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.

2027 Presidency: Atiku’s Political Naivety Beggars Belief

 By Olu Fasan

Atiku Abubakar, former vice president, made his sixth attempt to become Nigeria’s president last year, 30 years after his first foray into presidential politics in 1993. He failed. However, God sparing his life, Atiku wants to make his seventh attempt in 2027, aged 80.

*Atiku 
Leaving aside the age for the moment, what does Atiku think will change in Nigeria’s political landscape in 2027 to make his putative seventh attempt different from his previous six attempts? Simply put, nothing! We are students of our own experience after the event. But Atiku seems to have learned nothing from his past failed presidential bids.

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.

Candidates Must Honour Presidential Town Halls And Debates

 By Benedicta Egbo

On Sunday, November 6, Arise News held the first of its presidential town hall series. While three presidential candidates, namely Peter Obi of the Labour Party, Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigerian People’s Party and Kola Abiola of Peoples Redemption Party honoured the invitation, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, was represented by his running mate and vice-presidential candidate, Ifeanyi Okowa, which caused a mild drama at the event.

The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was absent. This is, of course, a familiar pattern with the major political parties, and it smacks of disrespect for Nigerians and the office they seek to occupy. The 2019 election cycle saw the same pattern of behaviour among some members of the political class. Apparently, the leopard never changes its spots.  There are two possible reasons that could make presidential candidates absent themselves from town halls and televised debates.

Femi Fani-Kayode, Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB And Other Victims Of Oppression

By Jude Ndukwe

 I read with derision the infantile missive of one Churchill Okonkwo which he mischievously titled “FFK Stabbed Nnamdi Kanu, Betrayed IPOB and Kissed Kwankwaso” which was published in Sahara Reporters of August 3, 2018. It is unfortunate that in attempt to score cheap points, use FFK’s famous name to climb to momentary limelight and satisfy his paymasters, Churchill vitiated the seriousness of the struggle of IPOB and reduced it to mere politics out of the need to satisfy his hirers.

*Nnamdi Kanu and Femi Fani-Kayode 

  I would have ignored him but then on a second thought, what does it take to enlighten an ignoramus of Churchill’s status. Let me start by making it clear from the outset that IPOB’s struggle is not hatred for the Fulani, it will amount to reducing the noble struggle of IPOB for freedom and justice to hatred for the Fulani or any other tribe for that matter just like Churchill alluded to in that unfortunate essay of his.

Gale Of Defections And The Buhari Factor

By Sufuyan Ojeifo

The coming together of political forces of the oppositional hue in the build-up to the 2015 general election portended a grave danger for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In any case, the behemoth, which the PDP typified at the time, had imprudently and lightly treated the ill-omened development and paid dearly for it.

*President Buhari 

The PDP was brought down in prostrate surrender to the supremacy of the rainbow coalition of opposition parties that formed the All Progressives Congress (APC) on which platform Muhammadu Buhari clinched his historic victory over Goodluck Jonathan. That defeat of an incumbent president was novel in the annals of the nation’s presidential elections. 

The Myth About Buhari’s 12 Million Northern Votes

By Sufuyan Ojeifo

Short of saying, whether you vote or not, we will win, Kano state governor, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, who is locked in a supremacy battle with his erstwhile boss, former governor of the state and current senator, Rabiu Kwankwaso, for the political soul of Kano, was boasting, the other day, of his capacity to mobilise and return five million votes for President Muhammadu Buhari, if he contests, in the 2019 presidential election. That is quite massive in a situation where it is realistic or doable! 

*President Buhari 

For me, Ganduje’s declaration was nothing but a day-dream. But then, it could be preparatory to some advanced forms of rigging because, in the first instance, the figure of registered voters in Kano in the 2015 general elections was 4,943,862. Assuming, arguendo, that the figure goes up to between five and six million after the continuous voter registration, can the governor guarantee that five million voters would cast their votes for Buhari, especially if the leading opposition party decides to field a formidable northerner and possibly a Fulani man against the president? 

Adamawa: Travails of An Anti-corruption Lawmaker

Maliki Salaudeen

To say that President Muhammadu Buhari came to power on the wings of his anti-corruption credentials is simply stating the obvious. And that the All Progressive Congress (APC) party swept majority of the governorship seats on account of the change mantra of the party is equally not contestable. What is however a subject of contention is whether some of the party’s governors are still on the same page with the president in his avowed determination to clean the nation’s Augean stable.

* Jibrila Mohammadu Bindow

Today, in Adamawa State, a cruel drama of sorts is currently playing out, which if not urgently nipped in the bud, has all the potentials of negating President Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade. What makes the entire scenario alarmingly worrisome is the fact that the state is being governed by an APC governor, Sen. Bindow Umar Jibrila.

Allegations are rife in the state that the governor is currently pilfering the resources of the state with abominable perfidy under the guise of executing sundry projects, a development  Abdurrahman Abubakar Isa, a member representing Mubi South constituency in the State House of Assembly, has been vehemently kicking against, which in turn has drawn the ire of the governor. For his insistence that things be done in a proper manner in line with the twin principles of transparency and accountability, Abubakar Isa is today being barbecued on a smoldering fire of victimization.

The genesis of the current face-off between the governor and Isa stemmed from the former’s submission of a document dated 28th October, 2015 to the State House of Assembly titled ‘’Re-Submission of Detail Areas of Virement in the 2015 Revised Budget’’, which in reality was a request for new capital projects and not projects already contained in the earlier Appropriation Law. This did not go down well with Isa, who happened to be the Chairman of the House Committee on Finance, Budget and Appropriation, as he rightly insisted that ‘’the only way new projects can be captured in the budget after passage of the Appropriation Law is by a supplementary appropriation bill duly passed by the House’’.

Buhari, Nigeria Is Your Constituency

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

I am an advocate of merit. I believe that part of the problem of the country is that we have perfected putting square pegs in round holes. We sacrifice excellence on the altar of primordial mawkishness and nepotism with disastrous consequences.

I refrained from commenting before now on President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointments which favour the North more than the South because I thought it was too early to start reading meanings into his actions.

His critics allege that there is a tinge of clannishness in all his appointments. These allegations are not new. He failed in his earlier attempts to become the chief tenant of Aso Rock because of the perception that he has a mindset that is not nationally inclined.

Many Nigerians, particularly those from the South, distrusted Buhari. He is perceived to be too cliquish, narrow and insular in his worldview despite his military background.