APC: Breakaway Faction Of The PDP

*Ikhide

Exactly one year ago, Mr Ikhide Ikheloa (Pa Ikhide) wrote this on his facebook page. Read again and see if it is possible to disagree with him, if you have any grain of honesty in you...

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O Beautiful People

Many people have asked me my opinion on the change of baton between the PDP and the APC, that breakaway faction of the PDP. It should be obvious that I am not crying in my beer that Mr. Goodluck Jonathan is out of Aso Rock, he was not fit to be president of Nigeria, I am contemptuous of his reign and that of the PDP. And I have a hard time being grateful to Mr. Jonathan for being gracious in defeat; it is high time we stopped thanking the servants of the people for merely doing their job sometimes.

On the other hand I am not dancing in the streets because our thieving public intellectuals, the Napoleons of Animal Farm are heralding the coming of the tired face of yesterday on the backs of criminals and thugs and liars as "change." I do not share in the euphoria; I repeat, we have merely changed the letters of the alphabet from odious PDP to odious APC, same difference.

No one fools me, I will continue to push the conversation about what is appropriate in terms of governance. Democracy without accountability is killing Nigeria and Nigerians. We have spent dozens of billions of Naira to race past broken schools, broken hospitals and broken roads to execute a shoddy election and install the illusion of change. We have just traded ravenous locusts for starving termites. We will be miserable for the next four years as we continue to endure an unsustainable democracy. This democracy is an unsustainable farce and we all know it. If we are not careful it will be the end of our nation as we know it.The PDP needs to go, the APC needs to go, they are collectively responsible for our mess and I am not excusing one bunch of thieves and incompetents from blame.

President Buhari 

My people. I would like to be wrong, I pray to be wrong for one reason. My generation and older, of leaders and intellectuals owe this generation a huge debt of relief. We owe them what we have afforded our own families and children from the safety of the West and the faux suburbs of Lekki and Abuja. They deserve good schools, homes, hospitals and robust safety and security that our children and family enjoy. We have ripped them off, looted their present and future and fed them lies from birth. We owe them relief.

My people, since independence what has happened to Nigeria and Nigerians, I call black-on-black crime. Nigeria was quite honestly better off under white rule; that is exactly what our black rulers have proven to their eternal shame.

In the name of this generation of hopeful youths, I plead with the incoming farce, this change borne on the backs of criminals and thugs and liars, to prove me wrong and show some compassion and competence. Please do something in the name of millions of young people who truly believe in you and expect structural changes in the next four years. Prove many of us wrong and do something productive for once. We have the solutions but sixteen years of corruption and buffoonery by various versions of the APC and the PDP have taunted the question: Who will bell the cat?

I salute and congratulate every young Nigerian that has begun the journey of fighting back. It is your country, they owe you, you do not owe them. They work for you; hold them accountable, make them leaders, not rulers. Make them treat you the way they treat their own children. This is a promise: In your name, I will continue to be a one-man army railing against the APC and the PDP until they morph from being enemies of the people to champions of the people. I do not need money from any of them, I just want them to do what they have promised. It may not happen in my lifetime but it won't be for lack of trying. A pox on both their houses.

Finally, I must thank those who engaged me on my wall; as much as I joked about ‪#‎BLOCKING folks, I found that I did not really need to use that powerful tool. The vast majority of folks proved that they were raised right and engaged me with passion and uncommon respect, even when I was being bad and I am not the easiest person to have as an adversary. I salute you and I look forward to more skirmishes as I join like-minded folks to continue to name and shame our ruler-criminals. Nigeria is ours, not theirs.

Good morning!

Kaduna Anti-Christian Bill: First Step To Islamisation

By Clement Udegbe

Nasir El Rufai appears to be one of the arrows aimed at making Christians very uncomfortable in Nigeria by anti-Christian forces of this country. In January 2013, the former FCT Minister wishing to please his godfathers in politics, as a governorship aspirant in Kaduna State, tweeted an insult on the person of Jesus Christ. 

*Gov Nasir el-Rufai

Christians reacted  to his insensitive, irresponsible and offensive saying about Christ, and his attack on the sensibilities of Christians globally, which betrayed his lack of respect for our Lord Jesus Christ and obvious hatred for Christians. His reply which added insults to the injury includes “I must say I am taken aback by the extent of desperate misrepresentation of what was an innocuous attempt to show the godlessness of the Jonathanians to denigrate anyone that dares to ask them to be accountable...To those who were genuinely offended by the retweet, I apologise. I did not mean to offend anyone. Jesus or Isa Alaihis Salaam is a respected prophet of Islam. Every Muslim accepts this in addition to his miraculous virgin birth. It is therefore absurd for any Muslim believer to disrespect Jesus Christ,” he added. 

The Christian Association of Nigeria(CAN) scribe said there was a portion of the response that insulted the Christian faith, pointing out that the association is convinced Mr. El-Rufai "is set on a war path with Christians in Nigeria.”  The association warned him to stop taking Christians for granted with such foolish comments. 

Unfolding events have confirmed that CAN was right, El- Rufai hates Christians! Malam El-Rufai was a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, not a Minister of any person or party. The problem is godfatherism, and that is why such an uncouth comment could come from a Minister of this nation, and he went ahead to become a Governor! In Igboland, a proverb says that when a child is dancing on the main road, someone must be beating the drums for him in the bush. Someone must be beating the drum from a hidden position, to which Malam El-Rufai is dancing in the public.

 In 2013, the APC wanted to field a Muslim-Muslim ticket for the posts of President and Vice President. In 2014, they quickly abandoned a muslim-muslim ticket, and exploited an in road via the Redeemed Christian Church of God, where Vice President Osibanjo SAN, was a Senior Pastor, and that did the job for All Progressives Congress (APC). While the north voted massively for APC on both ethnic and religious grounds, votes were divided elsewhere in the country. The church had a distracted or shifted focus, and in what appears now like a compromise by the church, Kaduna state Governor became emboldened to unleash more insults on the Church of God. The fears expressed by Christians over APC and Buhari’s leadership persists, in spite of the campaign promises of a changed Buhari. 

Uganda Launches Africa's First Solar-Powered Bus

A solar-powered bus described by its Ugandan makers as the first in Africa has been driven in public.

Kiira Motors' Kayoola prototype electric bus was shown off at a stadium in Uganda's capital, Kampala.

One of its two batteries can be charged by solar panels on the roof which increases the vehicle's 80km (50 mile) range.

The makers now hope to attract partners to help manufacture the bus for the mass market.

Kiira Motors' chief executive Paul Isaac Musasizi told BBC News that he had been "humbled" by the large and positive reaction to the test drive. People have been excited by the idea that Uganda is able to produce the concept vehicle, or prototype, and Mr Musasizi said he wanted it to help the country "champion the automotive, engineering and manufacturing industries" in the region.

Watch Video 

He also hopes that it will generate employment, predicting that by 2018, more than 7,000 people could be directly and indirectly employed in the making of the Kayoola.

But backing from international companies, which make vehicle parts, is essential for the project to take off.

The vision is that by 2039 the company will be able to manufacture all the parts and assemble the vehicle in Uganda.

The 35-seat bus is intended for urban areas rather than inter-city use because of the restrictions on how far it can travel.

If it is mass produced, each bus would cost up to $58,000 (£40,000), which Mr Musasizi says is a competitive price.

Kiira Motors grew out of a project at Uganda's Makerere University, which is now a shareholder in the company, and it has also benefitted from government funding.

-BBC

Matters Arising On Osun LCDAs

By Abiodun Komolafe

It’s no longer news that some 31 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs), 3 Area  Councils and two Administrative Offices were recently created in Osun State  by the Rauf Aregbesola-led administration. As Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure in the Bola Tinubu-led administration when Lagos State had its LCDA experience, one can safely state that Aregbesola has garnered experience sufficient enough to help him drive the newly-created lower-tier administrative units in Osun State.

 

*Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State 

At a period of global financial failure like this, fears on the part of the people cannot be said to be misplaced. It is therefore comforting to know that the governor has assured Osunians that the new councils were created primarily to bring "development to the people", manage "the markets", and generate "more revenues, amongst others." Good also that he has allayed the fears of human and material resources with which to power the third tier of the administrative structure, taking into consideration the socio-economic and geo-political realities on ground in the country. With these additional administrative council areas in place, one expects that local government administration will be brought nearer to the people.

Again, while not conceding its comparative edge in administrative purposes over the building of a pattern of dominance, it will also go a long way in removing some of the inconsistencies and confusions associated with local government administration. And, since the system is participatory in nature, opportunities for broadening the potential for societal capacity building, accountability, transparency and openness cannot be overlooked. Above all, the glorious roles of our traditional rulers as the embodiment and custodians of their community's customs and traditions, which successive constitutions have tragically failed to appropriately clarify, will by this laudable step become enhanced. 

It’s Time To Put Nigeria First

By Reuben Abati 

This commentary is inspired by Olusegun Adeniyi’s “Of Wailers, Counterwailers And Buharideens” (ThisDay, March 31). In that piece, the ace journalist and public affairs commentator successfully defines the tri-polarities governing public responses to the Muhammadu Buhari administration.  The take-away is that the biggest challenge that Nigeria faces at the moment is political partisanship, which has divided the country into the camps of rights and wrongs and a fierce and bitter contestation over who is right or wrong.

One year after the last Presidential election that led to the exit of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), after 16 years in office and power (sorry, the 60 years project failed) and the exit also, of the Goodluck Jonathan administration, there is now a bitter fight out there on the streets over whether or not Nigerians took the right decision by voting for change, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Muhammadu Buhari. President Goodluck Jonathan’s over 12.8 million supporters have proven to be loyal and indeed that they exist as a serious, organised political force.

They have wasted no muscle, saliva or emotion in slyly reminding Nigerians generally that the electorate didn’t think properly about the choices they made in the 2015 general elections. President Buhari gained 15.4 million plus supporters in that election and they too are not ready to abandon their choice. And as Adeniyi brilliantly points out, you have the Buharideens, whose devotion to the incumbent is at the level of passion, religion and ethnicity. Adeniyi forgot to mention the Jonathanians (I wonder why) who, afraid of persecution, have since laid low strategically, but are now beginning to show their hands, as a new contest for the public mind begins, close to the first anniversary of the Buhari administration in power.

My tentative take is that there is too much ego, passion and self-righteousness out there on the streets. Add the reverse triumphalism of the defeated PDP. Well, scratch that. Add opportunism. You may scratch that too. Add didn’t-we-tell-you-the-change-you-sought-was-nothing-but-one-chance? Now, scratch that and replace with the other group saying you-thieves-should-go-hide-your-heads-in-shame. Hmmm, scratch that quickly and replace with all-of-us-na-barawo-una-go-see-wetin-we-go-do-to-you-when-we-come-back. Now don’t scratch this completely, leave some of the ink, and replace with there-is-no-vacancy-here-na-joke-una-dey-joke-because-we-know-corruption-is-trying-to-fight-back. Now, come on, scratch everything and replace with the realization that Nigeria today is entrapped in a vicious power game, a muddled integrity game and a desperate one-upmanship, my-car-is-better-than-yours game. It is as if the election has not ended, it is as if we are still in the season of political campaigns.

Corruption In Kenya Is A Mere Pitfall Of National Consciousness

By Alexander Opicho
Kenya, in its capacity as a state and a government is now a victim of uncontrollable corruptions. The media of all type from both within and without has conclusively called Kenya as a country of mega corruption. The president so far has accepted that his country is a society of state thievery.

President Uhuru Kenyatta (pix: The Nation) 

This is great as acceptance is the only first critical point from which you start solving a problem. President Kenyatta is correctly diagnostic, Kenya as a political and state organization is currently under lethal threat of mega-theft of crown properties by state officers, a vice that is only self-pertuating through generations as a mere pitfall of national consciousness riding on the crest of self-idolatry of the tribes in love with the selves while putting on the dark blinkers even to a simple damn for the humanity in poverty that makes social geography of this country on the western shores of the Indian ocean.

What am I saying? I am saying that it is not the absolute duty of the state and government to fight corruption, but instead they are the people of Kenya that are bound to be wary and supposed to come out of sweet sentimentalities of tribal cocoonery and firmly say no to corruption and the corrupt leaders, especially the leaders as fellow tribesmen. It is so unfortunate that the people of Kenya expect a bourgeoisie state like the one in Kenya to fight corruption. It is impossible. History of politics is a repertoire of technical facts confirming a testament that bourgeoisie political organizations cannot fight corruption in the political class, instead the state is a basic tool which the economic bourgeoisie and the political bourgeoisie use as a tool of oppression for properly smashing the common person and the peasantry into a forlorn social station of the wretched of the earth.

Buhari, Tinubu And Anti-Kachikwu Hysteria

By Paul Onomuakpokpo  

Having crashed from the dizzy heights of the grand dreams of prosperity and equity of the All Progressives Congress (APC) government led by President Muhammadu Buhari, the citizens who are desperately in search of succour are faced with the danger of snatching whatever promises to ameliorate their plight. What is amply being demonstrated now is that the citizens’ straitened circumstances could blur their capacity to make a distinction between those who really love them and are genuinely committed to their well-being and those who would gleefully turn their blighted condition into a populist stunt to leverage their social and political capital.

*Tinubu and President Buhari

The citizens who have been left in the lurch by the APC government after winning the presidential election may agree with Bola Tinubu that what Minister of State for Petroleum Ibe Kachikwu owes Nigerians is a public apology and not smugly applauding himself from an Olympian height for how much he has deployed his ingenuity  to supply the citizens fuel amid highly discouraging odds.  Yet, the citizens must take cognisance of the need to avoid being corralled into a turf war that is not actually designed to benefit them. We do not need to probe how much love of the people Tinubu demonstrated while he was the governor of Lagos State. What we observe now from his position as a leader of the ruling party is enough for us. He was instrumental to the emergence of Buhari as president. It was apparently to avoid indicting himself that Tinubu would not like to blame Buhari for the failure of his government. For Tinubu cannot really say that he found in Buhari administrative genius that compelled him to recommend him to Nigerians as the best presidential material last year. In this regard, we are reminded of the attempts by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to divorce himself from the crises sired by the inability of  his successor Musa Yar’ Adua to govern effectively after being hobbled by an illness that he never recovered from.

To be sure, the nation’s fuel crisis is aggravated by the erratic supply of electricity. This is a sector managed by Babatunde  Fashola whom Tinubu imposed on Lagos State residents for eight years.  On account of Tinubu’s newfangled love for the well-being of the citizens, he should have  issued a statement bristling with rage at  Fashola’s abandonment of   his responsibility of providing the citizens improved electricity. Or does Tinubu not consider it revoltingly illogical for  Fashola to compel the citizens to pay more for electricity they are not provided? Which should come first, the provision of meters for the citizens or their paying more for electricity? Would the citizens not readily pay their bills if they were metered and they were convinced that they were paying for what they consumed?

Chibok Girls Not Missing –Fayose

Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, on Wednesday declared that no pupil was abducted by Boko Haram from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State.

Over 200 pupils of the school were reportedly abducted in 2014 by the terror group.

The governor said the report was politically motivated to influence public opinion against the Goodluck Jonathan administration ahead of the 2015 general elections.

Fayose spoke while declaring open a two-day workshop on “Political Aspirants Capacity Enhancement” organised by Women Arise for Change Initiative. It was organised for women from Ekiti, Osun and Ondo states.

He said, “Today, many opposition leaders are underground. I don’t think any of these girls is missing; it is a political strategy. Who is fooling who? If you wanted to use it to remove some people, you have succeeded already.

“I don’t know if there are missing girls but no indication has shown that. It is a political strategy, because I don’t think any girl is missing. If they are missing, let them find them.”

 

*Gov Fayose 

The governor also took a swipe at ‪#‎BringBackOurGirls campaigners, saying some of them are using it to look for appointments.

He lamented that human rights groups had decided to keep quite since President Muhammadu Buhari came on board.

Fayose said, “I’m concerned about the activities of human rights groups. Today the government of the day is obeying court order of their choice, while human rights are not respected.

“We must talk about government providing cover for criminals. You are now using that person to harass innocent person. You will never have peace when you hide justice.”

He added, “Police came into town yesterday (Tuesday) to arrest political opponents. If you like, demonise me, I will demonise you. I don’t need the police and the SSS (Department of State Services) to walk in my state. It is when you are not popular that you walk with police.

“Any government that rises against me, that government will come down. I’m Peter the rock. By engaging me, you make me more popular and relevant and then court sympathy. I’m one person that is going places. That is why all these challenges are against me.”

My Life As A Sex-Trafficking Victim

Shandra Woworuntu arrived in the US hoping to start a new career in the hotel industry. Instead, she found she had been trafficked into a world of prostitution and sexual slavery, forced drug-taking and violence. It was months before she was able to turn the tables on her persecutors. Some readers may find her account of the ordeal upsetting.

HER STORY

I arrived in the United States in the first week of June, 2001. To me, America was a place of promise and opportunity. As I moved through immigration I felt excited to be in a new country, albeit one that felt strangely familiar from movies and TV.

In the arrivals hall I heard my name, and turned to see a man holding a sign with my picture. It wasn't a photo I cared for very much. The recruitment agency in Indonesia had dressed me up in a revealing tank top. But the man holding it smiled at me warmly. His name was Johnny, and I was expecting him to drive me to the hotel I would be working in.

The fact that this hotel was in Chicago, and I had arrived at JFK airport in New York nearly 800 miles away, shows how naive I was. I was 24 and had no idea what I was getting into.

After graduating with a degree in finance, I had worked for an international bank in Indonesia as an analyst and trader. But in 1998, Indonesia was hit by the Asian financial crisis, and the following year the country was thrown into political turmoil. I lost my job…

…I arrived at JFK with four other women and a man, and we were divided into two groups. Johnny took all my documents, including my passport, and led me to his car with two of the other women.

That was when things started to get strange.

A driver took us a short way, to Flushing in Queens, before he pulled into a car park and stopped the car. Johnny told the three of us to get out and get into a different car with a different driver. We did as we were told, and I watched through the window as the new driver gave Johnny some money. I thought, "Something here is not right," but I told myself not to worry, that it must be part of the way the hotel chain did business with the company they used to pick people up from the airport.

…But the new driver didn't take us very far either. He parked outside a diner, and again we had to get out of the car and get into another one, as money changed hands. Then a third driver took us to a house, and we were exchanged again.

The fourth driver had a gun. He forced us to get in his car and took us to a house in Brooklyn, then rapped on the door, calling "Mama-san! New girl!"

By this time I was freaking out, because I knew "Mama-san" meant the madam of a brothel. But by this time, because of the gun, there was no escape.

The door swung open and I saw a little girl, perhaps 12 or 13, lying on the ground screaming as a group of men took turns to kick her. Blood poured from her nose and she was howling, screaming in pain. One of the men grinned and started fooling around with a baseball bat in front of me, as if in warning.

And just a few hours after my arrival in the US, I was forced to have sex.

I was terrified, but something in my head clicked into place - some kind of survival instinct. I learned from witnessing that first act of violence to do what I was told…

…Then I looked at my escort and saw he was concealing a gun, and he was watching me. He made a gesture that told me not to try anything.

Later that day our group was split up and I was to see little of those two women again. I was taken away by car, not to Chicago, but to a place where my traffickers forced me to perform sex acts.

The traffickers were Indonesian, Taiwanese, Malaysian Chinese and American. Only two of them spoke English - mostly, they would just use body language, shoves, and crude words. One thing that especially confused and terrified me that night, and that continued to weigh on me in the weeks that followed, was that one of the men had a police badge. To this day I don't know if he was a real policeman.

They told me I owed them $30,000 and I would pay off the debt $100 at a time by serving men. Over the following weeks and months, I was taken up and down Interstate 95, to different brothels, apartment buildings, hotels and casinos on the East Coast. I was rarely two days in the same place, and I never knew where I was or where I was going.

These brothels were like normal houses on the outside and discos on the inside, with flashing lights and loud music. Cocaine, crystal meth and weed were laid out on the tables. The traffickers made me take drugs at gunpoint, and maybe it helped make it all bearable. Day and night, I just drank beer and whisky because that's all that was on offer. I had no idea that you could drink the tap water in America.

Twenty-four hours a day, we girls would sit around, completely naked, waiting for customers to come in. If no-one came then we might sleep a little, though never in a bed. But the quiet times were also when the traffickers themselves would rape us. So we had to stay alert. Nothing was predictable.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE WHOLE STORY 

Nigeria’s Professional Excuse Makers

By Moses Ochonu

Professional excuse makers are enablers of bad governance. We dealt with them during the last administration. We're dealing with them yet again in this one. Yesterday, I posted (on my facebook page) a simple inquiry about why President Buhari was going to the US to attend a nuclear non-proliferation summit when Nigeria has no civilian or military nuclear industry. The silly excuses started pouring in, muddying the reasonable ones.

*President Buhari 

Someone even said that as the most populous black nation, Nigeria should attend the summit. What blackness and population has to do with nuclear non-proliferation is not spelt out.

For several people, the fact that Nigeria was invited was enough, meaning that Buhari should attend every international meeting Nigeria is invited to regardless of its relevance to Nigeria's national interest. And by the way, it is Nigeria that was invited, not Buhari, which begs the question of why he had to go himself.

Other commenters speculated that he may be going to observe and learn about nuclear technology, since Nigeria plans to turn to nuclear technology for power generation in the future. Two retorts to that. First, the press release announcing the trip simply stated that he was attending the summit and did not mention why he is doing so, leaving Nigerians scratching their heads, wondering and speculating. This same chain of events occurred when the presidency announced that PMB was attending a charity event to raise funds for Syrian refugees. Without the release specifying what Nigeria had to gain from such an event and why the president was helping to raise funds for refugees from a distant war when our own refugees are reeling, Nigerians rightly concluded that the trip was a wasteful misplacement of priorities, a misguided product of xenophilia.

Second, even if Nigeria must attend to "study" proceedings, why not send the minister of science and technology or the top federal official with oversight of that sector?

Abacha Loot: Saved, Spent Or Stolen?

By Sonala Olumhense

Former Nigeria leader Olusegun Obasanjo has explained what became of the funds recovered from Nigeria’s best advertised kleptocrat, General Sani Abacha.

Calling the court of law and Nigerians who want to know what he did with the money he recovered, “stupid,” he dignified his critics with some wisdom last week.

“I don’t keep account,” he said.  “All Abacha loots were (sic) sent to Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and every bit of it was reported to Minister of Finance…If they want to know what happened to the money, they should call CBN governor or call the Minister of Finance!”

*Gen Sani Abacha

To begin with, here is a general timeline of the Abacha loot story:

·         May 29, 1999: Obasanjo takes office.

·         July 1999: Nigeria begins civil proceedings in London against Mohammed Abacha, Abubakar Bagudu and companies owned by them, in connection with a debt buy-back transaction in which they had made an illicit profit of about 500 million DEM. Freezing and disclosure orders having been obtained, $420 million in assets are identified and frozen, and Nigeria demonstrates to the courts that Mohammed Abacha had failed to disclose over $1.1m in assets in Switzerland and Luxembourg.

·         Mid-September 1999: Obasanjo hires Italian lawyer Enrico Monfini to pursue assets stolen by Sani Abacha and his family. Pursuit begins from a Nigeria police investigation which showed that between 1994 and 1998, Abacha and his sons had looted the CBN of about $2 billion and transferred the money abroad.

·         30 September 1999: Monfrini lodges with Switzerland a request for interim freezing orders. Granted within two weeks, this paves the way for the lodging of a formal request for mutual assistance by Nigeria on 20 December 1999. It is discovered that all of the bank accounts identified in the request have been closed, and their assets transferred to such places as Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, the UK and Jersey.

·         November 1999: Nigeria, deploying a parallel strategy with the Attorney General of Geneva of a criminal complaint for fraud, money laundering and participation in a criminal organisation, requests to be admitted in the proceedings as a party suing for damages. This is granted, leading to a blanket freezing order in which the names of the suspects, their aliases and their companies are sent to all Swiss banks.

·         Within days, many accounts with assets of over $700m, are frozen in Switzerland as banks report and dutifully monitor suspicious accounts, including the receiving and paying accounts.

·         On the basis of the criminal proceedings in Geneva, Nigeria lodges requests for mutual assistance with Luxembourg, UK, Liechtenstein and Jersey, and within months, an additional $1.3 billion are frozen in those jurisdictions.

Bastardising Democracy In Ghana: NDC Reign of Terror

By Fadi Dabbousi Samih

The Bureau of National Investigations, BNI, it seems, has become a tool for enslaving Ghanaians by instilling in them fear. So dreadful has the thought of falling into the hands of these undemocratic demagogues become that the only inference derivable from the lawlessness of the law enforcement agencies is that our nation has become a “Banana Republic”. Whatever that may mean, I would like to understand it in a more realistic term: that a hard unripe banana is shoved up the butt of every soul living under the ignominy of President John Dramani Mahama and his bunch of iniquitous palpable liars, every day.

As if we are not having enough problems grappling with the acute penury that has become the order of the day, it would seem as if members of government are trying to settle scores with the opposition where there are none. Vocal criminals like Mugabe Maasi and uncouth characters like Kokoon Anyidaho are on the loose making unguarded statements predicting the death of the most popular Ghanaian, Hon Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo, by June, and his subsequent absence from the ballot paper for elections 2016. This is one of the many crimes they continue to perpetrate with total impunity under the protection of the State machinery. However, when this opposition leader solicits the services of security professionals known worldwide in the business of guarding high profile VIPs, the confused security apparatuses of the befuddled NDC government kick into cowardly action to arrest and level all manner of charges against them.

The idea of fighting terrorism has been brought upon innocent people worried about the death threats cast at them while the real terrorists are lavishing in largess at the expense of the tax payer. While innocent people are in jail ailing without a sign of concern from the authorities, actual terrorists are free, moving about under official protection allegedly impregnating young Ghanaian ladies, and that begs the question. Captain Koda, the head of Nana Akufo-Addo’s security detail is said to be ill in the BNI cells, yet in addition to the physical and mental abuse, he is being denied the basic medical attention as enshrined in the constitution of this great country. Even war criminals are entitled to such care, much more an innocent person just performing his job.

Buhari, President Of Criminals?

By Uche Ezechukwu

My people, the Igbo, claim that no mat­ter how well a mad man had been ad­judged cured of his mental ill­ness, he must, from time to time, wink and mutter to himself. While meditating on, and read­ing the many comments on the latest verbal flagellation of Nige­rians by – who else – their presi­dent, I started thinking that this proverb can be creatively applied to the case of Nigeria’s current helmsman and his regular talk-down on Nigeria.

*President Buhari 

I remember vividly in 1984 or so, when the gifted musical ac­tivist, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, re­leased that song, in which he described as ‘animal talk’, the tendency of the Buhari adminis­tration to routinely castigate and write off Nigerians, at every drop of the hat. The indefatigable Fela, like most other Nigerians at that time, were angry that Buhari had ruled all Nigerians as lacking in discipline, and had gone ahead herding them in the queues, with horsewhips, like herds of cattle. If Nigerians had been pained, they had mostly borne their pain with equanimity, as not many people had the courage – or fool­hardiness – to complain openly, as Fela had done.

For Buhari in those days, that horrendous indiscipline, against which he inaugurated the elabo­rate ‘War Against Indiscipline’ (WAI) was so pervasive that it even included saying anything that caused embarrassment – even it was true – to those in authority. Nduka Irabor and Tunde Thompson, The Guardian journalists that got imprisoned for doing their job, will forever, remain the living icons of the intolerance of the era of General Buhari’s first coming.

While Buhari prosecuted his quixotic battles against indis­cipline in 1984 and 1985, there were many people, in and outside Nigeria that had pooh-poohed the whole exercise as hypocriti­cal, arguing that the take-over of an elected government with the force of arms was, perhaps, the gravest form of indiscipline. Even if Nigerians had reluctantly ignored that fact, it was diffi­cult to excuse the fact that his ADC’s father was allowed to pass through the Customs gridlock at the Lagos airport, which was as narrow as the ‘eye of a needle’ with 53 suitcases of ‘whatever’, unsearched, when the coun­try’s entry points were under a vice-like lock, as the nation was embarking on the issuance of new currency notes. After that 53-suitcase saga, Buhari’s WAI campaign became less worthy than the paper on which it was scripted.

No matter how much Muham­madu Buhari has tried since his return to seek power under the democratic dispensation to prove that he has metamor­phosed into a born-again demo­crat, the vestiges of his past dis­dain for the people, has stuck out like a sore thumb. President Buhari has hardly stopped looking down on everybody else, in the typical manner of the military that had been inherited from colonial masters, on the people as mere subjects – idle civilians. He still sees himself as a koboko-wielding soldier, looking down on the rest of us, idle civilians, and wishing to ‘double’ all of us with a frog-jump.

Even though he is doing his honest and transparent best to bring succour to the nation eco­nomically by trying to convince foreigners to come and invest in our country, Buhari has proved to be the worst enemy of that possibility, because as Nigeria’s best and number one salesper­son, he has always presented his country and his people as those that should not be touched with a ten metre pole. Because Nigerians are corrupt, robbers, fraud­sters, cutthroats and other manners of criminals, with which foreign prisons are inundated, why would anybody bring his money and business here, only to be pillaged and out-foxed? After all, they were warned by – who else – their president himself!

President Buhari, You Are Still The Petroleum Minister

By Ogundana Michael Rotimi

Dear President Buhari,

I am addressing you not as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, but as the Minister of Petroleum Resources, a post to which you appointed yourself on the November 11, 2015.

*President Buhari 

You seem to have forgotten that you are the Minister of Petroleum Resources and may have completely relinquished your responsibilities to the Minister of State of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu.

You seem to have neglected the fact that you are directly answerable to Nigerians as the Minister of Petroleum Resources, and owe it to Nigerians to make the product readily available and affordable.

As a reminder of what you already know - fuel scarcity has fully gripped major cities in the country and is contributing negatively to an economy that is still struggling to pick its stand.

Pathetic as it may be, your Ministry has failed Nigerians over its inability to end the lingering fuel shortage, as this unabated scarcity of the product has contributed to the high cost of goods and services.

The Honourable Minister of Petroleum Sir, you are on your way to set the record for the longest reign of fuel scarcity in the history of the Republic under your watch. Since you have been sworn in, it has been from one scarcity to another.

Although, one cannot belittle or underestimate the efforts of the junior Minister of Petroleum Resources who also happens to be the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, in revamping the sector. But Sir, your unnecessary and unwarranted silence and carefree attitude before every short statement is issued on the lingering scarcity is worrisome. It suggests that you may have forgotten or may have become unconscious of the fact that you head the Ministry that is currently failing to make available and affordable the product that is key to the economy and the everyday activities of the people.

Kachikwu As Scapegoat Of Tinubu's Frustration

By Uche Ezechukwu

The mantra of ‘change’, mouthed by the All Progressive Congress (APC) during the electoral campaigns was so appealing at the time to Nigerians, such that when they ushered Muhammadu Buhari into office by voting out Goodluck Jonathan, hope became the most abundant commodity in Nigeria. When APC promised that they were going to recreate for Nigerians a heaven on earth, they were believed and trusted, especially as that ‘change promise’ was being steered by a man that was reputed to be a man of truth. 

*Bola Tinubu and President Buhari 

For a country that places little premium on competence and proven track record, not much thought was extended on Buhari’s ability to understand, not to talk of being able to confront the complex demands of modern-day issues. Even those who had queried his intellectual capacity to face up to those modern-day challenges were shouted down. Nigerians wanted their man; they got him. Ten months into President Muhammadu Buhari’s APC administration, it has become obvious, even to the APC bosses themselves, that talk is cheap, and that as the saying goes here in Nigeria, ‘khaki no be leather’. 

One does not have to be ‘a wailer’ to see and accept that nothing is working in today’s Nigeria or that the government is at sea over where next to turn. In the beginning, every bend on the road was blamed on the outgone administration of President Jonathan as well as on the 16-year reign of the PDP, which in any case, was made up of most of today’s top-hats in the APC. The over-lapping messages of the campaign period had continued to work for the APC during the early months of the administration, but it could definitely not last forever. Propaganda, though effective on the short run, has a very quick expiry date. The APC’s campaign excuses and the blaming game days have also elapsed…perhaps permanently.

For instance, there was no way the Buhari administration could continue to blame Goodluck Jonathan for the president’s inability to pick ministers for six whole months; nor could the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) be blamed for having anything to do with the fact that when PMB eventually did pick his ministers, they were mostly lack-lustre and lacking in pedigree, accounting for the fact that the cabinet does not have one single person whose voice commands authority in the field of economic management. Many have wondered if the problem with the embarrassingly low quality of Buhari’s team is the lack of the ability, ab initio, of the president to distinguish copper from gold.

Yet, there are many other informed observers who believe, like an article of faith, that the problem with the inertia of the current cabinet members who have definitely not performed, might not be in their personal lack of capacity, but rather, in the absence of a definite roadmap, as it is widely alleged that no minister can as much as sharpen a pencil without the president’s say-so. Which should not be a surprise, as, after all, over 90 per cent of them were picked not on their individual merit as proven performers, but rather because they were cronies of either Buhari or Ahmed Tinubu, the ‘owner’ of the other half of the party that brought the votes and the cash.