EDITORIAL COMMENT :BUHARI'S RIVERS OF RIGGING FOR OIL PART 2b

BUHARI'S RIVERS OF RIGGING FOR OIL PART 2b

VITAL INTEREST 2: BURATAI'S COMMENDABLE ACTION AND THE THREE FOLD VITAL INTEREST OF THE NORTH

(By Amaso Jack)

"THE Nigerian Army on Monday vowed to investigate and punish all the culprits involved in the violence that characterised the March 23, 2019 presidential election in Abonnema, Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The Army’s fact-finding panel led by Maj. Gen. Taritimiye Gagariga disclosed this in Akuku-Toru LGA. It added that the mission was aimed at getting to the root of the crisis and not to cast aspersions on anyone."
https://www.google.com/…/rivers-election-violence-army…/amp/

COMMENDABLE ACTION OF BURATAI

The Chief of Army Staff, of the Nigerian army, Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai must be commended for establishing the fact finding panel under Major-General Taritimiye Gagariga, this action has redeemed the reputation of the army. However the following vital questions, must be noted:

1 What were the terms of reference of Major-General Taritimiye Gagariga's committee?

2 Were their terms of reference limited to Abonnema, Akuku-Toru?

3 What about the other disturbances in other parts state that involved the army, will Gagariga's committee also investigate them?

4 What about the issues of the Army's involvement in voter manipulation by the evidence of "Olufemi Aduwo as an individual (by his international pedigree has demonstrated it) the Tribune that interviewed him, the Punch, Daily Post, the EU observer mission, Channels TV, Femi Falana and Ambassador John Campbell" as was revealed in Part 1.

Important Observations:

The norm in any investigation is that the principal officer involved would be required to step aside while investigations are on. This is the procedure that was adopted for the chief justice of the Federation, Justice Onnoghen, but was not adopted in the case of Jamil Sarham and his boss Buratai.

"General Tukur Yusuf Buratai bought a second choice property in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, days after his appointment as Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS), an investigation by SaharaReporters has revealed." http://saharareporters.com/…/general-buratai-bought-second-…

Question 5: Why was Major-General Jamil Sarham the General Officer Commanding the 6 Division of the Nigerian army, who was the ranking officer under whose command the army was reduced to an election manipulating thug force, not asked to step aside, and recalled to the army headquarters in Abuja for the duration of the investigation, while the 2ic or the most senior brigade commander hold fort for him, for the duration of the investigation?

Question 6: Is the sudden romance with the people of Abonnema by the military that seems to exclude the "extra electoral atrocities" of the same army in larger Rivers State an attempt at divide and rule?

Important observation. The Riveriners people of the state have never ruled since the return to democratic rule. However the attempt by the FULANI to install a stooge from the area with the view of controlling the oil resource while refusing the host communities their right of ownership, is a clear attempt at the colonial practice of indirect rule and divide and rule.

THE THREE FOLD VITAL INTEREST OF THE NORTH:

1 POLITICAL ECONOMIC VITAL INTEREST: SUMMARIZED IN OIL.

BUHARI by his trademark nepotism, has no interest in the people of the Niger Delta, his only interest in the area is oil, for this reason.

• He is the oil minister

• He used the army to unsuccessfully rig the governorship elections and when his lid was blown (like the bay of pigs) he beat a tactical but clumsy withdrawal.

The main point of vital interest conflict between the North and the South South is oil. The oil blocks are due for renewal, Buhari needs a compromised South Southern vital interest in control, where it matters most; Government house Port Harcourt. Just the way president Diem was installed in South Vietnam by the Americans based on their domino theory vital interest, the core North hope to install a stooge in Awara to ensure complete political economic control of the resource, with Buhari as the oil minister assisted by Baru, who are in control of the administrative structures of oil industry.

Since Awara has no firm political and party structures, the strategy of divide and rule will most likely be used through Rotimi Amaechi under the pretext that the Riveriners have never ruled.

The strategy of wiping the mouth of the oil producing people with their oil, while the North is in firm control is the soul of divide and rule and indirect rule.

Awara has no structures, he would really on the APC like Akintola did in the 1960s. The overall goal and vital interest of the North is unhindered control of the oil.

By emphasis on the upland and Riveriners dichotomy, the North hopes to induce the principle of divide and rule as they did under Abacha when the Ogoni eight were divided against the Ogoni four in a classic case study of divide and rule.

"SPDC stopped production in Ogoni land and withdrew from the area in 1993 after violence against our staff and action targeting our facilities. Violence in Ogoni land continued, and in May 1994 four prominent Ogoni leaders were murdered by a mob. Ken Saro-Wiwa (President of MOSOP) and eight others were accused of complicity in the murders, tried by military tribunal in 1995, found guilty and executed." https://www.shell.com.ng/sustai…/environment/ogon-issue.html

Important Observation.

There is no evidence to suggest Awara would compromise the vital interest of the South South, no not one!

2 GEO POLITICAL VITAL INTEREST: captured as the divide and rule/ indirect rule through Rotimi Amaechi, using Awara ( against which Chief Yeah, opted out) was the Colonial system of British occupation. The fight against dominion by majority groups that culminated in the Harry Wilink minority report of 1958 is the vital interest basis for rejection of Buhari in the South South. Lawyers from the region like Keyamu and highly respected Sagey in this respect are the South Southern "Afonja" who along with Amaechi and Akpabio are regarded as having compromised the vital interests of the region

3 ETHNO RELIGIOUS VITAL INTEREST:
Olufemi Ogunsanwo, on the 63rd page of his 2009 Pace published biography of Awolowo, he titled: "Awo unfinished Greatness", defined the vital interest of the North this way:

"Ahmadu Bello and his colleagues had declared in a parliamentary session in 1953 that they were still determined to dip the jihad sword and Koran in the Atlantic Ocean in continuation of the holy war (jihad) begun by Bello's grandfather, Usman Dan Fodio, which had been halted at Ogbomosho"

MORE OF POLITICAL ECONOMIC VITAL INTEREST OF THE NORTH

Based on Edwin Feulner's definition, in which he said:

"vital interests as developments that could concretely affect the security or economic future of America and our citizens,"

the following stand out about vital interests:

• Developments...the Ikeja cantonment meeting of July 29-30, 1966 and subsequent political developments like lopsided state and local government creation under the Northern control of the military. As we shall see later

• That could concretely affect the security: The Nothernization policy of the Army right from Ribadu the first defence minister in the 60s when Buhari was recruited, to his 2019 lopsided defence structure of 2019 is the grand Strategic period of over 59 years.

• Economic future of the (core North in this context) and its citizens. The Strategic control of prime positions of economic value, for this reason Buhari is interested in installing a stooge in Rivers State, to make economic dominion easier.

IMPORTANT OBSERVATION BASED ON SOUTH SOUTH VESTED INTEREST:

Political parties are costodians of vital interest.

When a party is percieved to be a threat to the vital interest of a people, like the PDP in Lagos and the APC in the entire South South, the voting pattern assumes a near predictable pattern along lines of vital interest.

BUHARI by his infamous ratio 97% to 5% formula of appointments based on nepotism, the vanguard described as:

"‘97%/5%’, a formula for national upheaval"https://www.vanguardngr.com/…/975-a-formula-for-national-u…/

....and his subsequent lopsided appointments in the oil industry, compromised the vital interest of the oil producing South South in favour of his North..that threat to South Southern vital interest reflected in the massiave votes against the president in the region, in an attempt to secure his vital interest, the president resorted to the last option available to him, the use of the army to influence the the voting process through rigging, thereby attempting to subjugated the will of the people.... It backfired!

"Reading the list of those who benefited from the appointments, Clark said:

“The list shows that the whole of the South has 19 positions out the 55 positions and the North, a non-oil producing zone, has 36 positions, which include the very senior positions." https://www.vanguardngr.com/…/reverse-lopsided-appointment…/

The ultimate political economic power in Nigeria is our Unitary system of government, that finds constitutional expression in our presidential system. Both have an arrested development effect, for which the core North insists on, while resisting a restructured Nigeria as their strategy for imposing their vital interest on Nigeria, as the operating system of the state.

The vital interest of the North is the control of oil, using the political structure of the APC that never gave the people of the South South the oil Ministry and denied them the ranking position in the NNPC, but rather sandwiched Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu ( a South Southerner) between Buhari and Baru, this clash of vital interest over oil is a major factor in the South South against the president and his ruling Party getting votes from there.

While it is true that the Riveriners in Rivers state like the Awori/Yewa in Ogun state have never ruled and indeed deserve a slot at the governorship, the present attempt seems to be a Greek gift in which a party (the AAC) without structures seeks power. The Riveriners (it is believed) would have their slot in 2023 just the way the Delta North got rulership (for the first democractic time) in 2015 and have extended it by the ballot box to 2023.

The South South states have sought to insulate their vital interest from the divide and rule and indirect ruling strategy of the core North, whose only interest is perpetual control of the oil of the South South, the South South achieved that by voting against the President and his APC and the AAC in Port Harcourt.

Continues with part 2c

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