Africa: A Continent Without Democrats

By Reuben Abati

The second wave of democratization in Africa, beginning in the 80s, and the gradual establishment of democracy as the new normal in the continent brought much hope and excitement. As we have seen in the recent intervention by the military in Zimbabwe, coup d’etats have become unpopular and unacceptable in the entire continent in deference perhaps to dominant global politics. 

*Mugabe and Museveni

In the past two decades, there have been many electoral transitions across the continent indicative of a pattern of democratic consolidation. In reality, however, mercenaries of democracy, dictators and a military culture dominate African politics. The form of governance may have changed, but the form of politics has remained seemingly unchangeable. We are forcefully reminded of this by certain recent developments across the continent. In Burundi, President Pierre Nkurunziza has just ensured that the officials of a football team, which rough-tackled him during a football match last year, have been sent to prison. Nkurunziza, a graduate of Sports Education (1990), loves to play football, even as President. He owns a football team, Haleluia FC, and a choir, “Kameza gusenga” which means “pray non-stop”.

President Muhammadu Buhari, His Two-Headed Dragon And His ‘War’ Against Terror (Part 1)

By Femi Fani-Kayode

“No-one is more hated than he who speaks truth”- Plato.

These deeply profound and insightful words of Plato, Ancient Greece’s greatest and most revered philosopher, who was a student of the great Socrates and a teacher of the great Aristotle, are as true today as they were in 400 BC when he wrote them.

*Femi Fani-Kayode

 You will not read the following account about President Muhammadu Buhari’s so-called “war against terror” in Nigeria’s mainstream media because they have mostly been compromised and intimidated by the Federal Government.

You can however read it in this two-part essay if you are interested in
knowing the truth. I urge as many of those that care and that can get through it to spread the word and let the international community know the truth about what the Nigerian people are passing through.

Good Leadership, Effective Economic Management As Elements Of Good Governance

By Ben Nwabueze

*Prof Ben Nwabueze 

Good leadership

The qualities and credentials needed for good leadership can readily be identified. The primal credential is good education, such as would enable the leadership to combine “ideas and power, intellectualism and politics.” Leadership is a critical part of Nigeria’s problem of governance because the educational qualification prescribed for our political leaders by section 131(d), as amended by the National Assembly in 2010, and section 318(1) of the Constitution does not equip them to be able to combine “ideas and power, intellectualism and politics.”

In these days of widespread “expo”, certificate faking and general degeneration in the standards of education in our schools and colleges, primary six school leaving certificate prescribed by the Constitution for those seeking elective political office is really next door to illiteracy. A semi literate President or Governor is what the prescription tantamount to.

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? 

Achuzia, Biafra Spirit And South South Igbo

By Onuoha Ukeh

As a kid during the Biafra War, I did not know the major actors of the battle, which claimed more than two million Igbo. At that time, I never knew Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, Yakubu Gowon, Emmanuel Ifeajuna, Philip Effiong, Olusegun Obasanjo, Joe Achuzia and others, who played one role or another in the internecine war. This was expected. Little kids, in their innocence, do not know about wars.

*Achuzia

However, I will never forget the day my parents took my siblings and I into the bush, as we fled from the federal troops, who entered our community in Item, Bende Local Government Area of the present-day Abia State. That faithful early morning, we started hearing the sound of explosive artillery or shelling from a distance into the Item area. The sound of “Kpo, kpo, kpo, kpo” rent the air. Another shooting sound that always followed was “dum.”

Why Gov Nasir El-Rufai Must Arrest Religious Mayhem In Southern Kaduna

By by Erasmus Ikhide

Mallam Nasir El-Rufai has been unfortunate to be voted in as the “accidental governor” of Kaduna State. Since 1980, the crocodile state has been floating on the river of blood visited on it by those who find it nauseating to reside in the same neighbourhood and space as those who do not share the same faith and religion. How we arrive at this mind-wrecking and anti-humanistic station in our journey into nationhood — even when all religion preach tolerance and peaceful cohabitation is something that constitutes a blight on us, as people.

*Gov El-Rufai

The latest Christian and Muslim clash in Southern Kaduna that took place at Kasuwan Magani town in Kajuru Local Govenment Area of Kaduna State, over which over a 1,000 houses were torched and several souls lost two days ago is not salutary to whatever efforts the Kaduna State Commissioner of Police claimed to have made. 

Dear President Buhari, Lying Is Corruption!

By Reno Omokri

I have just read President Buhari’s speech to the All Progressive Congress members who visited him at the Presidential Villa on Monday the 26th of February, 2018. It is rather unfortunate that a man who once deceived the nation with his fabled ‘integrity’ can descend so low as to spew forth very obvious lies and a revision of history.

*President Buhari

If nothing else justifies the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index rating which revealed that corruption in Nigeria has worsened under President Buhari, this latest Presidential act of deception does.

In psyching up the APC for 2019, the President, obviously aware of the defeat that awaits him and his lying brigade, said as follows:

Nigeria: Is Dapchi A State Conspiracy?

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

It is a robust measure of how much the President Muhammadu Buhari government has lost credibility that the abduction of 110 pupils of Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State, has spawned conspiracy theories. Racked by unfulfilled promises, fervent backers of the Buhari government who were ready to vouchsafe the eternal integrity of the president no longer accept that his position can be trusted. They strive to ferret out what could be the real motive for the action or inaction of the Buhari government.

To be sure, we should not dismiss the purveyors of these conspiracy theories as sadists who inscrutably derive fulfillment from the suffering of others. As fellow citizens, they share the pain of the families of the abductees and the nation. They are not unaware of the agony parents are subjected to when a child they have sent to school to learn is abducted. They understand the gnawing anxiety of parents over the current condition of the abductees, whether they are alive or dead and whether they would see them again. Their worry is not unfounded. Still fresh in their memories are the ordeals of the Chibok abductees and those of their parents. For a long time, nothing was heard about them. Even after the rescue of some of them, others cannot be accounted for as they have died or the Boko Haram leaders have made good their threat to sell them off as sex slaves.

'Abandoned Property' Was Coined By Those Intent On Perpetrating Daylight Robbery' – COL. ACHUZIA

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THE CHINUA ACHEBE FOUNDATION INTERVIEW SERIES 
November 2005
All Rights Reserved ©

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Joe Achuzia 

*About Col. Joe Achuzia

Born seventy years ago, in the present day Delta State, Col Joe Achuzia has been involved in the programmes and activities of Ohaneze NdiIgbo, the apex socio-cultural organization in Igboland, for the past fifteen years. Since he assumed office as the Secretary-General of Ohaneze NdiIgbo, he has been distinguished by his frankness in public communications and the passion with which he canvases the Igbo position on matters of national and regional interests. He believes strongly in one, united Nigeria, where equity, justice, fairness and mutual respect for one another are unreservedly operational at all levels of governance and social interactions. He is of the opinion that the deterioration in the country is as old as the country itself and that the only way to ensure harmony and progress in the nation is to convoke a conference of ethnic nationalities where the thorny issues plaguing Nigeria could be properly addressed.

After the Biafra/Nigeria in which he played a prominent role, he was detained by Nigerian authorities. Fearing he might not survive the incarceration, he wrote his book, Requiem Biafra, to articulate his role in the war, and check attempts by later writers to, in his own words, “superimposed falsehood” on him.

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Excerpts:

President Buhari’s Anti-Corruption Conundrum

By Sufuyan Ojeifo

There is common sense in the submission that the anti-corruption crusade of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has slumped.

This is validated by the slipshod, ineffectual and selective manner the administration has so far executed the vaunted crusade. 

*President Buhari 

There has been so much mismanagement of the process, so much misapplication of the momentum, and so much floundering of the philosophy underpinning the anti-corruption agenda. The corollary, thus, is a concomitant contention, which will be explicated shortly. 

Nigeria: Mystery Snake And A Nation’s Comedy Of Errors

By Tayo Ogunbiyi

The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare’s early plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play.

The play tells the story of two sets of identical twins that were accidentally separated at birth but were eventually united after a series of witty events.

Today, the phrase ‘a comedy of errors’ is often used to describe a situation that is so full of mistakes and problems that it seems funny. On that premise, it won’t be out of place to tag our nation as a Land of Comedy of Errors.  Things happen in our clime that you cannot but remember the famous Charley Boy Show where anything can happen.  

Obasanjo’s Sermon In The Creeks

By Abraham Ogbodo

Last week, former President Olusegun Obasanjo was in Bayelsa State preaching love. He went at the instance of the State Governor, Seriake Dickson who wanted him (since the incumbent president is not readily available for such task) to commission projects built by the state government as part of the activities to mark the sixth anniversary of the government of Dickson in the state.

*Obasanjo and Dickson

Obasanjo did a little more outside the official schedule. By some arrangement, he was appropriated to lay the foundation stone of the second private refinery after Dangote’s, but the first in that region of the country, penultimate Saturday.

The Azikel Modular Refinery sitting on about 20 hectares is being powered by Dr. Eruani Azibapu Goodbless, President of Azikel Group in collaboration with foreign partners.  

Col Joe Achuzia in Conversation with Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

THE CHINUA ACHEBE FOUNDATION INTERVIEW SERIES 
November 2005
All Rights Reserved ©

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*Achuzia

*About Col. Joe Achuzia

Born seventy years ago, in the present day Delta State, Col Joe Achuzia has been involved in the programmes and activities of Ohaneze NdiIgbo, the apex socio-cultural organization in Igboland, for the past fifteen years. Since he assumed office as the Secretary-General of Ohaneze NdiIgbo, he has been distinguished by his frankness in public communications and the passion with which he canvases the Igbo position on matters of national and regional interests. He believes strongly in one, united Nigeria, where equity, justice, fairness and mutual respect for one another are unreservedly operational at all levels of governance and social interactions. He is of the opinion that the deterioration in the country is as old as the country itself and that the only way to ensure harmony and progress in the nation is to convoke a conference of ethnic nationalities where the thorny issues plaguing Nigeria could be properly addressed.

After the Biafra/Nigeria in which he played a prominent role, he was detained by Nigerian authorities. Fearing he might not survive the incarceration, he wrote his book, Requiem Biafra, to articulate his role in the war, and check attempts by later writers to, in his own words, “superimposed falsehood” on him.

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Excerpts:

WHERE THE RAIN BEGAN TO BEAT US

Do you think it is possible to identify a particular period in Nigeria’s history when the deterioration commenced, or should we assume the downward slide is, perhaps, as old as the nation itself?

Nigeria, in my opinion, started deteriorating from day one. The gladiators who fought for our independence made all the classical mistakes. They failed to understand that those who pitch themselves in mortal combats to gain independence for the people should quit the stage for peaceful gladiators to take over. You cannot be a warrior and a peacemaker at the same time. No. But, they tried to combine the two, and so failed woefully. And we’ve been going down ever since.

Why then does your generation speak nostalgically about the good old days?

The good old days is a cliché used by people reminiscing about their secure lives as adolescents, and referring to the past as “the good old days...”The bad old days then begins when they have to start taking responsibilities. (Laughter)

So, there have been no good old days in Nigeria?

No, there has been nothing like that.

The Wailing Of Madam Oluremi Tinubu

By Modiu Olaguro

"For what Ricardo foresaw was the end of a theory of society in which everyone moved together up the escalator of progress. Unlike Smith, Ricardo saw that the escalator worked with different effects on different classes, that some rode triumphantly on the top, while others were carried up a few steps and then were kicked back down to the bottom. Worse yet, those who kept the escalator moving were not those who rose with its motion, and those who got the full benefit of the ride did nothing to earn their reward. And to carry the metaphor one step further, if you looked carefully at those who were ascending to the top, you could see that all was not well here either; there was a furious struggle going on for a secure place on the stairs.”

—The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times And Ideas Of The Great Economic Thinkers by Robert L. Heilbroner.

*Oluremi Tinubu

Remi Tinubu’s outburst on the seeming side-line of her hubby, Bola Tinubu, by the Muhammadu Buhari administration illustrates the existence of an acrimonious struggle for dominance by actors in the political space. It connotes the very fact that the poor masses of Nigeria are not the only victims of the serial subterfuge by politicians who find their thumbs useful before elections only to find their faces unworthy after.

Why I Pity Bola Ahmed Tinubu

By SKC Ogbonnia

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu means different things to different people. But if dynamic opposition is the lifewire of democracy, it is very fitting then to name him the saviour of Nigeria’s current democratic journey. Tinubu, more than any other Nigerian, nurtured and sustained the opposition movement that removed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from power. Before Tinubu’s party, All Progressive Congress (APC), there appeared to be no consequences for bad behaviour in Nigeria whatsoever. Despite mounting corruption and gross mismanagement of national resources, the PDP was boasting that it would rule Nigeria forever.

*Tinubu

And, one cannot blame it. It was unfathomable, as at then, for an incumbent president to lose election in Nigeria. But, not anymore! APC recognized the Tinubu genius, and had no problem conferring him with the title of the “National Leader”. But, the honour would become queer in the course of 2015 election campaigns, because Bola Tinubu was neither the party’s national chairman nor the presidential candidate. Seasoned pundits had reasoned that Muhammadu Buhari, having been elected president, would assume the title of the National Leader while the Asiwaju would be anointed the chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees. Glaringly, that was not meant to be.

Tinubu’s political sagacity was seen as a threat by Buhari’s post-election inner caucus, a clique of primitive loyalists, whose visions appear concocted from the philosophies of Stone Age native doctors. Instead of the change agenda of the ruling party, the clique focused its energy on strategies to decimate the Tinubu-led brain trust that brought Buhari to power.

The president had no reason to look back. Buhari was still gloating with precipitate pride having been greeted with worldwide goodwill after declaring that he “belonged to no one”. Many took the memorable line as a quaint exit from the military arm of Nigeria’s corrupt oligarchy that needed to be carried along to dislodge PDP from power. Well, events have since shown that Buhari’s “I belong to no one” statement might have been referring to an imaginary freedom from Tinubu. The rest, they say, is history.

This history is that party indiscipline, which had been a cancer of past regimes, became full grown as soon as Tinubu was sidelined. The opposition took advantage to wangle its men to critical leadership positions at both arms of the Legislature. The paradox is that a corrupt opposition party dictates the content and character of the much-anticipated change under the APC government. Even the boards of vital government agencies, including strategic foreign posts, remained in the hands of the opposition for over two years after Buhari assumed office.

The president remained indifferent. To his advisers, the post-Tinubu Tsunami would eventually subside in time for the next election. This false hope prompted Buhari to openly admonish that Bola Tinubu was not the National Leader but merely one of the leaders of the party. The mockery of Tinubu became an appetizing ingredient in every pepper soup joint. But, the man kept calm. He had to.

What could he possibly tell the political gods about his predicament? How could he face his long-standing, left-leaning NADECO allies and the powerful Southwest media that he coopted to produce a Buhari presidency? How could he possibly reconcile his new fate in APC after enduring the worst political fire ever directed to a non-candidate in the history of Nigeria? How could Bola Tinubu reconcile the fact that, instead of Buhari, the Nigerian masses are mocking the Asiwaju himself for the failures of APC government?

One can now relate to why I pity Tinubu; and I truly do. But, what has followed is even more intriguing. The Asiwaju is now re-baptised “the National Leader”. With APC in crisis, combined with his waning popularity, President Buhari did an abrupt U-turn, turning to the same virally discredited Tinubu. The goal is to salvage the party and create a favorable image in time for 2019 elections.

Buhari deserves commendation for the peace move. Tinubu, on his part, has embraced the assignment as a Christmas in June, and he has what it takes to weave the innocent opinions of party members as well as the Nigerian people towards a common purpose. However, how that common purpose aligns with the president’s 2019 individual agenda is another aching dilemma.

Nevertheless, as a fervent fan of Buhari from ages and a sapient adherent of Tinubu’s visions, and now a presidential aspirant under APC, let it not be misconstrued that I openly state as follows: The president can make the assignment less herculean by recognizing that Muhammadu Buhari has become the problem. Yes, there comes a time nonsense paves way for commonsense.
Commonsense dictates that Nigerians are in dire need of a newbreed president—regardless of tribe or religion—who is roundly equipped to lead the country to greatness. The Nigerian people also yearn for a party that can earn their trust. APC can become that party once again, if Asiwaju Tinubu is seen as an agent of the truth.

The truth is that history already celebrates President Buhari for his sacrifice in rescuing Nigeria from the ruins of PDP, but the same history will commit him to its darkest side, if he ignores the warning signs and furthers any individual ambition that can propel PDP back to power.

*Ogbonnia is an APC presidential aspirant (SKCOgbonnia1@aol.com) 

2019: How Will Gov Ganduje ‘Manufacture’ 5 Million Votes Promised President Buhari?

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

If recent political developments in Kano State point to the direction Nigeria is headed when the election bell tolls again in 2019, then the country is in clear and imminent danger. The augury is stark. The prognostication is as portentous as it is scary.

*President Buhari 

Every election circle brings out the beast in us as the legendary Afrobeat maestro, late Fela Anikulapo Kuti, sang. That is true. Our democracy is a jungle where the will of the powerful but vicious minority, who takes no prisoners, will always prevail.  

But there is something particularly telling about the Kano electoral stench.

On Saturday, February 11, 2018, the Kano State Independent Electoral Commission (KANSIEC) conducted local government poll. A day after, the chairman of the commission, Prof. Garba Sheka, announced that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) won all the 44 chairmanship and 484 councillorship seats, in an election where 25 political parties participated.

Checking Inequality In Nigeria’s Security System

By Oludayo Tade

The attitude of the leadership of Nigeria and its security institutions to the safety of the poor and vulnerable is condemnable. In the same system, the social structure ensures the securitisation of the rich.

While the tenets of the rule of law prescribe equality before the law, supremacy of the law and fundamental human rights, the practicality of these in Nigeria is gradated to one’s social position. The poor are worse off in security of lives and property, food security, health security, education security, road security, human rights security, among others.

Hurdles Before The Nigerian Youth

By Matthew Ozah

There are plenty of good reasons for a young person to enlist in the ‘army’ to fight the war in the four walls of a university.

Some of such reasons are intellectual growth, career opportunities among others. Of course, fun cannot be divorced from the excessive freedom one derived from being a student in tertiary institutions. But the danger is that most students are unable to control their feelings in the flight of fancy as they chose to gallivant on campus and refuse to be committed to the fight to acquire a sound degree. These students most often become easy prey for cult activities.

Please, Halt The Needless Carnages On Nigerian Roads Now

By Lekan Alabi

Again, one is pushed, yes pushed, to appeal to Nigerian governments and road users alike to halt the needless carnages on our roads, caused by bad (dangerous) roads and mad traffic manners.

I first made this appeal in my article, titled, Blowing Their Killer Sirens, published in The Guardian on Sunday issue of February 20, 1994. When that appeal with those of other Nigerians appeared to have fallen on deaf ears, I updated my 1994 appeal in 2013, in another article titled, Convoys, Carnages and Caution. 

Dark Cloud Over South Africa

By Charles Onunaiju

Following the desperate push to get him out of office and the eventual capitulation of former President Jacob Zuma to the intense pressure by his own party to quit, dark clouds hanging over the country since the December elective national conference of the ruling party, which narrowly produced Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa as the leader of the party has not and will not be clearing soon. 

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa
and former President Jacob Zuma

Mr. Ramaphosa, former labour organiser, ANC top stalwart turned tycoon and now President of the Republic of South Africa has promised a new dawn, not only for his country but for Africa. Given that inaugural speeches in Africa by newly triumphant helmsmen are replete with such boisterous and optimistic rhetoric, it will be more reasonable to wait and see the magic wand that Mr. Ramaphosa wants to wield.