Revisiting Jonathan’s Single Term Proposal

By Anthony Akinola

The destination of the presidency will continue to be an issue in Nigerian politics, prompting here another look at the single-term proposal.

Erstwhile President Goodluck Jonathan’s proposal of a single, six-year tenure for president and governor is not seminal but significant nevertheless.

*Fmr President Jonathan

The idea of a single-term enjoys informed opinion and was in fact forcefully presented to the Political Bureau established by the military government of General Ibrahim Babangida in 1986.  General Olusegun Obasanjo, one honest critic of the politics of the Second Republic (1979-1983) specifically suggested a single-term of six years to the bureau.

Nigeria: Democracy In Trouble

By Raymond Oise-Oghaede

The fact that democracy is the most vibrant and progressive system of governance in today's global politics is indisputable. Little wonder why our nationalist and political leaders toiled day and night to ensure its sustenance since the attainment of independence in 1960. Unfortunately, due to mismanagement, the polity was plunged into crises which consequently gave birth to military intervention in 1966. 

Thence, the country experienced unstable democratic rule until 1999 when the present disposition was installed after much resilience and unquantifiable human and material sacrifices. Since 1999 to date, the country has witnessed over 19 years of uninterrupted democratic governance. This feat was made possible by the show of understanding by the citizenry which unpopularised the politics of tribal and religious bigotry.

Interrogating The Senseless Impunity Of Buhari Regime

By Simeon Nwakaudu 

Pure and simple, the sack of Lawal Daura is simply a face saving measure by the most tyrannical administration since the nation returned to democracy. Nobody should be deceived, Daura was simply a scapegoat in a failed coup against the country.

*President Buhari 

The courage to hijack the National Assembly was way beyond what a service chief would do without executive directive. The invasion of the National Assembly was a continuation of the Failed APC Federal Government’s horrible soap opera to arm-twist political opponents, using pliant security operatives. The brazen manner the APC Federal Government overthrew the National Assembly Complex embarrassed all black people across the universe and made us a laughing stock.

Nigeria: Siege, Plot Against Democracy

By Oshineye Victor Oshisada

The recent siege on the National Assembly was an aberrant behaviour. The institution is an august law-making organ of governance. However, its hallowed status was disdained when the Department of State Services (DSS) barricaded its gates to shut out the law-makers on August 7, 2018. That occurred on the assumption that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was contemplating of sacking the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu.

 The hooded security men shouted that they were on the orders not to permit anybody –members or staff- to have entrance.

Assumption of the removal of the Senate President by the APC is not tenable. In law, one cannot take assumption for reality; it is not evidence. An assumption is based upon suspicion. Chapter V, Part I Section 50 (2) takes care of the removal of the President or Deputy President of the Senate. The Constitution of 1999 is supreme, and not a kangaroo method of removal.

Nigeria: Dancing Naked In The Market

By Sam Ohuabunwa

Those who are familiar with how madness begins to manifest in a person, will tell you that no man becomes mad in just one day. Madness follows a sequence. Of course psychiatrists and those who work in the mental health area can easily notice when a patient goes through the stages or sequence. But for the ordinary folks like us, we also sometimes notice this sequence more so when the subject is closely related to us. Signs of mental illness may start with the subject being unusually moody which could represent depression or in some cases the subject may become unusually aggressive and hyperactive called hyperactive disorder. 

If the subject is subjected to treatment at these early stages, psychiatrists tell us, the mental health can be corrected but if not, the situation could deteriorate. Soon the subject begins to neglect his personal hygiene and then may begin to speak incoherently similar to what is called psychotic disorder. I am told that even at this stage the situation can still be remedied if urgent medical attention is sought and the patient can be persuaded or compelled to take the prescribed medicines.

Nigeria: Who Says Army Cannot Takeover?

By Ike Abonyi

"In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics.' All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia"— George Orwell 

In the title of this piece is the harmful question asked by the Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu that set the polity and military authorities talking? It is one contribution to a debate last week at the nation's parliament - the Senate, that ignited a tense conversation in the polity. The topic was on the incessant human rights abuses especially on the Senators by their obsessional state governors.

Ekweremadu was reacting particularly to a report from a Kogi state Senator Ahmed Ogembe to the effect that his youthful controversial state Governor, Yahaya Bello, has been sending political thugs after him and threatening to chase him out of his constituency.

Nigeria: A Vote For State Police

By Ike Ekweremadu

The National Security Summit initiated by the Senate kicked-off on Thursday, February 8, 2018 with a clear pro-state police/decentralised policing disposition by the presidency.

In a speech delivered on his behalf by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, President Muhammadu Buhari said: “The nature of our security challenges is complex. Securing Nigeria’s over 923,768 square kilometres and its 180 million people requires far more men and materials than we have at the moment. It also requires a continual re-engineering of our security architecture and strategies…. We cannot realistically police a country the size of Nigeria centrally from Abuja. State police and other community policing methods are clearly the way to go.” 

This is a cheery paradigm shift coming from the presidency and recently from the Governors Forum.

Widening Gap Between Official, Black Market Exchange Rates

By Henri Boyo

 In December 2016, the finance minister Mrs. Kemi Adeosun responded as follows in a text message to Reuters reporters that, “The CBN is working on the elimination of arbitrage.” Furthermore, Isaac Okorafor, CBN’s spokesperson, confirmed in a press statement that the bank was working towards “ensuring there is no black market,” see Punch 21/12/16.

In January, 2017,  the Vice President Yemi Osibanjo speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland also noted that “The CBN needs to close the gap between the official and black market exchange rates for the naira “very soon”, see Punch 18/01/2017.

Furthermore, the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu was also reported in Punch Newspaper edition of 19/01/17 to have noted that: “We are worried with the huge gap between the parallel and the official market; and as it has been said by the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, the Central Bank of Nigeria needs to do something about it, because it is one thing that is breeding corruption …. We must find a way of bridging that gap and also stabilize the exchange rate so that investors can do their own forecast in terms of their investments. We believe that something needs to be done in the area of the exchange rate.”

The above title was first published in September 2005 and the following is a summary of that article:

“The appropriate pricing of the naira, has been a subject of debate in the last 25 years.  During this period, the value has descended from more than parity to its current rate of about N129=$1.  We recall that in those days of glory, the general standard of living was well above the poverty level; indeed, Nigeria was rated among middle income countries in the world. However, our leaders soon succumbed to the apparently innocuous campaign that the naira was grossly overvalued.  The success of that campaign is the current reality of a naira that has lost over 90% of its value and reduced the real value of the earnings of the masses to peanuts. We are now rated amongst the world’s poorest nations to the satisfaction of our erstwhile oppressors, who have in a show of charity gleefully dropped a few coins in our begging bowls to now save us from outright starvation!