Showing posts with label General Sani Abacha. Show all posts
Showing posts with label General Sani Abacha. Show all posts

Thursday, January 18, 2024

Betta Edu: Why Ministers Abuse Public Office In Nigeria

 By Olu Fasan

Few things confer greater honour and privilege than being a minister in the government of one’s country. From a wider population, you are one of the select few called upon to run your nation. But a ministerial office is not a source of personal wealth, power or prestige.

*Betta Edu and Tinubu

Rather, it’s a call to service, an opportunity to use your talent to advance your nation’s progress and the wellbeing of its people.

Therefore, it’s an unpardonable betrayal for any minister or officeholder to abuse his or her office and put private gain above public good. Sadly, in Nigeria, private gain triumphs over public good. 

Friday, December 15, 2023

Our Beloved Country Is Bleeding

 By Sunny Awhefeada

 I do not know why countries or na­tions are thought of in feminine forms (she/her). Perhaps, it is a strategy to endear us to the place of our nativity and create a bond, the kind that exists between a mother and her child. Growing up, we sang songs that endeared Nigeria to us. Our young and impressionable minds glowed with no­ble ideas to which our sonorous voices gave clarion utterances. Men and wom­en who lived generations before this era also thought of their place of birth in endearing terms and they went to war in defence of their homeland.

*President Tinubu and Senate President Akpabio

Empires and kingdoms rose and fell in battles to defend the homeland. Even Nigeria’s national anthem and pledge have mem­orable and endearing words to configure our allegiance and love for “our beloved country”.

Tuesday, July 11, 2023

Nigeria Should Avoid The Era Of Technical Hitches

 By Tonnie Iredia

In the life of a nation, especially in the third world, some strange occurrences occasionally take the centre stage to the anxiety of the people. No one is usually able to dissuade everyone from superstition during such periods especially because the occurrences are felt across board in the relevant community.

From history, we know for example, that a short period after the annulment of the famous June 12, 1993 presidential elections in Nigeria, two major leaders associated with the development died suddenly. The two leaders, General Sani Abacha who was then Head of State and Chief Moshood Abiola from whom the electoral victory was snatched reportedly died within the space of one-month in 1998. Their dissimilar deaths were attributed to what was called cardiac arrest. 

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Nigeria Tripped In 2015, Then Stumbled For Eight Years

 By Owei Lakemfa

Today, Nigeria stands ragged and worn out on the global highway. Should it look back at the last eight years and try to make sense of the rough road it had been dragged through? Or simply pick itself up and face the future?

*Buhari 

The misfortune of the last eight years that was the Buhari regime was foretold. No, not by a fortune teller who might have degrees of in-exactitude. But by the exactitude of lived history. A history that opened the book of remembrance reminding us that this taciturn general who was being propped up on stilts of profane propaganda, wrapped in the borrowed robes of a democrat and falsely presented as an unmatched fighter against corruption, is the same man who for 20 months from 1984 subjected the country to terrors of military misrule.

Friday, December 2, 2022

Poet Of The People: Niyi Osundare

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu 

Poets from all over the world today do not come any loftier than Nigeria’s Niyi Osundare. In my book, he is the next poet destined to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. 

*Osundare 

Lovers of intellection are thrilled that on Wednesday, December 7, 2022, Professor Niyi Osundare will deliver his Nigerian National Merit Award (NNMA) Winners Lecture in Abuja. 

The lecture which is taking place within the context of the Annual Forum of NNOM Laureates is entitled “Poetry and the Human Voice”.

The significant event that is happening physically and virtually calls for celebration because Niyi Osundare is that one poet who speaks for the people. 

A personable mentor who jocularly addresses me as “The Maximum Metaphorist”, Osundare packs enormous craft and courage in his sublime verbs and profound nouns. 

Thursday, November 3, 2022

The Value Of Peter Obi

 By Abiodun Awolaja

As I begin these lines, I remember 1998 like yesterday. An old man on the street where I lived in Ondo town, exasperated by General Sani Abacha’s bloodthirsty rule, shrugged and said the following: “Well, at least he will leave the position in his old age.” Those were the days when it was almost an anathema to think of democracy. 

*Peter Obi 

Had God Almighty not taken Abacha out of the way just a few days after the man I have just referenced made his doleful comment, there would have been no democracy in 1999. The way Abacha and his colleagues carried on, it was as if they owned this world. They could kill and jail people at will. They looted the country dry and, in the words of the poet Tanure Ojaide, “threw questioners to hyenas.”

Friday, October 21, 2022

Tinubu: Should Nigerians Really Shut Up?

 By Promise Adiele

Nigeria’s god of literature, Wole Soyinka, needs no elaborate introduction. His evident literary flourishes underscore a deep mastery of the English language which he eminently utilises to address socio-political conditions in his native Nigeria and across the world. He has, several times, confronted misrule, urging the economic weary, downtrodden masses to stand up against bad governance and reject the entrenchment of power monsters in the polity. In his globally acclaimed civil war memoir, The Man Died, Soyinka magisterially submits that “the man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny.”

*Tinubu

By that epoch submission, the Nobel laureate encourages victims of feral exercise of power to speak up and not shut up because death is the comeuppance of timid acceptance of political and economic terrorism. Soyinka’s advice to the populace to speak up contradicts Bola Tinubu’s admonition that Nigerians demanding a new beginning from the present All Progressives Congress disaster should ‘shut up.’ Tinubu, the APC presidential standard bearer, was unmistakably direct when he recently encouraged his audience to tell those demanding a change of government in Nigeria to ‘shut up.’

Monday, October 17, 2022

Ekwueme: The Democrat Who Gave Abacha Red Card

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

The soft, gentlemanly features of Dr. Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme belie the heart of steel inside the late first ever Vice-President of Nigeria. Back in 1998, Nigeria’s Head of State, General Sani Abacha, had perfected plans of transmuting from a military leader to a civilian president. Abacha got all the five existing political parties to adopt him as the sole presidential candidate. 

*Dr. Alex Ekwueme

Ekwueme met with his fellow politicians, 17 from the North and 17 from the South, that became G-34. As the chairman of G-34, Ekwueme took charge of forwarding a letter to General Abacha, warning him not to ever dream of turning himself into a democratic president. It was akin to giving a red card to a murderous dictator by an unarmed civilian. 

Many Nigerians waited with bated breath, believing that there was no hiding place for Ekwueme and his group of crusading politicians. Then Abacha suddenly died. And soon after, the winner of the June 12 1993 presidential election, Chief MKO Abiola, whom Abacha had kept in captivity also died. General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who took over after Abacha’s death, announced a 9-month transition to civil rule programme. 

The Ekwueme-led G-34 decided to turn into a political party that became People’s Democratic Party (PDP). Alhaji Isa Kaita came forth with the suggestion that Ekwueme should be named as the presidential candidate of the party. Ekwueme said he would only accept the nomination if it came through an all-encompassing democratic process. That is the essence of Ekwueme – a democrat through and through. 

Friday, October 7, 2022

Alex Ekwueme Would Have Been 90

By Ejike Anyaduba

Five years ago, almost to this day, the vacuum created by the death of Dr. Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme in the nation’s political life is yet to be filled. It is hardly to be imagined how low Nigerian democracy has been running, and to what weakness its riders have been reduced through avoidable crises. And it looks like there are no statesmen in the mould of Ekwueme to steer the ship ashore.

*Ekwueme 

Until the military’s convoluted transition to civil rule which ended in fiasco on June 12, 1993, Ekwueme, Nigeria’s Vice President between 1979 and 1983, was almost in the background, never quite in focus. But he would be stirred to action the moment it was clear that the General Sani Abacha’s transition to civil rule was a ruse – a winding path that was leading nowhere.

Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Troubling Questions Around Kassim Shettima

 By Chido Nwakanma

Are the many blunders of APC vice-presidential candidate Kashim Ibrahim Shettima errors, or do they speak to a dangerous mindset to which all Nigerians should pay attention now? Is Alhaji Shettima cleverly setting a plan in the dissimulation model and secretly enjoying the buzz and distraction they create in the media? What is the strategic intent when an otherwise brilliant man commits elementary errors?

*Shettima 

The office of vice president is critical in the 2023 Nigerian general elections. The vice president is a heartbeat away from the president’s seat. It is even more so for Nigeria, with two geriatrics among the candidates seeking to be president.

Kassim Shettima, former governor and senator, seeks to be vice-president on the ticket of the APC. His candidacy has been contentious as it introduced the divisive Muslim-Muslim ticket into our political lexicon. Significantly, gaffes and foot-in-the-mouth have hallmarked Shettima.

Thursday, September 22, 2022

2023: Shettima Unfit To Be Nigeria’s Vice-President

 By Olu Fasan 

If Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, becomes president next year, it is not only his exclusionist Muslim-Muslin presidency that would unsettle Nigeria, but also his would-be deputy, Alhaji Kashim Shettima. With Shettima’s inherent tetchiness and truculence, he would be gratuitously provocative. And with his uncouthness and indiscretion, he would be utterly divisive and toxifying. Truth is, a Vice-President Shettima would be unlike any civilian vice-president in Nigeria’s history. 

*Tinubu and Shettima 

But that proposition stands on another critical one that we must discuss first, namely: no previous presidential candidate in Nigeria did what Tinubu has done. I’m not referring to the devilry of his Muslim-Muslim ticket. Rather, I’m talking about his deliberate decision to pick a long-standing political ally and close associate as his running-mate. None of the past leading presidential candidates behaved in that manner. 

Monday, September 19, 2022

Shettima’s Freudian Slip…

 By Bello Maigari

Senator Kashim Shettima has again amused serious-minded Nigerians, this time, opening up on how his principal in the All Progressives Congress, APC presidential ticket, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu would combine the hospitality of General Sani Abacha and the competence of Muhammadu Buhari as president.

*Shettima and Tinubu 

Speaking last Thursday at the 96th-anniversary celebration of the Yoruba Tennis Club in Ikoyi, Lagos state, the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN quoted him as saying Nigeria needs the “hospitality” of Abacha. For Nigerians unfamiliar with Abacha, a slight recall of some of the worst abuses in human rights are easy to recall.

The extra-judicial killings of Mrs Kudirat Abiola, Alfred Rewane and many others recorded and unrecorded are living testimonies of the hospitality that Shettima wants Nigerians to remember. Shettima’s principal, Tinubu was driven to exile like many other Nigerians who kicked against the military regime’s decision to usurp the mandate given to Chief MKO Abiola.

Saturday, August 27, 2022

Babangida And Recent Nigerian History

 By Dan Amor

To live on this sinful earth for 80 years (whether it is original or official age) is no mean achievement, especially in these terrible times when conditions have sapped real life out of comparative existence leaving the average lifespan of a Nigerian at just 55. 

*Babangida

But here is General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (retd.) celebrating 80 years with pomp and pageantry in the midst of family members, friends, associates, former colleagues and country men and women. Since Tuesday August 17, his date of birth, Nigerians from all walks of life have paid tributes to this former military President, from varied perspectives. 

Monday, September 27, 2021

Does Nigeria Still Matter To Nigerians?

 By Dan Amor

It is the biggest question of the day! Does Nigeria really matter? Like an inscrutable nightmare, the ponderous mystery of the Nigerian national question, which is ultimately the nation’s enduring essence, is still at issue. Jolted by the scandalous and shocking display of the obvious limitations of the human evolution, the unacceptable index of human misery in their country, and willed by a recent memory of oppression inflicted upon them by discredited soldiers and their quislings, Nigerians have been singing discordant tunes about the state of their forced Union.   

This has further been exacerbated by disarming pockets of inter and intra-communal clashes, wanton killings by herdsmen, senseless Boko Haram bombings, frequent kidnappings by armed bandits, violent robbery and mindless ritual killings across the country. Therefore, the matter for regret and agitation is that a supposedly giant of Africa has suddenly become the world’s most viable junkyard due to the evil  machinations of a fraudulent ruling class and the feudal forces still determined to keep the country in a permanent state of medieval servitude. 

Tuesday, August 24, 2021

Babangida And Recent Nigerian History

 By Dan Amor

To live on this sinful earth for 80 years (whether it is original or official age) is no mean achievement, especially in these terrible times when conditions have sapped real life out of comparative existence leaving the average lifespan of a Nigerian at just 55. But here is General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (retd.) celebrating 80 years with pomp and pageantry in the midst of family members, friends, associates, former colleagues and country men and women. Since Tuesday August 17, his date of birth, Nigerians from all walks of life have paid tributes to this former military President, from varied perspectives. 


*Babangida 

It is only natural that we greet such a human dynamo with overwhelming gusto. Happy 80th birthday anniversary to General Babangida. I have read big, meaty, skillfully conceived and carefully executed tributes to the gap-toothed former maximum ruler, constantly relating them to the larger story. Some have treated his story with compassion and with a critical probing pen and have achieved brilliantly their aim of following Babangida’s long journey out of the innocence of his turbulent years. Yet, since men must do their work in warmer temperatures, cold light may not be a sufficient condition for the study of men’s lives. 

Monday, June 28, 2021

Nigeria: How Not To Gag The Media

 By Dan Amor

It is a sad story to tell but telling it we must. Before the advent of the present "democratic" dispensation, Nigeria was literally run by buccaneers who plundered the nation’s till into private use and built empires over the painful anxieties of the oppressed people. Upon assumption of office, the present crop of leaders (since 1999 till date) promised to make Nigerians put the pains of the past behind them as they were poised to embark on massive people-oriented programmes. 

Consequently, therefore, Nigerians who had long been living in penury and deprivation felt that the only option left to them was to hope for better days ahead. This is more so as the beauty of any government is its ability to bring together human and material resources and use them for the uplift of society. It would be recalled that during those dark days in our nation’s annals when the military usurped the polity to breaking point, the Nigerian media stood firmly on the side of the people. 

Friday, October 9, 2020

Nigeria: Still A Paradox At 60

 By Dan Amor

Nigeria is a beautiful edifice built with bricks of contradictions. Somewhere between the idea and the reality hovers a huge geographical abstraction that beguiles the imagination. Situated at the Eastern end of the Gulf of Guinea, between the 4th and the 14th Parallels, Nigeria occupies a total area of 923,768 square kilometres, slightly more than the combined areas of France and Germany. 


From Lagos in the South-west to Maiduguri in the North-east is the distance between London and Warsaw. Its population estimated at about 200 million, exceeds the combined population of all other countries in the West African sub-region of the Sahara. Endowed with enormous wealth, a dynamic population and an enviable talent for political compromise, Nigeria stood out in the 1960s as the potential leader of Africa, a continent in dire need of guidance. 

Monday, June 25, 2018

Of Abacha Loot, Malami And Twisted Narrative

By Sufuyan Ojeifo
A narrative in a section of the media about the repatriation of our national assets stashed in a number of foreign jurisdictions by the late former head of state, General Sani Abacha, has been insidiously skewed against the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN). The narrative has become so routinely rehashed that the underlying motive has now become writ large to the uncritical readers: it is purely to tar Malami with the brush of malfeasance in the loot repatriation. The overarching goal is to damage the Malami persona, discount his integrity capital and contaminate the whiff of his discretionary prowess in decision-taking.
*Gen Abacha 
The rash of calumnious campaigns against Malami finds anchorage in the determination of the contract of the Swiss lawyer, Enrico Monfrini, and the engagement of a team of Nigerian lawyers-Oladipo Okpeseyi (SAN) and Tope Adebayo-in Monfrini’s stead to complete the processes that he began. The Olusegun Obasanjo administration had engaged Monfrini in 1999 to trace, confiscate and repatriate looted Nigerian funds kept in coded accounts by Abacha. From 1999 up until 2016 when Malami disengaged Monfrini, the Swiss had turned the repatriation into a slush fund in service of a cartel. The good news is that Malami had since dismantled the cartel to the chagrin of vested interest.

Monday, June 18, 2018

President Buhari’s Queer Blandishment Of A Kleptocrat

By Ochereome Nnanna
 President Muhammadu Buhari gave hints of how his supporters will enter the upcoming electioneering fray when he met his Buhari support groups in the Presidential Villa on Tuesday last week: it’s going to be a gale of lies all the way. I am not referring to his allegation of $16 dollars spent on power projects “without power”. Figures that have been bandied down the years – from $3billion to $6 billion to $10 billion to $16 billion.
*President Buhari 
This reminds us of how former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor (now the Emir of Kano) Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, had in February 2014 bandied figures as the amount “diverted” by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, instead of being remitted to the Federation Account. He started with $20 billion, brought it down to $10 billion and readjusted it to $12 billion. That is Nigeria for you. Others use figures to inform and educate. We use ours to confuse and promote falsehood. 

Saturday, June 16, 2018

MKO Abiola Deserves Apology, Not Humour

By Afam Nkemdiche
When I first heard about President Muhammadu Buhari’s surprise posthumous honour to Chief M. K. O. Abiola, the widely acknowledged winner of the 1993 presidential election, my instinctive thought was, “My God! How could he nerve his conscience to do that – he was a principal confidant of the maximum ruler who denied MKO his well deserved mandate, until the mysterious death-in-detention???”
*Abiola 
It cannot be gainsaid, even in fiction, that Buhari was the closest public figure to the Kano-born general in Nigeria’s darkest years. Soon after Abacha sacked Ibrahim Babangida’s contraption (Shonekan’s Interim Government), he decreed that all monies that accrued from petroleum be pooled into a Fund, the Petroleum Trust Fund, PTF. The humongous size of the envisaged pool qualified the PTF to be immediately referred to as a “parallel government”; even the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, had to look to it for funding. Buhari was the first and only executive chairman of the PTF. This was a measure of the unique camaraderie that the duo enjoyed when Nigeria teetered on the brink of disintegration from November 1993 until June 1998 when Abacha suddenly succumbed to death ahead of his detainee.