NNPC, THE RICH AND WELL-CONNECTED

The Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, is not a friend of Benue State at all; we can still recall the staunch defence of the antics of his Fulani-kin killer cattlemen to the effect that they have no other choice but to resort to violence since their “grazing routes” have been blocked by Tiv farmers. What preposterous position by a federal minister of defence! Anyway, Gov. Samuel Ortom’s defection to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the spectre of a backlash at the general elections that are so nigh have, in all certainty, put these killers on a temporary leach whilst they wait to know the outcome of the 2019 election.

In the midst of the suffering of the good people of Benue State, the families of some well- connected people are obviously chilling out in good comfort; the yarn over here at Minna is that the wife of one young PDP gubernatorial aspirant and the daughter of a top minister, as part of the APC “settle your family quickquick” hypocritical policy, this young lady got fixed up at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation with a plush appointment.

I decry the All Progressives Congress double-talk habit of calling PDP functionaries “corrupt.” What we are seeing with the APC is a wild case of intellectual deficiency in the way this party steers the ship of state, permitting a maritime analogy for good measure. The APC apparatchiks have swelled “plush” federal government agencies like the NNPC, SEC, CBN, EFCC, CAC, FIRS, NPA, RMAFC, NEMA, etc., with their moneyed scions and daughter-brides who have sons-in-law, especially, to tag along. Should I even point out that a very hefty chunk of these beneficiaries are Northern Nigeria Muslims? Is Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo listening? Our VP should not go round churches anymore and tell us that “Christians are the biggest beneficiaries of this Buhari government.”