Dasuki, Tompolo, Just Join APC

By Paul Onomuakpokpo  

Shortly after Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s jolting victory in the 2015 presidential election, some politicians obviously realised their mistake of not disavowing the then President Goodluck Jonathan and his ill-starred party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). But all hope was not really lost – they attempted to salvage their wrecked political fortunes. Some immediately denigrated their political parties and declared their allegiance to the winning party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

*Dasuki

Others were subtle. They did not want to be seen as brazen opportunists who were ready to sound the death knell of the party on whose platform they had attained socio-economic and political leverage. Thus, they declared their retirement from partisan politics. It began with former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s reported dramatic tearing of his PDP’s membership card. However, the former president was recently quoted as insisting that he never tore his card. Obasanjo’s example of retiring from politics was quickly followed by a former Chairman of the PDP, Bamanga Tukur, the political godfather of former President Jonathan, Edwin Clark and others. The only difference between these and Obasanjo was that they were never involved in the razzmatazz of tearing their party membership cards while quitting active politics.

We need not interrogate the real motive of the afore-said politicians who chose to quit partisan politics. Again, we need not reckon with the fact that Obasanjo’s action appeared to have smacked of ingratitude for abandoning the same political party on whose back he held the presidency for eight years. Let’s accept that their exit from the political space was necessitated by old age – they were only bowing out for the younger generation to take over.

But now, it is clear that self-survival is the leitmotif of the current trajectory of politicians abandoning their parties. They do not leave their parties to channel their energies elsewhere; they are still actively involved in politics and their next destination is the APC. Clearly, when the carapace of the self-serving excuse that they are joining the APC to better serve their people is broken, we are left with the discovery that these are politicians who are only fleeing to the ruling party as a refuge from probe for corruption.

Remember, Buhari has declared that no member of his cabinet is corrupt. This was what informed his clearing of his Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai of the charge of corruption for unaccountably owning assets in Dubai. This is also why despite the accused judges’ allegation that Rotimi Amaechi tried to use them to pervert justice, he is not being probed. In fact, just last week, a robust defence of Amaechi came from the chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay. According to Sagay, Amaechi should not resign since the charges by the judges were not only baseless, they are targeted at depriving the Buhari government of the great contributions of Amaechi to good governance.

When Will Nigeria Start Getting Better?

By Kanayo Esinulo
Those who are familiar with how the machine of government works will easily tell you that leaders, most leaders, are somehow prisoners of ‘Security Reports’, but what these ‘knowledgeable top functionaries’ of government will never disclose to anyone, including the leader himself and the inquisitive thinking community, is that a good percentage of these ‘Security Reports’ are often hugely inaccurate, sometimes exaggerated and a few times overtaken by unexpected sudden events. They hardly provide the leader the necessary insights and all sides of the actual situation upon which proper policy decisions can be based for the general good.

What is often submitted as security reports contain, largely, what would make the leader happy, stampede him or her into making silly mistakes or even frighten him into becoming a prisoner in Government Lodge. And because our leaders are often caged and over protected from interfacing with us, the ordinary citizens, and knowing how we really feel and how government policies affect our lives positively or negatively, the sweet-heart security reports are taken seriously by them, and policy decisions are then taken, based on the contents and conclusions of the reports. But a good and experienced leader reaches out to the people as much as possible and as much as security considerations would permit.

Let me table a quick coda: Muhammadu Buhari first struck our national consciousness during the bloody Maitesine uprisings in some parts of Northern Nigeria in 1982. He was in-charge of a command in Jos, the capital of Plateau State. Alhaji Shehu Aliyu Shagari was the President and Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces. When Maitesine, the militant Islamic group, was fully contained in Kano, they ran into neighbouring Cameroun and still constituted a menace to our national security from that flank, it was this man, Muhammadu Buhari, who mobilised troops under his command and engaged the rascals, decimated their strength, killed and captured many of them and drove them deep into the Republic of Cameroun beyond the orders of Shagari, the Commander-in-Chief. Instantly, Buhari became a national celebrity. He mesmerised and defeated the ill-trained and ill-equipped Maitesine invaders. I was with NTA News, Victoria Island at the time. We tried to secure elaborate interview with Buhari for our national audience, but he shied away from the national media. But all the same, his gallantry and patriotism became an instant hit.

So, when he surfaced after the events of December 31, 1983 as the popular choice of the coup makers against the Shagari government, he was not totally unknown to most Nigerians. His Second-in-Command in the new government, Tunde Idiagbon, was, then, relatively unknown but soon became a star in the new government, and in his own right too. The character of the regime began to manifest clearly soon after it settled down to business. There were side talks about the sectional and ethnic inclinations of the regime as exposed by the arrests and detention of our erstwhile political leaders: Shagari was kept under ‘house arrest’, while his Second-in-Command, Alex Ekwueme was securely put away in prison.

Governors whose cases were strictly under investigation, Lateef Jakande, Sam Mbakwe, Ambrose Alli, Adekunle Ajasin, Abubakar Rimi, Jim Nwobodo, etc., were scattered in various prisons in the country. Alli virtually lost his sight while in prison and upon his release by the Babangida regime eventually died a blind man. Mbakwe never really fully recovered from the illnesses he contacted while under that rigourous solitary confinement, Pa Ajasin lost form and his usual robust good health withered away while under Buhari’s gulag. Lateef Jakande barely survived the trauma of that prolonged detention in prison.

Alli, Mbakwe, Ajasin and Jakande, as Nigerians later knew, were not rich after all and by any standards. Yet, they were paraded as criminals who looted our public treasuries. Then, the big one: the unprecedented attempt to bring back to Nigeria, by force, and in a crate, Shagari’s Minister of Transport, Alhaji Umaru Dikko, for trial. The exercise failed and the world was outraged. The Israeli abduction technicians who packaged and executed the failed project for the Buhari military regime pocketed their huge price and quietly disappeared into thin air.

The truth today is that possibly Buhari was ill-advised and mis-informed before he approved the very extreme measures that his military government took against the ousted second republic politicians. But so far, he has not openly admitted that some mistakes were made, including the unnecessary ‘invasion’ and rigourous searching of the Apapa residence of the Yoruba political icon, late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. I repeat: all the governors of the second republic detained during the military regime of Buhari, only very few came out of the rigourous solitary confinement with their good health intact. Go and check. The story about Ambrose Alli, a professor of pathology, and former governor of old Bendel State [now Edo and Delta]who went blind while in prison is still a story to be fully told. And Alli died a poor man.

I'm Already President – Grace Mugabe

Harare – Zimbabwean First Lady Grace Mugabe has reportedly told the ruling Zanu-PF party women's league that she is already the president, as she "plans and does everything with President Robert Mugabe."

*Grace Mugabe

 According to NewsDay, Mashonaland West Zanu-PF women's league chairperson Angeline Muchemeyi said that Grace told them that there was no point for her fighting to be vice president, a lesser position, when she was already running State affairs.

Grace is currently the Zanu-PF women's league secretary, a position she has held since 2014.

"The First Lady said 'I'm the wife of the president, I'm the president already … I plan and do everything with the president, what more do I want, for now the position of the women boss is enough'," Muchemeyi was quoted as saying.

Where Are The Various Power Probe Report?

By Phillip Agbese

We are a nation of people that easily forget. We may, however, not be a nation that easily forgive. If it seems we forgive grievous sins of past, serving and future public office holders it is down to the collective amnesia that allows those who serially raped the country to get away with their crimes. Oftentimes we end up rewarding such persons with greater responsibilities because we simply cannot recall the enormity of their transgressions against the rest of us. 

We forget so we endure darkness when the power sectors has gulped billions of dollars without results.

We bemoan the high cost of lighting our homes as well as keep gadgets and equipment running irrespective of whether we are on post paid metering, pre-paid extortion or estimated robbery. But we forget that we are now being billed for the overpriced investment in electricity infrastructure, including the inflated value for components that were never bought. 

Only recently the Pharaoh of Benin Electricity Distribution Company, Mrs Olufunke Osibodu told Nigerians with glee that we have no right to expect stable electricity for another five years. We have forgotten why but we easily ignored and even immediately forgave the spewing of such poison. Afterall, this was a self styled undertaker of a commercial bank talking so we may not immediately become alarmed that Osibodu has a mandate to finally kill off a sector that years of theft has not seen off. 

The venue of Osibodu's dark prophecy is what should trigger the alarm bells for us. She spoke at the 11th Annual Founder’s Day event of the American University of Nigeria in Yola, which happens to be one of the many investments of a former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abukakar. He happens to have been the one that oversaw the privatization exercise, which had rehabilitation of electricity infrastructure before their sale as a mantra that played so continuously that it sounded worse than a broken record. 

What happened under Atiku Abubakar's watch set the tone for whatever brigandage was to follow under subsequent administrations. This of course is not counting any other shady dealings that were explained away as former President Olusegun Obasanjo being heavy handed on his over ambitious deputy. 

Poverty And Hunger Amid Opulence

By Matthew Ozah  

I shall begin this piece on a morbid note, with other disturbing tales. A news report that went viral on the internet has it that a seven-year-old boy in Lagos was lynched for allegedly stealing garri, perhaps to quench hunger with it. Of course, the wickedness and horror that followed the public anger shows signs of the times in the country.

President Buhari's 72nd Birthday party 

Also, President Muhammadu Buhari recently raised the alarm and warned Nigerians to brace themselves for an imminent outbreak of famine in the country. In the same breath, he called on religious and traditional leaders to assist him prevail on the selfish businessmen who took advantage of the huge demand for Nigerian grains in the global market, to embark on mindless and profit sojourn exporting grains across our borders and put local market and citizens out of food. Another horrendous situation is the United Nations’ warning that 75,000 North East children risk dying of hunger if we don’t do something urgently about it.

Oddly enough, in the face of all these heartbreaking news coupled with inflation and looming economic hardship in the country, the pomposity about wealth and how it’s being exhibited by the political elite is evidence that opulence has found a new home in Nigeria. The position the political elite chose to place themselves and the masses is like a tale of two cities, on the one hand, is a view of a world dominated by an empire without a king on which the sun proverbially never set, on the other, an amorphous blob in which people have dissolved into areas of darkness and are not remembered until election period.

Nigerians will find much to intrigue, entertain and absolutely electrify while wondering and trying to figure out the mind-set and the subtle difference occasioned by the wide gaps between politicians and the masses. By their very nature, you need no interpretation to discover their deceit and everywhere they exhibit their prowess, that immediate striking influence which requires no labels will sense and expose their presence. It is, therefore, hurting that politicians are insensitive or they pretend not to have any clue about the sufferings of the masses, of whom they cajole with mouth watering promises during election campaigns. They fight for their self aggrandizement once in power.

A case in point is a recent report of N3.6 billion expended on exotic cars for members of the House of Representatives. They chose to splash money on luxury cars at a time the country’s economy is having some difficulty and when crude oil price, the major foreign exchange earner for the country is dropping on a daily basis. In defence, they rebuff any one that dares to question their misdeed, claiming that the cars are not ‘luxury’ and that it is long overdue for their oversight functions and they cannot sacrifice anything for it. Yet, they are quick to ask Nigerians to endure the economic hardship and sacrifice more for the nation. But when it affects them, they shall be first served.

Nigeria: Long Walk Towards Anarchy

By Emmanuel Ojeifo  

I knew it would come to this. I knew that the murderers of Mrs. Bridget Agbahime, the 74-year-old Igbo Christian trader killed by irate Muslim youths at Kofar Wambai market in Kano would not be brought to book. I knew that the typical political Nigerian-speak, “We will ensure that the culprits of this dastardly act are brought to book,” is only a euphemism for intrigues, betrayals and cover-ups. I knew that the political, religious and traditional powers that be would ensure that the case is silenced and that nothing comes out of it.

*Late Mrs. Bridget Agbahime

I knew all of these when I wrote my article, “The Media and Extrajudicial Killings” published in Thisday of September 12, 2016. In that piece I argued that the Nigerian news media ought to stay on course and, with patience and persistence, pursue issues regarding human rights violations to their logical conclusion in order to hold political leaders accountable. I spoke in favour of what I termed ‘protest writing’ and ‘protest broadcast’ in media practice in order to bring to the consciousness of media practitioners the huge moral obligation that they have to “to take sides with the powerless against the depredations of power.”

Thus, when the news filtered into the public domain some days ago that the five Muslim culprits who were arrested and arraigned for the gruesome murder of Mrs. Agbahime, have been set free – “discharged and acquitted” – on frivolous grounds by a Kano Magistrates Court, I wasn’t any bit surprised. That has been the pattern of gross human rights violation in Nigeria. The sad part of it is that in the eyes of many Nigerians, tragedies claiming multiple human lives have become “one of those things.”

Like a national ritual, whenever tragic incidents happen we talk about them soberly. Our security agencies run around and get busy for a few days. Political leaders come out to assure us that the culprits would be brought to book. They then pledge that every possible effort will be made to forestall a repeat of such tragedy. End of discussion! We return to business as usual, and wait until something tragic happens again.

Has anyone heard anything about the killers of Mrs. Eunice Elisha, the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) pastor who was murdered in Kubwa, Abuja, during the early hours of June 9, 2016 when she went out to preach? Has anyone heard anything about the eight students of Abud Gusau Polytechnic in Talata Marafa, Zamfara State, who were set ablaze on August 22, 2016 by some fanatical Muslim youths on allegations of blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed? Fifteen years have passed since a famous Nigerian Minister of Justice was murdered in cold blood in his Ibadan residence.

Buhari And The Child That Was Set Ablaze

By Sabella Ogbobode Abidde

A boy, less than 10 years, was set ablaze in Lagos – causing an uproar and condemnation at home and abroad. Yet, President Muhammadu Buhari is silent on this gut-wrenching and barbaric incident. Dead silent! Haba, is he not a father and a grand-father? What would it take for him to address the nation – or at least issue a statement condemning this most inhumane act. 

Does this President not know that in addition to his many other roles and responsibilities, he is the sympathizer-in-chief? Does he not know that he must order the Police to immediately investigate the killing, and send condolences to the parents of the dead child? Does he not know? Or he simply doesn’t care. Showing compassion, and expressing sympathy, is part of what it means to be human and member of the civilized world. 

If this president does not show compassion in times like this, then, he forfeits his claim to respectability and morality. Not only is the President silent, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is also silent – and so is Governor Akinwunmi Ambode (in whose jurisdiction the killing took place).

Members of the clergy are also silent. What manner of a country is this? Where are our men and women of conscience? Is the leadership of the country so out of touch, so inconsiderate, so indifferent, so callous, so iniquitous and so devilish that they are not touched by the killing of a child? Are they devoid of human feeling?

If Buhari, Osinbajo and Ambode refuse to address the people and the parents of the dead child, then, Nigerians must reassess their relationship with these men. If members of the clergy fail to condemn this killing, then, we must think of them as no better than those who killed this child.

May the sleep and happiness of those directly responsible for the death of that innocent child be disturbed. May their lives be forever haunted.

Those who stood by — hands folded or askance, laughing, jeering and deriving joy from the barbarism — are also guilty of the crime. Law enforcement officers and elders who should have saved our child, but who watched without attempting to exhibit their humanity, are also as guilty as those who directly administered death.

Buhari: Six Mistakes In Eighteen Months

By Sabella Ogbobode Abidde

President Muhammadu Buhari is not your typical party-man. By that I mean that he is not a politician in the classic sense of the word. Hence, he doesn’t seem to have the full and complete grasp of party-politics. Or may be does, but simply detests it (at least in the way and manner it is being played in Nigeria).  Whether he likes party-politics or not, I have news for him: the sooner he learns to play ball and act like a party-man, the better.

*Buhari 

Party-politics can be dirty, very dirty; but that’s the nature of political association the world over. Even the most honorable of men understands this; yet, they device ways of swimming in the Ocean without being bitten by sharks. They device ways of padding through rivers while evading crocodiles and other hunters. They swim if necessary; and they levitate if levitation is in order. But not so for Buhari who, eighteen months into his presidency, has committed six fundamental mistakes.

First, he is acting as though it is beneath him to get involved in the internal strife of his party. He is wrong! If he does not bring leadership, meaning and direction to the affairs of his party, The All Progressives Congress (APC), his base will fragment and may even collapse.  If he allows the wrangling to get out of hand, the major opposition party, The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) will take advantage of the situation and maneuver its way back to power.

Buhari: Same Autocrat Who Failed Nigeria 30 Years Ago

By Ameto Akpe

 Muhammadu Buhari promised to embrace democracy as president, but turned out to be the same autocrat who failed the country 30 years ago.

*Buhari 

It’s been a tough year for Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. The mood in Africa’s most populous nation is a far cry from the euphoria that greeted his historic 2015 election - the first time in Nigeria’s history that an opposition candidate unseated an incumbent president in a democratic election. For weeks and even months after the vote, Buhari was a media darling, praised at home and extoled abroad.

Since then, the cheers have turned to jeers - even from members of the president’s own party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). Meanwhile, his administration cowers under attacks from a disillusioned electorate, members of the opposition, and even Buhari’s wife, Aisha, who said she might not vote for him in 2019, when he is up for re-election.

What’s behind the swift unraveling of Buhari’s presidency? His inability to formulate a coherent economic plan as Nigeria tipped into recession and unwillingness to make crucial decisions - as basic as appointing a cabinet - in a timely manner certainly didn’t help. But the main reason Buhari has lost the support of his countrymen is that the last year has revealed the central premise of his candidacy to be false:

The man who claimed in the campaign to be a “reformed democrat” has proved to be the same old authoritarian showman who ruled Nigeria in the early 1980s. The man who claimed in the campaign to be a “reformed democrat” has proved to be the same old authoritarian showman who ruled Nigeria in the early 1980s.

Buhari’s first attempt to run Nigeria ended after a year and a half in the same manner it started: a coup d’état. Back then, Buhari launched a campaign to root out corruption, dubbed the “war against indiscipline,” which was accompanied by restrictions on free trade and free speech, as well as repression of his political opponents. Soon Nigeria was embroiled in a political and economic crisis that paved the way for his ouster.

By 2015, however, many Nigerians were ready to give him a second chance. Growing economic hardship and rampant corruption - and the seeming inability of then-President Goodluck Jonathan to tackle either - convinced them to embrace Buhari again despite his checkered past. To many he seemed like a competent leader - at least more so than the weak and feckless Jonathan.

But there is already a strong element of déjà vu in Buhari’s second stint at the helm. He has again staked his presidency on an anti-corruption crusade and again used it as a vehicle to target political opponents. Now, as before, Buhari’s legitimacy was built on empty showmanship, a hyped-up claim of superior morality and discipline coupled with a healthy dose of disdain for elitism, all quickly overshadowed by an economic crisis that he wasn’t equipped to tackle.

The People's Choice: The Story Of Goodluck

BOOK REVIEW 

(A Tribute To Our Former President At  59)

By Dan Amor

Reflection on the existing number of books on former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan might well raise doubt about the desirability of adding to them. But since research does not stand still and its more assured results often take long to reach the handbook, there may be a place for a brief account of the man described severally by different people as a leader who is humble and simple to a fault. Yet, to read Rev. Father Charles A. Imokhai's The People's Choice, his lucid account of the life and times of the former Nigerian leader, is to embark on a delightful journey.

*Dr. Jonathan cutting his birthday cake 

Segmented into four parts, the 194 page book published by AuthorHouse, United Kingdom (February 2015), circulates how gorgeously a child from a humble state did swing across the gloomy and multitudinous chasm of the Niger Delta to become President of the world's most populous black nation by divine providence. As a priest and religious thinker, who has worked for over forty-five years in Nigeria, Liberia and the United States of America in various pastoral and administrative capacities, fortified with a doctorate degree in social anthropology from the University of Columbia, USA, Father Imokhai has produced a book which will have a remarkable vogue and influence on Nigerian youth.

Like General Yakubu Gowon, former Nigerian Head of State who wrote the foreword to the book states, the book, in an easily readable format, tells the story of an ordinary farm boy's rise from his obscure village in Otuoke, Bayelsa State to the pinnacle of leadership as Number One citizen of our dear country, Nigeria. And, like he also enthuses in his foreword, The People's Choice is work in progress "because the Presidency under Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR is still unfolding." The book which incidentally does not have on its cover the picture of its focal subject, would keep the prospective reader wondering who it's talking about.

Yet on launching into the foreword, the reader is now confronted with the reality of the subject, the figure about whom has clustered the yearnings, the ideals, and the aspirations Nigerians have for themselves and their country. That symbolic Goodluck also stands between the reader and the book. Jonathan does not pretend about his humble background. We know what happened and we cannot undo that knowledge. We read The People's Choice with a different eye. The present changes the meaning of the past. We can get the record straight, as historians like to put it, but the meaning of that straightened record is inextricably involved in the meaning we also try each day to discern in the confusion of the living present.

Buhari Should Dialogue With Nigerians

By Dan Amor

Dialogue has been rediscovered the world over as a subject of public debate and of philosophical inquiry. Politicians from the ideological divides, leading intellectuals, and concerned citizens from diverse backgrounds are addressing questions about the content of the human character. In our country, Nigeria, the imperative for an all-encompassing dialogue cannot be overemphasized. Immediately after the Civil War in 1970, what our leaders ought to have done was to call for and host a national dialogue to cut a new deal and move the nation forward. But they were smug in their self-assurance. Unfortunately, they saw the entire polity as their war booty and were blissfully unaware of its consequences. The outcome was that desperation among Nigerians became infectious.

*Buhari

​Even when the military decided to hand over the reins of governance in 1979 to their civilian counterparts they hurriedly put together a phony constituent assembly and drew up a constitution without the input of the authentic representatives of the Nigerian people instead of opening up a forum for national dialogue. The upshot was that the Second Republic was soon to collapse like a pack of cards. In 1993, after the annulment of one of the most placid Presidential elections ever conducted in Nigeria by the military, the people openly canvassed for a Sovereign National Conference in which they would discuss the basis for the corporate existence of the country. But the Khaki boys in their wisdom repudiated this idea. Of course, Gen. Sani Abacha later organized his own conference in 1995 to give legitimacy to his illegitimate regime. Despite the stark illogicality of the military praxis, a few courageous politicians led by the late iconoclastic Yoruba leader, Chief Abraham Adesanya, called for, and hosted a well–attended All Politicians Dialogue in Lagos in 1997. This helped to galvanise support for the massive agitation for a return to civil democratic governance which became a reality on May 29, 1999.

​Again, the administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo (1999-2007), the first civilian government after a protracted period of military gangsterism, rapacity and greed, bungled a great opportunity to host a formidable National Political Conference in 2005 due largely to the plot for tenure elongation of President Obasanjo. The Goodluck Jonathan administration, by husbanding the 2014 National Conference in which Nigerians of all faculties were adequately represented, had succeeded in providing a platform on which the nation would be re-invented. Yet many continue to associate dialogue with a prudish, Victorian morality or with crude attempts by government to legislate peace. It is against this backdrop that all well-meaning Nigerians should advise President Muhammadu Buhari to dialogue with the aggrieved, from his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) which has manifested clear evidence of division in its infancy, to other Nigerians who feel shortchanged by his administration. The government seems to be fighting so many wars: the Boko Haram insurgents, militants in the Niger Delta, the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, the Shiites religious group in the North West, etcetera.

Gov Ugwuanyi And Enugu Workers

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

Enugu State governor, Mr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, has enjoyed a rather impressive portrayal in the media since he assumed office. I have seen several articles parroting his “marvelous achievements” and some of the articles have even found their way to my email box for publication on my blog – which I published even though they were always sent by a totally unfamiliar name.

*Gov Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi 

Although, after the horrendous tragedy perpetrated in Ukpabi-Nimbo in Uzo-Uwani by murderous herdsmen, pictures of Mr. Ugwuanyi in flowing ‘agbada’ grinning from to ear to ear while shaking hands with President Muhammadu Buhari (who, many believe, had done nothing to avert the callous slaughter of those innocent villagers) had deeply shocked many people who had expected to see him in a mourning mood, the Enugu governor has still managed to pass himself off as a public officer trying his best to impress his people.

During the last May Day celebrations, the Enugu State chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Mr. Virginus Nwobodo and his Trade Union Congress (TUC) colleague, Mr. Chukwuma Igbokwe, had heaped praises on him for what they called his “dynamic leadership in promoting government-labour relationship” and creating “a peaceful industrial atmosphere” in Enugu State.

But in mid-October, I was in Enugu and was shocked to learn that some workers absorbed into the State Civil Service from one of the government parastatals were being owed arrears of salaries for the past 15 months! Indeed, it is difficult to believe that any public officer could have the heart to subject his fellow human beings to such a harrowing ordeal. But then, this is Nigeria where leaders derive strange animation from riding roughshod on the people with utmost impunity.

Following the decision of the previous administration of Mr. Sullivan Chime to absorb the permanent workers of a number of parastatals and corporations (ESBS, Enugu State Capital Territory, ENADEP, Enugu State Sports Council, Enugu Fertilizer Company, ESWAMA etc.), into the State Civil Service, several of the affected workers were duly verified, their data biometrically captured and they were received into the general public service.  And since then, they have been working and receiving their salaries. Even though there are some workers who are being owed a few months arrears of salaries, they are still hopeful since their absorption into the general service has been fully effected.

But in the case of ESWAMA (Enugu State Waste Management Agency) the workers were verified and biometrically captured in batches. In 2010, the first batch was fully absorbed and all of them have since been posted to several ministries where they have been receiving their salaries.  In August 2014, the second and final batch made up of about 91 permanent staff of ESWAMA (some of whom may attain retirement age in a couple of years from now) underwent their own absorption process. This was duly communicated to the Enugu governor through a letter jointly signed by the Secretary to the Government and the Head of Service (Ref: ENS/SSG/M.505/11/227) dated August 6, 2014. Another letter on the issue dated August 11, 2014 (Ref: GHS/33/XXX/11/100) was also written to the governor. By April 2015, just before the new administration of Mr. Ugwuanyi was inaugurated, the verification and posting of these 91 workers were concluded and their letters of posting to the various ministries to which they have been redeployed were handed over to them. What remained now was the approval of the governor for their biometric data capturing to enable them to start receiving salaries through the state’s e-payment system.

But for reasons that have remained inexplicable, Gov Ugwuanyi has chosen to sit on the fate of these poor workers, thereby, subjecting them and members of their families to unspeakable hardship and trauma. As somebody under employment, it is such a torturing experience trying to imagine what it would be like not to be paid salaries for a couple of months. But here are our fellow citizens who have been denied salaries for a whole 15 months! How heartless and callous could some of our leaders be!

Sylvester Akhaine’s Logic Of Struggle And Humanism

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

The world is a theatre of struggle. Every stage one finds oneself at, one should know that it is a struggle; it is one of the principles of social Darwinism – Sylvester Akhaine

With Donald Trump clinching the United States’ presidency on the back of the promise to privilege the welfare of Americans and deport immigrants he considers as parasites, such foreigners have only the option of making their own countries great to cater for them and obviate the need of seeking succour overseas. To make their countries to attain a level where they do not need to be economic refugees in foreign countries like that of Trump imposes on such citizens the necessity of a struggle to remove impediments to the development of their societies.

*Sylvester Akhaine

For African states and other formerly colonised countries of the world, the need for a struggle to attain their national destinies is very familiar. It was such a struggle that paved the way for political independence in the 1950s and 1960s in African countries. Thus for these African states to overcome their new masters, whether internal or external, there is the need for them to resume the path of struggle. This validates the intervention of Sylvester Odion Akhaine, through The Case of a Nursing Father, in the contemporary discourse of resistance by the citizens of post-colonial states against their economic and political oppressors to create prosperous societies.

Beneath the veneer of a preoccupation with existential affairs such as those at the home front as signified by the title of the book are weightier issues of a people’s struggle to be free from oppression in its multi-faceted forms. But then, even at the home turf, a struggle is required for the solidification of humanism. This is demonstrated by the author’s refusal to align with the members of his elite class who objectify their fellow human beings by making children from poor homes as housemaids.

While such housemaids spend their days in drudgery in the service of oga, madam and the children, no one spares a thought for their education. The author resolves the conflict that could ensue from his resistance by becoming a nanny in order to accommodate the professional demands of his medical doctor wife. By both husband and wife accepting to take turns to care for their first child, they avert a feminist war of equality.

Thus, in the African context, there is the robust possibility of mutual help between a husband and a wife as counterpointed by a brand of Western feminism that breeds an unnecessary gender hostility.

Chinua Achebe At 86: A Tribute

By Dan Amor

When the celebrated and consummate novelist, Prof. Chinua Achebe died on Thursday March 21, 2013 in a hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America at 82, his loss was mourned not only by African writers but by statesmen and citizens of the world whom one would not readily accuse of an interest in literature. What this means is that the romantic emphasis upon the human ego which is implied in the last degree of subjectivity in romantic thought brought about a characteristic motif in the twentieth-century social life-the cult of the superman, the leader, the hero, the born man of genius, who can raise himself above the common herd and lead his people to greater height of attainment than mankind had previously reached. There seems to be a commonly held view, even among literary practitioners, that Achebe was a genius- the Eagle on Iroko in the African literature forest. He was a novelist. But there are novelists and there are novelists.

*Chinua Achebe 

In fact, there were great novelists before him in the vast cosmos of comparative literature: Henry James, Thomas Hardy, DH Lawrence, etcetera. Yet, Achebe was a logical successor to these great men of letters in the last literary generation of the twentieth century. Prof. Abiola Irele, easily one of Africa's most distinguished literary scholars and critics, noted in his reaction to the news of Achebe's death: "My first reaction when I heard the news of Achebe's death was of sadness. I am very sad to hear the news of the death of Achebe. It is a great loss. I have known him since 1962. He was a wonderful man personally. Somehow, he was not sentimental. It was Achebe who shaped African literature and gave it a standing in the world. It is something that should be commended".

There was indeed no African writer who ever influenced the thinking of his time, either in his literary output or political interventions, more than Achebe. By working so conscientiously at the interface between indigenous and English literatures, Achebe more than any living African novelist, has cultivated the English language with superstitious veneration. No writer has conceived it possible that the dialect of peasants and market women should possess sufficient energy and precision for a majestic and durable work. Achebe ventures African thought into the English language with remarkable simplicity. He detects the rich treasures of thought and diction, which still lay latent in their ore in the African traditional life. He refines them into purity and burnishes them into splendor thus fitting them for every purpose of use and magnificence.

Who Killed Bridget Agbahime?

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

When Bridget Agbahime was murdered on June 2, 2016, in the presence of her husband, Pastor Mike Agbahime, by Muslim fundamentalists in the name of “Allah”, Nigerian leaders made the usual noises.

Agbahime, who hailed from Imo State, and was a member of the Deeper Life Bible Church, was said to have prevented Muslims from performing ablution in front of her shop at Kofar Wambai Market in Kano, where she sold plastic wares.

Late Mrs. Bridget Agbahime 

The punishment for such a “crime” was death, in the opinion of her traducers, who promptly accused her of blasphemy and lynched her.

She was murdered at 74 by those young enough to be her grandchildren. Even her age could not act as a leash on their murderous impulse.

The market was preparing to close for the day’s business when the soulless characters carried out the gruesome murder. So, it was in broad daylight. Those around saw and knew the murderers.

The hideous characters didn’t wear masks. In their usual impunity, like the axiomatic son whose father sends him to steal, and who, therefore, kicks the door open with his foot, the religious bigots, didn’t care a hoot.

They knew that nothing had happened to their fellow blood-thirsty zealots who beheaded Gideon Akaluka in the same Kano and paraded the streets with his head hoisted on a spike with blood dripping on their hands.

Because the murderers were known, it was not a surprise when police headquarters in Abuja announced almost immediately that two suspects had been arrested, even as then Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, called for calm while assuring that justice would be done.

A statement issued by then Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Olabisi Kolawole said: “In order to ensure a diligent and professional investigation, [Arase] has directed the deputy inspector general of police in charge of the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (FCIID) to deploy the Homicide Section of the Department to immediately take over the investigation of the case and ensure a meticulous investigation and speedy prosecution of the arrested suspects.”

Judgment Day Comes For Homosexuals

By Tony Iwuoma

I have never hidden my distaste for homosexuals and lesbians. That God prescribes death sentence for this scurrilous conduct highlights how revolting and abominable it is. If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their blood guiltiness is upon them. (Leviticus 20:13)

However, in this libertine age of misconstrued grace, society has been overly tolerant of the evil. Even in the 17th century, New England and some American colonies adopted this biblical recommendation of death for homosexuals until 1786, after the Revolution, when man rebelled against God, with Pennsylvania in the lead by dropping the death penalty. Of more recent is the June 26, 2003 US Supreme Court ruling in the Lawrence versus Texas suit that annulled the Texas same sex sodomy law on the grounds that sex was covered by the liberty rights of the US constitution. Ever since, morality has taken a steep decline, even in traditional African societies and the church.

In a recent post, a young undergraduate of the University of Port Harcourt met a homosexual on the social media. He was sent N20, 000 to come to Lagos for sexual tryst. After the romp, somewhere in Ifako area, he was paid N150, 000. To his utter shock and amazement, soon after, he started developing multiple organs – five full-blown penises (the picture too repulsing to publish here). By this time though, his homosexual partner had vanished into thin air, leaving the young man in quandary.

Much as one is not rejoicing over this avoidable tragedy, it is timely warning for similarly inclined men and women to make a detour from the ignoble path of perdition lest greater calamity befalls them. The same message goes to the fallen Miss Anambra, whose disgusting video of sex act, using cucumber of all things was trending in social media and all same sex inclined perverts.

God still loves them though, both homosexuals and lesbians. But He hates their despicable conduct and unless they repent, they will surely perish. They may hide from man but not from God.  It is obvious that God seems to have taken up the task of enforcing His own laws, which no man can annul.

Donald Trump is the man of the moment for whom the impossible has happened. The much-hyped presidential election in the United States climaxed last Tuesday, posting a most unexpected result. The candidate of the Republican Party, Donald Trump, a billionaire business mogul, trounced the candidate of the Democratic Party, Hilary Clinton, former first lady, former senator, former secretary of state, and former this and that.

Trump was trailed by many controversies all the way from the primaries, including tax evasion and philandering with different women, some of whom openly accused him of groping them. But he braced all of the odds stoically and weathered the storm alone, even when leading lights in his party abandoned him. Trump was a one-man riot squad, who could even be described as an independent candidate though he contested on the Republican Party’s platform.

Between Buhari and Jonathan

By Ebere Wabara

I have a strong conviction that President Muhammadu Buhari is overwhelmed by the challenges he met on assumption of office and the novelty of fresh missteps by his administration. The country is just faltering and floundering like a ship without a compass. Its analogical equivalence is driving a vehicle with the driver’s eyes blindfolded. One thing is certain, if the veil is not swiftly removed, there is a very high certitude that the vehicle will crash and its occupants involved in ghastliness and fatalism!

*Jonathan and Buhari 

Issuing from the above and other deteriorations which I will explicate shortly, it would be justifiably correct to declare that President Buhari is irrefutably more clueless than his predecessor, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ)!

This government is spending precious time battling people who are not our immediate problems at all. If it is not Dasuki, the leadership of the National Assembly comes to the fore in a serial spectacle that offers comical relief. The vogue of course is Femi Fani-Kayode, the former Aviation Minister and media campaign arrowhead of GEJ in the last presidential election, and lately Dr. Reuben Abati, spokesman for ex-President GEJ. In all of their cases and other tangential ones, the stream had been obviously witch-hunt. All the justificatory rationalizations are like a mirage that you cannot behold in what is plainly a circus show that may serially run for the next two years.

Concerned Nigerians have also consistently expressed worry why the anti-corruption crusade should primarily, preferably exclusively, be targeted at only members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Again, the usual perfunctory elucidation by government functionaries is that it will soon get to the turn of the ruling party, the all Progressives Congress (APC). The whole thing looks like a charade.

Amid all these, the cost of living is not just spiraling but has gone out of description even by lexicographers and etymologists. It has never been so bad for my fellow countrymen. Not even in the choking days of the Structural Adjustment Programme and other belt-tightening measures of the past. What is going on now is like official strangulation of citizens! And because we are so timid, docile and indifferent to our environment and all matters that get thrown up in this part of the world, our so-called leaders (better still, rulers) capitalize on this citizenship weakness and drive roughshod with us. All of us keep hands akimbo and hope that there would be divine intervention soonest—even without helping ourselves!

The festering hardship and obnoxious cost of living are such that prices of basic items change virtually by the hour these days. You buy an essential product in the morning at a price that would have changed by noon and it goes on like that interminably. There are no official explanations, management of the bursting prices, cushioning programmes or anticipatory interventionist initiatives. Everyone is just carrying on as if we were in the time of King Pharoah a la to your tents oh Nigerians.