When I heard that Major Hamza Al Mustapha was convicted of murder and sentenced to hanging by a Lagos High Court yesterday afternoon I was utterly shocked, saddened and disgusted. And let me tell you why. I was one of those that opposed the late General Sani Abacha's government and fought against Al Mustapha and co. with every fibre of my being during the NADECO days. Given that, if anything, I should h...ave been rejoicing with the many other NADECO leaders, supporters and stalwarts who honestly believe that Al-Mustapha actually ordered the death of our wonderful heroine Alhaja Kudirat
When President Olusegun Obasanjo was in power we spent 300 billion per year on the fuel subsidy. Under the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan it shot up to 1.3 trillion naira in the last one year alone. Can someone please explain to me how it got so high in 4 years and what exactly they were subsidising with the extra one trillion naira? When the Obasanjo government left power in 2007 the country was no longer in debt and the 30 billion dollar foreign debt that Obasanjo met when he came to power in 1999 was fully paid off.
"I can go back to fight a war to keep this country together even at 71"..some people are saying that should anything happen to President Jonathan, forget about Nigeria and so on. I know those who are saying this. Yes, they are supporters of the President. But I know the President is a sensible person so don’t waste your time saying that the world would come to an end if something happens to your son. Of course he is your son but he is our President. I have always respected these people but these things that they say amaze me. These are the same people that went to school, people who went to universities, people that are educated and people who have held positions of responsibility. There is a doctrine known as the ”Doctrine of Nigeria’s Settled Issues” and nobody should attempt to tamper with them.
Until you hear the Scotsman play the bagpipes in the early morning mist of the Scottish highlands, you have heard nothing. Until you hear the Irish maiden sing ''O Danny Boy'' on the lush green fields of the Emerald Isle, you know nothing.
Lord Apsley and I were colleagues at Harrow School in England approximately 36 years ago. I have never forgotten his uncharitable remarks about Nigeria which led to a heated arguement between us. At that time I found it ironic, and I still do, that this quintessential member of the English upper class not only had the nerve to say such things to me about my country but that he could say it with such confidence.
The South Africans are an ungrateful lot. After all Nigeria did for them during the struggle against apartheid, white minority rule and the relentless tyranny of the Boers they have done nothing but treat us with disrespect, disdain and contempt. A glaring example of this is their shameful treatment of our Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, at Johannesburg airport a few years ago when this respected and much-loved international statesman was stopped by the immigration officials, treated like a common criminal and kept waiting for hours simply because he was a Nigerian.
I went through Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s article about Nasir El-Rufai titled ”Sanusi Lamido On El Rufai” with amusement. I am glad that he has reiterated his love for Nasir and expressed his tremendous respect for him. He has also spoken well about Nuhu Ribadu, who is also a mutual friend, and he has said that anyone that is their enemy is his enemy as well. I am happy for Sanusi's reiteration of love for his two friends and when it comes to both Nasir and Nuhu most people know that these are precisely my sentiments as well. As I have always said when things were really bad in this country these two men were amongst the few that gave some of us hope that we could still have a united Nigeria where northerners and southerners could live and work together in peace and harmony. Sadly I cannot say the same about Sanusi.
Modern Ghana, January 25, 2012
by Femi Fani- Kayode.
Boko Haram say they have ''no problem with Jonathan'' yet they are killing his people like flies, destabilising his country, bringing his government to it's knees, destroying national unity and cohesion, waging a relentless religious and ethnic war against the state and committing genocide and ethnic cleansing against a section of the population.
Modern Ghana, January 24, 2012
by Femi Fani- Kayode.
I am sad and troubled for our nation. I just cannot sleep when I consider the amount of innocent blood that has been spilt in the 24 hours before I wrote this piece. Kano, Bayelsa, Bauchi....it goes on and on. So much blood, so much hate, so much division and so much destruction. And at the end of it all, just in the space of one afternoon, Nigeria's second largest city of Kano has been brutally raped and violated and no less than 260 innocent and defenceless Nigerians have been butchered mercilessly in broad daylight and are now lying dead in the mortuary or the cemetery. Many bodies are still lying under the rubble undiscovered and
Modern Ghana, January 4, 2012
by Femi Fani- Kayode.
Yesterday (4th of Jan. 2012) during a specially convened meeting of the Federal Executive Council of the Goodluck Jonathan administration Mrs. Ngozie Okonjo-Iweala, my former cabinet colleague and good friend, threatened to resign from her position as Finance Minister and de-facto Prime Minister and go back to the World Bank from whence she came if the President dared to reverse his policy on the removal of the fuel subsidy and if he decided to re-introduce the subsidy once again.
i have a word for my Islamist friend. Let me put it to you from the outset that you do not in any way represent the great faith of Islam. As a matter of fact I do not believe that islamists and islamic fundamentalists are Muslims at all, just as I don’t believe that Hitler was a christian.
Huhu Online, October 30th, 2011
For those who have been following the case between Chief Femi Fani-Kayode and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) since year 2008, they would technically appreciate the level of impunity, judicial somersault and highhandedness, down-play of the rule of law and gross injustice which was freely displayed by the anti-graft agent, EFCC and its counsel Mr Festus Keyamo. This case and several other high profile cases in Nigeria have posed lots of worries on concerned Nigerians forcing some of us to lose confidence in the judicial system, because of the ways and manner Fani-Kayode’s alleged money laundering case was handled, a scenario that is purely contrary to the principles of fairness and justice.