What Does It Take To Speak for President Tinubu?

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Ordinarily, the innocuous question – who speaks for President Bola Tinubu – should be a non-issue because it ought to be a given. But these are no ordinary times. In Tinubu’s bumbling emi l’okan dynasty, where the end justifies every means and jejune politics trumps governance, absurdity is the norm.

*Onanuga and Tinubu

Such intrigues, in the warped estimation of his rabid supporters, elevate him to the pantheon of political gods, making him the Jagaban of Nigerian politics. But Nigeria is worse for it.

Oil Refineries: Nigeria Ignores The Green Energy Transition At Its Peril

 By Olu Fasan

Last  week, I wrote about the dire economic consequences for Nigeria as a petrostate almost solely reliant on oil and gas exports. This week, I want to address another aspect of that intervention: the climate impacts of Nigeria’s deepening commitment to burning fossil fuels.

Nothing demonstrates this commitment more than the excitement over the Dangote Refinery and the government’s determination to license more private oil refineries while pursuing new hydrocarbon exploration. The economic and climate impacts of Nigeria’s fossil-fuel dependency pose existential threats to the country’s future stability. Yet, Nigeria is entrenching itself as a hydrocarbon country while paying lip service to energy transition.

Bayo Onanuga’s Slimy Mud-Bath

 By Ochereome Nnanna

For his own purposes, President Bola Tinubu had delayed the appointment of Bayo Onanuga as one of his spokesmen. Ajuri Ngelale, broadcast journalist and Ogoni chief, was presented to give Tinubu’s media office a handsome, though unsmiling face.

*Peter Obi 

Many commentators were relieved that elements like Bayo Onanuga, Dele Alake and Festus Keyamo would not be brought to irritate the nerves of decent Nigerians with their tawdry, noisy and cheap propaganda antics which we saw during the campaigns for the 2023 general elections in Tinubu’s camp. This feeling was further reinforced when Alake was posted to the Solid Minerals Ministry and Keyamo taken to Aviation.

Tinubu’s Disappearing Acts

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Nigeria’s president since May 29, 2023 is a man of many parts, talented in multiple areas of life. As someone who is able to do many different things almost effortlessly, Nigerians perceive him as a superman – the “ideal superior man of the future,” as described by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, the 19th century German philosopher in Thus Spake Zarathustra, “who could rise above conventional Christian morality to create and impose his own values.”

*Tinubu

Notwithstanding, it has become glaring in the 11 months of his presidency that what is still unknown about him far outstrips what people thought they knew. For instance, Nigerians didn’t reckon with his ability to do a disappearing act on them. Again, how could anyone have imagined that Tinubu had the ability to cast a spell on an otherwise vibrant people and turn them into zombies so much so that even in the face of egregious conducts, the people would rather relapse into portentous silence?

Tinubu’s Spending Spree Fuels CBN’s Aggressive Interventions

 By Olu Fasan

Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s president, is gloating. The economy “is looking much better”, he says, and wants Nigerians to start rejoicing because their woes will soon be over. In his Easter message, Tinubu told Nigerians that “the seeds of patience, which they have sown, are beginning to sprout and will in no time bring forth an abundance of good fruits.” Abundance of good fruits?

*Tinubu, Shettima and their wives 

Would that mean huge falls in Nigeria’s unemployment and poverty rates, which are among the highest in the world? Harold Macmillan, former British prime minister, famously said: “The central aim of domestic policy must be to tackle unemployment and poverty.” Indeed, one of the core mandates of the US Federal Reserve, America’s central bank, is “to promote maximum employment.” 

Nigeria: Propaganda and Lies As Governance Tools

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

In the last four months since Bola Tinubu became Nigeria’s president, many Nigerians have watched in utter horror as the administration continues to fumble. The missteps are simply unacceptable, more so for a government that claims to be on a self-assigned mission of renewing the hope of longsuffering citizens. But I doubt if any discerning Nigerian is surprised at the embarrassing slipups and gaffes. In fact, what would have been surprising is a situation where Tinubu, in Aso Rock, levels with Nigerians.

President Bola Tinubu and President of the UAE President, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (With them is Ajuri Ngelale, Tinubu's spokesman)

It is in the character of those who are presently allocating the country’s collective values, authoritatively, to deploy propaganda and lies in governance. To them subterfuge and outright sleight of the hand are legitimate governance tools. But are they? I daresay they are not because government propaganda threatens democratic self-governance. In other words, it is an enemy of democracy.