Nigeria: Government Without Human Face?

 By Casmir Igbokwe

Former Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose’s brother trended on the social media recently. The outrageous amount of money he pays as electricity tariff every week was the crux of the matter. Some Nigerians apparently thought he was joking in the video where he claimed his weekly electricity bill was N100,000. And this is for three rooms. He said he used to spend this N100,000 in one month.

*Tinubu

Fayose is not alone. All electricity consumers on Band A category are feeling the same pinch. Simply put, what they used to spend on electricity in one month is now spent in one week. What happened was that the Federal Government increased electricity tariff for these Band A customers on April 3, 2024. From N68 per kilowatt-hour, the tariff went up to N225 per kWh, an increase of over 200 per cent. These B and A customers reportedly have electricity at least 20 hours in a day. Customers on Band B, C, D and E do not have to worry about the increase in tariff for now as they are not affected in this pilot phase. The plan is to co-opt them into the tariff-hike prison within a period of three years. 

Yahaya Bello: EFCC Deserves Public Support

 By Tonnie Iredia

Nigeria’s anti-corruption agencies, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission ICPC were established some two decades ago by the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo. The motivation was to set up strategic platforms to deal decisively with the evils of corruption which were generally accepted by all to be at the apex of the nation’s collective malaise.

*Bello performing in Lokoja when he was in power 

Nigerians were also aware that their country had been labelled as fantastically corrupt by the international community. This seems to explain the decision of each successive President to make strong statements to end corruption either during his electioneering campaigns or even after having been elected. At a point, the poetic declaration was: ‘if Nigeria does not kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria.’ Put differently, corruption is the most notorious bane of Nigeria’s development.

Supreme Court Verdict: Tinubu Is The Diego Maradona Of Nigerian Politics

 By Olu Fasan

Professor  Wole Soyinka, Africa’s first literature Nobel laureate, published his critically-acclaimed novel, Chronicles From the Land of the Happiest People On Earth, in September 2021. So, he probably didn’t have the 2023 presidential election and Bola Tinubu, who emerged president, in mind when he wrote the book. However, reading the novel, one gets the impression that Professor Soyinka foreshadowed the election and its aftermath.

*Soyinka and Tinubu 

In a post-publication interview with the Financial Times, Professor Soyinka said he wrote the book “to confront Nigeria with its true image”. Indeed, Sir Ben Okri, the recently knighted Nigerian-British writer, described the book as Soyinka’s “magnus opus on the state of his homeland”. Of course, when someone writes a novel, he or she has no control over how the reader interprets it, more so when the novel is verisimilitude, having an appearance of reality. Therefore, for me, Professor Soyinka’s novel provides a powerful framework for analysing the 2023 presidential election, the Supreme Court verdict and Tinubu. 

Tinubu’s Ministers: A Bunch Of Political Rewardees And Cronies

 By Olu Fasan

One of the popular myths around Bola Tinubu, stemming from his time as governor of Lagos State, was that he had an uncanny ability to pick competent teams of technocrats to run the affairs of state. Indeed, some genuinely wanted Tinubu to be president and “run Nigeria as he ran Lagos.” But the myths have busted since he became president. Not only has he muddled through policy after policy, the famed gift for talent-spotting gravely eluded him as he unveiled a middling cast of ministers, characterised by two fundamental flaws. 

*Tinubu 

First, Tinubu will have the largest cabinet in Nigeria’s political history. With 48 ministers and over 20 special advisers and senior special assistants, with cabinet-level status, Tinubu will have the most bloated and unwieldy cabinet of any past president.

Poor Aminu And The Almighty First Lady

 By Dr. Ugoji Egbujo

The meek ones have, like Shakespeare, said, “The quality of mercy is not strained.” Other others have said, like Moses, “An eye for an eye.” In other words, “spare the rod and spoil the child.” Yet Others have, like Jesus, drawn the line and said, “He who has never sinned alike, let him cast the first stone.”  

*Aisha Buhari 

A student of a university in Jigawa insulted the first lady. Then he disappeared. According to the Student Union, for days, neither the boy’s parents nor the school authorities knew his whereabouts. The Student Union’s president said after a nervous search that exhausted the parents and the union for days, the boy was discovered.

Ndigbo And Outcome Of PDP Presidential Primaries

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

It is no longer news that when Nigerians return to the polls in February 2023 to elect a president for their beleaguered country, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, will fly the flag of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. At the PDP presidential primaries held at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja on Saturday, May 28, Atiku clinched the party ticket with 371 votes.

Nyesom Wike, Rivers State governor, polled 237 votes; Bukola Saraki, former Senate President, got 70 votes; Bala Mohammed, Bauchi State governor, garnered 20 votes; Udom Emmanuel, Akwa Ibom State governor secured 38 votes; Pius Anyim, former Senate president and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, secured 14 votes, and Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, renowned pharmacist and boardroom impresario, secured one vote.

Yusuf, President Buhari’s Anti-Corruption Poster Boy

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

No matter how much President Muhammadu Buhari strives at every critical juncture to portray his so-called anti-corruption fight as incontestable reality, it often unravels as an unrelieved charade before the citizens. This irrevocable futility has once again gained expression through the case of Usman Yusuf as a foil for the acclaimed Buhari’s lack of tolerance for corruption at a time there is a list of 50 corrupt persons, albeit disavowed by the government. Those on the list have been embargoed from travelling abroad while the nation’s law courts have not found them guilty of the allegation of ruthlessly heisting the national treasury or their state patrimony.

*Usman Yusuf 

Yusuf is the Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). He has been suspended from office by the agency’s governing council led by Dr. Ifene Enyantu. There are allegations of corruption against him. He has been accused of illegally executing N30 billion investments, inflating the cost of biometric capturing machines and unlawfully posting staff.

Before Supreme Court Finally Kills PDP

By Steve Nwosu

The dizzying pace at which mundane things are elevated to national prominence has since made me lose sense of what is right and what is wrong. So, to keep my sanity, I’ve since concluded that every one is right. All correct, sir!

If you say the economy is in recession, you’re correct. If you prefer to live in denial and insist that there is no recession, you’re also correct. Hameed Ali versus the Senators? Magu versus the Senators? Hospitalised El-Rufai versus convalescing Buhari? All correct!

But there is one thing I have a fairly clear head about. And that is what is the mess the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has brought upon itself.

Now, if there is anything the PDP is very good at – apart from impunity, it is the uncanny ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory (apologies: Chinua Achebe). Of course, I don’t expect the All Progressives Congress (APC) people to gloat at that, because everything that was wrong with PDP is beginning to appear in APC.

However, the PDP is a master of the art of self-destruct!
When it was in government, it was fighting itself, providing opposition to its own government. And now that it is out of power, it has contrived to produce a most fractious split right down its middle. And even as the simple solution to its problem stares it in the face, it’s looking with eyes wide shut.

It is fixated at a Supreme Court that does not hold any promise of good news.

Yes, soon after the Appeal Court verdict that upheld Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff’s claim to the party’s chairmanship, the Sen. Ahmed Makarfi faction appealed the judgment, and is now expecting a favourable ruling from the apex court.

But, irrespective of whatever direction the pendulum swings at the apex court, the PDP would still be the loser. But we’ll return to that later.

Before We Crucify Apostle Suleman

By Solape Lawal-Solarin

Apostle Johnson Suleman of the Omega Fire Ministry recently hit national headlines when a video of him urging his listeners to “kill any Fulani that comes close to me” went viral on the social media. He immediately attracted the attention of the Directorate of State Security (DSS). It was a drama that saw the Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, playing the super hero as his timely intervention stopped the DSS from swooping on Suleiman, who was on a crusade to Ekiti, and whisking him away to its office in Abuja.

*Apostle Johnson Suleman

Although, the dust has settled now as the pastor came out to ‘clear the air’ that he was only urging his listeners to defend themselves in the event of an attack, arguments are still raging over the propriety of the apostle’s statement and the response of the DSS.

While it is okay to condemn the apostle irrespective of the excuses he gave, the fact still remains that the Nigerian state for so long has paid lip service to the ills bedeviling the system. It is often said that history is the best teacher for today, tomorrow and the future.

However, the country has failed to learn. It has simply been an unwilling student. This apathy has created a vacuum, cum crater, that has now become a gorge, thereby making it difficult for the government to fill it up.

Many atrocities have been committed and have gone unpunished in Nigeria’s history of religious violence. Killings have been carried out by various groups under religious garbs with the government looking the other way. The government’s inaction somehow rubber-stamped the impunity of the killers and further reinforced their beliefs and confidence. It also strengthened their resolve to continue perpetrating the heinous crimes.

This is a dangerous situation that can only dent the peoples’ belief and trust in the ability of the Federal government to ensure their security. It also called into question the sanctity of the ‘one Nigeria’ mantra   being bandied in Abuja and further raised eyebrows on the country’s professed secular constitution.

In a diverse, multi-ethnic country like Nigeria, it is important for those that are saddled with steering the wheels of state to acknowledge and respect the multi-cultural beliefs and faiths that would always be embedded in such peculiar political entity. Even the democratic government and principle in practice recognises and accepts this fact.

Under its tenets, respect for the minority and religious faiths is an essential feature in its modus-operandi. Hence, fear of bias and marginalization by a group seriously indicts any government practising democracy.