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VP SHETTIMA AND THE WINGLESS KITE OF SUBSTITUTION: THE KWANKWASO ANGLE.
VP SHETTIMA AND THE WINGLESS KITE OF SUBSTITUTION: THE KWANKWASO ANGLE.
By Inuwa Bwala
They want to make it look like a game, much larger than the topic being discussed, and the intrigues are also quite familiar.
They want to make it look as if it is more the issue of a particular region, trying to force itself back into reckoning, having effectively lost out in the political chess game in Nigeria.
But it is a ploy to sway public attention and to divert the government from pursuing its lofty programmes.
A similar narrative played out when the El-Rufais and the Gandujes were in power reckoning in the race to 2023 when they tried to pitch the North East against the North West. It woefully failed that time, but they seem not to have learnt their lessons.
Unfortunately, it is an agenda flying on a wingless kite and an in a coach less locomotive. The North East and North West have historically been allies in Nigeria’s power equation. Trying to change the narrative to please a few will always fail.
They are few, but very rich and powerful. It is the case of a few people desperately in search of a political oracle amongst them, around whom the political fortunes of a whole region will now oscillate.
I could not therefore help smiling to myself, as I watched the recorded encounter between my brother Daniel Bwala and one TV presenter Gimba Umar: discussing a presumed 2027 Vice Presidential race, between the Vice President Kashim Shettima and former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
The presumptions that there is going to be a change of a running mate to President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027, is in itself funny to those who knew the existing bond between Tinubu and Shettima, as well as those who were familiar with the circumstances surrounding the emergence of Kashim Shettima, as the Vice President, in the first place.
I smiled because I am familiar with the narrative in this agenda setting game, which the presenter is trying to push.
But I smiled because, as usual, Daniel Bwala, also saw through the plot and presented lucid arguments, often leaving the interviewer scavenging for counter naratives, which turned out to sound rather politically infantile and naive to a discerning mind.
As a journalist, I know the anchor must have realised he made the wrong choice in inviting Daniel to kick-start that rather unpopular narrative.
From all indications, those writing the script of a change in the Vice President in 2027 are both uncharitable to President Tinubu and calous in featuring Rabiu Kwankwaso as the protagonist of that, absurd theatre.
Be that as it may, I wish to briefly discuss a few posers, which could serve as a clue as to why that topic should not be given the garb of an issue, but confined to the dustbin, where it rightfully belongs.
Firstly, one needs to ask whether there is a break in the relationship between the president and the vice president. If there is none, then one needs to ask where Vice President Kashim Shettima may have faltered in the discharge of his duties to warrant the need for a change.
Again, given the tight political fusion between the President and the Vice President, what makes anybody think that, Rabiu Kwankwaso or any of his ilks in the Northwest could make a better trusted ally to the President more than Kashim Shettima?
With the outcome of the 2023 elections, which clearly rubbished earlier hypotheses of political and regional influence futile, what makes anybody think that President Tinubu will want to revisit the futile permutations of the old?
Against the background of Vice President Kashim Shettima’s excellent outing as Vice President, coupled with his growing political sagacity, is Rabiu Kwankwaso a competent rival, even in a contest of public court?
Unless Kwankwaso, like the stubborn fly, forgets to let go of the coffin, which is being lowered, he risks being buried with this unpopular political thesis.
But more importantly, with less than one year into the life of an administration, who knows who will be well and alive to think of a challenge in a presumptions race in 2027, when the ultimate judgement rests with the almighty.
I will deliberately skip exposing the unseen hands in pushing for that narrative, but not without cautioning, that we are familiar with the trenches, where they are firing.
Inuwa Bwala was two times Commissioner for Home Affairs, Information and Culture in Borno State.
VP SHETTIMA AND THE WINGLESS KITE OF SUBSTITUTION: THE KWANKWASO ANGLE.
NDLEA intercepts cocaine in Saudi-bound religious books
By: Michael Mike
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have intercepted a shipment of cocaine concealed in 20 sets of religious books going to Saudi Arabia.
The spokesman of the anti-narcotics agency, Femi Babafemi in a statement on Sunday said the cocaine consignment consisting of 20 parcels with a total weight of 500 grammes and buried in the pages of the religious books was uncovered at a courier company in Lagos last Tuesday when NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI) were searching through export cargos going to Saudi Arabia at the logistics firm.
Babafemi said at another courier company same day, NDLEA officers intercepted five parcels of Loud, a strong strain of cannabis weighing 2.8 kilogrammes hidden in a carton coming from the United States of America.
In Kano, a 22-year-old alleged supplier of illicit substances to bandits, Muhammad Mohammed, has been arrested by NDLEA operatives on patrol along Bichi – Kano road while heading to Katsina with 277 ampoules of pentazocine injection tied to his thigh and private part with Sellotape.
He was intercepted on Sunday 13th April, while another suspect, Mohammed Abdulrahman Abdulaziz, 43, was nabbed same day at Research Rimin Kebe area of Nasarawa, Kano with 68 blocks of skunk, a strain of cannabis, weighing 30 kilogrammes.
He said not less than 557.2 kilogrammes of skunk, 5.6 kilogrammes of methamphetamine and 29.8 grammes of heroin were recovered from a house along Major General Isaiah Alllison Street, Opolo, Yenagoa, Bayelsa state where four suspects were arrested when NDLEA operatives raided the premises last Wednesday
Babafemi said the four suspects arrested during the raid include: Sarimiye Suwa, 46; Roland Prosper, 34; Sarimiye Tare, 45; and Fidelis Ugbesla, 46, while a total of 1,100 kilogrammes of skunk were recovered from a delivery van with the driver, Ismail Abdullahi arrested in Surulere area of Lagos last Thursday.
In Kaduna, NDLEA operatives last Friday raided the hideout of a suspect, Ike Ani, 30, in Zaria, where no fewer than 31,950 pills of tramadol 225mg and diazepam were recovered, and in Kebbi, along Bagudo road on the same day a vehicle loaded with bags of charcoal coming from Malabil, Benin Republic was intercepted, when the vehicle was search, 97 kilogrammes of skunk concealed in the sacks of charcoal was recovered.
. Three suspects: Abubakar Ibrahim, 50; Mustapha Aliyu, 32; and Bashar Lawali, 28, were arrested in connection with the seizure.
A 48-year-old Okafor Marcel was nabbed with 11.5 kilogrammes skunk at Abatete, Anambra state while NDLEA operatives in Osogbo, Osun state last Tuesday arrested Ajala Mercy, 27, with 43 litres of skushi, a mixture of black currant, cannabis and opioids recovered from her room at Dada estate, Halleluyah area of the state capital.
Babafemi said two cannabis farms in Egbeta forest, Ovia North East LGA, Edo state were raided by NDLEA operatives who destroyed 3,717.8625 kilogrammes of the psychoactive plant on 1.487145 hectares and recovered 136.5 kilogrammes of processed cannabis.
At the Tincan seaport in Lagos, a suspect Basorun Kayode, 40, who has been at large for two years was arrested by NDLEA officers in connection with the seizure of 107 kilogrammes Loud imported from Canada in 2023, while another suspect, Dauda Yakubu who distributes illicit drugs within the seaport community was arrested by a team of operatives last Monday.
The spokesman said the War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) social advocacy activities by NDLEA commands equally continued across the country in the past week.
Meanwhile, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Rtd) while commending the officers and men of DOGI, Kano, Lagos, Kaduna, Kebbi, Osun, Zone 13, Edo and Tin-can commands of the agency for the arrests and seizures of the past week, equally praised their counterparts in all the commands across the country for ensuring a fair balance between their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts.
NDLEA intercepts cocaine in Saudi-bound religious books
Fire Guts Water Board IDP Camp in Monguno, Borno
By: Zagazola Makama
A devastating fire broke out at the Water Board IDP Camp in Monguno Local Government Area (LGA) on April 19, 2025, destroying approximately one hundred thatch and makeshift houses.
Eye witnesses said that the fire started at around 1040hrs and rapidly spread across the settlement, burning household items, foodstuffs, and other valuable properties to ashes.
The cause of the fire is yet to be determined, and the value of the property destroyed is still being assessed.
Humanitarian officials were immediately deployed to the scene to maintain crowd control and prevent looting, while firefighters, alongside camp residents, worked tirelessly to extinguish the flames.
Fortunately, no casualties or loss of life were reported.
Fire Guts Water Board IDP Camp in Monguno, Borno
Terrorists Snatch Vehicle in Monguno, Borno
By: Zagazola Makama
Armed assailants suspected to be members of ISWAP/Boko Haram attacked and snatched a vehicle in Monguno Local Government Area (LGA) on April 18, 2025, at about 1400hrs.
Saleh Haun, a resident of the Water Board IDP Camp in Monguno, reported that while he was at the Gumnari Bush Area in Monguno, four armed gunmen, riding on two motorcycles, accosted him.
The assailants, at gunpoint, seized his white Toyota Land Cruiser, before fleeing with the vehicle to an unknown location.
A Military Forward Operating Base (FOB) has been alerted, and efforts are underway to to track the assailant and recover the stolen vehicle.
Terrorists Snatch Vehicle in Monguno, Borno
Troops Foil Fresh Violence as Armed Youths Attack Fulani Settlement in Plateau
Senator Donates Relief Materials to Communal Clash Deceases Families in Jigawa
NDLEA intercepts cocaine in Saudi-bound religious books
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