By Charles Okoh
Nigeria was 64 last Tuesday. On that day in 1960, expectations were high and the country’s founding fathers had lofty dreams about a nation that was destined for the top with all the resources, both natural and human. However, 64 years later, it has been a dashed dream thus far.
In 64 years, leadership has completely failed the nation. Myopia and greed have left us in the middle of nowhere like a ship in the sea with incompetent crew and no compass.
By Charles Okoh
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) may have with recent events, proven to those who never believed in its abilities to properly prosecute financial fraud offenders without bias, that it has outlived its usefulness. An anti-graft agency that seems only out to diligently hunt and prosecute small fries while bungling high-profile cases involving men and women of means certainly cannot provide the much desired check on economic and financial crimes that hold this nation hostage.
*Tinubu and Bello
At the outset of the agency, incidentally under Nuhu Ribadu, who is the current National Security Adviser to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, there were at least some attempts to prosecute high-profile cases. Even though it was argued that ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and succeeding presidents after him, have been using the agency to persecute political enemies but it was still not hopeless as it currently is.
By Charles Okoh
They have always told us that politics is dirty but nobody informed us that there are also mad men in politics and that in politics indiscretion and sloppiness are virtues. It is sad that perhaps, because of the stupendous wealth and power politicians wield, there is something that makes some of them absolute nut cases, insensitive and unreasonable.
Former Edo governor and one time NLC president, Adams Oshiomhole, has consistently proven that wisdom indeed does not come with age. A man can be 100 years old and yet lacks wisdom. Oshiomhole has shown that the older he gets the more reckless, irrational and indiscreet he has become. How can somebody as old as this consistently speak without wisdom, discretion and self-restraint?
By Charles Okoh
There must be something inherently wrong with us as a people. There must be a reason that has made it practically impossible for all governance models or theories that have worked elsewhere to work here. Of course, the answer to that is corruption. We cannot say it enough. The level of corruption in the country is such that until something drastic is done, the development of this nation would continue to remain stunted.
For a while now, we have been waiting for the much-anticipated
Dangote Refinery to be launched.
Our expectations and optimism were not misplaced given the harrowing experience Nigerians have been having with exploiting our God-given resources for the benefit of the people of this country. Sadly, there is no evidence to show that this nation is endowed with such a resource as crude oil because we have never benefited as a people.
By Charles Okoh
Perhaps, the greatest reason good leadership has continued to elude us is because the executive has consistently cowed the other arms of government into total submission and capitulation. Such that the executive can effectively do without the necessary input of the other more critical arms of government; the legislature and judiciary.
Under President Muhammadu Buhari, the legislature and judiciary were reduced to mere appendages and branches of the executive. In fact, Ahmad Lawan’s 9th leadership of the Senate hit an all-time low in that regard. For Lawan, he was even proud to announce to a bewildered nation that under his watch, the senate would never have any reason to disagree with the executive. And that promise was kept until the end of Buhari’s second term. And for that he was rewarded with another tenure at the Senate in a move that would pass as the 8th wonder of the world.
By Charles Okoh
It is not a mere happenstance that the nation has remained bitterly divided along ethnic and religious lines in the past eight years. Perhaps, the event of the past eight years has brought to the fore the urgent need for the nation to begin to think of how best we can begin to address the many schisms that have held us down for so long.
How do we build that nation of our dreams where justice and fairness will prevail? How do we build that egalitarian society of our dreams where all will be treated as equals irrespective of their ethnic or religious leanings when issues of national concern are on the table?
By Charles Okoh
When the presidency announced that the out-going (thank God) President Muhammadu Buhari would be visiting the United Kingdom for the coronation of Charles III and his wife, Camilla, as King and Queen Consort of the United Kingdom penultimate Saturday, something told me that the presidency was telling its usual lies and that the president ultimately was going for a medical trip. And I said that openly to those around me.
Now, the president is human and like every other human being, is liable to fall ill and deserves all the best the country can give as a nation to its president. But I dare ask, must the best healthcare be delivered outside this country? What image is the president portraying of Nigeria to the larger world? That we can’t even treat his dental challenge locally?
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.
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.
By Charles Okoh
It appears that there will be no end in sight to the killings in Kaduna as well as Benue states. The lackadaisical approach of the Federal Government to halting the carnage in both states remains worrisome. If it is argued that the sheer spread of violence and wanton killings across the country have become too much of a burden for the government to handle, will it be out of place to demand from the Federal Government what its plan is towards ending the senseless killings especially in these states?
No fewer than 29 people have been killed in a fresh attack by bandits on Runji Village in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
The attack which occurred at about 10 p.m. penultimate Saturday night came barely three days after bandits killed eight people at the Atak’Njei community also in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area.
By Charles Okoh
Femi Adesina is shameless. To think that he is even a supposed cleric makes him even more shameless. Only a shameless man would make bogus claims and with a straight face still insists that the gibberish he spews forth is the truth.
Personally, I had resolved not to react to whatever Adesina or those who are media minders of President Buhari say, because it’s obvious that they have completely made a mess of whatever their assignment is and inadvertently done a great deal of disservice to their floundering principal.
By Charles Okoh
Last week, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, criticised several Western nations for endorsing the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), which he said has been categorised as a terrorist group. He issued the warning in Washington, D.C. during official meetings with a number of foreign media outlets and policy organisations.
According to NAN, the minister said IPOB
remains a terrorist group as declared by the Nigerian government and should be
treated as such by Western countries.
He
claimed that the group had been using funds raised in foreign countries to
“destabilise” Nigeria.
Mohammed argued that it is hypocritical for the West to assert that it is battling terrorism while secretly aiding a terrorist group.
By Charles Okoh
Penultimate weekend, the Governor of Anambra State, Chukwuma Soludo, celebrated his first 365 days in office. To mark the anniversary, he pulled some very important dignitaries to Awka, the state capital. Topmost of the distinguished personalities that graced the occasion, was former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Also present on the occasion were notable Igbo personalities like former governors of the state, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, and Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the last presidential election; Chairman, Council of Elders of Ohanaeze, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, former governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke, amongst others.
By Charles Okoh
Last week, Nigerians got some sort of relief as the Central Bank and Federal Government finally complied with the Supreme Court ruling on the lingering cash squeeze which practically squeezed life out of many Nigerians.
I am not particularly interested in the debate as it concerns
the independence of the CBN or otherwise or the right of the Supreme court to
intervene in monetary policy administration.
The arguments for or against, are neither here nor there, my pain is the unwarranted hardship which the federal government under president Muhammadu Buhari unconscionably subjected the people to. This level of hardship is unprecedented.
By Charles Okoh
For a lot of Nigerians who had looked forward to using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) technology in the presidential and National Assembly elections of Saturday, February 25, it was a huge disappointment to see that that was not to be. Well, maybe, except for those who conspired to see that the device, which the INEC chairman Yakubu Mahmood and his team had touted as the game changer, did not work.
The BVAS, it was expected, will help deepen our democracy by removing as much as possible human intervention in the process. Opportunities were provided by INEC for manipulation, thereby exposing to the world their insincerity. In the end it was a total waste of the time of the voter and the resources of a nation whose revenues have continued to dwindle.
By Charles Okoh
To attain the age of 70 in Nigeria at a time when the life expectancy of Nigerians is about 55 years is worth celebrating. To attain the Biblical three score and ten, in a country where the stress levels seem permanently on the increase and other attendant stressors seemed arrayed to snuff out life from the people is more than enough reason to celebrate and give thanks to God Almighty.
It is not often that people get celebrated while alive. It was the famous Nigerian musical icon Patoranking who insists that he is celebrated in his hit song in local lingo; “Celebrate me, now when I dey alive…”
For veteran journalist and celebrated newspaper columnist, Ayo Oyoze Baje, who turned 70 years on Wednesday, February 8, it was an opportunity to celebrate a journalist who has remained undeterred and undaunted in his resolve to constantly lend his voice to the voiceless.
By Charles Okoh
There can be no telling the measure of pressure faced by Nigerians at a time as this. What is not in doubt is whatever the intent of the presidency in pursuing the redesign of some currencies, the discomfort Nigerians suffer now, if nothing is done about it might as well get to a level where the people can no longer bear the pains and inconveniences any more. At that stage, nothing is predictable.
In spite of repeated denials by Godwin Emefiele, that the naira redesign is not political and not targeted at any politician, the reaction of the members of the National Assembly and governors, especially of the APC, suggest that, indeed, there may be more to it than meets the eye.
By Charles Okoh
It is completely heart-rending and morally incomprehensible the level some Nigerians can go to excuse President Muhammadu Buhari for the wreck that his administration has made of Nigeria and Nigerians. His spin doctors would blame anything and everything under the sun for his sloppy performance in office, except the culprits himself. Buhari’s failure is self-inflicted and he should completely take responsibility for the failure of his government.
Today, everybody is in one queue or the other. The perennial fuel scarcity has remained with the country for virtually all of the President’s seven-and-half years’ tenure, so far, and everybody and association or union, is blamed for the failure of the petroleum sector, except the substantive minister of petroleum, who happens to be President Buhari.
By Charles Okoh
The most pathetic people to listen to on the situation in Nigeria are the ardent supporters and sympathisers of President Muhammadu Buhari. They unabashedly regularly stand truth on its head, all in the name of trying to rewrite history just to suit their principal.
Truth is that Buhari remains the worst President ever to occupy that office. They speak of construction of roads, railways and building other infrastructure, as though there has ever been a president who did not do all of that. Is there any president or military head of state that did not build roads and bridges or other infrastructure? Buhari’s eight years, by the time he leaves, thank God, on May 29, would be the greatest disservice any leader has visited on this nation.
By Charles Okoh
These are not the best of times for Nigerians. There are several existential threats confronting the average Nigerian. A man, whose house is on a raging inferno, certainly cannot have any time to spare to chase rats.
For about two weeks now, Nigerians have been trekking, sweating, thirsty and starving. No thanks to petrol scarcity and the high cost of living. The persistent fuel shortage has continued and people are left running from pillar to post seeking for what God in His infinite mercies deposited in large quantities in our land, yet we have been living in want and scarcity. The paradox is such that a people and nation that have no reason to be poor are wallowing in abject poverty.
By Charles Okoh
“I cannot
say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must
change if they are to get better.” – Georg C.
Lichtenburg
It is no longer debatable that the only problem keeping this nation down is the problem of fixing the governance jigsaw. We have been held down by the fact that rather than a democracy where the wishes of the people reign supreme; we have practiced neo-feudalism where a few people lord it over the rest of us and dictate who gets what or into any office in the land.
This has never been as bad and brazen since independence as they
have been since the turn of the fourth republic in 1999.The result being that
there has been a steady and ever-increasing level of apathy towards elections
in the country.
For instance, in the 2019 presidential elections that secured President Muhammadu Buhari, his second term, only 34.75 percent of registered voters actually voted in elections, according data released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
