The foremost and leading civil rights advocacy group; Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has urged for the speedy consideration of the request officially made to President Muhammadu Buhari by the Management of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) for the setting up of a solid footing of a Trust Fund for youths under the auspices of the National Youth Service Corps Scheme.
HURIWA, in a statement by the National Coordinator; Comrade Emanuel Onwubiko revealed that aside the positive, transformational and constructive social impacts the youth trust fund would bring, the initiative is about the surest panacea to end the perennial youths involvement in social crimes, noting that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.
Endorsing the proposal put forward by the Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim- led NYSC, which now beckons for the urgent approval by the President, HURIWA informed that the Trust Fund will create partial or full financial autonomy for the scheme in funding its administrative operations while also assisting Nigerian graduates, privileged to pass through the scheme in offering a window to draw capital for their entrepreneurial exploits, after the post-service era.
More so, HURIWA noted that the investment capital which will be offered by the NYSC Trust fund to graduated Corps members will be a formidable backup to the knowledge acquired in the Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme. This in the examination of HURIWA is the motivation of Brigadier-General Ibrahim for his recommendation and loud preachments for the creation of this trust fund that would ensure the financial empowerment of all corps members after the national service year.
“The Director- General of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme; Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim is a foresighted administrator. He is an administrative pathfinder of admirable qualities. In matters of public administration, he is like the famed seers of ancient days. He sees tomorrow with crystal clarity and begins to work on any obstacle today. His inclination to a prosperous Nigerian youths is unbeatable.
“Since assumption of office, as the NYSC boss, Brigadier Gen. Ibrahim has been in ceaseless motion in the search for better ways to reposition the scheme to fully discharge its mandate. The DG has reactivated NYSC investment platforms; upgraded and modernized the Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme. Obviously, corps members are savouring the gains of his repositioned NYSC in diverse ways.
“In further pursuit of his dreams to bequeath a better scheme to Nigeria, Brigadier General Ibrahim has proposed a vigorous campaign for the establishment of the NYSC Trust Fund. When he first voiced the idea, doubters might have probably assumed he is bluffing. But the national endorsements and acceptability of this proposal now is amazing, which is only comparable to the Scriptural mustard seed”, HURIWA enthused.
Highlighting further on the need of having a transparently administered NYSC Youths Trust Fund, HURIWA averred that the brilliant idea by the management of NYSC would definitely change the fortunes of the scheme and its participants dramatically being that the NYSC management envisaged a Trust Fund which will be backed by legislation and draw its funding from a stipulated percentage of profits of corporate bodies in Nigeria as graduate unemployment is one of Nigeria’s greatest headache.
Continuing, the rights group asserted that once the NYSC Trust fund is approved by President Muhammadu Buhari and takes off, the number of young Nigerians who pass out from the scheme to face a depressing future by roaming the streets and knocking on the doors of government offices in search of white-collar jobs would reduce drastically.
“The NYSC Trust Fund is designed to assist them with seed capital based on the stipulations of the Act establishing it, in order to try their entrepreneurial skills and possibly, transform into employers of labour. It is a foundation to self-reliance and financial independence.
“Truly, the moments of joblessness after graduation and the mandatory service year are frustrating and quite traumatic. It stains the joy and pride of citizenship. So, an effectively managed NYSC Youth Trust Fund will be another method of tackling massive youth employment in the country.
“The pride of every patriotic citizen is to render service to his nation. In Nigeria, the NYSC is providing a veritable platform for the actualization of this aspiration for educated Nigerian youths below 30 years of age. And the excitement of service year, lingers long in the minds of young Nigerian graduates. Besides, the scheme has served as weapon for cultural and social integration among Nigerians”, HURIWA posited.
Again, HURIWA believes that an NYSC Trust Fund will conveniently address the subsisting challenges of infrastructural decay and funding which have strangulated the smooth operations of the scheme over the years. The rights group further trusts that the proposed NYSC Trust Fund will serve as a vault that will provide ‘seed money’ for graduate youth entrepreneurs after the service year for the effective utilization of knowledge taught at the Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme.
Additionally, HURIWA informed that other foreseeable and solid impacts of an NYSC Trust Fund, which includes unburdening State Governments from financial commitments on the scheme in the magnitude presently obtained will equally serve as another frontal attack on the menace of unemployment in Nigeria and an instrument of curbing the increasing rate of crime in the country by meaningfully engaging youths. “The NYSC Trust fund will also provide funds for expanding NYSC Orientation Camps and the renovation of dilapidated camp facilities.
“And for the fact that it is intended that the beneficiaries will require neither collateral nor godfather to access the ‘seed money’ offered by the trust fund, all Nigerians can attest to the viability of the scheme and how it will help young Nigerians in various fields of entrepreneurial endevours.
“This could explain why when some members of the House of Representatives tinkered with the idea of scrapping the NYSC, Nigerians stood up in unison to resist the move. Earlier in the year, a report released by data bank and research organization (NOIPolls) indicated that over 83% of Nigerians resoundingly rejected the scrapping of the NYSC scheme for whatever reason”, said HURIWA.
Nonetheless, HURIWA observed that while the NYSC, like other initiatives of the FGN has faced it’s fair share of setbacks ranging from poor funding to maladministration, the scheme has tottered over the years just as the group added that the scheme has not closed its doors to innovations and improvements, with successive administrations in Nigeria. “And from all indications, the NYSC’s moments of glory have berthed eventually under the leadership of Brigadier General Ibrahim.
“This assertion also finds expression in the favorable disposition of President Muhammadu Buhari who is passionate about youth engagement and empowerment. Therefore, the President has seen the NYSC as a platform to railroad the transformation of Nigerian young graduates into formidable and productive citizens.
“His appointment of Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim to head the scheme was a conscious attempt at re-engineering and repositioning the scheme for the maximum benefits of Nigerian youths and Nigeria.
“Hence, the idea of the NYSC Trust Fund which started like a whisper is now trumpeted by all stakeholders and leaders. Almost every notable Nigerian has lent a voice in its support. They are at the forefront of reeling out the benefits of the NYSC Trust Fund. HURIWA’s statement was issued after it held a consultative parley at the Weekend with about 56 registered non governmental and civil society groups which collectively endorsed the proposed NYSC YOUTHS TRUST FUND.
Likewise, while explaining that the Youth Trust Fund to be managed by the National Youth Service Corps would go a long way in raising entrepreneurs who would deploy their entrepreneurial potential for national development, the prominent civil rights advocacy group (HURIWA) noted that the urgent approval by President Buhari for the trust fund geared towards equipping corps members with requisite skills they need for value addition and financial empowerment as they are completing their national services cannot be overemphasized.
More so, when approved, according to HURIWA, the trust fund will also provide resources for the training and empowerment of corps members, especially on skill acquisition and entrepreneurship development.
“It is a strategy to end poverty as the president has envisaged to lift 100 million out of poverty by 2030. Fortuitously, the Brigadier-General Ibrahim Shuaibu’s led management of the National Youth Service Corps has listed the Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED)’s achievement to include the establishment of a full-pledged department that would be saddled with the responsibility of streamlining the skills and entrepreneurial activities of the Corps members. The Rights group promised to provide civil society oversight on the implementation.this of the NYSC’S YOUTH TRUST FUND when it is actualized and hopefully soon.
“Therefore, HURIWA is canvasing for the urgent approval of the trust fund for its take-off as it has been adjudged helpful in actualising President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of unemployment before the next decade. HURIWA assures that as long as the management of NYSC does not deviate from the time honoured template of adherence to the principles of transparency and accountability, the Rights group will continue to support it.
“By and large, the Trust Fund is a testament that the NYSC has diversified its approach from career advisory to entrepreneurship development with the high rate of poverty and unemployment in the nation”, HURIWA concluded.
Nigeria’s organised Islamic terrorism problem did not start in 2009. It’s a lot more insidious than you think.
David Hundeyin
In May 2021, a 96 year-old businessman died in Rome, Italy. In his lifetime, Ahmed Idris Nasreddin might have amassed a personal fortune of close to half a billion dollars, but the death of NASCO Group’s multimillionaire founder barely made the news. At first glance, the only extraordinary thing about his life story was that it embodied the African entrepreneurship dream.
Nasreddin was an Eritrean who moved to Jos in Nigeria’s Plateau State, and grew his father’s small manufacturing business into a $460 million conglomerate involved in everything from breakfast cereal and confectionery to pharmaceuticals, real estate and energy. After many years of growth and success, he eventually handed his sprawling business empire over to his son Attia Nasreddin, and retired at an old, satisfied age.
In an official statement released after Nasreddin’s death in March, Plateau State governor Simon Lalong said:
“NASCO has over the years remained a major employer of labour in Plateau and continues to contribute to the economic prosperity of the State and Nigeria at large through tax revenue and corporate social responsibility.”
Well that was the cover story, anyway.
In reality, as is so often the case in Nigeria, the gap between the facts and the information released to the public is so wide as to be scarcely believable. What on earth could this shrewd, respectable businessman who looked like he could not hurt a fly have done, to put him in the same article as a story about the world’s deadliest terrorist organisation? Why would the brand he built, which to many Nigerians evokes memories of a beloved childhood breakfast staple, appear in the same sentence as Boko Haram?
To answer these questions, our story begins on another continent in 1955, some 8 years before his father would move to Nigeria and establish NASCO Group.
A Scholar From Zamfara
The year is 1955, and a 33 year-old Islamic scholar from Gummi in modern day Zamfara State has made his way to Mecca for his first Hajj pilgrimage. Alongside him is a certain Ahmadu Bello, who is the Premier of Northern Nigeria. During this trip, the scholar impresses both Ahmadu Bello and the Saudi King Sa’ud with his Arabic translation skills. He rapidly makes a big impression on many locals and clerics in Mecca.
These relationships will later become his most valuable asset following the events that take place after his subsequent return to Nigeria. Upon returning to Nigeria, he takes up positions teaching Arabic Studies at Islamic schools in Kano and Kaduna. His style of teaching focuses on educating his students about the differences between Islamic religious doctrine and local customs. Based on his strict Sunni understanding of the Qur’an, he teaches his students to adopt a ‘pure’ Islamic identity at the expense of practises that he considered bid’ah (roughly translated as ‘innovation’ or ‘corruption’).
What is a bidah? | Hadith quotes, Islamic teachings, Islamic messages
He also becomes the first Islamic scholar to translate the Qur’an from Arabic into Hausa, which puts him in a uniquely influential position comparable to that of Ajayi Crowther in 19th century southwestern Nigeria. Using this leverage, he becomes an increasingly powerful figure in Northern Nigeria, with his essentialist views on Islamic doctrine gaining popularity. To him, the existing Sufi orders of Northern Nigeria are polluted with bid’ah and unfit for purpose. He becomes well known for attacking the Tijaniya and Qadriyya brotherhoods during his appearances on Radio Kaduna, while advocating for a ‘return’ to ‘Islamic purity.’
Following the death of his friend and benefactor Ahmadu Bello, the scholar finds himself in a precarious situation. The new Nigerian federal government led by soldiers has a motive to crack down on anyone who is outspoken and influential. He may be a giant in Northern Nigeria, but he is a giant with feet of clay. His solution is to seek financial, doctrinal and political help from his friends in Mecca. The Saudis, as always, are ready to help.
His Saudi backers are keen to use him to espouse the Saudi Arabian state’s official interpretation of Islam, which is based on the work of 18th century Islamic scholar Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab. This fundamentalist doctrine, often known as Wahabbism fits very closely with the teachings of our hero in Northern Nigeria, and he enthusiastically sets about gathering support for this new Saudi-funded project. In the 2009 book ‘The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia,’ historian David Commins says:
“The [Saudi-funded Muslim World] League also sent missionaries to West Africa, where it funded schools, distributed religious literature and gave scholarships to attend Saudi religious universities. These efforts bore fruit in Nigeria’s Muslim northern region with the creation of a movement (the Izala Society) dedicated to wiping out ritual innovations. Essential texts for members of the Izala Society are Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s treatise of God’s unity and commentaries by his grandsons.
Reaching out to his erstwhile students across Kaduna and Kano over the course of the 1970s, the scholar-turned-politician slowly builds a coalition of strategically-aligned individuals who will someday become very powerful people in Northern Nigeria. In 1978, one of his prominent students, Sheikh Ismaila Idris takes charge of this increasingly powerful but somewhat unofficial movement, and calls it Jama’atu Izalatil Bid’ah Wa Iqamatus Sunnah (Society of Removal of Innovation and Re-establishment of the Sunnah), also known as JIBWIS.
Sheikh Ahmad Gumi
Based in Jos and known colloquially as the Izala Movement, this organisation will go on to become the most influential Islamic body in Nigeria over the next few decades. Its members will become some of Nigeria’s most revered Imams and clerics. They will achieve high ranks in the Nigerian Armed Forces.
Banditry: Taliban victory warning for those considering military onslaught -Gumi – Punch Newspapers
They will sit on the Federal Executive Council.
Isa Pantami
JIBWIS will come to exert a level of influence over Nigeria’s national politics and governance that is unprecedented for a religious body in Nigeria. Soon, it will become almost impossible to achieve power in many parts of Northern Nigeria without identifying with the Izala Movement.
Among other things, the scholar states that Muslims should never accept a non-Muslim as ruler, which can be interpreted as a call for insurrection against a Christian Nigerian president. He is never held to account for this statement. In any case, he no longer believes that writing books or teaching people about Islam will on their own, lead to an Islamic renaissance in Northern Nigeria. Now he is all about partnership and politicking. He maintains his membership in Northern Nigeria’s legacy Islamic group, Jama’atu Nasril Islam (“Group for the Victory of Islam”), but he is unmistakably the beating heart of the new Izala Movement. To all intents and purposes, this is the birth of modern Salafist Islam in Nigeria.
Without firing a shot or winning an election, this Islamic scholar has become one of the most powerful men in Northern Nigeria
His name?
Abubakar Mahmud Gumi
The Clerics, The Saudis and What Happened in Algeria
Fast forward 33 years. It is Christmas Day in 2011 and Abubakar Gumi has been dead for over 19 years. A bomb suddenly goes off at St. Theresa Catholic Church, Madalla, on the outskirts of Abuja, killing 35 people and wounding a further 52. Almost simultaneously, a series of coordinated bomb attacks and shootings take place at churches in Jos, Gadaka and Damaturu. An obscure Islamist group calling itself Boko Haram claims responsibility for the attacks.
During the trial of the main suspect Kabiru Umar A.K.A Kabiru Sokoto 2 years later, a masked witness claims that an Algerian Islamist group provided funding and support worth N40,000,000 ($250,000 at the time) to carry out the attacks. To the general public, it is unclear what the link is between Islamists in Northern Nigeria and well-funded terror groups in North Africa.
St. Theresa Catholic Church Madalla
To those in the know however, the incidents of December 25, 2011 are not only expected, but are likely to intensify and become more regular. This is because while the Nigerian public up to this point has been fed with what amounts to a tiny percentage of the actual story behind the Boko Haram group, this group has in fact been incubating and nurtured at the highest levels of the theological, economic and political spaces in Northern Nigeria. Boko Haram in reality, is so much bigger than Mohammed Yusuf and Abubakar Shekau that reducing it to those 2 men serves to miss the actual story spectacularly.
To start to get some of the picture of what Boko Haram is and where it came from, let us retreat from 2011 to 2006 to read an excerpt from a letter written by the Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations, Aminu B. Wali, addressed to the Chairman of the Counter-Terrorism Committee. This letter is available in full here from the official repository for UN documents. Written by the Nigerian government to the UN, it lays out the measures it has taken to fight terrorism in Nigeria. Take special note of the names mentioned in bold.
A Wikileaks cable from 2002 confirms that this arrest actually did take place, only for the suspect to be released inexplicably after 27 days in detention.
For those who are not aware, Yakubu Musa Kafanchan, also known as Sheikh Yakubu Musa Katsina and Yakubu Musa Hassan is a founding member of the Izala Movement (JIBWIS), and is in fact, the current Chairman of its board of trustees and the Chairman of the Katsina State JIBWIS chapter. He is a widely respected Islamic cleric and a very close personal friend and public associate of – no prizes for guessing – Isa Ali Pantami. Yes, that Isa Pantami.
Official Visit to Elder Statesman, Sheikh Yakubu Musa Hassan Katsina, shortly before proceeding for the formal launch of the National Emergency Toll-Free Number (112) and the Commissioning of the Katsina State Emergency Communications Center.@DrIsaPantami#FMoCtoday#FMoC19pic.twitter.com/g4i336XUie
— Fed. Min. of Comms, Innovation & Digital Economy (@FMCIDENigeria) September 23, 2019
Mr. Kafanchan was even recently named as one of the 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World by The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, a Jordanian government-affiliated NGO. More on that later.
Apparently Mr. Kafanchan has been known to the Nigerian security forces as the leader of a terror network trying to set up terror cells in Katsina and Kano as far back as 2002. Keep that date in mind because it will become even more important as we unravel this further. According to official Nigerian government communication to the UN, this real-life Islamic terror organiser is known to have affiliations with a certain ‘GSPC’ group trying to carry out terror attacks in Nigeria, and he was even arrested for it in 2005 – 4 whole years before the world ever heard of a “Boko Haram.”
Sheikh Yakubu Musa Kafanchan
Yet in 2021 he is not only a free man, but a powerful free man, with access to federal ministers, state governors and President Muhammadu Buhari himself.
And then there is the GSPC angle. ‘GSPC’ stands for “Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat” (Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat). A full primer on the origin of the group and what it stands for is available here. Cliff notes summary: It is an illegal Salafi terrorist organisation based in Algeria which is affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. It specialises in providing training, funding and support to Islamists and jihadi fighters around the world using a vast global network of smugglers, money launderers and rat lines.
Which brings us to the second name in the above letter excerpt. Alhaji Shahru Haruna, in the Nigerian government’s own words, is a GSPC agent who funds the activities of people like Kabiru Sokoto by laundering proceeds from smuggled goods. He too, was arrested and held on terror financing charges. Somehow he too, is not only a free man today, but a powerful one in his own right too.
It will not surprise the reader to find out that Alhaji Haruna is also a ranking member of the Izala Movement. According to these posts I dug up from Facebook accounts linked to the Kano State Izala Movement chapter, Alhaji Haruna is the Deputy President of the Kano State chapter of JIBWIS. Like Yakubu Kafanchan, this indicted terror funder not only retains his position in Nigeria’s most influential Muslim body, but is also a respected Islamic preacher with access to the Who’s Who of Nigerian politics and governance.
Even more interestingly, when I do some digging into Mr. Haruna, I discover something potentially even more alarming. It will be recalled that in September 2021, CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele claimed that a significant portion of dollars bought by Bureau de Change (BDC) operators in Nigeria goes into illegal importation of arms. Speaking at the end of the monthly Monetary Policy Committee meeting, he said:
“Whether it’s Boko Haram, kidnapping and all sorts of nefarious activities, BDCs take our country’s dollar and sell to people to go and buy arms and ammunition to come and hurt us. That’s what people want us to continue to do. We cannot do that any longer. We can’t. If you have any legal, legitimate business you want to conduct, please take your business to a bank, they will sell you forex.”
A search of Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission database for the name “Shahru Haruna” turns up a plethora of companies registered under the “Dan Diyma” name.
A man identified by the Nigerian government itself as a security threat for funding terror via money laundering was somehow allowed to own and operate a BDC, which according to the CBN governor, could well have been doing precisely that. A CBN circular from October 2020 confirms that at least as recently as last year, Haruna Shahru was allowed to run a BDC in Nigeria, potentially giving him access to the very funding infrastructure that he should not have under any circumstances.
A glance at one of the other “Dan Diyma” business entities shows that even the email address used to register this entity – purportedly a petroleum company, albeit one with zero identifiable corporate footprint – belongs to Dan Diyma BDC, which says everything about how important the BDC is to Haruna Shahru. The question left unanswered is “Why?”
In case the reader is wondering if this picture can get any worse, the answer is yes. It can, and it will. Take note of the name circled in red below.
Zahraddeen Shahru Haruna is Shahru Haruna’s son, so it is no surprise for him to show up as a director on his father’s BDC registration documents. There’s just one problem. Remember Emefiele saying that BDCs facilitate terror financing? Well just a month before he made that comment, a circular was sent out to banks by the CBN with the names of 18 companies and individuals whose bank accounts were to be frozen with a PND (Post No Debit) mandate. Very unusually, no reason was given for the instruction, and also unusually, on a list made up of corporate accounts, there was an account belonging to an individual. His name?
From Eritrea With Love
We now rejoin our Eritrean friend in the year 2006. The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has recently been gazetted, and one of the first things its counter-terrorism unit does is to freeze all assets linked to NASCO Group Nigeria Limited. Apparently, Mr. Nasreddin has been doing some creative accounting to hide the fact that he is moving money around the world to fund Islamist terror organisations. Or at least, that was what the Nigerian government itself wrote to the UN in the same letter.
A Wikileaks cable from 2002 hints at American hesitancy on the subject of freezing NASCO’s Nigerian assets due to the economic implications for Plateau State and political implications in Nigeria.
The real proof of Nasreddin’s double life however, comes from the US Treasury Department which publishes a comprehensive account of how he launders and moves money around the world for terrorist entities. Want to hear the real kicker? Nasreddin has been funding and laundering money for none other than GSPC – the Algerian terrorist group which Yakubu Katsina and Shahru Haruna are also involved with at the exact same time.
The Nigerian jihadis being trained in Algerian camps in 2002 will later return to Nigeria and make up the core of what will later become known as “Boko Haram.” And – what a coincidence – NASCO is also based in Jos, which so happens to be the headquarters of the Izala Movement and its many North African dalliances.
Using money made from selling market-leading FMCGs to Nigerian consumers, a cross-border network of terrorism is being nurtured that will someday kill the very kids eating NASCO cornflakes every morning.
And it’s all thanks to this nice gentleman from Eritrea.
Ahmed Idris Nasreddin
Nasreddin however, is a very rich man. Like all very rich men, he appears to have a way around problems that would ground other people. In 2005, Lisa Myers and Aram Roston of the NBC News Investigative Unit discover that despite his designation as a terror financier in the US, Nasreddin’s Nigerian business empire and his Italian hotel are still operating as normal. Quoted in the story, Victor Comras, a former terror-finance expert at the State Department says:
“This isn’t a loophole, this is failure to implement the sanctions appropriately. He’s been involved in terrorist financing. Let’s put him out of business.”
That would prove easier said than done because just 2 years later in 2007, the LA Times publishes a story indicating that – to all intents and purposes – Nasreddin has cut some kind of deal with the US government, likely involving asset forfeitures, to get his name off the list of terror financiers. He has been indicted for funding terror, some of which has found its way into the lives of the Nigerian consumers who have made him fabulously wealthy, but he is off the hook.
For the people who have died in the Madalla Christmas Day Bombings facilitated by the people he funded and supported, there will be no justice. Nasreddin gets to hand over NASCO to his son, and he lives out the rest of his life in peace and comfort, dying at the ripe old age of 92.
Friends and Alliances in High Places
I mentioned earlier, that the date of Yakubu Katsina’s initial attempt to establish terror cells and Taliban training camps in Kano and Katsina was important. Here is why. Remember Abubakar Gumi’s stated position that Muslims should never accept a non-Muslim as ruler? It just so happens that the concerted push for Sharia Law across 12 of Northern Nigeria’s states lines up perfectly with the election of Olusegun Obasanjo as president in 1999.
Examining the eras of Shehu Shagari, Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha and Abdulsalam Abubakar as consecutive Muslim Nigerian heads of state, it is nearly impossible to establish the existence of directed and coordinated push for Islamic law in that area. Following Obasanjo’s entry however, Zamfara, Kano, Sokoto, Katsina, Bauchi, Borno, Jigawa, Kebbi, Yobe, Kaduna, Niger and Gombe decided in quick succession to embrace a separate penal code from southern Nigeria, based on Sharia law.
Understanding the political resonance of the Izala Movement in Northern Nigeria and the power wielded by the indicted terror financiers and terrorists who still sit on its board is key to understanding 2 things about terrorism in Nigeria.
Boko Haram is a logical development growing out of the rise of political Islam in Nigeria, with its roots in Salafism, popularised by Abubakar Gumi and his ideological heirs. It is impossible to divorce Abubakar Gumi’s use of Saudi money and Wahhabi indoctrination in the 1970s, from the adoption of Sharia Law in Northern Nigeria, the rise of violent Salafists like Abubakar Shekau and Isa Pantami, and the eventual inevitable mass uprising against the Nigerian state that will take place in the north.
While the Boko Haram brand is an unattractive one, the goals of Boko Haram are by no means unattractive to those who make up the ideological core of the Izala Movement, which is Nigeria’s most influential Islamic sect. Aminu Daurawa who famously praised the September 11 attacks in a 2001 sermon with a quote claiming that “Allah is a suicide bomber,” is today the head of Kano’s Hisbah police and a high ranking Izala Movement member. With sympathisers and collaborators up to and including President Buhari himself, the Izala Sect has no incentive or reason to fundamentally rethink or change its ideology – which is directly and provably linked to Salafist terrorism.
As long as Isa Pantami’s “Mr Zero Zero” (a reference to an ideologically pure Muslim with zero tolerance for bid’ah. i.e a hardline Salafist) retains his obvious and unapologetic sympathy for an organisation with clear and ongoing links to the enemy he claims to be fighting against as Nigeria’s president, the Izala Movement has no incentive to reinvent itself. There is no way that the Nigerian president is not aware of Yakubu Musa Hassan Katsina’s history as a known terrorist, as well as the Izala Movement’s extremely problematic history and current composition. And yet, as recently as 2018, President Buhari was pictured in Aso Rock meeting with Izala Movement president Abdullahi Bala Lau, Yakubu Musa Hassan Katsina, Kabiru Gombe and Ibrahim Jalo Jalingo.
It is either I have more access to information about his friends and associates than the Nigerian president does, with a plethora of intelligence and information gathering agencies at his disposal, or he knows all this already and he has chosen a side. Clearly, to the Izala Movement, this picture taken in 2018, was a statement. An Obasanjo government may have arrested Yakubu Katsina and his likes in 2005, but 13 years later, Katsina’s ideological ally is in office standing solidly next to him, as he stood solidly next to Isa Pantami. The Izala Movement has won and everybody else has lost.
The only other angle of high level involvement not yet addressed is that of the Jordanian government. Recall that Yakubu Katsina was named among the world’s 500 Most Influential Muslims by a Jordanian state-backed NGO? Well it turns out that the NGO in question – The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre – is itself affiliated with the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought. A visit to this institute’s website reveals something strange.
One of its publications titled ‘Report on the Inter-Religious Tensions and Crisis in Nigeria’ published in May 2012 has the following to say about ending violence between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria.
This report, produced by a state-funded NGO in Jordan as far back as 2012, is prima facie evidence of a coordinated international campaign of strategic disinformation for the purpose of framing the reality of terrorism in Nigeria in a way that is completely dishonest. Making reference to alleged income disparity between Nigeria’s “Christian South” and “Muslim North,” the report attempts to portray the latter as the victim of economic bullying and poverty, without citing data to support this conclusion.
Very tellingly, at a time when conversations about violence related to nomadic cattle herding were not yet present in Nigeria’s political equation, a Jordanian organisation with links to Yakubu Katsina – a known Nigerian terrorist – was already recommending “grazing routes” as a solution for a problem that for the most part, did not actually exist yet.
The report emanating from the 9th session of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Retd. Gen. Muhammad Buba Marwa has shunned the investigative hearing by the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly on the alleged mismanagement of N467 million, has been described as a blackmail and a media spin automated and escalated by the Senate Committee in an attempt to bamboozle, intimidate and harass the Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA into submission for a behind the doors negotiation for consequential Financial inducements.
Prominent pro-democracy and Not-for-profit organisation- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has asked the Senate to stop the unnecessary distractions targeted at the maximum disruption of the effectiveness and overwhelming combative approaches against dreaded hard drugs’ barons and traffickers currently being waged vigorously by the just appointed Chairman, Chief Executive Officer of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency Retired Brigadier General Mohammed Buba Marwa who wasn’t the person in charge at the time of the alleged financial infractions being investigated by the Senate.
“HURIWA is in the possession of unassailable evidence that the current leadership of NDLEA were never served with any summons or invitations by the Senate Public accounts Committee headed by Senator Mathew Uroghide. How do you go to the media and cast aspersions on the head of a government agency who is unaware that his presence is required before the Senators? This ambushing pattern is the past time of the National Assembly members aimed at deploying the media of mass communication to first demonise a public office holder with seemingly yet unblemished records and then to go behind to engage in negotiations for alleged bribes for the members.”
“Since the year 2019 both houses of the National Assembly have done the same things to many Federal agencies yet this same National Assembly has been unable to specifically stop some notoriously corrupt Directors General of agencies only because those ones have special packages for the National Assembly members. This same blackmailing tool was deployed by the Senate against STARTIMES/NTA and when it would seemed the National Assembly and the Chinese led management of STARTIMES have gone behind the doors to allegedly exchange monetary funds and bribes then the attacks against NTA/STARTIMES stopped and the accusations that STARTIMES was guilty of capital flight flew away through the windows of the National Assembly and it has been business as usual.”
“Our investigation showed that indeed there were established case of inducements that go on as soon as the National Assembly committees shouts like mad dogs in the media and the fearful Chief executives go for settlement of the matter which would be over and there would be silence of the graveyards and the media won’t ask the Senators about the status of those investigations.”
HURIWA recalled that the Senate Committee claimed that it’s disagreement with NDLEA stemmed from a memorandaum from the Auditor-General of the Federation in file number B/2009/OAGF/CAD/026/V dated 24th March, 2009, which stipulates that ‘All Accounting Officers and officers controlling expenditures are to ensure that all local procurement of stores and services costing above N200,000.00 shall be made only by No. award of contracts’. The Chairman/Chief Executive should recover the sum of N8,629,600.00, as this cannot be regarded as a legitimate charge against public funds.
The Senate accused NDLEA’S 2016 management thus: “The Director-General used green ink in giving approval for payments. This contravened Financial Regulation 3002 which restricts the use of green ink to the staff of the Auditor-General for the Federation. “The Chairman/Chief Executive should henceforth restrain the Director-General from this practice. All the issues raised were brought to the attention of the Chairman/Chief Executive, but no response was received from the NDLEA”.
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA has therefore called the National Assembly as a cesspool of corruption for seeking to deploy media platforms to demonise officials of government agencies especially those very few persons that for now appear to be accountable and transparent and try to humiliate them into submission to allegedly play their bribes seeking gambit.
HURIWA accused the Senate of similarly blackmailing the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA which was grilled by the Senate over a joint venture arrangement entered into between the agency and a Chinese media firm, Beijing Star Group, in 2008 known as NTA-Star TV Network.
“HURIWA followed the trajectory of this botched investigation which actually was a blackmailing tool by the politicians to compel financial inducements because the Senators then alleged that there were ‘staggering revelations’ of how officials of NTA allegedly connived with Joint Venture Partners, Star Times to defraud the country.The Senate said that a total of N200 billion was missing and carted out of the country which represents what would have been remitted as profits since 2008.
The Upper Chamber then called for a Special Investigation into the record books of NTA/Star Times Joint Venture asking the Management to return roughly N200billion generated since 2008.”
HURIWA recalled that the alleged bribe seeking law makers again stoked up trouble again when the Director-General, NTA, Yakubu Ibn Mohammed appeared before the Senator Olamilekan Adeola, All Progressives Congress, APC, Lagos West led Senate Joint Committee on Finance and National Planning Stakeholders on the details of the 2021and 2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) forwarded last month by President Muhammadu Buhari to present NTA’s projections.”
” HURIWA learnt that then the Senate also asked the NTA to go full Commercial, just as it has mandated the Budget Office to remove the Organisation from the Federal Government Budget for the government to stop paying salaries, carrying out capital and other expenditure, adding that with this, the NTA will not come to the National Assembly to defend budgets anymore. However, the Rights group accused the Senate of sale out because the NTA/STARTIMES still operate under sane templates that brought about the investigative hearing by the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly but nothing more is heard from the noisy neighbours of corrupt Directors General of federal agencies- National Assembly”.
The Rights group accused the National Assembly of habitual bribes seeking gambit just as it recalled that the Senate had then in year 2020 accused NTA/Star Times of coming up with incoherent financial records to show that it spent a total of N19 billion; leaving a shortfall of N8 billion in 2018 to justify earlier claims that the business had yielded nothing.
“According to the Chairman of the Senate Committee, Solomon Olamilekan said the reason NTA officials kept the account to the JV in dollar form was them to easily ship the profits outside of Nigeria in connivance with some Nigerian officials.Adeola said, “So that we can look at everything relating to this transactions because from the last record we are able to gather, )over N200bn was generated because only two years alone accounted for about N30bn.”“N13bn in 2018 and about N11bn in 2019, this is almost N30bn and another $90m. By the time you now take it from 2008, that will come to about N100bn that was missing. HURIWA wants the Senate to tell us if the missing cash are retrieved”.
HURIWA however stated that from an insider’s information, the Senate and the NTA/STARTIMES reached an ‘understanding’ and soon after, the media noise about the so called scam in NTA/STARTIMES died a natural death just as the Rights group asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission if it is still independent and incharge of their investigative activities to launch investigation on all the investigations carried out by the Senate and the Federal House of Representatives to ascertain the veracity of the allegations of bribes being collected by the legislative investigators who thereafter compromised the investigation.
HURIWA said the current media war against NDLEA is just a smokescreen to force the hands of Mohammed Buba Marwa to line the pockets of the legislators going by the widespread allegations of same pattern in the National Assembly over the past years. It urge the Chairman of NDLEA not to compromise his values for transparency and accountability.
Southern Kaduna artists; Lilac (Tha Class Teacha), Ziriok and Tacyturn have released a music rap video titled ‘About Us’. The track depicts the ongoing killings of genocidal proportion of Southern Kaduna indigenous people by Fulani jihadists.
The artists said because they are from Southern Kaduna, they have decided to use their music talent to contribute in creating awareness and drawing the attention of the world to the incessant killings of their people.
“ABOUT US” is a song that expresses the pains, agony and the mass killins ongoing in Southern Kaduna.
The video as directed by SBK was released few days after 38 people were killed in Madamai and Abun communities in Southern Kaduna. According to them “The song is a hip-hop setting in the right emotions as we pray for Nigeria.” The audio was produced by Qupic.
Gun-wielding bandits have again launched an attack on the Niger State government officials with their latest pick being the Permanent Secretary, Niger State Ministry of Transportation, Dr. Ibrahim Garba Musa, along with his granddaughter.
It was learnt that Musa was abducted in his house in Zungeru where he went for a wedding ceremony and he was picked up by the gunmen in the night after the party.
One of the family members narrated that the gunmen entered into the house by breaking down the gate to abduct the Permanent Secretary who was relaxing after the celebration.
He added that the family members had reached out to the state government to inform them about the incident.
The Secretary to the Niger state government, Alhaji Ahmed Ibrahim Matane when contacted said he has just been informed about the incident and he was yet to confirm it.
He however said that the state government would do its best to ensure the Permanent Secretary is rescued unharmed.
The Niger State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Abiodun Wasiu, had yet to issue the police’s confirmation.
Some bandits from Zamfara State said they are moving to Sabon Birni area of Sokoto State in expectation of arrival of troops from Niger Republic who “are coming to assist Nigeria” in tackling the marauding armed men.
A leader of the bandits said gunmen had set up presence in the villages of Ballazu and Gangara, in the area.
Sabon Birni Local Government Area borders Niger Republic with many of the villages under it close to the border line.
There has been escalation of bandits’ attacks on Sabon Birni, and neighbouring local governments recently, including one on a military base at Burkusuma where at least 15 personnel were killed, and many others injured last weekend.
Sources confirmed to this newspaper at the time, that the attack was carried out by gunmen from the gangs of notorious bandits’ leader, Turji, with others loyal to Halilu Sububu. The two bandits’ kingpins operate around Zurmi and Shinkafi, two local governments bordering Sabon Birni.
The Defence Headquarters in a statement on Monday confirmed the attack but attributed it to forces from the jihadist’s Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP).
Speaking to Daily Trust, one of the arrowheads of the bandits, Shehu Rekeb, claimed responsibility for the last weekend’s attack on the Nigerian security forces.
Rekeb said some security personnel kidnapped by the attackers were being held by the bandits.
He said Turji led his men to launch the attack in order to take position around the border town to avert any incursion by the Nigerien troops who, he said, were preparing to move in to support the push against the bandits operating in the area.
“It is said Niger is coming through there to support Nigeria; that is why we said the boys should go there to monitor,” he said.
He asked Nigerien President Mahamed Bazoum to stay out of what he described as a “family affair” and Nigeria’s internal affairs, warning that the bandits would begin to launch attacks on the Nigerien side.
On the claim that ISWAP was responsible for the attack, Rekeb said: “They know the attack was done by Fulani boys. They know them all. Many of their men were taken away; if they call them, they know who answers them.”
Suspected gunmen Friday murdered a herder in Ago Are, Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State.
The incident is coming some months after the deceased’s brother was killed in a similar fashion.
In the fresh attack, the assailants in their large numbers stormed the premises of the deceased and shot him at close range, leaving him in the pool of his blood.
The motive for the latest incident could not be established last night.
The spokesman of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Kwara State Command, Babawale Afolabi, confirmed the incident.
“Yes, we got the report on Friday through our divisional officer in the town about another attack in Ago Are. This time around, a Fulani herdsman simply known as Ibrahim was attacked and killed,” he said.
The PRO further added that a manhunt has been launched to apprehend the perpetrators of the criminal act.
According to him, NSCDC will work with other security agencies to bring the assailants to justice.
Villagers in Sarkin Pawa Ward in Munya Local Government Area of Niger State are vacating their homes following attacks by bandits in which no fewer than 30 persons were reportedly killed.
Daily Trust also learnt that seven women were kidnapped by bandits in Sabon Kachiwe and still in captivity, four days after the attack.
A local government official from the affected community, who spoke in confidence, told our correspondent that the attackers also set the entire villages ablaze after slaughtering and shooting both men and women on sight.
“The security operatives came and evacuated the dead bodies and they were prepared and given mass burial,” a source said.
Secretary to the State Government, Ahmed Ibrahim Matane, had earlier confirmed the attack on the three villages.
According to the SSG, 13 persons were killed in Kachiwe, 9 in Shape and 6 in another village, all in Sarkin Pawa Ward of Munya LGA.
But a source from the community said 10 persons were set ablaze in their rooms while four were slaughtered in Sabon Kachiwe village alone.
The source said the attackers also destroyed the telecommunication masts belonging to MTN and GLO during the attacks.
Another local, who spoke in confidence, told our correspondent that whereabouts of the abducted women were yet unknown.
A human rights activist and convener of the Concerned Nigerians, Deji Adeyanju has said President Muhammadu Buhari needs prayers for saying his administration has performed better than previous democratic governments since 1999.
He criticised Buhari for speaking about the discovery of the alleged sponsors of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu and Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, aka Sunday Igboho, and failing to talk about the sponsors of Boko Haram terrorists, who have killed thousands of Nigerians and displaced millions.
Adeyanju added that it was inconceivable to see that Buhari applauded the military personnel who have failed to defend the territorial integrity of the nation.
The activist noted that North-West Nigeria and the Middle Belt have been completely ravaged by terrorism and banditry, yet the President praised the Army for its failure to combat these criminals.
Adeyanju said this while reacting to Buhari’s speech on October 1 to commemorate the 61st Independence Anniversary of Nigeria.
The statement, titled, ‘Buhari mocked Nigerians with his Independence Day speech –Adeyanju’, was obtained by SaharaReporters on Friday.
It said, “The whole country knows that this is the worst government in the history of our nation.
“It is beyond sad to hear president Buhari commending the military for failure in his Independence Day speech. The North West, North Central and almost the entire country is almost a NO-GO AREA due to widespread insecurity. Terrorist groups control over 10 local government areas in the president’s home state of Katsina and collect taxes from residents openly and unchallenged.
“So many people who were killed by terrorists in Southern Kaduna were buried yesterday. Dora Akunyili’s husband was gunned down recently in the South-East yet the president praises the military for failure.
“The president also said he has discovered sponsors of IPOB and Oduduwa agitators but failed to talk about sponsors of Boko Haram that Dubai revealed recently because they are from his zone.
“The president apparently needs prayers for saying his administration is the best since 1999 and that Nigerians have never had it so good. It is unthinkable that the president of a nation should openly peddle so much falsehood as Buhari has just done.
“For context, cooking gas is N7,200 from N3,000 in 2015. $1 is N575 from N200 in 2015. The list goes on and on of the inflation records of the current administration. Nigeria has fallen completely to terrorist groups. This is a government that kills protesters but negotiate with terrorists.”
The leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky says the Muhammadu Buhari-led government has no solution to the insecurity ravaging all parts of the country.
The Islamic cleric also accused the government of gross violation of his fundamental rights by being disallowed to travel out of the country for treatment despite his deteriorating health condition.
He disclosed this while responding to questions in an exclusive live programme with the Iranian Press TV.
It is his first interview with the media since he regained freedom on July 28, 2021.
He had been arrested and detained since December 2015.
He said, “Myself, I can say I don’t know what these people want to achieve by setting the country in such chaotic condition. It appears that they have no solution to these problems, yet they continue to create more.
“Like the attack on us, why attack on peaceful protesters when you have people you call bandits attacking innocent people all over the country. Why not take up the matter with them (bandits)?
“They are claiming they are fighting these local bandits or so-called Boko Haram, yet these people are always on the wing, they are using sophisticated weapons, guns. The military authorities keep giving information that they are getting setbacks. Why all this insecurity and kidnapping all over the country? Who is benefiting from it?”
