Bayo Onanuga’s Slimy Mud-Bath

 By Ochereome Nnanna

For his own purposes, President Bola Tinubu had delayed the appointment of Bayo Onanuga as one of his spokesmen. Ajuri Ngelale, broadcast journalist and Ogoni chief, was presented to give Tinubu’s media office a handsome, though unsmiling face.

*Peter Obi 

Many commentators were relieved that elements like Bayo Onanuga, Dele Alake and Festus Keyamo would not be brought to irritate the nerves of decent Nigerians with their tawdry, noisy and cheap propaganda antics which we saw during the campaigns for the 2023 general elections in Tinubu’s camp. This feeling was further reinforced when Alake was posted to the Solid Minerals Ministry and Keyamo taken to Aviation.

Buhari’s Huge Parting Debt Profile

 By Eric Teniola

The outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, has made sure he is leaving a huge debt profile of N80 trillion when he leaves the villa on Monday, May 29. Well, well, well. While he will be celebrating in Daura or in Niger Republic, we shall be sorting out the mess he has created for us in last eight years. No problem. By popular demand, I want to republish an article I wrote that was published on 21 January 2021.

*Buhari 

“In June 2005, we were so ecstatic in celebrating the debt relief offered us, a relief of over $20 billion, which was beyond the total revenue of Nigeria for one year. So happy were we that President Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR, had to make a broadcast to the nation on June 30, 2005. He followed the broadcast by appearing before the joint sitting of the National Assembly on July 26, 2005 to speak on the issue.

Alex Ekwueme Would Have Been 90

By Ejike Anyaduba

Five years ago, almost to this day, the vacuum created by the death of Dr. Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme in the nation’s political life is yet to be filled. It is hardly to be imagined how low Nigerian democracy has been running, and to what weakness its riders have been reduced through avoidable crises. And it looks like there are no statesmen in the mould of Ekwueme to steer the ship ashore.

*Ekwueme 

Until the military’s convoluted transition to civil rule which ended in fiasco on June 12, 1993, Ekwueme, Nigeria’s Vice President between 1979 and 1983, was almost in the background, never quite in focus. But he would be stirred to action the moment it was clear that the General Sani Abacha’s transition to civil rule was a ruse – a winding path that was leading nowhere.

Nigeria: The Igbo Are Speaking!

By Humphrey C. Nsofor

The 40 million Igbo people resident in Nigeria and elsewhere, represented by Ohaneze Ndigbo and the South East Governors Forum, will on Monday, May 21, command global attention as they take a stand on how Nigeria can achieve a more perfect union and consequently regain its manifest destiny. It promises a galaxy of Igbo stars in politics and leadership. The promise of the gathering has been accentuated by the fact that it is hosted by Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State whom former Senate President Ken Nnamani rightly describes as the Star of the East. No one doubts that Nigeria, as currently configured, needs a better design. 

*Nwodo, Ohaneze President-General

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) set up a powerful committee headed by Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai to fashion out a more realistic and effective Constitution. President Muhammadu Buhari has stated categorically that he is not opposed to rearranging the country’s administrative structure. Ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar has become one of the greatest proponents, after initially opposing it because of his mistaken ideas about it. In other words, the call for Nigeria’s rebirth is popular and patriotic. All of us desire—and are deserving of— a better Nigeria. In the moving and wise language of the late Vice President Alex Ekwueme, Nigeria is a miracle waiting to happen.

Obasanjo: Ambushing The Emergence Of The Proper Third Force

By Alade Rotimi-John

General Olusegun Obasanjo’s Coalition for Nigeria Movement has been expressed as the former President’s projected avant garde prescription for taking beleaguered Nigeria out of the political woods into which it had been marooned by successive visionless administrations. Fiercely patriotic, Obasanjo is touted as the embodiment of the values for the preservation or continuing corporate existence of the Nigerian contraption.

*Obasanjo 

For good measure, he is an inflexible defender of the status quo. He has after all, been a major beneficiary of the system. Even as the general mood of the nation is in favour of the political restructuring of the country and of charting a proper course around the issues of good governance, equity, justice, etc. the Obasanjo intervention contained in his letter to President Muhammadu Buhari is cleverly positioned to divert attention therefrom and guide the national narrative in the direction of a prepared script.

Dr. Alex Ekwueme: A Tribute

By Uzodinma Nwala

The day was Thursday, August 13, 1998. The setting was a meeting of the nascent People’s Democratic Party (PDP) which just metamorphosed from the activist group, G-34, in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city. The agenda was to decide on the policy of the emergent party, especially power-sharing and rotation of the presidency.

*Dr. Alex Ekwueme

The buildup started much earlier with Dr. Nelson Mandela of South Africa’s second visit to Nigeria to meet with Gen. Abacha, after his 1995 release from prison. He was here to advise Gen Abacha to loosen his tight grip on Nigeria and allow the air of democratic freedom to flow in. His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, had earlier undertaken a similar mission, albeit with no success. Mandela had specifically called for the release of the likes of Chief M. K. O. Abiola, General Olusegun Obasanjo, General Shehu Yar’Adua, Ken Saro Wiwa and his Ogoni colleagues. But, Abacha was adamant on Nelson Mandela’s entreaties. Even though his trip to Nigeria produced negative results, Dr. Nelson Mandela, the world-acclaimed doyen of revolutionary struggles in Africa, was prepared. He did not relent, he had a Plan B. Mandela turned his attention to Nigeria’s pro-democracy groups, asking them to come to the rescue. He invited them to South Africa, hoping to inspire them to take to militant opposition. 

Tribute To Alex Ekwueme: A Man Without Bitterness

By Dan Agbese

The bells tolled for Dr Alex Ekwueme on November 19. And the former vice-president answered the call that no mortal has the power to reject. In his going, we have lost the most level-headed politician our country has ever produced. If you describe Nigerian politicians as gentlemen, you waste the word. If you describe Ekwueme as a gentleman, you nail the word. It is the word that best describes him as a politician and as a statesman.

President Buhari with Dr. Ekwueme at
the State House 

I first met the then vice-president sometime in 1983. I was editor of the New Nigerian at the time. I sought an appointment to see him because I was increasingly worried about the allegations of corruption against the Shehu Shagari administration that had become disturbingly rife. He graciously received me in his well-appointed office. I did not go through a phalanx of protocol and security men to see him. He was alone in his office when he welcomed me with a moderated smile. He had not yet cultivated the grey mane of his later years. I saw a handsome man who, I thought, did not quite cut the picture of the expansive Nigerian politician. What he exuded was the air of political power but the cool, calm air infused with intellectualism. He was so disarming that I felt momentarily disarmed. He asked after my family. I found that both unusual and interesting. He said my newspaper was doing a good job with its editorial stand on national issues. I felt my head expanding with pride.

Gov Okorocha’s Dishonourable Outing

By Ray Ekpu

Mr. Rochas Okorocha, Governor of Imo State is one of the leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The APC’s signature tune is anti-corruption. Okorocha has just shot himself in the foot. He rolled out a red carpet for a man who doesn’t deserve it; he named a street undeservingly after him; he erected a multi-million naira statue to honour a man to whom honour is not due. He gave Imo State’s highest award to him as well.

*President Jacob Zuma of South Africa
and Gov Rochas Okorocha of Imo State 

Many governors in Nigeria do whatever they like because they have sycophantic houses of assembly who have a rub-my-back-I-rub-your-own, avaricious and gold-digging symbiotic relationship with them. It is a shame that the Imo State House of Assembly could have the temerity to defend Okorocha’s ignominious awards and rewards to a man whose countrymen and women hold in absolute contempt.