Renewed Hope Or Renewed Hypocrisy: Tinubu’s Risky Politics Of Redemption

 By Emmanuel Aziken

At a time President Bola Tinubu has chosen to nominate some of Nigeria’s most controversial personalities as ambassadors to represent the country abroad, the emergence of his so-called Renewed Hope Ambassadors—appointed to canvass support for his second-term aspiration—has shaken the polity in a manner that many did not expect but which, perhaps, should no longer surprise anyone observing the curious evolution of our political culture.

*Tinubu and Omokri 

 The inclusion of figures like Mr. Reno Omokri, whose pre-election stance painted Tinubu with every negative virtue that should not be associated with a leader, did not completely shock Nigerians. After all, before Omokri, the president had already appointed Dr. Daniel Bwala as Special Adviser, a man who only a year earlier emphatically declared that “even if you give Tinubu 30 years, nothing will work.” With such examples, it has become increasingly clear that Tinubu’s political instincts lean heavily toward embracing, rehabilitating, and strategically deploying his most ferocious critics.

Hasn’t Tinubu Insulted Nigerians Enough?

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

It is extremely difficult to understand why President Bola Tinubu takes delight in insulting Nigerians at every turn. Or how else can one explain most of his actions other than that of a leader who does not care a hoot about what the people think or feel?

*Tinubu 

A few weeks ago, it was the issue of presidential pardon. It beggared belief that a president would demean a constitutional instrument, designed not only to temper justice with mercy but also give the Nigerian state a human face with the axiomatic milk of kindness flowing underneath near infinite executive powers.

Does Killing Babies In Niger Bring Glory To Our Name?

 By Femi Fani-Kayode

A dear and respected friend of mine who was once our Ambassador to a European country, who has relatives and strong links in and with Niger Republic and who is well versed in security and intelligence matters, told me that up to 40 babies are dying each day in Niger as a consequence of our cutting off electricity supplies to them.

*Tinubu and Fani-Kayode

According to him, these babies die in hospitals and incubators across the country as a consequence of the fact that there is no electricity supply and there is no fuel to power their generators.

This was confirmed by one Dr. Abdoul Djibou, a Nigerien medical practitioner, in an interview with Newsonlineng.com. They wrote, “According to a source in Niger Republic, Dr. Abdoul Djibou, there have been reports from Dosso Regional Hospital and Cominak Hospital about the recent spike in infant mortality.

Soyinka, Chimamanda And Other Burning Issues

 By Valentine Obienyem

The last election in Nigeria was the worst in its electoral history. Have you asked yourself why it was only APC and Sen. Ahmed Bola Tinubu that failed to condemn non-transmission of results from the polling booths to the central server even before the results were announced? The election has created  deep divisions among Nigerians, who belong to diverse ethnic and religious groups because Tinubu charged his supporters to secure victory for him by any means possible. Alas, we have seen how his followers used the ethnic and religious card, Ayo masquerade festival, guns, cudgels, threats, and psychological warfare to secure unmerited victory for him.

*Soyinka and Chimamanda 

 

The unconscionable  action of Tinubu was a clear example of his readiness to bring Nigeria down owing to his vaulting  political ambition. The practical disfranchisement of Nigerians had removed the mental stimulus that comes from free political activity and a widespread sense of liberty and power.

The DSS: An Intelligence Agency Or An Arm Of A Campaign

By Charles Ogbu

On March 29, 2023, the Department of State Services, DSS, claimed to have identified some political actors involved in a plot to install an interim government. According to the statement signed by Peter Afunanya, the spokesperson of the Spy Agency, the plot is “not only an aberration but a mischievous way to set aside the Constitution and undermine civil rule as well as plunge the country into an avoidable crisis”. 

The Service identified “endless violent mass protests in major cities” and “frivolous court injunctions to forestall the inauguration of the new executive administrations…..” as the two means through which the unnamed politicians planned to achieve their aim. 

Attacks On The Igbo In Lagos

 By Obi Nwakanma

A massive wave of discontent has trailed the results of the 2023 general elections. A vast majority of Nigerians believe, and have clear evidence that the results were brazenly stolen by the ruling party, and that this heist is a dare to Nigerians to go do their worse. This is one election result in which not a single sense of jubilation has been witnessed in any part of Nigeria, North South, East or West.

There is no sense of an achievement, or of hope. There is instead, something of a bated breath, a deadly sense of something brewing in the firmament, like a stifled sneeze. The parties have gone to court. Nigerians do not trust the courts. But they seem also to just hold out hope, for one more chance, that judging with the evidence before them, the court of justice would do its duty to Nigeria and restore the mandate of the people based on the truth before them.

We Are All Igbo!

By Olumide Akpata

On Saturday 18 March 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) conducted the gubernatorial and State Assembly elections to mark the second and concluding round of the 2023 elections. On that day, INEC, the law enforcement agencies and the Nigerian populace were presented with a golden opportunity to demonstrate to the rest of the world that, the below par showing on 25 February 2023 notwithstanding, Nigeria’s democracy had come of age. At the end of the day, not only did we fail spectacularly in this regard, but more dangerously, the fragile unity of the Nigerian State suffered a massive set back. 

Lagos: Just As I said!

 By Ochereome Nnanna

When strong presidential candidates of Igbo and Yoruba extractions, Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP, and Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, respectively, emerged from the primaries in the just concluded general elections 2023, I knew we were in for some trying times. I wrote on this several times. I warned that Lagos would be the worst hotbed of tensions.

*Peter Obi shakes hands with Bola Tinubu

While the tensions in other parts of the country would be political in nature, I reasoned that that of Lagos would be both political and ethnic. Some of the Yoruba elements would be programmed by desperate politicians who had lost the love of their people to beef the Igbo. The objective would be to unsettle the nationalistic Obidient Movement by stirring anti-Igbo sentiments in Lagos, and hopefully save Tinubu and his APC from losing power in the nation’s economic capital.

Poor Aminu And The Almighty First Lady

 By Dr. Ugoji Egbujo

The meek ones have, like Shakespeare, said, “The quality of mercy is not strained.” Other others have said, like Moses, “An eye for an eye.” In other words, “spare the rod and spoil the child.” Yet Others have, like Jesus, drawn the line and said, “He who has never sinned alike, let him cast the first stone.”  

*Aisha Buhari 

A student of a university in Jigawa insulted the first lady. Then he disappeared. According to the Student Union, for days, neither the boy’s parents nor the school authorities knew his whereabouts. The Student Union’s president said after a nervous search that exhausted the parents and the union for days, the boy was discovered.

Tinubu As President? Buhari Must Really Hate Nigeria!

 By Olu Fasan

Ahead of the 1993 presidential election, General Ibrahim Babangida, the then military head of state, made a profound statement. He said: “I don’t know who will succeed me, but I know who will not.” Sadly, that statement panned out with the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election. Yet, in principle, it was a perfectly reasonable statement. 

*Buhari and Tinubu

Here’s why. If General Babangida had damaging intelligence on MKO Abiola, the presumed winner of the election, an intelligence that could bring international shame on Nigeria, he had a duty to stop him from running for president. 

Babangida’s eternal mistake, assuming he had such intelligence, was to allow Abiola to run, encourage Nigerians to vote and then annul the election. But there was nothing wrong with saying “I don’t know who will succeed me, but I know who will not,” provided it was in the national interest. Of course, in a democracy, a president cannot simply say: “I know who will not succeed me.” But a president should signal a nation’s values.

The Nigeria/South Africa Palaver

By Adekeye Adebajo

I was recently visiting Lagos – the city of my birth – when I found myself feeling a sense of déjà vu as I watched South African mobs on television looting and attacking shops owned by Nigerians and other Africans. We have been here before. Nigerians were among those hurt in the horrific xenophobic attacks of 2008 when 62 people – mostly Zimbabweans, Mozambicans, and Malawians – were killed, and 100,000 displaced. More recently, in March 2017, South African vigilantes burned and looted scores of homes and businesses belonging to Nigerians in Rosettenville, Mamelodi, and Atteridgeville in Gauteng province, which they alleged were drug dens and brothels.

Having lived in South Africa for 16 years, one of my biggest frustrations is the failure of so many of its citizens to embrace an African identity and of the government to attract more skilled Africans to its shores in order to create an “America in Africa”. America’s genius has, of course, been its ability to attract the best and brightest from the rest of the world – trained at huge expense by these countries – and to turn them into American citizens or green-card holders.

A Warning For Foreign Minister And People Of South Africa

By Femi Fani-Kayode​

"I would appreciate them in helping us as well to address the belief our people have and the reality that there are many persons from Nigeria dealing in drugs in our country" – Dr. Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor, South African Minister of International Relations.

Is this the sort of thing that ought to be said by the South African government when we are still in mourning and when we have not even buried our compatriots that were cruelly slain, bludgeoned to death and cut to pieces in the streets of South Africa?

* Femi Fani-Kayode

At a time when this irresponsible, insensitive, shameless, conflicted, self-hating, pitiful and mendacious creature that has been described as the foreign minister of South Africa should be apologizing to the Nigerian people for the mindless savagery and barbarity of her blood-crazed compatriots, she is pointing accusing fingers at their victims and the objects of their collective hate and seeking to demonise them. What have we done to deserve this? First, you kill us then you seek to justify it and demonize us!

Nigeria: A Requiem For The Lifeless One

By Femi Fani-Kayode

”A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping. Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are no more”- Jeremiah 31:15.

O lifeless one, you have lost all sense of decency and you are drunk with power.

As the children are murdered in cold blood and cut short in the streets of Abuja by your soldiers you watch silently from a distance: smug, smiling, detached, indifferent and secretly egging the killers on.

The Coward Called Godswill Akpabio

By Femi Fani-Kayode

"You remain the father of the nation, our father and political father to all. Just like I told Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Osinbanjo yesterday in Nigeria... Those who think that they have politically grown to insult you will all regret it before month end sir. I am here (London) to register my undiluted love and unalloyed support to you. I was involved in all their meetings and I know what their plans are. The long recess of NASS is going to be your advantage and not theirs like they thought and planned"

— Senator Godswill Akpabio to President Muhammadu Buhari.

*Akpabio and Buhari in London 

Those that do not have the courage of their convictions and that do not have the guts to stand against tyranny when under fire are not worthy of being called men: they are little better than beasts.

The fact that the former Governor of Akwa Ibom, Senator Godswill Akpabio, is a coward and a traitor is no longer in dispute. The fact that his brazen treachery knows no bounds is what can best be described as "settled law".

Weep Not For Fayose, Weep For Nigeria

By Femi Fani-Kayode

“When Fayose won in 2014, the whole of Ekiti erupted with joy. In 2018 the APC “won” and all the streets of Ekiti are looking so gloomy. The people are sad because their will has been truncated”

— Adeolu Daramola

My friend and brother, Governor Peter Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state, is not infallible. He is not an angel and like every other mortal, he has his own fair share of faults, excesses and shortcomings. We do not agree on everything and neither do we always share the same opinion on matters of state and policy.

*Gov Ayodele Fayose 

I should add this: some of his friends are my sworn enemies and some of my friends are his, yet nothing and no-one can come between us. That is the nature of our covenant and deep bond which has its roots well above politics, which was borne through our shared love of the Living God and the Gospel of Christ and which was established and forged by the blood of Jesus. Our differences in terms of style and approach only brings us closer and serves to make our friendship stronger. And despite his regular displays of strong emotions, what a profoundly good and insightful man he is.

Historical Key (F) To Understanding Buhari And His Caliphate Jihadist Fulani Republic Of Nigeria

By Chinweizu

sundoor999@gmail.com

290917

*Chinweizu 

Introduction

In my view, much of the criticism of Buhari by  Nigerian secularists and believers in democracy, misses the key point. They see him as a president who is failing in his job as a democratic leader. In so doing, they proceed, in their complaints and criticism and hopes, from a radical misperception of Buhari, and in false expectation that their criticism will change him. Buhari is not a democrat come to fix Nigeria, play by the rules of the constitution, or entrench democracy. And no amount of criticism for failing at democracy will change him. So these critics are wasting their time.

If you still don’t understand that President Buhari is a Jihadist war leader waging war on Nigeria and its democracy, or if you don’t understand the Jihadist mentality and mission, then everything else you know about Buhari will only compound your confusion. So let’s try to see Buhari’s actions and inactions through the Jihadist lens.

Only when we understand that Buhari is A FULANI JIHADIST PRESIDENT OF THE FULANI REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, and that he is on Jihad against Nigeria and its democracy, will we understand that no amount of criticism from the democracy standpoint will have any effect on him. Can you imagine an armed robber stopping his robbery in mid-operation because of moral objections made by those he is robbing? Or a cat stopping its catching and eating of mice because of howls of objection from the mice?

The Dapchi ‘Abduction’ Scam: Where Is Leah Sharibu?

By Femi Fani-Kayode

I am happy that the abducted Dapchi schools girls are all back home but I am deeply troubled by the fact that one of them was left behind and by the assertion that five of them died whilst in captivity. The day the truth comes out about what really happened to the Chibok and Dapchi girls and those that were behind these two scams, Nigerians will be shocked and they will spit on the graves of Buhari and his collaborators.

Meanwhile I saw the pictures and watched the video of Dapchi residents cheering on and waving at Boko Haram insurgents as they dropped off the "missing" girls. It was clear to me that they regarded the terrorists as heroes and I was compelled to ask myself the following question, "Are we really one country?"

President Muhammadu Buhari, His Two-Headed Dragon And His ‘War’ Against Terror (Part 1)

By Femi Fani-Kayode

“No-one is more hated than he who speaks truth”- Plato.

These deeply profound and insightful words of Plato, Ancient Greece’s greatest and most revered philosopher, who was a student of the great Socrates and a teacher of the great Aristotle, are as true today as they were in 400 BC when he wrote them.

*Femi Fani-Kayode

 You will not read the following account about President Muhammadu Buhari’s so-called “war against terror” in Nigeria’s mainstream media because they have mostly been compromised and intimidated by the Federal Government.

You can however read it in this two-part essay if you are interested in
knowing the truth. I urge as many of those that care and that can get through it to spread the word and let the international community know the truth about what the Nigerian people are passing through.

The Fulanisation Of Nigeria And The Perfidy Of The British (2)

By Femi Fani-Kayode
READ PART ONE HERE
Perhaps the most insightful and concise contribution that I have read about the history of the Fulani and their inordinate ambition and insatiable thirst for domination and conquest was provided by Mr. Gbonkas Ebiri.

His research and analysis of this topic is as historically accurate as it is outstanding. Permit me to share his words.

*Femi Fani-Kayode

"Kingdoms that accommodated Fulani herdsmen in the past were eventually overthrown by the Fulani. In all situations, these herdsmen took up arms and fought for a Fulani leader to overthrow the kingdoms that accommodated them and their cattle. Examples in history:

The first Fulani Jihad was at Futa Jallon. Fulani pastoralists migrated here in large numbers from North Africa in the 1600’s (they migrated in smaller factions earlier).

The Fulanisation Of Nigeria, The Perfidy Of British (Part 1)

By Femi Fani-kayode

Mr. Gwnfor Evans MP, the great Welsh politician, lawyer and author and the leader of Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party, for no less than 36 years before he passed on in 2005, made the following historic and profound observation many years ago.

*President Buhari and Gov El-Rufai of Kaduna 

He said, “‘Britishness’ is a political synonym for ‘Englishness’ which extends the English culture over the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish”.

As a student of English and European history and one that was not only trained and educated by the British from the age of 7 but that is also highly conversant with their system and their ways, I can confirm that Evans is absolutely right. His words are relevant to our situation in Nigeria as well and, in many ways, has some application here.