The last time acts of terrorism occurred in Sokoto State that I can remember was once in July 2018 and another one in January 2019. But in the last one month and three days three had taken place with the loss of at least 75 lives. It began on Friday, September 24 at the joint military base known as Burkusuma Camp in Dana village in Sabon Birni Local Government Area where 15 persons were murdered.
On Sunday, October 3, twenty were killed at Ungwan Lalle Market while on Sunday, October 17 more than 40 others were shot to death at Gorongo Market both in the same Sabon Birni Local Government Area. Nigerian soldiers were reported to have exterminated ten of the terrorists.
It is instructive that these acts of terrorism and unfortunate loss of lives took place four months after the last of my appeals in two years to His Royal Eminence Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, was published on June 2. It was titled: Sultan take me seriously to stop ceaseless calamities and worsening insecurity in the country.
This has been the pattern since August 6, 13 and 20, 2014 when the piece captioned I fear for Nigeria’s future was published in this column. Insurgency or acts of terrorism will just get worse and reach frightening levels. I wrote the article on Nigeria’s future seven years ago when the Ancient of Days told me not to raise ending the country’s insecurity problems with Him again.
But President Goodluck Jonathan, the then Head of State, thought I was making a prediction and reacted with the statement that the Good Lord would soon disappoint the prophets of doom. Four months later, that is, by the end of that year 150 people had been killed according to information online.
And by the time he left office five months later, on May 28, 2015 two thousand five hundred and fourteen people had been murdered. This made it a total of two thousand six hundred and sixty – four people killed in the last seven months of Jonathan’s presidency.
As I revealed seven years ago in the series in August 2014 there have been ceaseless calamities in the country since late 1999 because the Heavenly Father is angry with us. And this was because General Abdulsalami Abubakar, the Military Head of State at the time (June 9, 1998 – May 28, 1999) ignored the message the Lord instructed me to convey to him.
This was that the country had been polluted by evil forces by the rituals carried out by eight Ogbomoso spiritualists from November 1998 through January 1999 for Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) to win the presidential poll of February that year. Seventy – six cows were required for the sacrifice with two to be used in Abuja and 35 of the 36 states in the country. Four were needed in Ogun State where Obasanjo is from.
Obasanjo who was released from prison five months earlier after a three – year incarceration said he did not have the N1.5million required to purchase the cows. The leader of the spiritualists said he would obtain bank loan to buy them with Obasanjo reported to have promised to refund the money along with a handsome thanksgiving offering.
But after he was declared the winner of the election Obasanjo was said to have reneged on his assurances. The story was published in the Sunday Tribune of April 18, 1999 and Obasanjo did not deny it nor sued the newspaper.
Consequently, the disappointed spiritualists did another ritual to cause the Army to seize power and abort his presidency. When this failed they placed a curse on the country, and this has been responsible for the series of tragedies in the country in the last 22 years.
To counter the rituals and curses of the spiritualists the Ancient of Days sent me to General Abubakar in April 1999 about six weeks before he handed power to Obasanjo. This was for him to get the Chief Imams in the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja) and the capitals of the 36 states to each organize 41 of their clerics to fast and pray for seven days to neutralize the pollution of the country.
Each group was to be provided by the Federal Government with two cows, one to be slaughtered on the first day before the prayers started and the second on the last day of the exercise. The meat of the cows were to be given out to poor people. And the Federal Government was to have given members of the prayer groups a thanksgiving offering to be decided by General Abubakar.
When he ignored the message the Lord said He would prevent a military coup being planned by some Army Generals from happening. This was to prevent the Yoruba from seceding because the election won in 1993 by Chief Moshood Abiola was annulled while a coup was in the making to stop Chief Obasanjo another member of the ethnic group from becoming the president in 1999.
It is on record that Lt. General Ishaya Bamaiyi, the Chief of Army Staff at the time told Justice Chukwudifu Oputa – led Reconciliation Commission in 2000, that he planned a coup to stop Chief Obasanjo from been inaugurated as president, but later changed his mind.
But the Heavenly Father told me He would allow the disasters to continue for several years and only He knows when He would make it end.
The attacks carried out in Sokoto State in July 2018 and January 2019 by terrorists made me plead with the Supreme Being the following month to send a Muslim colleague of mine to the Sultan of Sokoto. This was to get the monarch who is the Head of the Muslims in the country to reach out to the Chief Imams in Abuja and the capitals of the 36 states to raise 41 clerics to fast and pray for seven days for the spiritual cleansing of the country.
The Lord said my idea was good but three months later He had not sent a message to the Sultan. That showed me He was not yet ready to forgive us. As a result, I thought what to do was for me to reach out to the Sultan and if he agreed to do the needful that his action would make the Ancient of Days to show mercy on us.
•To be continued next Wednesday
Giving fair treatment to indigenous Lagosians
The Aworis some of who are in a part of neighbouring Ogun State are the aborigines of Lagos. But unlike in the other Yoruba towns where the descendants of indigenous people are in the majority in Lagos they form a tiny minority. Consequently, few of them hold important positions in the state or local governments.
As stated in the column of June 2, 2021 all the elected Governors of Lagos State from October 1, 1979 till today are immigrant Lagosians whose ancestors came from Kwara, Osun, Ondo or Ogun State. Members of their families living in their states of origin have the opportunity to aspire to be governors, cabinet members or serve in other positions.
The current Commissioner for Environment in Lagos State, Mr. Olatunji Bello is an immigrant Lagosian from Abeokuta. His elder brother, Dr. Olaseni Bello, an economist, in the 1966 – 69 set at the University of Ibadan, the one immediately after my own (the 1965 – 68 set), was a Commissioner in the cabinet of a Military Governor or Administrator of Ogun State in the 1990s.
But unlike the Bellos, the former governors and the present one, indigenous Lagosians do not have the opportunity to serve in any government outside Lagos State. Given this fact, it is only fair that the Lagos State Government should reserve two or three commissionership slots and other positions in public appointments for the aboriginal Lagosians.
Indigenous Lagosians should take up the issue with the Oba of Lagos and seek his support to get the Lagos State House of Assembly to act on it. Indeed, they should also seek the assistance of Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, other former Governors of Lagos State and incumbent Governor Babajide Sanwo – Olu. If not now or in a few years their dream on the matter will one day become a reality.
•Concluded