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The meeting between the Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari and the National Peace Committee for the 2015 general election, led by former military head of state Lieutenant General Abdulsalam Abubakar (rtd) had entered a deadlock after Buhari insists that the people who looted Nigeria money during the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan would soon be in court.

The committee went to meet with the president, but instead were surprised at the stance of the former army general and his utterance during the meeting that ended after 30mins. The committee  went to meet the president to pacify him in the ongoing hunt for corrupt politicians who had looted from the Nigeria purse, but the president insisted on moving forward with investigation and anybody found guilty will be probed.

                    

                          Buhari with the National Peace Committee (NPC)

During the president's recent visit to the US, American officials had handed over dossiers of corrupt officials during the Jonathan-led administration, Mr Buhari then went through the list of corrupt officials and this makes him furious at the sight of corruption that had eaten through the Nigeria system.

Another personality that had failed to pacify the Nigerian president is the former Commonwealth Secretary General, Emeka Anyaoku, who had met with the president and told him to let "bygone be bygone" just before his visit to the US. President Jonathan had called on Mr Anyaoku to intercede on his behalf.

One of the Jonathan-led government officials had stolen as much as $6 Billion dollars while in office,and this is something that also triggered the anger of Muhammadu Buhari. This was revealed by Edo state governor, Adams Oshiomole, who was also part of the Mr Buhari entourage to the US. Though Oshiomole did not reveal the name of the person in charge, but hands and head are pointing towards the former minister of petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke.

                    

Diezani Alison-Madueke before the end of Jonathan tenure had met him to find a way where he would be saved from the hand of the incoming government, but when Jonathan saw what she had done in the corruption scandal, he shouted at her to get out from his office and face the music, Alison-Madueke had visited Jonathan back then with Lieutenant General Abdulsalam Abubakar.

When that failed, she (Alison-Madueke) a staunch good looking woman, who was once alleged of having a sizzling romance with the past president, Goodluck Jonathan, who after many cries of the masses and media, she was left in the office amidst corruption scandal, her friend, Stella Oduah-Ogiemwonyi was chased out of office after the many corruption allegation was leveled against her.

After President Buhari returned back from the US trip, Goodluck Jonathan decided to step-up to Muhammadu Buhari by having a one-on-one secret meeting with the president, which happened on Thursday last week in the dead of the night. Jonathan had met with Buhari to talk him into stopping the corruption hunt of his government. But unfortunately when they met, Mr Jonathan, was unable to make a clear point and changed the subject of visit into asking Mr Buhari about his government and how he is being coping. Mr Jonathan is a soft-spoken person, an attribute many of the past officials had used to get corrupt under his administration.

According to Sahara reporters, the persistence of Mr Buhari had driven Ms Jonathan into depression mode. Ms Alison-Madueke is also said to have collapsed in her posh apartment in due to “exhaustion”  and was recently hospitalized at a UK hospital.

After the Goodluck Jonathan meeting with Buhari, another person interested in the meeting is Olusegun Obasanjo, who later called the Presidential villa less than 24 hours to know what Jonathan had come there to do. He also arranged to meet the president behind close doors. 

During the meeting with Buhari, Obasanjo advices Buhari to jail Goodluck Jonathan if he is found guilty, he then promised to assist in the probing of the corrupt officials, and even go as far as telling the president that he will use his international contacts to help trace all the stolen funds during the president Jonathan administration.

When Jonathan learnt that Obasanjo had met with Buhari after his own meeting, he immediately knew that it was not a meeting that would favour his last meeting with Buhari, that was then he called on the National Peace Committee for the 2015 general election led by Lieutenant General Abdulsalam Abubakar (rtd) to intervene in the issue.

One man in the peace committee train to Aso rock is Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor. The pastor tagged by Nigerian netizens as the "Bling-bling" pastor, a name he was given due to his "Jesus piece" and also known for putting on gold jewellery. 

Oritsejafor was the pastor who used his private jet to launder $9.3 million dollars in a arms deal scandal. The jet was discovered and confiscated in South Africa with a million cash inside the aircraft. Oritsejafor who probably had Jonathan number on the speed dial used his influence to get the Jonathan administration say the cash was supposed to get arms to fight Islamic insurgent, Boko Haram in the Northern Eastern part of the country.

Mr Buhari had known about the NPC meeting and was ready to give a good reply when they are around. In the meeting, some of the past officials that will be used as a scapegoat in the fight against corruption are :

Former National Security Adviser, Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd) 

Former Petroleum Minister, Alison-Madueke

Former First Lady, Patience Jonathan,

Former Attorney general, Mohammaed Bello Adoke

Amnesty Office, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC),

Federal Capital Territory

Gordon Obuah, a former Chief Security Office

Mr Buhari maintains his stance that all treasury looters will face trial as soon as possible.

 

 

 

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President Muhammadu Buhari has rejected the proposal of the state house to procure five armoured cars, Benz S-600 (V222)  valued at N400 Million (Approx. $2M). The president got to know of the plan when the Permanent secretary of the state house, Mr Nebolisa Emodi  was letting him know of the ministry activities on Wednesday.

   

Mr Buhari hearing about the armoured vehicles told Emodi that the purchase was unnecessary, and the cars should not be purchased at a time of scarce resources, he further said the cars used by the past government of president Jonathan is good for him.

He further said that all activities of the state house must be within the approved budget. He approved other activities and welcomed other initiatives of the house to reduce spending and operating costs of the state house and strengthen its Finance and Accounts Internal Control Mechanisms.

Confirming the new is the Senior special assistant to the president, Shehu Garba. He said that Buhari had halted the purchase of the cars, and he had said he will use the cars of the past government.

The purchase of the new cars was said to be presented to the former president, Goodluck Jonathan, but he didn't approve it since the car delivery will be after the May 29th handover, he however, suggested that the purchase proposal be presented to the incoming president, Muhammadu Buhari, who on Wednesday put a stop to it.

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The counterterrorism officials and other experts who had been covering West Africa had confirmed that the battle between the Nigerian Army and Boko Haram is being won by the terrorist sect, Boko Haram. After a lot of the joint task force of the Nigerian-Chadian forces of driving the Boko Haram members away and retaking all villages that had been acquired by the sect, Boko Haram has got back again and gradually winning some of the villages back.

           

On Wednesday, 60 people were killed after a sack of bombs went off in Bauchi, Nigeria.Also Boko Haram attacked a police academy in the Chad capital city, N'Djamena, killing dozens of police officers and recruits.The sect had also killed a lot of police officers in the city of Maiduguri in recent attacks.

John Campbell, the Ralph Bunche Center director at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria in a statement said : 

You can quibble on this and that, but yes, they are winning

Also a US Counterterrorism official said the tactics of the involves moving out of the forest to the countryside and attacking villages, but whenever they are confronted in the villages, they move out to Maiduguri and carry out bombings. The CT official said:

  There have been successes.But it's whack-a-mole

Nigeria and its neigbouring countries, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin have been trying to form a 8,700 fighting force to attack Boko Haram members, but are yet to have a command centre, even though they receive intelligence from USA and France.

The Boko Haram group tried to gain more ground after it pledges allegiance to the Islamic state of Iraq and Syria, and have referred to itself as "Islamic State, West Africa Province". 

Director of the Atlantic Council's Africa Center,J. Peter Pham, said that there is no evidence of ISIS helping Boko Haram at the moment, but what happened is just for production help on social media.

What I have seen is increasing sophistication in confronting Nigerian forces.In attacks on Nigerian forces, it's always been see-saw battles for control. What's interesting is that tactics have changed.Now, however,Before, the Nigerians would flee and Boko Haram would advance. That's still ongoing,Now, however, Boko Haram is attacking on two of three sides and will put the bulk of their forces on the escape route and the Nigerians are getting ambushed. That's a military revolution.

Counterterrorism officials said Boko Haram is showing more nimbleness. The attack in Chad killing police officers in the country capital city of  N'Djamena, is a bold move by the sect. In a long war, none of the Joint-task(Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Benin) force have the troops to sustain a long term fight.

Whether the Nigeria military is up to the task of handling Boko Haram or not will be seen in few months as the country watch the new elected former military dictator, General Muhammadu Buhari takes over power from the former government of Goodluck Jonathan, whom Nigerians have tagged incompetent or clueless about the war on Boko Haram.

Boko Haram, which means "Western education is a sin" are of the intention of recreating the pre-colonial Islamic Emirate of Borno, and need pieces of Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon who were part of the pre-colonial emirates, how possible will they do this as the land mass is close to 10,000 square miles.

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