Bola Tinubu’s UN Fantasies

 By Casmir Igbokwe

The majority of Nigerians are in agreement that President Bola Tinubu made a fantastic speech at the 78th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York last week. Some sound bites from his speech made many Nigerians proud and projected his speech writer as a candidate eminently qualified for promotion.

*Tinubu at UNGA 2023

Like a motivational speaker, our President intoned, “To keep faith with the tenets of this world body and the theme of this year’s Assembly, the poverty of nations must end. The pillage of one nation’s resources by the overreach of firms and people of stronger nations must end. The will of the people must be respected…” Good talk, Mr. President!

Asari Dokubo’s Army

 By Obi Nwakanma

The five governors of the South East of Nigeria met in Enugu last week to deliberate on the security situation of the region. The impact of the now infamous “Sit-at-Home” forced on the South East has taken its toll, and the chickens have come home to roost. The economic and social life of the South East has taken such a hit and has been damaged almost irretrievably. 

*Dokubo

Against the background of the South East governors meeting are videos emerging of Asari Dokubo’s claims and counter claims, in interviews granted to television stations, the recent being with Channel TV’s Seun Okinbaloye, in which he plainly accepted that he owned and ran a private Army which had been contracted by the Federal Government to engage in Black Ops for the government. 

Of Arewa Hegemony And Afonja Quislings

By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

Nigeria is living in very interesting times of power politics. Some pundits are saying that history is about to repeat itself through the forged political realignments. Some 12 days after Nigeria’s Independence in October 1960, the then Premier of the Northern Region and Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, said in The Parrot newspaper:

“The new nation called Nigeria should be an estate of our great grandfather Othman Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We use the minorities in the north as willing tools and the south as a conquered territory and never allow them to rule over us and never allow them to have control over their future.”

*Buhari in Yorubaland, flanked by
Gov Amosu and Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun

Some Northern irredentists, notably Prof Ango Abdullahi and Dr Junaid Muhammed, insist at every interview opportunity that power must perforce return to the North. They have been countered by the militant voices out of Niger Delta, notably the very voluble Asari Dokubo. It is as though Nigeria is poised on a knife edge. In the alliances being put to play to win political power, the role of General Afonja in the fall of the old Oyo Empire needs to be recalled. 

According to Wikipedia, “The Ilorin Emirate is a traditional state based on the city of Ilorin in Kwara State, Nigeria. It is considered to be one of the Banza Bakwai, or copy-cats of the Hausa Kingdoms. At the start of the 19th century Ilorin was a border town in the northeast of the Oyo Empire, with a mainly Yoruba population but with many Hausa-Fulani immigrants or slaves. It was the headquarters of an Oyo General, Afonja, who rebelled against the empire and helped bring about its collapse with the assistance of the Fulani. The rebellion was powered by Hausa, Nupe and Bornu Moslem slaves. Afonja had been assisted by Salih Janta, also called Shehu Alimi, a leader of the local Fulani. In 1824 Afonja was assassinated and Alimi's son Abdusalami became Emir. Ilorin became an emirate of the Sokoto Caliphate.”

Afonja played a role akin to that of Vidkun Quisling, the Norwegian politician who undermined the world by aiding Nazi Germany, for which the word “quisling” entered the dictionary. Some notable Southwest politicians have been drawn into a recall of the old Afonja debacle and the need to stop the quislings in the zone in their tracks. At issue is the divide of support between the two presidential candidates, incumbent President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and General Muhammadu Buhari of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC). 

Buhari: President Of Northern Nigeria?

By Temitope Oriola

 The Vanguard newspaper reported the visit of a delegation of Northern leaders to the then president-elect Muhammadu Buhari on May 11th 2015. The delegation was led by Alhaji Maitama Sule. Sule told Buhari: “You are the president of Nigeria; you are not the president of Northern Nigeria by the grace of God”. Maitama Sule was someone you had to take seriously.

*Muhammadu Buhari 

I ruminated over the story for several minutes and wondered why the acclaimed orator felt the need to publicly ask Buhari to be a president for the whole of Nigeria.

We now know why and the underpinnings are quite ugly. The president needs to demonstrate that he is willing to trust Nigerians who neither speak Fulfulde nor Hausa. My assessment is that his skewed appointments speak to a lack of trust, rather than outright clannishness. The president needs to realise that he is president of the whole of Nigeria and millions of Nigerians from the streets of Kano to the parks of Lagos genuinely wish him well in office. His success is our success. No one should make light of the efforts that go into each political appointment. I do not think the president sets out to spite anybody but the idea that he is appointing people on merit despite the lopsidedness is no longer funny. If President Buhari sincerely believes that his appointments so far have been based on merit, then with all due respect, his future is in standup comedy.

The president’s inner circle seems to lack not just adequate representation but also depth and rigour. Buhari did not think he would win the elections as he did not expect President Jonathan to concede defeat. Therefore, President Buhari assumed office grossly unprepared and lacking the scintilla of a plan for governance. He had become habituated to losing elections and did not do his rudimentary homework on Nigeria’s many problems. This is quite problematic given that he contested for over 12 years. Why exactly was he running for office? Did he think he was simply going to manage oil wealth?

There are no new problems in Nigeria. Many of the problems have increased in intensity and metastasised but none of the problems is entirely new. Consequently, a diligent presidential candidate would have prepared. The president simply assumed he could show up and his “body language” — whatever that means — would keep people in check and all would be well. His command and obey personality type has not helped matters. I have a lot of respect for the military but Nigeria is not an overgrown military barracks. By personality type, temperament and proclivity, Buhari is unsuited to the rather frustrating guiles of democracy and demands of civil society.