Politics In Bola Tinubu’s Nigeria!

 
By Ikechukwu Amaechi

At best, Nigeria’s democracy in this Fourth Republic has been wobbly, standing, as it were, on feet of clay. And a quarter of a century thence, rather than getting better, things have got worse as the politicians are busy dismantling all the guardrails of democracy – civic participation, which undergirds every genuine democratic project; the rule of law, that norm which says no one is above the law and makes a democracy function properly; separation of powers and checks and balances, democratic values which ensure that no individual or institution would have too much power over others;  federalism and limited government, which Dr. Meena Bose, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency, at Hofstra University, described as “principles that ensure that the American political system protects liberty and natural rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Nigeria And Its Tunnel Vision Elites

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Nigerians are hypocritically sanctimonious, a trait that has become evident since the death of President Muhammadu Buhari in a London hospital on Sunday, July 13. Many, particularly politicians, have lied against the man, literally, by clothing him in borrowed robes in a bid not to speak ill of the dead.

*Late Buhari and Tinubu

All manner of adjectives have been deployed in eulogising the departed leader. But in doing that they lie against him, almost to the point of defamation.

But there is no use flogging a dead horse. While Buhari was alive, I wrote tons of articles lamenting his leadership style not because I hated him but because I wanted him to change. But he was a man set in his ways. Now that he is dead, the inevitable judgement of history will take its natural course. But one fact remains undeniable as Professor Anthony Kila aptly put it: Buhari is a promise unkept.

See China And Live Longer!

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Time was when the refrain, “See Paris and die,” reflected the global view that Paris, the capital city of France, was so magnificent that once you have seen it, you can happily die, having experienced the apogee of life’s splendour. It was a refrain that also echoed the Italian saying “Vedi Napoli e poi muori” – “see Naples and die.”

*Tinubu and Chinese President Xi Jinping

That was an expression used at a time Paris was the ultimate tourist destination, a place so extraordinarily beautiful that life afterward might feel incomplete. And make no mistake about it: Paris is still an iconic city. Its art, architecture, cuisine and, indeed, atmosphere still make it an alluring and charming city. But the French capital is no longer the “End of Discussion” as Nigerian car enthusiasts branded the Honda Accord 2006 model a couple of decades back.

Bola Tinubu And His Game

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Today, May 29, 2025, is exactly two years since Bola Tinubu took the oath of office as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria. And it is more than enough time to assess his stewardship.

*Tinubu

Even those who said, as Professor Wole Soyinka did in 2023, that the traditional 100 days was too short a time to make such an assessment will hardly have any excuse now. For those who may have forgotten, on December 24, 2023, Soyinka paid a visit to Tinubu in his Lagos home. Asked to assess Tinubu’s performance, the Nobel Laureate claimed that three months was too short a time to assess any government.

That Mischievous ‘Don’t Vote, Go To Jail’ Bill!

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Nigerian politicians are a funny lot who have perfected the inelegant art of majoring in minor things, which explains why, at a time like this when the country is at a socio-economic and political crossroads, the House of Representatives is going around chasing rats while the house – Nigeria – is on fire.

Their puerile antics reminds me of the July 13, 2000 book, This House Has Fallen: Midnight in Nigeria, by Karl Maier which chronicled the problems threatening Nigeria’s existence. “We… ignore Nigeria at our peril,” Maier, a London Independent correspondent stationed in Africa for more than a decade, admonished the world. Sadly, 25 years thence, those problems are not only still prevalent but have, indeed, become metastatic cancer.

The Fraud Called ‘Band A’ Electricity Tariff

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

No matter how anyone tries to rationalise the obtuse economic reforms of the Tinubu administration, the most searing no confidence vote in their sustainability has been passed by the president himself when the presidency announced that it was no longer sustainable for the Aso Rock Villa to continue paying the yearly N47 billion ‘Band A’ electricity tariff.

Aso Rock’s move which jolted many is coming on the heels of increasingly unreliable public power supply, even as the cost soars for both households and government institutions.

In 2024, the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company which said the Presidential Villa owed a bill of N923.87 million issued a 10-day notice to Nigeria’s seat of government and 86 MDAs to pay the combined debt of N47.1 billion or risk disconnection, hence the presidency’s bid to opt out of the national grid.

As Governance Confounds Okpebholo

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

When my attention was drawn to Governor Monday Okpebholo’s “Now, it is confusing me” video, I thought his political enemies were at work aided by Artificial Intelligence. The one-minute, 17-second video captured him stuttering while presenting the 2025 Appropriation Bill to the Edo State House of Assembly.

*Monday Okpebholo

Struggling to pronounce the numerical value of the Bill which he christened “Budget of Renewed Hope for a Rising Edo,” the governor said: “The Edo State 2025 budget… appropriation bill of six billion, sixty and fifty, six hundred five billion, seventy six thousand, seventy six million, seventy six.”

The Peace Ukrainians Deserve

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

On December 6, Ukrainians commemorated the Armed Forces Day. It is an occasion used annually in honouring their “brave defenders who protect their homeland from Russian aggression.” I happened to be at the Ukrainian embassy that Friday where the Ambassador of Ukraine to Nigeria, Ivan Kholostenko, said the heroes being honoured “safeguard not only Ukraine but also the broader world.”

*Ukranian President Zelensky

“On this day, we express our deepest gratitude to all those who defend the freedom and future of our country, ensuring peace and security for millions around the globe. The Embassy of Ukraine in Nigeria commemorates the heroes with an exhibition. Faces of men and women who risk everything for their homeland and peace around the globe are looking from the pictures of the exhibition,” Kholostenko said.

Decriminalising Nigeria’s Democratic Estate

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

A lot has been agitating my mind in recent times on the state of our union and why evil seems to continually thrive over good. Why is it that the things which disqualify people in other climes from holding public office are exactly what is needed by an average Nigerian politician to be considered astute?

In other climes, hardly will a certificate forger make a successful career in politics. In Nigeria the reverse is the case. Many of those in public office in Nigeria today forged their academic qualifications even when the bar is so ridiculously low that all you need to be president is the West African School Certification Examination, WASCE. You don’t even need to pass.

What Does It Take To Speak for President Tinubu?

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Ordinarily, the innocuous question – who speaks for President Bola Tinubu – should be a non-issue because it ought to be a given. But these are no ordinary times. In Tinubu’s bumbling emi l’okan dynasty, where the end justifies every means and jejune politics trumps governance, absurdity is the norm.

*Onanuga and Tinubu

Such intrigues, in the warped estimation of his rabid supporters, elevate him to the pantheon of political gods, making him the Jagaban of Nigerian politics. But Nigeria is worse for it.

Chris Anyanwu’s ‘Bold Leap’

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

On December 2, 2024, Nigerians will converge at the main auditorium of the National Universities Commission for the public presentation of Senator Chris Anyanwu’s autobiography, Bold Leap.

To be sure, this is her third book. She wrote the first, The Law Makers, Federal Republic of Nigeria, while she was NTA correspondent at the National Assembly in the Second Republic. The second, The Days of Terror, came after her release from General Sani Abacha’s gulag in 1998.

But Bold Leap is significantly different and, no doubt, will stir up the hornets’ nest for the very reason that she pulled no punches in the 612-page tome.

Trump’s Victory, The True Colour Of Democracy

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

On Wednesday, November 6, Donald Trump, the 45th U.S. President, pulled off what, to all intents and purposes, is an extraordinary political comeback – an exceptional feat that has catapulted him once again to the enviable position of the president-in-waiting. On January 20, 2025, he will take another oath of office as the 47th U.S. President.

When Americans went to the polls on Tuesday, November 5, to elect President Joe Biden’s successor, the odds weighed against Trump. Here is a president who was impeached twice during his presidency, refused to accept electoral defeat four years ago, sparked a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol before vacating the White House and was subsequently convicted of felony charges.

Who Will Call Nigerian Politicians To Order?

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

I am worried that Nigerian leaders have captured the Nigerian state, taking beleaguered citizens hostage in the process and yet carrying on as if all is well. 

*Nigerian politicians 

I am even more worried that the grossly abused citizens, afflicted with the debilitating Stockholm syndrome, rather than standing up to their abusers are actually coping, having over time developed positive feelings toward those who have persistently treated them cruelly, violently and unfairly in the name of leadership. But I am most worried that with the way Nigerian politicians are carrying on, sooner or later something will give and we will all be worse for it.

Who Will Tell Mr President?

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Who will tell Bola Tinubu that his 16-month-old presidency has reduced Nigeria to a living hell? Who will tell Mr President that there is great suffering in the land? Who will tell him to stop insulting Nigerians by his off-handed comments? Who will tell Tinubu that Nigerians are reeling from his ill-digested reforms and the incessant careless, brusque and inconsiderate jibes from the likes of Senate President Godswill Akpabio at the expense of longsuffering Nigerians is adding insult to injury?

*Tinubu

But wait a minute, is Mr President aware that he has reduced fellow citizens to hewers of wood and drawers of water? Chances are that he is. At least he admitted that much in his 2024 Independence Day speech on October 1, when he said: “Fellow Nigerians, as I address you today, I am deeply aware of the struggles many of you face in these challenging times. Our administration knows that many of you struggle with rising living costs and the search for meaningful employment.”

Nigeria’s Democracy On Tinubu’s Leash

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

As a journalist, I admire cartoonists, the visual artists who draw and create engaging captions, for their genius. They are not only creative and original, but also investigative, often incorporating humour, wit and satire in their works. When they are in their element, they graphically capture the imagination of the audience, as the trending cartoon in the BUSINESSDAY newspaper showing President Bola Tinubu having his day in the sun with his four ‘dogs’ – agbero, judiciary, INEC, police – has done.

“I will not be running in 2027 election… I can walk comfortably,” Tinubu crowed. It was simply ingenious, such that a senior journalist who forwarded it to me gushed: “I have never seen a more meaningful cartoon.”

It aptly illustrated the phenomenon of “state capture,” and why many Nigerians believe that 2027 is already a done deal for Tinubu. The cartoon also illustrates what it means to have capacity in Nigerian politics, a euphemism for political brigandage.

Egowure Anyanwu-Okahia: A Mother-In-Law Like No Other

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

When I came home on Saturday, August 31, 2024 to meet my wife, Chioma, lying on the bed with bloodshot eyes, I was alarmed. When I asked what the problem was, she retorted, “Check your phone.” She accuses me of bad telephone etiquette – not reading text messages and responding timeously – with a warning that if I don’t change, sooner than later, I would miss out on an information that needed urgent attention. From the tone of her voice, I had a hunch that foretold day may have come.

Late Mrs. Anyanwu-Okahia

I quickly checked my phone and froze. “My mother is no more,” was her pithy message at exactly 4.01pm, more than five hours before I came back. I was shocked because we had spoken to the old woman the previous day and she was not only in high spirit but also, typically, prayed for everyone. There was no premonition whatsoever which explains why the news hit me like a thunderbolt, even when we all knew that at her age, she was at life’s departure lounge.

Edo Governorship Election And The ‘Umpire’ Called INEC

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

I had very instructive discussions with two A-list Nigerian politicians before and after the Edo State governorship election; the first being on Wednesday, three days before the poll. Both men have held positions of immense responsibility in government both at the state and federal levels.

The first politician dismissed those who believed that given the pedigree of the 18 candidates and sophistication of the Edo electorate, the odds favoured the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate, Dr. Asue Ighodalo, as unrealistic.

Edo Governorship Poll: Only Justice Will Guarantee Peace

 
By Ikechukwu Amaechi

On Saturday, September 21, Edo electorate will elect a new governor who will superintend over the affairs of the state in the next four years. In other climes, that is a simple task. Agreed, contestation for power is a serious business not meant for chicken hearted fellas, but the heavy lifting is done out on the hustings, talking to people. On Election Day, the will of the majority expressed through the ballot box prevails.

Ahmed Bako: Intellectual Masturbation As Inaugural Lecture

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

What caught my attention when the flyer of the 50th inaugural lecture of the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto surfaced in the social media late August was the theme: “The Igbo factor in the history of intergroup relations and commerce in Kano: Opportunities and challenges revisited.”

The lecture, to be delivered by Ahmed Bako, a Kano-born professor of African and Nigerian history, triggered a sense of foreboding instantly because I guessed it would be a voyage in dog whistling, a pastime of ethnic irredentists across the country when dealing with their bête noire – Ndigbo. He proved me right.

Joe Ajaero: NLC Presidency Under Tinubu’s Watch

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Five days after Comrade Joe Ajaero, former General Secretary of the Nigerian Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, and Deputy National President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, made history as the first NLC President to be elected unopposed at the 13th National Delegates Conference in Abuja, on February 8, 2023, I sat down with him in Lagos for an exclusive interview.

*Ajaero

Still basking in the euphoria of his victory, he was hopeful and bullish as he discussed the labour movement, what Nigerians should expect of his presidency and the impending 2023 elections. He was analytical and measured.