2027, APC And Merchants Of Political Violence

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Former Rivers State governor Chibuike Amaechi buried his mother, Ezinne Mary Oruah, on May 5, 2026 in Ubima, his ancestral Ikwerre hometown. It was a celebration of life. At 89 years, she lived long and well.

*Tinubu

Her son was not only a two-term governor but also Speaker of Rivers State House of Assembly for eight years and Minister of Transportation. When his ministerial tour of duty ended, he set his eyes on the country’s ultimate political diadem – presidency. He is Atiku Abubakar’s running mate in the 2027 presidential election on the platform of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).

Wike, The Emperor!

 By Donu Kogbara

Nyesom Wike, the former Rivers Governor and current FCT Minister, has become the most visible, voluble and overbearing individual on the Nigerian political stage. He is more assertive and aggressive than his boss, Mr President.

He hosts more pro-government media interactions, grants more interviews and issues more statements than the Minister of Information and presidential spokesmen. He is far, far louder than any other member of Tinubu’s cabinet. He boasts that APC would have won the recent Osun gubernatorial election if he had been in charge.

2027, APC And Merchants Of Political Violence

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Former Rivers State governor Chibuike Amaechi buried his mother, Ezinne Mary Oruah, on May 5, 2026 in Ubima, his ancestral Ikwerre hometown. It was a celebration of life. At 89 years, she lived long and well.

*Tinubu
Her son was not only a two-term governor but also Speaker of Rivers State House of Assembly for eight years and Minister of Transportation. When his ministerial tour of duty ended, he set his eyes on the country’s ultimate political diadem – presidency. He is Atiku Abubakar’s running mate in the 2027 presidential election on the platform of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).

PDP’s Shameful Disservice To Nigeria

 By Olu Fasan

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is comatose on a deathbed; it’s on life support. The doctors (INEC and the judiciary) are colluding to switch off the life-support machine. They believe the party needs euthanasia or assisted suicide. Yet, what’s really needed is to remove the external factors that interacted with PDP’s genetic predisposition to cause its disease.

But virtually all of PDP’s children (governors and legislators), who should fight to save its life, have abandoned it and joined its enemy, All Progressives Congress, APC, which is behind the external factors. However, one reprobate child (Nyesom Wike), a bully, who works for the enemy but “remains” in PDP, wants to “hold it down” for APC’s Bola Tinubu, and use the PDP’s structures to help him win re-election as president next year. 

Is Nyesom Wike Wicked Or Just Wired For War?

 By Tony Iwuoma

This is about power, paranoia and the politics of staying relevant. In Nigerian politics, there are loud men, and then there is Nyesom Wike, mere mention reroutes conversations and rearranges loyalties.

*Wike 

Admirers call him fearless and effective. Critics describe him as vindictive, ungrateful, and power-drunk. Yet the heat around Wike is about personality, permanence, and peace, or the lack of it.

Politics is a survival theatre. So, the question is not whether Wike is wicked in the biblical sense, but whether he has become a prisoner of the very power rituals he perfected.

Has Nyesom Wike’s Juju Expired?

 By Ugoji Egbujo

For years, Nyesom Wike seemed untouchable, wielding power with impunity and bending institutions to his will. He could come on national TV ‘barking’.  He could wear crazy colored clothes. He could hold more media chats than the president and all governors combined to gossip about his mentors, who had all become his enemies.

*Wike 

As a junior minister, he hounded his former governor—Rotimi Amaechi—who had played a key role in his rise. In 2015, when the Court of Appeal nullified elections across Rivers State, only the governorship survived to the Supreme Court. Shockingly, the apex court upheld Wike’s victory despite widespread allegations of grave irregularities.

Between Natasha’s Defiance And Fubara’s Docility

 By Emmanuel Aziken

Two strong disruptions to Nigeria’s democratic flow in March 2025 were seemingly repaired recently with the dramatic restoration of Governor Siminilayi Fubara to the helm of affairs in Rivers State and the reinstatement of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan to the Senate after months of suspension.

*Natasha 

On the surface, both restorations may appear as victories for democracy, yet when viewed closely, they reveal two sharply contrasting responses to political persecution — one marked by courage, the other by compromise.

Fubara: A Governor In Chains!

 By Emmanuel Aziken

The recent return to Port Harcourt of Governor Siminalayi Fubara, and the quiet stealing away of the sole administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (rtd), are two poignant dents on the nation’s democracy. How the country progresses from here will undoubtedly define the character of the democracy Nigeria practises.

*Fubara and Wike 

Remarkably, some have praised President Bola Tinubu for not extending the suspension of the governor and the democratic structures in Rivers State beyond the six months he had initially proclaimed. Many opposition voices, however, insist that the president erred in the first instance by unilaterally removing an elected governor from office.

The Return Of Fubara, Nigeria’s Most Diminished ‘Governor’

By Olu Fasan

Siminalayi Fubara returned as “governor” of Rivers State last week, six months after he was magisterially removed from office by President Bola Tinubu, following his declaration of an emergency rule in the state. Fubara returned with his tail between his legs, utterly humiliated.

*Fubara, Wike and Tinubu

Henceforth, anyone who refers to Fubara as governor must put the word in inverted commas. Why? Well, truth be told, he’s not a governor in the true sense of the word. He owes his existence in office not to the people of Rivers State, but to President Tinubu, the National Assembly and Nyesom Wike, the former Rivers State governor, now Tinubu’s self-aggrandising and untouchable minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

Wike’s Rants: Blame The Media, Not The Minister

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

The conduct of the Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike, in the public space is quite unbecoming. It is not enough to dismiss him as unhinged as many are wont to do because to do so is to ignore the fact that for whatever it is worth, he is a Nigerian political elite, a member of the privileged club that makes the authoritative allocation of our collective values.

*Wike during a media chat
In any sane society, such privileged position demands some level of politesse and dignity in public conduct. His actions, at any given time, violate the acceptable standard and respect for others. To put it mildly, they go beyond the bounds of decency.

Wike’s Lives Hang On A Slender Thread

 By Dele Sobowale

In all matters, one must consider the end” – Jean De La Fontaine, 1621-

“A man cannot be too careful in his choice of enemies”– Oscar Wilde, 1856-1900.

*Tinubu and Wike
Every active and deliberately controversial politician in a deadly political environment has two lives to protect – his real life and his political life. Occasionally, the two lives are imperiled at the same time on account of circumstances brought about by him or beyond his control. For a long time in the history of partisan politics, a politician has placed his two lives in jeopardy. The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, has inadvertently boxed himself into a very tight corner.

Which Way Nigeria, Which Way?

 By Basil Onwukwe

The dream of lasting peace in Nigeria remains a fleeting illusion until fundamental human rights are equal and guaranteed for all. Without this, the pursuit of economic growth and political stability can never be fully realised. Righteousness exalts a nation, and doing things right is not an option? Let’s not pretend that political alignment is about public interest.

Nigerians will be waiting to see whether they will establish a legal framework that enables the reconstruction of the nation’s failed issues. Let’s call it what it is: a carefully masked attempt to fund elite wasteful spending. Any change from frying pan to fire cannot be tolerated anymore, or state capture that offloads systemic failure onto the backs of the masses will not be acceptable.

Bola Tinubu’s First Major Political Blunder

 By Emmanuel Aziken

Just a week ago, President Bola Tinubu was hailed and nailed on this page over his score in his first two years in office as assessed by the 2023 Social Democratic Party, SDP, presidential candidate, Adewole Adebayo.

*Tinubu

Adebayo had in his assessment of the two years spent by Tinubu in power scored him an F9 in governance and an A1 in politics.

The reasons for the scores were robustly marshaled. On one side he was ‘hailed’ for becoming the first chief executive in the country to reduce the totality of the opposition into insignificance. On the other hand, he was scorched for the foibles that have forced Nigerians into their worst living condition in generations.

Bola Tinubu’s Two Years Of Deferred Hope

 By Casmir Igbokwe

Akwa Ibom State Governor, Pastor Umo Eno, unveiled what appears to be one of the greatest achievements of President Bola Tinubu recently. Last week, the governor was quoted to have threatened his appointees to join him in his planned defection to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) or resign.

*Tinubu

Governor Eno, who won his election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is the latest big fish which the all-conquering APC’s dragnet has caught. Earlier in April, the Governor of Delta State, Mr. Sheriff Oborevwori, migrated to the ruling party with the entire leadership and stakeholders of the PDP in the state. More people had earlier defected. A triumphant Tinubu gleefully said last week that he expected more people to join the APC. Great achievement!

Ordinarily, this gale of defections should be an indication that something good is happening within the ruling party. Or that the government of the day has become a honeypot of performance, thus attracting a large number of honeybees.

Our Leaders Do Not Care!

 By Sunny Ikhioya

They did not care in the past. They do not care now, and most likely, they will never care in the future. According to Vilfredo Pareto, Italian sociologist, they “are the small number of individuals who, in each sphere of activity, have succeeded and have arrived at a higher echelon in the professional hierarchy”. 

*Tinubu and Akpabio

These ones are termed elites, which is “a class of the people who have the highest indices in their branch of activity”. They are the ones controlling our businesses, politics, and indeed every aspect of our lives. They are our perpetual rulers. Once in a while, somebody from the lower rung of the ladder finds his way upward and remains there with them, cultivating their habits and idiosyncrasies. Their interest is their self-protection first. 

Soludo: Professors Sans Commonsense

By Steve Osuji

Nigerian professors are giving a bad name to the academia. We grew up to revere people who wear the tag 'professor' as very special kinds.

And as we went through the university, the power and aura of professors on our campuses didn't wane. Indeed, we cherished being under their tutelage.

I encountered a few in my journey through those rarefied corridors of learning. Who would forget in a hurry, Professors Alfred Opubor, Ebun Clark, Alaba Ogunsanwo, Onuora Nwuneli, among others, in the University of Lagos of the 1980s and early 90s. 

But today in Nigeria, everything seems upside down; including the university system and the professors therein.

If a professor is not being goaled for sexually harassing his students - in a most idiotic tango - he's being jailed for helping a rogue politician rig election. 

One cannot understand how our university system crashed so low to the point that professors, even vice chancellors, are co-opted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), into a tacky and highly malleable electoral system. 

Mr. President, Rein In Your Son, Seyi

 By Dan Onwukwe

Have you pondered why presidential offsprings sometimes behave in such bizarre and irascible manner that bring embarrassment to the first family? Mr Seyi Tinubu, a pampered grown adult and son of President Bola Tinubu, has had some run-ins with some people since his father became Nigerian president almost two years ago. The controversies he has attracted have hugged the headlines. If this bizarre behaviour is not normal, you may ask, why? Does the President feel hurt watching his son each time his son’s conduct makes the headlines? 

*Bola Tinubu and his son, Seyi

If the President does, why hasn’t he deemed it necessary to rein him in as he did early in his administration when Seyi reportedly barged in, without invitation, at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in the Presidential Villa? This is what the President said on that day: “I have noticed the undue access of people sneaking in and out of this Council, including my son, Seyi, sitting behind the cubicle. That’s not acceptable”. The president instructed the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume to take note of his order.

Nigeria And The Fading Lights Of Justice

 By Chidi Odinkalu

As he settled in to deliver the judgment of the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal on 2 April 2025, presiding judge, Wilfred Kpochi, felt obliged to get one ritual out of the way. Glancing left and right, he asked each of his two colleagues on the three-person tribunal to confirm that the judgment he was about to deliver was unanimous. Justice Kpochi only proceeded after each, one to his left and the other to his right, nodded their affirmation.

The judge had good reason for this preliminary ritual. 48 hours before it was due, a leaked document purporting to be the judgment of the tribunal went into circulation.

Cabinet Reshuffle? Tinubu Is The Problem, Not His Inept Ministers

 By Olu Fasan

Ever since the presidency confirmed that Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s ineffectual president, would reshuffle his utterly incompetent cabinet, speculations have been rife about who would be in and who would be out. The Guardian newspaper set the hares running with a front-page story titled: “11 ministers, senior officials may go as Tinubu reshuffles cabinet.” 

*Tinubu

Then, Dr Doyin Okupe, a former presidential spokesman and director-general of Peter Obi’s presidential campaign, now a fawning Tinubu loyalist, said that Tinubu’s two-week trip to Europe was not, contrary to the presidency’s claim, a holiday but “an essential break to carefully consider changes in his cabinet without undue interference”. Nigeria is probably the only country where a president must cocoon himself in cosy foreign hotels to “wilfully separate himself from officials, friends, and associates” in order to appoint or reshuffle his cabinet.

Of course, Nigeria is a global outlier, exceptional in many perverse ways. Here’s a country where a president can do anything, and where the citizens are indifferent to whatever their president does. In his book titled Reclaiming the Jewel of Africa, Dr Olusegun Aganga said that then President Goodluck Jonathan once remarked that “the Nigerian president was vested with so much power that it was best to check oneself in the exercise of those powers”. In other words, in Nigeria, only the president can check himself, no one else can check him. And if you have a president like Tinubu who likes to exercise power arbitrarily based on his hunches and predilections, everyone just has to accept and live with the consequences. For, let’s face it, there is no accountability for bad executive decisions or failures in Nigeria. 

Think about it. A key test of leadership is judgement. A leader must exercise sound judgement and make good decisions. Tinubu fails that test. Truth be told, in a true democracy, with proper checks and balances and accountability mechanisms, Tinubu would be held to account for the way he has mismanaged Nigeria through poor judgements and bad decisions since he assumed power. Held to account? How? Well, first, peaceful protests are legitimate tools of democracy. Second, the media should be fiercely intolerant of bad governance. And, of course, third, the National Assembly should never be the president’s poodle. 

But what happens in Nigeria? Well, the public and the media are all bark and no bite. As for the National Assembly, it simply rubberstamps everything Tinubu does and rewards his failure. For instance, it was recently reported that the National Assembly wanted to establish a university and name it after Tinubu. And some states have named airports after him. What a country! Why is being a president in Nigeria not about self-sacrifice but about self-service?

Dr Aganga added in his book that “the Nigerian presidential constitution vests so much power in the president that only conscious and conscionable exercise of these powers can save the holder of the exalted office from themselves”. Surely, if Tinubu consciously and conscionably exercises presidential powers, he will reject any attempt to deify him. He will know that he has done absolutely nothing transformative and life-enhancing in his one-and-a-half years in office to deserve an airport or a university being named after him. It is a mark of Tinubu’s self-entitlement and utter insensitivity that he is making the presidency about his self-glorification and personal comfort. According to one recent report, “the Presidency spends N16.06 billion to buy foreign currencies for international trips in one year.” That’s the extent of Tinubu’s profligacy and extravagance amid excruciating pains across Nigeria.

All of which brings us to the so-called cabinet reshuffle. Now, if a president has to reshuffle his cabinet within one year of constituting it, what does that tell us about his judgement? Everyone knows that Tinubu was not thinking about good governance when he formed his cabinet. Rather, he was thinking about his personal and political interests. As result, his ministers fell into three categories: those, like Nyesom Wike, he appointed to return political favours and shore up support for his re-election bid in 2027; those, like former Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun State, who lost elections and who, for personal reasons, Tinubu wanted to rehabilitate; and his longstanding acolytes in Lagos State, who are  supposedly technocratic but are personally too close to him to be genuinely technocratic. 

Last year, I wrote a column titled “Tinubu’s ministers: A bunch of political rewardees and cronies” (Vanguard, August 10, 2023). I argued that Tinubu should have appointed ministers from the pool of Nigeria’s brightest and best, but put party, politics and self above country. It took Tinubu three months in office before picking his ministers. Yet, he came up with such a hollow cabinet. Those now hailing him for wanting to reshuffle his cabinet should, in fact, be questioning his judgement and leadership.

As Tinubu was swearing in his ministers on August 21, 2023, I was being interviewed on News Central TV along with Dr Elijah Onyeagba, Nigeria’s ambassador to Burundi. Dr Onyeagba said it was all about Tinubu, not his ministers, because he was in charge. I was aghast. I told him a president is as a good as his team, and a cabinet reflects the president. If a president is visionary and focused on problem-solving, he will assemble the best possible team. If he is fixated on politicking and the next election, he will assemble a mediocre team of yes-men and yes-women, who see their positions as political favours and owe loyalty to their benefactors. Tinubu’s cabinet is full of such people. 

For instance, not long ago, Heineken Lokpobiri, the minister of state for petroleum resources, said he owed his appointment to Wike. Of course, nothing qualifies him for the position beyond cronyism. That unfitness was evident when, recently, Lokpobiri said that Nigeria “is expecting $50 billion worth of investment in the oil sector before the end of the year.” At a time when international oil companies, IOCs, are deserting Nigeria in droves, and when Western governments are no longer investing in fossil fuels projects in developing countries, Lokpobiri was saying that foreign investors would pour $50 billion into the oil sector by December. 

The thoughtless comment so irked Dr Rueben Abati that he upbraided the minister on Arise TV, telling him to “keep quiet” if he “has nothing to say”, adding that “he doesn’t know what he is talking about, and constantly puts his foot in his mouth.”

But I repeat: a cabinet reflects the president. Matthew Parris, a British writer, once said that every government needs “the presiding intellect with the intelligence to grasp the problem.” That requires leadership and judgement. Tinubu has demonstrated neither as president. That’s why reshuffling his cabinet will change nothing. A fish rots from the head down! 

*Dr. Fasan is a commentator on public issues

Rivers State: Caveat Emptor For Wike

 By Ochereome Nanna

Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, must be feeling on top of the world right now. He has successfully retrieved the structure of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Rivers State from Governor Siminalayi Fubara.

*Fubara and Wike 
With the endorsement of the National Working Committee, NWC, of the party and the fact that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, witnessed and certified the recent congress of the Rivers State chapter of the party, all eyes are on the Governor to respond in the battle for his own political survival.