Why Tinubu Should Listen To Our Elder Statesmen

 By Nick Dazang

Apart from an army of voluble commentators holding successive governments to account and speaking truths to them in the most parliamentary and patrician fashion, Nigeria is blessed with scores of irrepressible elder statesmen.

*Tinubu

Whenever matters come to a head and Nigeria teeters at the brink of precipice, these statesmen weigh in with their thoughts. They intervene by way of statements or well calibrated pronouncements. Sometimes they do so by authoring scathing epistles. Some of these statesmen, such as Chiefs Gani Fawehinmi and Anthony Enahoro and Dr. Tai Solarin have departed this sinful world.

Bayo Onanuga’s Slimy Mud-Bath

 By Ochereome Nnanna

For his own purposes, President Bola Tinubu had delayed the appointment of Bayo Onanuga as one of his spokesmen. Ajuri Ngelale, broadcast journalist and Ogoni chief, was presented to give Tinubu’s media office a handsome, though unsmiling face.

*Peter Obi 

Many commentators were relieved that elements like Bayo Onanuga, Dele Alake and Festus Keyamo would not be brought to irritate the nerves of decent Nigerians with their tawdry, noisy and cheap propaganda antics which we saw during the campaigns for the 2023 general elections in Tinubu’s camp. This feeling was further reinforced when Alake was posted to the Solid Minerals Ministry and Keyamo taken to Aviation.

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.

Afenifere: Truth Is Constant

 By Sola Ebiseni

From the wisdom-pool of ancient Yoruba philosophy is the eternal word of admonition that “a ò rí irú eléyi ri, a fi nderu ba olórò ni”, which may simply translate that no occurrence no matter how bizarre it may seem or exaggerated to frighten a victim can be deemed as never seen or happened before. In the similar words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun”.

*Adebanjo 

In all occurrences in our land, after a deep introspection rooted in humanity in general and more particularly delineated by the history of our country and its unforgettable heroes, I have, like Balam, chosen to live by and for the truth that I may die the death of the righteous and my end might like his be.

Peter Obi: Proving Possibility Of A New Nigeria

 By Ike Chioke

When the storm of this general election is over, we shall be left with a few lessons. One is, never underestimate the will of a determined people. The other is, when the shepherd is ready, the flock will appear. 

*Peter Obi 

Indeed, people, who study politics and societies in transition, will find a fascinating new model in Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate. In a continent wracked sore by leadership challenges, Obi’s emergence represents a rupture in the dynamics of power and the socio-cultural alignments of the Nigerian society. Never has an outsider from the power calculus staged such a storm-trooping stunt in Nigeria’s political history. This is a watershed in our political memory.

Obi And Soldiers Of Conscience

 By Jideofor Chukwuemeka

After several years of trials with the democratic order without significant progress in all indices of development, Nigeria is yet at another trajectory. Another general election is around the corner. And the kind of leadership choices the electorate makes will determine whether the country will mark a sharp departure from its sordid past or continue with a dismal and decadent order that is sliding to the brink.

*Peter Obi mobbed by admirers in Delta State 

 

Though there appears a wide gamut of consensus that the coming elections yet provide a defining opportunity for this country to get its acts right, those who hitherto profited from the old order seem not keen in having that be.

Before the emergence of the presidential candidates of the political parties, issues of competence in grappling with the worsening economic situation and power rotation had dominated political discourse.

Afenifere: All’s Well That Ends Well

 By Sola Ebiseni 

It takes discerning spirit to see the unequalled blessings to the Afenifere from what ordinary folks see as crisis from the recent gathering in Akure. To start  with, it is apposite to say and as revealed in his interview with the Sunday Punch of November 6, that the meeting was conveyed by Dare Babarinsa and Otunba Kole Omololu through the ‘Conscience of the Yoruba Nation’,  a WhatsApp Group administered by the latter who incidentally is the National Organising Secretary of Afenifere.

Chief Ebiseni 

The invitation which was on the letterhead of the group and now in circulation on social media, was said to be a meeting with the leadership of the Yoruba nation “to discuss the historic 2023 General election and take a definite and wise decision” and also with “one of the leading candidates,  Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu”, within a specified two hours duration of 11 am to 1.pm.