Why Crucify Chief Iwuanyanwu?

 By Charles Okoh

Penultimate weekend, the Governor of Anambra State, Chukwuma Soludo, celebrated his first 365 days in office. To mark the anniversary, he pulled some very important dignitaries to Awka, the state capital. Topmost of the distinguished personalities that graced the occasion, was former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

*Iwuanyanwu 

Also present on the occasion were notable Igbo personalities like former governors of the state, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, and Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the last presidential election; Chairman, Council of Elders of Ohanaeze, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, former governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke, amongst others.

Nigeria: How Obi Changed 2023 Presidential Election

 By Dominic A. Okoliko (PhD)

By February 25, 2023, Nigeria’s next president will be decided, and the choice is between Peter Obi (Labour Party), Bola Tinubu (All Progressives Congress), and Atiku Abubakar (People’s Democratic Party) with Rabiu Kwankwaso (New Nigeria Peoples Party) as a possible fourth. My argument is that Obi’s emergence as a candidate in the election strikingly distinguishes the 2023 election from previous ones. It is therefore, important to know the conditions that made this turn of history possible.

*Obi

A symbol of political revolution, rebellion

Observers of this election can agree that whether Obi wins the election or not, he will be remembered for giving the establishment parties a run for their monies and extreme influence. Until his emergence, a third force unsettling the status quo was a mere wish. Nigeria’s electoral history post-1999 shows that presidential elections used to be a two-horse race between an incumbent party and an often-weak main opposition party.

Nigeria: Unacceptable Presidential Debate!

By Banji Ojewale

Let a hundred flowers bloom, and a hundred schools of thought contend —Mao Tse-tung (1893-1976) founder of modern China.

Organizing a presidential election debate to prepare us for informed choice in Nigeria’s poll in 2019 without the face of tomorrow is a failed enterprise from the takeoff point. Two of those capturing that future, Tope Fasua of Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP) and Omoyele Sowore of the African Action Congress (AAC) are among those being shut out of the debate. That amounts to denying the future a say in our affairs. That’s disastrous, because a loss of those who stand for the next generation and a vote for the jaded geriatric age is a dirge for democracy and society.

The Nigeria Election Debate Group (NEDG) and its electronic media partners, Broadcasting Organisations  of Nigeria (BON), are shortchanging the people by aligning with the establishment forces to disallow these renaissance politicians a voice.

Cross River's Politics Of Name Dropping

By Dan Amor

It is alarmingly discomforting that Cross Rivers State, unarguably one of the most endowed states in Nigeria in terms of human capital and its twin benefit of modern civilization, is gradually slouching towards sentimental politics, if not politics of bitterness. Politics of integrity, tolerance and civility for which the state was highly rated was recently threatened by fellows who suddenly invaded the terrain with the sole intention to loot and perpetuate themselves in office as though the state was no longer capable of regeneration. Indeed, the gain-politicians from within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, filled with intractable ambition and desperation to hijack the political machinery from their benefactors hit a dry well when they found out that the then governor Senator Liyel Imoke who was leader of the party in the state was not a pushover as they had thought. 

*Former Gov Liyel Imoke 

This development generated a dry rot of apathy, infighting and distrust culminating in last minute defections to other parties. But the arguments, the back-hall scheming, and the last minute flip-flops that somehow produced real accomplishments also set in motion an almost tragic series of events that threatened the peace and stability of the state. Since, as they say, to the funeral of an elephant, all manner of knives are invited, the foibles and frailty came to a defining moment when the unpopular ones saw themselves roundly defeated and their sense of frustrated ambition got understood in their bones. Rather than appreciating the reality of their predicament and re-strategize for yet another round, they are dropping Imoke's name here and there as being responsible for their failure.

Yet, beyond the empire building, the raining of insults and abuses on Imoke, the backstabbing, the restrained idealism, the cynical posturing, the raw ambition, and, above all, the endless political spinning in the state, the public deserves an overview of the real issues fueled less by any score-settling agenda than by an honest investigation into what really happened. For dispassionate observers of the political scene in Cross River State since the current democratic political dispensation began in 1999, the PDP, after the struggle of the primaries with Kanu Agabi (SAN), went on to win the general elections even though the odds were against Donald Duke, its candidate. It could be recalled that the All Peoples Party, APP, had more members at the local governments than the PDP and had members at the State House of Assembly. It also had members at the National Assembly. Imoke was the Director General of Donald Duke Campaign Organisation and a founding member of the PDP who brought the party to the state. Sixteen years down the road he and his team were able to deliver the state to PDP to the glory of God. 

Duke/Imoke Tango And The Death Of Honour

By Dan Amor

"If our credit be so well built,
So firm that it is not easy to be shaken
By calumny or insinuation,
Envy then commends us,
And extols us beyond reason
To those upon whom we depend,
Till they grow jealous,
And so blow us up
When they cannot throw us down"-  Clarendon.

Former governor of Cross River State (1999-2007), Mr. Donald Duke and his successor, Senator Liyel Imoke, who governed the state between 2007 and 2015 have been best of friends. They know how they and one of their own, Senator Gershom Bassey, came together and drew up a blueprint for the New Cross River  State prior to the current democratic civilian dispensation in 1999. 

*Duke handing over to Imoke in 2007 

(pix: crossriverwatch)

As progenitors of the intricate power calculus in the state, they know what arrangement they had behind closed doors as to who among the three musketeers would give the first shot at the governorship of the massively agrarian state. They also know how they have been helping one another from when they met up until today. As politicians, they know that crisis is part and parcel of the game of politics. And they have, individually or collectively, been in and out of crisis after crisis in the course of their involvement in the political engineering of the state. It is common knowledge in Cross River State that in 2007, Duke did not support Imoke to succeed him. He actively encouraged and financially supported his Deputy, Walter Nneji to run against Imoke, an aspirant whom Imoke roundly defeated at the primaries.

Yet, since the build up to the 2015 general elections, Duke's political temperature has had to rise to fever pitch time and time again. At a time when even erstwhile strange bedfellows were aligning and re-aligning for relevance, Duke who, at a time, dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on whose platform he rose to power but was brought back by his benefactor, Imoke, was said to have openly lambasted the latter in a clandestine or cavalier manner. According to reports, Duke, against the backdrop of the 2015 political engineering, had an ulterior motive to hijack the party structure from Imoke who ideally was the leader of the party in the state as the then sitting governor. At a reception for Goddy Jedy Agba, a governorship aspirant, by a faction of the party in Calabar, the State capital, Duke was said to have derided Imoke for the crisis that rocked the State chapter of the party.

He was said to have queried the veracity of Imoke's claims on the development of the state vis-a-vis the economic health of the state under Imoke. As though he was out to disparage his successor or to challenge him to another round of political combat, Duke called Imoke a dictator without looking back at how he (Duke) behaved while in power including his relationship with his late Deputy, John Okpa. Like the proverbial monk who wants to have his cake and eat it, Donald Duke is once again in the news, for the wrong reason of promoting mischief. In a cover interview he granted Newswatch Times magazine dated July 2015, Duke gave a false narrative of his relationship with Imoke and his successor's role over the fate of his legacies. It was headlined "How Imoke Ruined My Efforts- Duke." As if that was not enough, Duke granted another interview to a new magazine, The Interview dated August 2015, a section of which was used to attack Imoke.

Cross River 2015: Legor As The Bride

By Dan Amor
Much of the significant critical issues in the Cross River State 2015 governorship contest would most likely be centred on the pedigrees of the contestants. This is much so as it is glaring that a precedent has already been set in the quality of materials the State has indubitably thrown up as governors since the beginning of the current political dispensation in 1999. 


*Ochiglegor Idagbo (Legor)

Two personalities who have governed the agrarian state since then, Donald Duke and Liyel Imoke, represent a bold testimony to the emerging trend of enthroning young and brilliant people at the apogee of political leadership across the world. Talking about young , good-looking, brilliant and adequately educated people in leadership positions in government? 

There is no doubt that brains and looks appear to be the unassailable clinchers these days as far as elections are concerned. In fact, the advanced democracies of the world discovered this mystery at the dusk of the twentieth century. In the United States of America, for instance, brains and looks did earn the Democratic Party a rare two-term spell under the youthful personage of the ever-voluble, hand-pumping and telegenic Oxford-trained lawyer, Bill Clinton. Even in Great Britain, the electorate, in May 1997, demonstrated a certain unabashed bias for yapper, dapper looks with all the histrionic gestures and dramatic turns of phrases, when they elected Tony Blair of the New Labour, another Oxford-trained lawyer , then 43, as Prime Minister. He was the youngest in 187 years.