Natasha Akpoti: Heroine Of The Kogi Election

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

As I write now, I am not too sure that I will be able to readily remember the full name of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate – the major opposition contestant in the November 16, 2019 gubernatorial election in Kogi State. So, it should not be surprising that I probably wouldn’t have heard about Natasha Hadiza Akpoti, the intelligent and courageous young lady who flew the governorship flag of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in that election if some fellows in the state’s murky political scene did not choose to attract undue attention to the state by stretching their desperation and crude politics to unimaginable extremes in their determination to run Natasha out of the governorship contest. 

*Natasha Akpoti

Indeed, my interest in what happens in Kogi had been so badly depleted by the unedifying record of Gov Yahaya Bello whose most significant achievement in office appears to be his successful de-marketing of the very outstanding campaign undertaken by some young Nigerians to push for the greater participation of the younger generation in the leadership of this country. It is so demoralising that when anyone tries these days to applaud and strengthen the case of this laudable advocacy (whose delicious fruit was the signing into law of the Not-Too-Young-To-Run Bill by President Muhammadu Buhari on May 31, 2018), the predictable retort usually fired back at one is: what of Yahaya Bello, is he not a young man? What is the guarantee that other young people would not only replicate his dismal record if they assumed leadership positions? It is as bad as that. 

Refusing To Go To Afghanistan In Nigeria

By Banji Ojewale

In Nigeria, falling for Afghanistan’s sirens simply is when our newspaper columnists and writers focus their attention on far-flung foreign features while ignoring domestic hot-button issues beckoning them. When home matters of momentous concerns come up asking to be sorted out, or to be interrogated for a solution, the fatal feminine fellows in the form of foreign news upstage the burning national discourse and take our writers away.

The age of military rule in Nigeria gave birth to the concept of going to Afghanistan. The soldiers, upon seizing power which didn’t belong to them, would abrogate the fundamental rights and freedoms of the people, brutishly expressed in the suspension of the Constitution, with all the operational institutions the sacred document created: the elected executive, lawmaking assembly, political parties, popular organizations like labour and student unions etc. The martial lords were notorious for throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Nigeria: Endless Borrowing Will Lead To Endless Sorrowing

By Atiku Abubakar

John Quincy Adams once said “there are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.” He may have very well been referring to Nigeria of the last three years.

*Atiku and Buhari 

Barely two weeks ago, I warned during my Founder’s Day lecture at the American University of Nigeria, Yola, that Nigeria had taken almost as much foreign debt in the last three years, as she had taken in the thirty years before 2015 combined. Now that is frightening. And very true.

Frightening, not just because of the amount, but because after such unprecedented borrowing, we have emerged as the world headquarters for extreme poverty and the global capital for out of school children. It begs the question: what were the funds used for?

Third Term Agenda And The Buhari We Don’t Know

By Banji Ojewale

Some compatriots say we wouldn’t know the real man we have as our president until the chickens come home to roost in 2023. In that year, would President Muhammadu Buhari have removed the veil to succumb to the current sacrilegious clamour to go for a fatal tenure extension? Would he have given in to calls to trash the Constitution so he can walk on the slippery ground euphemistically termed third term? Would he be the Buhari of the wailers? Or of the hailers?

*Buhari 

In 2023, is Buhari going to remain the man we’ve always known as our beloved president? Or a stranger foisted on us? Would he be the bride we didn’t pay our dowry for? Would the husband discover he’d been shortchanged at the point where only God would be the Unseen and Silent Onlooker? Would there be a supplanter at work?