2015-2023: The Years Of Pestilence

 By Adekunle Adekoya

When the All Progressives Congress, APC, came up to challenge PDP’s hold on power since 1999 in February 2013, not a few Nigerians incubated the hope that something refreshingly different will happen to Nigeria. Formed as a merger of three parties — the Congress for Progressive Change, the All Nigeria Peoples Party, and the Action Congress of Nigeria, the APC went ahead to field Major-General Muhammadu Buhari as its presidential candidate against Dr. Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP in the 2015 elections. The rest, as they say, is now history.

*Buhari's 73rd Birthday Dinner - December 17, 2015

Before and after the 2015 elections, Buhari and the APC made a lot of promises about how they would work to ensure that life and living gets on the upward swing for Nigerians. In fact, ahead of the elections, Buhari was at Chatham House, the UK think-tank where he made a lot of proclamations regarding what he would do if elected president. In the opening paragraphs of the Chatham House speech, Buhari said: “When speaking about Nigeria overseas, I normally prefer to be my country ’s public relations and marketing officer, extolling her virtues and hoping to attract investments and tourists.” 

Nigeria: Our Disappearing Progressives

 By Sunny Ikhioya

Judging from its trajectory, the 2023 election was expected to be different from previous ones, and it did go that way. What we never imagined was the betrayal of the so-called Progressives, who claim to be the conscience of the nation, and are more patriotic than the rest; the lodestar of the nation’s compass. Before the 2015 elections they were everywhere: in the academia, labour, civil societies, NGOs, media and others. 

They were preaching freedom, equity, fundamental human rights, free and fair elections, infrastructure and welfare to uplift the common man and many more. It has been eight long years. Many things have happened in the country within this period: the citizens have been battered black and blue; those who couldn’t stand it have taken the Japa route.

Individuals, Not Parties, Will Decide The 2023 Elections

 By Ejike Anyaduba

It is becoming evident by the day that the February 25, 2023, elections will be decided by factors other than party affiliation. Psychological attachment of voters to parties may have some influence on the run of victory, but will do little to help its cause. The strength of victory will be decided by a contestant’s convincing power, his performance rating, diligence and the subtle manner in which he handles the people’s emotions in this trying time. 

More than that, the performance of each candidate will be a factor of perception and of grace that transcends mundane efforts.  Yes, it will be a tough election, and it is already bearing signs of disruptive change that may leave the self-assured vacuumed of confidence and grossly diffident.  

Atiku Should Define ‘Restructuring’

By Ochereome Nnanna

After one year of silence, Vice President Atiku Abubakar seized the opportunity of a book launch in Abuja last week to break his silence. He reviewed the state of the nation under President Muhammadu Buhari, which is what pretty much everyone else has done in the past one week. Of all that he said, I was intrigued by his call for a “restructuring” of the federation and the shade he threw at the leadership of Buhari, when he observed: “we also have a leadership that is not prepared to learn from the past and the leadership that is not prepared to lead”. Of this snide on Buhari, observers have already determined that it was Atiku’s first step towards a 2019 challenge for the presidency.

 

*Atiku

This may well be so because we all know about Atiku’s insatiable appetite for presidential contests, of which he has made five record bids in 1993, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015. Atiku’s former boss, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, was the first to caper a similar political double shuffle some weeks ago when he described Buhari as a leader who is good in military matters (such as the fight against Boko Haram) but incompetent in economic and diplomatic areas. He gave the impression that after Buhari defeats Boko Haram another leader would be found (obviously the self-installed tin god of Nigerian politics, Obasanjo himself) to solve our economic problems. It is obvious that the mesmerism of Buhari is beginning to thaw as we steam towards the starting blocks of the next political transition, and it is going to be hot inside the All Progressives Congress, APC where, I am firmly convinced, Buhari will make a bid for a second term.

Atiku will definitely feature prominently in it, barring any earth-shaking circumstances. I am surprised that Atiku described himself as a “long term campaigner” for restructuring. Honestly, I have never come across that notion before. What is known to most Nigerians is that Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been a long term campaigner for true federalism and restructuring. For some quaint reasons, he has gone mute on this since the APC seized the reins of the Federal Government a year ago. It is on record that the APC had it as one of its long-winded litany of campaign promises. The party and the Federal Government it produced have backed out of many of these promises, but it’s not yet on record that the promise to establish true federalism is one of those.

Yet not a single word has been breathed of it either by Buhari, the APC or even its chief protagonist, Tinubu. If Buhari meant to implement this policy, I am sure he would have said so in his maiden broadcast on May 29th 2015. He would have seized the opportunity of his May 29th 2016 to spell out the pillars of the programme, with timetable attached. But of course, we have seen that Buhari’s fabled body language is not pointing towards any bloody restructuring of the federation. 

Fuel Price: See What Politics, Hypocrisy Have Caused!

By Onuoha Ukeh

Last week Wednesday, when the Federal Government announced the increase in the price of petrol, from N86. 50 to N145 per litre, I went to a filling station to buy fuel. The time was 11.15pm. On the queue before me was this commercial tricycle operator, who was, surprisingly, excited that he was paying N145 for a litre of petrol he had bought N86. 50 a few hours ago. As he handed his money to the filling station attendant, after being served, he said, with a wry smile on his face: “If they (government officials) like, they should increase the price further. We will continue to buy fuel. Nigerians must survive, whether government likes it or not.”

I saw on the man’s face an obvious scorn for government. Where he was supposed to be angry that a government and a group of politicians, who had made Nigerians to believe that the previous government was clueless, incompetent and unpatriotic, are simply hypocrites, who say one thing and do completely another, he appeared overwhelmed by shock, which has turned to disdain and derision. Like this tricycle operator, most Nigerians would rather mock the government than cry for an action, which would definitely increase their suffering and hardship.   It is a feeling of regret, a feeling that one has when his trust has been betrayed.  It was such a feeling that Julius Caesar had when he was stabbed by Brutus, during the conspiracy that claimed his life. Caesar had exclaimed, when Brutus thrust the dagger into his back: “Et tu Brute?” (Even you, Brutus?).

To be sure, when the hike in the price of fuel was announced last week, most Nigerians felt betrayed. Who would have believed that President Buhari would approve the hiking of fuel price, having opposed this previously? Indeed, Nigerians will not forget January 1, 2012, when the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan announced the removal of subsidy and effected an increase in the pump price of fuel to N141 per litre. When this happened, President Buhari, who was then smarting from defeat in the presidential election of 2011, about seven months earlier, condemned the action. Former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, kicked against it. Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, rejected it. Erudite Pastor Tunde Bakare not only preached against it but also participated in a mass action organised by the Save Nigeria Group he co-convened and other groups. Many members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who were in Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) then, spoke against the increase in fuel price. The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), human rights groups and activists opposed the price hike. Indeed, the groundswell of opposition gave fillip to a street protest, wherein the opposition took over a square in Ojota, Lagos to hold what could pass for “political adoration.” And for days, Lagos and some major cities were grounded. We remember that the President Jonathan administration, face-to-face with imminent crash of government and democracy, buckled and reversed itself, only making a slight increase to N87 per litre.