Who Governs Nigeria?

By Reuben Abati

During the Jonathan administration, an outspoken opposition spokesperson had argued that Nigeria was on auto-pilot, a phrase that was gleefully even if ignorantly echoed by an excitable opposition crowd. Deeper reflection should have made it clear even to the unthinking that there is no way any country can ever be on auto-pilot, for there are many levels of governance, all working together and cross-influencing each other to determine the structure of inputs and outcomes in society. To say that a country is on auto-pilot is to assume wrongly that the only centre of governance that exists is the official corridor, whereas governance is far more complex. The question should be asked, now as then: who is governing Nigeria? Who is running the country? Why do we blame government alone for our woes, whereas we share a collective responsibility, and some of the worst violators of the public space are not even in public office?

*Buhari and Jonathan 

The President of the country is easily the target of every criticism. This is perhaps understandable to the extent that what we have in Nigeria is the perfect equivalent of an Imperial Presidency. Whoever is President of Nigeria wields the powers of life and death, depending on how he uses those enormous powers attached to his office by the Constitution, convention and expectations. Nigeria’s President not only governs, he rules. The kind of President that emerges at any particular time can determine the fortunes of the country. It helps if the President is driven by a commitment to make a difference, but the challenge is that every President invariably becomes a prisoner.

He has the loneliest job in the land, because he is soon taken hostage by officials and various interests, struggling to exercise aspects of Presidential power vicariously. And these officials do it right to the minutest detail: they are the ones who tell the President that he is best thing ever since the invention of toothpaste. They are the ones who will convince him as to every little detail of governance: who to meet, where to travel to, and who to suspect or suspend. The President exercises power, the officials and the partisans in the corridors exercise influence. But when things go wrong, it is the President that gets the blame. He is reminded that the buck stops at his desk.

We should begin to worry about these dangerous officials in the system, particularly within the public service, the reckless mind readers who exploit the system for their own ends, and who walk free when the President gets all the blame. To govern properly, every government not only needs a good man at the top, but good officials who will serve the country. We are not there yet. The same civil servants who superintended over the omissions of the past 16 years are the ones still going up and down today, and it is why something has changed but nothing has changed. The reality is terrifying.

Donald Trump: Real Threat To Global Peace

By Percy Okae

All over the airwaves currently it is Donald Trump making the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Every now and again he makes one controversial statement after the other as to what he would do if he were to become America’s next leader. Foremost among his intentions is the policy he would immediately implement to deny prospective immigrants to America as well as so-called illegal immigrants he would want to ship back to their respective original home countries.

*Donald Trump 

What Mr. Trump forgets is that he is also indirectly an immigrant in America because that country is strictly a land of immigrants of which those of German descent are in the majority. Mr. Trump should know that his ancestors also immigrated to the then New World from Europe and so he is also strictly not a native of that landmass. The actual owners of America are the native Indians who as I speak are almost extinct following their deliberate extermination by the white Europeans when they arrive in the New World.

Today as we speak, the quadrennial ritual of selecting America’s next President is ongoing and as always, it has generated a lot of heat and already some candidates have fallen along the line. Foremost among such victims is John Edward Bush ((Jeb) Bush), a candidate who happens to be of the political establishment class and thus suffered as a consequence. However, given the happenings in the primaries of the Grand Old Party (GOP) — the Republican Party—the foremost heirloom by Honest Abe to his fellow Americans, it is very likely that another candidate of the political establishment, Hilary Rodham Clinton, a Democrat, will likely become America’s 45^th President come next January, even though most Americans would not have wanted it so.

This is because the broader masses of Americans cannot fathom why those voting in the primaries of the GOP keep giving the baton to the vainglorious Donald Trump in almost all the state primaries, who though an astute business magnate of the global exclusive club of billionaires, has scored zeroes through his foul-mouthing this far. Every act of this man so far on the campaign trail, who looks lost to the realities of our present World, has been RACIST at best and utter DISDAIN for other demographics or persuasions at worst. Barring a miracle, his selection as the presumptive nominee of the GOP for the 2016 presidential elections is almost a done deal.

However, in case that happens, the majority of America’s non-party affiliated citizens will surely hand the presidency to Mrs. Clinton, in case she also becomes the Democratic nominee. And if that happens, the World will be spared the emergence of a certain incendiary of a Mr. President and the Commander-in-Chief of the World’s most resourced military and most likely, yet another unjustifiable invasion of another sovereign country on a non-existent excuse.

*P. OKAE
ADENTAN-ACCRA

Can Trump Beat Clinton?

*Donald Trump, Hillary and Bill Clinton (pix:abc)

After all of the ink and pixels spilled on 2016 election coverage, Super Tuesday confirmed what the polls have been telling us for months: We are headed for a clash of the titans between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. 

And if the numbers hold true again, it appears Trump will have an uphill, though not insurmountable, climb to best Clinton, and there’s a chance he could wind up one of the biggest losers in presidential history. Or become President Trump. 

Nobody thought he could win the Republican nomination either, and he might just be getting warmed up. 

“I haven’t even started with her,” the mogul said of Clinton in the last GOP debate. So what might it look like when he does and the Trump-branded wrecking ball hits the Democratic Party establishment? 
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