I don’t want Namadi Sambo’s job – Yuguda

Governor Isa Yuguda came out last week to tell the world that he was not interested in taking over the job of the Vice President, Namadi Sambo, and debunked insinuations that he was scheming to replace Sambo. In an interview in Lagos, Yuguda also spoke on the much debated amnesty for Boko haram, among other matters. The Excerpts below:

What is your reaction to the rejection of amnesty by the members of the Boko Haram sect?

Amnesty has been given to the real Boko Haram and I believe that they are willing to negotiate with the government. That is my belief. But you know there is the criminal Boko Haram and there is the real Boko Haram.  So, the criminal and political Boko Haram are the armed robbers and they are the para-military arm of the politicians. They go about attacking people. The real Boko Haram are willing. But those who are criminal, may be, they are the ones responding that they don’t want amnesty because they are benefiting from it. Some of them are gun-runners, some of them are armed robbers. Some of them are doing that on behalf of politicians. So, they just hide under the name Boko Haram to perpetrate evil and criminality. But those who call themselves the actual Boko Haram, there is something agitating their mind, not about killing human beings, probably joblessness in the society. Some of them are university graduates. They finish school and for 15 years, there is no job.

Now that the President has extended that olive branch to them, I will like to strongly believe that they will embrace it. There must be an end. Once they accept, we know we have to face the criminals. Any other person that is doing this and calls himself Boko Haram is an armed robber and a political Boko Haram. So, the definition of Boko, you should try to understand it. May be, from the definition, you try to rationalise. Boko in Hausa is learning, including learning rocket science, chemistry, medicine, biology. That is western in English. But if you learn rocket science in Arabic, is it Boko to you? It is not Boko, it is Arabic. If you learn it in Chinese language, they don’t call it Boko. So, you tend to get confused. A medical doctor who went to learn in Indian Language or Arabic – as we have close to 40 students from Bauchi learning Medicine in Egypt and they about finishing next year. When they come back, they can do a lot of things. So, why should a group come out to say that Boko is Haram. Haram in Hausa is ‘forbidden’. Would you forbid knowledge of medicine? Would you forbid knowledge of pharmacy? Would you forbid knowledge of civil engineering, construction engineering? Would you forbid the knowledge of financial management? O, you sit down and ask yourself: what do they want? Let us know what they want. As far as our thinking is concerned, there is no meaning in what they are saying. There must be something that is agitating them. Is it going to be a doctor by using English, or going to be aeronautic engineer or going to learn rocket science, or sophisticated architecture? And you are using aircraft and pilot. Is it Haram to fly aircraft to Mecca, to Jerusalem? It is a food for thought for all of us.  That is why it makes sense and in fact, we have to commend the President for extending that olive branch to those that we know are Boko haram and, of course, they are agitators. But for the criminals, we will fight them; the criminal Boko Haram, the political Boko Haram, the armed robber Boko Haram and the gun runner every where.

It has been alleged that you are nursing the ambition to become the Vice President, thereby displacing Vice President Namadi Sambo in 2015. What is your reaction?

It is more of the figment of the imagination of somebody else who wants to play me against somebody I look up to as a senior brother. He grew up in Bauchi. I have known him since I was a small boy. He is working with Mr President and he is very loyal to Mr President. He is competent because he is a successful architect. I was in Part One when he was in Part Four. We have close family relations and he takes me like a younger brother. Why should me, Isa Yuguda, blind ambition? That I will not be grateful to God, that I want to be Vice President or President is blind ambition. The Almighty Allah will test me with what is more terrifying to me. I had a privilege of being an average intelligent human being. I went through school and never failed my exams. I graduated at the age of 20 and at 21, I was doing my NYSC. And I consider myself privileged and have been so favoured by the Almighty God. Sometimes I even weep in the night when I remember the favours that Allah has done to me. I was one of the bankers that enjoyed the fastest promotion in the banking industry. I have a Bachelors Degree. I went through development banking, commercial banking, mortgage banking to investment banking. I worked with the mortgage bank, development bank. I went to a commercial bank. I ended up as an investment banker. I was the MD of NAL. A two-time Managing Director and I was the youngest branch manager in Savannah Bank at the age of 27. I was 32 years when I became the Director of banking Services. I don’t have other diseases in my body than malaria. I am happily married. My children are all healthy; no deformity, nothing. My wives are also healthy. In fact, right now, I have five graduates with master’s degrees and another four are graduating next year.

I have the means to send them to school, in spite of the hardship in Nigeria. I am a two-time minister and by the time I joined the cabinet, I was the youngest minister in Obasanjo’s government in 2000. I never had the ambition of becoming the governor. People were saying, Yuguda, you cannot be a politician because people have a definition of politics that has to do with violence, rancour, arson, mayhem, looting the treasury of government. I am not like that. But today, I am a second term governor. And you are saying that I am begrudging somebody who is the Vice President. What will I get from the office of the Vice President that Allah has not tested me with?

So, does that mean you have no such ambition?

I left PDP in 2007 when I had problems with the PDP. People were in support that I should contest for the governor. I was virtually asked by the people of Bauchi to come out and that was confirmed during the election. If I had had the ambition to contest, that revolution that happened in 2007 would not have happened. We had 22 seats in the House of Assembly, out of 30. We had 12 seats in the House of Representatives. We had two senators. It was not because I had more superior experience and intelligence. No. When I was the Managing Director, I was recruiting my classmates. They would sit and I would interview them. Some of them had higher marks than me in school. So, if you say that you will not be grateful to God, you are looking for trouble. So, forget about that ambition. I am a loyal party member. I am loyal to Mr. President. It is God that brought him to power. I support him so that he can lead Nigeria well, together with the Vice President. And power belongs to God. Anybody who is forcing himself will not get there because he is not going to offer anything. The average Nigerian considers political office as an enterprise. They see the governor as an entrepreneur. But there is a difference between entrepreneurship and governance under a political dispensation. A governor is not an entrepreneur. He was elected to serve humanity; to offer an enabling environment so that people can live a good life, safe life; educate people. But an entrepreneur is someone who is after profit. So, if you want to be a businessman, go and be a businessman. But once you are in politics, don’t make politics an enterprise or imagine that you want power for its sake. You cannot be a despot. You cannot play God like some of our governors in the past. If you wear the cap of arrogance, you are comparing yourself with the creator.

The reconciliation embarked upon by the PDP national Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, has not achieved success. Now, the BoT Chairman, Chief Tony Anenih, who had disagreed with the chairman, has embarked on another one. How can the crisis in the party be resolved?

In every environment – that is why you have a manager – if there are no problems, there won’t be any manager. That is why you have the chairman of the party. A party is an association of like-minded people. But sometimes, there is the conflict of ideas, thoughts and vision, and in the process, you have misunderstanding. In families, there are squabbles and misunderstandings here and there which the neighbours should not hear, but they get to hear. If you are not a PDP member, you are a neighbour. I assure you that what you read in the newspapers is not the actual picture. The Chairman of the Board of Trustees and the National Chairman are elder statesmen. At their age, you don’t expect rancour from them. Baba Anenih is one of the finest men I have ever met in my life, especially in the political landscape. He loves Nigeria with passion. And, he is a man of peace. Take it from me. I know him closely. He has vision for our country. He is interested in helping Nigeria to grow. If you don’t hear his own side and you go and write a story, you won’t get to know. PDP is intact, I assure you. And PDP is going to win 35 out of 36 states in the next elections.

What is your reaction to the crisis rocking the Governors Forum, owing to the formation of the PDP Governors Forum?

It is not a crisis. The formation of association is provided for in the constitution. Today, the opposition parties have formed an association and we call them the APC. If the PDP governors feel that there are certain things that are exclusive to them as the PDP governors, that there is a PDP manifesto and there is the need for them to discuss together to implement the programmes, the manifestos, we should do that. But the Governors Forum is Nigerian Governors Forum. It symbolises the unity of our country. And I had the privilege of going to the meeting of the American Governors Forum. Let me tell you, if the Governors Forum of Nigeria is not like this, then, I will look so cheap.

But how constitutional is the body?

Whether it is constitutional or unconstitutional, it is in our own interest to re-unite and solve our own problems. Is there anything unconstitutional in uniting and discussing our problems?

Is that why they are holding the President to ransom, as alleged by Chief Edwin Clark?

What do you mean? Tell me. Let us exchange ideas. I am in government and it is my responsibility to explain certain things to you. You may agree or not agree with me. I owe it a duty to talk to you because I am paid to talk to you so that you tell the people what the government is doing. If we don’t talk to you, we are not doing our job. You are saying that the Governors’ Forum is holding the President to ransom. I am not bothered by what Baba Edwin Clark has said. I am bothered by what you, my younger brothers, are saying. That doesn’t exist. We are holding the President to ransom. In the interest of the larger Nigerians, our governors are united. I am closer to Fashola than many of the PDP governors. Of course, there are ACN governors that are closer to PDP governors than their own colleagues. When we get to the Governors ‘ Forum, believe me, in the name of Allah, we discuss Nigeria’s problems, not the President, not even any other person. We speak on issues that will unite us. Any issue that we believe that will create a problem for the economy, we thrash it there before even going for the National Economic Council meeting, and we agree and we tell the Chairman of the Governors’ Forum that this is the consensus view of the governors. All of us, we speak with one voice on all the issues that concern Nigeria.

But what about the crisis between the PDP governors and PDP national chairman?

How can we discuss that at the Nigerian Governors’ Forum? In the Governor’s Forum, we have the ACN, PDP, APGA, ANPP, CPC and Labour Party.

But it has been alleged that when the NGF Chairman, Governor Rotimi Amaechi, speaks the mind of the governors to the President, the President sees him as an antagonist.

No. I am afraid, when you talk on what the governors have decided upon, nobody can object to it. The excess crude account is not recognised by the constitution. Is it a fact or fiction? It is a fact. If we had no reason, if Obasanjo had no reason to establish that account – but it is in the constitution that the President has leverage for the purpose of good management of the economy of the country, you take certain decisions. And that is subject to the interpretation of the court, to determine if the excess crude account can be factored in for the good management of the economy. These are questions that you need to ask. So, there are things we need to discuss generally. Should we have an excess crude account? The position of the governors is that, look, we don’t have sufficient money to pay salaries. In the budget, you have recurrent and capital expenditure, but you need revenue to fund them.

Police say Houston mom adopted girls, beat them with stick

A Houston mom has been jailed for severely "flogging" her two Nigerian adoptive daughters last month at their southwest Houston home, according to Harris County prosecutors.

Onyeka Lucy Asonye, 46, faces two counts of felony injury to a child, court records show. A judge denied bail for Asonye, who was being held Monday at the Harris County Jail.

A daycare worker called investigators March 1 when she noticed the 3-year-old girl had a large bump on her forehead and a swollen and shut eye, according to an arrest warrant filed in the case. Both the toddler and her sister, 4, had multiple bruises and scars over their entire bodies.

A physician at Texas Children's Hospital reported that the 3-year-old had multiple abrasions and healing scars to her back, abdomen, chest and legs, had swelling to both hands, suffered a possible abdominal injury, and had a puncture wound to her right scalp, prosecutors said.

The 4-year-old sustained multiple abrasions and healing scars to her trunk/back, and also suffered a possible abdominal injury, the physician stated.

Investigators said that Asonye struck both girls with a stick, and pushed the 4-year-old against a wall.

Questioned by police, she initially denied that she hurt her daughters. She later confessed to causing some of the scars and bruising to the girls by "flogging" them with sticks at their home, prosecutors said.

"The defendant stated she did not hit the complainant's (victims) in a specific place, but where is closest to her at the moment when she hits them," the arrest warrant states.

She told police, "I wasn't trying to abuse them I want the best for them and myself that is the only reason I beat them," prosecutors said.

Asonye adopted the girls from Nigeria as infants and has had full custody of them since 2011, court records show.

She lives alone with the girls, who are now in the custody of Child Protective Services.

French family of 7 taken hostage in Cameroon freed at last

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — A French family with four young children kidnapped at gunpoint by Islamic extremists in northern Cameroon was freed after two months of captivity in what the father described as especially harsh conditions following the group's return Friday to safety in the Cameroonian capital.

Cameroonian television showed the family of seven — four children, their parents and their uncle — stepping off an airplane, a man who had grown a thick beard carrying the smallest child. All appeared thin, but walked steadily.

Officials from France and Cameroon offered no details on how the family was freed overnight, and it was not clear whether there were concessions to the kidnappers.

Tanguy Moulin-Fournier, an expatriate employee for a French company and father of the family, said in a brief radio interview that the group learned their release was imminent just a few hours beforehand and that their return to safety went well.

Speaking hours later at the ambassador's residence of the French Embassy in Yaounde, Cameroon's capital, he said the group has to "digest" their freedom before responding to questions while still "in the grip of emotions."

"It was very difficult," Moulin-Fournier, now sporting a thick beard, said. "It's the end of the dry season. The heat is terrible. Water was a problem. It was difficult to hold out."

The children, who the French media reported were aged 5 to 12, fared better, he said.

"Children have something in them so that they manage to hold up," he said. "Life in them flows stronger."

The seven ex-hostages were freed "in a zone between Nigeria and Cameroon," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said.

"It's a day of happiness, extraordinary happiness, for all French people to know that the Moulin-Fournier family is finally free, safe and sound," he said late Friday in a ceremony held in the Cameroonian capital before he was due to escort the family back to France.

"All hostage-takings are strongly felt in France, but this one was perhaps felt more because it concerned a big family with little kids."

French President Francois Hollande said authorities made contact with the kidnappers through intermediaries, and negotiations intensified in recent days. He reiterated France's official policy against ransom payments.

"We use all our contacts, but remain firm on our principles," Hollande said. "We are not changing the principle that France does not pay ransoms."

France has come under criticism over what diplomats and analysts say is an unofficial policy of indirectly paying ransoms through middlemen over the years. Vicki Huddleston, a former U.S. ambassador to Mali, alleged that France paid a $17 million ransom to free hostages seized from a French mining site — cash she said ultimately funded the al-Qaida-linked militants in Mali. French officials deny paying any ransoms.

Fabius, like Hollande, stressed the need for discretion in working to free hostages. The minister thanked Cameroonian President Paul Biya and the Nigerian head of state.

"The Cameroonian people and I are filled with great relief and great joy to see you free," Biya told the three freed adults who attended a ceremony in the capital late Friday.

The Feb. 19 kidnapping in northern Cameroon near the Nigerian border came as thousands of French troops were deeply involved in a military intervention against Islamic extremists in the west African country of Mali. The French statement recalled that eight other French citizens are still being held hostage in the Sahel region of Africa.

Moulin-Fournier is an employee of the French gas group GDF Suez and worked in Yaounde.

"We were not involved in any negotiations but we knew that French authorities were very active," Gerard Mastrallet, the head of GDF, said in an interview with RTL radio.

Last month, a video surfaced showing a man who appeared to be Moulin-Fournier. The man said his family was in the custody of the Islamic radical sect known as Boko Haram which wants all its members freed, especially women and children held in Nigerian and Cameroonian custody.

Boko Haram has been waging a campaign of bombings and shootings across Nigeria's north. They are held responsible for more than 790 deaths last year, and dozens more since the beginning of this year.

Moulin-Fournier had said his family was not doing well in captivity.

"We lose force (strength) every day and start to be sick; we will not stay very long like this," he said in the recording.

Neither Nigeria nor Cameroon reported any Boko Haram members were freed.

Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade, a Nigerian defense ministry spokesman, told The Associated Press on Friday that the release followed a "meticulous collaboration between the Nigerian security forces and French counterparts, as well as others." However, he declined to offer any other information.

"I can only inform you that we collaborated," he said.

Nigerian presidential spokesman Reuben Abati and a spokeswoman for Nigeria's domestic spy agency also declined to comment. However, it appeared Nigerian authorities were caught off-guard by the announcement.

___

Lori Hinnant reported from Paris. Associated Press writers Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Jon Gambrell in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed to this report.

Hoodlums invade church after 2-yr-old boy died in septic tank

AKURE— TIMELY intervention of Mobile policemen in Akure, the Ondo state capital, last Sunday saved a Pastor from being lynched and his church set ablaze by some hoodlums protesting the death of a two-year-old boy, Feranmi Oladeji, who died inside the church septic tank.

About 30 mobile policemen were promptly deployed to the Christ Apostolic Church, C A C, Oke Ihinrere in Aiyedun area of Akure metropolis,Sunday, following distress calls as the thugs invaded the area and held worshippers hostage.

The Pastor whose identity was kept secret and other leaders of the church were shielded by church members when the hoodlums invaded the place.

Within an hour, the church became a Mecca of sort, as people raced there to witness the development.

The father of the deceased said to be an artisan does not attend the church but his wife, Olayinka, does.

Vanguard gathered that the deceased was born and christened in the church and celebrated his second birthday two Sundays before the incident in the same church.

It was gathered that on Sunday, at about 11.30 a.m. while the service was on, the deceased and other children were playing close to the septic tank and when Feranmi fell inside it, his mates instead of informing their parents ignored him and continued playing.
When eventually his mother asked after him and was informed by his mates that he fell inside the septic tank, Feranmi was already stone dead.

Hell was let loose as the rescue mission raised by the church leaders brought out the lifeless body of the boy while efforts to apply first aid failed.

Doctors confirmed him dead by the time he was rushed to a hospital.

Vanguard gathered that the pastor is currently under police protective custody.
Mobile policemen, at press time, were still keeping vigil in the church while the entrance to the church was under lock and key.

The state police command confirmed the death of the boy and said his body had been deposited at the state specialist hospital in Akure.

The Police image-maker, Wole Ogodo, who said peace had returned to the area, however, noted that the pastor would be invited for questioning.

Bombing suspects’ Aunt says she’s received threats

The aunt of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects says she has been receiving unspecified threats since Friday, when she told reporters outside her home in Toronto that the Chechen-born brothers had been framed.

“They are calling us, calling names, threatening, saying it’s time to go home,” Maret Tsarnaeva said on Saturday, according to the Toronto Sun. “Yes, it is time. We did not find that promise -- democracy -- in this country. But if I go home, I will go home only with bodies of my nephews.”

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev remains in serious condition at a Boston hospital after being taken into custody by police on Friday. His 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, was killed during a shootout with police early Friday in Watertown.

“They made our boys enemies of the American nation,” Maret Tsarnaeva said, according to the paper. “They made them victims of the conspiracy.”

She continued: “They needed somebody to blame for something they committed themselves so they got them, so rejoice people, rejoice."

The suspects' father, Anzor Tsarnaev, also believes his sons are innocent.

"They were set up, they were set up!" Anzor Tsarnaev told the Associated Press in a phone interview from the southern Russian republic of Dagestan. "I saw it on television."

Anzor called Dzhokhar "a true angel."

Ruslan Tsarni, the suspects' uncle who lives in Maryland, was critical of the pair, calling them "losers."

Islamic Leader Issues Tough Response to Fellow Muslims on Bombings and Extremism: Drop the ‘We Are the Victims’ Mentality

Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a conservative author, activist and the president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD), has a message for Muslim Americans: Step up to the plate and work diligently to combat Islamism and extremism. Jasser spoke withTheBlaze this week about his reaction to the Boston Marathon terror attack and his views on steps that should be taken within Islamic circles to prevent further extremism.

When asked how he believes Muslims should be reacting to the terror attacks, the faith leader noted that he has been disappointed by the response thus far. He claimed that many Islamic leaders have simply not done enough and that more is required of the community as a whole.

"Swift condemnations of the act of terrorism are just not enough. I don't believe that the American public is buying their mantra of denial and victimization," he told TheBlaze through e-mail. "They deny that the perpetrators were Muslim (basically committing 'takfir' as is typical for Islamists) -- all the while the list of hundreds of American Muslims either attempting to commit or having committed acts of terrorism continues to pile up."

M. Zuhdi Jasser

M. Zuhdi Jasser, President and Founder, American Islamic Forum for Democracy, testifies during a hearing of the House Homeland Security Committee, on "the extent of the radicalization" of American Muslims, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, March 10, 2011 (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Jasser took particular aim at those Muslim leaders who he believes "focus on their own victimization, patronizingly reminding the rest of America not to be 'racists' [or] 'bigots.'" The conservative Muslim leader said that it is time for faith leaders to confront the issues that so-often lead to radicalization.

Rather than avoiding the discussion and claiming victimization, Jasser believes that it's paramount for these leaders to figure out what's separating some Muslim youths from Americanism and leading them "toward supremacist Islamism" -- and he wants to address these phenomena.

"There is a deep soulful battle of identity raging within the Muslim consciousness domestically and abroad between Westernism and liberalism," he said. "In essence the Islamists confront every situation in a selfish 'we are the victims' mentality and the rest of us non-Islamist Muslims need to instead respond with a louder and more real leadership and say: 'We will not be victims.'"

Jasser also noted that those who embrace the Muslim faith should openly acknowledge that the radicalisation problem requires believers to tackle the issue from within -- and that Muslims who embrace reform are the most essential to preventing future attacks.

By all accounts, Jasser practices what he preaches. Through AIFD, he seeks to educate Muslims and non-Muslims, alike, in an effort to prevent extremism.

Zuhdi Jasser

Zuhdi Jasser speaks during a news conference in front of police headquarters in New York, Monday, March 5, 2012. (Photo Credit: AP) 

"We have been trying to engage as much of the American public as possible as the long overdue attention to the greatest threat to our security in the 21st century is beginning to be realized," he said. "The Islamist threat manifests as the early stages of radicalization domestically and it manifests as theocratic regimes (like the Iranian Khomeinists or Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood) abroad who will never be our allies and ultimately seek our destruction."

It is through engaging the public that he hopes Americans will see that AIFD can help keep the nation safe through vital and unique programs. One of Jasser's efforts, called the Muslim Liberty Project, works to engage young Muslims, ages 15 to 30, in an effort to help foster American identity -- a worldview that embraces the Constitution and "the separation of mosque and state." The goal? To prevent youths from falling into extremist traps.

Another program, the American Islamic Leadership Coalition, brings together diverse Muslim groups that are opposed to Islamism. Through public statements, position papers and press conferences, the goal here is to get the word out about combating extremist groups.

"We pray that the attention of the American public to the problem this time will not again be plagued by an ADD response which wanes shortly after the event and reverts back to an ineffective politically correct whack-a-mole program," Jasser told TheBlaze.

As for more wide-ranging solutions, the Islamic activist said that America needs to come to a national consensus -- one that examines terrorism as something rooted in a larger problem. Jasser believes that political Islam (also known as Islamism) can't be defeated by military might and that these structures must be combatted through engagement. The battle against these groups, though, must be waged by Muslims themselves, he argues.

"This needs to be engaged on many fronts with a public-private partnership where government, media, activist groups, and academe begin to push any and all pressure points which break down the power systems of Islamist groups and ideas while bolstering the infrastructure and ideas of non-Islamist and anti-Islamist groups here and abroad," he continued. "I have called for our government to develop to that end: a Liberty Doctrine as a guiding philosophy of our nation against the threat of Islamism."