By Kenechukwu Obiezu
Protests may be no pills for the dying, but in Nigeria, they pilfer the dead, or at least, their dainties.
On August 1, Nigeria erupted in protests. The protests which pinched many states of the country hard, some harder than others, were over bread, but quickly bared deep-lying issues, braiding together knots of anger and despair over the state of the country.
By Adekunle Adekoya
“Politics is the only profession where you can lie, cheat, and steal, and still be respected.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Today, I am helplessly wallowing in self-pity and pity for my fellow compatriots as I ponder the state of affairs in our dear country. We don’t have another country, do we? Why are our politicians hell-bent on destroying this country as they pursue self-interest instead of the common good?
“Yes, I agree with you that Lagos should be for its Yoruba
indigenes. And the South-west should belong to the indigenous people of the
region.
So, let’s get practical and cooperate and make our shared desire happen,
peacefully and as fast as possible.
“Please, note that Igboland, to which Igbos would return from Lagos and the
South-west, has a part in the South-south and a part in the South-east.
“Kindly
get President Tinubu to facilitate the process by doing the following:
By Ikechukwu Amaechi
Five days after Comrade Joe Ajaero, former General Secretary of the Nigerian Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, and Deputy National President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, made history as the first NLC President to be elected unopposed at the 13th National Delegates Conference in Abuja, on February 8, 2023, I sat down with him in Lagos for an exclusive interview.
Still basking in the euphoria of his victory, he was hopeful and bullish as he discussed the labour movement, what Nigerians should expect of his presidency and the impending 2023 elections. He was analytical and measured.
This is
what the artist says about this song:
“This is a deep spiritual worship song which
unites the spirit of man with the Holy Spirit. The song will drench your soul
and quickly link your mind to the Spirit where righteousness and many graces
abound.…”
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Listen, Share and VISIT the Youth Page to listen to the previous albums. Then, Subscribe, so you would be notified each time a new album is released...
By Olu Fasan
Aliko Dangote, the richest man in Africa, is a product of the Nigerian state. By deliberate policy choices, the state made Dangote Nigeria’s foremost oligarch with presidents on speed dial. However, recent rifts between Dangote’s oil refinery and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, as well as the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, not to mention the raid on his business headquarters by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, suggest that all is not well with the long-running relationship between Dangote and the state. Yet, having turned Dangote into a commercial Leviathan, the state must now wisely recalibrate and manage the relationship.
To be clear, Dangote was not born poor. He was born into wealth and became a millionaire very early in life. However, his transition from a millionaire to Africa’s richest man would not have happened without a leg-up from the state, without special favours and preferential treatment from the Nigerian state. To this credit, Dangote himself admits this. Before we come to the refinery saga, let’s tell the fascinating story, as Dangote himself narrated it.
By Owei Lakemfa
As a young man, I quite often heard the Latin phrase: “Vox populi, vox dei”, meaning: “The voice of the people is the voice of God”. Democracy, whatever the brand, is supposed to uphold this.
But the Nigerian people might be too busy to speak; too hungry to talk. Under such circumstances, they need to remain silent. But who better to speak for the people than the National Assembly? That is why parliamentarians are assembled: to speak for their otherwise preoccupied constituents.
"You Alone"
You Alone Are Worthy Of My Worship
By Ugoji Egbujo
On his way to Equatorial Guinea, Tinubu rode in a gleaming new car to the airport, leaving tongues wagging. A glamorous, armoured black Cadillac Escalade reminded many of the NPN days. Such a show of opulence in the immediate aftermath of the hunger protests seemed an act of defiance. He startled the public.
Tinubu preaches austerity, but makes no effort to curtail lavish public expenditure. A commentator said the car was the hardest evidence of his aloofness. But more patriotic people may argue that a man who leads 200 million people and who has just secured a vote of confidence from the people that matter is at liberty to thump his nose at disgruntled elements.
By Tonnie Iredia
Once again, former President Olusegun Obasanjo (Obj), has visibly shown his disgust for the disposition of the nation’s legislators especially those at the federal level. The week before, Obasanjo told a team of six legislators who visited him in Abeokuta, Ogun State that many individuals currently holding public office lack the necessary character to lead the nation adding that some of them in the national assembly ought to be behind bars or even face the gallows. Exactly 10 years ago, the former president had alleged that the national assembly was ‘a den of corruption occupied by a group of unarmed robbers.’
With the level of information that a former president can garner, it is probably time for the nation to begin to interrogate the rationale for the damaging comments Obasanjo keeps making about our lawmakers. Unfortunately, responses to the criticism from both the national assembly and some Nigerians who appear to have an axe to grind with Obj, cannot help the legislators.
By Olu Fasan
Nigeria is one of the few countries where the young far outnumber the old. The average age in Nigeria is about 18.6 years, and the youth, aged between 15 and 30, account for 70 per cent of Nigeria’s population. Unfortunately, at about 54 per cent, Nigeria has one of the highest youth-unemployment rates in the world with equally high rates of youth anxiety and depression.
That’s enough to frustrate young people anywhere in the world. Yet, whenever young Nigerians ventilate their grievances through public protests, the state is quick to clamp down brutally on them. Put simply, Nigeria kills its youth for daring to protest bad governance. There’s no better definition of barbarism.
By Ikechukwu Amaechi
After quelling what, to all intents and purposes, was a peaceful protest by economically challenged Nigerians over insufferable high cost of living, President Bola Tinubu has moved quickly to consolidate his grip on power. Taking a page from the archetypical fascist playbook, he summoned a meeting of the National Council of State, NCS, on Tuesday, to pass a vote of confidence in him and the Council obliged.
For those who may not know, the
NCS idea, which was introduced by General Murtala Muhammed in a broadcast on
July 30, 1975 after overthrowing General Yakubu Gowon, was to create an
advisory body.
“The structure of government has been re-organised. There will now be three organs of government at the federal level namely: The Supreme Military Council, The National Council of State, and the Federal Executive Council,” he said.
By Sunny Ikhioya
Let us call a spade by its real name. The address by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu fell far short of resolving the issues raised by protesters. It only helped to exacerbate the prevailing situation. But what can the cowed masses do? It ended as expected. So much senseless destructions, time and money wasted, avoidable deaths and the battle shifted to another auspicious time and, that will be the day.
By Ochereome Nnanna
The #EndBadGovernment protests largely flopped partially because they demanded for the restoration of the petrol subsidy. In life, better be careful what you wish for because it might actually come true!
If for any reason President Bola Tinubu acceded to this demand, the engine of his government would knock. Petrol is selling between N640 and N800 per litre, and it is still scarce. Imagine returning it to N180? All petrol stations will close shop, and we will be buying at the black market between N1,500 and N2,000 per litre. The train has left the subsidy station, and it will never come back.
By Obi Nwakanma
The fact that I have to write this, makes me retch. It turns my stomach because this is the 21st century, and there are still many among us who still think in this brutally savage way about other people, who they have to dehumanize in order to feel alive themselves. That I have to defend the Igbo, and being Igbo, makes me doubly conscious, and it is a feeling that compels one to reexamine once more, the contradictions of being Nigerian.
The new nations in Africa are creations of one of modernity’s most complex situations: colonialism. It brought many disparate cultural and political entities into filiations that in many cases have remained uncertain and fragile. That has always been one of the core criticisms of those who believe, and argue that Nigeria must end; divided, and each part pulling away towards its own sovereign goals. Nigeria was created formally in 1914, from the unification of three colonial administrations: the Southern and Northern protectorates and the colony of Lagos. But the history of the settling of Nigeria goes further back to the turn of the century when the Caliph of Sokoto was killed by the British in 1902, effectively bringing to the end, the Sokoto Caliphate.
By Olu Fasan
Recently, the Financial Times interviewed me for a special report on Nigeria. The FT had interviewed me a few times before. So, when I received a call from David Pilling, the newspaper’s Africa Editor, I knew he probably wanted to interview me again. “I read your article on Tinubu’s economic reforms,” Pilling said. “I want to speak to you about it as I am writing a report on Nigeria.” We spoke.
About two weeks later, on July 10, the report titled “Tough times and tough measures” was published in the newspaper’s “Big Read” section. The FT said, rightly, that I described the economic reforms of Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s president, as “half-cooked”, and criticised the excesses and profligacy of his administration. “You cannot say the economy is bad and spend money like a drunken sailor,” the FT quoted me.
By Ikechukwu Amaechi
As indicated here last week, the book, Peace Culture: A Monumental Evidence for Global Co-existence, written by Prof Ola Makinwa et al, will be used to shine a light on our offering in this column today. Many have badgered me on why I “ignored” the ongoing #EndBadGovernance protest rocking the country.
The protest, now in its eighth day, has become violent and bloody and the security chiefs are still talking tough meaning that it may even get bloodier in the coming days. On Wednesday night, armed security operatives raided the headquarters of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Abuja, popularly called Labour House looking for only God knows what. Such raids will intensify as the government tries to overwhelm Nigerians and stifle dissenting voices.
By Dele Sobowale
“There are people in the world, so hungry, that God
cannot appear to them except in form of bread” – Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948
The great Indian leader and liberator made that remark before he was assassinated in 1948 at a time when his country, now divided into at least three nations, suffered from food scarcity worse than Nigeria is experiencing now. Certainly, it can also be said that there are millions of people in Nigeria today, so hungry that God cannot appear to them except either as a loaf of bread or a bowl of cooked rice.
I was only four years old in 1948. So, I had to interview those far older than me to know how the food situation was like at the time – in addition to historical research. Surprisingly, Nigeria was then a net exporter of food at a time when almost 99 per cent of Nigerians were illiterates; when the University of Ibadan was just opening its doors to students.
By Ochereome Nnanna
It would have been funny if it were not so DANGEROUS! When Muhammadu Buhari was in power, there was ethnic profiling of the Igbo people in the North. Some sponsored “youth coalitions” gave Ndi Igbo quit notice in 2017 because of Biafra agitations in the South-East, which arose from Buhari’s 97%/5% formula of Igbo exclusion.
Buhari and Bola Ahmed Tinubu
co-founded the All Progressives Congress, APC, which has never enjoyed Igbo
support.
Ndi Igbo constitute by far the second largest ethnic group in Lagos after the Yoruba indigenous residents. They control the commercial sector of Africa’s sixth largest economy, especially the markets and a sizeable slice of property ownership. They contribute a hefty chunk of the internal revenue that sets Lagos apart compared to the rest of the 36 states. Under a normal political atmosphere, the Igbo population in Lagos should be courted because of their electoral and economic values.
By Owei Lakemfa
Heart surgeon, Masoud Pezeshkian, was sworn-in as President of Iran on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. His primary concern seemed to be about lifting the unilateral sanctions the United States, US, had imposed on his country. Reviving the economy is fundamental for the citizenry and the sure way of winning their hearts.
However, he would have been forced to have a change of heart within 24 hours. The first major challenge he is faced with now is how to react to Israel’s assassination of Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh. The latter had accepted Iran’s invitation to attend his swearing-in ceremony. At the occasion, Haniyeh who had been well received, flashed the victory sign. But the very next day, Israel assassinated him in Tehran.
