Bayo Onanuga: Spewing Ethnic Hatred As Weapon Against Mass Hunger

 

By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

These are very dangerous days in Nigeria. 

“These are times that try men’s souls,” as the founding father of American independence, Thomas Paine, wrote in The American Crisis. 

In very recent history, people did not speak out in time until the Hutu/Tutsi mayhem overwhelmed Rwanda. 

It is incumbent on me to now call out Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, on his recent pathetic ethnic baiting that can only end up pitching one ethnic group in Nigeria against the other in an orgy of flagitious violence. 

Nigeria Should Avoid The Era Of Technical Hitches

 By Tonnie Iredia

In the life of a nation, especially in the third world, some strange occurrences occasionally take the centre stage to the anxiety of the people. No one is usually able to dissuade everyone from superstition during such periods especially because the occurrences are felt across board in the relevant community.

From history, we know for example, that a short period after the annulment of the famous June 12, 1993 presidential elections in Nigeria, two major leaders associated with the development died suddenly. The two leaders, General Sani Abacha who was then Head of State and Chief Moshood Abiola from whom the electoral victory was snatched reportedly died within the space of one-month in 1998. Their dissimilar deaths were attributed to what was called cardiac arrest. 

GCFR: Nigeria’s Highest National Honour Under A Threat

 By Carl Umegboro

The ‘Grand Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic’ (GCFR) is the highest national honorary grant in the country exclusively conferred on presidents and former heads of state.

The last time I checked, only the names of former heads of state, former presidents and the incumbent namely: Shehu Shagari, Abdulsalami Abubakar, Ibrahim Babangida, Olusegun Obasanjo, Goodluck Jonathan, Chief Moshood Abiola, Muhammadu Buhari, respectively are in the list of recipients of GCFR. All these figures by their positions as former heads of state or former presidents are all members of the Council of State with the incumbent president and vice president as the Council chairman and Deputy Chairman respectively.

I Am A Nigerian Voter! I Am Available For Sale To Highest Bidder!

 By Dare Babarinsa

During our one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), between 1981 and ‘82 in Abeokuta, capital of Ogun State, our monthly stipend was N200: 00. Yes N200: 00, which today, cannot buy a standard loaf of bread.

At that time, it was a princely sum as the national minimum wage was N100: 00. After collecting a one-month salary, I approached my cousin, Mr Ayo Olaoye, then a manager with the CFAO, who helped me to buy a giant double-cabin Frigidaire standing refrigerator for N200.00.

Today, N200.00 cannot buy a single vote in Ekiti State, once the intellectual powerhouse of the Yoruba people of the South-west. You will need N10, 000.00 for that, or at least 20 loaves of bread. With that princely sum too, the collector of money-for-vote would be expected to make a pot of soup that is going to last him or her till the next governorship election in four years time.

I don’t know whether it is the electorate that is forcing the politicians to pay to vote, or it is the politicians that have reduced the electorate to the level where they now need to get a pot of soup from the politician before they cast their vote in his/her favour. Or in exchange for power, the politician gives one loaf of bread per week for four years. What a bargain!

How Southern Nigeria Can Win 2023 Presidential Election

 By Dele Momodu

Buhari and Gov Akeredolu of Ondo

Fellow Nigerians, please, allow me to remind you of an article I wrote in 2014 titled IN SEARCH OF MATHEMATICIANS. It was a simple calculation and permutation I made about how Major General Muhammadu Buhari was going to defeat the incumbent President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in the 2015 Presidential election. As at that time, the confidence level of the Buhari camp was still quite shaky, indeed it was quite low. 

Nigeria: The Truth My Fulani Friends Must Accept

 By Dele Momodu 

“Everything that has a beginning must have an end. As they say on the street: “E fit take time, but one day, one day, Monkey go go market”

I love this quote about injustice:

“Every person remembers some moment in their life where they witnessed some injustice, big or small, and looked away because the consequences of intervening seemed too intimidating. But there’s a limit to the amount of incivility and inequality and inhumanity that each individual can tolerate. I crossed that line. And I’m no longer alone.” – Edward Snowden.  

“One day, and very soon, Nigerians will cross that line too. For there is indeed a limit to human endurance. One day, we all shall rise to say Enough is enough. One day!”

                         *Dele Momodu and President Buhari 

Fellow Nigerians, I have had to shelve the continuation of the celebration of Ovation International magazine at 25 in order to address matters of pressing national importance. I have just received some new horrific videos of bestial killings in some parts of Nigeria, and it is obvious Satan himself has landed in Nigeria. 

Stop! Nigerians Lives Matters

By Ene Gift Linus

Democracy on paper is not enough. Free, fair, and violence-free elections are crucial for the protection and deepening of representative democracy in any country. It is shameful and inhuman when political candidates use their own citizens as pawn to pave the way for their political ambitions. Unfortunately, electoral violence has been a continuous problem in Nigerian politics since she became a federation in 1963. 

Usually, the violence and killings occur either before the election (electoral campaign) or after the election.The First Republic (1963-1966) collapsed due to the  widespread violence unleashed by politicians in the disputed 19665 general election that led to the first military coup of January 15, 196. During the Second Republic (1979), the country returned to civil rule, but not long before some politicians again, resorted to electoral violence especially during the August 1983 general election where political observers said that, Akin Omoboriowo versus Governor Adekunle Ajasin saga in the old Ondo State allegedly involved in electoral fraud in the state led to three days of severe killings and arson, resulting in military takeover on December 31, 1983.