Those in favour of the Pope’s visit to Nigeria

It is truly amazing how much heat is being generated by the invitation extended by Dr Goodluck Jonathan, President and Commander-In-Chief Armed Forces of Nigeria, to Pope Francis to visit our beloved country.  Thankfully, our friends have arisen to the occasion and are backing us with both money and hope.

Our president’s invitation was delivered on Saturday 22nd March 2014.  On Monday 24th March 2014, The International Finance Corporation (IFC) which is the private sector arm of the World Bank announced that its Executive Vice President/Chief Executive Officer for Africa Mr. Jin-Yong Cai was already in Abuja and we should await further announcements.  We did not have long to wait.  By noon CNN carried as breaking news, a report beamed directly from the conference room of Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance.

First to speak was Mr. Cai: “IFC plans to commence an annual investment of $1.5 billion in critical sectors of the Nigerian economy.  The first tranche of the investment will be channeled into housing and infrastructure, particularly power generation and distribution.  Natural gas is also on the priority list.  Our yearly investment in Nigeria will be somewhat different from the World Bank loans which bear tenor and interest rate components.  Rather, IFC would work with the private sector in carrying out the various projects with the Federal Government only providing the required guarantee for the Fund.

As confirmation that this was the real deal, Dr (Mrs) Okonjo-Iweala declared: “I am truly elated that our discussions with the IFC team have yielded good (terrific) results.  With the proposed yearly investment by IFC, the scope of investments in Nigeria would have been expanded and consequently provide a tremendous boost for the Nigerian economy in the process.”

However, Al Jazeera chose to play the mischief card by describing our Minister as a staunch catholic!!  It did not stop there.  It preferred to highlight the moving of the goal post by Nigeria:

“Previously, Nigeria had boasted that it would achieve superstar status by becoming one of the world’s leading economies by 2020.  Now it is aiming to become the 15th largest economy in the world by 2050.”

It then proceeded to describe the soothsayer as a catholic priest.  Fortunately, before the day was over, it corrected itself and carried the following sober report: “Mr Jim O’Neill, former chairman, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, made this assertion in his address.  “From BRICS to MINT:  The centrality of education and learning to nation-building and economy” at the closing of the 20th Nigerian Economic Summit (NES), yesterday in Abuja.

O’Neill said economic growth is driven over a long time by two things: the size of the country’s labour force and its productivity, noting that Nigerian has both. Speaking to student representatives from across the country at the summit, he said Nigeria will be the 15 largest economy in their time.  He said the country has a large and young population, noting that these are variables that will take the country to that position.

“If this largest population can be honest, you will be the 15th largest economy in the world by 2050 and possibly it will be for the young population to deliver what they desire for the nation,” he said.

O’Neill said when he was of the age of the children representatives the wealth of South Korea was the same as that of present day Nigeria but that today South Korea has wealth level very similar to that of most G7 nations.  “They had large populations that brought that change and the same can happen in Nigeria.”

 The student representatives, among other things, desire to see Nigerian schools that will truly represent what the nation should be, where learning is practical, where parents will spend more time with their children, where they are not judged by grade but by what they can offer, where there is no lack of electricity and where there is no gender disparity.”

Those who are determined to sabotage the Pope’s visit are leaving no stone unturned.  The international press is clearly on their side.

The headline of The Daily Mail newspaper (published in London): Kidnappers’ Den. “Bound in chains next to corpses, Nigerian kidnap victims found in the House of Hell where they were to be sacrificed in black magic rituals by human organ traffickers. Several severely malnourished people found wandering around. Some victims of kidnapping are often sacrificed in black magic rituals

Rotting bodies and skeletons have been found inside an abandoned Nigerian building which has been dubbed a ‘House of Horror’. Nigerian police rescued several severely malnourished people found wandering in the bush near the building in the southwestern city of Ibadan, and more were found shackled in leg-chains inside.

The grisly discovery came after a group of motorcycle taxi riders reported that some of their members had gone missing and were believed to have been kidnapped. “When we got to the abandoned building in the Soka community of Ibadan, we saw decomposed corpses, skeletons and skulls in the building and surrounding bushes” said Oyo state police spokeswoman Olabisi Ilobanafor.

“Some seven malnourished human beings looking like living skeletons were also rescued in the bushes surrounding the building. One of them died on the spot while we were there” she said.

Ilobanafor said police had launched a murder investigation and arrested some suspects at the scene in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo state and the third largest city in Nigeria.

“It is not a common occurrence in Ibadan or in the state.  The police will investigate this crime in all its ramifications,” she said. Some victims of kidnapping in Nigeria are often tortured or sacrificed in black magic rituals.

Local media have also reported cases of human body parts being sold across the country, especially in the southern region, for ritual purposes. In urban centres, including the nation’s economic capital Lagos, corpses are often found by the roadside with some of their vital parts missing, especially eyes and genitals.

 The Ibadan-based Sunday Tribune, Nigeria’s oldest private newspaper, showed gruesome pictures of rotting bodies, human skulls and other body parts littering the scene, as well as ID papers and ATM cards, shoes, bags and clothes.

It also published a photograph of a haggard woman who was allegedly kidnapped in the southern Edo State in 2008 and rescued at what it called the ‘House of Horror’.

The newspaper said at least one skeletal-looking man was found in the throes of death, groaning in pain as flies hovered around his face.

 Media reports said 15 or more people had been found in leg-chains inside the building but police put the figure at seven. Some mobile phone numbers were also written on the inside wall of the building, the Tribune said in its report headlined “Kidnappers’ den uncovered in Ibadan”.

J.K Randle