Africans Should Isolate South Africa

By Luke Onyekakeyah

President Muhammadu Buhari’s order to evacuate Nigerians from South Africa is a positive step in the right direction. Nigerians, indeed, Africans should leave South Africa and not regret it, as a first step towards redressing the unceasing bullying, intimidation, and arrogance of that country against fellow Africans that joined forces to liberate her from the crushing white apartheid regime. African nations should severe diplomatic relations with South Africa as a mark of protest. This land of apartheid should be isolated and let’s watch how it copes with being an island.

Good enough, an uncommon patriotic Nigerian, Allen Onyema, owner of Air Peace, offered to voluntarily evacuate the troubled Nigerian citizens from South Africa. I must commend all those in the forefront of this operation, namely: President Buhari, Air Peace Management, Nigerian High Commissioner to South Africa, Ambassador Kabiru Bala, Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike-Dabiri-Erewa, among others. The belated arrest, delay and harassment of departing Nigerians on highways and airport in South Africa, is of no consequence. It is akin to the pursuit of departing Israel from Egyptian bondage by Pharaoh and his army, which ended in disaster.

From Falae to Funke – All Rhetoric No Action

By Martins Oloja

Before Governors Rotimi Akeredolu and Kayode Fayemi begin to speak in tongues again on the Ruga ambush now kicking the Yoruba nation in the face, let’s encourage them to look up first to the people of Ekiti and Ondo States before some ‘principalities and powers’ in Abuja. The body language and utterances of these two governors on the curious ‘colonisation’ agenda can implicate and injure them a great deal if they don’t manage perception well around them at the moment.

*Olu Falae 

But before anything else, these two prominent governors who will always be in the eye of the storm because of the preponderance of Funani settlements in their domains, should let the president know at this moment that as in Skakespeare’s Macbeth, “Here is the smell of blood still, all perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand”.

The Bigger Picture In Ekiti Governorship Contest

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

A day after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced Dr. Kayode Fayemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) the winner of the July 14, 2018, governorship election in Ekiti State, a video of Fulani herdsmen brazenly parading their cows on the streets of Ado-Ekiti went viral on the social media. Reports say the video was shared on Facebook by one Isaac, the younger brother of Mr. Peter Ayodele Fayose, the outgoing governor of the state. 

*Fayemi and Fayose 

In a comment accompanying the video (reproduced unedited), the younger Fayose wrote: “Fayemi was rigged in on Saturday against the wish of Ekiti people. Today, Fulani herdsmen have the boldness to rear cow on the street of Ado Ekiti. This is pathetic! This is scary. I pity Ekiti and her people!” 

An Ailing Country In A Season Of Political Defections

By Chiedu Uche Okoye

It’s divine providence that thrust Dr. Goodluck Jonathan into the loft of power following the death of his predecessor in office, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

However, Jonathan’s poor leadership performance in office is a proof that he was not prepared for the arduous task of leading Nigeria.

*Some Nigerian Politicians 

During his stay in office as the president of Nigeria, he was tardy, visionless, and clueless.  So, he couldn’t transform Nigeria and take it to unprecedented economic and technological heights.

So, in order to prevent Nigeria from drifting into an anarchical state, leaders of some political parties, including the rump of APGA, reached an agreement, which culminated into the coalescing of the political parties to form APC.

Of Migrant Politicians And Political Prostitution

By Anthony Akinola

Quite a number of Nigerians are politically aware, even if their level of political participation hardly goes beyond voting in an election. They could be heard taking sides at election time, arguing vociferously as to why they would support one candidate against another. My recent visit to beloved Nigeria, coinciding with the Ekiti gubernatorial election of June 14, 2018, reinforced my insight into the thinking of the locals as to the possible direction of their votes in the election.  

*President Buhari 

At the highly-impressive Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, I encountered a local chief and another lady visitor to the institution who talk animatedly about how they would rather vote for the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), than that of the rival All Progressives Congress (APC). In praising Aare Afe Babalola for founding a university that has provided job opportunities for hundreds of Nigerians, they said Dr. Kayode Fayemi of the APC would rather build his own university in Ghana, providing jobs for the people of Ghana instead of Nigerians.

Nigeria: Is There Any Democracy Here?

By Lewis Obi 
The last fortnight has been dominated by the miserable stories emanating mostly from the All Progressives Congress (APC), its local congresses, its attempts to select officials for its grassroots, choose delegates to attend the all-important party convention next month, and conduct primaries for its governorship contests.

*President Buhari 

It is hard to know where the sordid tales should begin. But I watched two contending officials of the River State APC trade blames on TV. The Port Harcourt headquarters of the party was eventually set ablaze, and the High Court of justice attacked and for a while was seized by a faction to prevent the other side from seeking an injunction by the court to stop the local government congress.

The Wailing Of Madam Oluremi Tinubu

By Modiu Olaguro

"For what Ricardo foresaw was the end of a theory of society in which everyone moved together up the escalator of progress. Unlike Smith, Ricardo saw that the escalator worked with different effects on different classes, that some rode triumphantly on the top, while others were carried up a few steps and then were kicked back down to the bottom. Worse yet, those who kept the escalator moving were not those who rose with its motion, and those who got the full benefit of the ride did nothing to earn their reward. And to carry the metaphor one step further, if you looked carefully at those who were ascending to the top, you could see that all was not well here either; there was a furious struggle going on for a secure place on the stairs.”

—The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times And Ideas Of The Great Economic Thinkers by Robert L. Heilbroner.

*Oluremi Tinubu

Remi Tinubu’s outburst on the seeming side-line of her hubby, Bola Tinubu, by the Muhammadu Buhari administration illustrates the existence of an acrimonious struggle for dominance by actors in the political space. It connotes the very fact that the poor masses of Nigeria are not the only victims of the serial subterfuge by politicians who find their thumbs useful before elections only to find their faces unworthy after.

Lai Mohammed: An Unmanageable Mistake!

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

When President Muhammadu Buhari announced the people he has selected to occupy some of the most strategic positions in his regime, there was understandable uproar across the country. Nigerians looked at the profile of these fellows and wondered what could have motivated their choice, what exactly in their credentials qualified them for such sensitive positions.

 

*President Buhari and Lai Mohammed

Ordinarily, Buhari would have simply ignored such an outcry, but he surprised Nigerians by volunteering an explanation. These, he said, were the people who had stood by him through the stressful years of his various unsuccessful attempts to become president. As he moved from one party to another in his quest to actualise his ambition, they stuck with him, undiscouraged by his growing history of failed presidential runs. So, this was the time to "reward" them for their steadfast loyalty. (These are the people now loosely referred to as Buhari’s "Kitchen Cabinet," or more recently, "the Cabal" in Aso Rock, whose activities Nigerians have learnt to monitor with considerable apprehension.)

Buhari's preference for cronyism which mostly celebrates mediocrity at the expense of merit and expertise (an odious, counterproductive practice that has sufficiently advertised its predictable dividend in his regime's very dismal performance in the last two years) is, however, not original. In the unmissed Olusegun Obasanjo regime, appointment into public office was celebrated as an invitation to "come and eat." And not a few in that wayward regime, and the ones that followed it, really overate and became horribly obese, as evidenced by their mysterious humongous   accumulations!

In decently-run countries, people see appointment into public offices as sacrifice to their nation. Some, driven solely by love for country, quit high-paying jobs to take these positions whose statutorily fixed salaries compel them to undertake drastic readjustments in their lifestyles by shedding some luxuries that were easily guaranteed by their former salaries. Their country men and women celebrate them as patriots and heroes, and they leave public office with their heads held high, and their names boldly engraved in their country's Hall of Fame.  

But in Nigeria, the story is different. That is why it should be understood that while for many months Nigerians waited for Buhari to announce his list of ministers, thinking he was busy carefully searching for the best hands to do the very significant and urgent   reclamation job crying for attention at such a very critical period in our nation's history, the man was, no doubt, busy considering whom to "reward" with what position. 

When the list was eventually released, it greatly disappointed and shocked many Nigerians leaving them wondering why it took the president all those months to come up with such hope-depleting appointments. 

The most demoralising confirmation that little or no imaginative thinking went into the making of that list, however, was Buhari's decision to "reward" Mr. Lai Mohammed, the industrious chief propagandist of his party, with the office of the Minister of Information. Although, I had learnt very early to grossly moderate my expectations of the Buhari regime, I never in my wildest imagination expected that the president would fall so cheaply into such a brightly advertised trap.

Why Is Governor’s Office So Seductive In Nigeria?

By Martins Oloja

The ecclesiastical saying that there is a time for everything comes in handy today to interrogate some political matters that are weightier than the stale and inevitable tango between the sleepy executive and the restless legislature in Abuja. And here is the thing, it is time to examine what is so constantly seductive about the office of the Governor in Nigeria, that most politically active persons, federal and state legislators, returning foreign envoys, retired public servants, retired clerics, repentant militants and insurgents, special advisers and former Speakers want to contest that office.

It is curiouser and curiouser that even former governors that have run for only one term and even serving as ministers, a former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) all want to be nothing but governors. What is in it for the aspirants and even occupants of that office? Are they going to fulfill a constitutional provision for ‘welfare and security of the citizens, which shall be the primary purpose of government? Political intelligence has it that at the moment, Senator Chris Ngige, a former governor of Anambra state, a former Senator representing Anambra state, currently serving as a Minister is in a dilemma even as he is mobilizing fund to contest the 2017 election for governorship. So is Dr. Kayode Fayemi, former Governor of Ekiti State, a serving Minister who wants to return as Governor.

A former CBN Governor, a Professor of Economics who once contested the office, is said to be warming up again to plunge into the murky governorship waters. Mr. Dimeji Bankole, former Speaker of the House of Representatives who never had little or no experience before he was elected member of the House of Representatives, has been fighting to be governor of Ogun State, not minding the principalities and powers that would always frustrate him in his state. When his successor, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal raised his hand to be counted among those to challenge PMB, in 2015, he was quickly drafted by the powers behind the throne to accept to be governor of Sokoto State as a settlement. All protocols and legal processes were bent and broken for him to emerge as the only candidate. But the seducers got him with governorship ticket bait. What is in that office the occupants have added a qualifier to as “executive” governor” that is not in the constitution?

“There are a few exemplars that are quietly setting the tone for federalism at the moment: Lagos, Akwa Ibom,  Ekiti, Kano states, etc are strategically evolving as federalism brand ambassadors.” 

Ifeanyi Uba, an oil magnate, a successful football club owner and publisher of The Authority newspaper, in the eye of the storm over some allegation of missing N110 billion in his domain, would like to do all that is politically possible to be the next governor of Anambra state. Nothing else appeals to him. He had taken that road before. What is in that office?

Save The Naira!! Save Nigerians!!!

By Henry Boyo

The Nigerian Public service is reportedly heavily burdened with a ghost population, who not only unexpectedly write job applications and present themselves for interviews, but who also open bank accounts and collect salaries, despite their human shortcomings! 

Curiously, the CBN’s “know your customers” directive to banks was obviously no deterrent to the establishment of bank accounts for such ghosts! Naira In a strategic move to forestall detection, these ingenious spirits discreetly also infiltrated the Nigeria Police Force, where a 2010 staff-audit revealed that ghost officers accounted for over 100,000 members, out of the officially registered 330,000 policemen.

The audit reports further revealed apparent collusion amongst the Police pay officers, and accountants as well as bank officials to successfully rob the NPF of over N36bn annually! Similarly, Alhaji Mande Lofa, Chairman of Tureta (LGA), has also confirmed that a verification exercise carried out in July 2011 by the Tureta LGA in Sokoto State led to the discovery of over 500 ghost workers.

Also, in July 2011, the Rivers State Universal Basic Education Board reported losses of N2.4bn annually to 1477 ghost workers, while the National Identity Management Commission, also revealed that, after conducting a biometric data exercise, it had uncovered 4000 ghost workers out of about 10,300 employees on its payroll.

Furthermore, in December 2011, Garba Tagwai, the Niger State Commissioner for Local Government Affairs also noted that “No fewer than 20000 ghost workers have been detected on the pay roll of the 25 Local Government Areas of Niger State”. The Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, also observed that, prior to his administration, Ekiti State government lost over N3bn annually to ghost workers out of a projected annual budget of N80bn.

Unfortunately, the federal government is not immune to such fraudulent revenue leakages; indeed, in 2001, the incumbent Accountant General of the Federation, Chief Joseph Naiyeju, reported the discovery of 40,000 ghost workers following a man-power verification exercise. Similarly, 6000 ghost workers were detected after the completion of a staff audit, when Mallam Nasir El Rufai was Minister, of the Federal Capital Territory in 2006; revealingly, the FCT government was losing about $8m annually, due to ghost workers on its payroll.