What If Some Countries Reject The New Nigerian Ambassadors?

 By Kingsley Moghalu

Over the weekend I read a news story in The Punch newspaper about how several countries’ authorities have expressed unease about the prospect of receiving new ambassadors from Nigeria virtually 1 year to the end of tenure of our current President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. If true (and such concern would be logical based on standard diplomatic practice), this should not be a surprise. 

*Some of the new ambassadors 

To be announcing ambassadorial appointments nearly a year to the end of an elected government’s tenure, when the practice is that receiving countries must issue a formal “agreement”, a formal decision by the receiving country to accept credentials from the individual named as Ambassador – a process that takes several weeks to months at the earliest — does not indicate serious and responsible governance.

What If Some Countries Reject The New Nigerian Ambassadors?

 By Kingsley Moghalu

Over the weekend I read a news story in The Punch newspaper about how several countries’ authorities have expressed unease about the prospect of receiving new ambassadors from Nigeria virtually 1 year to the end of tenure of our current President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. If true (and such concern would be logical based on standard diplomatic practice), this should not be a surprise. 

*Some of the new ambassadors 

To be announcing ambassadorial appointments nearly a year to the end of an elected government’s tenure, when the practice is that receiving countries must issue a formal “agreement”, a formal decision by the receiving country to accept credentials from the individual named as Ambassador – a process that takes several weeks to months at the earliest — does not indicate serious and responsible governance.

Kemi Badenoch And Mob Attack Of Pseudo-Patriots

 By Emeka Alex Duru

The trending controversy on Kemi Badenoch, Leader of the British Conservative Party and her disposition to Nigeria, reminds me of an encounter with a media aide to a governor in the South East. 

*Badenoch

An obviously traumatized citizen had posted a comment on his social media Facebook page, chiding the governor for always frolicking in Abuja while the state suffers on account of insecurity and poor governance. That was all that it took for our friend, the media aide to break loose against the hapless citizen.

Nigeria: How Obi Changed 2023 Presidential Election

 By Dominic A. Okoliko (PhD)

By February 25, 2023, Nigeria’s next president will be decided, and the choice is between Peter Obi (Labour Party), Bola Tinubu (All Progressives Congress), and Atiku Abubakar (People’s Democratic Party) with Rabiu Kwankwaso (New Nigeria Peoples Party) as a possible fourth. My argument is that Obi’s emergence as a candidate in the election strikingly distinguishes the 2023 election from previous ones. It is therefore, important to know the conditions that made this turn of history possible.

*Obi

A symbol of political revolution, rebellion

Observers of this election can agree that whether Obi wins the election or not, he will be remembered for giving the establishment parties a run for their monies and extreme influence. Until his emergence, a third force unsettling the status quo was a mere wish. Nigeria’s electoral history post-1999 shows that presidential elections used to be a two-horse race between an incumbent party and an often-weak main opposition party.

2023 Elections And Future Of Nigeria’s Democracy

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

The 2023 elections will be consequential. Though six months away and campaigns yet to be officially flagged off, politicians are already crisscrossing the length and breadth of the country, shadowboxing their way through all manner of policy disputes. They are making a show of tackling the myriad problems the post-Buhari era will present, while avoiding any direct engagement with opponents.

The elections will be consequential because Nigeria is at a crossroads, haunted by demons many thought had been long exorcised. Seven years of the Muhammadu Buhari presidency has brought out the worst in Nigerians. Ironically, while this self-inflicted leadership crisis and the uprising it has engendered is bringing out the beast in us, as the late Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, noted in his epic song, “Beast of No Nation”, it has also re-ignited the hitherto dimming Nigeria’s democracy candle light.

Inspector General Of Police, Federal Govt And The South East

 By Kingsley Moghalu 

I am as disturbed by the general narrative against the Fulani, because of the failure of the Federal Government of Nigeria to secure our country from invading foreign terrorists – a failure that many Fulani & others in Northern Nigeria find as unconscionable as other Nigerians in the South – as I am with the Inspector-General of Police’s reported order to police to essentially violate human rights and engage in extra judicial killings in the Southeast under the guise of  “Operation Restore Peace” in the region against Biafra secessionist agitators.

*Buhari 

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) says President Buhari has ordered a “shoot at sight” against anyone carrying an AK-47 rifle illegally, ostensibly as a justification for his spurious orders regarding the Southeast. I’d like to know how many terrorist “herdsmen” in Nigeria have been “shot at sight” so far since the President’s reported order. A lack of commitment to a Nigeria based on the equality of every Nigerian and every part of Nigeria is the reason why there are very obvious double standards in security operations in Nigeria. This leads us to simplistic narratives that demonize ethnic groups at large, and to compare apples with oranges.

No Vuvuzela For President Buhari On His Victory Day!

By Banji Ojewale

South Africa based- Nigerians now returning from the home of vuvuzela are coming back with a mixed reaction. They are meeting a nation whose president has just been ‘vindicated’ by a competent tribunal over claims by the opposition that he wasn’t eligible for the office. Their old hosts are used to taking up the local instrument as both a weapon of intimidation and celebration. 

*President Buhari

South Africans reach out for their 2 to 3-feet long plastic horn to make raucous noise at football matches in support of their national teams. It was popularised during the World Cup in South Africa in 2010. The myth is that its beastly emission–some 120 decibels– can conjure victory for their club or national side. Or it can cudgel opposition to concede goals for their players to win the day. To their grief, these didn’t happen nine years ago.