Nigeria: Fall Of Democracy!

 By Kenneth Okonkwo

President Barack Obama said, democracy will win if we fight for it. Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of American democracy, arose from a meeting with his colleagues, where they deliberated on the preferable system of government for America, and was questioned by a woman outside the meeting to reveal to America their choice. He quipped, we have a republic, if you can keep it. Eternal vigilance is the price to pay for democracy, certainly not a fall. 

Democracy is worth fighting for, it’s not worth falling for. The reason democracy is failing in Africa is that the people who ought to be the fighters for democracy, are busy falling head over heels for the crumbs that fall off from the table of these half baked, incompetent and corrupt leaders. So nauseating is the level of sycophancy that even the leaders now make a joke when they fall that they were doing obeisance to democracy.

Nigeria: Endless Borrowing Will Lead To Endless Sorrowing

By Atiku Abubakar

John Quincy Adams once said “there are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.” He may have very well been referring to Nigeria of the last three years.

*Atiku and Buhari 

Barely two weeks ago, I warned during my Founder’s Day lecture at the American University of Nigeria, Yola, that Nigeria had taken almost as much foreign debt in the last three years, as she had taken in the thirty years before 2015 combined. Now that is frightening. And very true.

Frightening, not just because of the amount, but because after such unprecedented borrowing, we have emerged as the world headquarters for extreme poverty and the global capital for out of school children. It begs the question: what were the funds used for?

Nigeria: Buhari And A University Of His Own

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

With the current preoccupation of President Muhammadu Buhari with the setting up of his own university, his flatulent claim of being actuated by public interest has suffered further repudiation. His pet project has unravelled him not as a touchstone of integrity, moderation and patriotism but as another victim of the acquisitiveness of the nation’s leadership that has ceaselessly undermined good governance.

President Buhari and wife, Aisha 

 To be sure, it was not Buhari himself who publicly vouchsafed his plan to set up a private university. It was his wife who disclosed that she would set up a university with the name Muhammadu Buhari University. But even if Buhari were not the originator of the idea, the fact that his name is associated with the project shows that he is fully behind it. After all, he has not disavowed his wife’s claim since the news broke.

Nigeria: Between Election Violence And The Spoils Of Office

By Banji Ojewale

In rivers and bad governments the lightest things swim at the top — Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), American scientist and philosopher.

Nigeria’s elections are always a period of hemorrhage, seasons of internecine bloodletting, that, strangely, does not bring down our population. Just do a study of our cyclical polls. None came and went away without taking away precious souls. They have all soaked us in blood either before, during or after the ballot. Even the June 12, 1993 presidential contest we celebrate didn’t consummate its benignity. It wasn't allowed to. 

The vampires showed up to ruin the chance to dance. They annulled what Providence offers only once in a lifetime. What we got on the proverbial silver platter, we have since been looking for in a golden platter. It’s been quite an agonizing quest, made unbearable by the high toll in the lives we lose when we blow the whistle for electioneering.

Nigeria And The Silent Majority

By Simon Abah

The founder of this newspaper refused to be silent in the face of governmental-wrong, even when a despot thought it best to cashier him on the long questing route for peace. In spite of his exit to the land of permanent silence years after, his newsprint has maintained its streak of excellence, it publishes well researched materials and avoids sycophantic news reporting, is wholly and strictly without fail, a national paper which approbates to no region or individuals.

I wish Nigerians aren’t known for silence in the face of wrong and tackle governmental persons for accountability, for nationalism. If this were the case, the politicians from the regions where these herdsmen come from would have been pushed into taking action with governments to end the barbarity, after all cattle rearing, established as a thriving economy for herdsmen with a substantial workforce, servicing the whole country wouldn’t be considered positive if brigands go about killing people in whatever guise. 

Nigeria: Time To Remove Muhammadu Buhari From Power

By Remi Oyeyemi

"There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction." – John F. Kennedy

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." – Benjamin Franklin

*Buhari 

Dateline - February 11, 2018. As I woke up this morning, I got a message from one of our revere leaders in Yorùbá Nation. The message, not something one would have expected on a Sunday morning, but nevertheless, I got this message. I was confident that this elderly person, the way I have known him, must have considered the timing and its propriety before sending the message.

He must have been very enraged. His being a father and grandfather must have been egregiously violated. The milk of human kindness flowing in his veins must have belched with a high degree of contamination. His marrows of humaneness must have erupted with disgust and unbelief. He must have been excessively repulsed to the point that he felt the message must get to me. And quickly too.