Stop Blaming IMF, World Bank; Nigeria’s Economic Woes Are Self-Inflicted!

 By Olu Fasan

The International Monetary Fund, IMF, and the World Bank have long struck a raw nationalistic nerve in Nigerians. Romantic patriotism drives the nationalistic urge to reject any perceived IMF/World Bank ‘interference’.

*Tinubu

Several years ago, as a magazine publisher, I interviewed Dr Kalu Idika Kalu, then finance minister under General Ibrahim Babangida’s regime, when he stopped over in London on his way to the IMF/World Bank meeting in Washington. I asked him why Nigerians detested the multilaterals. “I think in Nigeria we’ve tended to be isolationist,” he said. Nigerians, he implied, loathed foreign institutions telling them what to do, even in the face of a self-inflicted crisis.

Misuse Of Immunity Clause In Nigeria

 By Tonnie Iredia

Many Nigerian scholars are agreed that a major problem of their nation is that the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria 1999 was not freely authored by the people. Rather, it was imposed by the military which had cause at certain periods of history to intervene in the politics of the country.  For this reason, a number of provisions in the constitution are unacceptable to some Nigerians.

However, what stands out clearly as the people’s contributory negligence to the imperfection of their constitution is that many of us further complicate the situation by adding to the same constitution, many unacceptable things that were originally not included by the drafters of the document. A good example is seen in the way many leaders who are not covered by the immunity clause enjoy it without qualms.

No Shaking! The Igbo Spirit Lives On!

 By Dan Onwukwe 

Nigeria is very much looking like a horror movie that many people troop in to watch in a cinema. Every passing day, news about the country, and the conduct of government, its officials and some of its key institutions, could break the human spirit. This is because, things that are considered abominable and utterly wicked have become the ‘new normal’ in the country. 

A friend of mine called me last weekend from Canada. His voice was shaking. I thought he has lost someone. But it was a different kind of news. I asked him what has gone wrong. He said everything: “Even from afar there’s darkness at the edge of Nigeria”, he said, as his voice began to tremble. He added ,”if the Nigeria Police could arraign scores of hungry-protesting kids for alleged treason, the government must have lost its soul, and the leadership gone astray”.  He ended the call with this cryptic comment, “this is how autocrats begin”.  

Beyond The Economy, Why Is Tinubu So Unpopular? It’s Arrogance Of Power!

 By Olu Fasan

Recently, Indermit Gill, the World Bank’s chief economist and senior vice-president for development economics, wrote an article in the Financial Times urging Nigerians to embrace the economic reforms of their president, Bola Tinubu. “The country’s elites must forge a political consensus in support of these reforms,” he said.

*Tinubu

Like every seasoned policy expert, Gill knows that without a political consensus, no reform, especially a radical one, can succeed. However, what he failed to say is why there is no political consensus in favour of Tinubu’s economic reforms. Yet, addressing that point is, in part, key to understanding why Tinubu is so unpopular, and why few embrace his “reforms”.

Humphrey Nwosu: Unsung Hero Of Nigeria’s Democracy

 By Tonnie Iredia

The death a few days ago of Professor Humphrey Nwosu, the outstanding Nigerian who supervised the famous June 12 1993 presidential election no doubt reminded many Nigerians of how best to organize an election. Although the winner of that election was never formally declared, everyone knew who it was and across the globe, the contest was unanimously accepted as the best Nigerian election in history. The accolade is yet to change.

*Prof Nwosu 

Those who knew Nwosu’s strength of character especially those of us who worked with him on the elections must have been elated for the first time hearing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in a tribute describing Humphrey Nwosu as “as a bold and courageous administrator as well as a patriot and national asset,” who played a major role in shaping Nigeria’s democratic journey. The description was simply apt.

Freeing Nigeria

 By Obi Nwakanma

By every index, Nigeria as a nation, has very nearly, finally collapsed. It is held together now only by a very weak thread called fate.

*Tinubu

Basically, Nigeria has slipped to the symbolic phase of nationhood. It can only perform symbolic actions of nationness: convoke a parliament which only sits symbolically because it is actually not a parliament; issue laws, which carry only symbolic authority because they have no life, and are unenforceable; issue executive papers that have no administrative force, because it is not connected to institutions that serve citizens. There are no citizens.

A Nation Without Roads

 By Sunny Awhefeada

The road constitutes a met­aphor of life’s journey for Africans. It is central to the configuration and under­standing of the metaphysical nexus between the abode of the dead and that of the living that we call life. The metaphoric and metaphysical essence of the road also mediates life’s journey and its uncertain twists and turns.

The road is benign as it connects people and places. The road is also a cruel phenomenon as it has thrown people and places into mourning. The road consumes hu­manity. It engenders loss. African literature in its depiction of the African predicament whether it is physical or existential has remained the most fertile site for the plural manifestations of the essence of the road.

Governing Nigeria: Does The Economy Trump Politics? No, It Doesn’t!

 By Olu Fasan

It is the age-old chicken and egg question. Which comes first: the economy or politics? That’s the question at the heart of this intervention, and it was triggered by two recent events. The first was President Bola Tinubu’s response to the call for a new Constitution. The second was Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s speech at this year’s Annual Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, in which she called for a social contract for Nigeria. Everyone knew about those events, but few detected their logical fallacies. So, first, let’s recall the events.

Recently, in August, the highly venerated elder statesman Chief Emeka Anyaoku led a group of eminent Nigerians under the aegis of The Patriots to meet Tinubu at the State House and asked him to convene a constituent assembly to produce a draft people’s constitution for Nigeria.

Nigeria: A Council Of Chaos…And A Questionable Vote Of Confidence

 By Obi Nwakanma

A few weeks ago, newspapers in Nigeria reported that the National Council of State met, and the current president, Mr. Bola Tinubu, chaired it. For starters, I’m still unable to reconcile with the fact that a man of the quality of Tinubu would sit on a seat on which the giant Azikiwe sat. It is a travesty. Think about it dear country men, and you will see the incongruity; the tragic slide in our station as a people and as a nation. That picture alone tells us about the real tragedy of Nigeria. 

*Council of State Members during one of their meetings 

The quality of national leadership; the quality of aspiration; the quality of insight; the quality of presence and carriage; the depth of preparation – one a thoroughbred all-rounder that embodied the highest human ideals which nature stupendously endowed in one body, and the other with a very uncertain past. I’m ahead of myself. But it gets much worse. Take a look at those who came to the Council of State meeting. You would see the picture of Nigeria and why it has failed as a nation.

As Tinubu Redefines Protest To Mean ‘Movement To Effect Change Of Regime By Force’

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

After quelling what, to all intents and purposes, was a peaceful protest by economically challenged Nigerians over insufferable high cost of living, President Bola Tinubu has moved quickly to consolidate his grip on power. Taking a page from the archetypical fascist playbook, he summoned a meeting of the National Council of State, NCS, on Tuesday, to pass a vote of confidence in him and the Council obliged.

*Bola Tinubu 

For those who may not know, the NCS idea, which was introduced by General Murtala Muhammed in a broadcast on July 30, 1975 after overthrowing General Yakubu Gowon, was to create an advisory body.  

“The structure of government has been re-organised. There will now be three organs of government at the federal level namely: The Supreme Military Council, The National Council of State, and the Federal Executive Council,” he said.

Yes, We Protest!

 By Obi Nwakanma

Chinua Achebe, the leading African writer of the 20th century, did write in his The Trouble with Nigeria, that Nigeria was a fractious nation. However, a shared fear and antipathy of the Igbo was the single thing that unites Nigeria. This situation persists. And this certainly, is the impulse that drives Bayo Onanuga, senior Special Assistant to Mr. Tinubu on Information and Strategy, to keep invoking the name of the Igbo in his enterprise as a hack, and a regime propagandist.  The Igbo, it is now clear,  are Onanuga’s nightmares. 

At every turn of event, he invokes the Igbo. When his world is about to fall apart, he invokes them. His masters love him for sticking it to the Igbo. But he does not seem to know or understand the Igbo. So, let me tell him a little bit about these people. They are democrats. It takes them a long time to arrive at a decision, because they talk, and debate and disagree, to the point sometimes, of distraction. They are slow to anger. They watch. They sniff the ground carefully. They are patient. They make sure that they are on the right they act. 

Omolola Oloworaran: Financial Round Peg In PenCom’s Round Hole

By Ikechukwu Amaechi 

As Nigeria battles, unarguably, its worst financial crisis since independence, it is only apposite that the most pragmatic way to pull the country's chestnuts out of the raging economic inferno, to borrow a cliché, is to put round pegs in round holes. The appointment of Ms. Omolola Oloworaran as the new Director-General of the National Pension Commission (PenCom) ticks that box. 

To understand why her appointment matters, there is need to appreciate what is at stake and the centrality of the pension industry in resolving Nigeria’s extant economic quagmire even if not wholly, at least partially. 

Bayo Onanuga’s Slimy Mud-Bath

 By Ochereome Nnanna

For his own purposes, President Bola Tinubu had delayed the appointment of Bayo Onanuga as one of his spokesmen. Ajuri Ngelale, broadcast journalist and Ogoni chief, was presented to give Tinubu’s media office a handsome, though unsmiling face.

*Peter Obi 

Many commentators were relieved that elements like Bayo Onanuga, Dele Alake and Festus Keyamo would not be brought to irritate the nerves of decent Nigerians with their tawdry, noisy and cheap propaganda antics which we saw during the campaigns for the 2023 general elections in Tinubu’s camp. This feeling was further reinforced when Alake was posted to the Solid Minerals Ministry and Keyamo taken to Aviation.

Investigate Buhari, Now!

 By Obi Nwakanma

Nigeria is in dire straits. That is no longer news. It is not even news anymore that Nigerians are going through the worst economic crisis of their lives. The very lean Structural Adjustment Programme years – the SAP years – may not even compare. I have been told that the kind of desperation seen now in Nigeria is apocalyptic. It is strange and foreboding. An eerie and very fatalistic despondence gnaws at the very core of the Nigerian psyche.

*Buhari 

For many of us growing up in Nigeria from the late 80s and the 1990s, Nigeria had turned into something of an economic dustbowl. Many middle class folks suddenly found themselves thrown down the scale. Many families were destroyed because of the stress on family life and income. I came home one holiday in 1986 from University of Jos, and asked for jam, and nearly got kicked off the dining table by my enraged father who thought my request both insensitive and unintelligent.

Biden-Trump Debacle: Nigeria Must Not Entrench A Gerontocracy

 By Olu Fasan

Two significant events hit the world from America recently. One is positive, the other negative. The positive is the criminal convictions of former President Donald Trump and Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son. Both are unprecedented: Trump is the first former US president to be convicted of a felony, and Biden Jnr is the first son of a sitting president to be convicted of a crime.

*Trump and Biden 

That suggests no one is above the law in America. However, the negative is the disastrous presidential debate between Biden and Trump. Both the positive and negative events have relevance for Nigeria. That relevance is worth exploring. But my focus here is the nerve-racking debate.

Nigeria: As Wike Plots To “fail” Ireti Kingibe

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

The  Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike, is a cantankerous old fossil – irascible, quarrelsome and testy, no doubt. Whether as a local government chairman, chief of staff, minister or governor, he is bad-tempered, cranky and grouchy; a man not only at war with himself but perpetually with others. This is not the quality of a good leader even if the person is dubbed “Mr. Projects,” whether deserved or otherwise.

*Kingibe and Wike 

Leadership demands a healthy dose of humility. But as governor of Rivers State for eight years, Wike was at war with everyone, abusing all who dared cross his path. With him, every criticism, no matter how constructive is a definite no-no. His entire worldview is governed by the “us against them” mentality and in pursuit of this cock-eyed philosophy of life, he takes no prisoners, which explains why barely two months out of office, he was engaged in a war of attrition with his successor and anointed political godson, Siminalayi Fubara.

Borrowing Is The Opium Of Nigerian Governments

 By Dele Sobowale 

“The DMO said as of March 31, 2024, the country’s domestic and external debts stood at N121.67 trillion ($91.46 billion). Nigeria’s debt rose by N24.33 trillion within three months – from N97.34 trillion ($108.23 billion) in December 2023 to N121.67 trillion ($91.46 billion).” Channels Television.

Nigerian government leaders, Presidents and Governors, are addicted to loans the same way drug addicts cannot kick the habit; and become increasingly hooked. What Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala persuaded Obasanjo to do in 2004, that is paid off Nigeria’s external loans was so alien to our government leaders that one late former Governor called her “stupid”.

Unending Weak Political Opposition In Nigeria

 By Tonnie Iredia

After twenty-five years of unbroken civilian governments in Nigeria, one can easily imagine that the country is getting settled as a democracy. But whereas a civilian government rather than a military regime is more likely to be democratic, civilian rule in Nigeria and indeed in several parts of Africa are far from adhering to democratic practices.

 In truth, what obtains in many African countries is authoritarian democracy. The causative factors are many. Poorly organized political parties, prevalent poverty, commercialized politics, election rigging and the tendency for those in power to decimate opponents so as to remain in power perpetually.

Nigeria’s Not Too Big to Fail

By Oseloka H. Obaze

Deciphering Nigeria can be depressing. Interrogating her history and present political trajectory can also be disconcerting. That awkwardness is further complicated by the fact that, in a nation where governance is now rife with propaganda, the truth is always a conspiracy; and truth-tellers, traducers. 

That disposition did not prevent two recent unvarnished and non-salutary New York Times assessment of the state of Nigeria. Both pieces represent a reality check and the proverbial writing on the wall. Despite the pushback by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) government, what is dawning stealthily on Nigerians is that Nigeria’s long-forecast implosion might actually be self-fulfilling. Put differently, Nigeria is not too big to fail. 

‘June 12’: Nigeria Is Not A Democracy; Stop Celebrating A Lie!

 By Olu Fasan

Last week, Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s president, tripped and fell as he climbed the steps of the parade vehicle during this year’s “Democracy Day”. Characteristically, Tinubu dismissed the incident, saying he “dobale”, that is, prostrated for democracy. In truth, Tinubu’s tumble is a perfect metaphor for democracy in Nigeria.

For, let’s face it, Nigerian democracy is so inherently wobbly that it’s prone to tripping and falling. Indeed, Nigeria is not a true democracy, and to celebrate annually a failed system, instead of admitting and tackling the failure, is to entrench and perpetuate a lie.