2023 Elections And Future Of Nigeria’s Democracy

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

The 2023 elections will be consequential. Though six months away and campaigns yet to be officially flagged off, politicians are already crisscrossing the length and breadth of the country, shadowboxing their way through all manner of policy disputes. They are making a show of tackling the myriad problems the post-Buhari era will present, while avoiding any direct engagement with opponents.

The elections will be consequential because Nigeria is at a crossroads, haunted by demons many thought had been long exorcised. Seven years of the Muhammadu Buhari presidency has brought out the worst in Nigerians. Ironically, while this self-inflicted leadership crisis and the uprising it has engendered is bringing out the beast in us, as the late Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, noted in his epic song, “Beast of No Nation”, it has also re-ignited the hitherto dimming Nigeria’s democracy candle light.

You Can Go Now Mr President!

*Buhari

By Dele Sobowale

“I am eager to go. I can tell you, it has been tough. I am grateful to God that people appreciate the personal sacrifices we have been making. I wish the person after me the very best” – President Buhari, Monday, July 11, 2022.

If that was a joke, Buhari, Public Servant Number 1, should know that, we are not amused. On the contrary, most Nigerians, his employers, take the entire statement as an insult from a servant who served so badly, those of us who, at first, believed in him, will spend the rest of our lives regretting we ever committed such a colossal blunder.

Despite knowing him to be a northern Fulani Muslim and sympathizer of Islamic fundamentalists, I worked tirelessly for his election in 2011 and 2015. To be quite honest, I was persuaded that the man had changed by the late Prince Tony Momoh – who was the Chairman of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, which Buhari led to defeat in 2011. I repeatedly asked Momoh if he was certain about Buhari; and received an affirmative response.

Nigeria: Kuje Prison Down, Is Aso Rock Next?

 By Dele Sobowale

“I am disappointed with the intelligence system. How can terrorists organise, have weapons, attack a security installation and get away with it? I am expecting a comprehensive report on this shocking incident.” 

(President Buhari, at Kuje Prison, Abuja, July 5, 2022). 

Man proposes; God disposes. I planned a different article for today, titled, “Emilokan Brought Us Buhari And Anarchy” – a comprehensive catalogue of all terrorist activities for the month of June. But my colleague, Nnamdi Ojiego, had done a better job by publishing a more comprehensive report from May 1, 2022, in Sunday Vanguard of July 10, 2022, on page 24.

I challenge anyone who is not a candidate for a mental hospital to read Ojiego’s article without feeling that anarchy is definitely here. There was no single day in June 2022 when killings, kidnapping and mob violence by hoodlums and Fulani herdsmen were not reported. Katsina, Buhari’s state, was among the worst four. If you still have any doubt that the All Progressives Congress, APC, and President Buhari have brought us into pure anarchy, then the two attacks occurring on the same day should get your brain working – if you have any. 

Nigeria Is Very Sick And Urgently Needs A Qualified Physician!

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
President Buhari’s regime has about a year to hit its expiration point. Perhaps, the only thing that still retains the capacity to squeeze out some smiles on a couple of faces today is the faint hope that the president might fulfill his pledge to firmly resist the deadly attraction of that poisoned fruit called “tenure elongation.” Indeed, many Nigerians are willing to take the risk of entertaining some optimism about this. 

Despite the blizzard of outrageous claims roughly thrown at Nigerians every other day, it has become just impossible to muster any bit of expectation that the Buhari regime might still be able to shock Nigerians with any edifying impact on their lives before it exits.  

Perhaps, the only reassuring feeling out there emanates from the palpable wish that the days and months might develop wings and fly away so fast so that with brightened faces and deep relief, Nigerians can happily embrace and congratulate one another that, eventually, the nightmare is over. 

The relief alone will be highly therapeutic, in fact, capable of increasing many lifespans. 

The Blood Of Deborah Cries For Justice!

 By Rotimi Fasan

In 1989 the Iranian spiritual and revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeni, issued a fatwa that was to be executed by any Muslim anywhere in the world on the Indian-born British novelist, Salman Rushdie, following the publication of his book, The Satanic Verses, which some Muslims considered blasphemous.

*Deborah Yakubu Samuel 

Not only did the British government and other Western powers at the time rise up in defence of Rushdie’s right of free expression, these countries were very unambiguous about the extent they were prepared to go to defend the right of just one man who was not even a Christian to say nothing of being White to hold personal views of religion and religious figures no matter how obnoxious.

The Conspiracy In Sokoto

 By Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa

There is need for genuine reconciliation in this matter.  

The criminal charge Criminal Conspiracy and Inciting Public Disturbance as framed by the Sokoto State Government against hardened murderers is an insult to the sensibilities of the parents of the deceased, the people of Nigeria and God who created Deborah.

* Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa

This crime took place in an enlightened environment in a higher institution, under the watch of security men, who were said to have been overpowered. 

It all started from a WhatsApp group, which has identified leaders. There are students who sent messages and threats of death on that platform. Their phone numbers are registered with NIN identification. They belong to a class in the school so they are known individuals. 

Slavery In Mauritania And The Shame Of A Continent

 By Osmund Agbo

In November 2017, the world watched in utter disbelief, some cringed-worthy footage aired by CNN where dozens of men in detention facilities were being auctioned off for as little as $400 each in Libya. If you think that was a fluke, the crew was also told of the existence of similar auctions taking place at nine other locations in the country.

The victims? People that look like me that belong in the melanin-rich subset of Africans. The traffickers were our brothers, a shade or two lighter from the north. But that’s just a tip of the proverbial iceberg. Slavery is alive and thriving in Africa by Africans.

What if I tell you that the last country in the whole wide world to outlaw slavery is a country in the continent of Africa. Yes, that is Mauritania, in 1981. To put it in perspective, that was some 116 years after the US Congress ratified the 13th amendment which stated that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.”

Nigeria: The Dilemma Of The North

 By Sola Ebiseni

In spite of the undeniable clear identity of the Middle Belt and its incomparable gargantuan geographical space, those who still fantasise the old monolithic North would not budge. They keep wallowing in the preservation of the North and would not agree that the empire the British helped them create have long served its useful purpose.

The empire is in a constant state of flux either from the exigencies of statecraft which ensure its fragmentation in state creation or the unchecked influx of tribes of all nations in common brotherhood bound either by religion or cultural occupation which puts the earth and its fullness at the unpartitioned disposal of all. In that situation, it requires no research into history to acquire citizenship.

Nigeria: Political Class Is Eating Our Tomorrow!

  

*Senate President Lawan, President Buhari, Speaker Gbajabiamila

By Paul Odili

Society grows when leaders plant trees whose shade they may never sit under — Greek Proverb 

This tirade speaks for itself. The  political class in Nigeria has not demonstrated competence; it has no sense of national mission, ideology and, or commitment. It takes the people of Nigeria for granted. It assumes that the people can be bought and manipulated and that it has the tools of how to do this.

It has gotten away with great misplacement of goals because, so far, it has not been taught a lesson by the people, and has, therefore, become hubristic. In this regard, Nigerians are advised to regard with strong skepticism signs of intelligence, humility or piety by the political class. They are not to be trusted. 

Nigeria: Political Class Is Eating Our Tomorrow

 
*Senate President Lawan, President Buhari, Speaker Gbajabiamila

By Paul Odili

Society grows when leaders plant trees whose shade they may never sit under — Greek Proverb 

This tirade speaks for itself. The  political class in Nigeria has not demonstrated competence; it has no sense of national mission, ideology and, or commitment. It takes the people of Nigeria for granted. It assumes that the people can be bought and manipulated and that it has the tools of how to do this.

It has gotten away with great misplacement of goals because, so far, it has not been taught a lesson by the people, and has, therefore, become hubristic. In this regard,Nigerians are advised to regard with strong skepticism signs of intelligence, humility or piety by the political class. They are not to be trusted. 

Nigeria: Official Refusal To Declare Bandits As Terrorists

 By Femi Falana

It is public knowledge that the dangerous criminal elements who kidnapped the Chibok and Dapchi secondary school girls in the North-East Zone in 2014 and 2017 respectively were not referred to as bandits. They were called terrorists by the Federal Government and the media. The description was correct as the abductions carried out by the criminal elements were acts of terrorism.  

*Femi Falana 

But for reasons best known to the Federal Government the criminal elements who are currently involved in the brutal killing of innocent people and abduction of thousands of people including primary school pupils in the North-West Zone are called bandits and not terrorists. 

A few weeks ago, the so called bandits downed a fighter jet belonging to the Nigerian Air Force. Curiously, it was reported by the Federal Government and the media that the dastardly act was perpetrated by a gang of bandits.

Inspector General Of Police, Federal Govt And The South East

 By Kingsley Moghalu 

I am as disturbed by the general narrative against the Fulani, because of the failure of the Federal Government of Nigeria to secure our country from invading foreign terrorists – a failure that many Fulani & others in Northern Nigeria find as unconscionable as other Nigerians in the South – as I am with the Inspector-General of Police’s reported order to police to essentially violate human rights and engage in extra judicial killings in the Southeast under the guise of  “Operation Restore Peace” in the region against Biafra secessionist agitators.

*Buhari 

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) says President Buhari has ordered a “shoot at sight” against anyone carrying an AK-47 rifle illegally, ostensibly as a justification for his spurious orders regarding the Southeast. I’d like to know how many terrorist “herdsmen” in Nigeria have been “shot at sight” so far since the President’s reported order. A lack of commitment to a Nigeria based on the equality of every Nigerian and every part of Nigeria is the reason why there are very obvious double standards in security operations in Nigeria. This leads us to simplistic narratives that demonize ethnic groups at large, and to compare apples with oranges.

Nasir El Rufai And Wages Of Sin

by Yinka Odumakin  

The Nigerian Bar Association, in an audacious move and a very classic naming and shaming act, has withdrawn its invitation to Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, to speak at its conference following protests from some lawyers. 

The tweet on Thursday announcing the decision read, “The National Executive Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association at its ongoing meeting resolves that the invitation to the Kaduna State Governor, H.E. Nasir El-Rufai, by the 2020 Annual General Conference Planning committee be withdrawn and decision communicated to the Governor.” 

*Gov El Rufai and President Buhari 

A petition to stop the governor started by a lawyer, Usani Odum, had garnered over 3,150 signatures on Change. Org as of 4 pm on Thursday.            

In a separate letter titled, ‘Request to Withdraw the Offer of Platform at the 2020 Annual General Conference of the NBA to Mallam Nasir el-Rufai,’ addressed to the Chairman, Technical Committee on Conference Planning, NBA, Prof. Koyinsola Ajayi(SAN), some lawyers said the governor must not be allowed to speak at the conference. 

Nigeria: Wake Up, Sleeping Giant!

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

Tomorrow, May 29, 2020, is what used to be referred to in Nigeria as “Democracy Day,” but now it will only serve as the anniversary of President Muhammadu Buhari's regime and that of some state governors. It is usually a welcome excuse for great celebrations, chest-beating and wild claims about humongous achievements, many of which exist only in the imagination of the mostly failed leaders. 

*Nigeria Leaders: Jonathan, Obasanjo, Buhari

Even the term “Democracy Day” (which is now observed on June 12) is such an excruciating irony in a country where almost all the features that distinguish democratic societies have been brutally obliterated, leaving the populace continually trapped in destabilizing apprehension. 

There would, however, be no parties tomorrow. A hostile, dreaded   visitor called Coronavirus is town! Let’s hope, therefore, that the absence of bacchanals tomorrow will afford our leaders the conducive   atmosphere for deep, sober reflections, to determine whether they have merely added to the suffering and pain of the people or helped, even in some little way, to reduce them.             

If Nigeria is working, we will know! Those were the exact words of late Prof Chinua Achebe, Africa’s foremost writer and distinguished intellectual. In other words, the citizens do not need any bogus claims by government’s megaphones to realise that there is an improvement in their country’s economy because it will automatically translate to an enhancement in their lives.

Who Is Afraid Of Ezenwo Nyesom Wike?

By DAN AMOR

Within the entire gamut or canon of Ernest Hemingway's works – some seven novels, fifty odd short stories, a play, and several volumes of non-fiction — The Sun Also Rises, is something of a curious exception.

*Gov Wike 

Published in 1926 while Hemingway was still in his twenties and relatively unknown, it was his first serious attempt at a novel. Yet, in spite of the fact that it was to be followed by such overwhelming commercial successes as A Farewell to Arms (1929), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), The Old Man and The Sea (1952), most critics agree that The Sun Also Rises is one most wholly satisfying book. Here Hemingway indelibly fixed the narrative tone for his famous understated ironic prose style. And here he also made his first marked forays into an exploration of those themes that were to become his brand-mark as a writer and which were to occupy him throughout his writing career. The pragmatic ideal of grace under pressure, the working out of the Hemingway "code", the concept of style as a moral and ethical virtue, and the blunt belief or determination that some form of individual heroism was still possible in the increasingly mechanized and bureaucratic world of the twentieth century: these characteristic Hemingway notions deeply informed the structure of The Sun Also Rises.

June 12: Celebration Of Yoruba Triumphalism Or Righting Historical Wrong

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

My “June 12: I Still Remember” article last week elicited, expectedly, diverse responses. The annulment of the election and the consequent turmoil remain very emotive issues. What the responses prove most conclusively is that President Muhammadu Buhari remains a very polarising leader. And he profiteers from that. Sadly. I will come to that shortly.

*MKO Abiola

A quarter of a century after the annulment of that historic poll and 20 years after the death of the winner, Bashorun MKO Abiola, President Buhari sprang a political surprise on many penultimate week by declaring subsequent June 12 anniversaries Democracy Day and honouring Abiola with the highest national award – Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR).

My article, though an endorsement of the president’s action, was issue-specific as captured in the last paragraph which read:

How Rich Are The Super-Rich In Nigeria?

By Dan Amor

I think it was John Paul Getty, the American-born British billionaire, philanthropist and heir to oil industry fortune, who quipped, when asked how rich he was: “No one is really rich if he can count his money.” In Getty's days, anyone with one million British pounds (or even one million dollars) was rated as “rich” and anyone with more than five million pounds was “very rich”.

*Adenuga and Dangote

Above that and you were in the “super rich” category, and when you got above the fifty million pounds level, you rated as a “can't count”. Nelson Bunker Hunt, who with his brother inherited a fortune even greater than Getty's, was a “can't count” man before he tried to corner the silver market. Asked by a Senate Committee how much he was worth, he snapped, “Hell, if I knew that, I wouldn't be worth very much”.

President Buhari: Bye Bye To Anti-Corruption

Press Release

*Buhari 

Buhari: Bye Bye To Anti-Corruption

 War Says PDP 

The Letter by President Muhammadu Buhari which was read on the Floor of the Nigerian Senate on Tuesday, January 24, 2017, clearing the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir David Lawal has finally confirmed our earlier assertion that the ‘Anti-Corruption War’ of the APC led administration is a ruse; a witch-hunting mechanism to harass PDP members and perceived enemies of this administration.

It is no longer news that all those who are serving in the government of President Muhammadu Buhari or who are members of his Party, the All Progressive Congress (APC) within the last two years of his administration have all been cleared of any wrong doing; notwithstanding documentary and other incontrovertible evidences to the contrary. The Presidency in today’s dispensation is the ‘Judicial Clearing House’ issuing clean bill of health to all accused corrupt officials who are members of the APC and friends of the administration.

It is quite disturbing that the President cleared his SGF of wrong doing despite the weighty evidences of his “Grass-cutting abilities” uncovered by the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, implicating Babachir of complicity in the Award of Contract relating to the IDP Camp in Borno State amounting to over 200 million Naira.

It is more worrisome that Mr. President made light of the DSS Report which directly indicted the Acting Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu of several unwholesome and corrupt practices in the line of his duties. President Buhari saw nothing wrong in the Report but was quick to order the invasion of Judges homes in a Gestapo and commando-style following the Same DSS report. What a double standard! It appears that the APC led government is implementing two constitutions in Nigeria; one for the PDP and other opposition parties and their leaders while the other is for the Ruling Party, the APC and friends of this administration.

Again in 2016, General Tukur Buratai, Chief of Army Staff  was cleared of all accusations even with convincing evidence of owning choice properties in Dubai beyond his income; and also overwhelming evidence of misdeeds while serving as Director of Procurement in the last administration.

Hailers And Wailers: When Gullibility And Impunity Set To Derail Nigeria

By Israel A. Ebije
The present socio-political climate in Nigeria is replete with intense polarity, bordering on religion and ethnic underpinnings. No one is querying political affiliations or preference. Problem however is the extent of impunity and gullibility among Nigerians in passing judgment and or taking position of an advocate on issues or policies of national import.

President Buhari and Femi Adesina 

The 2015 election failed to do Nigeria under as expected but it has sorely affected our ethno-religious tolerance. It has further the exit of brotherhood, damaged the concept of collective aspiration, and emulsified the idea of peace and love among Nigerians. The political balkanization, constant victimizations and unyielding forces of hate have continued to erode the feeling of one Nigeria.

I cannot exhaust on the need for Nigerians to eschew bitterness and hate campaign along ethno-religious divides. The malignant ailment along cleavages ravages the nation like cancerous cell. Therefore, taking up camp for or against a person or an institution only distracts the present administration. It is indeed instructive to intimate that once we stop all the noise, embark on constructive critical opinion, Buhari led administration will gain speed.

Therefore, those who have pitched tents for President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) and former president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) have only showed how myopic they are in the affairs of growing a nation. These people create their own illusionary world where only their infantile underpinnings are of material worth for baseless arguments.

How can we grow a viable Nigeria when we have a fertile political ground to exhibit our hatred against each other? It has become crystal clear we cannot see anything good at the other side of the fence. We must avoid segregating Nigeria along “Buhari and Jonathan race”. The implication will definitely be grave. It will diminish the humanity in us, escalate hate and destroy our nationhood.

The divide is always between those for Jonathan and those for Buhari. Suddenly, nobody is on the side of Nigeria. The two struggling divides quickly forget that no region can politically govern the others without collaboration. Buhari became president functions effort of Christians and Muslims. Buhari's success or failure will therefore affect everybody regardless of cleavage.

Addressing issues of bad policy within the present “change helpers” has nothing to do with Buhari. Our problem as a country is sycophancy, gullibility and sentiments geared towards hate. Almost a year after the Buhari led administration took off, power generation hugged the floor at 0.00 megawatts, fuel scarcity at its abysmal peak. With the inherited dwindling fortunes of the crude, horrible exchange rate of between the Dollar and the Naira, Nigerians are faced with the worst economic situation in recent time.

Sharpeville, Nigeria

By Chuks Iloegbunam

There are two stories to jump off from:

1) Sharpeville, South Africa; March 21, 1960.

A group of between 5,000 and 10,000 people converged on the local police station in the township of Sharpeville, offering themselves up for arrest for not carrying their passbooks. The Sharpeville police were not completely unprepared for the demonstration, as they had already been forced to drive smaller groups of more militant activists away the previous night.

By 10:00, a large crowd had gathered, and the atmosphere was initially peaceful and festive. Fewer than 20 police officers were present in the station at the start of the protest. Later the crowd grew to about 20,000, and the mood was described as “ugly”, prompting about 130 police reinforcements, supported by four Saracen armoured personnel carriers. The police were armed with firearms, including Sten submachine guns and Lee-Enfield rifles. There was no evidence that anyone in the gathering was armed with anything other than rocks.

F-86 Sabre jets and Harvard Trainers approached to within a hundred feet of the ground, flying low over the crowd in an attempt to scatter it. The protestors responded by hurling a few stones and menacing the police barricades. Tear gas proved ineffectual, and policemen elected to repel these advances with their batons. At about 13:00 the police tried to arrest a protestor, resulting in a scuffle, and the crowd surged forward. The shooting began shortly thereafter. The official figure is that 69 people were killed, including 8 women and 10 children, and 180 injured, including 31 women and 19 children. Many were shot in the back as they turned to flee.” (Quoted from Wikipedia.)

*Herbert Ekwe-ekwe 

2) Onitsha; Aba, Nigeria; December 2015 – February 2016.

“The current orgy of massacres of Biafrans by the Nigerian occupation genocidist military, begun on Wednesday 2 December 2015 in Onicha, has continued unabated. On Wednesday 9 February 2016, the genocidists positioned in Aba, commercial city in southeast Biafra, shot dead 10 Biafrans attending a prayer session at the National High School, Aba, for the release of Nnamdi Kanu, freedom broadcaster of Radio Biafra and leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (Vanguard, Lagos, Friday 12 February 2016), illegally detained by the Nigerian regime in a secret police facility in Abuja since mid-October. Scores of other demonstrators were seriously wounded in the slaughter and several others seized and taken away by the genocidists. This massacre is the second within three weeks in Aba. On Monday 18 January 2016, another marauding genocidist corps gunned down eight peaceful Biafrans demonstrating for Nnamdi Kanu’s release and the restoration of Biafran independence (Vanguard, Lagos, Tuesday 19 January 2016).”

(Quoted from a report by Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe in http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/the-current-orgy-of-massacres-of.html )