Hard Times!

 By Sunny Awhefeada

Hard Times, published in 1854, is the title of the tenth novel by Charles Dickens, the English novelist. Like most of Dickens’ novels, Hard Times is a searing indictment of a corrosive and morally atrophied so­ciety on the brink of disaster.

Set in Vic­torian England, which was touted as a prosperous epoch, the novel reframes the socio-economic turmoil that undermined the entire fabric of the English society of that time. The reality of what was config­ured as prosperity was acute deprivation and hunger for the common man as a re­sult of the dislocation occasioned by the Industrial Revolution.

Masters Of The Game: Britain Plucks Cameron To Regain Balance

 By Owei Lakemfa

The British are known masters of diplomacy and politics. This is exemplified in the quote by its former Prime Minister Winston Churchill who said: “’Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip.”

*Sunak and Cameron 

That was how Britain, an island in the North Atlantic Ocean ruled the waves and the world before its sun began to set from the injuries of the Second World War. Britain and its allies won that war, but it lost its position as the world power.

Afenifere: There Is No Killing The Beetle

 By Alade Rotimi-John

Perhaps, no socio-political plank in Nigeria has impinged on our consciousness or has excited our admiration for the values of dedication to cherished ideals and goals more than Afenifere – the pan-Yoruba socio-political platform. In a society where shifting compromises and mutually-conflicting philosophies are lumped together just to score some cheap debating or political point, Afenifere has stood out as a genuine re-creation of a sincere search for solution to the myriad of problems besetting Nigeria. 

*Pa Adebanjo 

Founded in 1951 as an open window for brandishing the proud bearing and venting the considered expression of the people of its constituency, its enduring nature contrasts starkly with a general foreground of aborted, still-born or short-lived organisations.

For 70 years on, Afenifere has adhered firmly to her foundational strategy in precise observation, discipline and clarity of vision. She has thereby positioned herself as the ruling socio-political ethic in Yorubaland – its primary constituency. Other groups espousing similar or identical values like her are dimly outlined against the towering stature of Afenifere.

Nigerians Have A Right To ‘Change Of Government’

 By Olamide Francis

On Monday, October 10, 2022, the presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress, Bola Tinubu, said, “If they say they want a change of government, just tell them ‘we like to be polite but shut up your mouth.’” This is another sign among the many we have already seen that Nigeria’s democracy is endangered. This is not a matter of political parties but the general political clime in Nigeria. That aside, it is more disheartening that this kind of statement is coming from the platform of a party that benefitted from the agitation of the Nigerian masses for ‘a change of government.’

*Buhari and Tinubu

A change of government is the beauty of any democracy. So, I am bewildered at the call by the APC presidential candidate for people wanting a change of government, the same mantra they sided with in 2015, to shut up. Should people not call for a change of government if the current one has disappointed them? Is that not what democracy is all about? 

What Is Wrong With Africans?

 By Tochukwu Ezukanma

In his Philosophy of History, the 19th Century German philosopher, Friedrich Hegel, wrote so disparagingly about Africans, “The African exhibits the natural man in his wild and untamed state; there is nothing harmonious with humanity to be found in his character”. 

And “the undervaluing of humanity among them reaches an incredible degree of intensity: cannibalism is looked upon as quite customary and proper. The devouring of human flesh is altogether consonant with the general principles of the African race.” We can disregard Hegel on the grounds that, as of the 19th Century, the Europeans’ prejudiced and inadequate knowledge of Africa could not have given an accurate and objective account of Africans.

Nigeria: The Burden Of Untrained Leaders

 By David Osiri

“E go better” is a common phrase used in Nigeria to affirm our inner aspiration of a better future. Popular artistes turned it into songs. We say it when we want to reassure ourselves of a better tomorrow, hoping that the nation will live up to its potential one day.

*Nigerian leaders

The wise are beginning to realize that hope is not enough, a byproduct of faith. Faith is a risk, and we need to put it in the right leaders who can lead the nation into a prosperous future. We need leaders who are trained and prepared for a moment like this. We need to identify such people to escape the burden of untrained leaders that has beguiled Nigeria and Africa at large.

A little disclosure before I proceed: this article might read like leadership 101. Learning new things without mastering the fundamentals is like building a house on a sinking foundation. If the foundation is destroyed, what can the righteous do? A nation’s destiny and its people depend on its leadership; therefore, it is serious. And in critical moments like one where our nation has found itself today, we cannot afford to hand the steering of our wheels to an untrained leader.

New Perspectives On Dynamics Of Leadership In Africa

Book Review

Book: Tomorrow’s leaders

Author: Andrew Okhenoaghue Umoru

Publishers: Blueshield Publishers

Pagination: 124

Reviewer: Banji Ojewale

In 1983 Chinua Achebe, late Nigerian writer and critic, was a lone voice as he mourned the death and dearth of strategic leadership in his country. His intervention through the slim nonfiction, The Trouble With Nigeria, was mocked when it wielded the sledgehammer on Nigeria and argued that flailing leadership was primarily responsible for the country’s seasonal misery and crises. This eminent novelist of universal acclaim held that poor management of our enormous resources was the cauldron brewing the challenges besieging the land.

But a great community of critics rose after reading the book to give their fellow critic a sarcastic riposte: the troubles with Nigeria were too complex to be dealt with so simplistically in a small book and by attributing them to one single origin.

Nigeria: Covid-19 And The Leadership Question

By DAN AMOR

For those of us who still believe in the geographical expression called Nigeria, at no other time that our country needs more fervent prayers than now. But the current situation also demands eternal vigilance and critical immediacy. Yet, the Coronavirus pandemic ravaging the human race since November 2019, more than anything else, poses a grave challenge to leaders across the world. While the COVID 19 pandemic has really revealed leaders with the sterner stuff who have shown the capacity to lead at very auspicious moments in the affairs of man, it has also exposed the soft underbelly of others who lack the capacity to walk their talk.

*Buhari 

It is now so apparent that Nigeria, my country, is a nation of experts without roots. We are always creating tacticians who are blind to strategy and strategists who cannot even take a step. And when the culture has finished its work, the weak institutions handcuff the infirmity. But what is at the centre of the panic which is our national culture since we are not yet free to choose our leaders?

Buhari, Onnoghen Et Al And Their Common DNA

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

Except the unabashed pretenders to the throne of equity and transparency, Nigerians need not be shocked by the murkiness and ravenous appetite with which the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, has been identified. If the alleged fraud of Onnoghen centres on his not claiming what is his, a greater tragedy is the Nigerian state and its leaders claiming what is not theirs.

*Justice Onnoghen 

In that case, how could it be strange that the chief judicial officer allegedly pleaded amnesia to mitigate his culpability when the entire fabric of the Nigerian nation is steeped in fraud? It was fraud that actuated the cobbling together of Nigeria in the first place.

Buhari Owes Shiites Justice, Not Massacre

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

Even in its twilight, President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration remains impenetrable to the simple logic that democracy is leavened by the disparateness of opinions. It is in epochs of heightened divergence of opinions that sometimes spawn crises and tend to unspool the state that the genius of a great leader is given stellar expression.

*President Buhari 

The man or woman who comes into leadership fully prepared for such near-fatal periods know how to parlay them into opportunities for national development.  Thus, the best leaders are not brewed in epochs when the people luxuriate in ease but when they are confronted with life-threatening crises.

Was the genius of Winston Churchill not unfurled, and thus he became a touchstone of good leadership, because he had Adolf Hitler to prevent from adding Britain to his definitive list of conquered territories? Did Franklin D. Roosevelt not etch his name in the memory of Americans because he had the Great Depression to contend with on behalf of his people?

Political Defections In Nigeria, Causes And Consequences

By Simon Abah

There is an alarming rise in organised political defections in Nigeria.

Although she is being hyped as the giant of Africa, the democracy in Nigeria is not practised like in countries such as Ghana, Sierra Leone, Botswana, Tanzania, Liberia, Senegal and Zambia with stable democracies. Nigeria’s version is a guided democracy and a democracy for the few.

*Saraki

What are the reasons for the surge in defections? Turncoats complain about the absence of internal democracy in their parties and of political witch-hunt by political gladiators.

Do you agree with the beliefs of these defectors?

Particularly since no mention is made about the developmental interests of Nigeria as reasons for changing sides.

That Danjuma’s Significant Outburst

By Sufuyan Ojeifo

We mean to hold our own.  I have not become the King’s First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire, said the indefatigable Prime Minister of Britain during World War 11, Winston Churchill, in 1942. But unfortunately, that was what he was compelled to do as recounted by Peter Clarke in his book titled: The Last Thousand Days of the British Empire. In a rave review of the book, Allan Massie surmised that Churchill rightly dominated the book as he was shown, warts and all, from the drawing on the diaries of Alan Alanbooke and Sir Alec Cadogan, as infuriating, often boring, sometimes wandering, arriving at meetings without having read his briefing papers, often unrealistic in his demands, hell to work with.

*Gen Danjuma

Curiously, the more Churchill’s weaknesses were exposed, the more splendid he seemed. According to Massie, If at times Alanbrooke and others wondered how they could win the war with him, they all knew it would have been impossible without him.  To be sure, Churchill, soldier, writer and politician, was one of Britain’s greatest heroes, particularly remembered for his indomitable spirit while leading Great Britain to victory in World War 11.  Churchill wrote his war memoirs and titled the last volume: Triumph and Tragedy. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 among other great accomplishments.

Buhari: When Silence Means Contempt

By Sam Omatseye

The president has always seen silence as a mark of dignity in a time of crisis. When he opens his mouth eventually, he spews out venom that neither gives him nor the office he occupies any form of dignity.

*President Buhari with Baru

Tall, gaunt, lean of face with a straight stare and loping strides, his smile comes across more like a lickspittle than a royal. Yet, behind that simpering exterior is a granite heart. However, little cunning or high thinking dresses up his hearty resolves. So, in the final analysis, what we have is not the Buhari of nobility but a pretension to the high moral act. Sometimes that façade confronts us in the form of silence.

Occasionally he does speak. When he breaks his silence, he ruptures not only peace but logic. As I have noted in the past, Buhari’s soul is a battle between the martial impulses of his breeding and the entitlement of his ambience as a Fulani hierarch. And then there is a third. He has managed, since his ouster from power as head of state, to cultivate the talakawa. So, he sees himself as a sort of royal with a common touch. He is simultaneously on top and at the bottom, a prince and pauper, a head and herdsman, at once erupting from the floor and swooping down from heaven.

Nigeria: This Present Darkness

By Feyi Fawehinmi

Before he died in 2015, the late Professor Stephen Ellis wrote his last book titled This Present Darkness: A History of Nigerian Organised Crime. Going through this book left me with several thoughts, most of them unpleasant. 

It is a fascinating read covering, not just organised crime, but the evolution of the Nigerian state (or maybe they are the same thing?). At any rate, I want to share 8 random things I found interesting in the book and I will leave you to draw your own conclusions.

1. In 1947, late Chief Obafemi Awolowo wrote that “Corruption is the greatest defect of the Native Court system.” He complained that not only did judges take bribes, people used their connections to enrich themselves and avoid punishment for their crimes. He also wrote that in the north, a new Emir always removed all the people appointed by the previous Emir and replaced them with his own people. He wrote all these as a complaint against the Indirect Rule system favoured by the British.

2. In 1922, the Colonial Secretary in London, one Winston Churchill, wrote to Nigeria’s Governor General at the time, Sir Hugh Clifford, asking him to ban certain types of letters called ‘Charlatanic correspondences’. This was because J.K Macgregor who was Headmaster of Hope Waddell Institute for 36 years, had discovered hundreds of letters written and received by his students ordering all sorts of books, charms and even potions from England, America and India in particular. Most of the charms were nonsense and the students were invariably asked to send more money if they wanted more powerful ones. A total of 2,855 such letters were intercepted by the Posts & Telegraph Department between 1935 and 1938.

3. In 1939, a Nigerian businessman based in Ghana named Prince Eikeneh, wrote to the colonial government in Nigeria complaining about the number of Nigerian girls who were coming to Ghana to work as sex workers. He said the girls were usually taken there by a Warri-based Madam named ‘Alice’ who told the girls they were going to learn a trade or get married. He concluded that the trade was very well-organised and profitable for the ring leaders.