Buhari And APC Are Corrupting Democracy!

 By Mike Ozekhome

The staggering sum of N100 million fixed by the APC NEC for its presidential nomination form has rightly sent shock waves of righteous indignation across the country.

The APC had fixed N30 million for the “expression of interest form” and N70 million for the “nomination form”, making a total of N100 million. The party hopes to rake in N1.5 billion from the 15 aspirants that have so far declared interest in the presidential race. By this singular act, the APC has shown a shocking insatiable bacchanalian propensity to corrupt democracy, and democratic ethos, and also scam the entire country.

*Buhari, APC Chairman Adamu and other party leaders

The vulgarity of this exercise lies not just in the abominable fee prescribed, but more in the party’s pretentious mantra of fighting corruption, using a well-orchestrated and carefully oiled Hitler’s Goebel’s propagandist machinery of dubious pedigree. It is the more abhorrent when we realize that this is miles apart from (indeed more than double) the price fixed by the party’s whipping child, the opposition PDP, which has fixed it at N40million (N5 million) for the nomination of interest; and N35 million for the nomination form. The N100m is also over 100% of the N40 million fixed by the same APC for 2018, presidential nomination form.

Nigeria: Understanding Restructuring Aright

By Arthur Agwuncha Nwankwo

Given the renewed momentum and calls for the restructuring of Nigeria, I am not surprised that it has dominated media headlines both in the one print and electronic media. Recently, I was watching and listening to a programme where the discussants dwelt extensively on the economy and what should be done. One thing that actually interested me was the various suggestions made by the panelists on how to move Nigeria out from the woods.

While the panellists were unanimous in their agreement that the economy has collapsed almost irretrievably, some of them recommended, as a way forward, that Nigerians should go back to the farms; others agreed that there is urgent need to restructure the country. Most of the discussants also dwelt extensively on the importance of restructuring. Even Vice President Yemi Osibanjo called in to make his position on restructuring known, though I find his explanation vague. 

But whether the Vice President agrees with restructuring or not, my happiness is that many highly placed Nigerians, both at home and in the Diaspora, who before now would hear nothing about restructuring the country, have become fiery apostles of restructuring. I have always known that we can never escape the route of restructuring because history is coterminous with the reality that restructuring is the only escape route for countries like Nigeria. In the past 35 years I have maintained this position.

However, it does appear that even when restructuring has become very trending today, many of the new apostles do not understand the full import of restructuring. I want to say for the umpteenth time, that what Nigeria needs now is not a back-to-land initiative (that is good in itself) but an urgent restructuring of the country. My worry actually, is the lackadaisical understanding of this process of restructuring, even by those we may regard as informed. 

Nigeria: Before Darkness Falls

By Julius Oweh

The one hundred and four days of President  Muhammadu Buhari’s medical sojourn abroad opened the fault lines of the nation and a clear advertisement that ours is pretending to be a nation. For those days, the ship of the nation was clearly adrift with an absentee president and a nominal acting president that could not deliver effective leadership because of some deep rooted cabals and interest group.

*President Buhari and VP Osinbajo

In fact, the nation was on auto pilot and the information managers did a poor job about the president’s health status. As you read this piece, Nigerians are yet to be told the nature of the president’s illness and how much the nation has spent in treating him. Therefore any talk about the buy made- in- Nigeria product campaign of the present administration is shattered by the medical tourism of the president. 

The less than seven minutes broadcast of the president, failed to address the pressing issues of the moment – restructuring and fiscal federalism. 

Furthermore, the hard stance of the president in his words `the unity of the nation is settled` is a clear indication that the president is very far from the reality of the moment. He has to climb down from the high horse and address the needs of the people especially those of the south.

Of Rats And Rodents Driving President Buhari Out Of Office

By Mike Ozekhome

It is a very shameful and disgraceful statement that emanated from the presidency to the effect that President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB), after a whole 105 days abroad on medical grounds, cannot work from his office because of rats and rodents. So, a whole Julius Berger, the German construction giant has to be called in to drive them away and repaint the office! This statement further derides and shames Nigeria as a country.

Why didn't the same or similar rodents pursue Olusegun Obasanjo, Umar Musa Yar'adua or Goodluck Jonathan during their presidency? For truth, there is another mini office at the villa quite different from the official residence and main office. Let PMB work from there.

Let's see our president working, not through still photo shopping. For how long will this government take the Nigerian citizens for a ride and for robots ? Who told the image makers we are as brainless as they are? Don't they know that lies have expiry date and that propaganda cannot substitute for image making?

Buhari: Address Nigerians On Skype Now!

By Chief Mike Ozekhome

Legal And Political Implications Of President Buhari’s Stay Abroad

*Buhari 

On the political implications of President Muhammadu Buhari extending his medical/holiday period abroad, it keeps the nation on ethno-religious tenterhooks, dangerous precipice, uncomfortable tension, anxiety and a dark pall on government and governance. It reminds one of the dark better forgotten days of the late President Umar Musa Yar’dua brouhaha when what late Dora Akunyilu described as “the cabal” unceremoniously seized the reins of government and held the nation to unspeakable ransom.

God forbid a repetition of history. God forbid us behaving like the Bourbons of European history who learnt nothing and forgot nothing.

On the legal implications, it is constitutionally provided that once the president transmits his absence or inability to act to the National Assembly, then the Vice president acts in his place.

Widening Gap Between Official, Black Market Exchange Rates

By Henri Boyo

 In December 2016, the finance minister Mrs. Kemi Adeosun responded as follows in a text message to Reuters reporters that, “The CBN is working on the elimination of arbitrage.” Furthermore, Isaac Okorafor, CBN’s spokesperson, confirmed in a press statement that the bank was working towards “ensuring there is no black market,” see Punch 21/12/16.

In January, 2017,  the Vice President Yemi Osibanjo speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland also noted that “The CBN needs to close the gap between the official and black market exchange rates for the naira “very soon”, see Punch 18/01/2017.

Furthermore, the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu was also reported in Punch Newspaper edition of 19/01/17 to have noted that: “We are worried with the huge gap between the parallel and the official market; and as it has been said by the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, the Central Bank of Nigeria needs to do something about it, because it is one thing that is breeding corruption …. We must find a way of bridging that gap and also stabilize the exchange rate so that investors can do their own forecast in terms of their investments. We believe that something needs to be done in the area of the exchange rate.”

The above title was first published in September 2005 and the following is a summary of that article:

“The appropriate pricing of the naira, has been a subject of debate in the last 25 years.  During this period, the value has descended from more than parity to its current rate of about N129=$1.  We recall that in those days of glory, the general standard of living was well above the poverty level; indeed, Nigeria was rated among middle income countries in the world. However, our leaders soon succumbed to the apparently innocuous campaign that the naira was grossly overvalued.  The success of that campaign is the current reality of a naira that has lost over 90% of its value and reduced the real value of the earnings of the masses to peanuts. We are now rated amongst the world’s poorest nations to the satisfaction of our erstwhile oppressors, who have in a show of charity gleefully dropped a few coins in our begging bowls to now save us from outright starvation!