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Presidency: Power rotation is inevitable until Nigeria is restructured
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By Olu Fasan
THERE is an intellectual dishonesty at the heart of the opposition to rotational presidency in Nigeria. The advocates of “meritocracy” conveniently forget that Nigeria is, politically, not a meritocratic country, and that zoning is a political imperative that speaks to this country’s deeply flawed political structure that creates recurrent inter-ethnic conflicts over power. Thus, those calling for meritocracy must also, invariably, support political restructuring. You cannot have one without the other!
Yet, the most vociferous in rejecting power rotation are also the most visceral in opposing restructuring. But Nigeria’s political structure, which entrenches a historical power imbalance in which one ethnic group dominates the rest, is incompatible with the meritocratic values and principles of fairness fundamental to democratic societies.
Kankara Abduction: CAN calls for foreign intervention in fight against insecurity
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By Luminous Jannamike, Abuja
The President, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Revd. Samson Ayokunle, on Wednesday, called on the international community to rise up and offer Nigeria help to win the raging battle against Boko Haram that has claimed thousands of lives in parts of the country.
Ayokunle, who lamented the abduction of 333 students of Government Secondary School, Kankara in Katsina State, said the unfortunate incident by Boko Haram terrorists confirmed that the insecurity experienced in parts of the country could snowball into a civil war without the intervention of the international community.
People gather inside the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara, Nigeria, Saturday Dec. 12, 2020. PHOTO: AP
Boko Haram recruited three local gangs in to kidnap hundreds of schoolboys on its behalf in Katsina, security and local sources said Wednesday.
The jihadist group has claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack, which targeted a secondary school in the town of Kankara, in Katsina state.
But sources told AFP the operation was carried out on Boko Haram’s orders by a notorious local gangster called Awwalun Daudawa.
The 43-year-old worked in collaboration with Idi Minorti and Dankarami, two other crime chiefs with strong local followings, they said.