Kayode Fayemi: A Witch’s Confession

 By Ochereome Nnanna

I have noticed the tendency of elements of the Tinubu political family to confess the perfidy their group commits in the process of “grabbing, snatching, and running away” with power. In my new book, Buhari: Tinubu: How They Snatched and Shared Power, Pa Ayo Adebanjo claimed that Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as a governorship aspirant of the Alliance for Democracy, AD, in Lagos in December 1998, disrupted primaries in some of his opponents’ strongholds, which led to the abortion of the governorship primaries in those areas.

*Fayemi

The guidelines for the primaries said the exercise should be cancelled wherever there was a crisis. Tinubu capitalised on this loophole and defeated his closest rival, Funsho Williams, whose name had already been submitted by the state chairman of the AD, Alhaji Ganiyu Dawodu, as the winner.

Ndigbo: Caught Betwixt And Between In Nigeria - 6

 Which Way, Ndigbo? (2)

By Ichie Tiko Okoye 

Before those whose regular trademark is to argue rather than debate topical issues showcase their prosaic apoplectic malady with vitriolic abuses and infantile ad hominem arguments’ let me hasten to declare right from the outset that I do not claim to be the repository of all wisdom. Igbo elders say that wisdom is like a goatskin bag with each individual carrying his own. A similar adage posits that there are more than one way to travel from Onitsha to Abuja.

*Ichie Okoye

And while it remains an incontrovertible fact that there are indeed many ways of travelling from Onitsha to Abuja, one would expect the rational traveller to diligently ascertain which of the ways would be most effective, say in terms of pricing, and efficient, say in terms of safety, comfort and duration. I’m hoping that that my piece elicits the same intelligent, robust interrogation.   

It bears repeating that while Ndigbo have remained giants in trade and commerce, we have pitiably regressed to Lilliputians in politics since the end of the civil war. It would appear that our proclivity for profitable commercial ventures with a short gestation have engendered a zero-tolerance for medium- and long-term strategic thinking. Everything has to happen ‘in-the-now’!