Nigeria: A Council Of Chaos…And A Questionable Vote Of Confidence

 By Obi Nwakanma

A few weeks ago, newspapers in Nigeria reported that the National Council of State met, and the current president, Mr. Bola Tinubu, chaired it. For starters, I’m still unable to reconcile with the fact that a man of the quality of Tinubu would sit on a seat on which the giant Azikiwe sat. It is a travesty. Think about it dear country men, and you will see the incongruity; the tragic slide in our station as a people and as a nation. That picture alone tells us about the real tragedy of Nigeria. 

*Council of State Members during one of their meetings 

The quality of national leadership; the quality of aspiration; the quality of insight; the quality of presence and carriage; the depth of preparation – one a thoroughbred all-rounder that embodied the highest human ideals which nature stupendously endowed in one body, and the other with a very uncertain past. I’m ahead of myself. But it gets much worse. Take a look at those who came to the Council of State meeting. You would see the picture of Nigeria and why it has failed as a nation.

Will Buhari Ever Face The Truth About His Govt?

 By Dele Sobowale

“But, the fact in our favour is that nothing was done under the veil of secrecy. We were as transparent and accountable as possible, being aware of the fact that posterity was the ultimate judge” – Ex-President Buhari at the launching of the books chronicling the purported achievements of his administration.

*Femi Adesina and Buhari display the book on Buhari 

I have not read the books; and for two reasons. One, I was not aware they were coming out until the news reports about the launching. Two, I have my own project requiring a lot of money. Reading a book predictably self-serving about the Buhari government is not top on my list of priorities. However, if anybody is willing to donate a set, then I promise, on my word of honour, to read the entire thing – line by line. After that, I will write a rejoinder – for the sake of posterity.

Nigeria: From Buharisation To Tinubuisation

 By Ochereome Nnanna

When a woman marries twice, she is better placed to know which husband treated her better. As a country, Nigeria has married two husbands since 1999: the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the All Progressives Congress, APC. No doubt, we experienced a far better Nigeria under the PDP than the APC. This claim has nothing to do with partisanship. Whatever evil the PDP committed, the APC regimes have multiplied them tenfold and added fresh, vile inventions of their own.

*Buhari and Tinubu 

The PDP was founded by political leaders who tried to use the outcomes of the Abacha Constitutional Conference to build an improved democracy and governance system. The PDP was built on the foundation of equitable power sharing and rotation, as well as the Federal Character Principle enshrined in Section 14(3) of the 1999 Constitution, as agreed at the Conference.

Urban Legend And Durable Insecurity In South-East Nigeria

 By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

On July 17, 2012, Peter Obi, then Governor of Anambra State, swore in five new commissioners. One of them was Chike Okoli, whom he assigned to the Ministry of Science and Technology where he would serve as commissioner until the expiration of Mr. Obi’s governorship tenure in March 2014. Two months later, around May 21, 2014, Chike set out from the state capital in Awka to Nanka, his village in Orumba South Local Government Area (LGA) of the state. He never got there.

Somewhere in Agulu, not far from Nanka, Chike’s car was reportedly intercepted by men in a Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV), who abducted him. Despite having much of their ransom demand of N16 million met, Chike has not been seen or heard from since then. It was widely reported at the time that Chike was “abducted by unknown gunmen.”

The First Fruits Of A Crooked INEC

 By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

Evidence of the scope of the mess created by Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) under the leadership of Mahmood Yakubu began to emerge this past week. It all suggests network egregiousness on a monumental scale that easily rivals the elections of 2007, until now seen as the nadir in Nigeria’s journey of elective governance.

*Yakubu

As the National Judicial Council (NJC) released the names of the 257 judges who will sit to consider and decide on elections petitions around the country beginning in May 2023, it emerged this past week that so far 1,044 petitions have been filed against results declared by the INEC in the 2023 elections. That is already more than 70% of the 1,490 seats contested and it appears that these are not the final numbers.

Whither The Nigerian President?

 By Sola Ebiseni

Nigerians are so shell-shocked at the degree of lawlessness that characterised the 2023 elections, wondering if this country is still under any government which is symbolised in the President. As the head of state, President Muhammad Buhari has nowhere to pass the buck, especially of the orgy of violence during the elections in all parts of the nation. He is inexorably accountable. The Presidential and National Assembly elections of February 25 set the tone for the horrendous occurrences during the gubernatorial election which was initially slated for March 11, but postponed by one week.

*Buhari 

Some of us had thought it was mischievous, as some suggests that the real reason for the shift was to buy time  for those caught unawares during the first elections to redeem their losses by all means. We were proved wrong. Even at that, Nigerians were still hopeful that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and particularly its Chairman, would strive to prove pessimists wrong that its sole agenda was to deliver the country to the ruling part unashamedly.

Avoidable Cash Crisis: Any Lessons Learnt?

 By Ayo Baje

Most important, the Central Bank must keep public opinion on its side, because the public is the ultimate source of its power and independence.” – International Monetary Fund (IMF) report titled: “Rethinking Monetary Policy in a Changing World”. 

On February 3, 2023, the media was awash with the report of an unidentified man who slumped and died after spending hours at a new generation bank in Agbor, Delta state in what turned out a fruitless effort to withdraw some money. 

Politics Of New Naira Scarcity

 By Sola Oni

On Thursday, February 2, 2023, during a zoom interview on Channels TV, the National President, Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria, Mr Victor Olojo, was put on the spot over the current naira crisis. The Central Bank of Nigeria mandates banks to pay customers with the new naira. The banks complain of inadequate supply of the new notes and innocent Nigerians are groaning under the yoke of the buck passing between the CBN and the commercial banks.

Responding to a question that the Point of Sale operators were taking advantage of the naira scarcity to charge those desperate to withdraw money huge interest, Olojo explained that his members  also had to source for naira notes in many places, including filling stations at a cost.

Poverty: Buhari Should Quit The Blame Game

 By Charles Okoh

These are not the best of times for Nigerians. There are several existential threats confronting the average Nigerian. A man, whose house is on a raging inferno, certainly cannot have any time to spare to chase rats.

*Buhari 

For about two weeks now, Nigerians have been trekking, sweating, thirsty and starving. No thanks to petrol scarcity and the high cost of living. The persistent fuel shortage has continued and people are left running from pillar to post seeking for what God in His infinite mercies deposited in large quantities in our land, yet we have been living in want and scarcity. The paradox is such that a people and nation that have no reason to be poor are wallowing in abject poverty.

Why Buhari Must Let Nnamdi Kanu Go

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

I am not a lawyer. But in writing this article, I spoke to learned friends who, in unanimity, held that President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has no legal beam to hang its jaundiced interpretation of the Appeal Court judgement that discharged the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, of terrorism charges.

*Kanu

In a historic and courageous judgement, a three-man panel of the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, on Thursday, October 13, discharged Kanu of the seven-count charge pending against him before the Federal High Court. The judgement, unprecedented in its audacity, faulted the process through which the IPOB leader was brought before the court to answer to a 15-count terrorism charge.

Nigeria’s State Of Hopelessness

 By Ohima Agans-Oliha

When you totter around, you eventually stumble in your objectives or constitutional responsibilities and so you have no one else but yourself to blame.  If the National Assembly had remained rigidly fixed on its assessments of the capabilities of ministerial candidates at the inception of the current regime, obvious competence and capability flaws would have been discovered, hence forcing the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari retd., to amend his ministerial choices. But now, an outmanoeuvred NASS finds itself grovelling and crawling to an empowered executive arm.

*Buhari 

The NASS is essentially now unable to exert its independence and unable to fulfil one of its more important constitutional obligations.  The political dilemma now becomes a matter of spectacular interest for everyone, if in fact, NASS can actually enforce its impeachment threat against the President under the longer standard process, or a quicker and shorter route.

Nigeria: A Sick Society With Unhinged Citizenry

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Nigeria  is a sick country, very sick. What is worse, Nigerians have increasingly become unhinged. Many of the things happening in the country are bizarre and it takes only an unhinged population to condone the maladies. 

You are wrong if you think I am talking about the importation of adulterated fuel which has grounded almost the entire country and destroyed many vehicles. In any other country other than Nigeria where there are consequences for actions of state officials, heads would have rolled by now.

The petrol supply chain was disrupted last week when the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, otherwise known as The Authority, announced that it discovered methanol quantities above Nigeria’s specifications in imported petroleum products.

Even as the queues get longer at the petrol stations, the noise has lessened and we have all gone back to our pastime – grumbling. Nothing will happen because the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd, NNPC, the regulator and sole importer of petrol in Nigeria, which is busy pointing fingers of blame at four marketers, including its own Duke Oil, is the major culprit.

Buhari’s Parting Gift To Nigerians

 By Charles Okoh

Come May 29, 2023, it would have been eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari. It would have been eight trying years or a mixed grill of the good, the bad and the ugly. To say those years have stretched the people to the very limit of their existence which has left many despondent, disillusioned, crestfallen and in a state of near hopelessness would amount to stating the obvious.

*Buhari

What are the facts? It is a fact that Nigerians have been enduring very harsh and debilitating living conditions as of late. Did the problem begin with the present administration? Certainly not, it is the culmination of many years of poor leadership and a continuous downward slide, but it is also sad to note that rather than fashioning a plan to halt this trend it had become a free fall. The government of President Buhari has only helped in exacerbating the nation’s slide into the abyss.

Just as his actions have not helped matters in any way, his inactions at several occasions when the nation needed him to wield the big stick has further paved the way for a multitude of cataclysms on the ragged nation that is barely held together by a strand.

Insecurity In Nigeria: What Exactly Is Govt Getting Right?

 By Ladesope Ladelokun

The President handed Nigerians the marking scheme with which to assess him some five years ago when he told Nigerians at virtually every campaign stop that he would fight insecurity, work hard to revive an economy in a tailspin and declare a total war on the vermin called corruption.

*President Buhari

But it must be said that it is not the best of times for Nigeria at the moment. The most populous black nation is mourning. It is mourning the demise of peace in a country where human life is not worth more than a kobo a dozen and left helplessly bleeding by elephantine corruption.

While it is expected that every rational leader would be worried about Nigeria’s many problems, it cannot be out of place to state that worrying alone cannot liberate the wretched from the chasm of destitution, or lift an economy gasping for breath. But hope gives the strength to trudge on when everything fails. After all, only death terminates hope and only the living can hope. But hope can be shattered.

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.”

Nigeria: The Massacre At The Lekki Toll Gate

 By Femi Falana

For several years, the human rights community had called for the prosecution of the operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) over incessant arrests, detention, torture and extrajudicial killing of citizens. As such calls were ignored by the authorities the SARS intensified the brutalization of citizens particularly young people. The video of the reckless killing of an unarmed young man in Delta State sometime in the first week of October 2020 by trigger happy SARS officials went viral and led to  spontaneous street protests in many states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory. In its initial reaction to the protests the Federal Government announced that SARS would undergo some reforms.

Since the Government had ignored the reports of many administrative panels that  made a strong case for police reforms in the recent past  the youths distrusted the authorities  They continued the  peaceful protests and demanded for the immediate disbandment of the SARS.

Nigeria: Tracing Grazing Routes Through The Presidential Villa

 By Owei Lakemfa

Alhaji Tanimu Yakubu was Special Adviser on Economic Matters to President Umaru Musa Yar’adua. Before becoming one of Nigeria’s best Presidents in our leadership-challenged country, Yar’Adua was Governor of Katsina State and TY, as Yakubu is fondly called, was one of his cabinet members  for three years from 1999.

When TY was preparing that administration’s first budget in Katsina State, he studied the past trends in the government support for agriculture. He discovered that annually, 80 per-cent of the agriculture budget was allocated for  fertilizer procurement.

Given the fact that there are a number of clearly identified necessities of agriculture, he decided to research why fertilizer alone was consuming four fifths of the agriculture budget.

He appointed consultants to carry out a survey amongst farmers in the state to generate a list of their actual needs; they were 20 items. Then, a second stage of the survey was carried out for the farmers to rank those needs from the most to the least important. The result was shocking. The farmers listed fertilizer as the 13th in their list of their needs! Desertification was ranked number one, extension service, two and  market/profitability, three. The farmers did not even identify subsidy as a requisite. 

The Fallacy Of Herders-Farmers Crisis

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Former Lagos State Governor and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu, made a profound statement when he paid a condolence visit to the family of elder statesman and Afenifere leader, Reuben Fasoranti, in Akure on July 14, 2019. Fasoranti’s daughter, Funke Olakunrin, was gunned down two days earlier at Ore junction on the Sagamu-Benin highway, and her driver, Tayo Ogundare, said hooded men emerged from the bush to attack them.

*Buhari and El-Rufai 

Announcing the tragedy the same day, the then Afenifere spokesperson, Yinka Odumakin, blamed herdsmen for it. His claim was echoed by the deceased’s brother, Kehinde Fasoranti, who told journalists that policemen at Ore police station confirmed that his sister was killed by herdsmen.

Tinubu was not impressed and cautioned against stigmatising herdsmen. “I am extremely concerned about security but I don’t want stigma. I can go through history of kidnapping and we know how it started, where it all started. There are lots of copycats. How many years ago have we faced insecurity in this country and cases of kidnapping?

Suspicious ‘Hope’, Kanu’s Arrest, The North’s Duplicity

 By Chris Gyang

Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State is the typical Nigerian politician. With utmost dexterity, he has mastered the intrigues of survival in this most brutal and unconscionable trade. For instance, in 2018, Mr. Hope promptly dumped the PDP, his party since 1999 on which platform he served two Senate terms, and joined the ruling APC. 

*Kanu

He had realised that his prospects of becoming governor as an APC candidate were brighter than as that of the PDP. And, true to his reckoning, he later emerged as governor – even though it took a Supreme Court ruling to confirm his victory. Self-preservation and political survival is the name of the game. Apparently, Governor Hope had mastered it so well.

The day before the Nigerian government announced the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu, Governor Hope had advised his fellow Igbo people to support the Buhari-led Federal Government because, “After God in Nigeria, the next person is Buhari. He has the power to dictate where there should be light or not, and it happens.” The governor was widely condemned by Nigerians, some of whom dubbed his utterance as blasphemy for almost comparing Buhari to God.

Buhari: One Hell Of An Interview!

 By Ozodinukwe Okenwa

President Muhammadu Buhari has finally broken his long silence. He broke his silence last Thursday through an exclusive interview on the Abuja-based Arise TV network. He spoke on a number of important national issues. He talked about IPOB, agitation for Oduduwa and Biafra Republics, Fulani herdsmen and their clashes with native farmers and land-owners, #EndSARS protest, insecurity, poverty, unemployment and lopsided national appointments among others. The interview lasted less than an hour and the hard questions and follow-ups appeared to be a taboo.

*Buhari 

However, that the interview happened at all was a pleasant surprise package ostensibly packaged smartly by the President's media and publicity handlers. Since coming to power democratically six odd years ago President Buhari had remained aloof, mute, stone-faced and stone-silent in the face of the myriad of challenges confronting the nation.