Why Buhari Should Recontest In 2019

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

It is only those who are unfamiliar with the politics of mutual backslapping in these climes who are surprised by the verdict of the governors of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). At the meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) in Abuja on Tuesday, the governors declared President Muhammadu Buhari fit to recontest for presidency in 2019. The governors strove to justify their decision. Buhari has done very well in the past two and half years and thus he needs to be rewarded with another fours years, so their argument goes. To them, no other person in the APC possesses so sterling credentials that conduce to the unity of the party and the country and the wellbeing of its citizens as Buhari.

*President Buhari and Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe

But for now, the NEC does not share the enthusiasm of the governors. Thus, the governors were not able to convince the NEC to give automatic ticket to Buhari to recontest. However, it is unlikely that the NEC would deny Buhari an automatic ticket at the right time; the governors were just the first to declare their position. It is clear to the citizens that these governors have only flattered the president for various selfish reasons. Of course, the governors are aware of the power of incumbency that could be used to hunt them if they were opposed to the ambition of the president to recontest. Most of these governors have not conducted their financial affairs in a manner that could make them different from those the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has hung charges of corruption on. Again, most of the governors rode to power in 2015 on the back of the popularity of Buhari. Thus, the calculation of the governors is that once Buhari recontests, they are likely to return to power. 

Nigeria: Independence Without Culture Or Identity?

By Dan Amor

Culture is the artistic and other activity of the mind and the works produced by this. It is also a state of high development in art and thought existing in a society and represented at various levels in its members. But culture as a thematic focus in this piece, concerns the particular system of art, thought, custom, beliefs and all the other products of human thought made by a people at a particular time; in short, the way of life and identity of a people. This essay is therefore informed by the urgent need for a new sense of national identity and character in Nigeria.

What special qualities would distinguish the citizens of this country considered to be the largest and most populated black nation in the world? For instance, under the influence of Montesquieu, Abbe du Bois, and others the eighteenth century placed great emphasis on delineating national character. The Spanish, for example, were said to be brave, mystical and cruel; the English practical, phlegmatic shopkeepers; and the French refined, artistic, and immoral. Each nation was thought to have a special significance, a character, evident in its history, the impression made on travelers, its climate, and in the features of its land. Most nations possessed a long, mysterious past from which its character had simply come into being. The United States of America, on the other hand, could see its origins clearly and explicitly. Moreover, its people were largely British with minorities of Germans, Dutch, French, and others in some of the provinces. Yet, in curious, unselfconscious ways, these transplanted Europeans, even in early colonial days, seemed somehow a different breed of men.

Nullification of Kenya’s Presidential Election: Implications for Nigerian Democracy

By Arthur Agwuncha Nwankwo
The recent nullification by the Kenyan Supreme Court of the August 8, 2017 presidential election in Kenya has stolen the headlines in both local and international media and has dominated conversations among so many people and groups. While the courage and boldness of the Kenyan Supreme Court is emulative and instructive, one impression that the international media has tried to create is that this is not in the character of African politics- for the judiciary to affect the political process in the manner the Kenyan Supreme Court has done. I agree that this is the first time in Africa where the judiciary has stuck to its convictions and fended off executive pressure and blackmail to deliver what has reverberated across the globe as a historic feat.

In real terms, it is in the character of Africans to expose and distance themselves from evil and deceit. This character of justice and equity is woven into the African psyche and consciousness but was significantly eroded at the behest of alien values imposed on the continent by colonial experience; an experience that has elevated the warped and otiose idea of “political correctness” far and above moral conscience, truth, justice and equity. I am, indeed, overjoyed that in my life time, Kenya, through its Supreme Court has given me hope that African values of truth are still alive; it has pointed the way forward for other African countries; it has shown that our old values of speaking the truth at all times without really caring whose ox is gored can be reinvented; and that being politically correct at the expense of truth and justice is the perfect recipe for the death of nations.

I Left Prison Broke In 1998 – Obasanjo

*Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has disclosed that he left prison broke in 1998, after he was released by former Head of State, General Abdusalami Abubakar following the death of General Sani Abacha, then head of state on June 8, 1998. Obasanjo, who claimed he had no money by the time he regained his freedom after serving in Kirikiri, Jos and Yola prisons for about four years however revealed that the Ford Foundation and the founder of the Cable News Network (CNN), Mr. Ted Turner, surprisingly gave him a lifeline through the sum of $150,000 that was donated to him and which enabled him to settle the tuition fees of his children, whose studies were almost truncated by his incarceration.

The former president, who shared agonising memories of his prison experience at a recent programme organised by Christ The Redeemer’s Friends International (CRFI) of the Redeemed Christian Church of God at the Intercontinental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, however revealed how he became born again in prison and won souls for Christ. Obasanjo was sentenced to life jail in 1995 by the Abacha junta after he was tried by a military court on trumped-up charges of felony and conspiracy to overthrow the Abacha government, an allegation the former president denied with evidence.

But exactly one week after Abacha passed away on June 8, 1998 under unclear circumstances, Obasanjo was released from the Yola Prison by the administration of Abubakar.

Giving the testimony on how God rescued him from Abacha’s plot to inject him with viral poison at the fellowship recently, Obasanjo said he was broke immediately after he regained his freedom from the Yola Prison, revealing that he had no cash at that time to settle the tuition fees of his children, who were studying in the US.

Before he left the Yola Prison, Obasanjo said he resolved “to live a new life – quiet, peaceful and possibly private. But it was surprising when I got to the airport; a presidential aircraft was already waiting for me. I did not believe it. When I arrived Lagos, two cars with pilots were waiting to convey me to my residence. I held my peace.”
Shortly after he returned home, Obasanjo said he decided “to travel to the US for two reasons. First, I needed to see my children. When I was in prison, they could not pay their tuition. One of them was not allowed to continue because he could not pay his tuition.”

Lessons From Julius Nwalimu Nyerere

By Banji Ojewale 

Gbolabo Ogunsanwo, Nigeria’s most captivating  columnist of the 1970s who rewrote history as editor of Sunday Times of that era, once returned from Julius Nyerere’s Tanzania and thrilled his compatriots with an account of the stoic exploits of this illustrious African leader. Just like his staid gait, Ogunsanwo said, Nyerere had no airs about him to suggest he was the president of Tanzania.

*Nyerere

This picture of an abstemious statesman sharply contradicted the Nigerian paradigm. Here, our leaders, even at the local government scene, would loot the public till to build personal empires, to  satisfy their palatial palate. The predilection of our leaders for financial rape has always been there and Ogunsanwo was among a small circle of ethical journalists who railed against this evil.

So the Tanzania experience had to excite this colourful columnist. Through his celebrated style of writing that nettled bad leaders and won applause from the public, Ogunsanwo said that if he placed the lifestyle of Nyerere side-by-side with what we had in Nigeria, the weight of the East African leader wouldn’t surpass the wealth of a level 9 officer in the Nigerian Civil Service. A shocked Ogunsanwo said something to the effect that the home of Nyerere had uninspiring furniture compared to what a middle level civil servant in Nigeria might offer. Nyerere’s was a study in Spartan decor.

Years later in 1999 when the beloved Tanzania leader died at 77, the New York Times correspondent, Michael Kaufman, wrote what has gone into the books as a most charitable essay by a Western reporter on an African president who mercilessly chided capitalism as a curse on humanity, thus confirming Ogunsanwo’s point. He admitted Nyerere’s “habits of modesty and ethics.”

Mismanaging Mr. President’s Wellbeing

By Oseloka H. Obaze  

Analyzing Nigeria is arduous if you seek to speak truth to power. Many Nigerians, mostly the leaders and elite make speeches unceasingly. Such conventional speeches tend to be largely rhetorical. And together, the analysts, the religious, the political leaders and the disenfranchised populace have all become “miserable comforters” of a nation in distress. As asked in the Holy Book:  “Will your long winded speeches never end?”

*Buhari 

Nigeria remains the classical outlier nation state. Thus in resignation many Nigerians have thrown in the towel. Some have fled, finding refuge and succour in foreign lands. Yet, many remain, having no option; and some remain to capitalise on the leadership and general disorder in the commonwealth. The latter seek to foster legality from illegalities with the intent to benefit from it.

But there remains one constant. Like Fela Anikulakpo Kuti averred presciently, the state of the nation is nothing but “Confusion” as “Everything Scatter.” As another contemporary musician, Eedris Abdulkareem put it: everything in Nigeria is “Jaga Jaga.” And this brings me to how those charged with minding President Muhammadu Buhari are managing his wellbeing or as some say, his health issues. 

 First, President Buhari is not a private citizen. While he is entitled to some privacy, Nigerians who elected him have the right to know of his wellbeing and the state of his health. He is the CEO of corporate Nigeria, and his wellbeing affects our stocks and holdings. Nigerians are not interested in his minders including the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo and media advisers telling us that the president is “fit”, “alright” and “that there is no cause for alarm.” The president did the right thing in devolving power to his deputy. That is constitutional. But Nigerians behold a Deja vu moment. If they are doubtful they have good reasons. Nigeria needs to hear directly from her leader, President Buhari, in accordance with the oath of office he took.

 My friend, Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser on Media has characterised the present reality as “imperfect” but conditioned on “exigencies of the moment.”

He is doing his best in an awkward circumstance. Well, we recall the uncertainties and unpleasantness that led to the “doctrine of necessity” and do not want to revisit that episode under any pretext. Perhaps, Mr. Adesina should have a chat with his professional colleague, Segun Adeniyi on this and related matters.  Nigerians don’t want to be fooled. If President Buhari could speak to President Donald Trump, he can speak to Nigerians. The facilities exist.

Nigerians And Xenophobic South Africans

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

What eminently captures the tragedy of contemporary Nigeria is that its citizens who lack a huge helping from the national treasury are vulnerable to being haunted at home and abroad. Overwhelmed by the hostility of their home country sired by decades of the monumental failure of government, they go overseas with the hope of finding succour. But here a bleaker fate awaits them as their supposed host becomes their haunter.

Nigerians could bear their tragic lot if there were no expectations of warm reception in the first place. And these expectations were by no means misplaced. In the case of Nigerians in South Africa they justifiably expected to be treated well. Clearly, Nigerians who are in South Africa have only gone to reap where their country has sown. The resources of Nigeria were used to secure South Africans freedom from the apartheid stranglehold.

Notwithstanding, Nigerians have not asked to be allowed to enjoy the benefits of staying in South Africa without bringing their own contributions to the development of the society. Most of the Nigerians who are being harassed are effectively contributing to the economy of their host country. They are running their legitimate businesses. It is these businesses and the lives of Nigerians that often come under attacks. If there were some Nigerians who violated the laws of South Africa, these should be punished and every Nigerian should not be treated as a villain. But we should be alert to the possibility that these recurring attacks are being provoked by South Africans’ envy of the success of their guests. Or why do these South Africans often target Nigerians’ shops for looting? 

The South Africans who do not know how to use their post-apartheid freedom over two decades after blacks took the reins of governance should be humble enough to ask enterprising Nigerians in their midst to teach them how to be successful in their own country. South Africans should not blame Nigerians if their lack of competitiveness makes the latter to take over their jobs. If these attack-obsessed South Africans were profitably engaged, they would not have the time to trouble Nigerians. So instead of being befuddled by the allegations of Nigerians being criminals, prostitutes and drug dealers, the South African government should find ways to profitably engage its citizens.

 Optimism about an easy resolution of this crisis would not have been out of place if it were only the younger generation who do not know their history that are responsible for the xenophobic attacks. But apparently, these young people are perpetrating these attacks with tacit official approval. This explains why when these attacks occur, the police do not come to the rescue of Nigerians. Apparently, the police see these attacks as a fulfillment of their wish that Nigerians be subjected to such brutalities. This is because the South African police have on several occasions brutalised Nigerians to death.

Red Card, Green Card – Notes Towards The Management Of Hysteria

By Wole Soyinka  

I shall begin on a morbid note. One of the horror stories that emerged from the Daesh (Isis) controlled parts of Iraq was the gruesome tale of the mother who had a daughter affected by wanderlust, even in that endangered zone. One day, when she looked for her to attend to some home chores, she found that she had gone missing yet again. As she searched, she shouted in frustration: “As Allah is my witness, I’ll kill that girl when I catch up with her”. A neighbour overheard and reported her to the Hisbah. The mother was summoned by the mullahs who ordered her to put the child to death, since she had sworn by Allah. She refused, so they took the child by the legs and smashed her head against a wall. End of story. True or false? It certainly was published as true testimony.

*Wole Soyinka 

That is all I have to say to the “literalists” who obsess over a time scheme of their own assessment. Thus, failure to have torn my Green Card “the moment” that I learnt that Mr. Donald Trump had won the presidential elections of the USA. It did not matter what I was doing at the time – teaching, eating, swimming, praying, under the shower or whatever. Or a family member saying, “Wait for me!” – speculatively please, no such disturbance ever took place. If it did however, I am supposed to contact the Nigerian media – to whom I have never spoken, and who never contacted me – except one – to beg permission to pursue a realistic definition of “the moment”. Media fascism is however, a subject for another day,

For now, that moment having passed, I must be culpable of breaking a solemn promise. By the way, since we are on the terrain of literalism, has anyone attempted to “tear” or rip apart a Green Card? Even a Credit Card? For the average hands, that would take some doing! I have actually considered garden shears for a dramatic resolution, this being closer to my real profession.

I have been asked several times – interestingly only by the foreign media, with the exception of THE INTERVIEW – whether indeed I did make such a statement at any time, and whether I still intended to carry it out, and the answer remains a categorical ‘Yes’. Not recently, mind you, nor, in the inaccurate blazing PUNCH headline of Thursday Nov. 16 , but in the accurate wording that is contained in the actual story on page 9. So, where and when did I first notably make that declaration. Answer: Addressing a group of students at Oxford University and fielding questions. It was NOT a public lecture. I have never summoned a press conference on the issue. The organizers did not invite the (unregistered) Association of Nigerian Internet habituees. It was the accustomed student seminar format that moved from the light-hearted to the serious, the ridiculous and (hopefully) the profound and back again. I even used the encounter to compare my threat with the public antics of a former president – unnamed, I assure you – who tore up his party membership card of a moribund ruling party. Whatever my failings, I do not lack originality, and I was not about to be find myself indebted to that contumacious general!

Nonetheless, did I mean what I said – that is, ‘exiting’ the USA? Absolutely, and that is the very theme of this address. It will not attempt to deal with the notion of an exit time-table as conceived by others, as if even the incumbent US president and his replacement are not even permitted over two months to pack their bags and prepare to move in and out of the White House, but must exchange positions the very moment that a winner was proclaimed. Anyone would think that the Brexit Vote made it imperative for the Brits to plunge into the English Channel instantly, instead of negotiating two years for an orderly withdrawal. Plebians like me of course need far less time, nevertheless they do not uproot overnight. Any other proposition speaks of a permanent agenda, of frustration and hidden histories – such as opportunities to rehabilitate themselves in the public eye. There is also recession in the land, and I can understand the psychology of impotence and thus, transferred aggression. Let it be understood – before I move even one word further – that I interrupted my present commitment in the United States solely for an urgent meeting with the Ooni of Ife on an ongoing project. I am obliged to return to the US in a matter of two or three days to complete my interrupted mission. Fortunately, that mission is guaranteed to end long before the United States becomes Trumpland Real Estate.

Buhari And Remembrance Of Things Past

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

As the first half of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration lurches into the twilight, it is refreshing that he has given us an opportunity to interrogate his intervention in national politics from another perspective. Beyond the well-worn exploration of Buhari as a profile in persistence, having taken him over a decade to chase a return to power, we can now attend to the   relationship between personal tragedies and national glories.

*Buhari

It is now clear from Buhari’s disclosure in Benin during his commissioning of some projects of the outgoing Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole that his tragedy of incarceration after his overthrow in 1985 as military head of state remains a stimulant for his quest for regaining power.  Buhari said that he spent 40 months in a bungalow in Benin after he was overthrown by some corrupt army officers. In fact, he said that the coup was a preemptive strike against his crusade against some corrupt officers.

From that crucible of 1985, through the next 30 years, Buhari might have realised the essence of engendering an equitable society. But as he tells us, such a society is not attainable in so far as it remains a bastion for the proliferation of injustice as evident in the complicity of the judiciary in the denial of his electoral victories on three previous occasions. Of course, Buhari’s quest for an equitable society after suffering injustice is not an isolated case. Before him, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, among others appropriated a sense of injustice inflicted by warped state powers to develop their societies.

Even back at home, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was prised from prison to cobble together a dismembering nation. But in the case of Buhari, it is unfortunate that while his regaining of power after 30 years might have served a personal cathartic purpose, it is far from playing a significant role in his relationship with the need for the development of the country. For the danger that the nation faces today under the Buhari government is that at the end of his tenure, he would have succeeded in making millions of citizens to feel a sense of injustice and alienation from the society. This is the clear possibility that Buhari would engender through his policies and programmes.

If Buhari had truly learnt the lessons of suffering injustice, he would guard against fostering a sense of injustice. But does Buhari really have consideration for the need to ensure justice for others? Consider his  appointments  since he  became president. How have these ensured justice and the strengthening of the unity of the country?  In those appointments, Buhari brazenly favoured his northern part of the country. It is such nepotism that has thrown up a situation where from the National Assembly, the military, police, Department of State Services,  other security apparatuses, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), to other major government agencies, the heads are northerners.

Nigeria As An Amusement Park

By Ikechukwu Amaechi
Nigeria is a huge amusement park. All you need do to have fun is sit back and watch the theatrics of the political gladiators. It is God’s doing, though. Our ability to laugh at our folly and the fact that there are so many clowns out there masquerading as statesmen is, perhaps, the only reason some are still sane.

In the face of the pervasive desolation, any iota of bitterness even against those whose cluelessness dug us into this hole would have been suicidal because, as the legendary global statesman, Nelson Mandela, would say, “Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.”

*Buhari

Why should we commit suicide, which is exactly what those who superintend over our affairs want us to do, having tried every other strategy to accomplish the same goal, including the use of cruel economic policies without much success?

Of course, they think we are fools. Far from it, never mind that sometimes we behave in ways that tend to lend credence to their prejudice. But the truth is that they don’t get it, the joke is actually on them.

I had a good laugh every day of last week. The shenanigan that involved the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the courts and the unseen hands of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was the icing on the cake.

As I watched the drama and the movements in and out of courts with injunctions and counter-injunctions, I couldn’t help but laugh. It was all deja vu.

But what really got me reeling with laughter was the alleged attempt by “mischief makers” to add the name of the Edo State APC governorship candidate, Godwin Obaseki, to the ever growing list of leaders without certificates or with unverifiable certificates.

Immediately the news broke, my first reaction was, “Oh! My God, not again.” You can then imagine my relief when Obaseki announced to the world that the certificates which he claimed to have lost have, indeed, been found. And guess where? In faraway God’s own country, the United States.

Nelson Mandela ‘Persecuted Me’ Says South African Tribal King

King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, the king of the Thembu people, says his prosecution for terrorising his subjects was a political ploy cooked up by Nelson Mandela who had designs on his throne

The “tyrannical and despotic” Xhosa king ordered to jail for 12 years earlier this month for perpetrating a "reign of terror" over his people has blamed Nelson Mandela for his predicament.

King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, 51, king of the Thembu clan to which Mr Mandela belonged, lost an appeal against his conviction for assault, arson, kidnapping and defeating the ends of justice heard by South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE WHOLE REPORT 

2015: Jonathan's Place In History

*Jonathan

By Dan Amor 

All over the world, people choose their heroes for different reasons. Some  designate legendary creatures from every historical epoch and every field, such as Christopher Columbus, Florence Nightingale, Joan of Arc, Louis Pasteur, Alfred Nobel or even Napoleon Bonaparte. Yet, there are also those who believe that some heroes are unknown to the general public, their heroic deeds unrecognized but far from insignificant. These heroes include school aides, foster parents, security and medical personnel-all kinds of people who struggle, often against daunting odds, to make life better for others. As Victor Hugo said: "Life, misfortunes, isolation, abandonment, poverty, are battlefields which have their heroes; obscure heroes, sometimes greater than illustrious heroes".

In choosing former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan as the reigning King of African Democracy, a successor to the famous Nelson Mandela of South Africa, this writer believes that, like every other hero, he is a human being, with everything that it implies. I also believe that recognizing a hero-warts and all-makes it possible to become a hero and to encourage others to do the same.

AZAPO Asks Mandela To Apologise For Selling Out Black People's Struggle

 ----------------------------
"Many of his friends did not get an opportunity to apologise before they died, and he must consider himself lucky and use the opportunity for his soul to rest peacefully before it is too late" - AZAPO

"This is a case of insensitivity  at its worst" - the Sowetan newspaper in an editorial . 
----------------------------------

Nelson Mandela


Apparently seeking to draw attention to itself, an obscure group that identifies itself as the youth league of the Azanian People's Organisation (AZAPO) has early this week called on former South African president and world statesmen, Mr. Nelson Mandela, to apologise to the South African people "before he dies" for "selling out black people's struggle."

In statement, the president of the league, Mr. Amukelani Ngobeni, said that if Mandela dies without rendering the apology, he would be denied eternal peace. According to him, Mandela and his fellow anti-Apartheid activists had sold "out black people's struggle through the secret talks [they had undertaken] with the apartheid government."

Sowetan newspaper reported yesterday that Mr. Ngobeni had alleged that "Mandela entered into secret talks and agreed on a compromised constitution which today makes it very difficult, or almost impossible, for government to deliver in its duties to service the citizens."

Nelson Mandela With Michelle Obama

 "Many of his [Mandela's] friends did not get an opportunity to apologise before they died, and he must consider himself lucky and use the opportunity for his soul to rest peacefully before it is too late", Mr. Ngobeni said.

According to him: "Mandela and his friends were excited and could not wait to occupy the global political space at the expense of the struggle for complete political, social and economic emancipation." He added that he and his organisation were closely monitoring information and developments about Mandela's state of health. 

Reacting to Mr. Ngobeni's assertions, Sello Hatang, spokesman to the Nelson Mandela Foundation, said that Mandela had always insisted that "that he was always acting as part of the collective." He would rather the African National Congress (ANC) react to Ngobeni's allegations.  The ANC spokesman,  Keith Khoza, however, has said that his party would not dignify Mr. Ngobeni's statement with any comment, according to the Sowetan.


In an editorial which appeared today, the Sowetan described Mr. Ngobeni's outburst as an unambiguous advertisement of "of insensitivity  at its worst."  The paper advised him to offer without delay an unreserved  apology to Nelson Mandela for his atrocious comments. The editorial is reproduced below: 


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