The Menace of Cattle Herders in Nigeria

By Leonard Karshima Shilgba

There has been a rash of proposals to resolve the menace of cattle herders’ invasion of Nigerian farmlands, who are killing unarmed Nigerians (children, women and men) and burning down or destroying houses and property, where understandably, no feeds or grasses exist for their cattle. All of these are happening on the victims’ ancestral lands, which the Nigerian constitution recognizes, even as according to Section 25(1) of the Constitution, a Nigerian by birth is so recognized only if either of his parents or grandparents “belongs or belonged to a community indigenous to Nigeria.”

In all the proposals available to me, I see none that provides for the farmers, who need even more parcels of land for their crop-farming activities than the cattle herders do. Whether they are proposals for “grazing reserves across Nigeria” or “Ranching”, for which the Federal Government seems prepared to invest public money for private business (I am yet to be provided evidence that the cattle herders are  herding government animals), I see no provision of a compensatory nature for Nigerian farmers and people, who have fallen victim to the recurring impunities of cattle herders that seem to be ever strengthened by some conviction of protection from certain quarters.

I wish to remind here that whatever proposals that the federal government may eventually adopt should be in agreement with the Constitution, otherwise they will fuel more crises and provoke anarchy in the land. Even the weak, when they face injustice, or perceive injustice that threatens their existence, will fight back in a deadly manner; for, after all, they believe they only have all to lose if they do nothing. But fighting back, they may have some to save.

 Let me cite a germane section of Nigeria’s Constitution: Section 42 (1) [Right to freedom from discrimination]:

A citizen of Nigeria of a particular community, ethnic group, place of origin, sex, religion or political opinion shall not, by reason only that he is such a person-

(a)    be subjected either expressly by, or in the practical application of, any law in force in Nigeria or any executive or administrative action of the government, to disabilities or restrictions to which citizens of Nigeria of other communities, ethnic groups, places of origin, sex, religions or political opinions are not made subject; or

(b)   be accorded either expressly by, or in the practical application of, any law in force in Nigeria or any executive or administrative action, any privilege or advantage that is not accorded to citizens of Nigeria of other communities, ethnic groups, places of origin, sex, religions or political opinions.

A close examination of the above Section shows that the constitution frowns at both discriminatory restrictions (and imposed disabilities) and discriminatory privileges or advantages. In view of this, I frame three questions for public determination:

1.       If the federal government chooses as a solution, to expend public money and expropriate lands from the natives across Nigeria, and hand over those to cattle herders for grazing, would that not amount to discriminatory restriction (of the natives, who will lose ownership of their ancestral lands) and discriminatory offer of privilege and advantage (to the cattle herders), who would then, like the Biblical Levites, live in government-protected “cities of refuge” across Nigeria? 

Before They Mislead President Buhari

By Dele Momodu 

Fellow Nigerians, let me say categorically and emphatically that our dear beloved country is dangerously haemorrhaging again and this perfidious drift must be halted urgently before we all end up in perdition. Anyone telling President Muhammadu Buhari that all is well or that his government is moving in the right direction is either lying or pretending like a rattlesnake. And there are many scorpions around ready to mislead every government and move on effortlessly when things fall apart. For sure President Buhari possesses the ability to move this country in the right direction and lead us to where we want to be but right now it is not happening and the soul of the people palpitates! I’ve been on several television and radio interviews in the past one week and the commonest question is on the performance of our President. The general perception is that the change mantra seems not to be working and the world is worried because of the importance of Nigeria in the comity of nations.

President Buhari and Dele Momodu

I hope our President will get to see this piece, read it and ruminate on the points I will raise. The Buhari government has lost a substantial equity in just one year as I will try to explain in the next few paragraphs. It must be noted that Nigerians were happy with the election that ushered in President Buhari. Even those who did not vote for him accepted him with unusual equanimity. Those we expected to fight and throw tantrums simply vamoosed into their bunkers. The expectations were high then but I doubt if enough effort was put into seizing the momentum and translating it into a mass movement that would have stood the test of time. It is not too late to reclaim the moment.

The faith Nigerians had in the abilities and incorruptibility of Buhari is mighty enough to move mountains. But unfortunately, I think the government took many things for granted once it took over the reins of power. The government mistakenly believed that the support of the people was like several blank cheques which it could cash at any point in time. The general impatience of Nigerians and their desire for progressive action were never put into consideration. I remember writing two memos to our President in quick successions, when I realised that Nigerians were getting restless and restive, one of which was the desperate memo that earned me an invitation to the Presidential Villa for which I am so honoured and proud.

Still the government did not respond appropriately to the yearnings of the populace. The major problem is that the priorities of Buhari were never palpable to the general public as everything seemed to operate in utmost secrecy. This is probably a relic of the military days when surprise and spontaneity achieved more. However, democracy is an open book and it has become even more so since the internet turned the world into a global information minefield. I’m sure it was assumed that the people would never doubt or query the sincerity of a messiah. So there was no need to provide any real information about the activities of government. That was the first fallacy.

The second fallacy is that people would give the President plenty of time to unfold his change agenda. One year on, it is obvious that this has not been the case. President Buhari should have moved faster once the people started grumbling about the apparent sluggishness of his administration. The selection of his cabinet was annoyingly slow and by the time it eventually came it had evaporated into a deja vu. There was no element of surprise to elicit major excitement. In fact, most people wondered why it took so long to assemble his present team most of whom he could have picked in two weeks or even before he was sworn in. The demystification of Buhari became manifest from that moment not because the team he picked is not worthy or creditable but because the interminable delay in making the choices cost the nation dearly.

Buhari With Idiagbon

By Farouk Martins Aresa

President Buhari’s one-year anniversary has been anything but glorious. It has been pitiful compared to his last time around. It is a different era, yet Buhari has done what most Northern rulers do best. When he loaded his personal staff with Northerners, some of us defended him based on the fact that he was overthrown in a palace coup. He has gone further by reserving most of the strategic positions for Northerners as if Southerners and Federal character do not exist.

*Buhari 

Late Idiagbon might have taken more heat than he deserved during the first coming of Buhari as military dictator. They ruled by fiat, regardless of what others thought. Idiagbon and the Supreme Military Council then had more input in order to gratify Buhari’s power base. Eventually, they confirmed his fears and overthrew him and Idiagbon. In this case, we realize that Osinbajo is in a civilian democracy. A Vice-President is used as the President deems fit.

Idiagbon was in a way more powerful than Osibanjo as the military dispensation gave them the clout to carry out War Against Indiscipline (WAI). Most of the people that voted for Buhari this time around wanted some grip on the national purse that was looted beyond reason with so much impunity. This gave Buhari an edge over the former President Jonathan. As far as those that voted for him are concerned, he has somehow lived up to it but below expectation.

Some of us would want him to go further. While we do realize constrains of democracy, the rule of law and due process, there are ways of confronting a killer disease if the life of the country is at stake. The same way western countries confront terrorism before it devours their cultural or normal way of life. They created task forces, detentions and outside jurisdictions.

Buhari could have gone as far as Obasanjo did with the atmosphere of accountability and the fear of consequences for the type of impunity we saw in the last Administration of President Jonathan. Ribadu was forceful, visible and acted as a deterrent for corruption under Obasanjo. He even claimed he used OBJ to investigate his friends and challenged anyone to point to any head of state that gave an investigating officer so much leverage and power.

Buhari and the Biafran Challenge

By Tunde Rahman

Last Tuesday, President Muhammadu Buhari met with South-east leaders, majorly from his the All Progressive Congress, at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja. The meeting came a day after the country celebrated yet another May 29 Democracy Day.

*Buhari

But it was also a day after the bloody Biafran protests in the South-east cities and Asaba in the South-south, which left in its wake death and destruction. Over 50 pro-Biafran protesters were reportedly killed across South-east states and in Asaba, the Delta State capital.

According to newspaper reports, two policemen also lost their lives in the protests. One of the policemen was said to have been thrown into River Niger. The South-east leaders met with Buhari under the aegis of South-east Group for Change and the 18-man delegation was led by former Senate President Ken Nnamani. After the meeting, the delegation declined to speak with State House Correspondents, but asked by the newshounds whether Biafra came up for discussion at the talks, Nnamani reportedly said, “No, no, not now”. If we believe the former Senate President that the issue of Biafra did not come up for discussion at that meeting, then it was just a matter of time for a presidential meeting on Biafra to be arranged because the Biafran issue has become a thorny issue for the South-east and for Nigeria.

The Biafran issue had become knotty again since Indian-trained lawyer, Ralph Uwazuruike, around 1999 or so, established the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) with the aim, as the name suggests, of securing the resurgence of the defunct State of Biafra. Based on the group’s activities, including hoisting Biafran flags at different locations in the South-east, the government accused MASSOB of violence and Uwazuruike was arrested in 2005 and detained on treason charges. That year, MASSOB had re-introduced the old Biafran currency into circulation. Uwazuruike was later released in 2007 but the secessionist activities of the group, however, did not stop. For instance in 2009, MASSOB launched ‘Biafran International Passport’ in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the group.

But around May 2014, the Biafran agitation took a new dimension with a new leader for the struggle: the British-Nigerian Nnamdi Kanu who spoke of his readiness to fight all the way. He said Nigeria would seize to exist by December 2015. Speaking at a gathering of members of defunct Biafra, including scores of its aged war veterans on May 30, 2014, Kanu vowed that he would not rest until the Biafran Republic is realised. The event held at Ngwo, Enugu State, was the maiden commemoration of Biafran Day, in remembrance of the events of 1967 when the late Igbo leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, declared the Republic of Biafra. Kanu who was also the Director of the outlawed Radio Biafra used the occasion to unveil a multi- million naira cenotaph in memory of Biafra fallen heroes killed during the civil war. He alleged that despite the declaration of the “No Victor, No Vanquished” after the Nigeria/Biafra civil war in 1970, successive governments in the country had continued to deliberately marginalise and make life unbearable for the Igbo nation and its people. He said it was unfortunate and painful that 47 years after the civil war, the reasons for which the war was fought were still evident in Nigeria. Kanu has been slammed with treason charges and remains in detention at present.

Multi-Partism As A Philosophic Construct

By Amor Amor

Like an inscrutable nightmare, the pon­derous mystery of the Nigerian national question, which is ultimately the nation’s enduring essence, is still at issue. Jolted by the scandalous and shocking dis­play of the obvious limitations of the human evolution, the unacceptable index of human misery in their country, and willed by the current spate of pain being inflicted on them by a stone-hearted old soldier and his quislings, Nigerians have been singing discordant tunes about the state of their forced union. This has further been exacerbated by disarm­ing pockets of inter and intra-communal clashes, ethnic cleansing by Fulani herdsmen, student unrest, rampaging madness of ethic militias and sectarian fanaticism in some parts of the country. There­fore, the matter for regret and agitation is that a supposedly giant of Africa has suddenly become the world’s most viable junkyard due to the evil mach­inations of a fraudulent ruling class and the feudal forces still bent on keeping the country in a perpetual state of medieval servitude.

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Yet, the most disturbing irony of the Nigerian con­dition is that a multi-party democratic system made up of over fifty registered politi­cal parties enthroned by the civil society and the media with the support of a few pro­gressive politicians such as the late legal luminary, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, the great Yoruba leader, Chief Abraham Ade­sanya, Chief Ndubisi Kanu, Alhaji Balarabe Musa and a host of others, is gradually be­ing turned to a one-party state by a gang of confused politi­cians and discredited soldiers who call themselves “progres­sives”. After a keenly contested presidential election in which emotions rose to fever-pitch, a lot of unprintable and dam­aging words thrown into the bargain from all sides of the divides, rather than sue for a genuine reconciliation of all the contending forces, presi­dent Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) started by criminalizing the opposition led by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which was hither­to the ruling party. Rather than show magnanimity in victory as genuine progressives would do, extend the olive branch to the defeated, resuscitate and rejig the Inter-party Advisory Office and promote peaceful co-existence amongst the vari­ous political parties, ethnic na­tionalities, religious and other interest groups, the APC-led federal government did the op­posite.

Soon after its inauguration, the APC government, like a bull in a China’s shop, started embarking on the aggressive promotion of belligerence, acrimony and rancour; crimi­nalization, demonization, de­humanization, and demolition of the major opposition party, the PDP. While decimating their prime enemy, the APC was trying to lionize and can­onize its members in messianic emblems at the detriment of other politicians. The APC, in its smugness, self assurance and we-know-it-all bravura, is bliss­fully unaware of the fact it won the election not only for them­selves but for all Nigerians. The ruling party is sadly engrossed in the envenomisation, intimi­dation and balkanisation of the PDP, organized Labour, the intelligentsia and the critical elite that it has forgotten how to govern this complex nation. By trying to rubbish the sustained achievements of the PDP which succeeded in rebuilding almost all the broken segments of the national economy for sixteen unbroken years after sixteen consecutive years (1983-1999) of military gangsterism, rapac­ity and greed, the APC has, unknown to itself, committed political harakiri before all dis­cerning Nigerians and the in­ternational community which rated the country under former president Goodluck Jonathan as easily the biggest economy in Africa and one of the fasted growing economies in the world.

Onitsha Massacre And The Shame Of A Nation

By Lawrence Chinedu Nwobu

Buhari would probably go down in history as the worst violator of human rights and by consequence the most undemocratic president ever to walk the shores of this blighted land. It is ironic that one day after the regime celebrated democracy day and its one year anniversary on the 29^th of May with much pomp, pageantry and fanfare, feeding the public with fanciful tales of its commitment to democracy, the rule of law and much propaganda on what it claims to have achieved in one year;   the next day being the 30^th of May heralded an unprovoked bloodbath as the infamous Nigerian army treaded the familiar path of killing more than 50 IPOB and MASSOB adherents who were peacefully marking the 49^th anniversary of the declaration of Biafra.

The most fundamental attributes of democracy are the freedoms of expression, association and dissent. Democracy in effect gives citizens the largest unrestricted space to air their views no matter how unpalatable—to assemble for what they believe in and above all to express dissent through peaceful means. In nations where democracy is practiced as it should, citizens express themselves freely and organise frequent public protests to register dissent. In none of these countries are citizens arrested or killed for expressing their opinion or for organising public protests. In rare occasions where possibly because of violence the security services deem it necessary to terminate such protests; civil means such as tear gas and water cannons are employed to disperse protesters.  It is thus paradoxical that one day after celebrating democracy day, the army is unleashed to kill peaceful  protesters who are exercising the most fundamental right that democracy affords them.

More so when as has been reported, IPOB and MASSOB had actually written the Anambra state commissioner of police, formally notifying him of their upcoming rally, for which the police should ordinarily have provided security while they carried out their peaceful rally as is done in true democracies. How can an administration celebrate the virtues of democracy and at the same time kill unarmed peaceful protesters? Is their own definition of democracy different? How come the same administration that has refused to act and infact maintained a studied silence while Fulani herdsmen slaughter people across the middle belt and South is ever so quick to kill peaceful IPOB/MASSOB protesters? By these contradictions Buhari has again demonstrated his deliberate refusal to align with democratic tenets.  After decades of struggling to have democratic governance and 17 years in a supposed democracy, these blatant suppression of rights and extra judicial executions  only serves to indicate that Nigeria has returned to full blown despotism.

Thoughts On New Minimum Wage

By Oye Eribake   

A wage is monetary compensation or remuneration paid by an employer to an employee in exchange for work done. Payment may be calculated as a fixed amount for each task completed or at an hourly or daily rate, or based on an easily measured quantity of work done. On the contrary, salary is a fixed regular payment made by an employer, often monthly, for professional or office work done as opposed to manual work.

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The term “minimum wage” implies minimum legislated remuneration of an employee whether in public or private sector. In Nigeria, we find that the organised private sector (OPS) is usually just guided by the minimum wage because their compensation packages reward employees fairly adequately and in excess of the minimum wage. On the other hand, the public and informal private sectors regard it like the doctor’s life-saving prescription i.e. not to be varied. Some would rather go below it if they know that they can get away with it. That is why many states shout on roof tops that they cannot afford Federal Government determined minimum wage. The extravagant life styles of the governors, however, belie such assertions.

Like it or not, fresh negotiations must start soon given the current harsh economic realities; a higher minimum wage is inevitable. It is only Federal Government that has the constitutional responsibility to legislate it; of course that does not mean that the state governors do not have a say. The National Economic Council will drive the process culminating in enactment of an act by the NASS.

One would like to see a situation where the economic well-being of the states is taken into adequate consideration alongside the welfare of their workers in determining the new minimum wage. We have states that are agrarian while some are commercial/metropolitan just as some are rich in mineral resources especially oil and gas. The proverbial saying that all fingers are not equal sums it up! Were the state governments to behave like the organised private sector, the South-South and Lagos states should have been rewarding their unskilled workforce more than agrarian states like Benue.

Power: Interrogating The Gaps In Fashola’s Roadmap

By Calixthus Okoruwa  

The minister with responsibility for Nigeria’s pivotal power sector, Mr. Babatunde Fashola has recently released what he calls “a roadmap for change” in the sector. It is commendable that his effort in this arena will be underscored by planning and more so that he has chosen to share this plan with the public. This conveys a sense of mission.

*Fashola 

Fashola’s roadmap is not different in any material way from the August 2010 “Roadmap for Power Sector Reform” the robust roadmap that was developed by the previous government. Incidentally, despite the lofty agenda of that apparently painstakingly-crafted plan, six years later, Nigeria still totters on circa 5000MW of power-generating and -transmission capacity respectively.

While such factors as corruption and insincerity of purpose can be listed among the causes of the failure of that otherwise meticulous plan, there is no doubt that hordes of genuine problems many of which hallmark the famed difficulty of doing business in Nigeria are also contributors. One of the most instructive but least recognised of these problems, in my view, has been citizen disinterest, arising from an inability or unwillingness of government to carry citizens along on its implementation journey. Not unexpectedly, therefore, initial public excitement soon gave way first to apathy and thereafter, sheer derision. If Fashola’s roadmap is not to go the way of its predecessor, it is pertinent that it is ardently confronted and interrogated by the average citizen.

 Even without expressly stating it, Fashola may have tactically reduced Nigeria’s power target over the next five years by half. While the original roadmap set a target of 40000MW by 2020, Fashola has cut this to 20000MW, stating that the Transmission Company of Nigeria, “TCN, has expressed a desire” to increase transmission in a stepwise manner from today’s 5000MW through to 20000MW over the next five years.

Ken Nnamani And Co’s Beggarly Villa Trip

By Ochereome Nnanna

I would not have commented on the recent appearance by a group of political adventurers in Aso Villa if not for the fact that they were described as “Igbo leaders” in some sections of the media. If they had simply gone as All Progressives Congress (APC) members from the South East visiting the President and leader of their party for whatever purposes, it would have passed as a non-event (though I have not seen APC leaders from other geopolitical zones going similarly cap-in-hand for special attention of President Muhammadu Buhari).

They called their gathering South East Group for Change (SEGC), probably a name they coined just for the Aso Rock trip, as nothing of such had been heard before now. Led by Mr. Ken Nnamani, a former Senate President, some of the known names included Mr. Osita Izunaso, a former one-term senator; Mr. Ernest Ndukwe, a two-term Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Mr. Chris Akomas, a former Deputy Governor of Abia State and Chief George Moghalu.

Apart from Moghalu, the rest were in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) when the going was good. They owed the high public offices attached to their names to the PDP, and now that the APC has become the new party with the “knife and yam”, they have trooped over there to reap where they did not sow. They are political opportunists, and it shocks many of Nnamani’s former admirers that he has degenerated to this level after once seeming a strong presidential possibility from Igboland.

Of this lot, only Moghalu is a genuine, thoroughbred APC leader. From 1999, Moghalu has been in the movement that eventually transmogrified into the APC – from the All People’s Party (APP) to the All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP) to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to the APC. He is a true party man; a genuine politician who stuck with the former opposition party through sun, rain, storms and high winds until it finally became the ruling party.

Buhari told us that the reason he violated the constitutional principle of federal character in the appointment of his inner government, was that he distributed positions to those who toiled and suffered with him over the years as a reward for their loyalty. I wonder how Moghalu could not qualify for appointment since he had been one of Buhari’s faithful point men in the South East since 2003 when he first ran for president. He was in that movement long before Dr. Chris Ngige decamped from the PDP. Even though no communiqué or media statement was issued after that visit (Buhari, knowing them for the opportunists they were, probably had nothing tangible to tell them), I read a most annoying analysis credited to an unnamed member of the group.

Sexual Harassment ‎Bill: A Step In The Right Direction

By Cynthia Ferdinand

 The history of sexual harassment dates back to the pre-colonial era when women were accorded little or no rights whatsoever – they were often married out against their wish, sacrificed as virgins or married to deities where they became ready sexual preys to the chief priests or custodians of such deities.

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While these repressive and degrading habits have abated following the introduction of Western education, it is unfortunate that the inhuman practice has not only crept into our citadels of learning but has continued to assume worrisome proportions to the consternation of parents and education authorities in the country alike. The effects of incessant sexual harassment of female students in higher institutions cannot be over-emphasized as it has continued to militate against the attainment of the educational vision and objectives of many a female folk in the country.

There have been overwhelming narratives on sexual harassment by victims such that researchers of international repute have described Nigerian tertiary institutions as sex colonies were rape and other forms of coerced copulation and sexual intimacy are practiced without sanctions. To many young Nigerians, especially female students in tertiary institutions, sexual harassment is something of a norm.

United Nations (UN) reports state that “one out of three women experience sexual harassment in their lifetime”. According to the European Union Commission recommendation: “There are also adverse consequences arising from sexual harassment for employers. In general terms, sexual harassment is an obstacle to the proper integration of women into the labour market.” It is further regrettable that over the years, aside provisions against rape and other untoward sexual behaviours in both the Criminal and Penal Codes, there have been no clear cut and effective legislation aimed at checkmating or eliminating this abhorrent practice from our institutions of higher learning.

 As a consequence, it is today difficult to explicitly articulate what constitutes sexual harassment and what sanctions there are to deter male predators. Another factor that has helped sustained this barbaric tendency, is the seeming societal indifference to the plight of victims due to discrepancies in views as to what actually constitute sexual harassment against the opposite sex.

Be that as it may, no matter the view we want to give to the menace of sexual harassment, its cumulative, demoralizing and harmful effect cannot be glossed over. It is unarguable that many academic careers of female students have been disrupted and frustrated and led inexorably to depression, ostracism, mental anguish and loss of self esteem on the part of victims of sexual harassment.

Nigeria: Change For The Worse, Litany Of Failures

By Fem Aribasala

When Buhari seized power, Nigeria’s GDP was $444. When he was overthrown in 1985, Nigeria’s GDP had dropped dramatically to $344. When Buhari seized power, one dollar exchanged for 0.724 naira. But by the time he was overthrown, one dollar exchanged for 0.894 naira; a 23% devaluation in barely two years. It was not surprising, therefore, that there was wild jubilation throughout the length and breadth of Nigeria when Buhari was overthrown.

*Buhari 

Litany Of Failure

History is now repeating itself in Nigeria. Since electing Buhari as president one year ago, Nigeria’s GDP has plummeted, with the economy suffering a negative growth in the first quarter of 2016; the worst in 25 years. Prices have skyrocketed. Investors have packed their bags and left Nigeria. Job losses and lay-offs have increased geometrically. Petrol stations have surreptitiously doubled their prices. Nigeria is now on the cusp of a recession.

Buhari was handed over $30 billion in foreign reserves by the Jonathan administration. He inherited over $2.5 billion in the Sovereign Wealth Fund; $1.4 billion in the ECA; and $4.65 billion in back taxes from NLNG. But virtually all of this has been squandered in one year of gross incompetence.

The president took the illegal and ill-advised step of providing N713 billion as bailout for insolvent state governments, without the approval of the national assembly, only to discover that those monies were squandered and not even used as intended to pay salary arrears. He squandered billions of dollars defending doggedly an unrealistic official value of the naira, only to finally admit defeat after the damage had been done.

Billions of dollars were mopped up by corrupt officials and shrewd middlemen who obtained dollars at the official N200 to $1 rate, only to sell this for huge profit at the N380 to $1 black market rate.

Babatunde Fashola boasted while in opposition that: “A serious government will fix the power problem in six months.” Now in office as Minister of Power for over six months, power blackouts have been unprecedented under his watch condemning the Buhari administration by his own words as a most unserious government.

Change For Worse

Goodluck Jonathan warned Nigerians about the bankruptcy of Buhari and the APC. His words have now become prophetic. He said in the heat of the 2015 election campaign: “The choice before Nigerians in the coming election is simple. It is a choice between going forward and backward, between the new ways and old ways, between freedom and repression, between a record of visible achievements and beneficial reforms and desperate power seekers with empty promises.”

After 365 days of a disastrous Buhari presidency, only diehard Buharimaniacs can deny that Jonathan’s warning has not come true. Propaganda has an expiration date, and it must now be abundantly clear that the expiration date for the hot air of Buhari’s government has long passed. Many of those like Dele Sobowale, Oby Ezekwesili and Wole Soyinka, who sang the praises of Buhari during the 2015 election, are already having a buyer’s remorse. Most Nigerians now realise they have been sold a fake bill of goods by Buhari and the APC.

Jonathan’s Bill Of Rights Or Failures?

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

It remains a puzzle of governance in Africa why those we entrust with leadership do not creditably acquit themselves like their counterparts in some nations of the world.  Before our politicians get power, we are enthralled by their resonant visions of an equitable society that would be an all-powerful response to the mockery that the black man would irremediably chafe under the affliction of  inept leadership. But once they are in office, they often fail to translate such grand dreams into reality.  After they leave office, they regain the trajectory of articulating how a great society should be run.

*Jonathan 

This is the problem of a nation whose leaders do not really prepare for leadership. They are imposed on the citizens by themselves, others or circumstances. It is only when they are thrown up by circumstances or other people or they bulldoze their way into power that they start to learn about what they should do while in office. Of course, this is in the rare case of when they learn at all. Most times, our leaders do not bother to learn about the real issues for which they are in office.

Rather, once they get to office, they become not only enamoured of it, they are pre-occupied with how to sustain themselves in their position to the detriment of good governance. This is when they think of the next election and how they would return to their offices.  It is when they would globe-trot, marry more wives and take more chieftaincy titles. It is because our leaders only remember the right things they should have done only after leaving office that the country would remain undeveloped or even retrogress.

But the real tragedy is that such leaders do not behave in a manner that shows that they regret frittering away some opportunities to do great things for their country. For instance, ever since former President Olusegun Obasanjo left office, he has been  behaving as though he were the only Nigerian alive who  could proffer solutions to the  seemingly intractable problems of the nation. It is in the same mould that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has caught the limelight by canvassing the restructuring of the country as the solution to its myriad of problems. If they had used the opportunities they had to do what they are talking about now, they would not need to push them into public consciousness now.

Ever since he left office, former President Goodluck Jonathan has been silent. Even when it seemed he would react to the persistent  insinuations of his complicity in the corruption charges hanging over many of his aides, he has avoided being embroiled in them. But he broke his silence on Monday when he spoke in London. Indeed, Jonathan’s speech brims with stellar ideas about how to run a society that is underpinned by a clearly defined bill of rights. Jonathan wants such a bill of rights to be similar to the British Magna Carta established some 800 years ago, and  the one introduced by America’s Founding Fathers.

Buhari’s Medical Trip, A Blot On Nigeria’s Image

By Osahon Enabulele

I heard with shock and disappointment the statement issued on Sunday, June 5, 2016, by the Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to Mr. President, informing the general public that President Muhammadu Buhari will proceed on a 10-day medical vacation to London from Monday, June 6, 2016, during which period he is billed to see an E.N.T. specialist for a persistent ear infection, based on a recommendation for further evaluation said to have been advanced by Mr. President’s Personal Physician and an E.N.T. specialist in Abuja.

Even though the nature of the persistent ear infection/specific diagnosis was not stated in the Special Adviser’s press release, I wish to commend Mr. President for the medical disclosure (a departure from the past) and sincerely sympathise with him, especially at this critical stage of our country’s history and development, and wish him quick recovery.

However, I am very constrained to state that this foreign medical trip flies in the face of the Federal Government’s earlier declaration of her resolve to halt the embarrassing phenomenon of outward medical tourism, which as at the end of the year 2013 had led to a humongous capital flight of about $1billion dollars, particularly from expenses incurred by political and public office holders (and their accompanying aides), whose foreign medical trips (most of which are unnecessary) were financed with tax payers’ resources.

 At various times, one had advised Mr. President to make a clear public pronouncement on his resolve to show leadership by example with respect to the utilisation of the medical expertise and facilities that abound in Nigeria by him and other members of the Federal Executive Council, particularly in concrete expression of Section 46 of the National Health Act which seeks to address the abuse of tax payers’ resources through frivolous foreign medical travels embarked upon by political and public office holders.

Undoubtedly, this latest move by Mr. President at a time the Federal Government is said to be on a change mission and rebirth of national consciousness and commitment through a backward integration agenda, Mr. President has lost a golden opportunity to assert his change mantra through a clear demonstration of leadership by example, by staying back to receive medical treatment in Nigeria and thereby inspiring confidence in Nigeria’s health sector which currently boasts of medical experts that favourably compare with medical experts anywhere in the world, if not even better.

APC Regime: One Year Of Extreme Pain In Nigeria

By Adeola Aderounmu

One year after the official emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC) mandate, the most unexpected scenarios are here. The current situation in Nigeria today was unimaginable 12 months ago when the expectations and stakes were raised through the emergence of the APC mandate.

*Tinubu and Buhari 

Even my invented slogan that the 1999-2015 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) years were the worst years of the Nigerian life had been beaten flat. What Nigerians have experienced in 2016 alone is by all measure the worst year of the Nigerian life.

What led to these unexpected new lows of general sufferings is arguable. But the degradation of human life, extremely high cost of living and endless surges of joy-killers like the fuel-related problems are both sad and regrettable.

My opinion is that if there had been adequate proactive-ness, Nigerians would not be suffering more today than they already did under the wasteful 16 years of PDP. The APC-Buhari mandate was ill-equipped for the year that went by. Therefore the mandate becomes a questionable one, I’m afraid.

My opinion is premised upon the fact that the APC-mandate and the rest of us had a clear understanding of what the challenges ahead were. We knew that Nigeria was in bad shape. Our collective expectation was that things should not get worse because they were already bad.

The APC-mandate failed to curb a bad situation. So it grew worse and it’s still going down the road to perdition in so many uncountable ways.

What enlightened and knowledgeable Nigerians must do now is to see the current situation in Nigeria as an opportunity to access the country right from 1960 to date. Why Nigeria got into the mess it is now is no longer rocket science.

Primarily, the country was misruled by almost all the regimes that have held sway at one time or the other after independence in 1960. As if the colonial drainage was not enough albeit side-a-side remarkable infrastructure development, the indigenes of Nigeria chose to simply loot the country to dryness.

As you read, Nigeria is being looted by some elements either directly by their positions in government or indirectly by the failure of the system to curb external appendages of looting.

The crime of looting is so grave that the recovered cash that was revealed recently by the APC government is a tip of the iceberg of what actually disappeared under both the APC- and the PDP-states in the last 17 years.

Politicians on both fronts practically emptied the states treasuries daily. At the parasitic center, the Jonathan-led central PDP government wasted and looted Nigeria’s monies in no manner that were different from his predecessors both civilians and military.

Everything that has a beginning will have an end. When the APC-Buhari mandate is over (because it will be), we will surely be informed of how much went down the drain daily. That, and what went down in the APC terrains whilst PDP held swayed are top secret today. We are looking the other way because the bulk of the latter brought Mr. Buhari to power.

In Nigeria, anybody who is elected or selected as the president can play god. It’s all thanks to the system. But I love the concept of time and truth. They outlive everyone and everything.

APC And Restructuring: Wither Oyegun

By Charles Nwaneri

Many Nigerians, concerned about the slow progress of the nation since independence in 1960, and desirous of giving the country a new lease of life via restructuring the federation by devolving more powers and responsibilities to the constituent parts have at various times and for long, called for the restructuring of the country.

*Tinubu, Buhari and Oyegun 

By restructuring, these concerned Nigerians want a situation whereby more freedom is allowed the constituents to be in charge of their affairs while the central government retains control of only those areas of national affairs where sovereignty confers superiority and exclusive jurisdiction on the Central government. In a restructured system, the constituent units would have more control over their local resources and endowments and exploit these for their benefit, paying only royalty and taxes to the central authority. This means that in such a federation, unlike what we have now, states or federating units would be less dependent on the central authority for revenue and their pace of development.

With less revenue and authority, the attraction of the center would be reduced while the economic and development action will be more at the constituent levels thus reducing competition for power and control at the center.

Something close to a weak center obtained in the 1960’s when Nigeria operated the Parliamentary system of government, anchored on the regions with latter being the constituent parts of the then Federation. The then powerful regions dictated and decided the pace of politics and economic development. In fact, at that time, the regions were engaged in healthy rivalry for development as none depended on the central government for funding rather each paid taxes to the center when they export their agricultural products which was the mainstay of the nation’s economy. However, while there are many voices clamouring for restructuring, there is no consensus as to the degree; time or even in what sectors of national life these important changes should take place, though the sector of State Police has dominated national discourse for some time.

Since the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar renewed his clarion call for the restructuring of the country, at a book launch last week in Abuja, a Pandora box of sorts have been opened among Nigerians.

Goodluck Jonathan, Enough!

By Kennedy Emetulu

Okay, I strongly supported President Goodluck Jonathan in the last election, even though I’m not a PDP member, and I have condemned and continue to condemn the present attempt to vilify him or make him a scapegoat for the supposed failure of his administration. I do admit he has a lot to be blamed for, but I just don’t think the present occupiers of Aso Rock should use him as an excuse for their own scandalous failures still dangerously unfolding. I believe Jonathan, like other previous heads of state and presidents, has done his bit while in office and must be allowed to go anywhere he wants freely and contributes to national development and discourse as he deems fit.

*Goodluck Jonathan 

I have watched him traverse the world since he left office, and I was convinced that he was doing this to garner support for his newly-established Goodluck Jonathan Foundation. I have also accepted the fact that he was being welcomed, hosted and given all manner of awards here and there abroad as a natural result of the commendable thing he did by handing over power the manner he did after the election of last year. Now, here is my problem: How long is he going to be globetrotting for? How can he be globetrotting now even more than he did while in office? What exactly is the purpose of all this? Apart from the work he did on behalf of the Commonwealth in Tanzania, I haven’t seen much of a benefit Goodluck Jonathan has brought to Nigeria or Africa with all these travels all over meeting with nondescript people here and there.

When I saw him return to Nigeria recently after the falsehood that he was seeking exile abroad, I was happy. But just as we were welcoming him home, he was out again and now is in London! I have just read the speech he delivered there, and I’m wondering what that is all about. 

Who doubted his Nigerianness? Of what value is that Bloomberg appearance or that speech? Of what value is a speech that’s just a list of what he achieved while in government? How is that useful for where we are now as a nation?

Now That Atiku Has Spoken

By Abraham Ogbodo

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the one better known as Turaki Adamawa has spoken. It is not as if he had been struck dumb by a strange spirit, or something close to such and there had been protracted efforts to recover his speech and good result only came last Tuesday when he spoke at a book launch in Lagos.

In fact, the man has been talking since the beginning of this democracy on May 29, 1999. It is just that he has been saying other things that do not command hot attention. Things like how his love for the new found democracy in Nigeria pushed him and others to stop former President Olusegun Obasanjo from evolving into a life president as Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

He has also been talking on his unequalled leadership prowess, and how such had put him in a better stead to occupy Aso Rock Villa in 2007, instead of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua; in 2011, instead of Goodluck Jonathan, and even in 2015, instead of the incumbent, President Muhammadu Buhari. It was while waiting till 2019 to represent the same matter that the Turaki, launched more forcefully into the subject matter of Restructuring Nigeria.

He got the right attention for the first time since 2007. Essentially, he said this Nigeria that Nigerians love so much would vanish, leaving everybody fantastically short-changed if we continued in our ways. His words: “our current structure and the practices it has encouraged have been a major impediment to the economic and political development of our country. In short, it has not served Nigeria well, and at THE RISK OF REPROACH (emphasis mine) it has not served my part of the country, the North well. The call for restructuring is even more relevant today in light of the governance and economic challenges facing us. And the rising tide of agitations, some militant and violent, require a reset in our relationships as a united nation.”

Atiku said much more in his about 2000-word message. The choice of that quote is actually to underscore the inherent hesitation in his speech. He came close to confessing that he was being compelled (apparently by forces beyond his control) to say something he shouldn’t say as a Fulani man from Northern Nigeria. In all, ‘Restructuring of Nigeria’ is not among the high topics taught at all levels of intellectual engagement up North. And if it is ever discussed, it is to explain that restructuring of Nigeria into anything other than what obtains currently, is a sin against the North and Islam.

This is why Atiku, in all sincerity, shall need some support from his northern constituency to be able to stand by his big message, come rain or shine. If he remains a lone voice in this wilderness of political restructuring, his people may think he is ‘possessed by demons.’ Although Alhaji Babarabe Musa and even Dr. Junaid Mohammed have said something, voices with higher pitch are required to make the Atiku’s message get close to a reflection of Northern thinking in the light of current national challenges.