Governors, Thugs And Settlement Of Disputes

 By Owei Lakemfa

In 2011, we in the Trade Union Movement were worried that the new National Minimum Wage of N18,000 consented to by the Federal and State governments, and signed into law the previous year, was not being implemented.

Negotiations had gone pretty well with the Federal Government, but had hit a brick-wall when its team said on a note of finality it had reached the limit of the wage bill it could shoulder. We needed an additional N2 billion. Labour met directly with then President Goodluck Jonathan and he directed that the additional fund be added to the Federal wage bill.

Nigeria: Supreme Hooliganism?

 By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

In June 2020, Malawians took to the streets and the judges joined to resist the attempt by President Peter Mutharika to fire Chief Justice Andrew Nyirenda in order to enable him rig a presidential re-run. The people trusted the Chief Justice more than the president, so they got rid of the president in order to keep the Chief Justice. One month later, in Mali, an uprising began when an unpopular ruling party used the Constitutional Court to rob the opposition of its victories, eventually leading to the dissolution of the court and a military coup.

Judicial immersion in political disputes is hazardous and judges called upon to do it have a clear choice to either resist importunations that compromise their authority or canoodle with the politicians at the risk of irremediable damage to judicial office. Nigeria’s Supreme Court appears to have made its choice and the consequences are unflattering.

Imo: In Search Of The ‘Hope’ In Uzodinma

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

Now that Nigerians appear to have tried their best to put behind them the controversial Supreme Court judgment that made Mr. Hope Uzodinma the Governor of Imo State, the great task before him now is to hasten to convince Imo people that the apex court has not brutally forced a very bitter and impuissant pill down their throats, but, that, he is, indeed, that governor they have always hoped for, who will change the face of Imo for good! 

*Gov Uzodinma and President Buhari 

He does not have the luxury time. A delayed performance might begin to sow in the minds of the people the toxic thought that the pill they have swallowed lacks the power to solve the several debilitating maladies weighing the state down. And if their worst fears are eventually confirmed, it would then amount to another hope devastatingly betrayed (if you will permit the pun). And the cost, politically, might be too high for Mr. Uzodinma.   

Well-meaning Nigerians are becoming increasingly worried that the courts are brazenly usurping the power of the electorate to choose their leaders. They are beginning to think that the ever-swelling number of court-crowned leaders constitutes a dangerous threat to our democracy and a frustrating and discouraging experience to the masses who take the pains and defy the often very harsh sun and rain to vote. Why bother to vote when, eventually, the decision on who occupies the office will be decided by about five or seven judges – none of whom may even come from the state or constituency in question? The danger is that the people are often alienated from the leader since they are increasingly finding it difficult to convince themselves that they are being governed or represented by somebody they chose.

That Unprofitable Ministerial Screening In Nigeria!

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

Working as a political appointee in Nigeria is, perhaps, merely an exercise in extreme perfunctoriness. I doubt if those who accept these offices, those who offer them and those who “screen” and confirm the appointees, are driven by any vision at all, any objective to achieve for the progress of the country.

What is very clear is that whereas work for these officers is largely undertaken desultorily (with little or no intention to achieve any significant outcome), what appears to drive most of them is the opportunity to arrange or negotiate what might enter their private pockets from the public purse. It is at the point when there are funds to loot that one would be startled to discover that the Nigerian public office holder is, indeed, capable of being very zealous, thorough and focused, that he can conscientiously pursue a set goal and achieve it with amazing aplomb and precision.

How To Clap For Buhari, Kemi Adeosun, Amaechi And Ngige

By Reno Omokri

 At last, Kemi Adeosun, Muhammadu Buhari’s cockney accented Minister of Finance has finally resigned. Kemi claims she did not know her National Youth Service Corps exemption certificate was forged and I believe her.

*President Buhari and Dr. Ngige

  I read her letter and it made sense. I believe she is an unfortunate victim of circumstances. Ordinarily, I would have called for her prosecution, but this was an honest mistake and she should not be punished beyond her resignation.

Having said that, it is surprising that President Buhari accepted her resignation on the ground that she has a forged certificate. The question is what should a man whose certificate is suspected not to have ever even existed do in such a circumstance? Muhammadu Buhari claims to be a man of integrity, but when challenged to provide his West African School Certificate results for perusal, the famously boastful Buhari responded by hiring thirteen Senior Advocates of Nigeria to hide behind a wall of legalese.

Before Buhari Tampers With Press Freedom Again

By Martins Oloja

Even if we encourage ourselves by wishing for peaceful coverage of the 2019 election processes, as journalists, there are warning signals for us to prepare for war with this administration. Reason: most of us are beginning to discern that despite their assurances since May 2015, they are set to tinker ruthlessly with press freedom for their ‘Project 2019’. 

*President Buhari and his adviser on media,
Femi Adesina

On March 16, 2015, the then candidate Muhammadu Buhari told the newspapers’ proprietors and editors: “I won’t tamper with press freedom…”  

Buhari, who then said a change revolution was imminent in the country without firing a shot also assured the influential members of the Newspapers’ Proprietors Association of Nigeria( NPAN) and the Nigerian Guild of Editors ( NGE) at an interaction in Abuja:

Bola Tinubu’s Breathtaking Hypocrisy

By Shaka Momodu

When last February President Muhammadu Buhari saddled the former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, with the task of reconciling all aggrieved members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) across the country, I scoffed at the idea and stated then that it was a futile exercise. The reasons were not far-fetched: Buhari by his actions had no genuine desire at reconciling the party members; with Tinubu as the chief aggrieved member, leading such efforts was a misnomer because he needed to be reconciled with some of the party members. I predicted that by the end of his brief, the party would be more divided than before. 

*Bola Tinubu 

Barely two weeks after Tinubu’s peace committee was inaugurated, crisis rocking the Kaduna State chapter of the APC, took a turn for the worse after a building located in the heart of Kaduna city, belonging to a leader of one of the two factions, Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi, was demolished by the state government. Tinubu’s committee said nothing publicly about such intolerant behaviour on the part of the state governor. That it happened after Tinubu’s supposed reconciliation committee was set up showed the disregard party members had for it. 

Please, Halt The Needless Carnages On Nigerian Roads Now

By Lekan Alabi

Again, one is pushed, yes pushed, to appeal to Nigerian governments and road users alike to halt the needless carnages on our roads, caused by bad (dangerous) roads and mad traffic manners.

I first made this appeal in my article, titled, Blowing Their Killer Sirens, published in The Guardian on Sunday issue of February 20, 1994. When that appeal with those of other Nigerians appeared to have fallen on deaf ears, I updated my 1994 appeal in 2013, in another article titled, Convoys, Carnages and Caution. 

Political Killings In Rivers State

By Peter Ovie Akus 

Rivers of blood flowed in Omoku,  Rivers State, on New Year day when over 20 people were killed and 12 more injured after they were attacked by unknown gunmen as they journeyed home after their participation in New Year’s Eve services in various churches.

This bloodletting, which was carried out on a day that was meant to be a day of celebration for all, has been trailed by condemnation from all and sundry with many calling for the investigation, arrest and prosecution of all those involved in this dastardly act.

Rotimi Amaechi Is An Ignoramus: Here Are Facts To Prove It

By Reno Omokri

It is quite possible that Mr. Rotimi Amaechi is losing his marbles otherwise why else would he be asking former President Goodluck Jonathan to account for the $65 billion that former President Olusegun Obasanjo left in the Excess Crude Account when there was never any such amount? Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria who served under his tenure, Professor Charles Soludo are both alive and journalists can take advantage of the Freedom of Information Act signed into Law by former President Jonathan to verify from them if there was ever any $65 billion in the Excess Crude Account.

*Rotimi Amaechi

 Rotimi Amaechi is a notorious ignoramus who speaks without thinking and it is suspected that he is going senile. The reason I say so is because Rotimi Amaechi as Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum is precisely the reason why the Excess Crude Account had to be phased out and below are the facts:

Reflections On Rotimi Amaechi And Nyesom Wike

By Pius Adesanmi

Yesterday, the convoys of Rotimi Amaechi and Nyesom Wike clashed in Port Harcourt. Today, the airwaves will be flooded by their aides. There will be narratives and counter-narratives. Colourful lies will clash with colorful hyperbole. Aides will be locked in a competition to win public sympathy for their bosses. On all sides, the scramble for the winning story has actually begun.

Amaechi and Wike 

Citizen, let me advise you. Let the aides do what they are paid to do. You have no dog in this fight. It is just two irresponsible Nigerian leaders involved in a street fight. Who is right and who is wrong between Wike and Amaechi is none of your business. Both men are mountains on your back. They are your oppressor. In these tough economic times, do not be misled by aides to waste your precious data taking sides with one man against the other. The only way this applies to you is that you are the grass beneath the feet of the two elephants going at it naked in public.

Do you want to know how you are the grass? Come with me.

Thanks are due to Sahara Reporters for providing photographic slides of the street location of the skirmish in Port Harcourt. They are fighting in dirty, rain-soaked streets. Evidence of horrible drainage abounds in the photos. There is some flooding. Everything looks jaga jaga like the streets of urban Nigeria look whenever the rains come.

Buhari: Where Is The Change Promised?

By Martins Oloja 

This is not a time for speaking in tongues. It is a time to tell President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) and all the governing APC chieftains that two years should be enough to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, as someone once put it comically too, there is neither a tunnel nor light in the country where mediocrity is daily nurtured by sycophancy. 

*Buhari

Indeed, a season of sycophancy is here again and the cheer leaders and mega sycophants who are members of a mega party called AGIP (Any Government in Power) will heap mega praises on the Buhari administration for dealing decisively with corruption and insecurity in the North East. And we in the media will readily assist them in propagating the ‘monumental achievements’ in the last two years. In fact, their consultants within the media have begun the journalistic legwork. And from tomorrow (May 29, 2017), we will be reading balanced stories with headlines such as “Knocks, Kudos For Buhari’s Two Years In Office”. In the end there will be more “kudos” than “knocks” for the 'wonderful' administration, an idea no force on earth could have stopped in May, 2015. We are indeed in an era of sycophancy that has shaped massive mediocrity everywhere we go in the country.

The Buhari Govt’s Tower Of Babel

By Onuoha Ukeh

When President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated his cabinet,  six months after assuming office, many Nigerians did heave a sign of relief, believing that a government had eventually been formed. With ministers duly assigned portfolios and sworn in, all was set for government to roll and begin to address the myriad of  issues plaguing the country, with the view to catering to the needs of the people. It was a legitimate wish by a people who had high expectations from a government that promised heaven and earth.

*Buhari 

Sixteen months after the government was formed, and 22 months after President Buhari took over the reins of governance, I have often asked myself this question: Is this really a government or just an assemblage of people, who are just doing whatever please them, in the name of working for the good governance of Nigeria? I ask this question because what we have as a government appears mainly like a mere party, where those in office operate like islands, doing and saying what they like, while humanity suffers. There is no synergy  whatsoever.  In the government, there are discordant and cacophony of voices.

This week, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, issued a travel advisory on the United States (US). No doubt, feeling that as a presidential aide on foreign affairs, she could talk about foreign policy and issues related to her office, this former federal lawmaker advised Nigerians not to travel to the US for now, if they do not have any compelling business in the North American country. She said her advice became necessary, since Nigerians, who have valid US visas, had been denied entry into the US. In her wisdom, Dabiri-Erewa wanted Nigerians to freeze their trips to the US until the immigration policy of the Donald Trump administration was clear.

Rivers Rerun And INEC’s Impartiality

By Robert Obioha

IT is good and desirable that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will tomorrow conduct the remaining Federal and State legislative elections in Rivers State. Nigerians and indeed the people of Rivers State will heave a sigh of relief that at last this election will be concluded. Its conclusion will mean that they will be fully represented in the National and State Assembly.

It will also mean that Rivers State will have a say in decisions of the highest law-making organs in the country. For this exercise to be violence-free, fair and credible, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has deployed 20,000 police personnel, 3 helicopters and 20 gunboats. It is hoped that with this massive deployment of policemen, the issue of insecurity and electoral violence should not arise.

The electoral agency has deployed about 10,294 staff to ensure a seamless exercise and conclusion of the rereun elections in Rivers State. Therefore, there is no doubt that all is now set for tomorrow’s exercise, expected to conclude the poll which began last year. For months, the people of Rivers State had been denied representation in the National and State Assembly.

Now that INEC is set to complete the exercise and give them full representation in the National and State Assembly, all hands must be on deck to ensure that it is successful this time around. All the grandstanding by certain political actors concerning the exercise is unnecessary. Politicians and their supporters should be part of the effort to make the exercise succeed.

They should refrain from incendiary comments capable of stoking violence in the state. All the security agents must maintain absolute political neutrality in the elections. Their job is to provide adequate security in the state before, during and after the polls. They should not aid any party to rig the election or to gain any political advantage.

Rivers Rerun And Do-Or-Die Politics

By Carl Umegboro
The treasure base of the nation, Rivers will on December 10 host the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in respect of rerun elections into the State and National Assemblies  which were earlier quashed by the court. Major contenders are the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP).   As the election day approaches, tension, threats of brimstone; of bury alive, of slay and dry, of cultists’ annihilations and others have continued to gather momentum.

Rotimi Amaechi and Nyesom Wike 

Luckily, Ondo State governorship election held on Saturday,  November 26 has set a positive precedent that elections can actually be conducted in a civilized manner instead of opting up for the bizarre. The electorate, candidates and the electoral officials proved to the world that Nigeria is no longer a nascent democracy. The upcoming election in Rivers must not witness further bloodshed or grotesquely odd remarks. Violence, forcefulness or belligerence is never a characteristic of democracy as peddled by some folks in some quarters. Succinctly, it is intellectual pursuit of power, and definably, the act of selecting the representatives of the people in a free and fair manner purposely for good governance.

Today, the two arrowheads: Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi and the State Governor, Nyesom Wike are believably akin to then Iraq and Iran, and the grassroots parochially fight for them crossing boundaries and cutting down barriers, but unknown to them, by the indisputable feature of our politics, may be disappointed to witness the two leaders of their respective political parties eventually in one party dining together in the nearest future. All it may take is just a closed-door meeting in a five star hotel in the United Kingdom or United States of America with a few other bigwigs. At that point, those that grossly bullied opponents, beheaded fellow indigenes, killed political opponents, kidnapped or committed other atrocities of intimidation will be left alone. The deeds by then had been done and cannot be reversed. Or, do you assume Amaechi and Wike will remain in opposing political parties for life? Absolutely not. Rivers people should emulate the people of Ondo State and maintain amity and decorum. Whoever wins is a victory for democracy and for the state. Enough of political extremism, mediocrity, terrorization, hedonism and debauchery!

At the moment, the state is administratively under Gov. Wike’s control, and therefore, should as the political leader proactively douse all the political tensions in the state. Politics is not a do-or-die affair and political statements must reflect maturity, decency and administrative know-hows. What is vital is to conduct a free and fair election. No political party ever emerged both a winner and loser at the same time and any democracy must be characterized by victory and defeat.

The finest priority any selfless leader could set in motion is to ensure that the will of the people takes superiority in sync with Section 14 (2) (b) of the 1999 Nigeria’s Constitution which provides that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”. Hence, any government that creates unwarranted scenes that are inconsistent is anti-people, anti-democracy and an agent of destruction.

Investigate Allegations Against Amaechi, Onu

By Frank P. Ujuh

The anti-corruption war is getting messier everyday with some startling revelations. After the Department of State Services (DSS) sting operation on some judges in the country and government’s explanation over what most Nigerians regarded as an attack on the judiciary, some of the judges have started dishing out their own side of the story.

Rotimi Amaechi and President Buhari 

First to throw the salvo was one of the arrested Justices of the Supreme Court, Justice John Inyang Okoro. Justice Okoro had in a letter to the National Judicial Council (NJC) alleged that his refusal to do the bidding of the Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, over election matters in Akwa Ibom, Abia and Rivers states is the source of his travails.

According to Justice Okoro, “My Lord, I strongly believe that this my travail is not unconnected with the verbal report I made to you on February 1, 2016 about the visit to my official residence by Rotimi Amaechi, former governor of Rivers   State and now Minister of Transport. In that report, I told you my lord, that Amaechi said that the president of Nigeria and the APC mandated him to inform me that they must win their appeals in respect of Rivers State, Akwa Ibom State and Abia State at all costs.”

However, Amaechi’s media aide, David Iyofo, has denied the allegation. He said that “This accusation from Justice Okoro against Amaechi is a figment of his imagination, concocted to obfuscate and politicize the real issues for his arrest and the DSS investigation of allegations of corruption against him.

"The claims by Justice Okoro against Amaechi are blatant lies, bereft of any iota of truth or even logic. Amaechi did not, and has never approached Justice Okoro in respect of the cases Okoro mentioned or any other case. This is a cheap attempt, albeit, political move to drag the name of Amaechi into something he knows nothing about. Justice Okoro should face his issues and leave Amaechi out of it.”

When the dust raised by Okoro’s allegation is not yet settled, another Supreme Court Judge, Justice Sylvester Ngwuta came up with another weighty allegation of corruption against Amaechi and the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu over election matters. Justice Ngwuta had in a letter addressed to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, explained that his problem dated back to 2014 when Amaechi approached him to set aside Ayo Fayose’s election in order to make way for the former governor of Ekiti State and now Minister of Solid Mineral, Kayode Fayemi.

According to Ngwuta, “My present plight started sometime between 2013 and 2014. I represented the then Chief Justice of Nigeria in an event organised in the International Conference Centre. He begged me to ensure that Fayose’s election was set aside and another election ordered for his friend Fayemi to contest. I told him I would not help him and that even if I was on the panel, I had only my one vote.”

*Dr Ogbonnaya Onu and  President
Muhammadu Buhari

Justice Ngwuta also alleged that a former governor of Abia State, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu contacted him to help sway the Court of Appeal’s decision on Ebonyi State governorship election matter. Amaechi’s media aide, David Iyofo said that “Justice Ngwuta’s allegation is nothing but pure fiction, a dubious diversionary tale concocted to muddle the very serious issues of his arrest and investigation by the Department of State Services (DSS).”

In the same vein, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu has denied the bribery allegation by Ngwuta. According to Onu, “ I am astonished that Justice Ngwuta made such statements against my humble self, especially considering that he is my brother, friend and long standing associate of almost three decades.”

Onu further pointed out that “I have labored with other compatriots to strengthen the depth and reach of participatory democracy in our beloved country. in doing so, I am conscious of the essence of the rule of law as a vital component of true and enduring democracy and the important need to treasure, protect and defend it at all times. Even as a student, teacher, engineer and administrator, I have always worked tirelessly to uphold the rule of law.”

Despite the spirited denials by the two ministers, the allegations made by Justices Okoro and Ngwuta against Rotimi Amaechi and Ogbonnaya Onu are too weighty to be dismissed with a wave of the hand. The aim of the fight against corruption will be utterly defeated if these allegations are not thoroughly investigated. In fact, the relevant investigative organs should wade into the matter without any further delay.

The investigation has become necessary considering the fact that the allegations border on bribing judges against election petition matters, especially those in Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Abia, Ekiti and Ebonyi states. It is worrisome that all the states concerned in these allegations are in the hands of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and those named in the bribery allegations are chieftains of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

While we hold those mentioned in the allegations innocent until the contrary is proved, we call for urgent investigation of the sundry bribery allegations against the serving ministers of this administration. It is in the interest of the ministers that the matter is investigated.

For the investigation to be thorough, the two ministers must step aside. Since the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo has affirmed that corruption is in all arms of government, the fight against corruption should be extended to those involved in the executive arm. Much of that had been the lot of the legislature and recently of the judiciary.

The Federal Government should not bury this matter under the carpet. This matter should not be treated like a family affair. Since these allegations have been brought to the public domain by the Supreme Court Justices, they deserve to be investigated. To do otherwise will jeopardize the current anti-corruption agenda of the present administration.

Every person accused of corruption must be thoroughly investigated and there should be no cover up of any kind. Nigerians are watching to see this happen. It will be recalled that the anti-graft war of the present dispensation has been accused of being selective and political. Nigerians want a departure from such posture. Let all corruption allegations against those in power also be investigated.

Ujuh writes from Abuja

Corruption: Suspension For All

By Paul Onomuakpokpo  

While the plaudits tend to dim the caution against the danger of repudiating the constitutional forts that guarantee the stability of our society in the guise of prosecuting the anti-corruption campaign, we must keep on reminding ourselves of the desiderata for the realisation of the vision of a transparent society that President Muhammadu Buhari seemingly holds.

*Buhari 

As this column has often stressed, there is no doubt that corruption is an enervating plague that must be rooted out of our society to pave the way for an equitable distribution of the wealth with which this nation is immeasurably endowed.

Yet, in arresting and prosecuting the corrupt among us, we must guard against being befuddled by our identification with the ruling party. It is such uncritical alignment that has blurred the vision of those who should have declared the obvious excesses that have smeared the anti-corruption campaign intolerable.

True, no one who is keenly aware of the grim reality that the nation has suffered despoliation due to the complicity of the corrupt guardians of the laws of the land would query the raid on the residences of judges who allegedly have been living on sleazy funds. Again, we cannot easily render impeachable the idea of the judges being on suspension until they exonerate themselves from their alleged involvement in practices that strongly detracted from their professional integrity.

Thus, the National Judicial Council (NJC) may soon buckle under the pressure being mounted on it to suspend the judges. The NJC may no longer bear being accused of complicity with the judicial officers whose residences the Department of State Services (DSS) raided for allegedly perverting the course of justice after being bribed with dollars. Of course, apart from the DSS and the president, no one else knows how compelling the incriminating evidence against the judges are. But to save the judiciary from the moral absurdity of judges accused of corruption presiding over cases of financial sleaze, they may have to be suspended while their investigation lasts.

But it would remain an ominous omission that mocks the anti-corruption drive if it is only the judges that would be on suspension because of the allegations against them. This is where the Buhari government must allow equity to lend credibility to the anti-corruption campaign. The judges have alleged that they are being haunted by the security agency of the government not because their professional credibility is in question, but simply because they have refused to do the obnoxious bidding of some of those in the ruling party.

Indeed, they did not mince words. Justice Sylvester Ngwuta accused the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and Ogbonaya Onu of asking him to influence judgments in their favour. Ngwuta alleged that Amaechi asked him to illegally remove Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State and Nyesom Wike of Rivers State as governors. Before then, Justice John Inyang Okoro accused Amaechi of asking him to pervert justice by making sure that election appeal cases for Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Abia states favour him.

Aisha Buhari: We All Know Where We Belong

By Paul John  

For some time now, our electronic and print media have been awash with news items about a recent interview granted to the BBC by the wife of the President Muhammadu Buhari, Aisha. Following the aftermath of that interview, the President while fielding questions in far away Germany, described his wife as belonging to his kitchen, his living room and ‘the other room.’ This happened in a country where a woman is the Chancellor and in a year when a woman became the British Prime Minister not mentioning the fact the United States is about to have its first woman President. Shortly, after this presidential faux pas, Garba Shehu lamely attempted to disabuse the minds of Nigerians as to the innocuous import and purport of that statement by attributing it to Mr. President’s sense of humour.

*President Buhari and wife, Aisha

However, need one remind Garba Shehu that of an Igbo adage: ‘Ebe a na-ama njakiri ka a na-agwa mmadu eziokwu’ –  one is told the truth through jokes? In other words, it is in the midst of friendly banter that the greatest truth emerges. Even if as Garba Shehu wants the whole world to believe that Mr. President was only joking when he said that his wife belongs to his kitchen, his living room and ‘the other room,’ the import and dimension of that message cannot be easily or merely dismissed offhandedly as he wishes to do.

The question is: How many women have been appointed by the President to head Federal establishments or to be part of his cabinet? This is unlike the last administration where many women were given some key positions and allowed to do their jobs without fear or favour. A case in point happened to be the appointment of the first ever female Chief Justice of the Federation by the last administration. What is the President doing currently about the much touted 35% affirmation? Nigerians voted for change. Nigerians wanted to do things right or even better which was why some people opted for President Buhari against former President Goodluck Jonathan. But what are they getting now?

The worst of it all is that the President made the statement in a continent that never plays with women’s rights and in a country where a mother of eight is the Minister of Defence, superintending over one of the strongest military forces in the world. Thus, some feminist groups in Germany immediately called it a hate speech and demanded the immediate exit of the President from their territory. Did we not see how visibly angry Mrs. Merkel ended the press conference to save the President further embarrassment?

Let the truth be told, as far as this administration is concerned women are meant for the kitchen, the living room and ‘the other room.’ I may not bother to ask the DSS, EFCC or any of their sister agencies to investigate the meaning of the ‘other room’ rather I will assume that ‘the other room’ means the bedroom. But taking the President’s speech to a wider context, one would remember that immediately he assumed office in 2015, there was an interview equally credited to him where he said it would be unfair giving the same degree of attention he is giving to those who gave him 97% votes to those who gave him only 5% votes.

Is it not absurd that the region classified under 5% is the region that sustains the Nigerian economy through its oil production? The President said this as a cryptic reference to those from the South-southern and the South-eastern states whom the President believed did not give enough support to his presidential bid. Will the presidential spokesperson also come out to tell us that it was equally part of Mr. President’s numerous humours? But then Nigerians do not need jesters, else they would not have opted for the President, neither do they need a male chauvinist in a country that has more than 43% of its population to be women and girls else they would not have voted him into power.

Buhari’s Anti-Graft War: A Sham

By Charles Ogbu

The 8th wonder of the world is how Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, managed to convince sane adults and some foreign countries that his government is waging war against graft. Fact is, there is no war against corruption. The so called anti-graft war is one hell of a lie, a fraud, a sham, a farce. It is a carefully planned and well executed show meant to deceive the hoi polloi of the society and take their minds off very crucial issues while the rogues in power keep preying on them in their characteristic manner.

*Buhari 

First, president Buhari who is supposedly spearheading this anti-graft war is a man I believe to be integrity-challenged. With due respect to his office, I think the president is a dishonest man who is incapable of honouring his own promise: Before the election, Buhari promised to fight corruption by first declaring his assets publicly, to enable Nigerians determine whether or not he had corruptly enriched himself when he would publicly declare his assets again upon leaving office. On September 3, the president's media aide, Garba Shehu, read out a list of some of the president's belonging where he mentioned incoherent stuff like: "yet to be located plot of land in Port Harcourt", "Unspecified number of cars" etc.

Mr. Shehu would later promise that the president would disclose his full assets when the CCB was done with the verification. The CCB has since finished with the verification and almost one year after, the president has refused to honor his own word.

How can I trust a man who is incapable of honoring his own word? How can Nigerians trust such a man to fight corruption without corruptly enriching himself in the process? And if he is corruptly enriching himself, family and cronies in the process, can he be said to be fighting corruption? How can you claim you are fighting corruption when you have not even proven the very garment you wore was not made from the forbidden tree of corruption? 

Game Of Death In Rivers State

By Steve Nwosu

I’m not used to too much prayer, but I must begin today’s piece with a word of prayer. I pray that God Almighty visits the killers of Barr. Ken Atsuwete (and their sponsors) with slow and painful death. Amen!
I pray that the divine punishment for the dastardly act of Monday constitutes the largest chunk of the inheritance, which the killers (and their sponsors) would pass on to their children and their children’s children in the fullness of time. Amen and Amen and Amen!

But, one question kept coming to my mind on Monday, as I tried to make sense of the senseless abduction and murder of the activist lawyer in Port Harcourt: Aren’t we back to a not-too-unfamiliar narrative? For, it would appear, Rivers State relapses into a feast of blood as soon as a new date for the now-jinxed re-run election is within the horizon.

Everything – including kidnapping, armed robbery and, as is in this case, heinous assassination – suddenly begins to take a political coloration. It is either that ‘blood-thirsty’ Governor Nyesom Wike is trying to intimidate opponents with violence (the APC narrative), or Rotimi Amaechi and his APC gang are unleashing mayhem in order to underscore their claim that Rivers State is not safe for any election to hold there.

And now, the murder of Atsuwete perfectly fits the bill: He is not only the lawyer of a former council chairman, who is facing trial in a murder case, but is also representing the 22 council chairmen elected on the platform of the APC and who were sacked by the Wike administration.

Expectedly, the APC says the lawyer’s assassination is the worst politically motivated killing in recent times, while PDP says the APC is politicising criminality and trivialising a serious matter. But while they’re vomiting all the high-sounding nonsense, somebody’s husband, a father, a breadwinner, a community leader, a voice of the voiceless lies stone cold. Dead!

Incidentally, while members of the NBA were holding their conference in Port Harcourt last week, I had fantasised about some hooded goons kidnapping a few prominent (and some not-so-prominent) lawyers – just to underscore the narrative that Rivers State was still not safe. Luckily, it never happened.

But before Wike and his camp could pop champagne, the goons mowed down Atsuwete, casting ominous pall over the proposed end-of-October date for the legislative re-run elections.
Of course, it’s understandable: The ‘insecurity’ narrative is the thin thread on which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has hung its stubborn refusal to conduct outstanding National and State Assembly elections in Rivers State.