Showing posts with label Ochereome Nnanna. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ochereome Nnanna. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Nigeria: Renewed Wailing!

 By Ochereome Nnanna

Femi Adesina, Muhammadu Buhari’s star-struck admirer who later got employed by the Daura politician when he achieved his presidential ambition in 2015, left us with a number of acidic soundbites as a presidential spokesman. Two of them stood out.

*Bola Tinubu

The first was not exactly a soundbite, but was summarised for him into that by his colleagues in the media. Reacting to the Fulani herdsmen terrorism which his boss, Buhari, allowed (some say he facilitated it and protected the culprits with his presidential powers), Adesina shocked Nigerians with his coldblooded dismissiveness of the massacres, displacement and occupation of farming communities by the invaders.

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

Hamas’ Mission Impossible

 By Ochereome Nnanna

On October 7, 2023, the Jewish State of Israel suffered the most painful, unprovoked terrorist assault on its innocent citizens who were holidaying. What an irony that they were attacked while celebrating the Festival of Sukkot, marking God’s protection of their Biblical ancestors in the desert on their epic journey from the land of enslavement, Egypt, to the Promised Land! It fell on a Sabbath Day, and people relaxed at home, while some youngsters attended a music festival at Kibbutz Re’im in Southern Israel.

It was on such a day that Hamas invaded Israel by land and air. They breached the border fences and flew paragliders through the Israeli airspace. They attacked unsuspecting, innocent and unarmed soldiers and civilians, massacred, slaughtered, raped, tortured and dehumanised Israeli citizens. The details of their atrocities are available in cybersphere for those who have the stomach to view them.

Wednesday, November 8, 2023

Judiciary’s Double Standards, A Danger To Our Democracy

 By Ochereome Nnanna

The Constitution gives our Judiciary a role – sacred one at that – in our democracy. It is mandated to give justice to whom it is due. But we are now in a situation where some corrupt members of the Bench collude with powerful politicians to remove and emplace those rejected at the polls. The Nigerian Judiciary is now a self-styled “power broker”.

Nigeria is not the only country where the courts are called upon to adjudicate in electoral cases. Even in the United States where we copied our presidential system from, the courts had their hands full at the end of the 2020 controversial elections. Back home in Africa, the Kenya Supreme Court was saddled with adjudicating a presidential election outcome, and it delivered justice to the true winner of the August 9, 2022 presidential election, William Ruto.

Wednesday, October 11, 2023

Arise TV, Sue NBC; Do It Now!

 By Ochereome Nnanna

Something terrible is happening to Nigerians. It is not that they are being beaten that bothers me so much. It is that they no longer react, no matter how they are pummelled. Shockingly, the media appears to have become a victim of this.

There is an ongoing certificate and identity scandal which has been described in a foreign court as a “Nigerian thing”. Do you blame them? Our president’s name is on it. When misguided teenager, Mmesoma’s JAMB result forgery was confirmed, the same yellow bellies who were all over her and even dragged her ethnic group into the scandal are now either mute or trying to twist a clear-cut court deposition out of shape.

Thursday, September 28, 2023

Why Doesn’t Corruption Bother Us Anymore?

 By Ochereome Nnanna

The recent disclosure by the Nigerian Extractive Transparency Initiative, NEITI, of massive corruption in the oil sector under the government of Muhammadu Buhari has gone down the drain without causing the required stir. Neither the Federal Government nor the people whose money was allegedly looted has moved a nerve.

Nigeria has become a desensitised society. It is now akin to a sick person who no longer feels pain in his body. When you get to that level, you are almost dead. Just imagine! NEITI, the Nigerian chapter of a worldwide initiative to monitor corruption and promote transparency and accountability in the oil sector, recently addressed the media and made damning allegations.

Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Nigeria: From Buharisation To Tinubuisation

 By Ochereome Nnanna

When a woman marries twice, she is better placed to know which husband treated her better. As a country, Nigeria has married two husbands since 1999: the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the All Progressives Congress, APC. No doubt, we experienced a far better Nigeria under the PDP than the APC. This claim has nothing to do with partisanship. Whatever evil the PDP committed, the APC regimes have multiplied them tenfold and added fresh, vile inventions of their own.

*Buhari and Tinubu 

The PDP was founded by political leaders who tried to use the outcomes of the Abacha Constitutional Conference to build an improved democracy and governance system. The PDP was built on the foundation of equitable power sharing and rotation, as well as the Federal Character Principle enshrined in Section 14(3) of the 1999 Constitution, as agreed at the Conference.

Wednesday, September 13, 2023

Kayode Fayemi: A Witch’s Confession

 By Ochereome Nnanna

I have noticed the tendency of elements of the Tinubu political family to confess the perfidy their group commits in the process of “grabbing, snatching, and running away” with power. In my new book, Buhari: Tinubu: How They Snatched and Shared Power, Pa Ayo Adebanjo claimed that Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as a governorship aspirant of the Alliance for Democracy, AD, in Lagos in December 1998, disrupted primaries in some of his opponents’ strongholds, which led to the abortion of the governorship primaries in those areas.

*Fayemi

The guidelines for the primaries said the exercise should be cancelled wherever there was a crisis. Tinubu capitalised on this loophole and defeated his closest rival, Funsho Williams, whose name had already been submitted by the state chairman of the AD, Alhaji Ganiyu Dawodu, as the winner.

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

NLC And The Big ‘War’ Ahead

 By Ochereome Nnanna

The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, is saddled with three mandates. The first is the classical or labour mandate – fighting for the interests of the working class. The second is the social mandate – protecting the interests of the masses in an environment where the ruling elite have increasingly become more selfish, corrupt and incompetent than ever.

It was under the presidency of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole that NLC assumed the social mandate on behalf of Nigerians who were subjected to series of fuel price hikes by the Olusegun Obasanjo government. These measures affected the workers and the general public equally, so Oshiomhole led Labour to bravely tackle the Obasanjo government. From that moment on, the people started looking up to Labour to deploy for them whenever government introduced policies that stoked hardship.

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

Dismantling Of Muhammadu Buhari

 By Ochereome Nnanna

I have just published a book on Amazon titled: Buhari: Tinubu – How They Snatched and Shared Power. It has not yet been formally unveiled, but it will be, very soon. It is an analytical reportage and documentation of the politics and intrigues (which spanned over 30 years) that produced the dethronement of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and emergence of Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Ahmed Tinubu as presidents. 

*Buhari 

When you read this book, you will not be surprised at what is happening to the relationship between President Tinubu and his predecessor and political ally, Buhari. Even before he launched his presidential campaign last year, Tinubu promised to continue Buhari’s legacies. Is he doing so now? On the contrary, Tinubu is dismantling Buhari’s heritage.

Wednesday, August 16, 2023

Where Is Tinubu’s Executive Capacity?

 By Ochereome Nnanna

Even before what became the All Progressives Congress, APC, was formed, I knew it would be a disaster. I prayed for the merger not to work. But my prayers were not answered. The merger not only worked, the party won the 2015 presidential election with Muhammadu Buhari as president. Buhari’s presidency, according to the APC pact, was to be succeeded by a Bola Ahmed Tinubu presidency. When Buhari was about to finish his eight years of inept and extreme nepotism rule, he tried to block Tinubu’s turn to “rule”. 

*Tinubu

Tinubu went to Abeokuta and wailed: Yoruba l’okan( “It is Yoruba’s turn”); Emi l’okan!(“It is my turn”). When Buhari saw that the Northern APC Governors were all for Tinubu, he had no choice but to bring out his full powers of incumbency to install his political partner. You may ask: why would I, a columnist of 29 years standing, discredit a political party, the APC, even before it was formed? My answer is simple. 

Friday, August 4, 2023

Chasing Rats In Niger Republic

By Ochereome Nnanna

When the immediate former President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, came to power in January 2017, he took stock of the situation the country was in. Over the decades, warlike America had become war-torn though the fighting was always on foreign land. It spends an average of $1 trillion on defence and wars annually. Its troops were mired all over the Middle East and Asia, especially in such countries as Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

Trump, who campaigned on a mantra of Making America Great Again, MAGA, decided to de-escalate belligerence. The troops must come home. America must make peace with its traditional foes – Russia, China, North Korea and others. America must suspend its “big brother” role to the European Union and let them shift for themselves, at least for the time being. America must rebuild the coal-fired energy sector and revamp abandoned towns. America must rebuild its broken philosophical and cultural foundations and become America once again.

Wednesday, July 26, 2023

Dokubo Asari’s Sinister Dance

 By Ochereome Nnanna

True friends of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should call him aside and whisper wisdom into his ears with regards to his dalliance with Niger Delta “repentant” militant and self-acclaimed “Biafra fighter”, Dokubo Asari. This is not the first time I am raising this issue on this forum. And which way you look at it  this “friendship” is bound to end in regret. Not much was known of the relationship between Tinubu and Asari until the latter confessed in several media outings that Tinubu once helped him when he was facing the consequences of his armed activities in the creek.

*Asari

Dokubo Asari can posture as anything, depending on the direction his current interest is looking. We call it  anywhere belle face  in popular Nigerian parlance. Asari’s garrulity especially in the social media has laid bare almost everything about him for those who care to pay him any attention. He claimed that his grandfather, a hunter, migrated from Abam in Abia State to Kalabari land. According to him, the hunter magically transformed into a slave merchant specialising in selling his fellow Igbo to the White man. Mind you, he has never provided any proof of his claims. Asari is more of mouth. In contrast, Tompolo is more of effective action.

Wednesday, June 14, 2023

Lagos: Mudashiru Obasa’s War Agenda

 By Ochereome Nnanna

The Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, is on a war footing. He has just been unanimously re-elected for the third time as Speaker. As an inner chamber member of the Bola Tinubu political family, his declared legislative agenda can rightly be read as Tinubu’s new agenda for Lagos after losing the presidential election in the state.

*Obasa

Tinubu’s Lagos is different from what we see in other states. For instance, the governor (whoever he is) does not have freedom of vision. He can only take initiatives within the script already written for him. And so, one would expect Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to seek Tinubu’s support before asking Muhammadu Buhari to send in the Army to quell the Lekki Toll Gate protests on October 20, 2020.

Wednesday, May 24, 2023

What Did Sanwo-Olu Come To Lagos With?

 By Ochereome Nnanna

The first story is about a young Nigerian 45 years ago, and you see the coincidence in the story, 45 years ago, a young Nigerian came to Lagos all the way from another mega-city, Kano, who saw the prosperity, and diversity of our country, who came with nothing but in 45 years has built the biggest empire in the world — Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Governor of Lagos State.

*Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his wife, Dr. Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu

Ordinarily, this statement, which Governor Sanwo-Olu made amidst befitting accolades for Alhaji Aliko Dangote for finally delivering the world’s largest refinery in Lagos, should not raise eyebrows. So, why is it arousing mixed feelings? The reason is obvious. It is a bitter reminder of the fallout of the just-concluded elections, particularly in Lagos, where Sanwo-Olu, his political principal, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and his political party, APC, used ethnic bigotry and violence to save themselves from being shipped out of power by Lagos residents who are tired of their oppressive rule.

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Census In Lagos, Count Me Out!

 By Ochereome Nnanna

The recently concluded election in Nigeria was an eye-opener for people of Igbo stock living in Lagos, especially those who slumbered in blissful ignorance of the peculiar situation that this ethnic group finds itself in Nigeria. In June, July 2017, a group that called itself Arewa Youths Consultative Forum, AYCF, led by one Yerima Shettima, issued a quit notice to Igbo people living in the North.

Their offence: the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, was demanding for a referendum to enable Ndi Igbo and other interested ethnic groups in the South-South to quit Nigeria. This was IPOB’s response to Muhammadu Buhari’s extreme nepotism targeted against them, as well as the violent activities of land-grabbing Fulani militants masquerading as herdsmen. The Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, and Governor Nasir el-Rufai threatened to arrest Yerima and his cohorts. Some of the AYCF hoodlums even dared them to come. IGP Idris and el-Rufai barked but did not bite.

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Lagos: Just As I said!

 By Ochereome Nnanna

When strong presidential candidates of Igbo and Yoruba extractions, Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP, and Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, respectively, emerged from the primaries in the just concluded general elections 2023, I knew we were in for some trying times. I wrote on this several times. I warned that Lagos would be the worst hotbed of tensions.

*Peter Obi shakes hands with Bola Tinubu

While the tensions in other parts of the country would be political in nature, I reasoned that that of Lagos would be both political and ethnic. Some of the Yoruba elements would be programmed by desperate politicians who had lost the love of their people to beef the Igbo. The objective would be to unsettle the nationalistic Obidient Movement by stirring anti-Igbo sentiments in Lagos, and hopefully save Tinubu and his APC from losing power in the nation’s economic capital.

Wednesday, December 14, 2022

Caging A Nutcase Called Simon Ekpa

 By Ochereome Nnanna

There is a madman in Finland who has wittingly or unwittingly joined the enemies of the Igbo nation to destabilise the South-East. Reputed to be a Finnish national and an ex-soldier, the 37-year-old wears costumes depicting himself as an Igbo traditional ruler (or native doctor, as some say).

He goes on You Tube and internet radio to spew messages he believes portray him as the placeholder for the incarcerated leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. Kanu’s movement is committed to the peaceful separation of indigenous people from Nigeria through referendums.

Wednesday, November 9, 2022

Why Tinubu Is Cocky

 By Ochereome Nnanna

Of the three main political parties, only the All Progressives Congress, APC, has not openly flagged off its presidential campaign. The People’s Democratic Party, PDP, was the first to go in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, while the Labour Party, LP, got going in Lafia, Nasarawa State.

*Tinubu

LP’s Peter Obi is actively and openly marketing himself and soliciting for votes; so is PDP’s Atiku Abubakar, but with much less energy. Tinubu, on the other hand, has been very dodgy. He has only appeared once at a public forum whose atmospherics his party controlled to accommodate his physical and mental failings.

Even when he invited the who-is-who in the business world, he merely read from a prepared speech and could not take questions from his audience. He left his hangers-on to answer them for him while he became part of the audience. Even before becoming president, Tinubu is already showing he will rule by proxy or cabal. He will not lead from the front. 

Thursday, November 3, 2022

Living With Lagos Agberos

 By Ochereome Nnanna

Touting at the motor parks is a nationwide phenomenon. It was originally a group of largely uneducated young ruffians who clustered around the motor garages to work as commercial vehicle drivers, loaders and conductors. They later formed unions, notably the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, and the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria, RTEAN.

Fired up by drugs and alcohol, these hoodlums can do anything to make money. In Nigeria, the fiercest touts are found in Lagos, Oyo and Anambra states, which are great centres of road transport distributions. They are mostly known as agbero(“passenger carriers”, in Yoruba). Igbo also call them agboro which is just a corruption of the Yoruba word.

Wednesday, June 15, 2022

Tinubu’s Muslim/Muslim Ticket Obsession

 By Ochereome Nnanna

The chances are that, by the time you read this article, the major presidential candidates – Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC; and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP, would have announced their running mates.

*Bola Tinubu

Of the lot, Tinubu’s matter matters the most. From the distant past when he started developing interest in becoming the president of Nigeria, he has always postulated that a Muslim/Muslim ticket “can work; competence is all that matters”.

If “competence” is all that matters, why not just pick a fellow Yoruba; they also have their share of competent people. Why look for something in Sokoto when you can simply pick it from your Sokoto pocket? But hey, I perfectly understand his situation.