El-Rufai’s Wish For An ‘Islamic Republic Of Nigeria’

 By Olu Fasan

Mallam Nasir el-Rufai is an unrepentant religious bigot; a militant Islamic supremacist, who believes Islam is superior to Christianity and should be privileged in national leadership. He doesn’t just hold these views, he actively pursues them. As governor of Kaduna State for eight years, until May this year, El-Rufai ran an Islamic government, with a Muslim-controlled administration, despite the state’s large Christian population.

*El-Rufai 

Now, out of office, he prides himself on installing a successor on a Muslim-Muslim ticket, and entrenching Muslim dominance of Kaduna State governance. More significantly, El-Rufai boasts of foisting his Kaduna State Muslim-Muslim leadership model on Nigeria, and warns Nigerians to brace themselves for a prolonged Muslim leadership of this country

Campaigns Of Calumny Against Me Are Demarketing The Country –Peter Obi

“In the past few days, I have observed various campaigns of calumny directed at my person, with the latest being allegations attributed to the information Minister, Lai Mohammed from Washington DC.  

“It is most unfortunate that these consistent efforts to portray me quite contrary to what I am, and my core values, is coming from such high quarters. Minister Lai accusing me of stoking insurrection is totally malicious and fictitious. 

Should Indicted INEC Sit Over Her Judgement?

 By MC Asuzu

Without any iota of doubt, all Nigerians must know by now that the vast majority of the people in this country are no longer ready to go on with all the lies and deceptions that had gone on in this country for all these past years. 

*INEC Chair, Prof Yakubu 

And even that statement is to put it very mildly indeed. The only surprising thing about this emerging situation is that unlike in the past, the young people that dominate this revolutionary movement have apparently agreed not to be violent about it; no matter the provocation they get from the erstwhile political brigands in this regard.

Yakubu Mahmood’s INEC Fooled Nigerians

 By Charles Okoh

For a lot of Nigerians who had looked forward to using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) technology in the presidential and National Assembly elections of Saturday, February 25, it was a huge disappointment to see that that was not to be. Well, maybe, except for those who conspired to see that the device, which the INEC chairman Yakubu Mahmood and his team had touted as the game changer, did not work.

*Yakubu

The BVAS, it was expected, will help deepen our democracy by removing as much as possible human intervention in the process. Opportunities were provided by INEC for manipulation, thereby exposing to the world their insincerity. In the end it was a total waste of the time of the voter and the resources of a nation whose revenues have continued to dwindle.

Presidency: Why Nigerians Should Think Deeper Before Casting Their Votes

 By Emeka Alex Duru

Growing up, we were treated to a certain ghastly form of wrestling, referred to as cage fight, in which the competitors were herded into a chained ring and made to attack one another until a winner emerged. Watching the contest could be gory and not for the faint-hearted. Each wrestler was free to adopt any strategy, no matter how unconventional, to dismantle his opponent. It was usually catastrophic. Not even the eventual winner got out of the ring intact. Everyone lost in one way or another.

This summarizes the tortuous route the All Progressives Congress (APC) has taken Nigeria through in the last eight years as the ruling party. Like ardent con artists, chieftains of the party have driven the country down the slope in a manner of a car without brakes to the point of crashing it beyond repair.

Nuisance Around New Naira Notes

 By Ray Ekpu

When Mr Godwin Emefiele announced in October last year that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) would be redesigning the N200, N500, and N1000 notes many Nigerians might have thought that they would have an opportunity to touch clean naira notes. The truth is that the common people of Nigeria never have a glimpse at clean naira notes in Nigeria.

 Only the rich, the very rich, get to hold clean notes. They are also the ones who buy mint fresh notes for spraying at parties. The rest of us just lick our lips when the extravagant rich engage in that obscene vulgarity at weddings, birthdays, chieftaincy ceremonies. As they spray stylishly the notes drop on the floor and other eager sprayers march them as they take their turn to display their vanity.

2023: Last Chance To Save Nigeria

By Luke Onyekakeyah

Looking at the way things are going on in the run up to the 2023 general elections, it is abundantly clear that the 2023 general elections presents Nigeria with what could be the last chance, the last opportunity to save the country. It is now or never, going by the precarious situation the country is facing. This consciousness should pervade the whole nation.

Unfortunately, the professional politicians who have contributed in making the country a laughing stock, obviously, don’t seem to have learnt any lesson from the failures of the past or the abhorable state of affairs in Nigeria. All the fears and apprehension about a possible collapse of a ruined country do not resonate among the rich ruling class. Can 2023 bring remedy?

2023 Polls: Time To Take Back Our Country

 By Jude Obuseh

Come February 25, 2023, Nigerians will troop en masse to the polls to choose their next crop of leaders – President, Governors and Legislators – at the two levels of government – federal and state. 

For a country currently experiencing excruciating existential challenges that have pushed her to the precipice of implosion, the need for the election of credible, patriotic and altruistic leaders with the sagacity to arrest the country’s dwindling fortunes, cannot be overemphasized. The decisions Nigerians take at the polls on D-Day would be indicative of the direction they want their ship of state to sail in the foreseeable future. History beckons!

Letter To Chukwuma Soludo

 By Amanze Obi

I had thought that I would give you a little more time before inquiring into your stewardship as the governor of Anambra State. But your recent outburst about the Peter Obi presidential bid has dragged me out earlier than I wanted.

*Soludo

When your long quest for the governorship of Anambra State materialized in November, 2021, I was elated. I felt happy for you, for Anambra State and for Nigeria. I was particularly happy that the intellectual community to which I belong has got a breather through your emergence as governor.

You are certainly not the first intellectual to rise to an exalted governance position in Nigeria.

Why The Odds Favour Peter Obi

 By Dan Onwukwe

By the time the history of 2023 general elections is written, historians will record it that Mr. Peter Obi’s entry into the Presidential race on the platform of Labour Party was like a knight on a white horse. The excitement it has generated among Nigerians, especially the youths is unprecedented. 

*Obi 

And for those caught unawares by his emergence, it Obi’s emergence is like a fox entering into the chicken coop. Panic has encircled his opponents’ camp.  Moreover, history will record it for Obi, that indeed, there is so much one man with integrity and strength of character and competence can do to change the course of his people who desire a new pathway to politics and governance.

Full Text Of Peter Obi's CNN Interview With Zane Asher

 

Zane Asher: Mr. Obi thank you so much for being with us. You're certainly the most popular presidential candidate among young people in Nigeria, there's so much momentum behind you. But here's the problem. Nigerians are used to being disappointed by their leaders, and what do you think about some of the problems that are facing the country right now, they are systemic. I'm talking about the corruption, I'm talking about oil theft, I'm talking about insecurity, I'm talking about the fiscal hole that Nigeria is in right now. Can all of that really be solved by one person? 

Peter Obi: Well, if you have a leader that is competent, has the capacity and commitment to start dealing with these challenges, you're not going to solve it overnight, but there will be a clear, visible, measurable attempt to deal with these. And there is nothing that is not solvable. Some issues just have to be dealt with decisively. But you need to have a capable leader such that when you look at his past records in office, you can say YES – He is capable. 

Peter Obi Caught In The Act

 By Promise Adiele

In Ola Rotimi’s The Gods Are Not To Blame, as King Odewale informs his wife Ojuola that he caught Aderopo red-handed plotting evil against the throne, the reader is aghast with surprise. How could Aderopo, the Obidient and unassuming son of Ojuola plot evil against the throne? In the same manner, the Labour Party presidential flag bearer Mr. Peter Obi has been caught in the act doing something. Plotting evil against the throne? No!!! Come with me let’s find out what he was caught doing. 

*Peter Obi 

So far, events leading to the 2023 general elections in Nigeria indicate a paradigm shift in the country’s political evolution. The blind can see it. Mortar and pestle are aware too. What hitherto seemed impossible or unrealistic has become possible, an undeniable actuality that daily queries every empirical explanation. Suddenly, Nigerian youths have justifiably found their voices with a compelling need to be part of the political process in their country. 

Nigeria: Ethnic Profiling Not A Campaign Strategy

 By Amanze Obi

My friend and colleague, Segun Ayobolu, has joined the infamous clan of journalists and writers who are demonizing the Igbo on account of Bola Tinubu’s presidential aspiration. I find this regrettable, especially in the light of my belief that these gentlemen, as cosmopolitan as I thought they were, were incapable of this level of incivility.

*Peter Obi

But I know that Segun was conscripted and fed a lie. He must have been taken in by the antics of those for whom Igbophobia is a pleasurable pastime. I dare say that the views he expressed in his recent article on the Igbo and the Peter Obi presidency are hardly original to him. They are bits and pieces of prejudicial narratives on the Igbo hammered into shape by promoters of hate and purveyors of falsehood.

 

Like many others who have mischievously tied Obi’s presidential aspiration to his Igboness rather than his personality, Segun outlined many reasons why he is scared stiff of a possible Obi presidency. None of them, strictly speaking, is about Peter Obi. All of them border on Igbo stigmatization and jaundiced perception by many a non-Igbo Nigerian.

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.

Shettima, Where Did Buhari Stop?

 By Sonnie Ekwowusi

It is no longer news that Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu’s running mate in the 2023 Presidential Election, Kashim Shettima, has recently said that Nigeria needs a new President who would continue from where President Muhammadu Buhari stopped.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) party has woefully failed Nigeria in the last seven years and therefore should be voted out of power in 2023. Out of the abundance of the heart, we have been told, the mouth speaks.

*Shettima

How can Shettima be saying that we need a President who would continue from where President Buhari stopped. Where did Buhari stop, if I may ask Mr. Shettima? In festering corruption? Or, in insecurity? Or, in wooden-headed? Or, in cluelessness? Or, in imposing a corrupt and incompetent ex-Chief Justice of Nigeria on the country?
 
The most significant achievement of the Buhari government in the last seven years is to drag Nigeria into the membership of failed States.

Imagine the most populous and most richly endowed African country joining insignificant countries such as Somalia, Yemen, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, South Sudan and Myanmar as a full-fledged failed State. 

Peter Obi And His Supporters

 By Promise Adiele  

Femi Osofisan’s play Morountodun derives its historical substratum from the Agbekoya uprising of 1969 in the Western part of Nigeria. Popularly known as the ‘farmers’ revolt’, the incident occupies an iconic place in Marxist revolutionary ethos which is why many critics describe Osofisan as a helpless Marxist writer, an emblem he unsuccessfully tries to discard. 

*Peter Obi

In 1969, while the civil war was raging in the Eastern part of the country, illiterate, uninformed, uneducated farmers, without any political structure, took up arms and fought the government in Western Nigeria. Their pain was manifold but they bore it with equanimity. They lived through deprivation, government irresponsibility, official rascality, decayed infrastructure, and many other aberrant social conditions. 

But a time came when the farmers could not take the pains anymore, they revolted. The immediate cause of their revolt was the introduction of higher taxes which meant that they had to pay more. Throwing all cautions to the wind, they adopted a guerrilla approach, fought the government and overthrew the prevailing superstructure. In the end, the government was forced to the negotiating table. 

Peter Obi: I know Nigeria’s Problems, I Can Fix Them Easily!

 
*Obi

I can’t sleep because I know what to do! I have gone round the 36 states of the country like I have gone round 31 countries of the world, I know the problems of Nigeria and I know I can fix them easily! Because I can see them, I can fix them! 

Hunger takes people to the streets! Job and food will obviously take them out of the streets and crimes! That’s my specialty, creating jobs and wealth! I have not come out for myself! 

I have come out for the millions of youths that are losing hope in our beloved country! I have come out for the millions of women who are afraid of tomorrow and what it holds for them and their children! I have come out for the poor who are asking whether it’s a sin to be a Nigerian! For them, I have come! 

Who Says Peter Obi Is Not Adequately Prepared?

 By Tai Emeka Obasi 

One of the deep-rooted concerns of many people from the Southeast is that the zone has not really prepared adequately to wrestle power from the rest of Nigeria. Such protagonists of the debate point to MKO Abiola's style that eventually saw him changing the political history of Nigeria, which President Olusegun Obasanjo eventually benefitted from. 

*Peter Obi

Such opinions point convincingly to the fact that it took Abiola over 20 years of philanthropy and effectively proving he was a detribalised Nigerian by investing, employing and assisting Nigerians across zones, tribes and religion.  

The debate concluded that Abiola was so remarkably effective that when he contested for the presidency, he comfortably defeated a Northerner in the general election of June 12, 1993 - something thought impossible before his coming. And even that was achieved via a Muslim-Muslim ticket.  

Good arguments any reasonable mind should concede to. 

However, philanthropy is not the only way of getting prepared for the presidency of Nigeria. And any good strategist rarely repeats a trick.