Nigeria: Is This Democracy?

 By Mike Ikhariale

After the celebratory hype about how the almighty BVAS and PVCs which were coming to revolutionize electioneering and democracy as a whole in Nigeria in the build-up to the current election that is fast turning into an unimaginable nightmare for many, I think we should go back and reflect on the poser we made about democracy in 2019 during the general elections of that year and see how much things have changed for Nigeria politically since then. 

Nigerians were made to believe that the hardship occasioned by the unmitigated collapse of the currency exchange policy was a deliberate design to ensure that there would be no cash available for politicians to “buy votes” and Nigerians were also fooled to believe that they were been called out for a sacrifice that would usher in a better democratic society for them tomorrow, more less like the brave and heroic Kohima epitaph which declares that “ for your tomorrow we gave our today”, but as we are all beginning to see, these politicians have callously taken both our today and tomorrow with them in one fell swoop by terribly discrediting democracy before the same people.

Second Term: Can Buhari Reinvent Himself?

By Banji Ojewale

…we will continue to engage all parties
that have the best interest of Nigerians at heart.
Our government will remain inclusive
and our doors will remain open.
That is the way to build the country of our dream – Muhammadu Buhari, after being announced winner of 2019 presidential poll.

*President Buhari 

In our traditional winner-takes-all approach to elections, and with Nigeria more sundered now than at any other time in our history, the only sane path to follow in order to heal poll-inflicted wounds and distrust and draw all back into the common ground, is a resort to an inclusive government President Buhari is talking about. He has also pleaded with his party members and supporters to be reticent in excitement.

Lessons From Julius Nwalimu Nyerere

By Banji Ojewale 

Gbolabo Ogunsanwo, Nigeria’s most captivating  columnist of the 1970s who rewrote history as editor of Sunday Times of that era, once returned from Julius Nyerere’s Tanzania and thrilled his compatriots with an account of the stoic exploits of this illustrious African leader. Just like his staid gait, Ogunsanwo said, Nyerere had no airs about him to suggest he was the president of Tanzania.

*Nyerere

This picture of an abstemious statesman sharply contradicted the Nigerian paradigm. Here, our leaders, even at the local government scene, would loot the public till to build personal empires, to  satisfy their palatial palate. The predilection of our leaders for financial rape has always been there and Ogunsanwo was among a small circle of ethical journalists who railed against this evil.

So the Tanzania experience had to excite this colourful columnist. Through his celebrated style of writing that nettled bad leaders and won applause from the public, Ogunsanwo said that if he placed the lifestyle of Nyerere side-by-side with what we had in Nigeria, the weight of the East African leader wouldn’t surpass the wealth of a level 9 officer in the Nigerian Civil Service. A shocked Ogunsanwo said something to the effect that the home of Nyerere had uninspiring furniture compared to what a middle level civil servant in Nigeria might offer. Nyerere’s was a study in Spartan decor.

Years later in 1999 when the beloved Tanzania leader died at 77, the New York Times correspondent, Michael Kaufman, wrote what has gone into the books as a most charitable essay by a Western reporter on an African president who mercilessly chided capitalism as a curse on humanity, thus confirming Ogunsanwo’s point. He admitted Nyerere’s “habits of modesty and ethics.”

Ghana @ 59: Surely, We Can Do Better!

By Stephen Agbai
Newly born babies bring unmatched joy to their families, especially their biological parents. Their births mark new beginning and new hope. Such was the case when Ghana, after decades of battling merciless and ironhanded colonial domination, successfully gained political independence.

Being the first nation south of the Sahara, and arguably with most of the leading lights in the global fight against colonialism being its citizens, Ghana’s Independence was most heartily welcomed by many freedom fighters — home and abroad. Ghana held the key to opening the floodgate of freedom for the rest of Africa and other oppressed peoples as succinctly captured by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah: "Our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African Continent."

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in fulfilling this dream and vision to lead the path towards perpetual liberation of the entire African continent, inspired and reinvigorated the rest of Pan African freedom fighters — notably Patrice Lumumba, Marcus Garvey, Nelson Mandela, W. E. B. Dubois, Ahmed SékouTouré and George Padmore. So strong and indomitable was the wave of change led by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah that within three years after Ghana's independence, many countries within the sub region — Guinea (October 2nd, 1958); Senegal (April 4th, 1960); Burkina Faso (August 5, 1960); Cameroon (January 1st, 1960);Congo (August 15th, 1960); Congo DR (June 30th, 1960); Cote d'Ivoire (August 7th, 1960) and Nigeria (October 1st, 1960), etc. — in quick succession had also gained their political freedom from colonial domination. This trendsetting effort is to be celebrated today by Ghana and the rest of the world.

Nkrumah’s Overthrow Regrettable

By ASP James Annan

The first President of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, was unconstitutionally ousted from office through a military and police coup d’état on February 24, 1966. This year marks exactly 50years since the Convention People’s Party (CPP) government was overthrown.

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah

According to declassified documents from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1999, the then US government had been trying to influence some people to overthrow President Nkrumah since 1964.

Apparently, Dr. Nkrumah was seen as an ally of the then Soviet Union and Eastern Europe during the ‘Cold War’. But the pan-Africanist leader declared his stance and made the famous statement, “We neither face East nor West; we face forward”.

On February 21, 1966, President Nkrumah left Ghana for Hanoi, the Democratic Republic of North Vietnam, at the invitation of President Ho Chi Minh to resolve the Vietnam War. Ghana was left under the control of a three-man Presidential Commission.

Consequently, the CIA backed-coup in Ghana was carried out at the dawn of February 24, 1966, while Nkrumah was still on peace mission in Asia.

Among the key figures who staged the revolution were Col. E.K. Kotoka, Major A.A. Afrifa, and the then Inspector-General of Police, Mr. J.W.K. Harley.

The famous coup-makers cited Nkrumah’s Preventive Detection Act, corruption, dictatorial practices, oppression, and the deteriorating economy of Ghana as the principal reasons for the uprising.