Good Riddance, Buhari: You Came, You Saw, You Failed Woefully!

 By Olu Fasan

Muhammadu Buhari, president of Nigeria since 2015, will leave office on Monday, May 29, after eight disastrous years. The late Chief Bola Ige famously coined the phrase, “good riddance to bad rubbish”. That, truth be told, is the best way to describe the exit of Buhari, his presidency and his government from power.

*Buhari 

For the past eight years of Buhari’s administration have been an unmitigated failure; a monumental waste of time, of resources, and of the hopes and aspirations of a nation and a people. True stewardship is leaving a place better than one found it. But Buhari is leaving Nigeria far worse than he found it in 2015.

Afenifere: There Is No Killing The Beetle

 By Alade Rotimi-John

Perhaps, no socio-political plank in Nigeria has impinged on our consciousness or has excited our admiration for the values of dedication to cherished ideals and goals more than Afenifere – the pan-Yoruba socio-political platform. In a society where shifting compromises and mutually-conflicting philosophies are lumped together just to score some cheap debating or political point, Afenifere has stood out as a genuine re-creation of a sincere search for solution to the myriad of problems besetting Nigeria. 

*Pa Adebanjo 

Founded in 1951 as an open window for brandishing the proud bearing and venting the considered expression of the people of its constituency, its enduring nature contrasts starkly with a general foreground of aborted, still-born or short-lived organisations.

For 70 years on, Afenifere has adhered firmly to her foundational strategy in precise observation, discipline and clarity of vision. She has thereby positioned herself as the ruling socio-political ethic in Yorubaland – its primary constituency. Other groups espousing similar or identical values like her are dimly outlined against the towering stature of Afenifere.

Nigeria: Is This How To Run A Government?

By Dele Sobowale 

“First of all, don’t forget that there are local and global financial markets. What is their job? It is to lend money. If you don’t borrow those people are going to lose their jobs.” –  Fashola  Minister of  Works and  Housing,  Report, July  31, 2022.

I had to check four times to be sure that the person being interviewed was our former Governor of Lagos State.  He was once  everybody’s favourite Governor in Nigeria. Most people were not sound enough in economics to realise that he also had far more money to spend than any other Governor.

It would have been interesting to find out how really good he was if he was Governor of Nasarawa or Taraba State.  He is now Minister of Works and Housing  –  before he was also Minister of Power. Now, he has no financial advantage over other Ministers;  so  we can judge.

18 Years Without Justice For Chief Bola Ige

By Dan Amor

A calculated insult and the guilt preceded his death, stealing from the actual murder all its potential impact and drama. There never was a crime more dramatically rehearsed, and the tale only provides it could not have been otherwise. Yet there are no clues to be uncovered, no enigmas to be revealed; for this was a murder almost predicted like its predecessors.

*Bola Ige

As a principled and astute politician, even though he agreed to serve in former President Olusegun Obasanjo's cabinet, Chief Bola Ige did not preach to Nigerians. But he provoked questions and left us in no doubt as to where he stood . He shared none of the current tastes for blurred conflicts, ambiguous characters and equivocal opinions. Nor was he disdainful of strong dramatic situations building up for firm climaxes. From the critic's point of view, the plot of Ige's senseless murder in December 2001, in its high velocity treachery, summarizes modern Nigeria in one word: "shame".

Bola Ige, The Predictor

By Lekan Alabi

Last Sunday, September 30, this year, marked exactly the 35th year that the first civilian governor of the old Oyo State, (present Oyo and Osun States) the late Chief ’Bola Ige, Senior Advocate of Nigerian (SAN) left office in a rather foggy circumstance.

*Bola Ige 

Foggy in the sense that happenings preceding the gazetted end of his government were fraught with threats, betrayals, back stabbings etc. I intend, by this article, to recall history, but more importantly, to pull the ears of present-day enfant terrible in Nigeria’s political space, that their disturbing acts of incivility, winner – takes – all, anti-party deals, etc., do not advance democracy and good governance. 

Abraham Adesanya And His Unfinished Business

By Dare Babarinsa

Papa Abraham Aderibigbe Adesanya cherished his role as the leader of the Yoruba. He knew it meant danger and sacrifice but he embraced his assignment with enthusiasm. Now that he has been with the ancestors for a decade, it is fitting to ponder on his ministry and the main assignments that dominated the final years of his crowded and productive life. Papa Adesanya was trained as a lawyer and pursued a career in politics, but his real vocation was leadership.

*Abraham Adesanya 

Adesanya was one of main leaders of Afenifere, the mainstream political and cultural movement of the Yoruba people which came into existence after the demise of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the first Premier of the defunct Western Region and leader of the Yoruba nation. In the roaring 1950s, Awolowo became the first leader to govern almost the entire Yoruba country since the time the princes departed from Ile-Ife at the dawn of time. He made efforts to bring the Yoruba of the North, then in what was called the Ilorin and Kabba Provinces, (now Kogi and Kwara states) into the West. His effort was frustrated by the combined forces of the Northern Peoples Congress, NPC, and the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroun, NCNC. At the London Constitutional Conference of 1958, both the NPC and the NCNC preferred that the issues of new regions and the adjustment of regional boundaries be deferred till independence.