Between Rotimi Amaechi and Godswill Akpabio

By Abraham Ogbodo

My task today is to compare and contrast two illustrious sons of the Niger Delta Region. They are Rotimi Amaechi and Godswill Akpabio. Maybe I shouldn’t have added ‘’illustrious’’ because they have illustrated very little outside self-aggrandizement.

*Amaechi and Akpabio 

Amaechi literally came from nowhere to become so rich and powerful. Before 1999, his entire life and livelihood had been defined by Dr. Peter Odili, who was Rivers State governor between 1999 and 2007 and owns Pamo Hospital where Amaechi had worked as a public relations officer before his astronomic rise to Speakership of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

Akpabio may be a little deeper, but I shall return to him presently.

Sack These Incompetent Security Chiefs Now!

By Tayo Demola

For several months now, some parts of the nation have been boiling with hostilities. We have since lost count of the number of killings that have taken place. We have lost count of the number of innocent Nigerians that have been killed in one of the most dastard and mindless killings in the history of Nigeria. I can’t believe that this is happening before our own very eyes and nothing has been done about these killings up till now!

President Buhari and Service Chiefs

It seems as if the government has now accepted this as the norm because I’m yet to see any drastic step taken by the President to address these urgent issues and put a permanent stop to these security challenges.  President Muhammadu Buhari should realise that the primary responsibility of government is to protect lives and property and to care for the welfare of the people. The government has failed to provide these for the people.

Nigeria: From Looting To Sharing The ‘National Cake’

By Matthew Ozah

“Neighbour! How have you been? You seem a bit reserved these days. I hope there is nothing to worry about?”

“Hmm! There is so much to worry about in these perilous times. Even President Muhammadu Buhari is worried about 2019 elections especially with the way APC is metamorphosing. Well, as for me, my pocket is in recession and it is beginning to affect my blood pressure. Indeed, ignorance is a disease. You are here nursing agonizing distress while a scrum is receiving cash handout in your state from the Abacha’s recovered loot.”

*President Buhari 

“What are you talking about? That has got nothing to do with me and I feel let down for confiding in you about my discomfort?”

“Please pardon me jare! But how come you have not heard about the ‘Social Investment Programme,’ Buhari’s pet project to share the recently repatriated 322 million dollars Abacha loot among the poorest and most vulnerable households within 19 states in the country?” 

Gale Of Defections And The Buhari Factor

By Sufuyan Ojeifo

The coming together of political forces of the oppositional hue in the build-up to the 2015 general election portended a grave danger for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In any case, the behemoth, which the PDP typified at the time, had imprudently and lightly treated the ill-omened development and paid dearly for it.

*President Buhari 

The PDP was brought down in prostrate surrender to the supremacy of the rainbow coalition of opposition parties that formed the All Progressives Congress (APC) on which platform Muhammadu Buhari clinched his historic victory over Goodluck Jonathan. That defeat of an incumbent president was novel in the annals of the nation’s presidential elections. 

State Of The Nation: Open Letter To President Buhari

By Olasupo Abideen Opeyemi

Dear Mr. President

It is with a heavy heart that I sit down to write Your Eminence. As a conscious, patriotic and progressive youth, I could not help but register my dissatisfaction with my country’s plight alongside a volley of plea to your administration to rescue this dire situation. Excuse the curtness of my manners. The intensity of my pain has almost robbed me entirely of formality. My passionate plea is not for a personal gain but for a revision of government’s position on issues of health, poverty and education, the individual components forming the fulcrum around which our collective development and glory as a nation revolve.

Sir, I read the disapproving remarks you made at the 58th general conference of the Nigeria Medial Association (NMA) concerning the unpleasant effects of various strike actions embarked upon by the country’s health professionals on the nation’s health. With a commensurate level of concern – and perhaps more, I have found myself under the onus of speaking on this trend with a view to achieving an impressive turn in events.

Nigeria: Defectors As Jesters

By Dan Amor

It is a sickening reality in Nigeria that defection, the act of leaving one political party for another, also known as carpet –crossing or what the eminent poet and humorist, Uzor Maxim-Uzoatu called “Jumpology” (the political act of jumping from party to party), has been elevated to the height of a national ideology. 

This glamourisation of political prostitution by Nigerian politicians signals the death of commonsense. Before the December 2013 defection of 37 members of the House of Representatives elected on the platform of the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the then opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in an open show and fanfare, four PDP governors had led the way in a much more rehearsed, media pampered braggadocio in November 2013.

Excess Crude Account Is Not President Buhari’s ATM

By Ochereoma Nnanna

The Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NGF, under the chairmanship of Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State is in the pocket of President Muhammadu Buhari. To be fair to the President, he never made any effort to pocket it.

*President Buhari 

 Buhari has been very avuncular to the governors irrespective of their political parties, offering the states financial bailouts and refunding them their Paris Club debt overpayments. He has done well on that count. Apart from Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State who has chosen to be outspoken as an opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governor, most of the others were very sympathetic towards the President in the darkest hour of his illness some months ago. Even opposition governors volunteered to go and see how he was recuperating in London. The governors feel so cosy with the President (except on the issue of herdsmen’s attacks) that hardly does a day pass without one or two of them tramping the Aso Villa corridors. Governor Yari, for one, virtually lives in Abuja, perhaps to be closer to the President. Senator Kabiru Marafa has accused him of preferring his post as the Chairman of the NGF to his elected mandate as Governor of Zamfara State. So, if Yari and the NGF are in Buhari’s pocket, it is because they crawled in there by themselves not because of presidential manipulation. 

Nigeria: President Buhari: Resign And Run Far Away!

By Sonala Olumhense

Finally, President Muhammadu Buhari has confirmed what has been known to many for nearly three years: he wants to remain in power for four more years. According to Mr. Buhari, this decision is owed not to his personal desire, but to popular clamour.  

*President Buhari 

It is always amusing when people who seek office, or want to cling to it, cite popular pressure.  The truth is that only Buhari’s circle of loyalists wants him back.  No Nigerian whose desire or interest is leadership rather than power, does. 

I am not necessarily saying Buhari will not win the re-election contest, but if he does, it will not be because he deserves it.  To begin with, voter turnout was high for him when he won in 2015, hope in full bloom.  

In 2019, betrayed Nigerian voters may revert to indifference.  Already, it is curious that mountains of voters’ cards are being ignored by their owners nationwide.  

That Danjuma’s Significant Outburst

By Sufuyan Ojeifo

We mean to hold our own.  I have not become the King’s First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire, said the indefatigable Prime Minister of Britain during World War 11, Winston Churchill, in 1942. But unfortunately, that was what he was compelled to do as recounted by Peter Clarke in his book titled: The Last Thousand Days of the British Empire. In a rave review of the book, Allan Massie surmised that Churchill rightly dominated the book as he was shown, warts and all, from the drawing on the diaries of Alan Alanbooke and Sir Alec Cadogan, as infuriating, often boring, sometimes wandering, arriving at meetings without having read his briefing papers, often unrealistic in his demands, hell to work with.

*Gen Danjuma

Curiously, the more Churchill’s weaknesses were exposed, the more splendid he seemed. According to Massie, If at times Alanbrooke and others wondered how they could win the war with him, they all knew it would have been impossible without him.  To be sure, Churchill, soldier, writer and politician, was one of Britain’s greatest heroes, particularly remembered for his indomitable spirit while leading Great Britain to victory in World War 11.  Churchill wrote his war memoirs and titled the last volume: Triumph and Tragedy. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 among other great accomplishments.

President Buhari, Danjuma And Looming Anarchy

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

Like medieval potentates who fiddled around while their empires were in the grip of mortal perils, President Muhammadu Buhari has since lost the capacity to resolve for us the question of whether our nation is on the brink of anarchy.  

This is because Buhari and his officials are stuck in a reality that does not reflect the pains of the people.

*Buhari and Danjuma 

In other words, if the country staves off a post-Gaddafi Libya-like anarchy and it remains one after the tenure of Buhari, the credit should go to the forbearance and prescience of those who are outside his government. 

During the recession that the government claims to have overcome through its deft economic management, it amounted to blackmail of the Buhari administration to draw its attention to the reality of the suffering of the masses.

T.Y. Danjuma: The Hypocrisy Of A Chief Mourner

By Jude Ndukwe

When on Saturday, March 24, 2018, Gen T.Y. Danjuma sent out a shrill cry to Nigerians using the exalted pedestal of the Taraba State University’s first convocation ceremony as a medium to send out his message, one could see nothing but desperation, frustration and hopelessness all over him as a result of the incessant killings of Nigerians of diverse nationalities by the marauding Fulani herdsmen terrorists. 

*Gen Danjuma 

Such emotions are expected of a man whose kith and kin are directly in the line of fire.

There is no doubt that Danjuma’s call for Nigerians to rise and defend themselves in the face of the immutable failure of security agencies to come to their rescue is germane, it is however too late, too little and too feeble. This is in addition to the fact that Danjuma has since lost his exalted place in the scheme of morality before the ordinary Nigerian.

Dapchi Abduction, Height Of Inglorious, Pathological Deceit And Hoax

Press Release

“The latest drama of the Dapchi school girls release is the height of serial and inglorious, pathological deceit and hoax. In their bid to make unfounded and unthinkable comparisons (with the regime of Gooduck Jonathan) President Buhari and his hegemonic Fulani cabal become antithetic as they are contradictory.

“Apparently, in a hurried orchestra to display their high dexterity of quick response to the manipulated abduction (as against the snail speed approach of the then Jonathan’s regime) the ‘good plan’ was marred by poor execution. Over one hundred girls appearing in new and neat dresses with their big bags of different makes.

“The thought-provoking questions are: Did all the girls dress for a religious or social outing shortly before their abduction? Were they allowed to bring their new clothes on abduction or were they taken to a boutique for their fine ‘uniforms’ before they were brought back?

Dapchi Girls: Of Sham Release And Cynical Citizenry

By Sufuyan Ojeifo

Between February 19, 2018 when the Dapchi schoolgirls were abducted by supposed Boko Haram insurgents and Wednesday, March 21, 2018, when the news broke that 101 of them had been released, I had offered perspectives on the incident in two articles. The first was titled: “Chibok and Dapchi girls: The whoredom of Karma” while the second was titled: “Gbomogbomo as metaphor.”

The second article, in particular, provides the take-off point for the current intervention. Therein, I had expressed a concern at the role abductions of schoolgirls play in our presidential politics.  My thesis was that our abducted schoolgirls in the northeast zone have become objects of political bargain in the hands of our modern day real or prearranged gbomogbomo, a Yoruba word transliterated as stealer of children.

President Buhari, It’s Time To Go!

By Emmanuel Ogundele

For those who have watched the direction of President Muhammadu Buhari and his administration for well over two years now, there is no doubting the fact that we have made a wrong choice. Not that there was anything to choose from between a weakling called Goodluck Jonathan who allowed free stealing to go on in his government unabated and, at that time, a serial loser at presidential elections since 1999 called Muhammadu Buhari.

*President Buhari

However, little did we know then that it was a choice between a present disaster and a would-be tragic figure. The facts don’t come out in good time and so people were quick to paint a future devil in a Saint’s colour. While the drive to choose anybody but Jonathan among the political elite which eventually percolated down to the people, was so pressing at that time, it was not a well-thought out choice. For while Nigerians act as if they operate a two-party system, we actually run a multi-party democracy. 

Compared To Jonathan, Buhari Is A Weakling

By Reno Omokri

“I Never Knew the IGP Moved To Nasarawa After I Sent Him To Benue”.

These were the words of President Muhammadu Buhari, a man sold to Nigeria as a strongman leader. Going further, the President is quoted to have said “I did not know that the IG did not stay in the state. I am getting to know this at this meeting. I am quite surprised.”

*Jonathan and Buhari 

This revelation from President Buhari has vindicated his wife, Aisha Buhari, who in 2016 revealed that the President had lost control of his government. What type of Commander-in-Chief gives an order and does not have processes in place to verify that such orders have been carried out? A weak leader that is who.

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 Myth About Buhari’s 12 Million Northern Votes

By Sufuyan Ojeifo

Short of saying, whether you vote or not, we will win, Kano state governor, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, who is locked in a supremacy battle with his erstwhile boss, former governor of the state and current senator, Rabiu Kwankwaso, for the political soul of Kano, was boasting, the other day, of his capacity to mobilise and return five million votes for President Muhammadu Buhari, if he contests, in the 2019 presidential election. That is quite massive in a situation where it is realistic or doable! 

*President Buhari 

For me, Ganduje’s declaration was nothing but a day-dream. But then, it could be preparatory to some advanced forms of rigging because, in the first instance, the figure of registered voters in Kano in the 2015 general elections was 4,943,862. Assuming, arguendo, that the figure goes up to between five and six million after the continuous voter registration, can the governor guarantee that five million voters would cast their votes for Buhari, especially if the leading opposition party decides to field a formidable northerner and possibly a Fulani man against the president? 

Dear President Buhari, Lying Is Corruption!

By Reno Omokri

I have just read President Buhari’s speech to the All Progressive Congress members who visited him at the Presidential Villa on Monday the 26th of February, 2018. It is rather unfortunate that a man who once deceived the nation with his fabled ‘integrity’ can descend so low as to spew forth very obvious lies and a revision of history.

*President Buhari

If nothing else justifies the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index rating which revealed that corruption in Nigeria has worsened under President Buhari, this latest Presidential act of deception does.

In psyching up the APC for 2019, the President, obviously aware of the defeat that awaits him and his lying brigade, said as follows:

The South And Nigeria’s Democracy

By SKC Ogbonnia

The handshake across the Niger summit has come and gone.  Though the event was fraught with strategic shortfalls, the move ought to be encouraged by all, because disunity in Southern Nigeria has been a stumbling block to Nigeria’s democracy.

Here is why and how. A definite problem that dogged the Nigerian democracy for ages was lack of dynamic opposition due to proliferation of political parties. This phenomenon contributed to systemic dictatorship and, by consequence, a history of power abuse. The god of democracy came to the rescue by provoking the creation of the All Progressive Congress (APC). Unfortunately, however, the desired outcome has been elusive because of another dimension of dictatorship in form of primordial ethnic tyranny.

Dishonesty Of Buhari Administration Knows No Bounds

By Reno Omokri

On December 18, 2013, then President Goodluck Jonathan unveiled the first ever made in Nigeria drone built by the Nigerian Air Force in Kaduna. Yesterday, President Buhari went to Kaduna to unveil the same drone and declared it the ‘first made in Nigeria drone’. Why can’t the Buhari government stop lying? Why must they be so dishonest?

SEE HERE: JONATHAN UNVEILS FIRST MADE-IN-NIGERIA DRONE

That is how the same Buhari administration tried to lay claim to other infrastructure and achievements of the Jonathan government.