Natasha Akpoti: Heroine Of The Kogi Election

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

As I write now, I am not too sure that I will be able to readily remember the full name of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate – the major opposition contestant in the November 16, 2019 gubernatorial election in Kogi State. So, it should not be surprising that I probably wouldn’t have heard about Natasha Hadiza Akpoti, the intelligent and courageous young lady who flew the governorship flag of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in that election if some fellows in the state’s murky political scene did not choose to attract undue attention to the state by stretching their desperation and crude politics to unimaginable extremes in their determination to run Natasha out of the governorship contest. 

*Natasha Akpoti

Indeed, my interest in what happens in Kogi had been so badly depleted by the unedifying record of Gov Yahaya Bello whose most significant achievement in office appears to be his successful de-marketing of the very outstanding campaign undertaken by some young Nigerians to push for the greater participation of the younger generation in the leadership of this country. It is so demoralising that when anyone tries these days to applaud and strengthen the case of this laudable advocacy (whose delicious fruit was the signing into law of the Not-Too-Young-To-Run Bill by President Muhammadu Buhari on May 31, 2018), the predictable retort usually fired back at one is: what of Yahaya Bello, is he not a young man? What is the guarantee that other young people would not only replicate his dismal record if they assumed leadership positions? It is as bad as that. 

Kogi 2019: Will Yahaya Bello Carry The Day?

By Tony Ademiluyi

Before Nigerian independence, the youths played a vital role in wrestling political power from our erstwhile colonial masters. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe established the Zik Group of Newspapers with the West African Pilot as it’s foremost in the group in 1937 at the age of thirty-three after a three year stint in editing the African Morning Post in Accra, Ghana. It revolutionized the newspapering industry and was the most nationalistic while still maintaining a modest modicum of financial success in its three decades of existence.

*Gov Bello and aides took to the streets to celebrate
 Buhari's return from UK medical  trip

Chief Anthony Enahoro edited the Southern Nigerian Defender one of the newspapers in the Zik Group in 1944 at the age of twenty-one straight from the famous Kings College Lagos without any university education. He went on to move the motion for Nigeria’s independence in 1953 at the age of thirty. Chief Bola Ige became the organizing secretary of the defunct Action Group at the age of twenty-three. Ambassador Matthew Tawo Mbu became the minister for Labour at the age of twenty-three in 1954 before he went to the United Kingdom to study law. Mazi Mbonu Ojike spearheaded the cultural nationalism with his famous ‘boycott the boycottables’ in his early thirties after his educational sojourn in the United States and became the Deputy Mayor of Lagos long before he turned forty. The list is endless of youths who achieved a lot in pre-independence Nigeria.

Lagos: Bola Tinubu’s Parasitic Master Plan

By Modiu Olaguro

 “Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason.”—Mark Twain.

In the last one month, the eyes of the nation was fixated on Lagos. Like a child’s play, the rumour of the governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, not getting a second term in office began and to the consternation of all, the rigmarole culminated in his ousting in a manner without precedents in the state. The All Progressives Congress (APC), being a party whose modus operandi relate in every way, shape or form with its siamese cousin, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), governors ordinarily take their second terms for granted, with the parties throwing the seat at them under the guise of first refusal however bleak a future they may have carved for their respective states.

*Jide Sanwo-Olu, Bola Tinubu and Gov Akinwunmi Ambode

With this in the know, coupled with the financial wherewithal of Lagos which could make even the least skillful occupant of the throne claim some glory from the people, Ambode, in a hubristic fashion wore the cloak of invincibility, deluding himself that should worst come to worse, the party would fear the backlash a move that could deny him a second term would generate.

2019: Why We Must Vote In Young Nigerians

By Dan Amor

At the dawn of civil rule in 1999, after about fifteen years of uninterrupted military gangsterism, rapacity and greed, there emerged on the nation's political firmament, an assembly of politicians and professionals under the age bracket of 50 years, the National Integration Group (NIG). The group's aim was ostensibly to re-engineer the Nigerian public life and take over the mantle of political leadership from the old brigade. There were, indeed, conflicting reactions to the development.

*Gov Yahaya Bello of Kogi State:
Nigeria's youngest governor 

While some Nigerians believed that the group had ulterior motives, and therefore its mission preposterous, many believed and still believe that amidst the despair that has enveloped the nation, there is an obvious need to call to question the desirability of continuing with business as usual. This issue has remained prominent in the upper reaches of our national discourse especially given the woeful failure of the old generation of politicians to improve the standard of living of the people and engender positive development in the country since independence.

Nigeria: Time To Rework APC

By Alabi Williams

The fortunes of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have plummeted seriously since the party won the 2015 presidential election. The party had drifted aimlessly for three years, and some of us waited for the time someone will halt the drift.

*APC leaders: President Buhari and
Bola Tinubu

 That nearly happened last week, when President Buhari, as the foremost leader of the party told his party men to take another look at the contentious tenure elongation that was gratuitously handed to the John Odigie-Oyegun-led national executive, as well as others in the states and local governments.

On February 27, at the end of its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, the party, without due consultations suddenly extended the tenure of its National Working Committee (NWC), by one year. 

Kogi State Is Bleeding: A Call For Collective Rescue Mission

By Usman Okai Austin

Today, empirical and observatory facts have clearly shown that Kogi State is in a state of coma and economic doldrums that require an urgent attention. On all fronts, Kogi State spells failure. The indices for any vestige of development remain abysmal.

*Gov Yahaya Bello of Kogi State 

Poverty rages, unemployment increases in astronomical dimension, Infrastructural facilities are in decay, education sector is struggling to survive, salaries are unpaid, hunger, despair and destruction now haunt the state. The people are indeed living in very trying times: dissatisfied with the present and face the future with much trepidation. If Kogi State today were a living entity, it would be perceived as a blind entity groping aimlessly without direction while pretending to be on a purposeful mission of institutionalising the change agenda.