Why Akume And Ortom Should Shut-Up!

By Comfort Obi

Former Governor of Benue state and now, the Senator representing Benue North-West Senatorial District, George Akume and, the incumbent Benue state Governor, Samuel Ortom are disgracefully tearing at each other. 

*Comfort Obi

In the face of the sufferings of Benue people – economic, physical, emotional – Akume and Ortom are dancing naked in the market square. They are telling the people why both of them should be spat on the face. The irony: Both see themselves as leaders of their people.

My sincere advice to them: Shut-up and hide your faces in shame! While Benue is burning, you are playing Rome’s Nero.

President Buhari Has Failed Nigerians – US

The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) said outcome of research it conducted across states in Nigeria revealed that most Nigerians believe that the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has failed to meet their expectations since coming to power on May 29, 2015.

*Presidents Buhari and Trump

The report also predicted an upsurge in electoral violence and voter apathy during the 2019 general elections.

The report entitled, ‘Nigeria’s 2019 Elections: Change, Continuity and the Risk to Peace’, is a presentation of USIP’s electoral violence risk assessment research which was arrived at after interviews conducted in some selected states across the country.

When What We Eat Turns Poisonous!

By Kayode Ojewale

“Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food.”

– Hippocrates (460 – 370BC), Greek Doctor.

Audu Ogbeh, agriculture minister, sometime ago in a piece published by a national daily titled, ‘Nigeria, Global Standard In Food Production And Trade,’ wrote “What you eat, if you eat well, will determine your state of health and your longevity as a human being.

Unfortunately, most of the time nowadays, we are actually eating poison because of the way we handle our food production.  From the seed we cultivate, to the fertilizer we use, to the chemical we spray, to the way we process the food, or even preserve the food, or package the food, we are determining whether we are eating well or eating badly.”

Dear President Buhari, Please Look In The Mirror

By SKC Ogbonnia
Dear Mr. President,
I am beginning with an Igbo proverb which says that a heedless lizard falling from a tall palm tree typically wrestles to clutch at any available straw on its path before its imminent crash. My father also never fails to tell me that a habit of excuse is the best friend of failure. Nowhere are these sayings more manifest than the case of your presidency.

*Buhari 

Today, the general view is that you are at it again, trying so desperately to cling on to another excuse to avoid responsibility for the crises that have befallen our great party, the All Progressive Congress (APC) and, by consequence, the entire Nigeria.

Why Nigeria Under Buhari Is World Headquarters For Extreme Poverty

By Reno Omokri

On Wednesday the 29th of August, 2018, British Prime Minister, Theresa May, visited Nigeria with a plane full of business people to help Britain make money in Nigeria. So meticulously choreographed was her visit, that she came with businessmen and women that sold or manufactured every item you could imagine from air fresheners to Scotch whiskey.

*Buhari 

Mrs May, who I met twice last year, demonstrated the main thrust of her visit by travelling with David Schwimmer, the Chief Executive of the London Stock Exchange. Her entourage to Nigeria was chockfull of business and industry folk and very lean on civil servants and politicians. In fact, only two members of her cabinet joined her on her African trip. If there was any spare space on the Royal Airforce Jet that flew her to Africa, that space was reserved for people who could bring jobs and capital to Britain.

Presidents’ Health: Missed Opportunities For Nigeria’s Health

By Sam Ohuabunwa

I believe that I am not alone in feeling distressed about the situation of healthcare in Nigeria. Everywhere you look, the problems stare you on the face.

In the public health care space, you face poor infrastructure, old or inoperative equipment and generally, poor attitude. 

*Buhari 

Even skill and competency levels are often suspect. If you have taken a seriously ill patient to our public health facilities – primary, secondary or tertiary institutions, you will know that many more people are healed by faith in Nigeria than by medical care. If you go to the private healthcare institutions, may be infrastructure and equipment may be better, attitude and skills are subject to national averages.

What Happened To APC Report On Federalism?

By Martins Oloja

As politicians are jostling to secure their positions within #PROJECT2019, defecting to different parties in pursuit of relevance for only themselves, subordinating the sanctity of the rule of law to personal interests, perfecting how to truncate press freedom, we need to ask political leaders in the governing party what they want to do with the most important document they produced and made public in January this year: ‘Report of The APC Committee on True Federalism’.

*Buhari and el-Rufai 

 I am fully persuaded that it is public interest to ask about this all-important document and failure to be genuine about how to implement the contents before next year’s election may undermine national security too. And here is the thing, those who always afraid of the hard questions in the governing APC, should not regard this question on what they want to do with their report as a political question: It is a question on nation building and the future of the world’s most populous black nation, Nigeria.

Why Nigeria Needs To Be Re-Structured

By Atiku Abubakar

In a recent interaction in the United States, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo asserted that the “problem with our country is not a matter of restructuring…and we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into the argument that our problems stem from some geographic re-structuring”.

*Atiku

It is a surprise that the Vice President would take such a position and, in particular, fail to appreciate the connection between Nigeria’s defective structure and its underperformance. 

Nigeria: Beware The Ides Of March

By Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie

“Beware the Ides of March,” said the soothsayer to Julius Caesar in William Shakespeare’s famous play Julius Caesar. In those words, Caesar was given an alert about his imminent assassination in the hands of Roman politicians, among whom was his friend Brutus. Approaching another year of elections, this admonition has become frightfully pertinent.

*Cardinal Okogie

For what is being witnessed looks like a reenactment of the Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. In this reenactment, Julius Caesar would represent Nigeria, the Roman politicians who plotted his assassination would represent the average Nigerian politician, with Brutus, the politician pretending to be Caesar’s friend, representing politicians who, in their diabolically deadly intrigues, pretend to love Nigeria, but are actually plotting her descent into bloody disintegration.

President Buhari And His Lifeless Presidency

By Adebayo Raphael

Since the beginning of Nigeria's fourth republic in 1999, the present administration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) led by President Muhammadu Buhari is unarguably the worst. The failure of the incumbent administration to live up to expectations, within and outside Nigeria, relegates every measure of the towering hope that welcomed it. 

*President Buhari 

The current president of Nigeria has consistently proved to the world that he is undeserving of leading this magnificent country of 180 million extraordinary people imbued with unimaginable potential. The Nigeria that our current president projects in the world, is a backward, ignorant, antiquated, unalluring, visionless, confused, unimaginative rudderless country. At different times when president Buhari has had the opportunity to blisteringly fly the flags of Nigeria before the world, he unabashedly sullied it instead. 

Why Nigeria’s Economic Recovery Is Slowing Down

By Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa

Ordinarily there should be so much going for Nigeria’s economy. Production of crude oil at about 2 million barrels per day at a good price of about 70 dollars per barrel is yielding good foreign exchange for the Nation, helping to boost foreign reserves which today stand at about 47.25 Billion dollars. Inflation has continued to decline steadily over several months coming to the current level of 11.4% as the CBN and its MPC retain monetary policy index at a tight stance.

*President Buhari and Finance Minister Adeosun 

 Also some great effort is being made at the economic management level to pursue the Nigeria Economic Recovery and Growth   plan( NERGP). Additionally, some improved liquidity has been noticed in terms of funding Nigeria’s infrastructure projects, combining oil revenue,tax heist with a large dose of debt from sundry sources.

Nigeria: The Wretched Of The Earth

By Yakubu Mohammed

Her birth may not have been miraculous. At least not as miraculous as the birth of Jesus Christ, the story of which event is both elegantly and breathtakingly narrated in the Qur’an and the Bible.

Something, neither divine nor spectacularly prophetic, must have decided her parents to christen her Miracle, this Edo State current wonder. Miracle Johnson is currently in the news. But not for any divine reason or some earth shaking accomplishments.

A Distress Call From Ghana

By Reuben Abati

I got a frantic call from Ghana the other day. It was from Lillian. The Ghanaian authorities were shutting down shops belonging to Nigerian traders at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra. The Inter-Governmental Task Force set up by the Government of Ghana to regulate retail trade had arrested about 50 Nigerians. Many of them were detained.

 “The situation is not good at all, someone needs to come to their rescue,” she said. 

This is not a new matter. Across Africa, the Nigerian trader is often resented by the local population, on the grounds that Nigerians are either taking over their businesses or their women. But the reported attack on Nigerians in Ghana is most disturbing. Both countries share many affinities: historical, cultural, political and social. Nigerians love to go to Ghana. It is less than an hour away by air and it is a stable, organised society. 

Between Rotimi Amaechi and Godswill Akpabio

By Abraham Ogbodo

My task today is to compare and contrast two illustrious sons of the Niger Delta Region. They are Rotimi Amaechi and Godswill Akpabio. Maybe I shouldn’t have added ‘’illustrious’’ because they have illustrated very little outside self-aggrandizement.

*Amaechi and Akpabio 

Amaechi literally came from nowhere to become so rich and powerful. Before 1999, his entire life and livelihood had been defined by Dr. Peter Odili, who was Rivers State governor between 1999 and 2007 and owns Pamo Hospital where Amaechi had worked as a public relations officer before his astronomic rise to Speakership of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

Akpabio may be a little deeper, but I shall return to him presently.

Nigeria: Cattle Breeders' Audacity And The Rest Of Us!

By Ifeanyi Izeze

A strange thing is going on in our land while we all watch helplessly. How come Nigeria within a very short time has turned into a nation of absurdities? Can you imagine the level of steps Nigeria has taken aback? Miyetti Allah Cattle herders warning the President of one of the arms of government to resign or they will force him to resign. What impunity! What gut! My heart bleeds with tears for this country. Where is this country heading to?

Is Miyetti Allah now a registered political party in Nigeria? Is it not curious that this group seems to be reiterating the Saraki “must be removed by force” earlier vows by Adams Oshiomole and Omo-Agege? How long can we continue like this as a nation?

The Menace Of Summer Schools

By Hope Eghagha   

Summer school within the context of this essay refers to academic or semi-academic sessions which most private schools in Nigeria organise for crèche, primary school pupils and secondary school students during the long vacation. Outside its contextual reference are the JAMB preparatory schools or institutes organised for special topics during the long holidays between July and September every year when the new session starts.

My query is on the abuse of the concept by some school proprietors to the detriment of the health of kids, the overall well-being of teachers and the abdication of parental responsibilities. There is a great deal of economic exploitation, ignorance, vanity and outright irresponsibility. It further promotes the poor bonding between parents and their kids in their growing up years. As a parent I have never sent any of my kids to the so-called summer coaching. And by God’s providence they have all gone through university!  

2019: Tinubu Said He Would Support Buhari Even On A Hospital Stretcher – Saraki

"...However, during those meetings, the point of disagreement between Tinubu and I is that while I expressed my worries that there is nothing on ground to assure me that the administrative style and attitude would change in the next four years in a manner that will enable us to deliver the positive changes we promised to our people, he (Tinubu) expressed a strong opinion that he would rather 'support a Buhari on the hospital stretcher' to get a second term because in 2023, power will shift to the South-west. This viewpoint of Tinubu’s was not only expressed to me but to several of my colleagues. So much for acting in national interest..."

*Saraki and Tinubu 

-----------------------------

Full text of Saraki's Statement

The Tinubu Rhetoric: My Response

By Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki

I have always restrained from joining issues in the media with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and this is based on my respect for him. However, I will not allow him to create a wrong, false and mischievous impression about the reasons for my decision to exit the All Progressives Congress (APC) and present his prejudice as facts for public consumption.

I have been consistent in my complaints to all leaders of the APC, including Tinubu, that a situation where the National Assembly is not constructively engaged or carried along in key policy decisions, particularly those that will eventually require legislative approval, is not in the best interest of the nation. No genuine leader of the legislature will be comfortable that the Presidency will simply write a terse letter to the National Assembly on key issues which the federal legislature is expected to later deliberate upon and give its approval. The Buhari administration consistently treats the legislature with contempt and acts as if the lawmaking body should be an appendage of the Executive. To me, this is unacceptable.

In Nigeria Truth Is A Distraction

By Eugene Onyeabo Aligbe

In May 2018, the Nigerian airwaves were awash with musical lyrics from Folarin Falana, popularly called Falz. Some persons could not accept the obvious truth in the song that there was a dent on the image of Nigeria and by extension every citizen of Nigeria.

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) in their reaction threatened to slam a law suit on the musician, Falz for his song titled, “This is Nigeria; Where Everyone is a Criminal”.   At first, many people tongue lashed Falz for not being a patriotic Nigerian despite being the son of a frontline legal luminary, Femi Falana (SAN). They argued that as a Nigerian, no matter the situation, we should be patriotic even if things are not working as expected. Ideally, being patriotic, is a duty for every citizen to uphold social justice, stand firm against the ills in the land at all times.

Oshiomhole Is Making Saraki Popular!

By Ifeanyi Izeze

Hitherto, we all thought that the former Edo state governor had some quality stuffs upstairs but in less than two months of being incorporated into the national politics from his little labour and Edo state enclaves, he has quickly shown that he lacks the capacity to think deep and plan strategically on issues especially as concerns engagement strategies against political adversaries-real and perceived.

*Oshiomhole greets Saraki

With every pronouncement, action, and even body language, Adams Oshiomole, the newly enthroned National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress party (APC) displays himself as a big mistake for the Buhari political strategists. The man seems power drunk or at best in a hurry to prove something that he has not. Does Oshiomole not know that majority of the ordinary Nigerian people would rather go in support of anyone perceived to be victimized by the government whether state or federal? If you like don’t believe this but that is the absolute truth of how the psyche of the Nigerian electorate works.

Nigeria: Democracy In Trouble

By Raymond Oise-Oghaede

The fact that democracy is the most vibrant and progressive system of governance in today's global politics is indisputable. Little wonder why our nationalist and political leaders toiled day and night to ensure its sustenance since the attainment of independence in 1960. Unfortunately, due to mismanagement, the polity was plunged into crises which consequently gave birth to military intervention in 1966. 

Thence, the country experienced unstable democratic rule until 1999 when the present disposition was installed after much resilience and unquantifiable human and material sacrifices. Since 1999 to date, the country has witnessed over 19 years of uninterrupted democratic governance. This feat was made possible by the show of understanding by the citizenry which unpopularised the politics of tribal and religious bigotry.