Nigeria: Letter To Our Politicians

By Tony Afejuku

What a Christmas it has been! What a new year it will be! And what future of our country confronts us! Where are our politicians to write and shape Paradise that our country wants? These were nagging questions, nagging thoughts that were versions and portraits and figures and images that were collectively part of my mental voyage as I spent ample time walking, thinking, meditating and trying to write about our country.

The source of my image-making power which is my sub-conscious mind moved and moved toward political action in our country as I paced about in the serenity of my wonderfully quiet abode of plain living devoid of material things that tantalize our politicians everywhere, materials things that our politicians crave, and which have turned them into exploiters, speculators, avaricious financiers who have unleashed in our country economic inferno preventing workers, including university lecturers and professors, from enjoying minimum wages corresponding to their labours.

2019 Elections And Battle For The Soul Of Nigeria

By Simbo Olorunfemi

 The characteristic vice of the utopian is naivety; of the realist, sterility – E.H. Carr

 The reality of the 2019 elections battle is finally dawning upon us.

The contestation for power is becoming heightened. Alignments and re-alignments are taking place. Some of the early birds who took the assurance of a ticket on some platforms for granted are beginning to realise their mistakes.

The party that was in power yesterday has now become a receiver of presidential aspirants of all shapes and sizes, who have come to the realisation of the folly in nursing such ambition within the fold of the governing party, with the incumbent favoured to pick the ticket. 

President Buhari Has Failed Nigerians – US

The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) said outcome of research it conducted across states in Nigeria revealed that most Nigerians believe that the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has failed to meet their expectations since coming to power on May 29, 2015.

*Presidents Buhari and Trump

The report also predicted an upsurge in electoral violence and voter apathy during the 2019 general elections.

The report entitled, ‘Nigeria’s 2019 Elections: Change, Continuity and the Risk to Peace’, is a presentation of USIP’s electoral violence risk assessment research which was arrived at after interviews conducted in some selected states across the country.

Why Nigeria Needs To Be Re-Structured

By Atiku Abubakar

In a recent interaction in the United States, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo asserted that the “problem with our country is not a matter of restructuring…and we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into the argument that our problems stem from some geographic re-structuring”.

*Atiku

It is a surprise that the Vice President would take such a position and, in particular, fail to appreciate the connection between Nigeria’s defective structure and its underperformance. 

President Buhari: Welcome To Reality

By Onuoha Ukeh

It is a dawn of new reality in Nigeria. Nigerians, as a people, and Nigeria, as a country, are now better informed about “the state of things as they actually exist,” as distinct from “idealistic or notional idea of them.” At present, nobody can be hoodwinked. As they say, he who wears the shoe knows where it pinches. Nigerians of all classes know the bad state of things in the country. They wear the shoe. They know where it pinches. And they are expressing themselves in various ways.

*Buhari 

Within the week, former President Olusegun Obasanjo left nobody in doubt about his realisation that Muhammadu Buhari’s government is a disaster. The Owu man who, directly and indirectly, supported the election of Buhari in 2015, could no longer pretend. Looking at the state of things, he made a conclusion to the effect that things are going from bad to worse. He did not mince words in saying that Buhari should “consider a deserved rest at this point in time and at this age.” 

Nigeria Is A Lost Nation!

By Tijani Sheriffdeen

Countries around the world wake up every new day to do something different, and of course productive. They attend to the challenges their yesterday brought them, and draw brilliant inferences from them to improve on their today. When one understands this, one begins to wonder less why their tomorrow is always a lesson for many others. Nations around the world who mean to develop and grow don’t look down on anything, especially elements capable of irreversible and inerasable growth and development. Developed nations understand the impact every single member of a community has on that particular community, as such; they respect their contributions, suggestions and complaints when they come, because they are only meant to bring about growth or change when need be. Who respect opinions in Africa? Not to talk of Nigeria!

Nigeria is a country with over 180 million people, one of the facts we enjoy telling people, yet, with the status of a developing nation since ever. Why should a country have the number without it amounting to anything? Maybe this question is not as important as when we want to make the number we have count as a nation. Looking beyond population, Nigeria is blessed with bounteous natural resources, but it has only help in tearing apart our nation, rather than helping it gain good grounds. Maybe the only time Nigerians appreciate their ethnic diversity is when they have to come closer with Ayodeji Balogun (Wizkid) hit song titled “come closer.” Our ethnic diversity is a reason for us to worry as a nation, as if other nations are monotonous in this regard.

Unlocking The Likes Of Prof Yemi Osinbajo

By Banji Ojewale 

Nigeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is the father of modern-day bureaucratic jurisprudence of Lagos State… He was discovered by Governor Bola Tinubu… He went on to become the state’s Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General in the Third Republic in 1999… He undertook notable reforms in grassroots judicature and in court room procedures… Through his prudent counsel coupled with Tinubu’s own smart politics, Lagos successfully launched the historic creation of 37 local Council and Development Areas and floored the mighty federal resistance of Olusegun Obasanjo’s government… The councils have come to stay due to the firm substructure Yemi Osinbajo laid… Later, he was retrieved from political retirement again by Tinubu to play a role in the central government in the current dispensation. 

*Osinbajo 

But let us be clear about this: history isn’t going to rate Osinbajo on Lagos only in the long run. The ruthless history we all know would demand more from Osinbajo. Had he stayed quietly in the background after his tour of duty in Lagos, he might have tamed the extinct records to favour him. However, having succumbed to the temptation to stage a comeback at a higher level, he must wrestle with the dialectics of politics of an upward plane. History is clad in an iron creed: to whom a higher measure of responsibility is given, less can’t be demanded. 

Buhari’s Policies Scaring Away Investors

“So far the Buhari administration has done all the wrong things,” Dehn said by phone from London... Not only has he been incredibly slow in taking any action, when he finally has taken action on the economic front it’s been diametrically opposed to sensible policy. That is a major disappointment given expectations prior to his election.”

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 When Muhammadu Buhari clinched victory in Nigeria’s presidential elections in March, stocks soared as investors looked to the former military ruler to reverse decades of economic mismanagement and policy inertia. Now hopes have fizzled in his ability to turn around Africa’s largest economy and oil producer.

Money that flowed into stocks and bonds in the West African nation, which McKinsey & Co. says could become one of the world’s 20 biggest economies by 2030, is now fleeing as growth prospects diminish along with oil prices. While Buhari, 72, has prioritized stamping out the graft that has plagued Nigeria since independence from Britain in 1960, policy-making appears as uncertain and haphazard as ever.

“After the initial euphoria, people have become disillusioned,” Ayodele Salami, who oversees about $500 million of African equities as chief investment officer of London-based Duet Asset Management Ltd., said by phone. “He would probably say that he’s being deliberative and cautious. But we expected more.” Duet’s Africa fund has cut its investments in the country to about 24 percent of the total from 38 percent in the last year. 

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