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By Ikechukwu Amaechi
The title of this article, I must confess, is not original to me. It is the theme of the South-East Summit on Economy and Security which is scheduled to hold in Owerri, Imo State, next week. There couldn’t have been a better time or even a better theme for the Summit. Ndigbo are at a socio-economic and political crossroads in Nigeria and crucial decisions with far-reaching consequences have become inevitable.
*IwuanyanwuThe idea of the Summit, therefore, is to galvanise Ndigbo, a people hitherto proud of their heritage, but who seem to have lost their sagacity in the face of debilitating national conspiracy, to look inwards to harness their inner strengths and abundant resources in order to reshape their collective destiny. A new trajectory has become imperative.
By Olu Fasan
Someday, chroniclers of history will tell the stories of the 2023 general elections, the worst in Nigeria’s recent history. They will narrate the noble and ignoble roles played, respectively, by heroes and villains of the elections. Among the political class, villains abound. But two interest me here: Professor Charles Soludo, current governor of Anambra State, and Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, outgoing governor of Kaduna State. Neither covered himself in glory!
*el-Rufai and SoludoYou might ask: why single out Soludo and el-Rufai? Well, few political office holders in Nigeria today entered politics with the technocratic pedigree of Soludo and el-Rufai: the former was a smart presidential economic adviser who became a reformist governor of the Central Bank; the latter, a brilliant director of the Bureau of Public Enterprises who became a transformative Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Both are first-class technocrats and administrators.
By Dele Sobowale
“Standing on the foundation emplaced by the current [Buhari] administration, we shall build a Nigeria…” – Renewed Hope 2023: Action Plan For A Better Nigeria, p 3.
Buhari and Tinubu
Whenever there is a document promising to make Nigeria a better
place, I am ready to get it; read it; analyse it and publish my findings. I now
have a copy of what might be regarded as the Tinubu/Shettima/APC Manifesto for
the 2023 Presidential Election. The full analysis is almost finished; but, it
is too long for this column. So, the reader should not expect the details here.
I might add in passing that I also intend to obtain; read and analyse every
manifesto published – providing the owners arrange for me to get them. “Men
make history; but, not just as they please” – Karl Marx, 1818-1883.
That said; we now turn to the matter on hand. Let me start my stating that Asiwaju Tinubu has my sympathies. Those of us who were intimately involved in the struggle for the actualisation of the late Chief MKO Abiola’s mandate from 1993 till 1998, when the man died, can never forget his contributions. But, for his sagacity and street wisdom, when former President Olusegun Obasanjo deceived the leaders of Afenifere, and the Alliance for Democracy, AD, decided not to field a presidential candidate in 2003, the entire South-West would have been captured by the PDP.
By Ochereome Nnanna
The Good Book says “by their fruits ye shall know them”. When you dress a person in borrowed robes just to show off, William Shakespeare (Macbeth Act 5, Scene 2) says it will be “(hanging) loose about him like a giant’s robe upon a dwarfish thief”. Before 2003, the Finance portfolio of the Nigerian economy had always been handled by men. After his frivolous first term, former President Olusegun Obasanjo decided to get serious in his second. Nigeria had a debt overhang of $32bn owed to the Paris Club alone.
*BuhariObasanjo saw that his global gallivanting and begging for debt forgiveness was not cutting ice. He needed to do more than merely advertise his “beautiful” mug on the streets of Western capitals.
*Kofi Annan |