Lai Mohammed And His Treason Allegation

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

On Tuesday, April 4, Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, did in the U.S. what he knows how best to do – fib. Mohammed, in Washington DC on official engagements with some international media organisations, including the Washington Post, Voice of America, Associated Press and Foreign Policy Magazine, accused the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and his running-mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, of inciting people to violence over the February 25 presidential election.

The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, quoted the minister as saying: “Obi and his Vice, Datti Ahmed, cannot be threatening Nigerians that if the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, of the All Progressives Congress, APC, is sworn in on May 29, it will be the end of democracy in Nigeria. This is treason… Obi’s statement is that of a desperate person, he is not the democrat that he claimed to be. A democrat should not believe in democracy only when he wins the election.”

Hypocrisy Of The Self-Styed Nigerian Progressives

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

A friend of mine sent me a text message the other day: “Ikechukwu, please stop this fight. This election has been won and lost and it is high time we moved forward. Lamenting over spilt milk is an exercise in futility and if you are close to Peter Obi, please tell him to give peace a chance and allow the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to get on with the job. His insistence on challenging the outcome of the election in court is a disservice to the nation. He should withdraw it and seek accommodation in the incoming administration.”

*Obi shakes hands Tinubu 

Really? I shook my head in disbelief because this is someone I thought I knew well enough, including his political views. He was an advocate of social justice and a rule of law enthusiast, who had always encouraged those short-changed at the polls by electoral bandits to seek redress in court.

Nigeria: Democracy Is Dead!

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

On March 18, 2023, some Nigerians, incurable optimists I must say, still went out to cast their votes in the governorship and Houses of Assembly elections after the presidential and National Assembly elections fiasco of February 25, believing that Nigeria is still redeemable. 

Well, I am not one of them. I used to be sanguine as well before the presidential election, having been taken in by President Muhammadu Buhari’s promise of bequeathing the country a legacy of credible elections. The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, was a real charmer who totally took me in in the days leading up to the elections.

Toxicity Of Tinubu’s Lagos Politics

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

As I reflect on the happenings in Lagos State since the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections, I cannot help but see the spectre of the 1994 Rwanda genocide unfolding before our very eyes. In the years leading up to the 1994 genocide, the Hutu-led government used all its propaganda machinery to spread bigotry and hatred against the Tutsi, painting them as a threat to Rwanda, exactly the same way a section of the Lagos community is inciting hatred against Ndigbo, portraying them as enemies of the Yoruba.

*Tinubu and Sanwo-Olu in Landon
“For genocide to occur,” Kennedy Ndahiro, Rwandan journalist wrote on March 13, 2014, “it must be preceded by the dehumanisation of a group … dehumanisation removes the individuality of a person. There is no difference between the group and the individuals. When done well, pity for the 'other' becomes impossible and extermination becomes the natural next step.”  In the last three weeks, Ndigbo have been grossly dehumanised in Lagos. They have been portrayed as ungrateful migrants – never mind that they are Nigerians – who want to appropriate Yoruba heritage. 

Peter Obi: As Soludo Accepts The Judgement Of History

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

In his November 14, 2022 political takedown of Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of Labour Party, LP, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, Anambra State governor, wrote: “As history beckons, my conscience and sense of duty to my people dictate that I should never be silent. I will happily accept the judgment of history for standing by the truth!” That judgement of history came fast and furious on February 25, 2023. And guess what? It was harsh – portrayed Soludo not only as a conscienceless liar without any sense of duty to his people or even fidelity to altruism, but also consigned him to the dustbin of history.

*Obi and Soludo 

All protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, what Soludo did with that statement on Peter Obi titled, “History Beckons And I Will Not Be Silent (Part 1)” was an attempted political assassination. It dripped of betrayal and blackmail. It was backroom politicking in its most unscrupulous and ruthless form. No doubt, the former Central Bank Governor did a yeoman’s work, as quislings always do. But in doing so, he staked his reputation on something not under his control. It has blown up in his face most spectacularly. 

Now That INEC Chairman, Mahmoud Yakubu, Has Done His Worst

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

IN the early hours of Wednesday, March 1, 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Chairman, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, declared the result of the presidential election which held on Saturday, February 25. Rather than jubilation, a pall of silence descended on the nation because many believe that their electoral will, freely expressed, had been subverted by suborned officials.

*Yakubu 

As the reality of what had happened dawned on them, many were speechless, others simply wore long faces, not believing that fellow citizens could execute such an unconscionable electoral heist. Thirty years ago, precisely on June 12, 1993, I voted for the first time in my life in a presidential election. Of course, that wasn’t when I attained the voting age. I was already a graduate and staff of Guardian Newspapers Limited. But I was a minor, electorally speaking, when the 1983 elections took place and, therefore, had no franchise to vote.

Nigeria: When Polls Are Rigged Before Election Day

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

President Muhammadu Buhari has stated for the umpteenth time that he desires to bequeath the country a legacy of credible elections. That seems to be the only low hanging fruit waiting for him to pluck as his disastrous presidency comes to an insalubrious end on May 29. He has made the promise not only to Nigerians but also the international community.

While commissioning a wide range of operational assets acquired by his administration to strategically improve the capabilities of the police, particularly in crowd control and anti-riot operations, on February 13, the president harped on the need for them to be professional while policing the elections.

Have Nigerians Truly Suffered Enough?

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

In the twilight of the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, a drama played out in the Red Chamber of the National Assembly as senators squared up in a crunch tenure elongation. The day was May 16, 2006, one year before the end of Obasanjo’s constitutionally guaranteed maximum eight years of two terms. But Obasanjo didn’t want to leave, hence the need to amend the Constitution with an open ended-tenure. 

As pro-tenure elongation senators plotted their third term agenda, anti-Obasanjo forces also arranged their cards.

On the day of the second reading of the Amendment Bill, the Senate President, Ken Nnamani, called out his colleagues one after the other and his predecessor, Adolphus Wabara, became the starboy. 

Tinubu Is Right, FG Has Failed

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

It was obvious to all discerning minds from the get-go that the 2023 elections would be like no other. However, even the most perceptible of political observers could never have imagined the breadth of the incongruities, if not outright illogicalities, that are underpinning the contest. The ironies are as breathtaking as the absurdities are unimaginable.

*Tinubu and Buhari 

Imagine a situation where, 23 days before the presidential and National Assembly elections, the candidate of the ruling party is skewering the president of the country, calling him, literally, an unthinking, good-for-nothing president at every campaign stop; a leading light of the ruling party, a state governor, is accusing the “cabal in the presidency” of sabotaging their own candidate; and the opposition party and their presidential candidate are vigorously defending a president that his own people have thrown under the bus. And wait for it – the presidency is telling the chieftains of the opposition party to weep for themselves. 

'Anya-Ndi-Igbo' Condemns Worsening Insecurity In Igboland

---------------

Anya-Ndi-Igbo

2 Felix Chucks Okoye Close. Independence Layout, Enugu. Enugu State. 

e-mail info.anyandigbo@gmail.com 

STATEMENT NUMBER 3                     December 27, 2022

 

A STATEMENT ISSUED BY ANYA-NDI-IGBO ON THE PERSISTING SECURITY CHALLENGES IN THE SOUTH EAST REGION ON NIGERIA: 

Compelling Need to Stop the Destruction of Lives and Livelihoods

1.   Generally, Nigerians from all works of life are facing the biggest threat to their lives and livelihoods. The framers of our Nigerian Constitution starting from the 1999 constitution to the last amendment, foresaw today. This explains their provision of the primary duty of government as protection of lives and property. It is therefore, the inalienable right and entitlement of every Nigerian to benefit from the primary duty of government to protect lives and property. 

2.  In recent years and particularly in the past three years, the scale and depth of insecurity in the South East has become unbearable. Terrorist-type invasions accompanied with massacre and sacking of entire communities, which are hardly countered by Federal and States Governments have become a common feature of the region. Other types of merchants of crime, violence and torture have joined the rampage, thereby creating hell on earth for residents and travelers in the region. 

Buhari: Nigerians Owe Bishop Kukah A Debt Of Gratitude

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

As you read this, it will be exactly three days to the end of the year and 152 days to the end of Muhammadu Buhari’s second and final term in office as president. And Nigerians are hurting badly. In the last seven and half years of his baleful presidency, all the indices of human development – I mean all – have gone south, literally and metaphorically.

*Kukah and Buhari 

Today, Nigerians are neither guaranteed a healthy life, access to knowledge nor a decent standard of living. Paradoxically, the so-called leaders are overreaching themselves in their toadying jaunts that Buhari is the best thing to happen to Nigeria since October 1, 1960. Those who climbed on the rooftops just yesterday to shout themselves hoarse over perceived poor governance have suddenly gone mute.

Bola Tinubu’s ‘Teamship’ Doctrine Is A Scam!

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

“Let me demonstrate here one of those philosophies, doctrines that I believe firmly in – teamship – unbreakable team. To demonstrate that, I will choose the first question and assign to Dele Alake and the second question assign to Nasir el-Rufai and the third question assign to Ben Ayade.”

*Tinubu 

Those were the words of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the 2023 elections, at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, London known as Chatham House on Monday, December 5. In the spirit of Tinubu’s teamship, questions posed to him directly following a paper he presented at the think-tank were farmed out by fiat to surrogates.

Reactions, expectedly, were fast and furious. While well-meaning Nigerians termed, correctly, his “teamship” doctrine an abdication, the APC spin doctors went on overdrive. Alake, former Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Director of Strategic Communications of the APC presidential campaign council, said delegating questions to team members is one of Tinubu’s innovations.

Buhari Women, Poverty And Budget Padding

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Two stories broke in the last one week that tend to amplify the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari’s goal of running Nigeria completely aground continues apace even as his administration, on the home stretch, and its vuvuzelas, continue to play the ostrich.

*Farouq and Buhari

First, the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, disclosed on November 17, that 133 million Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor. That represents about 63 per cent of the estimated population of about 218 million people.

Ordinarily, this information shouldn’t surprise anyone considering that Nigeria had adorned the infamous ‘World Poverty Capital’ badge since 2018. World Bank data had shown since 2016 that four in every ten Nigerians live below the poverty line of $1.9 per day. Two years later, the country was declared world’s poverty capital by the Brookings Institution, knocking off India from the inglorious perch.

Buhari, Aso Rock’s Non-Essential Staff, Evacuated To London

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

In his kairotic moment at the dispatch box in the British House of Commons on January 31, 2022, Sir Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party since 2020, gave the then British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, a full dressing down. It was a remarkable speech. Johnson “is a man without shame… damaging everyone and everything around him along the way,” Sir Starmer said. What was Boris Johnson’s crime?

*Buhari

At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic when British people were asked to make the most heart wrenching sacrifices, which Starmer described as “a terrible collective trauma, endured by all, enjoyed by none,” a time during which funerals were missed and dying relatives were left unvisited, Johnson, whose administration made the rules and who should lead by the force of personal example, routinely broke the rules.

Why Buhari Must Let Nnamdi Kanu Go

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

I am not a lawyer. But in writing this article, I spoke to learned friends who, in unanimity, held that President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has no legal beam to hang its jaundiced interpretation of the Appeal Court judgement that discharged the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, of terrorism charges.

*Kanu

In a historic and courageous judgement, a three-man panel of the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, on Thursday, October 13, discharged Kanu of the seven-count charge pending against him before the Federal High Court. The judgement, unprecedented in its audacity, faulted the process through which the IPOB leader was brought before the court to answer to a 15-count terrorism charge.

Alex Ekwueme, Five Years After

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

On February 2, 2018, the remains of Nigeria’s first democratically elected vice president, Dr. Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme, were committed to mother earth in his ancestral home – Oko, Orumba North LGA, Anambra State. When he died on November 19, 2017, he was 85 years, an age many would consider old. Nonetheless, he died when the country needed him most.

*Ekwueme

As Professor Ben Nwabueze, Nigeria’s globally-acclaimed legal icon, noted in his tribute, Ekwueme’s demise “is not just the death of an individual, it is like the passing of an age – the age of patriotism, integrity, of principled approach in national affairs, of intellectualism in politics and steadfastness in political allegiance.” 

Ekwueme was a quintessential democrat who espoused politics without bitterness and demonstrated by his actions both on and off the political turf that politics is not a dirty game played only by grimy characters. He proved, remarkably, that politics and integrity can and, indeed, should be soul mates. For many years, he was a bridge-builder and stabilising political force who brought his enormous intellect to bear on the country’s politics.

Enough Of Political Brigandage In Lagos

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi 

A highly disturbing video surfaced online on Sunday, October 2, which should give every well-meaning Nigerian cause for concern. Two supporters of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, claimed in the video that they escaped being lynched at the Oshodi motor park, by a whisker.

It was sheer providence that a Good Samaritan, a Nigerian soldier, happened to be in the vicinity at the time to rescue them from the bloodthirsty touts who had already beaten them to a pulp and were about making a bonfire of them before the soldier stepped in. 

What was their crime? Nothing other than the fact that they were in possession of the insignias of the Labour Party. Hear one of the victims: “When the touts, who were ordered by their superiors, seized my friend, I took to my heels to the motor park and boarded a cab.

#Obidatti23 Rally: Who Is Afraid Of Lekki Toll Gate?

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

On Wednesday, September 28, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, officially blew the whistle for the commencement of the 2023 election campaigns. With the Presidential and National Assembly elections holding on February 25, 2023, that will be a grueling 150 days of politicians crisscrossing this vast country, soliciting for votes.

It promises to be five months of drama when the hoi-polloi will have their day in the sun. The elections will be consequential. Nigerians, this time around, seem to be conscious of what is at stake – the soul of their country, that beautiful damsel that has been serially and unconscionably raped by pretentious, maniacal suitors.

2023 Elections And The Fake Registrants In Imo

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi 

Last Sunday, Professor Chidi Odinkalu, human rights activist, lawyer and guest columnist with TheNiche newspaper, raised a poser: Can Nigeria’s INEC Organise A Credible National Election?

*Uzodinma and Buhari 

Odinkalu asked the question against the backdrop of the mind-boggling revelation by the spokesman of the Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP, Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, that the 2023 elections may have been rigged even before the first ballot is cast.

Ugochinyere alleged on September 14, at a press conference, that voters register has been grievously compromised, having been padded with fictitious names. He further alleged that there was a plot to sack the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, in the event that he refuses to play ball; and also alerted of a secret suit at an Owerri High Court to stop the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BIVAS, in the 2023 elections.

As Obi’s Candidacy Redefines Nigeria’s Presidential Democracy

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

AS you read this, and barring any last minute rescheduling, it will be exactly 177 days to the 2023 presidential election scheduled to hold on February 25. Many Nigerians are enthusiastic, thrilled and motivated. Some are even exultant. This election cycle will be the seventh since 1999. Yet, none of the previous six elections elicited as much enthusiasm. In fact, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, figures, the turnout of voters had been on the decline.

*Obi

For instance, 74 million Nigerians registered for the 2011 elections and 39 million (53.68 per cent) voted to elect Dr. Goodluck Jonathan president. In 2015, both the number of registered voters and the percentage that voted dipped. Whereas 67.42 million registered to vote, only 29.43 million votes were cast, representing 43.65 per cent voter turnout. 

Four years later, there was an 8.9 percentage decline. Of the 84 million who registered to vote in 2019, only 28.61 million (34.75 per cent) bothered to show up on Election Day.