Plateau Carnage And Antics Of A Low-Road Government

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

On Saturday, June 23, Dr. Sylvester Ugoh, former Minister of Education, sent me a video clip of Chimamanda Adichie delivering a speech as the Harvard University 2018 Class Day Speaker.

*President Buhari 

It was the quintessential Chimamanda at her literary best – evocative and enchanting. She was selected by the Harvard students, as it is the tradition, to act the role, another validation for the lady of letters who has become Nigeria’s foremost 21^st century literary ambassador.
I don’t know what informed the leitmotif of her speech which she titled, “Above All Ese, Do Not Lie,” but she handled the concepts of falsehood and truth in a uniquely fascinating way asking some fundamental questions such as: “Should we call a lie, a lie? When is a lie, a lie?”

Herdsmen Attacks And President Buhari’s Bizarre Rationalisation

By Ikechukwu Amaechi 

The president knows this for a fact, yet plays the ostrich. Who does he think he is fooling? Why is the president lying to himself? It will be presumptuous of me to claim having an answer to the puzzle because whatever explanation other than that made by the president himself will be mere conjecture.

*President Buhari 

But a guess, we must hazard in the circumstance. It could be that the president is contemptuous of the local media and Nigerians or he suffers a complex.

Whichever is the reason, it is absurd when a president only deems it expedient to make weighty policy pronouncements outside the shores of his country.

In the nearly three years of Buhari’s presidency, he has had only one media chat but overseas, he sings, literally. 

President Buhari, Danjuma And Looming Anarchy

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

Like medieval potentates who fiddled around while their empires were in the grip of mortal perils, President Muhammadu Buhari has since lost the capacity to resolve for us the question of whether our nation is on the brink of anarchy.  

This is because Buhari and his officials are stuck in a reality that does not reflect the pains of the people.

*Buhari and Danjuma 

In other words, if the country staves off a post-Gaddafi Libya-like anarchy and it remains one after the tenure of Buhari, the credit should go to the forbearance and prescience of those who are outside his government. 

During the recession that the government claims to have overcome through its deft economic management, it amounted to blackmail of the Buhari administration to draw its attention to the reality of the suffering of the masses.

If Nigeria Makes The mistake Of Bringing Back Buhari In 2019!

By Femi Fani-Kayode
In both 2008 and 2012 I warned the world and particularly Africa and the Middle East about the evil of Barack Obama. No-one listened. In 2011 I warned the world about the consequences of removing Muammar Gadaffi for Africa and the Middle East. No-one listened. In 2015 I warned the world and Nigeria about supporting and electing Muhammadu Buhari as President of our country. No-one listened. 

*Femi Fani-Kayode

In 2016 I warned Nigeria and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) about making Ali Modu Sheriff National Chairman of our party. No-one listened. In 2015 I told the world that Donald Trump would win the nomination as flag-bearer for the Republican party and that he would go on to win the American presidential election in 2016. No-one listened.

In 2016 I warned Nigeria and the world that Buhari’s health would present a major challenge for the rest of his tenure. No-one listened. In each of these cases I have been proved right. Now I shall give two more warnings and whether anyone listens to me or not takes absolutely nothing away from me. Mine is to pass on the message and it is left for those that hear it to accept it or not. 

The first is that if Nigeria makes the mistake of bringing back Muhammadu Buhari as president in 2019 that will be the end of our country as a viable, cohesive, tolerant, medium-power democratic nation-state where the rule of law, the principle of equality and the most fundamental civil liberties, human rights and basic freedoms for the individual are guaranteed and respected. Worse still she may NEVER recover. 

Libya: Getting Geneva Right

Middle East and North Africa Report N°157

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Libya’s deteriorating internal conflict may be nearing a dramatic turning point. Over six months of fighting between two parliaments, their respective governments and allied militias have led to the brink of all-out war. On the current trajectory, the most likely medium-term prospect is not one side’s triumph, but that rival local warlords and radical groups will proliferate, what remains of state institutions will collapse, financial reserves (based on oil and gas revenues and spent on food and refined fuel imports) will be depleted, and hardship for ordinary Libyans will increase exponentially. 

(PIX: AFP PHOTO/ABDULLAH DOMA)

Radical groups, already on the rise as the beheading of 21 Egyptians and deadly bombings by the Libyan franchise of the Islamic State (IS) attest, will find fertile ground, while regional involvement – evidenced by retaliatory Egyptian airstrikes – will increase. Actors with a stake in Libya’s future should seize on the UN’s January diplomatic breakthrough in Geneva that points to a possible peaceful way out; but to get a deal between Libyan factions – the best base from which to counter jihadis – they must take more decisive and focused supportive action than they yet have.