Buhari’s Executive Order 6: Another Political Witch Hunt?

By Jude Ndukwe

Since President Muhammad Buhari signed the Executive Order 6 which primarily seeks to bar some politically exposed persons undergoing trial for one corruption case or the other, from travelling outside the country which in the seeming wisdom of the presidency ensures such people do not have access to their properties outside the country suspected to be proceeds of corruption and use same to frustrate their cases in court, Nigerians have been sharply divided over the matter.

*President Buhari 

Just like many Nigerians have said, the Executive Order even though affirmed by a judge is needless and an unnecessary waste of time and resources of State because even the judge in affirming the order reiterated the need for it to operate within the ambit of the constitution. 

Kemi Adeosun: When Forgery Is Elevated To A Cardinal Virtue

By Jude Ndukwe  

“Whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8).

*President Buhari and Kemi Adeosun

Let me start this week’s essay on a spiritual note. This is because we are a country of religion, sometimes to its extreme, but most times in hypocrisy. We mouth virtues with the enthusiasm of a priest or imam but act out vices with the fanaticism of an extremist. Some of our political leaders are so shameless that they thrive in evil but pay putrefying obeisance to God either on Fridays or on Sundays with celestial mien and heavenly gait. Most unfortunately, these same set of people commit various crimes with audacity, cover or even encourage others to do so one way or the other. 

Femi Fani-Kayode, Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB And Other Victims Of Oppression

By Jude Ndukwe

 I read with derision the infantile missive of one Churchill Okonkwo which he mischievously titled “FFK Stabbed Nnamdi Kanu, Betrayed IPOB and Kissed Kwankwaso” which was published in Sahara Reporters of August 3, 2018. It is unfortunate that in attempt to score cheap points, use FFK’s famous name to climb to momentary limelight and satisfy his paymasters, Churchill vitiated the seriousness of the struggle of IPOB and reduced it to mere politics out of the need to satisfy his hirers.

*Nnamdi Kanu and Femi Fani-Kayode 

  I would have ignored him but then on a second thought, what does it take to enlighten an ignoramus of Churchill’s status. Let me start by making it clear from the outset that IPOB’s struggle is not hatred for the Fulani, it will amount to reducing the noble struggle of IPOB for freedom and justice to hatred for the Fulani or any other tribe for that matter just like Churchill alluded to in that unfortunate essay of his.

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.

The Enemy Within And The Cold-Blooded Threat From Arewa (1)

By Femi Fani-Kayode

On March 28th a hitherto unknown northern group known as the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, through its spokesman, one Yerima Shetima, had the nerve and effrontery to accuse Afenifere and the Yoruba  nation of a “subtle campaign of ethnic cleansing” and went on to threaten us with what they described as “reprisals against the millions of Yoruba living in the north” if we did not stop complaining about the fact that our people were slaughtered in Ile-Ife and that the police were handling the whole matter in a selective, inappropriate and unjust manner.

It is clear that this is not an empty threat because for the last two weeks fake and horrendous videos and graphic pictures of what purport to be the killings of Hausa Fulanis by the Yoruba and the people of Ile-Ife are being circulated all over the internet and social media by those that seek to promote anarchy, violence and carnage and those that are set to kill.

This is not the time to escalate the tension and we must do all we can to exercise restraint and keep the peace but clearly the stage is being set by some in the north for ethnic pogroms and reprisals against the Yoruba.

Yet we are not in the least bit perturbed and someone should advise the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum and those that they represent that pulling the tail of the tiger can be a very dangerous thing indeed.

Like Shakespeare’s King Henry V once said they must “wake not our sleeping sword lightly.”

They and whoever sent them can be rest assured that the Yoruba are not intimidated or deterred by their boastful threats and that we will lose no sleep over their irresponsible and reckless words.

Whether they and their sponsors like it or not we shall continue to complain and to protest and we eagerly await the full manifestation and execution of their cold-blooded and unwarranted threat.

Yesterday evening the Arewa Consultative Forum itself, the body of elders and leaders that speaks for the north, chose to stop hiding behind their youths and waded into the ring.

They issued a formal statement, through one Muhammadu Ibrahim, who is apparantly their spokesman, cautioning Yoruba elders and leaders not to “give ethnic coloration to the Ile-Ife crises” and that if they continued to do so they should be mindful of and ready for what he described as “reprisal consequences”.

Jammeh’s Defiance, ECOWAS Mistake And Buhari’s Bad Example

By Jude Ndukwe

As it is now, The Gambia is under emergency rule as declared by its president of 22 years, Yahya Jammeh. The emergency rule has become necessary in the estimation of Jammeh, following his decision to challenge the outcome of the country’s December 1, 2016 election in which Adama Barrow was declared winner.

 

*Gambian President Yahya Jammeh receives
President Muhammadu Buhari in Banjul on
 December 13, 2016

The impasse has been largely fuelled by the haste with which the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has not only intervened but also interfered in what should, at this stage, be a purely internal matter of a sovereign nation. Jammeh’s decision to challenge the outcome of the election result is very well within his constitutional rights.

By this, the man who is said to have ruled his country with an iron fist, is still within his constitutional rights to test the validity of the election result in the law court. Obviously, it is this right that the ECOWAS nations and indeed a good part of the world has misinterpreted to mean that Jammeh has refused to step down, and this is part of what has heightened the impasse. Just like in Nigeria, the declaration of results by the electoral body does not mark the end of an electoral process in The Gambia. The political actors are still constitutionally permitted to challenge such results in the law court.

Such electoral matters can only be said to have been fully dispensed with after the highest court constitutionally empowered to deal with such matters have done so. ECOWAS will be making a grave mistake if they send in troops to The Gambia at this stage. What the regional body should be concerned with now is to send in fearless and impartial judges to that country from Nigeria as requested to dispense with the matter speedily and judiciously.

It is only after the country’s highest courts have affirmed Barrow as winner and Jammeh refuse to step down and handover to Barrow that a military action would be justified.

Another mistake ECOWAS made was their choice of delegation as led by President Muhammadu Buhari to The Gambia as emissaries of peace and democracy to persuade Jammeh to hand over power peacefully and as scheduled. Although Jammeh had earlier accepted defeat and promised to leave the stage on the set date of January 19, 2017, he immediately did an about-turn the moment Barrow made the hasty and politically disingenuous statement of probing Jammeh’s administration.

Jammeh, who from his earlier posture, wanted to play the Goodluck Jonathan card of handing over power to the opposition after an election must have quickly remembered the Nigerian situation where persecution, injustice, oppression, deprivation and gross abuse of the rights of officials of the immediate past administration in particular and the citizens in general have been the order of the day, and recanted his earlier stance immediately.

The appointment of Buhari as leader of ECOWAS delegation to The Gambia is a monumental error. How can a man with no democratic credentials lead a mission of democracy? How can a man who hardly obeys court orders as in the case of Sheikh El Zakzaky, Nnamdi Kanu et al be the one appointed to mediate in a constitutional process? Not even the orders of the same ECOWAS court on Sambo Dasuki has been obeyed by Buhari months after they were given, yet, it is the same man ECOWAS gave the enviable responsibility to convince Jammeh about the need to leave the stage a democrat!

Buhari should not have been on that delegation not to talk of leading it. With the continued denial of campaign promises and policy somersaults, no leader would take Buhari’s word for whatever it is worth. With the rascally behaviour of some of our security agencies under Buhari’s watch leading to many innocent citizens being killed just for exercising their rights to assemble and protest, among others, in Jammeh’s mind, Buhari’s discussion with him might just seem like a dictator talking to a dictator about the need for a peaceful transition.

In fact, during those dialogues with Buhari, Jammeh might just be saying in his mind, “with your antecedents and current style of leadership, how am I sure that you would hand over power to your opponent if you were defeated in 2019?”

No doubt, Buhari is not the ideal example of a democratic leader. Such a leader like him needs the intervention of proven democrats to guide him on the inalienable ingredients of democracy. So for The Gambia to pass through this phase peacefully and speedily, ECOWAS should facilitate the immediate transfer of judges from Nigeria to that country as requested and allow all parties exhaust all their constitutional rights and provisions made available to them.

While that is going on, democrats with proven track record of not being power-drunk and who also have themselves handed power over to members of the opposition including well respected figures like Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan, Ghana’s John Mahama, Kofi Annan, Emeka Anyaoku etc should have been in the delegation to the exclusion of the likes of our own Buhari.

 It is only after the courts might have ruled against him and such entreaties have failed that a military action becomes desirable. For now, let the delegation be reshuffled and let The Gambia run the full course of its own constitutional provisions. That way we do not attempt to right a wrong with another wrong.

*Jude Ndukwe is a commentator on public issues 

Sultan Of Sokoto’s Excuse For The Killing Of Ndigbo In Northern Nigeria

By Jude Ndukwe

The Sultan of Sokoto’s recent visit to Enugu State where he went to felicitate with Enugu Rangers as champions of the 2015/2016 NPFL season has been described by a section of the media and some commentators as a bridge-building one. But then, is it really?

*Sultan Abubakar, Gov Ugwuanyi, Deputy
Senate Pres. Ekweremmadu

In as much as the visit is commendable, the Sultan himself putrefied his own oil when he said that the reason why Ndigbo are killed whenever there is a crisis in the north is “because they are the industrious ones found in everywhere and in every village but nobody plans or sends people to kill the Igbos”.

Apart from being ridiculous, it is insulting to the sensibilities of the Igbo and horrifying to upright members of the society that the reason why a people are usually targeted for mass murder is because of their industry and number. They are not killed because they are bad neighbours; they are not killed because they are trouble makers, they are not killed because they are law breakers; they are killed just because they are industrious and large in number!

This statement by His Royal Highness, Alhaji Mohammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, is a confirmation of what we have always known: that the Igbo are hated for nothing but jealousy and that most crises in the northern part of Nigeria have been instigated not because of anything serious but as an alibi for a systematic extermination of the Igbo people.

Little wonder then the Igbo are targets of northern Islamic extremists when there is a crisis between Israel and Palestine in far away Middle East. When some Danes draw a cartoon of Prophet Muhammed in far away Denmark, Ndigbo in Kano, Kaduna and Niger would have to pay for it with their blood. When there is a furore about Nigeria hosting an international beauty contest in Abuja or Lagos, the Igbo in Zamfara and Yobe would have to be killed and their sources of livelihood destroyed for the message to be passed that such contest is Haram to some people.

When the US bomb Iraq, the Igbo in Adamawa are bombed by northern elements in return. When there is a sharp disagreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, it is the Igbo in Bauchi that pay for it. When the Sunnis and the Shi’as have issues with each other in Kaduna or other places, it is a recipe for Igbo sons and daughters to be beheaded in those places even when they are neither Shiites nor Sunnis.

Buhari, Jonathan And Jammeh Of Gambia’s U-Turn

By Jude Ndukwe

Ever since former president Jonathan made that call to president Buhari congratulating him on his “victory” at the last presidential polls, and following the enormous goodwill that has attracted to him worldwide, it is fast becoming a norm in Africa for incumbents to easily accept defeat at the polls and congratulate the winner.

Yahya Jammeh, the outgoing president of Gambia, was on his way to making history as one of the very few African presidents who would follow the enviable example of Nigeria’s former president and Africa’s hero of democracy, Goodluck Jonathan, by conceding defeat as an incumbent to an opponent in a political contest.

However, with his sudden u-turn on that stand, Jammeh, it seems, is about to throw that tiny West African country into a needless and avoidable turmoil.

After having been commended by major political players and the media worldwide, what could have caused Yahya Jammeh to retrace his steps just less than a week after conceding defeat and hailed the process that saw his closest rival, Adama Barrow, an otherwise political neophyte, emerge as the president-elect of Gambia as “the most transparent election in the world”?

Jammeh had told Barrow while conceding defeat to him, “I’m the outgoing president; you are the incoming president”.

Also, in a telephone call to the president-elect, Jammeh was reported to have told Barrow, “I wish you all the best. The country will be in your hands in January. You are assured of my guidance. You have to work with me. You are the elected president of The Gambia. I have no ill will and I wish you all the best”.

He repeated the same thing in a televised statement when he said, “I take this opportunity to congratulate Mr Adama for his victory. It’s a clear victory. I wish him all the best and I wish all Gambians the best. As a true Muslim who believes in the almighty Allah I will never question Allah’s decision. You Gambians have decided”.

APC: A Mistake Edo State Must Not Make

By Jude Ndukwe

September 28, 2016, is epochal in the history of the great Edo State. It is a date when life beckons on the people to embark on a game-changing and life-amending venture; a time when the people are called out by the Benevolent, the God of second chance, to right the wrong they elevated to a position of authority and immense responsibility eight years ago.

That day is the day when Edo people will finally extricate themselves from the shackles of a searing chain fresh from the hissing fires of a renowned blacksmith and etched in the back of the people with a heart that chooses to be deliberately unmindful of the people’s sufferings. That APC, by the virtue of their worsening abysmal performances everywhere they go, both at the federal and state levels, has since grown into that monstrous party not fitting to replace itself in any election in the name of continuity, is no longer news.

What is news is that they still have the temerity to present themselves for election after all they have done to Nigeria just within one year! Nobody, not even the good people of Edo State would want a continuity of suffering, of human degradation, infrastructural decay, ethnic discrimination and general underdevelopment. These are some of the ‘natural’ traits of the All Progressives Congress which are well known not only to Nigerians but also to the whole world. In other climes, where service to the people is a priority and the elevation of their standard of living is government’s main focus, the party would not be going about insulting the sensibilities of Nigerians by wildly gyrating with so much brazenness as we saw the president’s delegation do in APC’s grand rally in Edo recently.

It is only a government without shame for its widely acknowledged failures and a party without human sympathy for the mega-sufferings it has visited on the people that would embark on such a banal celebration of the destruction of a people and their nation without restraint in so short a time. Since APC took charge of governance, the people can barely live and hardly survive. The hunger in the land is real and the frustration palpable. Nigeria, right under the nose of President Buhari and his gyrators, has slid into its worst recession in history. Millions have lost their jobs as companies after companies, both local and international, keep closing shops due to the economic hardship.

Yet, the price of foodstuff keeps rising while the naira has been adjudged the worst performing currency in the whole wide world after Suriname and Venezuela. What a story! This is after all the grandiose promises of turning the moon into sunlight for Nigerians and creating a state of Eldorado and Utopia for them. However, the Nigerian state has since become the legendary Hobbesian State where life is not only nasty and short but also brutish under the watch of APC. With the free rein of death in the hands of terrorist Fulani herdsmen all over the country, the extra-judicial murders and endless incarceration of citizens even against court orders by state agents, the descent of Nigeria into the Hobbesian state of anomie is confirmed.

Ndigbo: Why Joe Igbokwe’s Self-Enslavement Worries Me

By Jude Ndukwe

In his well published diatribe against the Igbo people of Nigeria, Joe Igbokwe, the Publicity Secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Lagos State chapter, who is also a son of Igbo, poured invectives on the Igbo nation while making spurious allegations against them. For those who know Igbokwe’s leanings and past stance on national issues, his latest scurrilous attack on the great people of the South Eastern part of Nigeria did not come as a surprise, the only surprising thing is that this latest attack seem to come somehow awkwardly late and too far apart given the man’s relentless and unrepentant penchant for always attempting to ridicule Nigeria’s most resilient and enterprising people in an essay full of contradictions, lame postulations and outright insults.

*Tinubu and Buhari 

His grouse is that, according to him, the Igbo have refused to move on since after former president Jonathan lost the last presidential election to the incumbent, Muhammadu Buhari. In one fell swoop, he accused the Igbo of ethnic bigotry and still went ahead to wonder why it is that the people of the South South region have since moved on while their South Eastern brothers have refused to move on from that election. If the Igbo were ethnic bigots, how would they be so concerned about the loss of a Bayelsa man in an election to the extent that a certain Joe Igbokwe is riled by their stoic and unwavering support to such a man even more than a year after his loss?

Rather than paint the Igbo in such uncomplimentary, yet, false light, Joe should turn his focus on his principals and paymasters who are working tirelessly to continually divide Nigeria along ethnic and religious lines. When the president of a country has officially divided his nation into two political, ethnic and religious lines by the virtue of the “97% vs 5%” declaration of no person less than the president himself, the Igbo view him as one who does not mean well for the nation.

 In this light, the Igbo view Jonathan as a hero because, even though he is not Igbo, he would never have made such a divisive and unpresidential statement not to talk of acting it out. And as if to prove that declaration as an official policy of his, President Buhari’s appointments have not been federal either in character or in intent. To this extent, the Igbo view themselves as endangered species in a nation that easily preaches one Nigeria but state actors do the exact opposite. The president’s continued seclusion of certain parts of the country from State offices and projects, if there is anyone at all, is what is crippling Nigeria. The cry of the Igbo, which the likes of Igbokwe have misinterpreted to serve their own selfish purpose, is that Buhari should not crash the nation with his own hands.

 If anyone sees this as ethnic bigotry, the person has urgent need for an optician and a psychiatrist! With the level of poverty visited on us in Nigeria by the Buhari administration, it is enough to make people like Igbokwe spew nonsense in the name of criticism, and also makes it imperative for regular brain checks to be part of such people’s daily menu. When armless and harmless Igbo embark on peaceful rallies and the military shoot at them without provocation, killing many in the process, not once, not twice, and hurriedly bury them in mass shallow graves in military barracks and elsewhere in order to cover their evil, Joe Igbokwe expects Ndigbo to applaud rather than criticize state actors for their wickedness and insensitivity. Enough is enough! 

Saraki: What Do Buhari’s Men Really Want?

By Jude Ndukwe 

Since Senator Bukola Saraki emerged president of the Senate on June 9, 2015, the Senate has been forced to carry out their legislative functions in an atmosphere of suppressed tension as managed by the current leadership of the upper chamber. But for the equanimity with which the senate president and his team have handled the political persecution visited on them by the executive and the cabal within the ruling party, the nation by now would have been in irreversible chaos.

*Buhari and Saraki

It is very rare in democracies like ours for the ruling and opposition parties in a legislative chamber to strike a harmonious chord to the extent that beyond election of their leaders, they both work together to ensure a smooth running of not only the senate but also the national assembly and the nation in general. They also have ensured that the usual rift that characterised the relationship between the executive and legislature has been reduced significantly if not removed entirely.

Even in times when distractions are absent, it is enough an arduous task to lead a senate peopled by high ranking Nigerians who come to the senate with the delicate complexities that precariously hold our nation together, not because they are cryonic or parochial, but because they all represent peoples with divergent identities, peculiar needs and expectations, not to talk of when the leadership of the senate has been hit with needless and relentless distractions of persecution engineered by those self-acclaimed godfathers and members of the cabal not only in the presidency but also in the ruling APC.

With Buhari’s style of governance, a lot of people who had their eyes on Nigeria’s till were disappointed. It is difficult reaching the till for self-gratification or reward for working hard for the party. However, the ingenuous ones among them who have always been ingenuous in doing what they know how to do best have since fashioned a new way of unfairly getting a share of our national cake.

Halliburton Scandal: Between Governor Fayose and Aisha Buhari

By Jude Ndukwe
This week has been mired in official scandals. From the purported secret employment by the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) involving some high-ranking government officials, to the president’s academic certificate saga, the alarming freezing of a sitting governor’s account without a court order as required by law, the complete northernisation of Nigeria’s security agencies as follows: Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, North; Minister of Defence, North; National Security Adviser, North; Chief of Army Staff, North; Director-General of Department of State Services (DSS), North; Comptroller-General of Customs, North; Comptroller-General of Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), North; Comptroller-General of Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS), North; Commandant General of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), North, and finally crowned it with the appointment of another northerner, Ibrahim Kpotum Idris as the Inspector-General of Police; to the accusation and counter-accusation between Governor Peter Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State and the presidency over the involvement of a certain Aisha Mohammadu Buhari in the Halliburton scandal that led to the conviction of a US Congressman, Williams Jefferson in 2009.

*Fayose 

While Fayose had called the attention of the world to the involvement of the said Aisha M. Buhari in the Halliburton scandal as contained in a Government Sentencing Memorandum from the US, the presidency has shown desperation in denying the issue by claiming, amidst very uncomplimentary language, that the Aisha referred to in the US document is not the president’s wife.

To further convince Nigerians about the true identity of the Aisha Buhari in question, a Nigerian international passport bearing the name Buhari, Aisha Mohammadu was hurriedly “packaged” and released to the public. However, on a closer look, it appears the said passport has only done more harm than good to the case of the presidency as it is replete with errors, too many coincindences and inconsistencies.

For example, it is too much a coincidence for the three names of two individuals to be the same as in this case even though the “Muhammadu” on the passport was spelt to read “Mohammadu” while the same individuals seem to hail from the same town of Daura as the president.

Also, it is absolutely impossible in our culture and Islamic religion for a woman’s given name to be “Mohammadu” as indicated in the passport making the rounds. The name “Mohammadu” or “Muhammadu” is usually associated with males and cannot be a name given to any female by anyone.

Furthermore, while the Halliburton scandal took place between 2000 and 2005, with Jefferson getting convicted in 2009, those who quickly made the passport did not put that into consideration as the passport’s date of issue reads January 2012, confirming fears in some quarters that the whole passport saga is an after-thought.

What this strange scenario has created is a lacuna that leaves Aisha Buhari, wife of the president, open and vulnerable to all manner of official ridicule and caricature as architects of such ridicule can always claim that they are referring to the other “Aisha Buhari” even when it is obvious that the person being referred to is actually the president’s wife. Suing for libel, slander and such other actions to claim redress of any kind becomes an exercise in futility as we now have two Aisha Buhari hailing from the same town in Nigeria.

This then leads us to the certificate saga of Mr President himself.

Enugu Massacre And The Hypocrisy Northern Governors

By Jude Ndukwe

Still in a mourning mood over the mindless massacre at Enugu by suspected Fulani herdsmen, the nation’s heavy heart was further daggered by what can best be described as the petulance of an arrogant set of governors from the northern part of the country who take pleasure in talking down on the other parts of the country and behave like a headmaster whose pupils must not have an opinion not to talk of expressing such without incurring his wrath.

Following the Ukpabi Nimbo incident in Enugu State, there was a general outpour of rage by all well-meaning Nigerians who thought, and rightly so too, that the president, Muhammadu Buhari, has not done enough to rein in the Fulani herdsmen despite their repeated reign of terror across the middle belt and southern parts of the country. Nigerians had thought the Agatu attack was the height of the continued attack by the herdsmen; they had thought the president would say something to, at least, placate the grieving community, but no word came from him. The worst was that those responsible for the heinous crime had a meeting with Nigeria’s chief police officer where they confessed to their crime, yet, were let go, strangely.

Also, Nigerians could not understand why Buhari gave marching orders to service chiefs to deal with pipeline vandals in the south southern part of the country but gave no such stern orders against the Fulani herdsmen until the public outrage that followed the Enugu massacre. Rightly or wrongly, a lot of Nigerians think that the Fulani herdsmen are enjoying tacit support from the powers that be to carry on their dastardly acts unchecked. This thought stems from Buhari’s actions and statements in the past where he had expressed and actually acted in support of the Fulani herdsmen who are also his kinsmen.

For example in October 2000, President Buhari had travelled all the way from Katsina State leading a  delegation of 5 men to the then governor of Oyo State, Lam Adeshina, to strongly protest the reprisal attack carried out on Fulani herdsmen by the Saki people of the state after the herdsmen had repeatedly attacked people of the area. The presence of Buhari and his delegation was said to have raised palpable tension in the state that they even refused to acknowledge pleasantries from government officials and left in anger without taking the refreshments served them by the governor. This was understandable as the governor, Lam Adeshina, was said to have properly addressed them and put them in their rightful place by warning them to stop parading around causing disunity where there was none!

With this in mind, Nigerians might not be wrong to have accused the president of not acting timeously against the herdsmen because of some ethnic and religious affinity he shares with them.

A Dying Nation, Its Travelling President And The Lying Party

By Jude Ndukwe
In the run up to the 2015 presidential election, leaders and members of All Prgressives Congress (APC) were very vocal in condemning the then president of the country, President Goodluck Jonathan, for every step he took. This even included attending churches on Sunday, Jonathan's religion's holy day of obligation. 

*Buhari

It was Babatunde Raji Fashola, the then governor of Lagos State and now Honourable Minister of Power, Works and Housing, that succinctly captured the mind of the APC leaders and supporters then when at the sixth Bola Tinubu Colloquium in Lagos some time in March 2014, he charged at his listeners by asking them if they wanted “someone who spends most of his time in church or mosque, or the man who is ready to spend his time on the job.” That was when life was very sweet as an opposition party especially with the tolerance level of Goodluck Jonathan. At least, Goodluck was spending his time in the country even if, in the hyperbolic words of Fashola, he was spending “most” of it in church.

However, fast forward to today, we have the same Fashola who is currently serving as a minister under president Muhammadu Buhari who would remain Nigeria's most travelled president for a long time in our history. So far, since his inauguration into office on May 29, 2015, President Buhari has traversed 24 countries of the world within a short period of 9 months.

Considering our scarce resources, this is too frequent, too costly and is a disturbing development as the nation is in its worst economic quagmire since independence. Never in the history of our nation even when we thought we faced economic recession and hyper-inflation has our exchange rate run on auto-devaluation as it is now. The prices of food stuff and basic items are climbing higher and out of the reach of the common man. The purchasing power of the citizens has been badly eroded while people are not only not getting employed, those who are employed are losing their jobs in droves.

The economy is at a standstill! No gainful economic activity going on anywhere. Infrastructural development that characterised Goodluck Jonathan's administration has since been brought to a halt; our revived agricultural sector is now in a speedy reverse course. While harmless and armless youths protesting peacefully within their constitutional rights are regularly mowed down by mindless security agencies in Zaria, Aba, Onitsha etc, the supreme court has come under several severe attacks from the ruling party as the Honourable Justices of the apex court have resisted the “body language” charm and refused to do the bidding of the party in some of the judgements given by the court recently. Kidnapping has not only returned but assumed a more dangerous and fearful dimension, and the security agents seem overwhelmed.

Soludo: The Real Idi Amin That Ran The CBN?

By Jude Ndukwe

Prof Charles Chukwuma Soludo, former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria and former governorship aspirant in Anambra State, got the nation anxious again when he declared in a no-holds-barred manner that former President Goodluck Jonathan ran the Central Bank of Nigeria in manners akin to that of Uganda’s late dictator, Idi Amin. Soludo did not fall short of accusing the former president of ordering the CBN to ‘print’ say, N3 trillion under the guise of creating an intervention fund for national stability but which is eventually doled out to prosecute an election campaign or just about anything the president fancies. He further described the CBN as the presidency’s ATM under Jonathan.

*Soludo

Such an unsubstantiated grave allegation coming from a man like Soludo is, indeed, worrisome. That a man of Soludo’s status would condescend so low, throw caution to the wind, jump on the bandwagon, play to the gallery and take advantage of the political situation in Nigeria to make spurious allegations unscrupulously against the former president is a sign of the decline and amnesia which has gripped our political class in the last eight months.
Apart from the fact that such unguarded outburst is false, the timing is instructive.

In the months prior to the appointment of Ministers by President Buhari, Soludo was so desperate to be noticed that he suddenly became vocal in condemning the immediate past administration and accused them of just anything that tickled his fancy all in a bid to get Buhari’s attention. His nearly endless tirade against Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s immediate past Minister of Finance and
Coordinating Minister of the Economy, is legendary. Despite all his efforts, President Buhari overlooked him and settled for someone who by her deportment is timid and easily malleable than a Soludo who is brash, rash, abrasive, confrontational and does ITK (I Too Know).

After having missed that opportunity, and with the growing rumour that the job of the current CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, is hanging in the balance following the shambolic state of our economy and the continued slide in the value of the naira, it is time for Soludo to remind Buhari that he is still jobless and quite available for the CBN top job, and the only way to do this since he does not have direct access to the president is to criticise the past administration for just anything that would make him sound as being in the same boat with the president and his men, and probably be considered for a job in the current administration.

However, a look at Soludo’s leadership of the CBN between May 29, 2004 and May 29, 2009, when he held sway there leaves much to be desired.