This year 2020 shall be full of challenges, ups and downs in Nigeria, with the country falling deeper from ‘frying pan to consuming fire’, according to the International Society for Civil Liberties & Rule of Law (Intersociety).

“The country’s bastardised, selfish, clannish, ethno-religiously divided and oligarchic political class shall offer no iota of hope in the year; except continuing with deceit including use of ‘psychology of politics’ and propaganda; and state fears and terrorism in the governance of the country or any part thereof,” the group said Tuesday in a statement jointly signed by Board Chair Emeka Umeagbalasi and Head of Democracy & Good Governance, Barr Chinwe Umeche.

“Generally, no remarkable or significant changes are expected. With religious intolerance and violence reaching a crescendo and gaining state protection, violence along religious lines including killings, destructions and fears are expected to continue and increase exponentially. Targeted killing of the members of Christian faith by jihadist Herdsmen and Boko Haram and ISWAP Islamist Jihadists is expected to continue.

“With the state security forces losing grip of the Northeast, compounded by the Government pro jihadist body language, these killings are expected to escalate. Collateral fatalities involving Muslim deaths from Boko Haram and ISWAP attacks are expected to minimize and give way for increase in targeted killings of the members of Christian and other non Muslim faith,” Intersociety further said in the statement issued from its headquarters in Onitsha, Eastern Nigeria.

It lamented that “between 1,000 and 1,200 Christians, particularly women and children, were hacked to death by jihadist Herdsmen in 2019, with over 600 killed between Jan and April,” adding: “The number of Christians killed by Boko Haram and ISWAP in the year is certainly in their hundreds, if not leveled with those killed by Jihadist Herdsmen. Many of the killings went unreported or were censored by the country’s secret police and other security agencies. Where they are rarely reported, they are cited as “killings associated with unknown gunmen or bandits”.”

On what to expect from it this year, Inersociety said: “Generally, we shall continue from where we stopped in 2019 and even do more for Nigeria and Nigerians. While our oversight roles shall cover all the ‘four generations of human rights’ under the UN System, our major focus shall remain with the ‘civil and political rights’ – the primus inter pares of all and we shall be ‘here and there’, or locally, regionally and internationally.

“Anambra State where we come from shall not be left out as we have been ‘congregating and aggregating all the socio-political developments in the State including the troubling roles of troublesome billionaires; example being the recent troublesome billionaire and Government instigated massive invasion of the Barr Ifeanyi Ejiofor’s ancestral compound and other neighboring houses and massive arson and destruction that followed. We shall continue our campaign for justice to be done in the case.

“For purpose of the 2021 governorship election in Anambra State, we make bold to say that rule of equity heavily favours the Anambra South made up of Nnewi zone, Ihiala zone and old Aguata zone; out of which the golden rule sub-favors the old Aguata zone. This is because going by the rule effective from the return of democracy in 1999; Ihiala zone had produced a governor with Nnewi zone producing an acting governor and now with a serving senator. The old Aguata zone, on its part, had produced none (neither substantive nor acting governor since May 1999). The golden rule driving by fairness does not allow Nnewi to produce a serving senator and governor at the same time while the old Aguata zone another has none.”

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