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Why Anti-subsidy Protests Didn’t Turn Violent Under Jonathan – Ex-DSS Director

A former Director, Department of State Services, Mike Ejiofor, has said the protest staged to kick against attempts by former President Goodluck Jonathan-led government to remove petrol subsidy in 2012 didn’t turn violent partly because of ‘the body language’ of the former President.
Ejiofor, who is the President of the Alumni Association of the National Institute for Security Studies, also said that the protesters also didn’t go irate because the situation in the country was not as bad as it is presently.
The former DSS boss gave the explanation while speaking on the planned #EndBadGovernance August 1 – 10 protests, and the moves of government to dissuade the organisers from storming the street.
Recall the DSS on Thursday warned the organisers of the planned nationwide protests against proceeding with the action, saying it uncovered a plan “by some elements to infiltrate the protest and use it to cause chaos and extreme violence in the land.”
Also, the military and police have also warned against the protest scheduled to be held from August 1 to 10 in response to the economic hardship experienced in the country.
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“The level of violence being envisaged can only be described as a state of anarchy. The armed forces on its part will not stand by and allow anarchy to befall our nation,” defence spokesman, Major General Edward Buba said on Thursday.
Meanwhile, speaking during an interview on Arise TV Morning Show, Ejiofor on Friday while answering question on why the protest of 2012 was not subjected to threats and a clampdown by security agencies, said it was partly because of the body language of Jonathan who was the then president and the situation of the country as of 2012.
He, however, said the present situation in the country has left a hard condition posing fears that the planned protest if staged, has the tendency to be hijacked because people are now “hungry and desperate”.
“The 2012 protest didn’t turn violent, one, because of the body language of the sitting president then. He allowed everything to go and the situation was not as bad as what we have now. Now, it can be exploited because people are hungry, desperate and want to use anything to vent their anger,” he said.
Arguing that while the right of the people to protest remains sacrosanct, the fear of the protest being hijacked remains high, and could be exploited by people who may seize the situation to push their personal interest.
“It is their legitimate right to protest as enshrined in the constitution. But I think they (organisers of protest) did us a lot of good by giving sufficient notice to the government of their intentions to go on protest and you can see the grounds of appeals from various stakeholders, interests groups appealing to them to shelve the plan.
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“No matter how good their intentions are, I believe this will be hijacked eventually,” he said.
Maintaining that “the fear is very high that this protest will be hijacked”, he added that “Some people see this government as the best government whatever because of their personal interest not because of national interest… they would also represent their own interest, not the interest of the government, so that’s why we are afraid it might be hijacked.
“Some people might tell you that this APC government is not doing well, others will tell you that this is the best government.
“So, you have conflicting interests. That is why it is necessary that for now because of the enormous security challenges we have, we should not compound our problems by engaging in more protest.”
Recalling the #EndSars 2020 protest which according to him led to properties being destroyed with losses incurred by the nation and individuals, he added that though the organisers pf the #EndBadGovernance protest may have a course to protest, considering the hardship in the country, people of ulterior motives may hijack the process.
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“Looking at their demands, we will all agree that there is economic hardship in the country, there is hunger and anger in the land, but again people who are more hungry now will explore the opportunity to loot people’s shops and it will eventually turn violent and that’s why we will continue to appeal to organisers to shelve the plans and give government time to look at it,” he said.
On the warnings by security agents, Ejiofor said the security agents have the duty to respond with force should the protest turn violent.
“Nobody is saying they should not protest but if you protest and it turns violent, the government has the statutory mandate of protecting the state and the innocent citizens. The point remains that people have the right to protest as long as it doesn’t turn violent,” he said.
He, however, warned against comments by some aides of the President Bola Tinubu which he described as “provocative” and could engender provocations with ethnic colouration and religious connotations.
“There are other issues agitating my mind; the issue of some provocative statements that the president’s aides are making that is likely to provoke people, giving it political meaning, ethnic colouration, religious connotations and what a view. These are not helping issues,” he said.
READ ALSO: DSS Warns Against Planned Nationwide Protest, Identifies Sponsors
He called on President Tinubu not just to stop at consulting with interest groups in the country, but to also extend the reach to the common Nigerians at the grassroots while stressing the need for the President to address the nation in a broadcast.
“The ordinary man in the street needs also to know what is happening because some people do not even have electricity to look at the nation to know what is going on. I think the president needs to directly speak to the people, maybe make a national broadcast, this will help in relaxing the situation,” he said
Maintaining a similar position, the National Coordinator, the Grassroots Mobilisation Initiative and former spokesperson for the Coalition of Northern Groups, Sama’ila Musa, called for dialogue, submitting the presidency should “come out and address the people and sympathise with them.”
Also featuring on Arise TV morning show on Friday, Musa mentioned that current cases of rampage and looting of goods of private individuals, particularly as experienced in the Northern part of the country pose a risk of what may become of the protest should it go on.
“There is so much anger in the land. A lot of people are not happy because of some kinds of hardship in the land. It’s obvious people are complaining, prices are rising and all that, and people are suffering and you believe with me that is why people are actually calling for this protest.
“We are afraid with the level of anger right now in the Country, especially in the North as it is, we’ve seen cases where truckloads of food stuffs belonging to traders, maybe got spoilt somewhere on the road and people just move in and start offloading it, helping themselves out and that’s without riot. How much more what’s going to happen when you call for a mass protest, to what extent can the police curtail the excesses when you have situations like this?”, he queried.
He mentioned the situation may degenerate to criminal elements of the protesters “going to start looting people’s properties and vandalising ordinary citizen’s properties, carting away their goods.”
PUNCH
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OPINION Generals, Marabouts And Boko Haram

By Lasisi Olagunju
General Lucky Irabor wrote a book that attracted a gathering of Generals in Abuja last Friday. Irabor, in the book, describes the January 1966 coup as “a shield that became a sword;” a solution that became a problem. He may be right. Bishop Matthew Kukah, who reviewed the book, described the January 1966 coup as the nation’s primary crime scene. I disagree. Nigeria’s real crime scene is located far before 1966. We still have not learnt any lesson.
General Irabor is the immediate past Chief of the Defence Staff. Born 5 October, 1965, he was a baby – three months, ten days old – when January 1966 happened to Nigeria. General Olusegun Obasanjo wrote the Foreword to the book and chaired the Abuja gathering. I have not seen what he wrote in the Foreword but I heard what he said at the book launch. He said Boko Haram was not about politics and not really about religion. So what is it about? He suggested that frustration and lack of “better life” perverted the pervert. He then wondered why terror and terrorism have become Nigeria’s way of life.
There were other Generals there. One of them is the Sultan of Sokoto; he belonged in the Armoured Corps. Another is the Etsu Nupe. Both of them left the army as Brigadier-General. The Sultan said Generals don’t retire. And because they do not retire or get tired, we keep seeing them in our lives beyond the barracks. Irabor’s book launch turned out to be a confab of Generals in search of what eludes them on the battlefield – victory over the collective enemy.
They were there looking for a solution to Nigeria’s interminable terrorism. I watched them and reached for 16th century English statesman, scholar and saint, Sir Thomas More. In his ‘A Dialogue Concerning Heresies’, More wrote a line which became the idiom: “looking for a needle in a haystack.” Our Generals need to interrogate that English clause locked in seven words of frustration. It speaks to their gathering. What they seek they won’t find except they really want to see it.
Irabor’s book carries the title: ‘Scars’ in bold, capital letters of blood. Beyond quotes from the review, I have not seen the book to get what his ‘SCARS’ really talks about. But ‘scars’ as book or as sabre cuts on the face cannot be anyone’s sweet story.
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Bishop Kukah, the book reviewer, said Irabor’s story is about Nigeria’s scars of insecurity; the ugly, unhealed, unhealable wound gashed on our collective face by Boko Haram. President Goodluck Jonathan was there with the Generals; and he got the metaphor right. He said the abduction of Chibok Girls is an everlasting scar on the face of his presidency; he hinted that it was a monument to leadership failure. But is Jonathan the only one with that scar?
Nineteenth century Scottish novelist and essayist, Robert Louis Stevenson (R. L. Stevenson) wrote ‘Treasure Island’, an excellent novel of pirates and blood, hidden treasure chests, death and disappointments. It was published in 1883. If you read more of Stevenson beyond his popular fiction, you would likely come across where he wrote the truth that our “wealth took their value from our neighbour’s poverty.” You would read how this someone who lived and died 131 years ago saw that despite the “free man’s” pretence to kindness, “the slaves are still ill-fed, ill-clad, ill-taught, ill-housed, insolently entreated, and driven to their mines and workshops by the lash of famine.” The passage reads like it is about 2025 Nigeria and its unfed, unclaimed, unclad, untaught children.
I watched the cream of Nigerian Generals, serving and retired, on Friday at that book launch of one of them. I watched them pontificating, one by one, on TV about Nigeria and its scars and I remembered Major-General Sir Thomas Vandeleur in R. L. Stevenson’s ‘The Rajah’s Diamond’, a story in his ‘New Arabian Nights’ published in 1881. Thomas Vandeleur is a General in blind, desperate but fruitless search for his family’s lost jewel. Nigeria’s Generals, like Vandeleur, old adventurers in uniform who once held the diamond of power, have ruled and been ruined by it. The nation’s story, like Vandeleur’s, is one of obsession with that fatal jewel called authority, which brings suffering to all who covet it.
Our Generals are helpless. That is what I saw at that event on Friday. Power has cast Nigeria’s fortunes into the river of defeat; it has left generations searching the muddy depths for the nation’s lost promise. Dethroned by coups and transitions, Nigeria’s power elite always come back as “handsome tobacconists” of democracy, reinvented messiahs and born-again democrats. They trade in influence and illusion; their scars, like Stevenson’s Vandeleur’s, are the marks of past violence disguised as experience, and their continued grip on Nigeria’s destiny shows that, though the diamond of nationhood is lost, its curse endures.
When I get General Irabor’s book to read, I will search for words that define wounds inflicted by bad and absent leadership, by aborted dreams and betrayed hopes. I will look for phrases, for sentences and paragraphs on heists that cut deeper into the nation’s face. I will love to read through its jagged pages of dreams deferred.
I scanned the Generals’ faces and read their lips. The gashes of insecurity, from Boko Haram’s bombs in Borno to herders’ bullets in Kwara, are the handiwork of decades of neglect and decay. The scar of insecurity has become our national birthmark, neither healed nor hidden; its permanence mocks every promise of reform. Obasanjo said at the book event that “Boko Haram is now virtually becoming part of our life. Should we accept that? If we should not accept it, what should we do? How much do we know? Even from the other side, and from this side, have we been active enough? Have we been proactive enough?” If a General and former president asked us those questions, to whom should we then turn for answers? Like Vandeleur’s scar, Nigeria’s wounds carry an ambiguity; they are signs of survival, yet also of complicity, for we are all, in one way or another, marked by a bad story we refuse to rewrite. General Irabor has done very well by writing a book that has provoked a discourse. We wait for others.
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The Generals who spoke were very eloquent on the scars of Boko Haram. Did I not hear excuses for what the terrorists do and why they do them? One of the Generals even said “they (Boko Haram) never said book is haram.” Valuable minutes were spent doing definition of terms. Is that also a solution to the problem? They said so much but I didn’t hear a word from the Generals on the millions of out-of-school children who feed the machinery of terrorism and banditry. Today, Nigeria has an estimated 20 million out-of-school children, the highest number in the world. Read United Nations’ records: More than 60 percent of these children are in the northern states; they are the almajiri; the system is there till tomorrow; entrenched.
Was it not General Obasanjo who wrote in one of his books that “our fingers will not be dry of blood” as long as lice abound in our clothes? I agree with him.
Because we are a dirty, contaminated nation, lice keep laying their nits in the seams of our garments. The line of Boko Haram lice is lengthened daily by mass child illiteracy and adult disillusionment. Our Generals would not acknowledge that the poverty of our streets is both symptom and scar: proof of the violence of neglect and the betrayal of the future. They, and we, still do not see that in every Almajiri begging for miserable morsels of leftovers, the nation’s unhealed wounds find new violence and new weapons.
Then, there is Bishop Kukah’s jarring charge that marabouts have become a substitute for government and governing. He hinted that we’ve outsourced the leadership of the nation to some “blind clerics” somewhere. That statement should strike a chord with all who heard him. But because it is true, all who heard it pretended it was not said.
The Bishop was on solid ground when he uttered what he said. The proofs are everywhere: In August 2015, the Adamawa State government announced that it had earmarked N200 million to engage prayer warriors against Boko Haram. In March 2016, a certain Aminu Baba-Kusa, once a powerful executive director of the NNPC, appeared before the High Court in Abuja with a witness statement and disclosed in it that a total of ₦2.2 billion was expended, not for arms or intelligence, but for prayers, solemnly commissioned to hasten the fall of Boko Haram. The money went out in two waves: ₦1.45 billion first, then another ₦750 million. It was a contract sanctified by faith and sealed by silence.
Nothing that has happened in the last ten years suggests a change of strategy. Marabouts still cash out from a mugu nation and a leadership that worships in unworthy shrines. Kukah stepped on toes; he said the manipulation of religion for politics, using religion to enforce power, has become destructive to religion in northern Nigeria. It took remarkable episcopal courage for Kukah to say publicly that northern politicians use Islam for political cash-out. I watched the Sultan, calm and angry at Bishop Kukah for daring to stray away from the book he was asked to review into a realm angels fear to tread. As the Sultan spoke, the TV man’s camera panned to a defiant Kukah fiddling with a piece of pamphlet.
Speaker after speaker spoke on what they thought caused insecurity in northern Nigeria. I waited in vain to hear the Generals acknowledge that northern children, denied books and purpose, are the soldiers of chaos in Zamfara, Sokoto, Niger and, now in Kwara. In vain I listened to hear the truth from our Generals that today’s violent elements, products of a past of negligence, are proof that unattended scars can erupt again in new forms of pain.
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Our Generals are searching for what is not lost. The spring head of terror and terrorism in northern Nigeria is the wrong religious philosophy which atrophies millions of children. Every child anywhere, including in northern Nigeria, wants and deserves what General Obasanjo called “better life.” A child who has opportunities for self-discovery and development won’t be readily available for employment by merchants of terror. Terrorism will dry out the moment its recruitment market winds up. Educating the street children of the North, and equipping them with the right skills will sound the death knell of Boko Haram and banditry, its brethren. But this is where even the Generals feared to tread last Friday. They were afraid of the clerics in whose hands lie the yam and the knife of power and privileges.
The people who spoke at that event were not up to ten. Several scores of other big men and women were there, silent and quiet, sometimes clapping. They either did not have the chance to be called to speak or they did not want to speak and be quoted into trouble. But, really, what is trouble? Trouble can sneak into the hole of silence. Jeff T. Johnson writes in his ‘Trouble Songs’ that “Trouble may appear in a title and disappear in a song,” and “’Trouble’ may sneak up in a song without warning.”
Trouble is Nigeria, the sick, denying its illness. Real trouble is homicidal or suicidal silence; it is treating eczema when leprosy is the ailment.
So, at the risk of courting abuse and insults and threats, I join Bishop Kukah in urging Nigeria to stop keeping quiet in the face of evil. Enough of saying that you do not want to ruffle feathers or open old wounds. Wounds that refuse to heal should be opened and given the right medicine. That is what heals.
A broken nation, sworn to silence, or to denial of truth, hurtles down a roller coaster of failure. Silence scars with ugly gashes. Screaming within, yet saying nothing out is sickness. The Yoruba say silence is the foundation of misfortune. Speaking out does not mean you will die young, broke and broken. Not speaking out when you have a voice is no guarantee for safety and comfort. Bishop Kukah’s Hausa proverb is the ultimate counsel here: “Not going to the toilet does not mean you won’t be hungry.”
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Group Defends VC Selection At FUGUS, Alleges Sabotage By Petitioners

A Civil society organisation, Kwararafa League for Good Governance has raised the alarm over what it described as a coordinated attempt to undermine the ongoing process of appointing a new Vice Chancellor at the Federal University, Gusau (FUGUS), Zamfara State.
In a strongly worded petition addressed to the Honourable Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, the group condemned a recent lawsuit filed at the National Industrial Court, Abuja, by three academic staff of the university, namely Professors Ahmad Galadima, Ibrahim Garba Zurmi, and Dr. Anas Sani Anka, against the university’s Governing Council and Management.
The petitioners had challenged the Council’s adoption of a minimum of ten (10) years post-professorial experience as requirement for applicants vying for the position of Vice Chancellor, a criterion they argued was designed to disqualify certain candidates.
In a counter petition to the education minister, the Kwararafa League insisted that the criterion was valid and aligns with directives issued by the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission (NUC), particularly a pronouncement made by the Minister in May 2025, which emphasises on adherence to this standard by all university councils.
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“It is important to note that for the fact that some universities refused to abide by the directive does not make it legal or constitutional,” the group stated in the petition signed by its coordinator, Samuel Bature.
The group also accused the petitioners of pursuing selfish agenda and attempting to destabilize the institution.
They alleged that the Pro-Chancellor, Hon. Aminu Sani Isaac, may have prior connections to one of the claimants who reportedly received informal assurances of being appointed Vice Chancellor despite not meeting the advertised requirements.
Describing the lawsuit as “baseless and malicious,” the group maintained that the university has operated in full compliance with applicable laws and guidelines, and called on the minister not to recognise or support the ongoing legal challenge.
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“This representation is made in good faith, as a body committed to fairness, justice, and the development of education in Nigeria,” the petition stated.
The League also urged the Minister to direct the University’s Governing Council to take disciplinary action against the trio involved in the litigation, citing their actions as detrimental to the peace and credibility of the university system.
Copies of the petition were also sent to the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), the President of the National Industrial Court, and the Pro-Chancellor of FUGUS.
As the legal and administrative battle continues, stakeholders in the education sector await the ministry’s response and the final outcome of the Vice Chancellor selection process.
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Oba of Benin Renews Bond With Ancestral Relations, Nigerians During Emorhọ Feast

The palace of the Oba of Benin was agog with activities during the 2025 Emorhọ fest, declared by Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku, Uku Akpolokpolo, Ewuare II, Oba of Benin as part of activities to mark the ancient Emorhọ, otherwise known as the ‘New Yam Festival’.
Oba of Benin, who reenacted the age-long festival, renewed the bond that exist between him and his ancestral relations from Issele-Uku in Aniocha North Local Government Area of Delta State at the event, which attracted dignitaries, including Benin people, indigenes and non-indigenes across Edo State.
Members of the Benin Royal family, Edionwere (village heads), youth leaders across the various communities in Benin, market women group, palace chiefs, traditional priests and priestesses in Benin, were also in attendance.
READ ALSO:Oba Of Benin Declares Two-week Fasting, Prayer For Edo
A special prayer offered on behalf of the palace by Chief Enorense Ozigbo-Esere, the Osuma of Benin, paved the way for the commencement of the feast, where Secretary to the Benin Traditional Council, Frank Irabor, welcomed guests and highlighted the essence of the gathering.
Speaking in an interview, Oba Ewuare younger ancestral relations from Issele-Uku led by Chief Michael Odiakosa, expressed delight for the privilege to be part of the historic celebration.
He explained the relationship between Benin and Issele-Uku, reaffirming that, “Issele-Uku is an extension of Benin Kingdom. We are all descendants of Benin. So, we are at home”.
READ ALSO:Oba Of Benin Ushers In ‘Emorọ’
“We are in a safe place. We came to celebrate the festival with our father, the Omo N’ Oba, and we are happy to be here”, Odiakosa said.
On his part, 99-year-old Pa. Paul Osarumwense Oyemwen, the Odionwere of Orior-Ozolua community in Uhunmwode LGA who thanked the Oba for the gesture, said the festival is not new in Benin and it’s devoid of sacrifices.
Expressing her appreciation to the Oba of Benin, the ‘Edo markets leader’, Pastor (Mrs) Josephine Ibhaguezejele, noted that members of the group have been waiting anxiously for the opportunity to partake in the yearly festival, while praying God that the blessings of the festival to transform lives.
Also speaking, Pa. Daniel Osunde, the Odionwere of Idumwun-owina, N’ Iyeke-orhiomwon, also prayed for the Oba and thanked the first Class traditional ruler for his foresight.
Excited guests in their numbers were fed with African delicacy, amid dancing and jubilation, while members of Isikhian women group who gave a good account of their stewardship, were not left out in the celebration by the Oba who rewarded them with cash gift and other items in acknowledgement their duties in Benin.
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