) of the Amended Cheque Act 2004.”

Police charge

A charge sheet presented by the police read: “On the day of March 2011, one Moses Ege, of Onyx Hotel and Apartment, Abuja, came to the C.I.D department and reported that you, Mrs Ebiti, checked into the hotel from 30/11/2010 to 24/1/11 and incurred bill of N1,287,500 for which you issued a post-dated cheque which, upon presentation to the bank, was returned to the clearer dishonoured.

Similarly, on the 30/1/11, one David Simon, of Harthrow Suite, Garki, Abuja, wrote a petition to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, C.I.D, Abuja, that sometime in the month of January 2011, you, Mrs Ebiti, lodged in the suite and left without paying bills; and when confronted, you issued a cheque for N595, 000 which was returned dishonoured on presentation. And also that the total bills incurred by you is the sum of N790,619.52. You thereby committed the above mentioned offences”.

Edo students record mass failure in NECO exams

Adams Oshiomhole, Edo State governor.

BY JETHRO IBILEKE April 22, 2011 12:43AM

Edo State students have recorded another mass failure in the November/December 2010 NECO examination, results from the National Examinations Council (NECO) has shown.

Out of the 25 subjects taken by students from the state, none of the participating students had up to 50 per cent pass mark in the examination set for graduating secondary school students.

This has raised concern among relevant parties, with teachers and parents trading blames as to who is responsible for the poor academic performances of students in the state.

Those who spoke to NEXT on the development attributed the cause of the mass failure to many factors, including lack of qualified teachers, particularly in private schools, and the premium they place on money. Others include lack of reading culture among the students, and loss of societal values. Owners of private schools were also indicted in the mass failure of students, as many of them have turned their schools to ‘miracle centres’, where students easily indulge in examination malpractices after paying high fees to the school owners.

Solomon Osarenren, who teaches Mathematics in a private school in Benin City, blames lack of seriousness on the part of the students, lazy approach to study, and lack of infrastructure in the schools, as some of the factors responsible for the decline in the performance of the students.

“So long as students attach more importance to mundane things and spend more time surfing the Internet and watching movies, it will be difficult for them to excel in their studies. After all, students of those days performed even better than students of today, even without those infrastructures that are in schools of today,” Mr Osarenren said.

An educationist, Roland Asoro, who decried the rate of mass failure in examinations in the state in particular and the country at large, advised the government to take proactive steps to address the trend. He called for regular training and re-training of teachers, as well as the provision of learning aids in the schools.

Mr Asoro also admonished parents and guardians to supervise and regulate activities of their children at home, with a view to making them more responsible and serious.

Some parents, however, said that the bulk of the blame should not be attributed to them alone. They argue that teachers are also responsible for the poor performance of students in external examinations.

A parent, Osarobo Asemota, whose child attends one of the private schools in Benin City, argued that teachers can only give what they have academically.

According to her, many of the teachers, especially in some private schools, lack the minimum qualifications required. She also called for consistency in the educational policies of government.

“We want all concerned to urgently address this ugly development. If things continue the way they are, ten years from now, the country may inherit half baked workforce,” Ms Asemota said.

When contacted on phone, special assistant on education to Governor Oshiomhole, Alli Sule, said: “We are still studying the result at the ministry level. We shall come out with our position later.”

Group questions Jonathan campaign funding

CNPP spokesman, Osita Okechukwu, challenges Muhammadu Buhari By Festus Owete April 22, 2011 12:26AM

The Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) says it will not congratulate President Goodluck Jonathan on his victory at the last Saturday’s presidential poll until he explains the source of his campaign funds.

The group said in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Osita Okechukwu yesterday, alleging that Mr Jonathan, who was the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) violated the provision of the 2010 Electoral Act by overshooting the N1 billion recommended by the Act for presidential campaign.

“CNPP cannot congratulate President Goodluck Jonathan when on the last count, outside the breaches, he violently violated section 91 of the 2010 Electoral Act by spending over N100 billion in his campaign hence corrupting the electoral process,” said the group.

“Please, help me calculate the amount of money Jonathan’s campaign council spent on advertisement on electronic, print and social media network alone; it is over N17 billion.” Mr Okechukwu said. The statement added that the CNPP is aware of “how billions of naira were doled out across the country to induce voters by sundry groups in the name of President Jonathan and thus expanding the budgetary spending.”

Neighbour to Neighbour group

The group wondered who funded the “Neighbour to Neighbour” group, a component of the president’s campaign outfit, asking “did it discover electricity or a window in the computer?” “CNPP will congratulate President Jonathan when he comes clean on the amount spent and the sources, failing which the legitimacy crisis will linger,” the CNPP spokesman said.

According to Section 91 (1) subsection 2-7 of the Electoral Act 2010, the maximum election expenses to be incurred at a presidential election shall be N1 billion while that of a governorship candidate is N200 million. The Act also pegs the campaign expenses of a senatorial candidate at N40 million while that of a House of Representatives candidate is N20 million. The Act also provides corresponding penalties for those who violate the provisions.

Fire razes Tunde Bakare’s Lagos home

By Segun Balogun April 22, 2011 08:48PM

The house of Tunde Bakare, the running mate of the presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Muhammadu Buhari, caught fire on Friday.

The fire razed the top floor of his house at Biodun Close, off Henry Adefowope Crescent in Awuse Estate.

The fire, NEXT learnt from neighbours, started around 2pm and was put out around 5pm by officials of the Lagos State Fire and Safety Service.

Confirming the incident to NEXT in a telephone interview, Mr Bakare said, “It is not a rumour. It is my residence that caught fire and got burnt, but no lives was lost. We thank God for that.”

He further said that the “fire started in my boys’ room and gulped the whole of first floor.”

Mr Bakare, when asked whether the incident was just a domestic accident or possibly related to the current political issues in Nigeria, said he does not yet know the cause of the fire outbreak.

“I cannot answer any questions along that line. I do not know the cause of the fire and I do not want to create any sensational news out of the incident,” he said. “Fire is fire. I can’t say it’s political sabotage or whatever. I just know that we were in the house and fire started in my boys’ room and gulped the whole of first floor. Let’s leave it like that.”

However, more than six armed policemen were seen within the premises, and this, coupled with the fact that no journalists were allowed to enter the premises to gain an on-site assessment, is fuelling the suspicion of sabotage.