Bola Tinubu And State Capture

 By Obi Nwakanma

I have made this point at various points in this column, that for a nation to claim “independence,” or legitimacy, it must have sovereign control of its state institutions.

*Tinubu

It should never be a transactional or “contract state.” Is Nigeria a sovereign state? I do not think so, because, currently, Nigeria does not seem in control of its sovereign institutions. As a nation, Nigeria is not governed by her leaders. It is under state capture. Those who parade themselves now as the leaders of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, are in fact, not answerable to the citizens of this republic.

Bola Tinubu’s Two Years Of Pains And Anguish

 By Emeka Alex Duru

Nigeria was among the countries that observed Children’s Day, last Tuesday, May 27. It is largely a commemorative event celebrated annually in honour of children whose date of observance varies by country. On such occasions, speeches and pledges are made in assuring the children of their importance to society. 

*Tinubu

In this year’s edition, President Bola Tinubu advertised his administration’s commitment to safeguarding the rights and well-being of Nigerian children, declaring them as the “pride and future of our great nation”. Eating into the theme of the celebration, tagged, “Stand Up, Speak Up: Building a Bullying-Free Generation”, Tinubu said it aligns directly to the culture his administration is building, which he said entitles every child to feel safe, respected and heard, both in physical spaces and digital communities.

Mr. President, The Security Challenge Is Hitting Harder!

 By Emeka Alex Duru

It was quite depressing listening to a member of the House of Representatives from Zamfara State, Aminu Jaji recount the worsening security situation in his constituency. Jaji painted a harrowing picture of attacks, mass kidnappings, and general lawlessness that have left his constituents devastated and displaced.

Over 200 of such attacks have taken place in communities across Kaura Namoda Local Government Area alone, including Dayo, Banga, Gabaki, Korea, and Madura, according to the lawmaker. In one instance, 60 people were abducted in Banga. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of 30 million naira. Out of those abducted, 10 were killed, and the fate of the remaining 50 hangs in the balance, he said. The chilling aspect of his narration was one in which a pregnant woman gave birth in captivity and her newborn twins thrown to dogs by a bandit leader. He also gave instance of a boy with epilepsy who was executed for falling in the presence of a bandit. This is bestiality at its worst.

End Amnesty, Empower The Military To Crush Boko Haram Now!

 By Mukhtar Ya’u Madobi

The time has come to draw a firm line in Nigeria’s protracted battle against insurgency. With thousands of so-called “repentant” terrorists surrendering, rehabilitated and reintegrated into society, the recent resurgence of Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorism in the North-East demands a critical reassessment of the nation’s counter-terrorism approach, especially the controversial amnesty programme.

The recurring waves of violence suggest that leniency has been mistaken for weakness. Now is the time for Nigeria’s military to shift gears and pursue an uncompromising offensive against the insurgents. Enough is enough.

Borno State, the epicenter of Nigeria’s decade-long insurgency, is once again engulfed in violence. Boko Haram and its ISWAP faction are ramping up attacks, employing asymmetrical warfare tactics with alarming effectiveness — ambushes, improvised explosive devices, IEDs, assaults on military formations, and strategic sabotage such as the destruction of critical infrastructure.

Nigeria And Her Ravaging Hunger

 By Ejike Anyaduba

Nigeria relishes the moniker - the giant of Africa - which she blazons like an armorial bearing. With enormous resources and a population of about 250 million people (Professor Lumumba, the Kenyan lawyer and activist, thinks she is more than that figure) she can afford to boast about her giant status. 

But that is not enough. Nigeria accounts for one sixth of Africa’s population which stands at about 1.4billion. This population has a chance of growing more if nothing catastrophic happens by way of natural disaster or a split as was the case with Sudan - erstwhile Africa’s largest country until the secession of South Sudan in 2011. 

Freeing Nigeria

 By Obi Nwakanma

By every index, Nigeria as a nation, has very nearly, finally collapsed. It is held together now only by a very weak thread called fate.

*Tinubu

Basically, Nigeria has slipped to the symbolic phase of nationhood. It can only perform symbolic actions of nationness: convoke a parliament which only sits symbolically because it is actually not a parliament; issue laws, which carry only symbolic authority because they have no life, and are unenforceable; issue executive papers that have no administrative force, because it is not connected to institutions that serve citizens. There are no citizens.

Killing Of Soldiers In Aba: Matters Arising

 By Obi Nwakanma

Two weeks ago, armed attackers stormed Aba, and at the Obikabia military checkpoint on the outskirts of the city, shot and killed two soldiers. It was a very unfortunate and dastardly act by these very cruel, heartless and rampaging gunmen who targeted armed soldiers, and have been making the South- East of Nigeria a terrible jungle of contemporary Necropolitics. These killer gunmen must be ferreted out and served their just dessert. But the reaction both by the military authorities, and by the president of Nigeria left bile in many mouths.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu issued orders to security agencies to lay siege and not only apprehend the killers of soldiers of the Nigerian Armed Forces, but also those calling for a “sit-at- home.” The Nigerian Armed Forces, he said, was capable of coming down heavily and crushing “non-state actors” making our communities unsafe. It is heartening to know that the Federal Government and our Armed Forces can crush these non- state actors making our communities unsafe, restless and increasingly unhabitable and insecure.

Nigeria, We Hail Thee?

 By Obi Nwakanma

There was a tradition recorded by the Roman historians, Suetonius and Tacitus, of the Naumachia, the spectacular, very large scale, gladiatorial public entertainment, which the Romans themselves also called Navalia Proelia because it was held at sea, or large lakes, or flooded arenas. 

Those who were rounded up, or selected to these Naumacharii, normally prisoners of war or state captives already condemned to die, were expected to enact naval battles before the emperor and fight to the death. And on this one occasion, those prisoners already condemned to fight to death, stood before the disfigured and lame emperor, Claudius, and declared, “Ave, Imperator! Morituri te Salutamus!” (“Hail Emperor! We who are about to die salute you!” Neither Suetonius nor Tacitus remarked at any hint of, or intention for irony in making that salute by these tragically fated fighters.

Nigeria’s Convocation Of Clowns

 By Kenechukwu Obiezu

Nigeria is currently entertaining a conversation over whether it is a country of clowns. The conversation was ignited by Kashim Shettima, Nigeria’s Vice President. At an event in Abuja, Shettima described Nigerians celebrating the free fall of the Naira against the dollar as clowns. Particularly, Shettima chided them for their celebrations on microblogging site X.

*Shettima and Tinubu and their wives 

Clowns imply a circus, and the use of the word by Shettima evokes memories of a 2018 interview of then President Muhammadu Buhari when he described Nigerian youths as lazy.

Nigeria’s Girl-Child Is A Resident Of Hell

 By Ray Ekpu

Recently, the world marked the International Day of the Girl-Child. Who is the girl-child and why is she singled out for attention throughout the world? That is what we plan to deal with here today. A girl-child is a biological female child who is any age from zero to 18 years. She is not only different from a boy-child but her needs are also different; her level of vulnerability is higher and many families and communities tend to treat her differently from, and in a manner that is inferior to, the way they treat the boychild.

Nigeria is regarded as a country of the young. About 46 per cent of Nigeria’s population are under age 15 and about 51 per cent of that population are said to be girls. Nigeria accounts for more than one in five out-of-school children anywhere in the world and more than 50 per cent of that number are girls. Even though primary school education is largely free and compulsory in Nigeria’s public schools about 33 per cent of eligible children are out of primary school.

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!

Options Before Bola Tinubu And His Critics

 By Jideofor Adibe

The Friday, May 26, 2023 Supreme Court’s dismissal of the appeal by the Peoples Democratic Party seeking the disqualification of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in the February 25, 2023 presidential election over alleged double nomination of his Vice-President Senator Kashim Shettima, essentially removed the last hurdle to his inauguration on May 29, 2023.

*Bola Tinubu

This means in essence that those who cannot bear the thought of Tinubu and Shettima as President and Vice President respectively will have to find a way of adjusting to the reality that they will be stuck with the duo till August this year (at the earliest) when the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the challenges to the INEC-declared outcome of the election. We are of course assuming that there will be no other unforeseen variable in-between. 

Did Buhari Lose Weight In Eight Years?

By Banji Ojewale

A new race of men is springing up to govern the nation; they are the hunters after popularity, men ambitious…the demagogues, whose principles hang laxly upon them, who follow not so much what is right as what leads to a temporary vulgar applause— Joseph Story (1779-1845), American Judge

*Buhari 

Let’s be guided by the former president’s own measuring rod to assess him and other public officers.  We don’t need to go into any arcane research or some tongue-twisting grammatical constructions to determine whether our outgone leaders served themselves or served us. All we should do is to consider the body optics: has the office holder lost weight or gained extra flesh?

2015-2023: The Years Of Pestilence

 By Adekunle Adekoya

When the All Progressives Congress, APC, came up to challenge PDP’s hold on power since 1999 in February 2013, not a few Nigerians incubated the hope that something refreshingly different will happen to Nigeria. Formed as a merger of three parties — the Congress for Progressive Change, the All Nigeria Peoples Party, and the Action Congress of Nigeria, the APC went ahead to field Major-General Muhammadu Buhari as its presidential candidate against Dr. Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP in the 2015 elections. The rest, as they say, is now history.

*Buhari's 73rd Birthday Dinner - December 17, 2015

Before and after the 2015 elections, Buhari and the APC made a lot of promises about how they would work to ensure that life and living gets on the upward swing for Nigerians. In fact, ahead of the elections, Buhari was at Chatham House, the UK think-tank where he made a lot of proclamations regarding what he would do if elected president. In the opening paragraphs of the Chatham House speech, Buhari said: “When speaking about Nigeria overseas, I normally prefer to be my country ’s public relations and marketing officer, extolling her virtues and hoping to attract investments and tourists.” 

Buhari’s Apology Not Accepted

  By Charles Okoh

It is human to err. No mortal man, born of a woman can claim to be without blemish. Anybody who lays claim to being righteous is the biggest jester you can find anywhere on this planet earth. Therefore, when people err and beg for forgiveness; it’s to be expected that they be given a second chance. But when a man makes the same mistakes over and over again and begs to be forgiven then the joke is no longer on the man but he that forgives and forgets, especially when the atrocities of that fellow are outrageous.

*Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari, ranks as one of the two most fortunate Nigerians from whom this nation has invested so much on and from whom much more is expected. The nation has taken care of virtually all his needs in all his working lives. He was a minister of this nation, at a time when many of those who are reading this had not been born. Served as military governor and headed various military formations. And as he lives after the end of his second term on May 29, 2023, he remains a minister after over 40 years.

Did Buhari Really Apologize To Nigerians?

 By Adeze Ojukwu 

Did Buhari really apologize to Nigerians? This is the poser before many citizens.  To put the record straight, a few days ago, Muhammadu Buhari, who has barely 32 days to exit as president, asked for pardon from those he might have hurt during his tenure.

*Buhari

The question is: “Did those scant remarks convey genuine regret or sincere contrition?” 

For many nationals, his mien and diction were not only condescending and evasive but also disingenuous. He did not come across as someone who was compunctious. Obviously, he is yet to come to terms with the monumental impact of his divisive and parochial governance on the nation. 

Nine Years Of Chibok Abduction And 96 Captive Girls

 By James Christoff, Matias Schmale and Cristian Munduate

The abduction of 276 female students from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, in 2014 brought the plight of children in Northeast Nigeria to the forefront of international attention. The Chibok girls became a symbol of the conflict’s devastating impact on children in particular girls, and their continued captivity nine years later is a reminder that the crisis is far from over.

On the ninth anniversary of the abduction, the world is once again reminded of the devastating impact of the ongoing armed conflict in Northeast Nigeria on children.

96 Chibok girls remain in captivity, as well as a significant number of children abducted by non-state armed groups, notably, Boko Haram and Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP). As a global community, we cannot turn a blind eye to the suffering of these children. We demand their unconditional release.

Neither Tinubu Nor Atiku Is Fit For Presidency

 By Emma Nwosu

Olusegun Adegoke, in his opinion published at page 13 of The Guardian of January 26, 2023, titled “Who, Between Atiku and Tinubu fits CEO of Nigeria”, raised a few of the germane criteria but gave the answers, wrongly, in favour of Atiku Abubakar – even giving him credit for what is due to the most distinguished President Nigeria has ever had, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, under whom Atiku was only a Vice President.

*Tinubu and Atiku 

You have to define the issues to get the job description from which to determine the job specification or profile of the person to be hired – based, primarily, on the person’s character and verifiable track record, from previous employment and referees, evidencing capacity and competence for higher responsibility.

Will Buhari Go Without Rescuing Leah Sharibu?

 By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

As President Muhammadu Buhari prepares himself for a happy return to his comfortable country home in Daura, Katsina State, after nearly eight years in office where he posted what is widely adjudged as far below average performance, a 19-year old, tender, innocent girl named Leah Sharibu remains a hapless, pathetic, unspeakably traumatized captive of Boko Haram terrorists, obviously, under the most dehumanizing conditions. 

*Leah Sharibu 

Given what has, reportedly, been the horrible experiences of young, beautiful girls like Leah who have been captured by these terrorists, one is really scared to imagine the extent of savage violations she might have been subjected to for over five years now! It is heartbreaking that she hardly gets mentioned again these days, especially, by those whose job it is to rescue and bring her home to her grieving parents and siblings!  

Has Nigeria woefully failed Leah Sharibu then? Has President Buhari who may have her age mates as grandchildren forgotten her? Has he given up hope of ever bringing her home again to her heartbroken parents? Will he leave her in the horrible den of terrorists as he happily retires to the comfort his home and family in Daura in the next few months? 

The Menace Of Terrorism In Africa

 By Tope Akinyetun 

“Terrorism is a plague from which no continent or country is immune…” --Coninsx 

The above statement exemplifies how widespread the menace of terrorism is around the world. Terrorism refers to the illegal use of violence to coerce a people or government to achieve a political end. The occurrence of terrorism could be domestic or international. Terrorism is domestic when it seeks to coerce or undermine the authority of a government within its territorial jurisdiction. 

However, when it is aimed at weakening a government outside its jurisdiction or if its operations are transboundary, it is referred to as international terrorism. Terrorism is, therefore, an epidemic that if not reined, will transmogrify into a pandemic. To be sure, the menace of terrorism has permeated several continents and has left the citizens of many countries wallowing in poverty, displacement, deprivation and unwarranted deaths.