November 16 As National Day For Zik

By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

November 16, the birthday of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, ought to be a national holiday in Nigeria. It is deserving honour for the pivotal leader who led the charge for Nigeria’s independence on October 1, 1960.

*Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe

As a result of his unparalleled efforts, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe would in the course of time become the only black Governor-General of Nigeria, the first President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, the only Nigerian whose name appeared in a Constitution of Nigeria, the first Senate President, among many other sterling firsts.

Why Lateef Jakande Matters

By Ray Ekpu

Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande, LKJ for short, deserves all the kind words heaped on him as he turned 90 on July 23, 2019. This self-made man who had no university education embarked on several transformational activities in furtherance of the goals of an educated society.

*Jakande 

He rose through dint of hardwork, perseverance and forensic engagement with the educated public to the Editorship of the Nigerian Tribune, Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s newspaper. Jakande transformed the paper through robust but fair journalism into the scourge of political scoundrels and the nemesis of dictators and tyrants. He has done for Nigeria’s journalism, I believe, more than anyone living or dead. He was the one who, working with the International Press Institute (IPI) and the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria which he founded, planted a journalism continuing education centre in Lagos called the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ).

Alhaji Lateef Jakande @90

By Nnedi Ogaziechi

 “I am most grateful for the opportunity to serve Lagos and to have turned 90” – Alhaji Lateef Jakande

The first civilian governor of Lagos state, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, must by turning 90 years overgrown, though symbolically the title of ‘baba kekere’ that he was fondly called by admirers who felt that he comes second in political achievements in office to a late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. He has truly earned his reputation as one of the most loved and adored former governors in Nigeria.

Lateef Jakande

In a country that is not serious about documentations and historical records, it is apposite to celebrate this very iconic statesman by all indices. Alhaji Lateef Jakande today stands out like the proverbial iroko tree amongst shrubs in the political environment in Nigeria. It is equally instructive that a man like him who is a definition of what a leader should be is alive in today’s Nigeria and looking at most politicians serve themselves instead of the people.

Cyclone In Africa: Going To Afghanistan

By Banji Ojewale

In nineteen eighty four, when we all stood in awe of Decree Four;  to differ from officialdom as represented by Nigeria’s military junta headed by Muhammadu Buhari was a perilous path to perdition. The soldiers brooked no dissent as they waved the draconian law before all, notably newsmen.

The law, the most outrageous and pernicious by any military dictator in Nigeria, forbade reporters from publishing or broadcasting what the authorities ‘’calculated to bring the Federal Military Government or the Government of a State or a public officer to ridicule or disrepute.’’

Restructuring: Beyond Mere Sloganeering

By Anthony Akinola

Take it or leave it, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo would forever remain one of the greatest political leaders in the history of Nigeria. He was one politician eulogised and rightly adjudged capable of being a successful Prime Minister of Great Britain by no one other than a former Prime Minister of that historic colonial power.

One enviable political attribute of Awolowo was his distaste for rhetoric, preferring to convince his audience about the viability of his proposal. He would go about his proposal like a diligent scholar would go about his or her doctoral thesis-define it, explain it, and defend it. For instance, when Awolowo proposed his idea of free education for the Nigerian federation, he not only explained its benefits, but  also went as far as explaining how what was a gargantuan project to others could be funded. 

Political Defections In Nigeria, Causes And Consequences

By Simon Abah

There is an alarming rise in organised political defections in Nigeria.

Although she is being hyped as the giant of Africa, the democracy in Nigeria is not practised like in countries such as Ghana, Sierra Leone, Botswana, Tanzania, Liberia, Senegal and Zambia with stable democracies. Nigeria’s version is a guided democracy and a democracy for the few.

*Saraki

What are the reasons for the surge in defections? Turncoats complain about the absence of internal democracy in their parties and of political witch-hunt by political gladiators.

Do you agree with the beliefs of these defectors?

Particularly since no mention is made about the developmental interests of Nigeria as reasons for changing sides.

Is Christopher Okigbo’s Star Here Again With Us?

By Banji Ojewale

“An old star departs, leaves us here on the shore, gazing heavenward for a new star approaching. The new star appears, foreshadows its going, before a going and coming that goes on forever…”

— Christopher Okigbo, in Path of Thunder

*Okigbo 

Nigeria appears to be falling again under the excruciating spell of a star presaged by this remarkable poet of limitless possibilities.

At the time Christopher Okigbo wrote the poem shortly before his death in 1967, the young republic had writhed in a series of setbacks dating from the Western Region upheavals. Okigbo had a keen mind that correctly interpreted these crises as the shadows of some bigger, more devastating whirlwind into which we were being drawn. 

Jakande: Visionary Leader At 89

By Tayo Ogunbiyi

The concept of leadership has always been of tremendous interest to classical thinkers as well as contemporary political and management scholars as our world continues on the path of progressive evolution. On the other hand, visionary leadership theory rose to prominence in 1980-90s, and can be traced back to the political sociology writings of Max Weber and James Macgregor Burns.

* Lateef Jakande

Visionary leadership molds have a twin focal point on who a leader is as well as what a leader does, merging both the trait and behavioural theories of leadership. Visionary leaders are exceptional because they possess a deep sense of personal purpose coupled with an unshakable self-confidence in the ability to realise this purpose.

Is President Buhari Truly A ‘Converted Democrat?’

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

 Delivering a lecture titled “Prospects for Democratic Consolidation in Africa: Nigeria’s Transition”, on Thursday, February 16, 2015, at the Chatham House, London, the then presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, General Muhammadu Buhari, claimed he was a “converted democrat”.

*President Buhari 

“I have heard and read references to me as a former dictator in many respected British newspapers, including the well regarded Economist,” he intoned. “Let me say without sounding defensive that dictatorship goes with military rule, though some might be less dictatorial than others. I take responsibility for whatever happened under my watch.”

But he claimed that was in his earlier incarnation. He has morphed into a new being. “I cannot change the past. But I can change the present and the future. So, before you is a former military ruler and a converted democrat who is ready to operate under democratic norms.”

The applause was thunderous. Buhari claimed, without providing any proof other than the fragile reed of contesting three presidential elections, the results of which he repudiated because he lost, that global watersheds such as the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, the collapse of communism and the end of the Cold War, convinced him that democracy as a system of government was unassailable.

The international community was sucked into the fantasy and vigorously promoted his candidacy. Three years after taking oath of office, the ululation has quietened and many are scratching their heads for answers, which is a surprise. Did Nigerians actually believe Buhari’s self-proclaimed ‘Damascene moment?’ Isn’t it said that an old woman is never old when it comes to the dance she knows — that old habits die hard? Anyone who fell for Buhari’s ‘Damascus Road’ yarn obviously did not reckon with the Igbo adage that says no one learns how to be left-handed in old age. But there are some people who also argue that it was good Nigerians believed candidate Buhari’s shaggy-dog story.

If not, he would have most conveniently toppled Chief Obafemi Awolowo from his perch as best president Nigeria never had. The president can no longer lay any claim now or in the future to being the country’s messiah because, to borrow a cliché, the taste of the pudding is in the eating, and in three years Nigerians have had a mouthful of the president’s dessert.

What the Buhari presidency is doing is a norm-bursting power play that is endangering our democracy because it takes more than contesting elections to be a democrat. When the Presidency whimsically ignores court orders and dissenting voices are hounded by security agents, it sets a new democracy low.

Last week, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, told the Voice of America that the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, arrested since 2015 and granted bail multiple times by courts of competent jurisdiction, the latest being on July 2, 2018, cannot be released because a law that only himself is privy to, dictates that personal right can be violated on the altar of public good without telling Nigerians how Dasuki’s freedom of movement infringes on the wellbeing of Nigerians. In his hackneyed logic, to save Nigeria from itself, its laws that essentially regulate the conduct of both the government and the governed, must be violated. But Dasuki’s case is not peculiar.

Despite several court orders that the Shiites leader, Sheik Ibrahim El-zakzakky, his wife and other members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, IMN, be released from detention, government has refused to let go. Buhari is taking Nigeria down the path of tyranny. He has no respect for the judiciary and is highly contemptuous of the legislature. Egged on by duplicitous hangers-on, he holds the grandiose, but patently erroneous, belief that in a democracy only he should rule Nigeria. In flagrant violation of Section 80(2) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which prohibits withdrawal and expenditure of public money except as appropriated by the National Assembly, the President recently withdrew $1 billion from the public till for the so-called fight against Boko Haram insurgency and $462 million for the purchase of fighter jets from the U.S. without National Assembly’s authorisation.

He cannot claim as George Washington, America’s first president, did in his letter to Catherine Macaulay Graham on January 9, 1790 that his “station is new” or to be walking on “untrodden ground,” because as Nigeria’s president in 2015, he is not re-inventing the wheels of democracy, which was what Washington did, literally. President Washington had no precedents to fall back on. Buhari has and, therefore, has no excuse for the pervasive impunity orchestrated by executive lawlessness.

Matters came to a head on Tuesday when security operatives, in an apparent bid to abort the mass defection of National Assembly members from the ruling APC to PDP stormed the Abuja homes of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu in the early hours. The idea was to ensure that they never left their homes and possibility to create the enabling environment for the President’s loyalists in the Senate to effect a regime change. That was bare-knuckle politics. As 2019 approaches, the gloves are off.

While they succeeded in putting Ekweremadu under house arrest, Saraki, who was to appear before the police same day for further investigation into his alleged role in the Offa robbery killings in Kwara State, outsmarted them. Expectedly, both the Presidency and the police have denied any complicity. In a statement late on Tuesday, the Presidency came out swinging against what it called relentless allegations of presidential interference in the affairs of security agencies across the country. “It is odd, strange and bizarre that while ordinary citizens can be called up to answer questions or be interrogated, the VIP cannot be questioned without the annoying insinuations of partisanship, persecution or outright politicisation,” the presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, said. “This country cannot achieve development when important cases are viewed through a political prism and the law is considered as being applicable to some, and not applicable to others. The law of the land is intended for all, not for the poor or those at the lowest rungs of the social ladder.”

The Presidency’s justification for the manifest impunity that now walks on all fours in the land barely passes the laugh test.

But even more ridiculous is the statement by the police claiming that the authorities did not deploy the personnel that besieged the two homes and suggesting that “the police personnel seen in pictures in the media were those in the convoy of the Senate President and others attached to him.” No-matter how anyone may wish to spin it, the events of Tuesday represent a significant ratcheting up of the attacks on Nigeria’s democracy.

Repression of fundamental rights being experienced under the Buhari government diminishes the sacrifices made by ordinary people who resisted military dictatorship, which he was a primary beneficiary. But one thing is certain. When roused, Nigerians don’t roll over. And President Buhari ought to know that. After all, he was there with General Sani Abacha when the late maximum ruler roused Nigerians with the same malevolent tendencies. How it all ended is still recent history.

2019: Why We Must Vote In Young Nigerians

By Dan Amor

At the dawn of civil rule in 1999, after about fifteen years of uninterrupted military gangsterism, rapacity and greed, there emerged on the nation's political firmament, an assembly of politicians and professionals under the age bracket of 50 years, the National Integration Group (NIG). The group's aim was ostensibly to re-engineer the Nigerian public life and take over the mantle of political leadership from the old brigade. There were, indeed, conflicting reactions to the development.

*Gov Yahaya Bello of Kogi State:
Nigeria's youngest governor 

While some Nigerians believed that the group had ulterior motives, and therefore its mission preposterous, many believed and still believe that amidst the despair that has enveloped the nation, there is an obvious need to call to question the desirability of continuing with business as usual. This issue has remained prominent in the upper reaches of our national discourse especially given the woeful failure of the old generation of politicians to improve the standard of living of the people and engender positive development in the country since independence.

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. 

The Fulanisation Of Nigeria, The Perfidy Of British (Part 1)

By Femi Fani-kayode

Mr. Gwnfor Evans MP, the great Welsh politician, lawyer and author and the leader of Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party, for no less than 36 years before he passed on in 2005, made the following historic and profound observation many years ago.

*President Buhari and Gov El-Rufai of Kaduna 

He said, “‘Britishness’ is a political synonym for ‘Englishness’ which extends the English culture over the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish”.

As a student of English and European history and one that was not only trained and educated by the British from the age of 7 but that is also highly conversant with their system and their ways, I can confirm that Evans is absolutely right. His words are relevant to our situation in Nigeria as well and, in many ways, has some application here.

2018 – Trouble Settles In Nigeria

By Kole Omotoso

It started small, like all big things.

Little drops of water

Little grains of sand

Make the Gobi Desert

And the sea by the strand.

As part of his settlement Mr. Trouble married Miss Rachelle Palaver. Miss Palaver was a gentle woman and although she now became Mrs. Trouble she remained an oasis of peace and tranquility in the midst of Palaver and Trouble. She wrote her name as Mrs. Rachelle Palaver/Trouble. It was later corrected as Mrs. Rachelle Palaver-Trouble. But this is not the matter of this piece, but for later on. For now, it is 2018 and the coming federal elections of 2019. Not about them either but about what it caused to happen in the country – carpet crossing. 

Tribute To Ekwueme: A Dream Embraces The Ages

By Pat Utomi

Hypocrisy may be the hallmark of political culture in Nigeria. It was evident when Chief Obafemi Awolowo was called to Higher Realm, as we lamented the “greatest President we never had.” With Dr. Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme, gentleman, intellectual and great champion of fairness and balance in public life, it is even more sad watching the rush to praise on his demise. The rush of words of praise, plenty by those who toiled to prevent Nigeria from profiting from his leadership skills and installation of decency in public life, makes those not challenged with memory loss wonder about the essence of character in Nigeria. Do we truly look at ourselves?

*Dr. Alex Ekwueme 

I had the privilege of knowing the great man fairly well in good and in challenged times and learnt to gauge his stoic but sanguine personal disposition. His place as boss, mentor in my own run tells the story of who he was. As many very powerful engaged in frenzied lobbying for position when he was Vice President he asked I be invited to his home. A group of young Ph.Ds were being evidently pooled for his office but he wanted my position to come from the President. He had made the recommendation to President Shehu Shagari without my having any clue such a thing was in the offing.

Nigeria: From Detribalisation To Retribalisation (3)

By Matthew Hassan Kukah

Click Here To Read PART TWO 

For the purpose of our reflection, there are those who might be tempted to argue that Nigeria is where she is today because she has allowed ethnicity or tribal differences to get in the way. Those who make this point believe that if only we can get rid of tribalism, that is, become detribalised, all will be well.

But, as I have said elsewhere, the real challenge in addressing this question is to understand and accept that differences in tribe and tongue are not the reason for our monumental failure to build consensus around development, common citizenship and fairness. There are, however, many reasons for this failure, to which we shall now turn.

*Kukah

I have argued that, in the words of Frost, one of our greatest tragedies lies in the consequences of ‘road not taken’. We inherited a regional arrangement that had its pitfalls but if we had the patience we could have finally worked out a system to accommodate us all. Undoubtedly we can still do that. However, a combination of factors took us continuously back to the bottom of the hill where we have remained like frogs in a bucket, unable to either climb out individually or collectively. The greatest tragedy of the nation is that we have not been able to create a common vision of an egalitarian society. In almost every department, the infrastructure that the British created has since fallen into absolute and total decay. A few examples will do: 

No Cure For Yakubu Gowon Fever

By Tony Iwuoma

Former head of state, Yakubu Gowon, was gifted with opportunity for atonement when he recently appeared on AIT’s People, Politics and Power programme. Unfortunately, the man, who wanted to ‘go on with one Nigeria’ (Gowon), flunked the grace of history.

*Gowon

Perhaps, the greatest take-away was Gowon’s inadvertent exoneration of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu. He had actually set out to vilify the venerable Biafra leader by heaping inordinate falsehood on the dead, who can no longer defend himself. Gowon claimed he went to Ghana for the famed Aburi Accord unprepared. That, according to him, accounted for why highly cerebral Ojukwu bamboozled all of them and wringed the concessions he got. He added that secession was not on the card in Ghana and, of course, it couldn’t have been. It was not on Ojukwu’s agenda either. However, secession crept into the matter when the pogrom against the Igbo in the North continued unabated and Gowon, admittedly, could not halt it. According to Gowon and rightly so, the Igbo saw Biafra as the only hope for safety and freedom.

Nigeria: An Example Of Profligacy

By Oshineye Victor Oshisada

On August 16, 2017, there were news reports that some Federal Government officials took their documents to ailing President Muhammadu Buhari in London for his signature. That action was flabbergasting, because it was a clear case of bare-faced profligacy. They wasted money and time and insulted the intelligence of Nigerians.

When the President was travelling abroad for his medical treatment on May 7, 2017, he said that the length of his stay in London would be determined by his medical team. Therefore, he transmitted a letter to the National Assembly in that respect. The Senate declared that Professor Yemi Osinbajo would function as the Acting President pending the return of Buhari from the medical vacation. The upper legislative chamber appropriately over-ruled Buhari’s statement that Osinbajo would only “co-ordinate the affairs of government as Vice President.”

End The Bad Blood Between The Yoruba And Ndigbo Now!

*Azikiwe and Awolowo 

By Femi Aribisala

The hatred between the Yoruba and Ndigbo has gone on for far too long. Let there be love shared among us!

The Yorubas and the Igbos, two of the most resourceful, engaging and outgoing ethnic groups in Nigeria, are becoming implacable enemies. Increasingly, they seem to hate one another with pure hatred. I never appreciated the extent of their animosity until the social media came of age in Nigeria. Now, hardly a day passes that you will not find Yorubas and Igbos exchanging hateful words on internet blogs.

The Nigerian civil war ended in 1970. Nevertheless, it continues to rage today on social media mostly by people who were not even alive during the civil war. In blog after blog, the Yorubas and the Igbos go out of their way to abuse one another for the most inconsequential of reasons. This hatred is becoming so deep-seated, it needs to be addressed before it gets completely out of hand. It is time to call a truce. A conscious effort needs to be made by opinion-leaders on both sides of the ethnic divide to put a stop to this nonsense.

Both the Yorubas and the Igbo stereotype one another. To the Igbo, the Yorubas are the “ngbati ngbati” “ofemmanu” who eat too much oil. They are masters of duplicity and deception; saying one thing while meaning another. To the Yorubas, the Igbo are clannish and money-minded. They are Shylock traders who specialize in selling counterfeit goods.

But the truth is that stereotypes are essentially generalisations and exaggerations. In a lot of cases, they are unreliable and untrue. Stereotypes must be recognised at their most effective as a joke. They are the stock-in-trade of seasoned comedians; the garnish for side-splitting anecdotes at weddings and social gatherings. Stereotypes should not be taken seriously. We should laugh at them without being offended by them.

Nigeria: This Present Darkness

By Feyi Fawehinmi

Before he died in 2015, the late Professor Stephen Ellis wrote his last book titled This Present Darkness: A History of Nigerian Organised Crime. Going through this book left me with several thoughts, most of them unpleasant. 

It is a fascinating read covering, not just organised crime, but the evolution of the Nigerian state (or maybe they are the same thing?). At any rate, I want to share 8 random things I found interesting in the book and I will leave you to draw your own conclusions.

1. In 1947, late Chief Obafemi Awolowo wrote that “Corruption is the greatest defect of the Native Court system.” He complained that not only did judges take bribes, people used their connections to enrich themselves and avoid punishment for their crimes. He also wrote that in the north, a new Emir always removed all the people appointed by the previous Emir and replaced them with his own people. He wrote all these as a complaint against the Indirect Rule system favoured by the British.

2. In 1922, the Colonial Secretary in London, one Winston Churchill, wrote to Nigeria’s Governor General at the time, Sir Hugh Clifford, asking him to ban certain types of letters called ‘Charlatanic correspondences’. This was because J.K Macgregor who was Headmaster of Hope Waddell Institute for 36 years, had discovered hundreds of letters written and received by his students ordering all sorts of books, charms and even potions from England, America and India in particular. Most of the charms were nonsense and the students were invariably asked to send more money if they wanted more powerful ones. A total of 2,855 such letters were intercepted by the Posts & Telegraph Department between 1935 and 1938.

3. In 1939, a Nigerian businessman based in Ghana named Prince Eikeneh, wrote to the colonial government in Nigeria complaining about the number of Nigerian girls who were coming to Ghana to work as sex workers. He said the girls were usually taken there by a Warri-based Madam named ‘Alice’ who told the girls they were going to learn a trade or get married. He concluded that the trade was very well-organised and profitable for the ring leaders.

Ndi-Igbo And The Biafran Question

By Okafor Judith

I have heard so many people ask, "Why won't Ndi-Igbo forget the memories of the 1967-70 civil war and move on?" Or "Why is it that Ndi-Igbo cannot forget the bitterness of the civil war and move on?"

Odumegwu-Ojukwu taking oath of office as
Biafra Head of State in 1967

But I have these for those who have been asking the aforementioned questions:

The countries of Europe still discuss about the 30 year war that brought about the Westphalia treaty of 1648.

The Jews have not forgotten the holocaust of 1940s.

Alexander the Great wars of over 2000 years ago are still being talked about.

Ndi-Igbo have every right to discuss about the war because Warsaw still discuss the attack on her by Germany in 1939 in their history classrooms. Learning one or two things from it.

The First World War that was fought in 1914 which disrupted the relative peace in Europe for over 100 years is still being discussed.

The US attack on Japanese two cities - Hiroshima and Nagasaki that led to the subsequent end of the Second World War is still being discussed till date.

The aforementioned Wars and among others were fought during the 17th century and early 20th century. While the Biafra-Nigeria war that was fought in the mid 20th century is the one that Ndi-Igbo should not talk about, but rather forget and move on.