Wednesday, August 31, 2022

Banditry, Kidnapping As Lucrative Business In Nigeria

 By Agunloye Bashiru

The failure and nonchalant attitude of the Federal Government of Nigeria on the incidents of kidnapping for ransom has made Nigerian families to resort to self-help to free their loved ones from the dens of kidnappers and bandits. 

*Kidnappers and their victims 

From 2021 to date, over 500 incidents of kidnappings were said to have been recorded with close to 4,000 Nigerians and some foreign citizens abducted across Nigeria, while some unreported cases were unknown due to the nature of Nigeria when it comes to proper data documentation.

While all these incidents of kidnappings and abductions were happening across the country, the Nigerian government left the victims in the hands of these unrepentant and inhuman gangs. 

From July 2021 to August 2022, over one billion Naira was reported to have been paid by Nigerians to freed victims of kidnappings and abductions. In July 2021, the sum of N250 million was paid by Nigeria Baptist Convention as ransom to the bandits that kidnapped 140 students from the Bethel Baptist College, Damishi, Kaduna State. In July 2022 alone, eight Nigerian abducted persons parted with N800 million while a kidnapped Pakistani national paid the sum of N200 million as ransom to kidnappers. 

Is It The End Of Nigeria’s Aviation Sector?

 By Dele Sobowale

 “All things do help an unhappy man to fall.” 

— William Shakespeare, 1564-1616, Vanguard Book of Quotations, VBQ, P.257

Regular readers of this page know that I am one of the few Nigerians still passionate about Nigeria Air – the national airline. For me, it is simply an acid test of our ability as a nation to manage any complex enterprise. The success of Ethiopian Airlines should be sufficient for us to try once again. The lure of foreign exchange revenue should constitute an extra dividend. But, as time is running out on the Buhari administration, what was an uphill task is now becoming a mission impossible.

Worst Disaster

“Aviation crisis: We’re currently engaging CBN, others on blocked $600m funds – Lai Mohammed. Report, August 23, 2022.

Two things I learnt from personal experience, at the university and former jobs are pertinent here. To persuade  foreign airlines threatening to leave Nigeria, we need credible communications. From a course on communications in Business School, it was drummed into my head that the messenger is as important as the message. The message itself must be credible. When the messenger and the message lack credibility, the crisis is made worse.

With $600m funds belonging to foreign airlines, the worst government spokesman to address the issue is Lai Mohammed. One of my friends in an embassy was the first to let me know that they monitor activities on our social media platforms 24/7. They are aware that Lai Mohammed lacks credibility among Nigerians. He is also not well regarded in diplomatic circles. The announcement by Lai Mohammed, contrary to what the Federal Government expects, will most probably be dismissed as false by all airlines affected. In fact, it would have been better to say nothing than to send a messenger regarded as untruthful.

Abuja’s Priorities Are Beyond ASUU’s Demands

 By Rotimi Fasan

The Federal Government through the Central Bank last week released $265 million to airline companies operating in the country. These are mostly businesses owned by foreigners. The aviation industry like most other sectors of the economy has been going through a very rough patch in the last few months. There had been a lot of hue and cry about the scarcity of aviation fuel which mostly affected local airlines.

*ASUU Leaders and the Federal Government Team 

But the scarcity of foreign exchange has translated into bad business for the major airline companies that have not been able to repatriate profits that are trapped in naira in local banks. After weeks of lamentation without any improvement in their situation, a number of them, including British Airways and Emirates, had taken the hard decision to halt their operations in the country beginning from the end of August 2022. 

The decision of these airline companies, should it come into effect, would amount to a virtual lockdown of the international routes of the Nigerian aviation sector. For a country that lacks a national carrier, this would be disastrous. As footloose as Nigerians, especially the elite, tend to be, it is both ironic and scandalous that they rely almost exclusively on foreigners for their international junketing. Yet our airports display some of the most exotic private jets, not one of them can be repaired or maintained locally, that are left idle while incurring avoidable debts on airport tarmacs and hangers. 

Learning About Ndi Igbo

 By Patrick Dele Cole

(Book by Agunze Chib Ikokwu Foundation)

One thing is clear about the Igbos, by whatever standards there are, they are a remarkable people, strong in will, great in achievement, and undeterred by difficulties.

What is it that has produced these remarkable people? What keeps them going? How do people enhance their self-awareness even amidst open hostility, jealousy and outright discrimination? It would seem as if the harder the other people in Nigeria beat them, and discriminate against them, the more successful they become.

This book gives a peep into the complexity of what makes the Igbo character. It starts from a very simple assumption, that education is a key component of development. Education fosters tolerance, but it may also foster bigotry, and when you take people eager to be educated, eager to change their positions in life, eager to find the world, to leave the world a better place than they found it, that inspires.

Tuesday, August 30, 2022

Buhari Unwinnable Anti-Media War

 By Emmanuel Onwubiko

''Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter''   --Thomas Jefferson

''Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost''

 --Thomas Jefferson.


*Buhari 

The history of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration won’t certainly be complete without a detailed mention of his contrived but well sustained war against media freedoms. The cantankerous relationship between the Present federal administration in Nigeria with the media is a direct reflection of the kind of opaque government that is in place which substantially is devoid of transparency, accountability and integrity.

But this situation is diametrically opposed to what should be expected from a nation that has consistently practiced constitutional democracy for well over twenty years at a stretch after about four decades of military subjugation of the democratic forces under the whims and caprices of the barrels of the guns.

How The Rich Deny The Poor Power To Develop

 By Bjorn Lomborg

The rich world’s fossil fuel hypocrisy is on full display in its response to the global energy crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While the wealthy G7 countries admonish the world’s poor to use only renewables because of climate concerns, Europe and the United States are going begging for Arab nations to expand oil production. Germany is reopening coal power plants, while Spain and Italy are ramping up African gas production. So many European countries have asked Botswana to mine more coal that the country will have to triple its exports.

A single person in the rich world uses more fossil fuel energy than all the energy available to 23 poor Africans. The rich world became wealthy by massively exploiting fossil fuels, which today provide more than three-quarters of its energy. Solar and wind deliver less than three per cent of the rich world’s energy.

Yet, the rich are choking off funding for any new fossil fuels in the developing world. Most of the world’s poorest four billion people have no meaningful energy access, so the rich blithely tell them to ‘leapfrog’ from no energy to a green nirvana of solar panels and wind turbines.

Monday, August 29, 2022

On This ASUU Matter

 By Obi Nwakanma

I was at the University of Nigeria in February to give the keynote to a conference jointly organized by Nsukka’s Institute of African Studies and the Harris Center of the University of Chicago. I remember the gaunt listlessness of the campus, because I arrived there the very day the ASUU strike began. But there was something else beneath the palimpsest of dust that covered the campus of Nsukka. It was decay that felt like a settled crust on the campus of Nigeria’s premier university. 

*ASUU leaders in a meeting 

I felt an out of body experience because I am a product of the Nigerian universities of the 1980s. The University of Jos of the 1980s, for instance, still had its Country-Club atmosphere in those years. It was what you might call a “party school.” But serious business went on there. The students were competitively selected for admissions; it was a very diverse group of students, including the presence of international students. Its faculty was equally diverse and international. Conduct and activities on campus was still cultured and mannered. University faculty still had their dignity, and carried themselves with dignified purpose.

Saturday, August 27, 2022

Babangida And Recent Nigerian History

 By Dan Amor

To live on this sinful earth for 80 years (whether it is original or official age) is no mean achievement, especially in these terrible times when conditions have sapped real life out of comparative existence leaving the average lifespan of a Nigerian at just 55. 

*Babangida

But here is General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (retd.) celebrating 80 years with pomp and pageantry in the midst of family members, friends, associates, former colleagues and country men and women. Since Tuesday August 17, his date of birth, Nigerians from all walks of life have paid tributes to this former military President, from varied perspectives. 

As Fashola Delivers ‘TheNiche’ Lecture


When the newspaper came on board in April 2014, the editorial policy captured its mission: “TheNiche will always anchor its position on the need for social justice, fairness and respect for human and communal rights … will be uncompromising against any form of discrimination and subjugation either by tribe, gender or religion.”

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

On Thursday, September 8, 2022, former Lagos State Governor and Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, will deliver the 2022 edition of TheNiche Annual Lecture at the MUSON Centre, Onikan Lagos.

Getting the minister to deliver the lecture is by no means a walk in the park. We didn’t expect it would be considering the fact that as a hands-on minister traversing the length and breadth of the country, ensuring that projects under the purview of his ministry are delivered timeously, time will always be a challenge.

But the theme of the lecture – 2023 Elections And The Future Of Nigeria’s Democracy – did the magic. Fashola is not only cerebral, he is an unrepentant democrat, always seeking ways of deepening Nigeria’s democracy, which is still fledgling at 23. The lecture provides him an opportunity to live his passion.

Friday, August 26, 2022

Nigeria: Issues In The Campaigns

 By Obi Nwakanma

The election season geared towards electing a new president for Nigeria is now upon us. In about two weeks, according to the rules of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), the official bar on campaigns will be lifted, the whistle will then blow for the parties now currently on their marks, to take off. This campaign season is more a mile race than a dash. For those who do long distance races, they understand that they must pace themselves: know when to conserve energy, keep an even pace and stay in the race, do not lag, pick up speed towards the final laps, and end with a blinding finish.

No one runs the Mile race as though they were doing the 100 Meters dash. Sprinters, especially very experienced ones, learn very quickly, the strength of their opponents, their speech, and most importantly, how to bank against the direction of the wind, or sail with it.

The coming political campaigns remind me of Stanley Ngwaba, that elegant stallion on the tracks, do the 400 meters race on the “Lower Fields,” at the Government College Umuahia, to win the Victor Ludorum during the Inter House Sports Competition.

Corruption And Nigerian History

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

There is talk here and there of bringing back History with a capital “H” in the Nigerian school curriculum. It is cool by me to do a short history course with the ruling party, APC, and President Muhammadu Buhari. Necessary lessons need to be learnt before the elections that will lead into the next dispensation of Nigeria’s much touted democracy.

To start back in time, Nigeria’s first coup as arranged by Emmanuel Arinze Ifeajuna, Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, Adewale Ademoyega etc. did raise the issue of corruption as a major prong of why they struck to sack the First Republic. The entire coup attempt got mired in the corruption of ethnic politics until there was the bloodier counter-coup in which they revenge squad wanted secession, code-named “araba”, until the British colonial masters advised against herding into arid nothingness. 

Thursday, August 25, 2022

Is The Judiciary Beyond Redemption?

 By Sonnie Ekwowusi

To affirm that the judiciary is corrupt is an understatement. The judiciary is not just corrupt; the men and women entrusted with the affairs of the judiciary are suffering from a huge character deficit. It is painful that our judiciary has been constituted into an object of derision by the very people who should labour to maintain its prestige.

The level of official corruption and moral degeneracy at both the Bar and the Bench is alarming. It seems as if the judiciary is beyond redemption. 

While the Bench sickens for lack of moral renaissance, the Bar fairs no better. Regrettably, many members of the Bar lack the lowest common denominator of acceptable character. 

As regards the judiciary workers often loosely referred to as the judicial personnel-court bailiffs, Chief Registrars, Assistant Chief Registrars (ACR), court clerks, court messengers, court cashiers, court stenographers and so forth- their lives are ruled and governed by the civil service bureaucratic extortion.  

Nigeria: When Stinginess Becomes A Virtue

 By Hudson Ororho

In  our first year in secondary school at St. Peter Claver College, Aghalokpe, Delta State, we read a book, under the watchful eyes of our Priest/Principal, Rev. Fr. Jeremiah Cadogan, SMA, titled: Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. If my recollection has not failed me, the book has two principal characters:  Scrooge and Manley. They were business partners.

*Obi

In the story, not much was said about Manley save that he was a good man. Scrooge, on the other hand was described as a mean and miserly fellow. He would give shishi to no one. He does not even respond to the Merry Christmas greetings from the locals, describing same as sheer humbug. He was even stingy to himself as he would not enjoy the traditional Christmas turkey. The locals despised him. In retrospect, I wonder if he ever wore a St. Michaels label or a Marks and Spencer shoes.

2023 Elections And Future Of Nigeria’s Democracy

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

The 2023 elections will be consequential. Though six months away and campaigns yet to be officially flagged off, politicians are already crisscrossing the length and breadth of the country, shadowboxing their way through all manner of policy disputes. They are making a show of tackling the myriad problems the post-Buhari era will present, while avoiding any direct engagement with opponents.

The elections will be consequential because Nigeria is at a crossroads, haunted by demons many thought had been long exorcised. Seven years of the Muhammadu Buhari presidency has brought out the worst in Nigerians. Ironically, while this self-inflicted leadership crisis and the uprising it has engendered is bringing out the beast in us, as the late Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, noted in his epic song, “Beast of No Nation”, it has also re-ignited the hitherto dimming Nigeria’s democracy candle light.

Why ASUU Strike Is For Benefit Of The Poor, Needy

 By Jeff Doki

For many years, the ideological nature of political struggle in Nigeria has been systematically suppressed by the press. When Nigeria politics is written about, it is in misleadingly crude terms of power struggles between political parties—usually the All Progressives Congress, Peoples Democratic Party and (very recently) the Labour Party. Or sometimes, the reportage is about individual personalities—Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi—or the economic problems (hunger, poverty, disease, joblessness, soaring energy prices and lack of access to quality education, among others) supposedly caused by poor leadership.


As a matter of fact, such strands of politics, reported by the Nigerian media, are mere subplots in the battle between a backwards-looking regime, erected on the structures of shameful revisionism,  corruption, denial of truth and unpatriotic divisiveness on the one hand, and the nationalists and intellectual workers headed by Academic Staff Union of Universities on the other. It is important to state from the outset that this latter group (led by ASUU) is acting as a check on the increasing gross inequality between the bourgeoisie and the 90% of the Nigerian population who are peasants and urban workers.

Wednesday, August 24, 2022

African Union And WHO Urge Swift Action Against Childhood Tuberculosis

 
The African Union and the World Health Organization (WHO) today called for immediate and comprehensive measures to end the significant toll of tuberculosis among children in Africa. The appeal was made jointly with the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) and the Stop TB Partnership on the side-lines of the Seventy-second session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa in Lomé, Togo.

Nigeria: How Drug Lords May Influence 2023 Poll

 

By Emmanuel Onwubiko

I was in deep conversations with stakeholders in the organised civil Rights community in the Country on the revelation that was made by the then Anambra State’s governor-elect Professor Chukwuma Soludo shortly after he emerged as the successor in office of the immediate past Chief executive of that state that drug barons have captured political powers in Nigeria.

The erudite Professor of Banking and Finance then proceeded at length to offer profound exposition of his claim. As we progress we will cite his assertion in full.

It was in that same period that the Chief executive officer of the National Drugs Laws Enforcement Agency, Brigadier General Mohammed Buba Marwa, hinted that the agency may conduct drug tests on politicians aspiring for political offices.

Nurturing Creativity In Young Learners Is Crucial In Today’s Changing World

By Abigail Barnett

The United Nations have designated 2021 as the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development. Around the world, partly due to the pandemic, people are drawing on their creativity like never before to find innovative, creative solutions to the problems and challenges we face.

Creative skills are always in demand, and this applies to many sectors and careers across the globe, including in the fields of research, computing and the performing arts. A study by the UK's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (2021) shows that employment in creative industries is growing at four times the rate of the UK workforce.

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Liberian Women Subjected To Modern-Day Slavery!

 ...The Danger Of Human Trafficking

By Rufus Dio Neufville

Why are some people so wicked? Why do they keep others in bondage? Are they not aware of the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons? These questions are tailored to put into context the abuse of Liberian women in the Republic of Oman. They were deceived or coerced into modern-day slavery by human traffickers who created the illusion of prosperity on the coast of the Arabian Peninsula – thousands of miles from West Africa.

Human trafficking is extremely abusive. It takes away a person’s autonomy or right to self-determination. The victim becomes the “personal property” of the trafficker. The United Nations defines Trafficking in persons as: “The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation”.

2023: Nigeria Can’t Afford Another Lame Duck Commander-in-Chief!

 By Gbadebo Adeyeye

One thing is certain: we cannot learn anything new from a dope; and those politicians who believe that democracy is nothing but exploitation, are no better. That is why Abraham Lincoln warned, decades ago, that humanity should “beware of rashness; but with energy and sleepless vigilance, go forward and give us victory.”

*Prof Yakubu, INEC Chair

To many of us, we can say categorically that there is no strong assurance of achieving any political victory in our country unless Nigerians join hands together in 2023 to choose someone who is highly qualified for the office in which wisdom, intelligence, good character, and guts are the requirements.

The reason is simple. In times like this, nothing is more important to hardworking Nigerians than a government that can defend its defenders and protect its protectors! It is true that a leader may not be able to solve all the problems of the future but he must be able to solve the problems of his generation. Failure to do that is a failure in the journey of life.

The Trouble With Our Political Parties

 By Nick Dazang

Nigeria’s 18 political parties are the pre-eminent and foremost stakeholders in the electoral process. They are the chief beneficiaries of elections in that they field candidates and contest for elective offices.

Nigeria’s political parties, to some extent, meet the classical definition of political parties. They are organised largely by people who think alike. They contest elections and field candidates. They approximate to special purpose vehicles and platforms for recruiting leaders who then proceed to contest elections. They canvass certain platforms and programmes. And they provide the voter with a number of candidates from which to choose.

Thursday, August 18, 2022

2023 Places Extraordinary Responsibility On Ordinary Nigerians

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

The 2023 elections are still six months away but the polity is already heated up. Expectedly, governance at all levels has stopped and the resources of the Nigerian state have been cornered by those in the corridors of power, as of right, to prosecute the electoral battle. 


That is what is called “structure” in local political parlance. That also explains why the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, will remind anyone that cares to listen that with 22 state governors, the 2023 presidential election is already in the kitty.

What the chieftains of the party are saying is that having captured the resources of 22 states, they already have an enviable war chest for the battle.

Nigeria: Pains Of Misgovernance Have No Tribal Marks!

 By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

Many Nigerians are stuck with zero experience of what it means to live in a decently run society. Laden with a long history of mostly inept, insensitive and less-than patriotic leaders, it seems abnormal to expect any bit of improvement in their daily existence from the government. Massive infrastructural decay and regular reports of primitive accumulations of illicit wealth by light-fingered public officers have since lost their capacities to shock.

*Peter Obi

In fact, most people have since adjusted their lives to perennially absorb the vicious impacts of these debilitating vices. They only extract some bit of cold comfort from continually reassuring themselves that they are in such a hopeless and helpless situation where these excruciating fallouts of leadership failure will remain the resilient, inseparable companions they are condemned to perpetually coexist with – which will always be there to hurt their country and diminish their joy, peace and fulfillment.  

Those who lack the resources to obtain some form of alleviations resign themselves to fate hoping that they would be able to sustain the capacity to continue enduring these searing rewards of successive wayward and rudderless leaderships – which will remain their perpetual sources of torments.

Even the Nigerians who reside in well-ordered societies, where leaders are accountable and basic amenities are meticulously provided and maintained, once they touch down on Nigerian soil automatically adjust their minds to endure the excruciating realities of life in Nigeria. They only derive some consolation from the fact that they would soon jet out again to where sanity and orderly existence are taken for granted.

Muslim-Muslim Ticket: The Shortest Distance Between Nigeria And Islamic Caliphate

 By Hamilton Odunze

When Bola Ahmed Tinubu chose to run on a Muslim-Muslim ticket, he set Nigeria on the shortest distance to becoming an Islamic Caliphate. But unfortunately, a Tinubu win would put Nigeria on a slippery slope; no one can predict where the country’s religious balance would rest.

APC chairman, Adamu, vice presidential candidate, Shettima and presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu  

And if you thought that palpable ethnic, religious and economic tensions would compel Tinubu to be thoughtful and mindful of his choices. In that case, you are as far away from reality as possible. Instead, Tinubu looks more like a man auditioning for another title in bravery. Therefore, he throws caution to the wind this time and does not care what image of Nigeria the world sees.

When Tinubu decided to run on a Muslim-Muslim ticket, he signaled that his race for Nigeria’s presidency is not about 50 per cent of Nigerians who profess the Christian faith. He also signaled that his race is not about an inclusive Nigeria, and it is not even about democracy. If it is about democracy, he will make choices that bring Nigerians together. Instead, he further divided Nigerians for political gain and his ambition to be president.

Tuesday, August 16, 2022

Corruption And The Failure Of The Nigerian State

 By Sam Amadi 

"It was a big deal that the VP attended a local hospital to have a low-risk surgery" 

It is official. Nigeria has been caught in a fiscal trap. In the second quarter of 2022, the country spent all its revenue and borrowed more to service its debt. This means that Nigeria is broke, even if its Debt-to-GDP ratio is still within ‘prudential’ level. 

*Amadi

But Nigeria is a country that is blessed with abundant natural resources. It is a country that has earned hundreds of billions of dollars from oil exports but has no good hospitals, nevertheless. The Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, had a minor surgery in a Nigerian hospital, and it was a heroic deed that elicited praise and celebration. That is how bad healthcare is in the country. All Nigerian notables attend foreign hospitals for even the most routine checkup. So, it was a big deal that the VP attended a local hospital to have a low-risk surgery.   

Is Buhari A Nigerian?

 By Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa

The President of any country is the number one citizen of that nation, all things being equal. He is first amongst equals, being the one that all other citizens look up to for leadership and direction. The President is the first ambassador of the nation and so the rest of the world views the country through the President. It is no wonder therefore that most laws defining the qualifications of those who aspire to the office of the President have a major requirement that the aspirant must be a citizen of the country; he must carry the life and blood of the nation, which would be the engine of the patriotism that he takes with him to that exalted office.

*Buhari 

You can imagine the embarrassment it will cause any nation to discover that its President is a foreigner! In Nigeria, under and by virtue of section 131 (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), ‘a person shall be qualified for election to the office of President if (a) he is a citizen of Nigeria by birth’. It is therefore an anathema for anyone to aspire to be elected as the President of Nigeria when he is not a Nigerian citizen through the bloodline.

The Constitution is deliberate in putting emphasis on the phrase ‘a citizen of Nigeria by birth’. In other words, Nigeria must run in the blood of the President and not just any type of citizenship. This is so because by virtue of section 26 of the Constitution, you can become a Nigerian citizen other than by birth, through registration or naturalization, but this category of citizens cannot aspire to lead Nigeria as its President. So, if it can be proved that anyone occupying the position of President of Nigeria is not a citizen of Nigeria by birth, then his presidency can be queried.

Peter Obi As Object Of Sponsored Attacks!

 By Emeka Alex Duru

There seems to be the tendency by other political parties and their presidential candidates, of leaving the burning issues in the land and focusing on Peter Obi, the standard bearer of the Labour Party, LP. This is usually the case when these other candidates or their supporters grant television or newspaper interviews. As if these are not enough, they have flooded the internet and other social media networks with hired hands, whose briefs are to attack and bruise the image of Obi. Foot soldiers of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, are the most visible in this cheap exercise.

*Obi 

In doing this, there is nothing being spared, including Obi’s family and his private life. They go to the extent of creating fictitious accounts on the social media, cloning identities of his supporters and making frivolous assertions to mislead the public to believing that such poor outings are from Obi. Among these puerile attempts was the alleged letter from the Ghanaian President, Nana Akufo-Addo, purportedly asking Tinubu, to support Peter Obi and take care of his health. The aim was to pitch Obi against the Ghanaian President and his country.

Obi’s media team has, however, punctured the move by explaining that any publication from his group is always properly signed and the origin very clearly spelt out.

Monday, August 15, 2022

Bestriding the Ethnic Politics: A Case Of Peter Obi

 By Ndubuisi Nwafor

“This dimension of our identity politics is frightening, but it’s not an unusual experience” – Gimba Kakanda, Daily Trust, 9 August, 2022

Nigeria’s political, social, cultural, economic and religious space is currently awash and agog with political activities. Such activities include ethnic, ageist, and other toxic innuendoes with the propensity to scuttle the very existence of our dear country Nigeria.

*Peter Obi 

The history of Nigeria’s power transitions may have assumed a parabola tangent, ranging from elections, coups and even appointments as was the case with transition from IBB to Chief Ernest Shonekan, but in all, good fortune and electoral popularity played major roles.

The argument that South East has been displaced politically in the power equation of Nigeria is an honest and painful truth, however, this situation is both self-inflicted and also as a result of festering fear of Igbo domination in the contemporary Nigeria.

Interrogating Buhari Through The Prism Of Gen Bamaiyi

 By Tunde Olusunle

Except for the release and launch of his controversial book, Vindication of a General in 2017, which accorded him some media visibility, Ishaya Rizi Bamaiyi, has maintained a very low profile over the years. For those who do not know, or who have forgotten him, Bamaiyi, a lieutenant general, was the last Chief of Army Staff, (COAS), under the rulership of Sani Abacha, Nigeria’s one time Head of State.

*Bamaiyi

Abacha was in office between November 1993 and June 1998. Bamaiyi spent eight years, in the aftermath of the enthronement of civil rule in 1999, in prison. He was supposedly implicated in the attempted murder of Alex Ibru, founder and publisher of The Guardian newspapers who also served as Minister of Internal Affairs, under Abacha.

Ibru who allowed professional independence for his newspaper stable under Abacha’s unpopular fistic rule, was shot on Falomo Bridge in Lagos early February 1996, by suspected agents of state. Principal suspect in the attempted Ibru murder case, Barnabas Jabila, known by the alias “Sergeant Rogers” a notorious hitman for the Abacha killer squad, had framed Bamaiyi for ordering the annihilation of the newspaper magnate.

Nigeria: Is This How To Run A Government?


By Dele Sobowale 

“First of all, don’t forget that there are local and global financial markets. What is their job? It is to lend money. If you don’t borrow those people are going to lose their jobs.” –  Fashola  Minister of  Works and  Housing,  Report, July  31, 2022.

I had to check four times to be sure that the person being interviewed was our former Governor of Lagos State.  He was once  everybody’s favourite Governor in Nigeria. Most people were not sound enough in economics to realise that he also had far more money to spend than any other Governor.

It would have been interesting to find out how really good he was if he was Governor of Nasarawa or Taraba State.  He is now Minister of Works and Housing  –  before he was also Minister of Power. Now, he has no financial advantage over other Ministers;  so  we can judge.