“Democracy lets all voices, even those against it, be heard. Democracy’s true strength is its ability to incorporate the needs and desires of a diverse population into a governing consensus over a long period of time.”
(VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOATIONS, VBQ , p 36).
Last week, this article started with a defence of the rights of Mr Kanu – the pro-Biafra leader. This is only a continuation of that and other instances in which the DSS might be exaggerating threats to the country and exacerbating crisis.
Incidentally, the over-kill adopted by the Army in Zaria against the Shii’te Muslims is another example of exaggerated threat leading to inappropriate response likely to deepen crisis. I do not approve of the conduct or aims of Mr Kanu or Zakky Zakky, but there must be other ways of dealing with the issues they present than violence.
Referendum is the best option to handle self-determination issues and inter-denominational meeting can be explored to manage the Shii’te matter. At all costs, we should avoid violence. The first to pick up the gun might not see the end of the violence unleashed.
The treatment meted out to Mr Kanu, even after being granted bail by a competent court of law can only be excused in a country ruled by the Gestapo. So far the DSS has not been able to establish any major crime against Kanu to warrant his detention and their opposition to his bail. This is not one of the changes for which we voted and there is no reason the DSS should assume it is.
In the end our inept security agents settled for “illegal possession of arms and money laundering”. Despite the fact that both are offences for which people are routinely admitted to bail, the DSS still opposed bail. After failing and finding that Dasuki also secured the court’s permission to travel for medical treatment, the DSS laid a siege to his house to prevent him from leaving Nigeria. Is this democracy?The third and fourth instances of deliberate DSS misinformation involve the same man – Col Sambo Dasuki (rtd). As Nigerians would recall, he was first arrested, on several charges made by the DSS, including treasonable felony, as well as possession of huge collection of arms, expensive vehicles purported to have been procured from proceeds of crime and money laundering.
To justify their vendetta, they then unleashed on the nation the wild accusation that Dasuki defrauded the country of $2 billion in arms deals. Like all Nigerians, I was alarmed. Two billion dollars (N400bn at N200/USS1) or (N540bn at N270/$1) is a lot of money and anybody stealing that sum should be hanged. But, unlike most Nigerians, I waited for the DSS to prove that N400bn or N540bn had been stolen. Under our laws, he who asserts must prove. If they claim $2bn was misappropriated they must total up all the funds missing to that number. It will amount to the wildest exaggeration to tell us that people are being prosecuted for N31bn after alarming us with N400-540bn.
Wait till next week to find out how much the DSS has presented to various courts and you will wonder if anybody in that office ever attended primary school. And they must assume that the rest of us never attended school as well.
Consider the evidence. The DSS raised an alarm that Dasuki was involved in a $2 billion arms deal. That was used to justify disobeying a court order granting the man bail and permission to travel for medical treatment. Then, they proceeded to inundate the media with allegations concerning transfers to various individuals and organizations associated with the $2 billion scam. In all these, the DSS banked on the fact that if Nigeria’s secondary school kids routinely fail Mathematics in the West African School Certificate examinations, they must be chips of old blocks. Their parents must also be deficient in arithmetic. And, the DSS is almost right.
Unfortunately, they forgot those at UniJankara.
The minute somebody mentions figures we turn our thinking caps on. So, as the DSS released one figure after another, our calculators started clicking. Dasuki was eventually charged with misappropriation of N31.2bn, Aminu Baba Kusa with N1.85BN, N584m went to Iyorcha Ayu, Jim Nwobodo N500m, Dr Haliru Bello N300m etc. Some of the figures represented double counting because they were part of the same N31.2bn Dasuki was alleged to have misappropriated. Our calculators stopped clicking when the DSS stopped dropping figures. Suddenly we were faced with a total less than N40 billion.
We added again and the result was the same.
Then the questions started tumbling out. First, where is the rest of the N400-540bn said to have been scammed? Was the DSS inadvertently or deliberately exaggerating in order to scare justices from granting bail or to terrorise Dasuki and receive public applause?
Then, we recollect that former President Jonathan had announced that he never approved $2 billion to be spent on arms throughout his tenure of office. So far, what has been revealed has not contradicted GEJ. It is quite possible that far less than $2bn was spent on arms and we are just chasing shadows and getting alarmed over only N40bn.
NSE SHEDS N2TR IN 2015; will shed more in 2016.
Readers of this page were warned to get out of the Stock Market last year. They were told that another disaster looms. Those who listened and those who failed to listen can now testify to the accuracy of that forecast. Unfortunately, 2016 will be worse. Banks and oil companies are going to receive a shellacking they will never forget. Once owning an oil well was like owning your own mint. Today, it is like poison. “Fortunes favors never last.” (Seneca).
VANGUARD
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