Will Bangladesh Be A Victim Of Chinese Debt Trap?

 By Hussain Shazzad

Bangladesh, the second highest recipient of China’s investment in South Asia after Pakistan, imports the highest volume of goods from China making it Bangladesh's largest trading partner. This is the beginning of the story where China offers Bangladesh financial assistance and development experience for its ‘big-ticket megaprojects’ to fulfill its vision-2041- a well-crafted dream to be a developed country. The overwhelming funding from China makes the critics pessimistic to ask a question, citing the example of Hambantota in Sri Lanka, “Is China trying to bait Bangladesh with its ‘debt-trap’ diplomacy?”

*Rural community in Bangladesh

‘Debt-Trap Diplomacy’, a widely used narrative against China, is thought to be originated from ‘infrastructure war’ between China and Western Allies. It's an apple of discord if China really has any ‘Machiavellian Strategy’ as Chinese projects in Bangladesh are too fragmented to achieve such cunning strategic objectives. Once ‘The Sleeping Giant’ now the ‘Second Economic Superpower’, China follows ‘socialist ideology’ in political affairs but adopts ‘open market policy’ with the name ‘market socialism’. The historical data demonstrates that China always has strong affiliation with South Asian countries because of the region’s ‘Big Bazar’. The geo-political eminence & commercial noteworthiness of Bangladesh has made China pay special heed to catch this money-making market.

Is Buhari Interested In Electoral Reforms?

 By Ray Ekpu

President Muhammadu Buhari fought for the presidential diadem with the tenacity of a war horse. He went into the field three times, campaigning in various parts of the country to become the president of Nigeria. Three times he failed but didn’t stop there. He took his fate into the hands of the courts as a true warrior. On all three occasions he had his grouses against the electoral system. Then the fourth time he got lucky.

*Buhari
The APC was sewn together from three or four disparate groups to form a formidable platform on which Buhari ran and won. Then, as President, he contested for the second term and won. In all, Buhari tested his popularity five times before the voters. He lost three times and won twice. Contesting for the presidency five times translates to a lot of experience on the electoral processes, the good, the bad and the ugly. No one in Nigeria has that level of election experience at that high level. 

Under Uzodimma, Imo State Has Gone To The Dogs

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Let me be clear from the onset. I am neither a fan of Senator Rochas Okorocha, former governor of Imo, nor his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, who he wanted to impose on the state as his successor. Okorocha knows that for a fact because I told him to his face in Owerri that he was a big disappointment to Ndi-Imo who preferred him to his predecessor, Ikedi Ohakim, in 2011.

Uzodinma and Okorocha 

I told Okorocha that if he didn’t mend his ways and provide the people the quality governance he promised while he was out on the hustings, history will be unkind to him. Of course, he ignored my unsolicited advice and doubled down on the shenanigans that became the hallmark of his administration. He capped the political tomfoolery with the attempted imposition of Nwosu. Uche Nwosu’s political ascendancy was tied to his filial relationship with Okorocha, whose first daughter, Uloma, he wedded on January 5, 2013 while he was serving as the commissioner for lands and survey.

Nigeria: Let’s Fight Insecurity The Same Way We Fought COVID-19 (1)

 By Magnus Onyibe

 In the very popular Bob Marley song: Redemption Song. The lyrics goes thus; “how long shall they kill our prophets while we stand aside and look? “

If you substitute the word ‘prophets’ for ‘masses’ in the music maestro’s scintillatingly and solemnly rendered lamentation song, he might have been singing about Nigeria of today, even though the music was sang and released in June 1980-some forty years ago.

*Buhari receiving Covid 19 vaccines  

And the reason the lyrics of the song would resonate in Nigeria today is owed to the reality of the fact that a similar circumstance of life at its most horrific level- slavery and colonialism that prompted Marley to sing his song of agony is here with us in Nigeria, the land of our birth which has been transformed into a killing field. Unlike white oppression that Marley was wailing about, the misery is not being brought upon us by external forces.

Nigeria: Again, The Triumph Of Selfish Politics

 By Dan Agbese

The discerning knew it would come to these: that the electoral act bill sent to President Muhammadu Buhari for his assent on which he sat for 30 days,  would once more come to grief; that the president who marketed himself to the electorate as the only Nigerian with the capacity to clean up the mess in all areas of our national life, would be persuaded again by his minions to refuse to rise to the critical challenges of democratic leadership and statesmanship and thus blow the chance to be the authentic change agent he promised in his many forays into our national politics. 

The bill raised hopes in all of us because it represented a fair attempt to pull up our nation from the marsh where we march on the same spot. We cannot in truth get our democracy right so long as we fail to get our electoral system right. Sadly, the hopes now lie shattered on the rocks of a half-hearted commitment by our political leaders to a government genuinely instituted by the electorate. Democracy rests on the strong peg of a transparent electoral system guided by laws made for the good governance of the polity and not on the whims and caprices of political leaders. A good law is not one that pleases the president; it is the law that makes for a better country by enhancing good governance; it is the law that strengthens the institutions of democracy; it is the law that treats as sacred the wishes of the people to be governed by the laws made by their representatives in parliament. 

The Niger Bridge Traffic Agony At Christmas

 By Luke Onyekakeyah

As the Christmas and New Year festivities draw near, millions of people will travel home to join their kits and kin to celebrate the occasion. Mass movement of people from the North and South-West to the South-East is a common feature of this season. Heavy vehicular traffic of goods and people is the norm. There is heightened fear and apprehension by millions of travellers to the South-East in particular, who must cross the now infamous Niger Bridge at Onitsha to reach their destination.

Harrowing tales of suffering, pain and anguish by travellers heading eastwards from the West at the bridge are commonplace. As a matter of fact, the Niger Bridge experience is like a nightmare at Christmas. While it may take a traveller about eight hours from Lagos to Asaba, at the height of the chaos, the same traveller may spend between five to eight hours before crossing the Niger Bridge from Asaba to Onitsha and vice versa. Over the passing week, some travellers from Lagos going to the South-East slept over at Onitsha due to the killer traffic jam at the head-bridge.

Nigeria: Political Class Is Eating Our Tomorrow!

  

*Senate President Lawan, President Buhari, Speaker Gbajabiamila

By Paul Odili

Society grows when leaders plant trees whose shade they may never sit under — Greek Proverb 

This tirade speaks for itself. The  political class in Nigeria has not demonstrated competence; it has no sense of national mission, ideology and, or commitment. It takes the people of Nigeria for granted. It assumes that the people can be bought and manipulated and that it has the tools of how to do this.

It has gotten away with great misplacement of goals because, so far, it has not been taught a lesson by the people, and has, therefore, become hubristic. In this regard, Nigerians are advised to regard with strong skepticism signs of intelligence, humility or piety by the political class. They are not to be trusted. 

Rape Has Federal Character In Nigeria!

 By Lillian Okenwa

“The phenomenon of rape is all over the country, being reported in all the 36 states including the Federal Capital Territory and the 774 Local Government Areas of the nation.” – Dr. Gloria Shajobi-Ibikunle

Fatima Usman could not take it anymore. The grossly traumatised 19-year-old said, her 52-year-old father, Usman Momoh, raped her at age 12 on the kitchen floor in the Owo area of Ondo State.

Fatima in a viral video accused her biological father of having sexual intercourse with her since she was 12 years old. She further disclosed that her father had been sleeping with her repeatedly while her mother did nothing even after reporting the horrific acts to her.

Fatima said, “He would always threaten to kill me while holding a knife if I ever tried to expose him. He normally wakes me up in the middle of the night in our room and takes me to the kitchen to have sex with me. He usually holds a knife during the process.”

Chief Akande Should Disclose The Source Of Funds For His Properties – Pa Ayo Adebanjo

 Press Statement By Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Leader Of Afenifere, In Response To The Allegation Made By Chief Bisi Akande In His Book, “MY PARTICIPATIONS” To The Effect That Chief Bola Tinubu Built My House In Lekki For Me, On Thursday, December 16, 2021…

At My House, Plot 25, Ayo Adebanjo Close, Off Adebayo Doherty Street, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos State.

Tinubu and Adebanjo

Gentlemen of the press,

About a week  ago, last Thursday, 7 December, to be exact, at the presentation of the book My Participations  by Chief Bisi Akande, it was said that Chief Bisi Akande stated in the book that I brought pressure on Bola Tinubu to build the house for me.

But since Bola Tinubu himself was present at the presentation, I expect him within a few days to refute such a malicious falsehood about me emanating from his Man Friday.

I hold this view because Bola Tinubu just some three years ago on the occasion of the presentation of my autobiography, Saying It As It Is,  said that but for my incorruptibility and strength of character he, Bola Tinubu, would not have been Governor of Lagos State in 1999.

Bullying In Hostels: The Sylvester Oromoni Tragedy

 By Hope O’Rukevbe Eghagha

Anyone who went through secondary school hostel/boarding house life knows that often, some seniors or some of the bigger boys or girls often bully the juniors. Yes, girls bully the junior girls too. Bullying comes in different forms – in form of depriving the junior ones of their own ‘provision’, extortion, psychological torture, and/or physical beating. There used to be the formal bullying, where all Form One students in the hostel went through what was dubiously called ‘fagging.

On that day, often at night, all the kids in Form One would be assembled in a hall and subjected to all forms of indignities, from bathing them with cold water in a cold weather, pouring food remnants on them, and beating them. After that ritual, they would now say ‘Your tail has been cut off.’ Sometimes, the young and the vulnerable ones continue to be bullied till they get to a senior class or till their tormentors leave the school. I don’t remember now whether that was how the notion of school father started, a senior student who would be one’s protector.

Book Review: How Not To Drown Where You Work

 Book: Managing Workplace Intrigues

Author: Omolola Oladimeji

Pagination: 155 Pages

Publishers: Book Spider, Lagos

Reviewer: Banji Ojewale

Visiting the seaside and looking beyond the shore far across the billows into the horizon isn’t enough to present the total nature of the ocean. The spectacle won’t reveal what’s beneath the great expanse. You may be awed by the waves going to and fro. You may marvel at the placidity of the sea as your eyes sweep over the length and breadth of this ancient formation. 

Living And Dying Young In Buhari’s Nigeria

 By Chidi Odinkalu

“If your country is torn apart by war; if the economy is in crisis and if health-care is non-existent, you are likely to be miserable.” Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, p. 34 (2016)

The end of the year is usually rich with delightful expectations for children and young people across the world. It offers a break from school to look forward to and lots of gifts to receive and exchange. It is not for nothing that it is also called a “season of goodwill”.

Prof Odinkalu 

For Nigeria’s young people in the age of Muhammadu Buhari, however, it is anything but. Mind you, this was the generation that, deliberately deprived of a sense of historical record and reckoning based on it, powered Buhari to an improbable political resurrection in 2015. Six years later, they are paying with their blood and lots of it. It doesn’t bear recounting but maybe it does.

Abolish The 1999 Constitution Of Nigeria

 By Babs Onabanjo

Peace will continue to elude Nigeria if the fraud in the 1999 constitution is not expunged forthwith. The Nigerian 1999 constitution has created a failed state and is at the point of no return according to the Council on Foreign Relations and the Harvard Kennedy School in the United States.

Long before this devastating assessment, I have written many articles warning about the potential crises of enormous proportions should the government ignore the signs and the call for restructuring through regional autonomy. I also stressed the urgent need to rewrite the constitution with the intent to address the fundamental issues regarding restructuring and the overbearing power and influence of the Federal Government.

The constitution with its exclusive list is counterproductive to development, growth and the ability of regions, states and local governments to function effectively. This is designed to slow down growth and development in order to create perpetual dependency on the Federal Government begging for crumbs and scraps thereby making it impossible for states or local governments to do what they can do for themselves.

Nigeria is now classified as a failed state unable to protect the citizens from internal conflict, violence Fulani jihadist incursion, Boko Haram insurgence and various groups demanding for self-determination and fast on the precipice of a total collapse.

The Nigerian 1999 constitution must be abolished and rewritten in line with the 1963 constitution which was suspended by the military coup of 1966. The current constitution was imposed by the military transition government with the intent to create a master-slave relationship between the centre and other branches of the government.

The constitution starts with a preamble – we the people – this is fraud and false. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stated that truth crushed to earth shall rise again. Until we fix the constitution from which our laws are derived, there can be no justice. Hence the freedom of the citizens to exercise their inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness will be nonexistent and impossible.

If Nigeria is to avoid disintegration, there is need to heed to the demand of the South and Middle Belt Peoples Sovereign Movement (SOMPSOM) that there should be no election in 2023 until the constitution is abolished and rewritten by the people using as a reference the 1963 constitution. Indeed, there can never be peace without a just constitution. Likewise, there can never be peace without justice. The law of the land is governed by the constitution and when the constitution is flawed the laws will be flawed because the laws are derived from the constitution. Therefore, by implication, the unjust laws become the laws of the land.

The youth were fed up with the status quo and decided to do something about it by demanding for change which is their fundamental rights in a civilised society. However, to the world’s surprise the government unleashed terror of unimaginable dimension on peaceful protesters holding Nigerian flags and singing the national anthem. A civilised government would enter into a dialogue with the youth to find a common ground and proffer solutions through negotiation and sincere means. However, the world witnessed the horror of our lives displayed on various platforms across the world. Young children were massacred in cold blood using live ammunition at close range by the government who ought to protect them.

There must be consequences for the barbaric act committed against humanity and confirmed by the panel set up to investigate what happened on October 20, 2020, at the Lekki tollgate.

Dr. King believes that non-violent strategies are means to advocate for issues by using the principles of nonviolence. We are committed more than ever to continue to train the youths with the strategies of nonviolent principles as a way of life. It is not without risk; however, nonviolent strategies are only for the courageous. It assumes that the arc of the universe bends towards justice and that the higher power is always at play. With faith all things are possible. The Soviet Union crumbled without a shot, Berlin wall came down without a shot, Apartheid in South Africa was brought down by the power and will of persuasion and struggle of ideas through Mandela and ANC.

The #EndSARS taught us a lesson that when people come together in unison and are committed to that which is just and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no turning back but victory. The #EndSARS will regroup, reorganize, identify potential saboteurs (government-sponsored), remove their influence, engage industries, companies, civic organisations, churches, mosques, people of a good conscience, artists, students, all and sundry to join in the struggle for freedom, good government, and justice across ethnic and religious differences.

Meanwhile, Nigerians in Diaspora must be ready and willing to support #EndSARS in the struggle to demand for good governance, freedom and justice. We must continue to demand the following:
1. Total compliance with and implementation of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS related Abuses and Other matters recommendations.

2. Imposition of visa ban on top officials of the Nigerian government and their family members.

3. Freezing of the assets of the top officials of the Nigerian government.

4. Funding of NGOs and activists who are committed to free speech and non-violence in Nigeria.

5. Granting of asylum to activists who are being victimised by the Nigerian government.

6. Monitoring current and future sales of weapons to Nigeria (there should be stoppage of further sales temporarily).

7. Charging the government of Nigeria with human rights violations and crimes against humanity.
*Prof. Onabanjo is president, Nigerian Alliance for Democracy (1993-1999) and president, AD King Foundation, USA.

Omicron: How Politics Infested A Virus

 By Dakuku Peterside

Containing the spread and impact of Covid-19 is a herculean task for Africa and African governments. It is even more challenging when western countries and their allies deliberately conspire to allow politics and economic nationalism instead of science to define global response to a virus that we know little about. Its origin, transmission and severity are still matters of contention among experts.

From the day South African medical scientists raised the alarm about discovering the Omicron variant of Covid-19, the western world came out in full force to display its racist diplomacy against Africa. Critical thinking and scientific inquiry were jettisoned, and the new variant was inappropriately dubbed the “African Covid-19”.

Ndigbo And Fallacy Of Power Not Served A La Carte

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Nigerians love clichés to bits. But if there is anything they love more than clichés, it is their penchant to determine the fate of Ndigbo based on pre-conceived notions. As the curtain is slowly but inexorably being drawn on the Muhammadu Buhari presidency and the political silly season is, once again, upon us, those two tendencies are manifest.

As 2023 beckons, the buzz phrase these days is the fallacy that power is not served a la carte. Interestingly, that banality is only voiced in reference to the legitimate clamour for a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction.

You often hear people speaking tongue-in-cheek that “power is taken and not given”, ostensibly latching onto Gloria Steinem’s phrase that “nobody gives you power; you have to grab it,” without putting it in context as Steinem, an American feminist journalist and social political activist, did.

School Cults As IncubatorsOf Violence

 By Adekunle Adekoya

Trending heavily in the media- new, traditional and social- is the death of 12-year-old Sylvester Oromoni, a student of Dowen College in Lekki, Lagos, last week, ostensibly from injuries sustained from beatings by a group of bullies, also students of the same school. Deaths are emotional occurrences for us humans, even when it is the death of an aged parent, talk less that of a teenager in whom much was being invested, with prospects of a bright life ahead.

In this instance, it is even more emotional, deeply troubling if you like, as it was revealed that the dead student had reported instances of bullying in the past, which elicited little or no reaction. The situation is worsened by the revelations of other parents, who suddenly started disclosing instances of bullying by their children, all after Oromoni’s death. Too little, too late.

Lekki Massacre Begins To Look Like Asaba Massacre

 By Tony Eluemunor

Give it time, and the Lekki Toll-Gate Massacre will assume the nature of the Asaba Massacre. Then, it will have no official mention but will live on in the memories of those directly affected. And like the Asaba Massacre, it could assume a life of its own, and refuse to die whether or not it received the Fed­eral Government’s confirmation.

Last October 10, I wrote in this column: “The Federal troops thun­dered into Asaba on the 5th Octo­ber 1967. The Biafrans had melted away as the immediate command­er, the late Col. Joe Achuzia (a son of Asaba), opted to retreat to Onit­sha as a lorry load of cutlass was all he was given to defend Asaba with. He blew up the Niger Bridge on the 5th. Then, the indiscrimi­nate killing started. It turned hor­rendous on the 6th and became fiendish on the 7th.

Beware! Soft Drinks Are Poison!

 By Maje Ayida

Several reports have labeled soft drinks as extremely harmful to your health and a lot of people are already aware of the dangers. But this doesn’t seem to affect the addiction people have, doesn’t stop the manufacturers flooding the market and certainly hasn’t stopped parents giving to their children.

On average we can consume up to 23 teaspoons of sugar per day, some consume more. It is important to understand that reduction in consumption is a necessity, not punishment. Many people know the dangers of too much sugar but fail to apply it to their lives.

State Judicial Panels Can Indict Military And Police Officers

 By Femi Falana

As a sequel to the #EndSARS protests last year, the National Economic Council advised all State Governments to institute judicial commissions of Enquiry to probe allegations of police brutality in the country. Based on the advice the Federal Government and 28 State Governors set up judicial commissions of inquiry to probe sundry allegations of police brutality under the applicable Tribunal of Inquiry Laws. However, a few lawyers deliberately set out to obfuscate the issues in a desperate attempt to cover up the massacre of unarmed protesters in Lagos, Rivers, Edo, Oyo and the Federal Capital Territory.

*Falana 

Notwithstanding that some of the lawyers had previously appeared in panels of enquiry set up by State Governors they turned round to question the constitutionality of the judicial commissions, albeit on a very shaky legal wicket. I was compelled to intervene by clarifying the state of the law on the unquestionable validity of the powers of the President and State Governors to institute administrative or judicial commissions of inquiry within their areas of jurisdictional competence under the current political dispensation. Thereafter, the Panels which had been set up by the State Governors commenced public sittings.

Nigeria: Script For A Final Looting Spree

 By Ochereome Nnanna

The Good Book says “by their fruits ye shall know them”. When you dress a person in borrowed robes just to show off, William Shakespeare (Macbeth Act 5, Scene 2) says it will be “(hanging) loose about him like a giant’s robe upon a dwarfish thief”. Before 2003, the Finance portfolio of the Nigerian economy had always been handled by men. After his frivolous first term, former President Olusegun Obasanjo decided to get serious in his second. Nigeria had a debt overhang of $32bn owed to the Paris Club alone.

*Buhari 

Obasanjo saw that his global gallivanting and begging for debt forgiveness was not cutting ice. He needed to do more than merely advertise his “beautiful” mug on the streets of Western capitals.