2023: Between Atiku, Tinubu And Obi

 By Charles Okoh

For Nigeria, the year 2023 is just not another year. It is a year that will determine the fate of the nation. The campaigns by political parties would not commence until September 28, 2022 as provided by Sec. 94(1) of the Electoral Act 2022. But, the tension around the election has reached boiling point. What happens to this nation going forward would be determined by the choice we make in 2023.

*Obi, Tinubu, Atiku 

There are several reasons why 2023 could make or mar Nigeria. One of the biggest reasons why Nigeria and Nigerians must get it right is that for the past seven years we have been living the reality and facing the pangs that come with our wrong choice of President Muhammadu Buhari. In seven short years, Buhari has squandered the enormous goodwill he had coming to that office. That more than anything else, is the reason there is so much tension in the land. It is the reason Nigeria has remained on the edge of a precipice.

As the campaigns commence, it is imperative on all political parties and candidates to focus on issue-based campaigns. This way we can ensure that the polity is not unnecessarily heated up and it will also afford us the opportunity to assess the competencies and preparedness of those who seek to rule us in order to ensure transparent elections in which only the votes cast by citizens determine the winner. Sentiments, emotions and selfishness must take the backstage in making that vital decision.

Buhari’s Parting Gift To Nigerians

 By Charles Okoh

Come May 29, 2023, it would have been eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari. It would have been eight trying years or a mixed grill of the good, the bad and the ugly. To say those years have stretched the people to the very limit of their existence which has left many despondent, disillusioned, crestfallen and in a state of near hopelessness would amount to stating the obvious.

*Buhari

What are the facts? It is a fact that Nigerians have been enduring very harsh and debilitating living conditions as of late. Did the problem begin with the present administration? Certainly not, it is the culmination of many years of poor leadership and a continuous downward slide, but it is also sad to note that rather than fashioning a plan to halt this trend it had become a free fall. The government of President Buhari has only helped in exacerbating the nation’s slide into the abyss.

Just as his actions have not helped matters in any way, his inactions at several occasions when the nation needed him to wield the big stick has further paved the way for a multitude of cataclysms on the ragged nation that is barely held together by a strand.

#EndSARS: At Last, Truth Resurrects From Shallow Grave Of Lies

 By Charles Okoh

No matter how far falsehood travels, the truth must always catch up with it. Everybody, that should be telling Nigerians who gave them the mandate they exercise, lied concerning the issues before, during and after the unfortunate development on October 20, 2020, at the Lekki Toll Gate, when defenceless Nigerian youths were shamelessly mowed by wicked uniformed personnel of the Nigerian Army and the Police. Since then, there have been tons and tons of lies to mask the truth, but the truth cannot be buried forever.

The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who before then enjoyed tremendous goodwill among Nigerian youths in Lagos, joined in the lie. These flip-flops and cocktail of lies were so much and concerted that the victims were made to look like the suspects.

Who Is Governor Lalong Trying To Please?

 By Charles Okoh

It is difficult to fathom whose interest Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State, is out to serve. Governor Lalong for some inexplicable reasons has chosen to look away while the once peaceful state has been turned into a huge killing field. Lalong’s personal ambition, it seems, has left him satisfied with the albatross he carries around in the name of being the chairman of the Northern States’ Governors Forum and his desire not to upset the presidency, even in the face of a clear threat to exterminate the people of the state.

*Lalong 

June 2018, over 100 people were killed in Gindi Akwati, Ruku, Kura, Rapps, Kinshan, Gengere, Heipang, and Gana Ropp areas of the state. The gory incident forced Governor Lalong, who was in Abuja to attend the All Progressives Congress (APC) national convention, to abandon the convention and return home to attend to the situation.

Heavens Will Fall If A Northerner Succeeds Buhari

 By Charles Okoh

You probably would have read or listened to a rabble-rouser who goes by the name Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, spokesman of the Northern Elders’ Forum, when he spoke recently, as he always does, as though he has authority to speak on behalf of a superficial monolithic north, that heavens would not fall if the presidency remains in the north after President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.

*Sultan of Sokoto, Buhari and others

To be sure, I am not particularly interested in where the president comes from, what religion he practises or the language he speaks. This divisive and base level politicking is engineered by those who have continued to impede the growth and development of the nation for their selfish interests alone.

However, you cannot be in the Nigeria of today and pretend not to know that with the precarious situation the nation is now, what has now come to be known as rotational presidency remains the only way this nation can survive. It is the only way to give all the sense of belonging, fairness, equity and justice. Tempers have risen; the mutual suspicion in the air is so thick you can literally slice it with a knife. It is that bad. In a normal clime; merit should be the watchword; but ours is anything but normal.

Nigeria’s Value Added Transgressions (VAT)

 By Charles Okoh

The recent upheavals generated by the bold move by Governor Nyesom Wike of the Rivers State to contest the right of the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) to continue collection of Value Added Tax, has brought to the fore several issues that are germane to the success or otherwise of the nation. The current skewed federal structure is largely responsible for the stunted growth of the nation. For those who mean well, the parasitic structure we operate as a federation cannot be in the ultimate interest of the nation.

The Rivers State Government had obtained the judgment of the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt Division (coram Hon. Justice Stephen D. Pam, J.,) delivered in Suit No. FHC/PH/CS/149/2020 (Attorney General Rivers State v. Federal Inland Revenue Service & Anor) on 9th August, 2021 upholding the constitutional authority and competence of the Rivers State Government to impose, charge, demand, and collect VAT on taxable goods and services within Rivers State and declaring that the Federal Government through the FIRS has no power to impose and collect VAT within the state.

Buhari’s Insistence On Open Grazing Will Destroy Nigeria

 By Charles Okoh

From all indications, President Muhammadu Buhari is hell-bent on breaking the country. A president who is desirous of building an egalitarian society where the rule of law is supreme cannot consistently be insisting on having his way even when it is obvious to all discerning minds that the path the president is toeing is fraught with troubles that are capable of tearing the nation apart. It is not a mark of strength that a leader insists on always having his way and never caring a hoot how the people feel and yet Buhari claims he is exercising the mandate given him by the people. 

*Buhari 

Since coming to office, the president has pursued only the agenda of the Fulani cattle breeders. That he is their patron cannot explain why he insists that it is only what pleases the pastoralists that he will spend eight years of the nation’s time and resources pursuing. The country is grappling with various challenges too numerous to mention, yet the president seems to be wasting his time creating more conflicts and disputes among the people he claims to be leading. 

Nigeria: Kanu, Igboho And Buhari’s Misplaced Priorities

By Charles Okoh

Surviving in Nigeria is now a herculean task. Poverty continues to spiral and hunger and general hardship are gaining geographical spread in exponential proportion and something urgent needs to be done to arrest this development. To say Nigerians are hungry would amount to stating the obvious. The prices of items in the market are permanently sky-bound.

*Buhari

To tackle these seemingly insurmountable hiccups would call for a multi-pronged approach where all hands must be on deck because to juxtapose excruciating hunger with the alarming rate of idle hands and jobless Nigerians, especially the restless youths, would lead to outcomes unimaginable. 

Recently, two women were lamenting the rising cost of living and the difficulty they go through to put food on the table for their families. These women both have jobs; one of them a civilian, and the other a naval personnel. With so much anguish on their faces, they lamented that it had become difficult for them to buy foodstuffs like yam, tomatoes, rice, plantain etc. What actually interested me was the expression of despondency on the faces of these women and one cannot but wonder if those with jobs are lamenting this way, then what is the fate of those without jobs at a time like this. 

Indeed, This 9th National Assembly Is Irredeemable!

 By Charles Okoh

That the Nigerian National Assembly has charted its own course is well-known. That this otherwise bastion of democracy has opted to attach itself as an appendage to the executive arm of government is also well documented fact, but what is all the more troubling is how low they are prepared to condescend just to be seen to be subservient and yes-men to the executive. 

*Lawan, Buhari, Gbajabiamila 

Last week, the Senate turned down the nomination of the garrulous nominee of President Muhammadu Buhari, Lauretta Onochie, as INEC commissioner to represent Delta State. The lily-livered Senate had been having sleepless nights on how to deliver what was an obvious decision without hurting the president. 

Stakeholders, including Civil Society Organisations, CSOs, and the main opposition party, the PDP, had staged a series of protests at the National Assembly against Onochie’s nomination by the President, arguing that she is a card-carrying member of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

Constitution Amendment: Can Lawan, Gbajabiamila Be Trusted?

 By Charles Okoh

The senate president, Ahmad Lawan and his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, are two of a kind. Apart from the fact that they both belong to the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), they also seem resolved to maintaining the status quo to hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil about the party and the federal government. If that is what being loyal to one’s party means, I leave that to all to conjecture, but how do we tell when the opportunity to transcend party politics to projecting national interest beckons? 

*Lawan, Buhari, Gbajabiamila 

To be sure, both gentlemen have told us severally that they do not intend to ruffle the feathers of the executive, at least not openly, and they have kept faith to that for about two years since their inauguration. However, the very essence of separation of powers in a democracy would be completely defeated if the other arms of government would acquiesce with all that the executive throws at them. 

Open Grazing Protagonists As Enemies Of Nigeria

 By Charles Okoh

Easily the greatest casualty, in the history of this otherwise great nation, is the murder of truth, justice, fair play and equality on the altar of hypocrisy sycophancy, tribalism, nepotism, religious bigotry, etc. Now, to speak the truth is to risk being seen as an enemy of the state and a saboteur. But the truth has a way of always coming back to haunt those who seek to bury it.

Nigeria is a lie that has been told for several years. It is a country that is built on falsehood, injustice and inequality. But truth is, until we are able to come to terms with this reality, we will continue to wander aimlessly and other tiny nations will continue to take advantage of our misfortune. Truth remains constant. 

Clearly, one truth we seem unprepared to face is the reality that Nigeria has been held back because we have not learnt to be dispassionate with national issues and forge a common front in addressing issues of national significance and importance. 

Nigeria: Buhari, Pantami And The Burden Of A Nation

 By Charles Okoh

The recent unearthing of the not-so-wholesome past of the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami, has brought doubts on the sincerity and desire of the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to end insurgency and all sundry security issues that currently engulf the nation.

 *Buhari and Pantami

Pantami has shown little or no regards for the tenets of democracy and democratic principles in his capacity as a minister in a democratic government. He has carried on as a despotic leader who would brook no contrary view no matter how genuine and objective. His disposition to governance would only come as a surprise to those who knew little about him before the tremor caused by the expose on his sordid past came to the fore recently. 

Why Buhari Should Listen To Obasanjo And Soyinka

 By Charles Okoh

I don’t envy President Muhammadu Buhari. The sheer enormity of the burden on the leader of a nation like Nigeria is certainly not a thing to trivialise or dismiss with the wave of the hand. Before Buhari’s emergence as president, there were issues that threatened the very existence of the nation and had eaten deep into the very fabric that should hold us together. All these issues preceded the administration of President Buhari. True. 

                                                 *Obasanjo and Buhari

However, and sadly too, nothing much is being done to build this slowly but steadily disintegrating and dysfunctional nation. Every of those fault lines that threaten the nation are daily accentuated by the action and inaction of the Buhari regime. There is a clear lack of willpower to arrest the decline. To this end, we have been regaled with stories of denials and blame trade that will ultimately do no one any good.