The Senate’s Constitutional Overreach In The Case Of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan

 By Obiageli Oby Ezekwesili

Memo To The Nigerian Senate, Judiciary And Fellow Citizens: Democracy Dies When Laws Become Weapons and Lawmakers Become Serial Lawbreakers.

*Natasha and Oby 
Six months have passed since the unconstitutional suspension of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan on March 6, 2025. The Senator, representing the people of Kogi Central Senatorial District, was suspended following her allegation of sexual harassment against Senate President Godswill Akpabio.

These six months have witnessed an unprecedented assault on constitutional principles, judicial authority, and the very foundations of our democratic institutions. Rather than transparently investigate the allegation against the Senate President, an errant political class has used this opportunity to taunt citizens on how successfully they have captured the Nigerian state, perpetrating unlimited abuse with zero accountability or fear of consequences.

May 25: Why Politics Matters For Africa’s Development

 By Obiageli Ezekwesili, Alioune Badara Fall and Adama Gaye

Sixty years ago, yesterday, May 25, 2023, Africa led the world in creating the first-ever pan-continental political body with the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). It was in 1963 when 30 leaders of Africa’s sovereign republics came together in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to sign the founding Charter of the new body. This is where the celebration of May 25 as Africa Day originated.

The OAU had, from its inception, a bold and transformational mission as it was set up to facilitate the attainment of economic development, social transformation, political freedom, and the completion of independence in the African countries still under the yoke of foreign actors while also launching the struggle to dismantle racists’ regimes in Rhodesia – later Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia.

Senegal: Strengthening African Independence

 By Obiageli Ezekwesili

I believe there are no coincidences in life. Events are divinely orchestrated. While I am in Senegal, one of the African countries where I feel most comfortable among the many that I have had the opportunity to visit in the course of my professional career, its national Independence Day, celebrated this April 4th, reminds me of how much our continent needs to strengthen and consolidate the gains that its countries have made, through the sweat of their peoples and leaders, over the last 60 years. 

*Ezekwesili 

It is therefore with heartfelt joy that I join millions around the world to express my best wishes for Senegal as it celebrates 63 years of sovereignty and independence. 

Nigeria: Unacceptable Presidential Debate!

By Banji Ojewale

Let a hundred flowers bloom, and a hundred schools of thought contend —Mao Tse-tung (1893-1976) founder of modern China.

Organizing a presidential election debate to prepare us for informed choice in Nigeria’s poll in 2019 without the face of tomorrow is a failed enterprise from the takeoff point. Two of those capturing that future, Tope Fasua of Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP) and Omoyele Sowore of the African Action Congress (AAC) are among those being shut out of the debate. That amounts to denying the future a say in our affairs. That’s disastrous, because a loss of those who stand for the next generation and a vote for the jaded geriatric age is a dirge for democracy and society.

The Nigeria Election Debate Group (NEDG) and its electronic media partners, Broadcasting Organisations  of Nigeria (BON), are shortchanging the people by aligning with the establishment forces to disallow these renaissance politicians a voice.

Nigeria: 2019: Atiku Abubakar Vs. President Buhari

By Reuben Abati

There has been some clarity about Nigeria’s 2019 Presidential election, with the end of the October 7 deadline set by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the conduct of party primaries at all levels. On Saturday, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) at its convention held in Abuja, ratified the choice of incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari as its flagbearer, with a curious vote tally of 14. 8 million. President Buhari and his supporters have continuously left no one in doubt that they intend to have a second shot at power and office.

*Atiku and Buhari 

The number of party members across Nigeria who endorsed the Buhari candidacy has however raised eyebrows. 14. 8 million! In the 2015 elections, that was a little less than the same number of total votes that the incumbent got in a nationwide general vote. What is the actual number of persons on the party’s membership register – 15.6 million? Concerned observers have argued that this is an indication of the determination of the ruling party to rig the 2019 Presidential elections, in favour of a 75-year old candidate to whom they insist, there is no alternative. The No-Alternative talk is of course the height of sycophancy and the extent of its idiocy has now been exposed.

Who Voted For Muhammadu Buhari?

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Voting on March 28, 2015 for the then presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Muhammadu Buhari, was almost a badge of honour.

At polling booths, voters proudly flaunted their thump-printed ballot papers to prove that they were worthy ambassadors of the “change movement”.

Today, perhaps, the real measure of how much things have changed is that many people no longer readily own up to being part of the historic movement that led to the sacking of a sitting Nigerian president.

*Buhari 

Nobody admits voting for change any more. In fact, to accuse anyone of voting for Buhari has become an offence that people don’t take kindly. How could I have voted for Buhari, God forbid, is the most popular refrain in town today. And you wonder who did.

Well, I did. I am one of those who voted for the Daura-born General last year. I have said so here, severally.

I thought that former President Goodluck Jonathan had no capacity to continue to rule this country. He was not in control of his government and another four years with him in the saddle was, for me, unimaginable. And I still believe so.

I also thought Buhari would make a better president not necessarily because he possessed the intellectual capacity to govern. No.
But I reasoned that unlike Jonathan, he had the requisite character and integrity to be in charge of his government and if he was, what he only needed to do was to gather people with the capacity to drive a 21st century economy in dire need of a shot in the arm.

Sadly, knowing what I know now and having observed happenings in the polity in the last one year, I no longer believe so.

If the election was to be conducted today with Jonathan and Buhari as the frontline presidential candidates as was the situation last year, I would rather not go near any polling booth because, for me, the difference between the two is the same between six and half a dozen.

Jonathan as president was clueless as charged. Buhari is not proving to be any different.

Today, May 29, 2016, is exactly one year since he was sworn in as president and commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Expectations were quite high when he took his oath of office, vowing to give Nigerians a new lease of life. But, 365 days down the road, Nigerians are aghast.

Agony Of Chibok Parents

By Aniebo Nwamu

Until now, I didn’t believe any representative of the Nigerian government would raise their voice during a conversation with parents of the missing Chibok schoolgirls. Government exists to protect life and property, and, where it fails as in the case of the Chibok schoolgirls, it should at least feel guilty. I thought no Nigerian leader could look the distraught parents in the face and still speak words that hurt. 

I was proved wrong on Thursday, as I read with disbelief what “Mama Taraba” Aisha Alhassan told the Chibok parents during a meeting in Aso Villa. Here were agonising parents transported from Chibok by the #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) movement to receive consolation from the powers that be. Here were parents expecting the presidency to tell them when to expect their long lost daughters. The presence of Hajiya Alhassan, who is also Nigeria’s minister of women affairs, must have reassured them that there was a mother who would protect their interests. How then could Alhassan, a mother and grandmother who is still hoping to be awarded the governorship of Taraba State, have spat on their faces?

“Mama Taraba”, first, told the grieving parents they were not invited to the villa. Then, she reportedly told them that the girls were not kidnapped under the current government, “so why are you harassing us?” As if the diatribe was not enough, Minister Alhassan reminded them: “You wanted schools, you wanted hospitals, you wanted this and that… you wanted so many things.”

Where Are The Chibok Campaigners?

By Amanze Obi

Some 584 days ago, something called Chibok crept into the Nigerian lexicon. We were told that a certain sleepy town in Borno State that goes by that name had been invaded by Boko Haram terrorists. The gist of the strange tale was that over 200 schoolgirls had been ab­ducted from a secondary school in the town.

 The story, strange as it was, bore the ring of the familiar. It was in line with what had become almost customary – the daily invasion of northern enclaves by Boko Haram insurgents. Consequently, government, as it appeared then, did not take exception to it. Be­sides, the story resonated more with theory. How did the abduction take place? Where were the authorities of the school when it happened? What about the Nigerian security network that operated in the North East? Did they, by any means, know something about the famed abduction?

 Answers to these questions did not come handy. They were far to seek. Because this was the case, the government of the day, which was honed in by its effort to establish the truth of the matter, was not quick to respond to the abduction story.

That was the period of high wire politics. It was a pe­riod when the Jonathan presidency was encircled by a web of conspiracy but which was hardly obvious to the president himself.

 While the president groped in the dark, the conspirators had a field day. They tightened the noose around his neck. And so, because the Jona­than presidency was not seeing clearly, opposite people seized the stage. They went to the roof tops with the story of the abduction. Then the international media took over from them. And before long, the government of the day was crippled by the story of the abduction.

NIGERIA: No Doubt, This House Has Collapsed

(First Published Tuesday, February 6, 2007)


By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

This is an example of a country that has fallen down; it has collapsed. This house has fallen — Prof Chinua Achebe

“Something startles where I thought I was safest” – Walt Whitman
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A couple of months ago, the Minister of Education, Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili, came to the Independent to meet with top Editorial staff of the newspaper. The meeting commenced with the normal ritual of introductions, and as my brother, Mr. James Akpandem, the Managing Editor, who introduced the Independent team, got to me and said: “This is Mr. Ugochu—”, the minister cut in: “I kno-ow him! He is the angry man!” And the whole room erupted in loud laughter.   

When later it was my turn to speak, I began by saying that there was somebody else whose column, “Conversations of the Angry Man”, appeared every Monday, that I was not the person, and that the minister was, perhaps, mistaking me for him. This caused another round of loud laughter, with someone raising his voice above the loud mirth: “You are angrier than the Angry Man!”  To make sure she was actually referring to me, each time the minister, in the course of her speech, recalled an incident that offended her, she would say: “When I saw that, I became angry, but not like him!” And she would point at me or use a gesture to indicate she was referring to me. At some point she said: “I am even more angry than you are. That’s why I am doing what I am doing to change the situation. It takes someone who is really angry about the situation of things to do what I am presently doing at the Ministry of Education.”