Nigeria: When Does A Leader Respond?

By Rotimi Fasan

It’s indeed a pertinent thing to ask when a leader should respond to a crisis situation. Perhaps, a more pertinent question is why a leader should respond at all. The simple answer is that by responding a leader shows he/she care for and understands his/her duty by their people.

 

*Buhari and El-Rufai 

Questions of this nature are especially relevant at a time Nigerians continue to debate the failure of President Muhammadu Buhari to make his views known on the ongoing spate of killings across the country being perpetrated by so-called herdsmen. These marauding groups have apparently found better rewards in violent employment than in herding cattle. Yet, our leaders don’t have an answer to the question posed by the violence or occurrences that lead to loss of live. I shall return to this shortly, but first to the basis of what appears now to be a collective career in terrorism.

The cause of trouble, as always, is over land ownership and the right (or lack thereof) of these herdsmen to graze their cattle in other peoples’ farmland.  Even when it’s generally admitted or presumed that the roots of these violent eruptions reside in ancestral claims and counter claims of land ownership and the rights that come with this, ongoing killings by supposed herdsmen do not appear to have any connections to land issues. They are cases that border on pure criminality by blood thirsty hounds who wipe off whole villages or clusters of villages, killing the men, raping the women and destroying farmlands and animals.

The once innocuous image of cattle herders who went on long treks grazing their cattle has been replaced with that of gun-totting brigands some people now tell us are in fact aliens from foreign countries. But whether indigenes, aliens or marauding bands, the question is what is government, particularly our leaders, doing to address these growing cases of criminal impunity? In the many cases that were reported all through last year, not once did the country’s leaders demonstrate any sense of a coordinated response to the issue. What rings so loud is the dead silence that emanates from the corridors of power. The Buhari government seems to be very adept at this- playing dumb at a moment that demands eloquence, except when the president is abroad and is obliged to address foreign press corps.

At other instances, you hear some state official, usually a spokesperson, taking on roles one would naturally expect belong to the president, governor or any other person the matter concerns. Such responses are most times fire fighting measures meant to mitigate the aggravation and outcry that are the responses to the silence of our leaders in the face of terror that gestures at the failure of leadership. It’s a terrible reminder of such failure that since the latest spate of attacks that have increased since the last quarter of last year, including the Kafanchan killings which some call ethnic cleansing, not once have Nigerians heard President Buhari make his position clear on the matter.

Nigeria: APC’s Road To Infamy

By Alabi Williams  

In the beginning, all seemed very well with the All Progressives Congress (APC). As the fortunes of the former ruling party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) dimmed, that of the new coalition shone luxuriantly. Politicians began to fall over themselves to partake in the assemblage, even as thousands of volunteers outside the party system placed their bet on the party. Without being asked, they turned social media campaigners for the election of candidate Muhammadu Buhari. 

It could be said that in the build up to the 2015 elections, Buhari and his party had their palm kernels cracked on their behalf by a benevolent spirit. APC had little to do to clinch victory, as PDP had burnt its credit so prodigally that it was only a matter of time for it to unravel. At home and abroad, enthusiasts were just waiting for elections to come and go. The frenzy was so pervasive that the government of Goodluck Jonathan had to device some means to adjust voting dates, and postpone day of reckoning. Even that did not stop chants of Sai Baba!

Eventually, Buhari won and was crowned on May 29, 2015. It was time to unbundle the wrap of campaign promises, especially that of making one naira equal to one dollar. It turned out that there was a huge difference between asking for votes and delivering on promises. It turned out that beyond the excitement of winning election, there has to be proven capacity to comprehend the issues and conceptualise a process to confront them. That is where a good number of Nigerians, particularly friends of the APC in the social media, were forced to part ways with government.

Today, the level of discontent with the Buhari government is frightening. The quantity of bile social media ‘journalists’ spew and its toxic content is enough to send a chicken-hearted president on permanent bed rest. The rumour mill is agog with very offensive content, and you wonder how fast the APC has frittered away the credibility and trust on which it rode to power. And they are not about to back off, as the economy is not showing signs of quick recovery. Their anger is that they were conned by the ruling party, into believing that once they assist to send the other government away, Nigeria will become an el dorado overnight. In other words, they are angry with this government over its policies that do not seem to work and have human face. 

When Buhari came onboard, reflex action on the part of some agencies of government created mirages that were thought to be early signs of the change that was promised. Electricity supply became relatively more assured; supply of PMS at the former price of N87 became readily available, and Nigerians were beginning to reenact the social discipline that hallmarked Buhari’s first coming, as military head of state. Effortlessly, and without raising a hand, things seemed to work and the party in government attributed that to be the body language of Buhari in action. They began to celebrate with much noise.

Breaking The Anti-Adeboye Code

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

It is unnecessary to boast about the defeat of the contentious corporate governance code of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN). Neither the religious people, especially the Christians who felt affronted by it nor the government and its officials have fought a good fight that requires self-adulation. The only loser is seemingly the Executive Secretary of the FRCN, Jim Obazee. He overreached himself by insisting on the implementation of the code that precipitated the exit of Pastor Enoch Adeboye as the General Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God. Consequently, Obazee was sacked by the authorities he defied.

*Pastor Adeboye

But the Christians must have a fair share of the blame for waiting for the matter to degenerate to this extent. It is good that the Christians as represented by Adeboye want to be good citizens by obeying the laws of the land and this was why the famous cleric offered to quit. But they should have also used the laws of the land to relentlessly interrogate a policy they found iniquitous. They should not have waited for the government to help them. It is not enough for them to seek redress in the court, lose and give up. They should have gone the whole judicial hog – to the Supreme Court. Even the policy was made when Christians led by Goodluck Jonathan were in power.

Instead of pastors and bishops leveraging the influence of these people to make policies in their favour, they were busy collecting fat offerings in their churches when they came to give testimonies of how God made them to win elections, without hinting at how their so-called electoral victories were preceded by killing, maiming, lying and cheating. It is the same way bad policies are made by the government and clerics watch in acquiescence as their members writhe under them. They watch when teenage girls, especially Christians, are forcibly converted and married off. In the same vein, lawmakers in the National Assembly and other leaders in government, and Christians and their clerics are now keeping quiet when efforts to forcibly take over their land through the grazing bill are being made. After the law is now made, they would now wait for a miracle to deliver them from its baleful implications.

It is to the government’s credit that it took an action that negated the suspicion that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari wants to Islamise the nation. This suspicion existed even though the code was not originated by this government. However, the development has also thrown into sharp relief how the rules of men and not those of the land determine the actions of our government. For it is not likely that if Adeboye were a different person, the government would have quickly roused itself from its now familiar dithering and sacked Obazee as it did. There is the perception that it is because the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, and the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah are pastors in The Redeemed Church that the government’s intervention was timeous.

Since the government has proved to be able to muster such a swift response to a controversial issue, it is expected henceforth to react promptly to matters that affect the wellbeing of the citizens. If it had been prompt in its responses, our teenage girls would not be abducted, converted and forced into marriage with the complicity of emirs. There would have been peace in all the parts of the country. The carnage in southern Kaduna and other forms of Fulani herdsmen’s terrorism would not have festered, and the crises in the Niger Delta and the South East would have been resolved. And there would have been restructuring of the polity which is believed to be the panacea to the ills plaguing the nation.

For Ndigbo, Time For Real Politics

By Duro Onabule

It has been the case since ancient to modern that politics in South-east Nigeria is muddled. That is if forty years ago can be considered ancient. Afterall, a former British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, is on record that a week is, in politics, a long time. It is barely a week that South-east zone behaved to type with its open display of muddled politics. Muddled in the sense of cutting its nose to spite its face.

*President Buhari and former VP Dr. Ekwueme

South-east zone invited President Muhammadu Buhari to a summit. Or at least, so the zone appeared to have done through Science and Technology Minister, Ogbonnaya Onu. Ideally, such an invitation should have been properly screened to avoid a last-minute or any clash of interests, especially on a date earlier agreed. Among such exigencies that should have been factored into final preparations is the reality that even on any agreed date, their special guest, Muhammadu Buhari, has virtually, no control over unforeseen, equally or if not more important schedule, both at home and especially abroad that might compel preferential attention.

Experienced technocrats among organisers of the summit would acknowledge such possibilities. Like the sudden political/constitutional debacle in the West African nation of The Gambia, which warranted the intervention of concerned West African countries in the ECOWAS group. Nigeria’s participation in such intervention certainly was a decisive factor.

Another unforeseen hitch, which nonetheless, should not have caught the summit organisers napping, was the rascality by a group for a showdown if Buhari ever showed up. It was not clear if that issue was partly why Buhari did not show up but noticeably, the joke was missing in Buhari’s explanation on his eventual absence.

Third on the list of hitches against Buhari’s presence was the convenient excuse that the summit was fixed for Christmas time when South-easterners would be in festive mood. Who should take the blame for that? Surely, not Buhari. Were the summit organisers ignorant of that universal fact when the date was fixed? At the end of the day, Buhari could not show up. Perhaps, there was no loser but if there was, Buhari was not the loser. And the winner? South-east notorious politics of muddle.

It is all the more disturbing because South-east is the least developed in terms of infrastructure not just by the Federal Government but also by the zone’s successive state governors.

One clear reason for the latest politics of muddle is South-east zone’s disregard for one of its own, Science and Technology Minister, Ogbonnaya Onu, moreso for his membership of the ruling APC. It is only wise that even if the man is politically ostracised, must that be along with whatever amenities that could accrue to South-east from the Federal Government through Ogbonnaya Onu? Furthermore, who is nearer to reach Buhari, Minister Ogbonnaya Onu or years of crying in the wilderness? South-east was close to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo. What benefitted South-east therefrom? South-east was similarly close to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan? For what benefit, second Niger Bridge? Or federal roads in South-east?

Buhari, Jonathan And Jammeh Of Gambia’s U-Turn

By Jude Ndukwe

Ever since former president Jonathan made that call to president Buhari congratulating him on his “victory” at the last presidential polls, and following the enormous goodwill that has attracted to him worldwide, it is fast becoming a norm in Africa for incumbents to easily accept defeat at the polls and congratulate the winner.

Yahya Jammeh, the outgoing president of Gambia, was on his way to making history as one of the very few African presidents who would follow the enviable example of Nigeria’s former president and Africa’s hero of democracy, Goodluck Jonathan, by conceding defeat as an incumbent to an opponent in a political contest.

However, with his sudden u-turn on that stand, Jammeh, it seems, is about to throw that tiny West African country into a needless and avoidable turmoil.

After having been commended by major political players and the media worldwide, what could have caused Yahya Jammeh to retrace his steps just less than a week after conceding defeat and hailed the process that saw his closest rival, Adama Barrow, an otherwise political neophyte, emerge as the president-elect of Gambia as “the most transparent election in the world”?

Jammeh had told Barrow while conceding defeat to him, “I’m the outgoing president; you are the incoming president”.

Also, in a telephone call to the president-elect, Jammeh was reported to have told Barrow, “I wish you all the best. The country will be in your hands in January. You are assured of my guidance. You have to work with me. You are the elected president of The Gambia. I have no ill will and I wish you all the best”.

He repeated the same thing in a televised statement when he said, “I take this opportunity to congratulate Mr Adama for his victory. It’s a clear victory. I wish him all the best and I wish all Gambians the best. As a true Muslim who believes in the almighty Allah I will never question Allah’s decision. You Gambians have decided”.

Root Causes Of The Biafra Struggle

By Femi Aribisala
In the eight years of Obasanjo’s presidency, there was no headline-grabbing demand for Biafra. Ditto for the eight years of the Yar’Adua/Jonathan presidency. However, within months of Buhari’s presidency, the Igbo demand for Biafra has become deafening. Without a doubt, the blame for this new impetus must be laid firmly at the doorstep of President Buhari. Moreover, rather than attenuate it, the president and the APC have exacerbated separatist tendencies in the country.

This was part of the reason why people like me did not support Buhari’s election as president of Nigeria. I have written severally in Vanguard that Nigeria must remain a united nation. In my column of 4th March, 2014 entitled: “Re-Inventing Igbo Politics In Nigeria,” I maintained that: “Nigeria cannot survive without the Igbo.” The following week on 11th March 2014, I wrote another article entitled: “Nigeria Cannot Do without the North.”

I remain persuaded by both positions. But if Nigeria is indeed to remain united, there are certain things that must be said and done. The problem with the Buhari administration is that it seems totally impervious to these imperatives.

There is no question that, as one of the major ethnic groups in Nigeria, the Igbo have been hard done by. Since the civil war 45 years ago, they have been treated as if they were a minority ethnic group in Nigeria when in fact they are one of the majorities. No Igbo has been considered worthy of being head-of-state. The South East of Ndigbo is the only one of the six geopolitical zones of the country with five states. All other zones have six or more. Indeed, the number of local governments in the North-East is virtually double that of the South-East. As a result, the Ndigbo receive the smallest amount of revenue allocation among all the zones, in spite of the fact that some of the South-eastern states are among the oil-producing states.

The roads in the South-east are notoriously bad. Government after government have simply ignored them. Inconsequential ministerial positions are usually zoned to Ndigbo. Time was when it seemed the lackluster Ministry of Information was their menial preserve. It is also a known fact that every so often the Igbo are slaughtered in the North under one guise or the other. Many are forced to abandon their homes and businesses and run for dear life. The people who perpetrate these acts never seem to be arrested or prosecuted.

When a major tribe is treated procedurally as second-class in their own country, there will be a demand for self-determination sooner rather than later. When a group of people feel unsafe in their own country, they cannot but be expected to decide to opt out. It is not the responsibility of the government to imprison the Igbo in Nigeria. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure and guarantee that they feel safe and are treated with respect.

Discrimination against the South: While these issues have been brewing under the surface for some time, the lop-sided tendencies of President Buhari have brought them all out to boiling-point. In his first-coming as head-of-state in 1984, Buhari antagonised Ndigbo by locking up Vice-President Alex Ekwueme, an Igbo man, in jail in Kirikiri; while President Shehu Shagari, a Fulani man was only placed under house arrest. In addition, Buhari arrested and jailed Ojukwu, another Igbo icon for no just cause.

Buhari’s Strategists Chasing Ants

By Reuben Abati 

President Muhammadu Buhari’s strategists, if they are at work at all, are chasing ants and ignoring the elephant in the room. They do him great disservice. Their oversight is hubristically determined either by incapacity or a vendetta-induced distraction. It is time they changed the game and the narrative; time they woke up. 

*President Buhari 

It’s been more than 15 months since the incumbent assumed office as President, but his handlers have been projecting him as if he is a Umaru Musa Yar’Adua or a Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, first time Presidents who could afford the luxury of a learning period before settling down to the job, and who in addition must prove themselves to earn necessary plaudits. In making this mistake, President Buhari’s handlers created a sad situation whereby they have progressively undermined his image. 

The truth is that Muhammadu Buhari is neither a Yar’Adua nor a Jonathan. He may have sought the office of President in three previous elections, before succeeding at his fourth attempt in 2015, but he came into office on a different template. He had been Head of State of Nigeria (1983-85) and had before then served his country at very high levels as military administrator, member of the Supreme Military Council, head of key government institutions and subsequently from 1985 -2015, as a member of the country’s Council of State, the highest advisory body known to the Nigerian Constitution. 

In real terms, therefore, General Muhammadu Buhari did not need the job of President. If he had again lost the election in 2015, his stature would not have been diminished in any way. His place in Nigerian history was already assured. That is precisely why it was possible to package him successfully as a man on a messianic mission to rescue Nigeria from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and whatever is ascribed to that in the emotion-laden field of Nigerian politics. 

He might have acquired many IOUs when he assumed office in 2015, as all politicians do, but he was not under any pressure to pay back and he was so well positioned in the people’s reckoning and historically that he could call anyone’s bluff and get away with it. That much is of course obvious. Many of the persons and groups who could claim that they helped him to get to power a second time are today not in a position to dictate to him. 

Long before such persons left their mother’s homes for boarding school, he had made his mark as a Nigerian leader. He could look them straight in the eye and cleverly put them in their place. Corrupt patronage is a strong element of Nigerian politics and so far, President Buhari has shown a determination to limit the scope of such politics. Whether that is right or wrong is a matter of political calculations, and if current intimations are anything to go by, that may even prove costly in the long run. 

Nonetheless, when a leader assumes office with his kind of helicopter advantages, it should not be expected that he would hit the ground like a tyro in the corridors of power. Not too many persons in his shoes get a second chance to return to power after a gap of 30 years. As it happened in his case, he would be expected to run the country as a statesman, not as a party man, as a bridge-builder, not as a sectional leader and as father of all. 

The Many Lies Of John Paden, Buhari's Biographer

By Reno Omokri

The book Muhammadu Buhari-The Challenges of Leadership in Nigeria  by Professor John Paden is not only an intellectually lazy work, it is also a fallacious document hastily put together to paint the protagonist in the borrowed garb of an effective leader who is cleaning the Augean Stable of misrule and corruption in Nigeria, but my question is this - how can you fight corruption with lies?

President Buhari, his wife, Aisha, Gowon and Prof Paden

I have taken my time to x-ray the book and I cannot help but agree with the national leader of the ruling All Progressive Congress that Paden has done a great disservice to the truth. If I were Paden, I would consider a career in fiction writing. His talents are much better suited for that than to scholarly and investigative work.

On page 52 of the book, Professor Paden declares that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan declared for the April 2011 Presidential election on Saturday, 18th of September 2011. 

But for a man who was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University, Paden did not show much scholarliness because if he did, he would have established that Dr. Jonathan made world history by being the first ever Presidential candidate to make his declaration on the social media platform, facebook, on Wednesday the 15th of September, 2016, a feat which was featured on the New York Times, the Washington Post and in several international news media. 

If this was the only error in the book, one could forgive Paden, but the errors go on and on. 

For example on page 53, Paden, without citing any proof or evidence, called Dr. Jonathan's margin of victory in the South south and Southeast 'nonsensical', but then he goes ahead to accept President Buhari's margin of victory in the North as valid even though they mirrored Dr. Jonathan's margins in the South.

On page 55, Paden called to question Jonathan's handling of the economy but then in page 60 he admits that the 7% GNP growth Nigeria attained under Jonathan was "impressive". Does Paden suffer from a split personality? Here he is calling into question former President Jonathan's ability to manage an economy that he himself admits generated an impressive growth yet he is praising a President Buhari under whom Nigeria has gone into recession. I don't get it Paden! 

Perhaps Paden should have written a book singing Jonathan's praises instead of President Buhari's!

Then he attacks Dr. Jonathan in page 55 over the 2012 attempt to remove fuel subsidies and pointed to the street protests that broke out in reaction, but curiously failed to mention that such protests were instigated and led by the then opposition members including President Buhari's former running mate, Pastor Tunde Bakare, who was openly at the fore front of the protests and Malam Nasir Elrufai, who coordinated activities during the Occupy Nigeria protests. This is nothing short of intellectual dishonesty.

Chibok Girls Abduction: A Hoax Or Reality?

By Comrade Omaga Elachi Daniel

Recently, the media (both local and international) was awash with news of the release of 21 of the school girls of the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, out of the over 200 reported to have been abducted by the dreaded Boko Haram Sect. While jubilations and mixed feelings trailed this development, it is pertinent for one to critically bare his minds on some of the questions that are still left unanswered.

In its entirety, while some believe that the abduction was indeed an act of terror, others believe the episode was a hoax! A politically motivated strategy, carefully organized and executed by professional mercenaries to discredit the past administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan. A hi-tech political maneuvering that could pass for an all time best seller!

On the other hand, many believe the recent release of these 21 girls is another calculated attempt to make Nigerians believe that, yes, the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration promised to secure the release of these girls if been voted into power and they are indeed fulfilling their promises. At some point, former president Olusegun Obasanjo, a close ally of President Buhari said that these girls may never be found alive. A statement which many activists believe was goofy.

Even President Buhari, his spokespersons and the wailers took similar positions. They opined that the girls must have been married away or sold as slaves. These assertions never deterred Madam Oby Ezekwesili  and her ‘soldiers’ (the Bring Back Our Girls – BBOG- team) in their struggles and advocacy for the release of the girls. Funny as it became, the FG later saw these agitation as a hydra-headed problem that must be curtailed.

Without mincing words, I want to commend our security agencies so far for their resilience and commitment in fostering lasting peace and security across the nation. You guys are the true heroes!

BUT MY QUESTIONS…

Nigeria @56 And The Worship Of Baal

By Fani-Kayode

Nigeria is 56 years old today. Consequently it is time to speak some home-truths and look at where we are in the scheme of things. It is time to consider how well our government has fared since coming to power and to compare their record of service to previous governments that were in the saddle before them. Sadly the score sheet does not look too good.

(pix: elombah)

The rigging of elections, the persecution of opposition figures, the demonisation of dissenters, the destruction of the economy, the pauperisation of our people, the introduction of famine, the humiliation of Nigerians coupled with violence, impunity, aggression, intolerance and tyranny: that is all President Muhammadu Buhari and his government have served our people since he was sworn in on May 29th 2015.

The last one year and four months have been the worst since independence in terms of the violation of human rights, civil liberties and court orders by our government. We have witnessed unprecedented mass murder, butchery, carnage and barbarity by well-armed and highly favored Fulani herdsmen and ethnic militias coupled with genocide and unprecedented extra-judicial killings by our military personnel and state security forces.

We have witnessed the resurrection of Abubakar Shekau and the mutation of Boko Haram into two powerful new factions. We have seen them re-take towns and communities that they lost years ago and hoist their dirty black flag in parts of the north-east. Our government has given up on the Chibok girls and we witnessed the humiliation, insults and physical harassment by security forces that those who have fought for their return in the BBOG group have been subjected to in the last few months.

We have seen the rapid depreciation of the naira, the total decimation of our industrial, agricultural and manufacturing sector and the destruction and decay of virtually all our roads, airports, power generating facilities and infra-structures. Our government has squandered our foreign reserves. Driven away local and foreign investment. Caused the dollar to fly away. Created an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty in the markets.

Forced people to spend their life savings and capital just to survive. Reduced many Nigerians to eating just one meal a day. Caused many to withdraw their children from school simply because they cannot afford to pay fees. And they have driven many to depression, suicide and despair. Unemployment is at a record high. The banks and indeed the entire financial sector is dying because there is no liquidity. The naira is approaching 500 naira to one US dollar which represents an over 100 per cent depreciation in the space of one year.

We are in the middle of the worst economic recession that we have suffered in our 56 years of existence as an independent nation-state. Thousands are being laid off on a daily basis. Graduate and non-graduate unemployment is at a record high. Food prices, the price of transport and the price of fuel, diesel and kerosene have shot up. Finally, we have witnessed the total and complete dashing of the hopes, aspirations and dreams of the Nigerian people.

Nigeria At An Anti-Corruption Rally

By Dan Amor

For most dispassionate observers of the Nigerian political scene, the only thing which has destroyed the fabric of this country even more than any conventional war, is corruption. This hydra-headed monster has become Nigeria's middle name. Aside from the untoward image this menace has wrought on the country and the insult and embarrassment it has caused innocent Nigerians abroad, it has inflicted irreparable damage to the basic foundations that held the country together. Corruption has stunted our economic growth, our social and physical infrastructure, our technological and industrial advancement and has decapitated our institutions, which is why our over 40 research institutes are no longer functional because they are headless. 

(pix: AFP)

Even our academic and military establishments and other security agencies cannot in all sincerity be exonerated from the deadly effects of unbridled corruption. The determination of President Muhammadu Buhari to combat corruption and to go after suspects irrespective of their ethnic or political leanings should enlist the sympathy of all well-meaning Nigerians. It is the more reason why even the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which controlled the central government and a greater number of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, until May 29, 2015, recently endorsed the corruption war.

As Nigerians we certainly do not need any soothsayer to tell us that ours is a corrupt country. We see corruption live everyday. We see Mr. Corruption stalk the streets, the roads and the highways across the country. We see Mr. Corruption bid us goodbye at the airports and welcome us back into the country. We Nigerians greet Mr. Corruption at the seaports and border posts as we clear our cargoes into the country. We shake the juicy hands of Mr. Corruption as we savour the winning of a lucrative contract. Truly, Nigeria, which in 1996 was ranked by Transparency International as the second most corrupt country in the world, achieved the utmost when in 1997, it was voted the most corrupt country on the face of the earth. Ever since, the country has had the misfortune of being grouped among the five most corrupt countries in the world. There can never be any stigma as heinous as this in the comity of nations across the world.

Since the current democratic political experiment started in May 1999, all successive governments have had to place anti-corruption war as part of their programmes of action, popularly known as manifestos or agendas. Yet, all had paid lip service to the fight against corruption except the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari which is showing signs of its determination to tackle the monster head on. As can be deduced from the body language and actions of the President himself, Nigerians are now confident that this battle will commence with the resoluteness it deserves. Successive administrations, in spite of their much vaunted hoopla over corruption war, were ironically refuting the claims of the Berlin-based Transparency International (TI) that Nigeria was stinking with the evil stench of corruption.

Change Begins With Buhari And APC

By Lucky Ofodu

The recent launch of ‘Change Begins With Me’ campaign by the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration goes against the moral etiquette of leadership by example. In his speech at the ceremony, the president shifted the responsibility of his Change agenda to Nigerians instead of the other way round. He seemed to be blaming Nigerians for the mélange of problems facing the country under his watch. He urged the citizens to change their orientation and attitude for the country to get out of its current misfortune.

*President Buhari and Lai Mohammed

In other climes, it is the leadership that sets the standards for the followership. The President’s remarks were hardly surprising. Followers of events since this administration came to be would agree that this government has not for once taken responsibility for anything. All it has been doing is to blame others for its glaring shortcomings; always passing the bulk. The government forgets that a leadership that does not take responsibility is a failed leadership. People are voted into power to solve the problems confronting society. They are expected to dig deep and come up with solutions in order to uplift the lives of the citizenry.

They are not elected to lament and look for those to blame for their lack of performance. Unfortunately, blame game and propaganda have become essential ingredients of governance in Nigeria in the last seventeen months. The problem of Nigeria has not been with the citizens, but those who lead them. So there is need for value orientation and change. And this should be directed at the leaders first of all. This is what Lai Mohammed and the egg heads at the National Orientation Agency should have done instead of turning the campaign on its head. With the wrong attitude with which the Change campaign has started, one can state categorically that it is as good as dead.

Come to think of it, the timing of the ‘Change Begins With Me’ campaign is patently wrong. With starvation and unprecedented hardship pervading the land, many Nigerians view this as adding insult to injury. As they say, he who come to equity must come with clean hands. The kind of campaign Nigerians want to see right now is such that would put food on their tables; campaigns geared towards paying the backlog of arrears of salary owed state and local government workers across the country; campaigns that would alleviate the suffering of pensioners; campaigns made up of think-tanks proffering solutions to the country’s economic quagmire; campaigns aimed at alleviating the horror Nigerians are going through right now; not one asking them to be disciplined or that blaming them for government’s ineptitude. The situation has gone beyond political rhetoric and blame game. How do you discipline a starving populace?

Buhari Needs No Recession Experts

By Paul Onomuakpokpo  

In their tepid search for solutions to the current economic crisis, our political leaders are fixated on two culprits that gnaw at the nation’s wellbeing.

It is either the past that is chastised for not catering for its future or the militancy in the Niger Delta that has driven oil revenue to its nadir.

*Buhari 

Our current leaders can keep avoiding culpability for the nation’s economic recession. The danger is that any optimism about overcoming the crisis in a short time may soon evaporate as long as our political leaders fail to recognise that it is not only the past that is sullied by the administration of Goodluck Jonathan and his predecessors that should be blamed, but the present that is anchored on the current administration is equally complicit.

We are on the right path to economic redemption only when we appreciate the fact that the affliction that is the source of the recession is simply that our politics reeks of a crude conflation of national and personal interests by political leaders. Actuated by the credo of politics that negates national interest, politicians pursue purely selfish goals and present them to the citizens as targeted at engendering national transformation.

Thus no matter how potentially workable the recommendations from the citizens for the development of their nation, most political leaders do not have that capacity to accommodate them. And this is why all ideas about development, no matter how ill-bred , must come from their cronies because they would not pose any threat to their interests. Or why have all the great proposals for the development of the nation for over five decades not launched it into the league of the developed?

Now that there is a flurry of suggestions from the citizens as regards how to overcome the recession, our leaders may only take the ones that would not threaten their personal interests. President Muhammadu Buhari has been asked to invite experts to help him salvage the economy. Some citizens want him to invite the nation’s best economists to proffer solutions to the economic problems. Some have even canvassed the return of former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. The former minister has already said she would not be ready to serve under the Buhari government when she is invited as she wants other people to contribute their own quota to development. Okonjo-Iweala may not even be an acceptable choice having been tainted by her association with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) when she served its government. She is still subjected to excoriation for triggering the crisis in the first place by her feckless economic management.

Nigeria:Why We Are In This Terrible Mess

By Dan Amor

Once upon a time, there was a young country struggling in the comity of nations to find her place in the sun. For in this young country of brave people, it was discovered that freedom is a God-given right. So impressed were the citizens with this belief that they lit a candle to symbolize their freedom. But, in their wisdom, they knew that the flame could not burn alone. So, they lit a second candle to symbolize man's right to govern himself. The third candle was lighted to signify that the rights of the individual were more important than the rights of the State. And finally, they lit a fourth candle to show that government should not do for the people those things which the people should do for themselves.

*Buhari

As the four candles of freedom burned brightly, the young nation prospered. And as they prospered, they grew fat. And as they grew fat, they got lazy. When they got lazy, they asked the government to do things for them which they had been doing for themselves, and one of the candles went out. As government became bigger, the people became smaller, and the government became all important. And the rights of the individual were sacrificed to the all important rights of the State. Then the second candle went out. In their apathy and indifference, they asked those who bear armour to govern them, and the marshals of the commandist clan did, and the third candle went off. In the end, more than they wanted freedom, they wanted security, a comfortable life, and they lost all - comfort and security and freedom.

For, you see! When the freedom they wanted most was freedom from responsibility, then Nigerians ceased to be free. The last candle has been extinguished. One could assume, then, that we have it made. Never have any people at any time, anywhere, had it so good. But in our present abundance and luxury in the galaxy of power, something is wrong. People aren't happy. They no longer walk down the streets of our cities smiling or whistling a happy tune. There is discontent, and one can sense the fear of the unknown. Everywhere, the people are grumbling, cursing, jeering and hooting. 

Nigerians are jittery. There seems to be a tarnish on our golden Mecca. We've created a new breed of men and women who can't work but loot, just like we've created a new breed of men and women who crave for power for the sake of it. You had an opportunity to turn the nation to an Eldorado, but you supervised the mindless looting of our national patrimony into private pockets. You wailed and roared and were given the power, but you're seeing it as an opportunity to favour your tribesmen at the expense of others and you're still enmeshed in blame game while the country is bleeding. And, instead of the slogan, "God bless Nigeria", all we now hear is, "Let us go our separate ways". The signs aren't too hard to read. They are the signs of internal decay - the dry rot of apathy and indifference.

President Buhari’s Triumphalism

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

Until last week, it might have been dismissed as delusional to think that President Muhammadu Buhari considers the citizens as people he has conquered. But if the body language of the president has failed to magically make available the dividends of democracy to the citizens, it has at least in recent times reinforced the notion of his seeing himself as a conqueror, and thus a blight on our democratic experience.

*President Buhari 

Here are a people who have been brutalised by decades of misrule and who invested so much hope in the  Buhari’s change mantra. Over a year after waiting for the realisation of the promised change, Buhari has unabashedly disavowed it. Passing the buck, Buhari has rather asked the citizens to make the change a reality.

Yet, Buhari and his party members are the only people who know the breadth and length of the change he envisaged. The citizens did not sit down at a table to arrive at a template of his promised change. At best, the president only revealed snippets of the change: a robust economy that would guarantee full employment and a parity of the naira and the dollar, and as a palliative measure for those who are still jobless,  the payment of a stipend of N5,000.

Buhari’s new mantra of change beginning with the citizens is an expression of his sense of triumphalism. The new mantra brims with the hauteur of a president who has not only impenitently abdicated his responsibility, but who is yet to come to terms with his own failure to grapple with the problems he was elected to solve. The citizens could tolerate the president’s incompetence while hoping that with his seeking the advice of those who should know better, he could still fulfill the people’s expectations. But with a mindset that the citizens have been conquered, the president does not need to attach any importance to such advice. Or why would the president tell the people that change begins with them when he is expected to make good his promise? As far as the president is concerned, he has used the change mantra to gain power and those who are interested in its actualisation are free to torment themselves with that triviality.

But the president may not be wrong after all. From his Olympian height, he can only see the citizens he has conquered. The conquest began with his ministers and other aides who are supposed to advise him on the right decisions to take. We must be reminded that the president did not hide his disdain for his would-be ministers. They were only imposed on him by the constitution. And this was why he considered them as noise makers whose contribution to national development could only be consigned to a marginal space compared to that of civil servants in whom he reposes more confidence.

Nigeria: Re-Structuring Again?

By Oshineye Victor Oshisada  

Lately, the call for the country’s re-structuring is unbridled. The clamour for it rents the air as if without it , the country shall go asunder. The issue is over-dramatised to the point of nausea, and to such degree that every Tom , Dick and Harry is climbing on the bandwagon of the agitation for re-structuring whether or not they understand re-structuring, its processes and implications.

If it is examined critically, it shall be discovered that the agitation for re-structuring is from disgruntled elements; those whose political horizon is bleak and their influence, not to mention affluence, is progressively ebbing. For an example, if a person like Atiku Abubakar, with 954 votes compared with Muhammadu Buhari’s score of 3,430 votes in the 2015 APC primary election, was successful to be the sitting President today, would he be calling for re-structuring? Definitely not. Therefore, the callers for re-structuring are not sincere.

None of the callers for re-structuring except Chief Emeka Anyaoku who once suggested that the country should be collapsed to six geo-political zones has explained what they really want. This is physical re-structure and not power re-structure. In my piece on March 2, 2016, titled “Of Buhari’s Critics, Counsellors”. I opposed this, because I doubted if any of the existing states could be prepared to surrender its hard-earned autonomy. 

In the past 53 years, states were created. In 1960, there were three regions – West, East and North ; in 1963 , Midwest was created ; in 1967 , it increased to 12 states ; 1976 produced 19 states ;1987 witnessed 21 states ; in 1991 , it increased to 30 states ;1996 ,36 states ,with the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja , meaning that seven times , the country was re- structured . Therefore, if someone suggests the collapse of 36 states to six, it is to put back the hand of the clock. The reasons for the creations were to enhance holistic competitions and bring governance to the door of the people. A collapse has the opposite effect of suppressing competition and governance.

Buhari: Before This Hope Turns Into Hopelessness

By Martin-Hassan E. Eze

At a time like this that Nigerians are hungry and angry, saying ‘I am sorry’ may be the best escape route that some of us who championed the sai Buhari crusade and were his ardent supporters in his ANPP and CPC days in the political wilderness of failed political ambition can offer to Nigerians who wish to drag us into the shooting range or send us to Golgotha after the magical wand of the Daura sheriff had failed to perform the needed magic after one year in office.

*Tinubu and Buhari 

Wallahi, I actually believed the APC and Buhari will herald a paradigm shift from the messy stories of the past. I was also convinced that before a year in office, the APC led FG could have proven to majority of my Ibo brothers who seem not to approve of Buhari and the other 12 million Nigerians that rejected him at the last presidential polls that he was a better candidate than GEJ- the incompetent shoeless fisher man from Otuoke and the ‘boo’ of Biafrans. But, some of us are beginning to lose our voices in shame if not regret.

These days I don't worship at my Cathedral where I am a popular face and even sneak in and out of some streets like Nicodemus to avoid confronting citizens who will insist I explain why Buhari has denied every single phantom promise he made during the campaigns or have done exactly the opposite of what he said he will do as if I share the same sitting room with the old man. Biko kwa, I don't know Aso villa and I am not in any way related to Lai Mohammed the megaphone of APC and the FG.

My greatest disappointment with the APC and her greatest undoing is(was) her inability to properly manage her success and adorn the party with a nationalist babariga bearing in mind the ethnic and religious division that greeted the election. I was expecting to see Buhari at the Saint Theresa’s Cathedral in Nsukka sharing smiles and handshake with Most Rt Prof Godfrey Onah, the Catholic Bishop of Nsukka or drinking Sapele water with our Ijaw and Urobo brothers in Effurun. The APC and PMB lost the game the moment they failed to realise that after election, partisanship and party politics is sent to the morgue as governance and nation-building take the centre stage. I actually wept when the President started exhibiting the same sectional mentality that robbed him of a nation-wide support that Abiola enjoyed in 1993 in his political appointments. I was expecting a system of appointment that will be so wazobian in nature that all haters and bigots currently dominating and polluting the social space will be relieved of their jobs but the old man just disappointed me. The winner take all school of thought was not what a New Nigeria we were expecting from Buhari needed judging from the religious, ethnic and regional tension the last Presidential election generated. Extending an olive branch to some sections of the country that don’t love his face was a political master stroke and common sense that could have scored some goals for national unity and integration but Buhari and his handlers have so far proven that sense is not common as some of us think.