Shettima Goofs: No Forces Want To Pull Down Nigeria!

 By Olu Fasan

Ahead of last year’s general elections, I wrote a piece titled “2023: Shettima Unfit To Be Nigeria’s Vice-President” (Vanguard, September 22, 2022). I argued that despite his education and seeming bibliophilism, Kashim Shettima suffers from negative parrhesia, expressing indecorous views freely without aforethought.

*Shettima

I wrote: “With Shettima’s inherent tetchiness and truculence, he would be gratuitously provocative. And with his uncouthness and indiscretion, he would be utterly divisive and toxifying.” Well, since he became vice-president, Shettima has done enough, with several infuriating comments, to validate my opinion of him. 

Bola Tinubu Should Come Clean!

 By Nick Dazang

Unless drastic, coherent and proactive measures are taken, the chickens may soon be coming home to roost for the fledgling Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration. I state this with the highest sense of responsibility and advised by recent tragic events and ominous auguries.

*Tinubu

For the first time, and on his watch, we have thus far had a rash of peaceful demonstrations against hardship. Nigerians, in their numbers, protested in Kano, Minna and Suleija. It is noteworthy that even before he departed Lagos for Abuja, after the Christmas and New Year breaks, Lagosians shouted at his convoy that Nigerians were having a hard time.

How Subsidy Removal Fuels Hunger In The Land

 By Adekunle Adekoya

Last week the video of a man seen crying in front of a market stall where he had gone to buy foodstuffs trended heavily on the internet, as it was widely shared across many platforms — chat groups on WhatsApp, on Facebook, and others. The man was seen in front of a shop where common foodstuffs like rice, beans, gari and others were on display for sale. After asking for the prices of the food items, he realised that he couldn’t afford to buy them with the money he had. He broke down, crying.

It is trite news that prices of everything, including and especially food items, have grown wings, taken off from the ground where they were before May 29, 2023, hit the roof, burst through into the skies, and are now headed for outer space. What is more worrisome is the rate at which prices increase. Sometimes it’s at three-day intervals, at other times, weekly, and most fearful of all, daily.

Fraud: Another Minister May Soon Be Caught

 By Tonnie Iredia

In many developing societies where the government of the day is unable to provide basic facilities to improve living standards the way out is usually to resort to the tokenism of distributing palliatives to citizens. 

*Tinubu and Federal Ministers 

Nigeria adopted the option in 2015 – an option which from inception has been unable to wear a transparent and credible toga. No one including those in government had faith in Sadiya Farouq, pioneer minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development as well as her officials who were mandated to superintend the subject during President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

Ministry Of Humanitarian Resources Metaphor For Buhari/APC

 By Dele Sobowale

“All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies” – Dr John Arbuthnot, 1667-1735.

*Buhari and Sadiya Umar-Farouk, former minister for Humanitarian Affairs
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is close to the graveyard; mostly because Nigerians got sick and tired of the unfulfilled promises and outright lies the leaders of the party peddled for sixteen years. In a saner society, former President Obasanjo should not find five people ready to listen to his self-righteous utterances after leaving N8 trillion expenditure unexplained and $13-16 trillion taken for 10, 000MW power generation without result.

Nigeria’s Wasteful And Insensitive Leaders

 By Dan Onwukwe

Very so often, news about Nigeria and its leaders, is profoundly concerning. Worrisome.  Whenever Tinubu presidency is over, I suggest that it should be taught as history lesson in schools – on how not to govern a country on the basis of propaganda and tapestry of lies. Governance is a serious, honest, human enterprise. It should not be the opposite.  Amid a blizzard of shocking revelations of bizarre profligacy in less than seven months in power, it shows some clear,  but disturbing issues about power and leadership in Nigeria. First, nothing that happens to a country that is not like their leaders. 

*Mrs Oluremi Tinubu, Akpabio, Mrs Akpabio and others during Akpabio 61st birthday celebrations 

Secondly,  power is like a bikini:  it reveals more than it can hide. In other words, what leaders do when they are trying to get power is not necessarily what they do after they have it. This is Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress revealed. It’s an unravelling story that will perhaps get worse with the passage of time. This is a government of contradiction. 

Solving National Leadership Problem In Nigeria

 By Chiedu Okoye

Nigeria, a multi-ethnic country, is a nation of nations with more than 250 ethnic and linguistic groups making up its geographical space and colonial contraption. It has not become an organic whole. The sad fact is that our past political leaders have failed to engender true peace and unity in Nigeria. The centrifugal forces of ethnicity and religion are tearing the nation apart.

*Buhari and Tinubu

Our past national leaders, both politicians and military rulers, could not harness our abundant natural resources such as limestone, tin-ore, bauxite, crude oil, and others, to leapfrog Nigeria to the acme of economic and technological advancement. Instead, the nation is trapped in the morass of national underdevelopment. Nigeria has been outpaced by less-endowed countries in the areas of economic and technological development. Think about Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan.

Let Us Reset By Deporting Saudis

 By Owei Lakemfa

A dozen years ago when I first lodged at the prestigious Corinthia Hotel, Khartoum overlooking the confluence where the White Nile River and Blue Nile River are in eternal embrace, a waitress approached me. She was intrigued by my dressing and as such, could not place where I came from. I told her I was wearing a unique Nigerian dress. She told me I have a Nigerian brother working in the hotel who is always excited to meet Nigerians.

She gave me his name and the floor his office was located, and I checked him on my way downstairs. When I enquired about him, this Sudanese emerged from his office and when I introduced myself as a Nigerian, his face lit up. I told him he looks every inch a Sudanese. He said he was born Sudanese but that his father had migrated from Kano. As a Muslim trying to fulfil his religious vows to visit Mecca on a pilgrimage, his father had travelled by road to Sudan trying to reach Mecca. Unable to continue, he had settled in Sudan and raised a family. However, his father always told the children they were originally Nigerian.

Akpabio: How Not To Be A Senate President

 By Emmanuel Onwubiko

In 2019, Mr Omagbitse Barrow wrote that many Nigerians have never really thought seriously about the competencies required to be an effective legislator and using these competencies as the basis for selecting legislators and evaluating their performance.

*Akpabio and Tinubu 

He then said that in case you have not reflected on this before, there are five core competencies that every effective legislator should possess that are acceptable all over the world and align with oversight and legislation.

He listed them but I will borrow three which are: character; communication and courage. On character, he argued that legislators as the promoters and defenders of the Constitution and the laws of Nigeria, must seek to be beyond reproach. They must have very high standards of personal integrity and conduct themselves in a disciplined and ethical manner at all times.

Wole Soyinka’s Faux Pas

 By Amanze Obi

By now, it is clear to one and all that Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, is decidedly partisan on issues pertaining to the 2023 presidential election. He tried hard enough, initially, to mask his sympathies and loyalties. But recent developments have laid him bare. He is now unable to hold back.

*Soyinka 

Soyinka himself knows this much. He betrayed this tendency copiously while reacting to the criticisms that trailed his faux pas in South Africa penultimate week. He declared, rather blandly, that Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar lost the February 25 presidential election even before the election held. His reason? That both candidates split the votes of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and, consequently, granted Tinubu and his All Progressives Congress (APC) an easy access to victory.

Gabon Can Happen To Any Country!

 By Abiodun Komolafe

There’s always a general tendency which is often ignored at the peril of governments; and that’s the fact that bad governance brings exposure. Of course, this exposure comes in all ramifications. When people get dissatisfied at home, they look abroad for succor. Human beings are like that.

What has helped the Francophone countries to remain silent for too long is the principle of assimilation – to be brainwashed like robots; unlike other colonizers who allowed people to be themselves. That’s why countries like Nigeria and Ghana experienced coups decades ago because, from the British culture, they saw bad governance and reacted.

When Will Buhari Be Quizzed Over His Stewardship?

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Clapping back at the former Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, who recently criticised former President Muhammadu Buhari for running “the most incompetent government we have ever seen in this country,” Mallam Garba Shehu dismissed him as corruption personified.

*Buhari and Tinubu
Adoke was scathing in his criticism, not only labelling Buhari the most incompetent president Nigeria ever had and will never have again, but also said his ruination of Nigeria was enabled by a set of political morons he personally assembled. That was a total take down.

PEPC Judgement: The Verdict Can Destroy Presidential Democracy In Nigeria

 By Olu Fasan

Last week, I put everything aside to watch the ruling of the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, from start to finish! With rapt attention, I picked up the minutiae of the extremely detailed verdict. But after the 13-hour-long ruling, I was utterly despondent about the future of presidential elections in Nigeria. 

*The 2023 PEPC Judges 

Let me start with two general observations. First, the judges worked to a predetermined answer. Because they couldn’t bring themselves to invalidate the election of a sitting president, unprecedented in Nigeria, they found every reason to affirm Bola Tinubu’s election. Courts of first instance are fact-finding courts that seek to get to the bottom of a matter and do justice. But the PEPC used every conceivable procedural technicality to reject virtually all the facts and witnesses presented by Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar.

Kayode Fayemi: A Witch’s Confession

 By Ochereome Nnanna

I have noticed the tendency of elements of the Tinubu political family to confess the perfidy their group commits in the process of “grabbing, snatching, and running away” with power. In my new book, Buhari: Tinubu: How They Snatched and Shared Power, Pa Ayo Adebanjo claimed that Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as a governorship aspirant of the Alliance for Democracy, AD, in Lagos in December 1998, disrupted primaries in some of his opponents’ strongholds, which led to the abortion of the governorship primaries in those areas.

*Fayemi

The guidelines for the primaries said the exercise should be cancelled wherever there was a crisis. Tinubu capitalised on this loophole and defeated his closest rival, Funsho Williams, whose name had already been submitted by the state chairman of the AD, Alhaji Ganiyu Dawodu, as the winner.

Preventing Military Coups In Africa: Attention, Nigeria!

 By Tonnie Iredia

Two recent military coups in neighbouring Niger and Gabon have heightened discussions in Nigeria of the possibility of military intervention in the politics of the nation. The feeling appears so palpable considering the commonality of causative factors which over the years always influenced military rule in Africa: societal restiveness, poor economy, failed elections, pervasive corruption, extravagance of politicians and the helplessness of civic society accentuated by the disappearance of the middle class.

In Nigeria, the division of society into two classes only; that is those who have everything and those who have nothing is more visibly felt than anywhere else. This has left many people to pray not just for something to change but for it to come through the efficacy of a military coup. The recent decision of the military hierarchy in Nigeria to formally dismiss such undemocratic undertones in the land is instructive.

Why Nigeria Needs State Police Urgently

 By Victor Anya

The recent declaration of emergency on food by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu can’t be achieved since there is large scale insecurity in the country. It would have been better for Mr. President to have declared emergency on insecurity instead of emergency on food. This is because without security there can never be food security since farmers can’t go to their farms for fear of being killed by blood thirsty criminals.

There is no magic wand that will guarantee security in the country if state police is not established to complement the efforts of the Nigeria Police Force. Successive governments have downplayed this very crucial demand by thoughtful Nigerians on frivolous excuses.

For Tinubu’s Nigeria, It’s From Frying Pan To Fire

 By Emeka Alex Duru

A friend called the other day from Germany to get a true picture of situations in the country. The initial attempt was to pretend that all was well, that, apart from the dust of the February/March elections, there was not much to worry about. But that seemed a big error, in fact, a terrible one. He blurted: “Old Boy (as we address ourselves), you got it wrong on this. Reports I get every day from people at home indicate that things are not working. The emergence of Bola Tinubu has not helped matters. Except those in the corridors of power, every other citizen is panting. What I get is that, for Nigerians, it’s from frying pan to fire.”

*Tinubu

There was nothing to argue with him. Perhaps, at no time have Nigerians had it as rough as they are going through currently. And to think that this is a country that is not at war, yet the citizens are literally passing through hell in the hands of their leaders. It rankles exceedingly. The cost of every basic item in the land has hit the rooftop. Nigerians are hungry and angry! Minor issues that would have been overlooked can now result in fisticuffs. People wear frowns on their faces as if they woke up to continue with unfinished quarrels.

Nigeria: Ministers Of Noise

 By Ugoji Egbujo

The noise has started. Rather than embrace sobriety, they have begun with talkativeness. Unfortunately, the public is no longer so impressionable. The economic situation is dire and deft footwork of political chancery cannot bring succour. Politicians who had eight years at the state level to reduce poverty but chose sensationalism are now proselytising like development missionaries from distant lands.

The man in Abuja started with threats. He plans to bulldoze houses. Firm town planning regulation is necessary but those who begin by mouthing regulation and breathing fire often end up as crude and cold extortionists. These guys are not new. A loquacious strong man who is weak on principles is only a loud bully. Nothing useful comes out of arbitrariness except self-serving savagery. Ministers of noise pretending urgency.

The FCT lacks a modern transportation system. The city is littered with dehydrated kabukabus running around like taxis. Soaring fuel prices have made Abuja, the land of a million kabukabus, unlivable for many workers. But any man who governed an oil-rich state and didn’t bother to install any order in public transportation can’t come to Abuja with any ideas. That’s why the FCT minister sounds anachronistic.

The new FCT minister knows how to build small overhead bridges that can be christened flyovers and celebrated with feasts and orchestras. Unfortunately, Abuja can’t be seduced by small things. The sort of monkey-post politics and projects that win politicians oversized accolades in some states can’t faze anybody in Abuja. The new minister should keep his band and vuvuzelas aside and begin to think. This is 2023. Those formulae used by young majors who found themselves as military governors to titillate the public have all expired. The issues are real. Abuja is not susceptible to small-time provincial abracadabra and propaganda.

The Demolition of squatter camps is welcome but the real task is affordable mass housing. The minister should insist that building control and town planning regulatory authorities do their jobs diligently. But his focus must be on big ideas. Abuja needs affordable mass house schemes for low-income earners. Abuja must be reconfigured into a smart city. To attain this status, Abuja needs creativity and innovation rather than the brute force of a restless busybody. Environmental protection. Smart transportation. Efficient shelter. Tourism. It will be difficult for an analogue governor to transform into a digital mayor. But Abuja must start to harness technology for its security.  

The Abyss at Oba

The Onitsha-Owerri road is perhaps the busiest in the southeast. The marriage between the Igbo and commerce is well known, so the road that links major business centres in Igbo land will arguably be one of the busiest in the country. The Onitsha-Owerri road should be of such national strategic importance like Lagos-Ibadan and Kano-Kaduna that it should never be allowed to collapse.

At Oba, a huge erosion crater that can swallow a skyscraper has appeared.

The monstrous gully has eaten half of the road. But nobody seems perturbed. Owerri-bound traffic has been casually diverted to the remaining half of the road. Everybody passes and shakes his head at the bottomless pit. 

Many times every week, the traffic mats up and commuters spend long hours around Oba. Since Umahi represents the region and likes road inspections, he needs to visit in a hurry. When he gets Oba, he should stay far away from that site and use a pair of binoculars to view the chasm because though millions of commoners pass through that stricture every day, a minister shouldn’t take such a risk.  

Indeed, if the country observed safety standards that road ought to have been closed. But closing that road would be subjecting millions of people to torture. Yet the real tragedy is that the federal and state governments appear to be waiting for a calamity to happen. If the hole swallows twenty buses and a hundred souls, then somebody might be moved to dig a mass grave and then start work on the road. 

The hole at Oba is hellish. But it is the story of the land. When that gully cuts the road in two, the cost of fixing it might triple. The cost will be borne by the government but some politicians and their contractor friends will benefit. When a road contract sheds the toga of routine repair job for the apron of a big emergency, katakata will ensue. Chaos and frenzy create ample room for contract inflation and embezzlement.  

The hole looks diabolical. Something precipitate is the offing. The governor of the state, Soludo the Solution must have seen it and reminded the federal government officials of their ownership of the road. He has no immediate solution for it. Because at the current exchange rate and cost of cement, that road might swallow a significant portion of the state’s revenues. And the federal government, busy with planning how to distribute cash to cushion the withdrawal of petrol subsidy, is also burdened with fashioning out democracy for the Niger Republic rather than fighting erosion in Oba.

*Egujor is a commentator on public issues

 

Nyesom Wike: In Abuja, Use A Machete, Not A Sword!

By Owei Lakemfa

Minister Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, I join many Nigerians in welcoming you to the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, as its minister. You are no stranger to the country’s capital, having been a minister under the Jonathan administration. You arrived at the FCT last Monday with a bang, and since then, the mass media have not stopped buzzing, with some predicting that with you as Minister, the FCT will be ‘hot’. Brother Wike, do not be a conventional Nollywood character whose notions and moves are predictable. Don’t be an archetypal Patience Ozokwor in Nollywood or Clint Eastwood in Hollywood. Rather, be a governor in the FCT whose primary duties are the well-being and security of all Nigerians.

Portfolios were not previously affixed to ministerial nominees, so nobody would accuse you of not having a plan for the FCT. Therefore, what I advise you to do is sit down with your aides and staff to write a programme, and most importantly, get the buy-in of the people. 

Does Killing Babies In Niger Bring Glory To Our Name?

 By Femi Fani-Kayode

A dear and respected friend of mine who was once our Ambassador to a European country, who has relatives and strong links in and with Niger Republic and who is well versed in security and intelligence matters, told me that up to 40 babies are dying each day in Niger as a consequence of our cutting off electricity supplies to them.

*Tinubu and Fani-Kayode

According to him, these babies die in hospitals and incubators across the country as a consequence of the fact that there is no electricity supply and there is no fuel to power their generators.

This was confirmed by one Dr. Abdoul Djibou, a Nigerien medical practitioner, in an interview with Newsonlineng.com. They wrote, “According to a source in Niger Republic, Dr. Abdoul Djibou, there have been reports from Dosso Regional Hospital and Cominak Hospital about the recent spike in infant mortality.