By Bolaji O. Akinyemi

His Excellency, Nasir El-Rufai must have been advised against attending the funeral and burial of victims of a coordinated 21st century genocide of minority tribes who are majorly Christians by persons suspected to be his tribesmen. I sincerely look out for the representative or at least a letter from him as the Chief Security Officer of the state who has consistently failed at securing the people. Excuses in failure can sometimes be comforting to a set of stupid people, but he offered none; giving us no opportunity to measure our stupidity as a people.

The assumed insensitivity of the Northern Oligarchy which comprises the Presidency, and pro northern agenda lawmakers in the national assembly can no longer be excused. There is a wicked plan being hatched to distabilize this country. The suspicion that there may not be an election in 2023 is gradually coming home to settle. The question now is not whether there will be an election or not, rather, what is the interpretation of the bold, legibly written in capital letters hand writing on the wall?

We are trapped in the complications of competing political interests playing out as possible regional vote reduction from Southeast through a skewed voter registration process against the region, further complicated by burning of INEC facilities in the region. How many ballots have we lost to the ongoing killings particularly in northern Nigeria?

Same game is rearing its heads with the plot to impeach House of Representatives Speaker, Gbajabiamila over controversial water resources bill rumored to have been initiated in Mecca during the recent Hajj. Gbajabiamila’s journey to becoming Speaker equally started in Mecca. CAN and Christians can remain pretentious of what is up against them in their hypocrisy to be politically correct.

A renewed spate of killings in southern Kaduna few days to Christmas left forty (40) people dead for mass burial which was conducted yesterday Saturday 24th December 2022. Can surviving Nigerian Christians who woke this morning without any hope of peace few days to 2023 on 2022 Christmas day still say Merry Christmas like the rest of the world?

A news monitored on Sahara Reporters informed us thus: “It was gathered that the Northern lawmakers are hell bent on making sure the water bill sent which is alleged to have the strong backing of the President succeeds. They have already asked the Clerk of the House to prepare an ‘addendum’ and plan to take their counterparts from the Southern part of the country unawares, to ensure the bill successfully passes second reading”.

A rumored phenomenon of “useful idiot” explains the conspiracy that makes southerners available for northern agenda by trading out our common interests for personal agrandisement. Northern lawmakers in the House of Representatives have allegedly concluded plans to impeach our political “Deacon” turned the “Political Alhaji”, Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, should he fail to support the controversial Water Resources Bill during its second reading, Sahara Reporters has learnt.

It was gathered that the Northern lawmakers who are bent on making sure the bill succeeds, have already asked the Clerk of the House to prepare an ‘addendum’ and plan to take their counterparts from the Southern part of the country unawares, to ensure the bill successfully passes second reading.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-submission of the bill has been strongly and widely rejected by the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere; the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo; the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) and Middle Belt Forum.

Christian Association of Nigeria informed Nigerians through Adegbite its Chairman for Lagos state that CAN exists for politics at the Meet the Church Summit held in Lagos recently, in the audience was the CAN Chairman of Kaduna state whose responsibility it is to explain to Christians and all people of goodwill the political reason(s) for the incessant killings going on in Kaduna. This I believe is the time for Adegbite and his partisan peers in CAN to beg for another political prayer visit to President Buhari. I promise to make myself available if our begging is to let southern Kaduna people and other christian minority tribes of Northern Nigeria who are facing genocide under the President’s watch as Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces, to live.

The Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu and a clique of lawmakers in the National Assembly as well as sponsors of the controversial bill, Sada Soli, Chairman, Committee on Water Resources and Hassan Fulata, Chairman, Committee on Rules and Business, have been desperately pushing for the passage of the bill which was rejected by the 8th National Assembly following public outcry.

Their relentless campaign to ensure the passage of the bill has fuelled speculations that they have ulterior motives. One of the provisions considered offensive in the bill is that while there is popular agitation for resource control and devolution of powers to the states and local governments, the bill seeks to compel Nigerians to permit and pay taxes to the federal government like oil and gas operators before they drill boreholes in the backyards.

The bill also seeks to cede ownership of waterways, river banks and others to the federal government, allegedly for the resettlement of foreign herdsmen.

If this bill succeeds the well in my compound, dug in 1988 at Abule-Egba Lagos Southwest Nigeria will become the property of not Ifako Ijaye Local government authority, nor Lagos state government, but of the Federal Government seated in Abuja for which I will now pay taxes possibly on every litre or drop of water fetched from my well. The banks of my state identity; River Ogun will become the property of the Federal Government of Nigeria, same for Osun. Cross Rivers and Rivers will not just be losing the strips of lands along a single river. The state having almost more rivers than land may as well forget about their ancestral lands which the water bill is set to consume.

The House of Representatives on June 29, 2022, passed the bill for first reading in what can be described as an ambush of the Southern lawmakers, many of whom were said to be absent at that day’s sitting. Can we honestly say this is an ambush? Rather, it is the failure to initiate the needed Legislative Revolution Network for which the politically intelligent among us have clamoured.

Not all Northern Legislators are up for this wickedness and not all Muslim Legislators are on the path of Islamization of the secular state of Nigeria. A member of the House of Representatives from Sokoto State who is not comfortable with the bill told SaharaReporters on the condition of anonymity that all plans to smuggle the controversial water resources bill that almost tore the nation apart, through second reading at the House of Representatives have been intensified and concluded by the Northern lawmakers.

“The plan is that if the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, fails to back them to succeed in the second reading of the controversial water resources bill, he will be impeached and I can authoritatively tell you that the Clerk of the House has been mandated already to prepare addendum.

“The Presidency is solidly behind this whole arrangement and strong opposition to the reintroduction of the bill to the House will not stop its passage as plans to get it passed this time around have been concluded already. The plot to get the bill passed in the 9th Assembly has the blessing of the President and the leadership of the National Assembly.

“Unlike in the last attempt when the Speaker of House of Representatives played a stabilising role leading to the defeat of the bill, this time around, the threat of impeachment is hanging on Femi Gbajabiamila if he fails to play along.

“The plot to pass the bill was hatched here in Nigeria but was concluded at Mecca during the recent Hajj in Saudi Arabia. And part of the plot is to impeach the Speaker of the House, Gbajabiamila, whom they believe didn’t do much to ensure that the bill was passed before even when he knew the President was interested in the bill.

“They wanted the bill passed for the second reading this past week, but many Southern lawmakers were around and with support from Northern Christian lawmakers, the sponsor and the leadership of the House failed to bring the bill last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. When the bill was passed for the first reading in the House, no member had seen or had a copy of the bill, except those behind it and this prompted the Speaker to direct that every lawmaker should get a copy of the bill to study ahead of the second reading debate and this directive has not been carried out. This is to tell you the bill has a hidden agenda that could tear this nation apart.

“The National Assembly would have gone on vacation, but they are waiting for most of the Southern lawmakers who have made summer travelling arrangements to travel out of the country, then they will strike. They will observe this week; if they can’t pass it because of the large number of Southern and Northern Christian lawmakers at the chamber, the House will be made to convoke an emergency sitting of the House, after the House might have been adjourned for vacation. The Clerk of the House has prepared an addendum to enable the House to reconvene and sit even at night or weekend to consider and pass the controversial bill with or without southern members in attendance.

“My fear is that if the Southern Nigerians fail to rise to the occasion, the bill will pass through as certain interests in the Presidency and core North are bent on passing the bill and have mobilised huge resources to get it done. For me, this is a fight for the soul of Nigeria, because if this bill passes through the second reading, then it’s finished and the crisis that it will trigger in the country can best be imagined.

This is how they passed 3% for Host Community Fund in the PIA (Petroleum Industry Act), as against the 5% we collectively agreed. The bill, which was initially introduced and rejected during the 8th Assembly, following public outcry, looks like Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) in disguise with the backing of the Presidency.”

As the saying goes, if their hunters have learnt to shoot and not miss, our birds should also learn to fly without perching.

We must intensify on the Legislative Revolution Network to protect pro Nigerian Legislators presently in the House and the Senate, ensure they are reelected and rid the House and Senate of conspirators and bring in persons worthy of our representation to replace them. A new productive President must remain our desire to succeed Buhari, but let’s be very clear, we need a 10th Assembly that is equipped to renegotiate this country; and for me LRN is the only possibility to make that happen

*Akinyemi is former ambassador of nigeria to the United States