Abati, Arise TV’s PR Show And Buhari’s Dementia

 By Farooq Kperogi 

That even the vaguest pretense to traditional watchdog journalism is in throes of death in Nigeria’s institutional news media was instantiated by the interview Arise TV’s crew had with Muhammadu Buhari last week. It was out and away a PR job that masqueraded as journalism.

*Buhari and the Arise TV Team
 

The questions were feeble, obvious follow-up prompts were ignored, the questioners were diffident, and the viewer is left scratching their head about what they had just watched. It was the journalistic equivalent of a bad circus. 

I am glad famous Punch columnist, Sonala Olumhense, clinically dissected the interview in his Sunday column and showed what a tragic professional theater the interview was. Even though I was initially inclined to comment on the poor quality of the conduct of the interview, I chose to cut the interviewers some slack because I thought managing to get reclusive and tight-lipped Buhari to talk after nearly six years of ignoring the domestic news media was praiseworthy. 

Gov Ambode, Stop Begging Tinubu!

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

If Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode feels being held hostage by his political godfather, he should blame no one but himself for how long his ordeal lasts. No, we are not lost in schadenfreude – gloatingly cavorting about over the political misfortune of Ambode as he is being hoisted by his own petard.

Rather, we are interested in the political fortune of Lagos, its development and the fact that Ambode is not confronted with a terminal crisis. It is within his power to end his predicament. 

*Tinubu and Ambode

Ambode has been chafing under this political affliction that he is not sure of how and when it would end because he has refused to look for a cure outside Bourdillon.

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?

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.

Invasion Of The National Assembly And Its Implications

By Henry C. Onyema

 Dear Nigerians, do we really understand the implications of the invasion of the National Assembly by the DSS? Can we reflect and understand that the soul of Nigeria is at stake?

*Saraki and Dogara 

To those politicos misusing our security agencies, please do not forget that the sword you wield to cut off your enemy’s head can slice off yours easily. A little history may help. Back in the 1960s, the almighty ruling Northern People’s Congress turned the army into its personal weapon of terror. It unleashed the army on political opponents. Unfortunately, among the commanders of operations to crack down on the Tiv were officers who got pissed off by the whole thing and turned their guns on the government on January 15 1966, namely Majors Adewale Ademoyega, Christian Anuforo and Timothy Onwuatuegwu. You think all those masked operatives are conscienceless robots?

Nigeria: Dancing Naked In The Market

By Sam Ohuabunwa

Those who are familiar with how madness begins to manifest in a person, will tell you that no man becomes mad in just one day. Madness follows a sequence. Of course psychiatrists and those who work in the mental health area can easily notice when a patient goes through the stages or sequence. But for the ordinary folks like us, we also sometimes notice this sequence more so when the subject is closely related to us. Signs of mental illness may start with the subject being unusually moody which could represent depression or in some cases the subject may become unusually aggressive and hyperactive called hyperactive disorder. 

If the subject is subjected to treatment at these early stages, psychiatrists tell us, the mental health can be corrected but if not, the situation could deteriorate. Soon the subject begins to neglect his personal hygiene and then may begin to speak incoherently similar to what is called psychotic disorder. I am told that even at this stage the situation can still be remedied if urgent medical attention is sought and the patient can be persuaded or compelled to take the prescribed medicines.

‘Redemption Songs For Buhari’s Presidency’

By Martins Oloja

In an ancient political plot captured by Shakespeare in his classic, Julius Caesar, a minor character, Artemidorus, prepares what he calls a caveat for Caesar. 

*Buhari

He reads the warning aloud that he (Caesar) may escape an evil plot by his friends and members of his ‘inner circle.’(Reading aloud from the letter) Artemidorus warns in clear terms:

“Caesar, beware of Brutus. Watch Cassius. Don’t go near Casca. Keep an eye on Cinna. Don’t trust Trebonius. Pay attention to Metellus Cimber. Denius Brutus doesn’t love you. You’ve wronged Caius Ligarius. These men all have one intention, and it’s directed against Caesar. If you aren’t immortal, watch those around you. A sense of security opens the door to conspiracy. I pray that the mighty gods defend you! Your friend, Artemidorus.”

So, Our Democracy Is Only Under Threat When DSS, Police Harass Senators?

By Fredrick Nwabufo

I have become flaccid to the unending drag drama at the national assembly. And I have lost erection for the routine executive-legislature dominatrix. The reason is that I am in a “fair weather” relationship with both parties.

In July, I raised my feeble voice against the police blockade of Senate President Bukola Saraki’s convoy. I did that principally because of his office. Saraki is only a tenant in that office; Nigerians are the landlord. We must protect our institutions regardless of the tenants who happen to find themselves there now. They will remain long after the present occupants have left the scene.

Nigeria, A Nation At War With Itself

By John Odeyemi

For the past couple of weeks, I have had the weirdest misfortune of listening to friends and former colleagues, people that I hold in high respect espousing ideas that I did not imagine any rational Nigerian would consider at this time. I have heard the incessant clamouring for PVCs – and for a while I thought they were referring to some plumbing device. On further inquiry, I came to understand that it has to do with the upcoming elections. 

*President Buhari 

I wonder how PVCs translates to electoral power when your votes are limited by the choices available to you. APC, PDP, are they not the same characters we ought to kick out of government? I am aligned with the position to suspend any absurd elections and call for a national referendum. The other insipid and malignant vituperation is the suggestion that President Muhammadu Buhari is fighting corruption and moving the country forward. 

APC Spokesman, Abdullahi, Dumps Party

*Bolaji Abdullahi

Despite denying that he has left the All Progressive Congress (APC) only a few hours ago, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Bolaji Abdullahi, has announced his resignation from the APC and the office he holds in the party.

He announced his decision today through his verified twitter handle:

“In view of recent political developments in the country and within the All Progressives Congress (APC), I have decided to resign my position as the National Publicity Secretary as well as my membership of the party with effect from today.

Nigeria: Buhari, Saraki And Politics Of Guns

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

While we cannot credit President Muhammadu Buhari with a transformative genius that has redounded to the citizens’ wellbeing, we must not ignore his masterstrokes in self-preservation. What we have been confronted with in the past three years is his craving for self-protection with its trappings of paranoia.

*President Buhari and Senator Saraki

Thus, beyond the need to punish crime no matter the station of life of the allegedly culpable, the alleged linkage of Senate President Bukola Saraki to armed robbers who raided banks and killed over 30 people in Offa, Kwara State seems an extension of the politics of Buhari’s self-survival.

Through his words and actions, Buhari has not concealed his prejudice that it is only from the executive arm of government flows a genuine desire for good governance that would improve the citizens’ lot. Buhari feels trammelled by the legislature and the judiciary. He is riled by the absence of military powers that could enable him to decree life or death in a democratic milieu. This was why he sought emergency powers that the legislature refused to grant him. 

2019 Election Sequence: Overriding President Buhari’s Veto

By Sufuyan Ojeifo

By writing to both chambers of the National Assembly to express his reservations about the Electoral Act 2010 Amendment Bill, President Muhammadu Buhari has  withheld his assent and cast doubt on the rationality of the lawmakers to review or amend the contentious provisions of the Act. What this means, in legislative parlance, is that the president has vetoed the bill. Consequently, the National Assembly is now in a position to override the veto  by two-thirds of its members at separate sittings.

*President Buhari and Senate President Saraki

There is no doubt that the nation is about to witness another executive-legislature face-off in constitution reviews, amendments of Acts of Parliament and lawmaking process where the executive arm of government feels its interest is threatened by the spirit and the letter of the proposed laws or amendments. To be sure, the National Assembly has performed its constitutional function in the circumstance to the dissatisfaction of the incumbent head of the executive arm.

President Buhari’s Disappointing Broadcast

By Ebun-olu Adegboruwa

Reading through the presidential broadcast, however, one cannot but express a sense of utter disappointment. This is a president who virtually sneaked out of Nigeria, who breached his own self-declaration of transparency, by keeping Nigerians in the dark for over 100 days, and in that process grinding the wheel of progress of the nation.

President Buhari 

Notwithstanding that the president took Nigerians for granted, he was not impeached, but rather Nigerians were offering prayers for his recovery, daily, only for him to return with a language of combat and insult, describing his own citizens as "irresponsible elements"!

There must just be something about the All Progressive Congress (APC) ruling government that detests truth and consistency. Whilst the president was away, his Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinabajo, translated our freedom of expression into hate speeches and terrorism and here is the president, few days thereafter, piling up hatred and animosity upon Nigerians, who are simply demanding restructuring, true federalism and dialogue, asking the president and his party, to fulfill their campaign promises.

Getting President Buhari Out Of Their Lives!

By Paul Onomuakpokpo  

A spectre of more protests against the continued stay of President Muhammadu Buhari in office hangs over the nation as the façade over his health status comes crashing down. In February this year, the government through its coercive security apparatuses was able to stop famous singer Innocent Idibia popularly known as Tuface from leading a protest against the poor governance that has blighted the citizens’ existence under the current government. Just as the government failed to stop the protest which took place without Tuface then, the prospect now of easily squelching the citizens’ expressions of their disenchantment with it is non-existent.

*President Buhari 

The citizens who are increasingly becoming disillusioned with the government of Buhari have refused to accept all governmental platitudes and intimidation. They have again taken to the streets to protest against Buhari. They are unequivocal about their grouse: Buhari should come back from London and effectively assume the reins of office or simply resign.

The citizens might have delayed these protests while hoping that governance and developments around the health of the president would take a turn for the better. But government officials have kept tantalising the citizens with the return of Buhari. But shortly after the excitement over the assurance of his return fizzles out, there is despondency as the citizens realise that they have been swindled again.

Saraki, Dogara And Corruption

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

Lest we miss a vital opportunity to reflect on the anti-corruption campaign, we must put the positions of Senate President Bukola Saraki and House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara on the inveterate plague in the proper perspective. It serves no good to the anti-corruption campaign and the nation’s development in the long run for their views to be dismissed in a huff simply because of a phalanx of allegations that have portrayed the duo and other members of the National Assembly as not immune from corruption.

 

*Saraki and Dogara 

Saraki is facing prosecution at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for corruption. The citizens are riled by other senators’ apparent complicity in the alleged sleaze of their leader because they have waited in vain for the lawmakers to evince a sense of moral repulsion against identifying with him whenever he goes to the tribunal or court over his case. Underpinning the outrage is that if they were not as corrupt as their leader why should they even allow him to preside over the affairs of the upper legislative chamber? Why not replace him and avoid him like a plague as long as the trial lasts? Also, Dogara has been accused of budget padding, a brand of corruption that reportedly entails the manipulation of a fiscal plan to the detriment of the wellbeing of the bulk of the citizens. But unlike the case of Saraki, the allegation of corruption against Dogara seems to be escaping from public consciousness.

Dogara and his colleagues have been able to squelch and banish the ex-chairman of the House of Representatives Appropriation Committee, Abdulmumin Jibrin, who made the allegation against him into political wilderness where he now flails, flounders and screams, striving to draw the citizens’ attention to the corruption in the lower legislative chamber. But nobody seems to hear him.

How Do I Rescue Nigeria, My Country?

By Dan Amor

I am first and foremost a Nigerian child. Then I am a depressed Nigerian youth. Depression obviously has its several roots: it is the doubtful protection which comes from not recognizing failure. It is the psychic burden of exhaustion, and it is also and very often, that discipline of the will or the ego which enables one to continue fighting, continue working, when one’s un-admitted emotion is panic.

And panic, it is, I think, which sits as the largest single sentiment in the heart of the collective members of my own generation. Today, I find myself in an overwhelmingly urban society, a distinctly urban creature. Thus, I am adequately informed of current developments in my country. I am anxious, angry, humorless, suspicious of my own society, apprehensive with relation to the future of my own country.

Quixotic, yet optimistic, I am on the prowl for the immediate and remote causes of our national predicament. My nostrils fairly quiver for the stench of some injustice I can sally forth to condemn. Devoid of any feeling for the real delineation of function and responsibility, I find all the ills of my country, real or fancied, pressing on my conscience. Not lacking in courage, I am prepared, in fact, to charge any number of windmills.

But in so doing, I am often aggressive and unapologetically critical of my own society, critical of what I need to live by, critical sometimes of God’s own choice of creating me a Nigerian. You may wish to call me names. But do not call me a crank or an eccentric. For, on a very rough and ready basis, you may well see an eccentric as a man who is a law unto himself, and a crank as one who, having determined what the law is, insists on laying it down to others, like some dictator of many a black nation.

Nigeria’s House Of Greed

By Paul Onomuakpokpo   

What is insufferably scandalous about the Nigerian condition is that the more it appears we are on the cusp of effectively routing a debilitating menace plaguing the nation, the more in reality, it becomes deep-rooted.

Nowhere is this more obvious in contemporary Nigeria than the frenetic campaign against corruption. For over a year now, the nation has been regaled with the prospect of the inevitability of victory over corruption as long as at the head of the campaign against it is a  new breed of politicians. But it is clear now that the more the fetishisation of the fight against corruption dominates public consciousness, the more there are revelations of seamy dealings of our leaders that underscore the seeming irrevocable flight of probity from public offices.

House Speaker Yakubu Dogara and
Senate President Bukola Saraki

As though to mock the brutal focalisation of the past administration as the sole embodiment of corruption in the nation’s political experience,  we are now confronted with a situation where those who are the self-declared precursors of a corruption-free era are the ones who are now smeared with the miasma of corruption.

Think of the racking allegations of the members of the House of Representatives being responsible for a massive manipulation of the budget the point becomes clear. Of course, no one inveighs against the statutory right of the lawmakers to  tinker with the nation’s budget. But what has justifiably provoked the ire of the citizens is that such a discharge of a statutory obligation is by no means for the good of the citizens. It is solely for the interest of only a minority of the citizens – the lawmakers themselves.

To be sure, there is no deployment of a newfangled method by the lawmakers for the alleged perpetration of  corruption. For to a large extent, the purpose of seeking a public office in these climes, despite all pretentions to altruism, is simply the padding of budgets. There have only been accusations and counter-accusations because the deal has gone awry.

The Senate has protested its innocence as though such scandals could only be associated with the House of Representatives. Yet, the citizens are aware that the special new breed of  politicians that former Military President Ibrahim Babangida tried to mint through his endless  transition, and that the current dispensation is expected to sire remain elusive in the Nigerian political space. Thus, we remain saddled with politicians  who maim, kill,  forge birthday and educational certificates, sell their houses and borrow,  become cultists, fawn on unscrupulous benefactors and scramble for juicy committees not  because of the big  positive difference they would strive to use their offices to make but the  prospect of self-aggrandisement through padding.

Saraki: What Do Buhari’s Men Really Want?

By Jude Ndukwe 

Since Senator Bukola Saraki emerged president of the Senate on June 9, 2015, the Senate has been forced to carry out their legislative functions in an atmosphere of suppressed tension as managed by the current leadership of the upper chamber. But for the equanimity with which the senate president and his team have handled the political persecution visited on them by the executive and the cabal within the ruling party, the nation by now would have been in irreversible chaos.

*Buhari and Saraki

It is very rare in democracies like ours for the ruling and opposition parties in a legislative chamber to strike a harmonious chord to the extent that beyond election of their leaders, they both work together to ensure a smooth running of not only the senate but also the national assembly and the nation in general. They also have ensured that the usual rift that characterised the relationship between the executive and legislature has been reduced significantly if not removed entirely.

Even in times when distractions are absent, it is enough an arduous task to lead a senate peopled by high ranking Nigerians who come to the senate with the delicate complexities that precariously hold our nation together, not because they are cryonic or parochial, but because they all represent peoples with divergent identities, peculiar needs and expectations, not to talk of when the leadership of the senate has been hit with needless and relentless distractions of persecution engineered by those self-acclaimed godfathers and members of the cabal not only in the presidency but also in the ruling APC.

With Buhari’s style of governance, a lot of people who had their eyes on Nigeria’s till were disappointed. It is difficult reaching the till for self-gratification or reward for working hard for the party. However, the ingenuous ones among them who have always been ingenuous in doing what they know how to do best have since fashioned a new way of unfairly getting a share of our national cake.

How Buhari Is Harming The North And Nigeria

By Azuka Onwuka
With last week’s appointment of Mr Ibrahim Idris as the Acting Inspector-General of Police (bypassing 30 of his seniors), President Muhammadu Buhari further made the headship of virtually all the military-cum-defence agencies and related agencies which wear uniform a Northern affair.

*Buhari and Emir Sanusi of Kano

Records show the following:
Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai – North;
Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar – North;
Acting Inspector General of Police, Mr Ibrahim Idris – North;
Minister of Defence, Brig Gen (retd) Mansur Dan Ali – North;
National Security Adviser, Major Gen (retd.) Babagana Munguno – North;
Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr Ibrahim  Magu – North;
Director-General, Department of State Services, Mr Lawal Daura – North;
Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service, Col Hameed Ali (retd.) – North;
Comptroller-General, Nigerian Immigration Service, Mr Kure Abeshi – North;
Controller-General, Nigerian Prisons Service, Alhaji Ja’afaru Ahmed – North;
Commandant-General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Mr Abdullahi Muhammadu – North;
Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps, Brig Gen Sule Kazaure – North;
Comptroller-General of the Federal Fire Service , Mr Garba Anebi – North.
If it is recalled that the Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Damazzau (retd.), under whose ministry are Prisons Service, Immigration Service, Fire Service and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, is also from the North, then the Ministry of the Interior with its agencies is virtually controlled by the North in clear breach of the Federal Character policy enshrined in the constitution.

Furthermore, even though it was not Buhari that did it, yet for the first time in the history of Nigeria, all the three arms of government are headed by Northerners:  
Executive, President Muhammadu Buhari;
Legisture, Dr Bukola Saraki;
Judiciary, Justice Mahmud Mohammed.
In addition, the two arms of the legislature are headed by Northerners: Dr Bukola Saraki, Senate President, and Mr Yakubu Dogara, Speaker, House of Representatives.