By Celphas Iyorhen

Dear Senator Shehu Sani, you have the audacity to sit behind your keyboard and lecture Nigerians about patriotism when your own hands are stained with the political filth that made this country unlovable in the first place. Your post is the kind of performative nonsense that has earned you relevance you do not deserve.

Let us address your comparison properly.
South Africans love their country because their country loves them back. Nigeria cannot say the same, and the reason Nigeria cannot say the same is not Lord Lugard alone. It is people like you, Senator Shehu Sani, who have spent decades identifying red lines, drawing tribal boundaries, and whipping up religious sentiment while collecting constituency allowances from a government built on the blood of the people you pretend to defend.

South Africa does not have a tribe that wakes up every morning to slaughter farmers, kidnap schoolchildren, and then produce senators who carefully avoid naming them. South Africa does not have a Shehu Sani who speaks in riddles when the killers have faces, names, and ethnic addresses that every Nigerian already knows. South Africa does not have a Sheikh Ahmed Gumi riding into forests to negotiate with armed murderers and returning to tell cameras that the bandits have genuine grievances. South Africa does not have a National Security Adviser like Nuhu Ribadu who calls terrorists brothers and means it without shame. South Africa does not have security chiefs who recommend that killers be forgiven, rehabilitated, empowered, and reintegrated while the graves of their victims are still fresh.

South Africa does not have Islamic preachers placing bounties on the heads of pastors and evangelists for preaching the gospel. Churches are not problems in South Africa. Christian worship does not attract mob violence in South Africa. South Africa does not have a political class that is constitutionally allergic to confronting one religion when it crosses into mass murder.

South Africa has a president. Nigeria has proxies dressed in presidential robes, managed remotely by interests that have never hidden their contempt for Nigerian nationhood.

You say Nigerians curse Lord Lugard. We do not curse Lugard. We curse the arrangement that his amalgamation preserved, an arrangement that placed one group permanently above accountability, permanently first in appointments, permanently excused from the consequences of its own violence. That arrangement is what you, Senator Shehu Sani, have never had the courage to name directly even once in your entire political career.

You call Nigeria a nation born out of wedlock as an insult directed at critics. We accept that description, but we redirect it accurately. Nigeria is a bastard not because its critics said so, but because the people who claim to own it the most have treated it the worst. The Fulani herdsman who drives cattle through crops and shoots the farmer is not a patriot. The senator who refuses to call him a criminal is not a patriot either.

You want Nigerians to love their country the way South Africans love theirs? Then demand accountability the way South Africans demand accountability. Demand that killers be prosecuted regardless of religion or ethnicity. Demand that no group claims divine or historical ownership over a country that belongs to everyone. Demand that bounties on the heads of Christian preachers be treated as terrorism. Demand that Nuhu Ribadu explain in plain language why terrorists are his brothers. Do these things and watch patriotism return.
But you will not do these things, Senator Shehu Sani. You will write another poetic post. You will quote another philosopher. You will draw another red line and then complain that the country is divided.

Nigeria is not unloved because its people are broken. Nigeria is unloved because men like you broke it and then showed up to mourn the wreckage while wearing the tools of destruction around your necks like jewellery.
Go and sit

By Solomon Adebayo

The problem of Nigerians is forgetfulness, where a bad leader is rated higher above another bad leader.

OBJ instituted the culture of impunity and recklessness as well as corruption in governance and history would not be kind to him no matter how twisted the narrative about him is.

As President, OBJ elevated an illiterate thug over an elected governor of a state and turned Anambra state into a jungle.

OBJ gave Chris Uba the federal might to run over an elected governor. Chris Uba moved about in a convoy of military, DSS and armed policemen and most times pushed the convoy of then governor Nigige off the roads.

As Environment Correspondent then, I visited Anambra with the Minister and Ngige took us to village, Ngige then had no Police, DSS escort. As governor, he was using private security men because OBJ withdrew them because of Chris and Andy Uba, his boys.

When Ngige as governor was kidnapped by Chris Uba, FRCN broke the news at 4pm. The news saved Ngige. That singular heroic act by FRCN made our DG, Edie Iroh, the enemy of Aro Rock under OBJ and they never forgave him and eventually removed Eddie Iroh.

On Corruption, OBJ till date could not account for $16 billion he squandered for power supply and today, Nigeria still lives in darkness.

OBJ openly bribed national assembly members with bags of money for his idiotic third term bid while telling lies that he knew nothing about it, but all his ministers were campaigning for him. The then 5th Senate under Ken Nnamani saved Nigeria from his dictatorship and 3rd term bid.

As President, OBJ launched a library fund raising project- something Presidents do after leaving office and harassed government agencies and government contractors to donate billions of naira to his private library.

OBJ left the prison a poor person to be corralled into 1999 presidential contest but left after 8 years a multi billionaire with private university, strings of businesses and state of the art farm.

He must be plucking money from a tree.

OBJ instituted corruption, recklessness and impunity, the likes of Buhari and Tinubu copied. Jonathan though ran a corrupt government was not as reckless as them.

To now start praising OBJ as a model of a good president shows that Nigerians don’t really remember their past and that’s why it has been very difficult for us to move into the future.

OBJ was never a good president. He had all the opportunity and goodwill to change Nigeria but blew it for selfish reasons.

By Felix Umande

The Benue State House of Assembly may have meant well when it passed the “Law to Provide for the Establishment of Benue State Forestry, Mines and Solid Minerals Management Commission.” But good intentions do not cure constitutional defects. On mines and solid minerals, the law is a direct affront to the 1999 Constitution and it can not stand.

The Constitution Is Unambiguous Mining Is Federal.
Item 39 of the Exclusive Legislative List, Second Schedule, Part I of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) reserves “Mines and minerals, including oil fields, oil mining, geological surveys and natural gas” exclusively to the National Assembly. Section 4(2) and 4(3) make it plain: no State House of Assembly has the power to legislate on it.

The Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act, 2007 already “covers the field.” Section 1 of that Act vests the entire property in and control of all mineral resources in the Government of the Federation. The Mining Cadastre Office issues licences. The Mines Inspectorate Department regulates operations. Royalties go to the Federation Account.

In other words, when Benue creates a “Management Commission” for solid minerals, it is attempting to do what Abuja alone is empowered to do. Under Section 4(5) of the Constitution, where state law is inconsistent with federal law, the state law is void to the extent of the inconsistency. This law, therefore, arrives dead on arrival.

Precedent Is Against Benue.
This is not the first time a state has tested the waters. Lagos, Zamfara, and Ebonyi have all, at various points, set up agencies to regulate mining. But the Federal Government has consistently resisted them, and the courts have consistently sided with the Constitution. In AG Federation v. AG Lagos State, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that states cannot legislate on exclusive items. Benue is walking a path the judiciary has already closed.

Forestry Is Legal; Mining Is Not, You Can’t Bundle Them .
Constitutionally, the State Assembly has full powers to legislate on forestry because it is a residual matter under Section 4(7). The state can protect its forests, regulate logging, and manage reserves. However, the problem lies in the Assembly’s decision to bundle forestry with “Mines and Solid Minerals.”

By tying a valid power to an invalid one, the entire law risks being tainted. Once taken or contested in court, the mining portion would likely be struck down, leaving only the forestry provisions — if the drafting allows for severance at all.

The Real Danger: Legal Chaos and Investor Flight.
Beyond the legal theory lies practical harm due to the fact that Mining investors need, apart from social safety, the legal certainty to operate. If Benue begins issuing its own “Permits,” collecting “State royalties,” or sending its commission to mining sites, operators will face double regulation and double taxation. The result is fairly predictable: capital flight, litigations, and the growth of illegal mining in the confusion would ensue.

Consequently, the very revenue Benue hopes to get will vanish leaving in it’s trail, anarchy and chaos.

Worse still, if the mining commission sets up confrontations between state officials and federal regulators, who seals illegal sites? Who prosecutes? The law invites turf wars that only benefit criminal miners.

What Benue Can Do Instead
Benue is not powerless. It can incorporate a state-owned mining company and apply for licences from the Mining Cadastre Office like any other firm. It can tax surface rent, tenement rates, and business premises under the Fourth Schedule.

It can also use its environmental and land-use powers to ensure miners comply with state laws on land reclamation and community development. It can even partner with the Federal Government to police illegal mining.

What it cannot do is creating a parallel regulator that is the job of Abuja.

The Path Forward
The Governor should withhold assent and return the Bill for redrafting. The Assembly should strip out all references to “Mines and Solid Minerals” and pass a clean “Benue State Forestry Commission Law.” If the law is already assented to, the Attorney-General of the Federation should test it at the Supreme Court immediately.

Federalism is not about every state doing everything. It is about each tier respecting its lane. On solid minerals, the Constitution has given that lane to the Federal Government. Benue’s lawmakers swore to uphold the Constitution and should adhere to its provisions.