A Husband’s Touching Account Of His Wife’s Life

By Kimmies Floral

When I got home that night my wife served dinner, I held her hand and said, I’ve got something to tell you. She sat down and ate quietly. Again I observed the hurt in her eyes.

Suddenly I didn’t know how to open my mouth. But I had to let her know what I was thinking about divorce. I raised the topic calmly. She didn’t seem to be annoyed by my words, instead she asked me softly, why?

(pix: 123RF)

I avoided her question. This made her angry. She threw away the chopsticks and shouted at me, you are not a man! That night, we didn’t talk to each other. She was weeping. I knew she wanted to find out what had happened to our marriage. But I could hardly give her a satisfactory answer; she had lost my heart to Jane. I didn’t love her anymore. I just pitied her!

Nigeria: Redirecting The Lost Giant

By Fashogbon Moyinoluwa

“When we innovate, we create millions of jobs, we build the companies that lead the world, we are healthier, and we make our lives more productive”, this was written by Bill Gates on accelerating innovation with leadership. Moving Nigeria to the status of a First World nation is a challenge any willing leader should love to take on. Blessed with natural resources and a large population, Nigeria has the potential to compete with other nations of the world in any sector, but we need first to put our home in order by diversifying our economy, and restructuring our institutions to cover up the loopholes that allow for corruption.

To move Nigeria from being a third world country to a first world nation, a leader should in no particular order, invest in education, increase the manufacturing capacity of the nation, remove the hurdles facing entrepreneurs, provide basic infrastructure that propel a nation’s growth, be dedicated to providing statistics and information, promote mining and agriculture, make the environment tourist-friendly, promote the numerous traditions we have in Nigeria and most importantly, invest in and support innovation.

Every sector in present day Nigeria has decayed and the most delicate of all, which is the education sector has suffered the most. Investing in education should be top priority in moving Nigeria to the status of a first world nation. Taking a cue from first world nations like Luxembourg, Singapore, and Switzerland which have 59.6%, 54.7% and 51.3% respectively of people in high-skilled employment, according to the Human Capital Index 2015.

A leader should educate the population to the extent of attaining at least 99% literacy rate and 80% of high-skilled citizens. This can be done by revamping the educational system of the country. Firstly, all the syllabuses in Nigerian schools should be reviewed, especially in the universities, in such a way that they should meet up with the current international standards and subsequently set the standards for syllabuses around the world. Also by improving the researching capacity of our universities and making them more practical oriented than they currently are. Then go ahead to remove the numerous hurdles students face while trying to get into the universities by creating a system whereby students can apply to as many universities as they wish in other to give them more options and reduce the number of high school graduates lurking the streets. An educated population can propel innovation and turn out good leaders, and this combination is what is needed to move Nigeria to the status of a first world country. Innovation makes a country competitive in the global market. 

The Tragedy Of A Presidential Illness

By Dan Agbese

President Muhammadu Buhari is back home and is now at work in Aso Rock. That sentence, a poor reportage of stale news, speaks to our collective relief at seeing the president as usual resplendent in his white baban riga, at his desk.

The enormous relief at his return is still washing over the nation. He was away for 50 days. And for 50 days, this nation was on tenterhooks, consumed by fear, concern and anxiety. And hope was progressively marginalised. Presidential spokesmen positively muddied the waters when they unnecessarily tried quite gallantly but pathetically vainly to deny what was patently undeniable: the fact of the president’s illness.

I join millions of my compatriots in welcoming Buhari back home. It is the Lord’s doing. Or, perhaps, more appropriately in this case, it is Allah’s doing. 

It should not be difficult for Buhari to pick up from where he left off more than 50 days ago as of this writing. He is lucky to have a vice-president who is committed to the ideals of governance they share and did a splendid job of minding the complicated shop by the name of Nigeria. His administration remains on course. Splendid.

The president’s illness was a sad and cruel reminder that illness is no respecter of persons. All mortals, presidents and truck pushers alike, are subject to the grim decision of the Grim Reaper entirely at its own discretion. The president is human; so is the truck pusher. I see the president’s illness as an interruption on his programme of salvaging the country. It shook the nation as much as it shook his own immediate family. Pox on illness.

VCs, Let Tuition-Free Varsities Stay

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

As the nation contends with slumped economic fortunes that are mainly accruable from oil resources, it makes hefty sense to contemplate fresh ways to source revenues to sustain the operations of institutions. But increasing the cost of university education that would be borne by students and their parents as recently proposed by vice chancellors should not be one of these measures.

By proposing that tuition-free university education should be abolished, the vice chancellors under the aegis of the Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities have only reopened an old debate. It is the right time for the debate because it throws up the imperative to prudently manage resources so that there would be enough to deploy in important areas of the nation amid the recession.

The economic crisis has rendered the government at both the federal and state levels incapable of paying workers and pensioners. Now, there have been lamentations about how the paucity of funds has become a major impediment to the actualisation of the great visions that different levels of government and their officials have for the people. 

Yet it is a wrong time for the debate because the same economic crisis that has reduced the funds available for the government has also impoverished the citizens. Indeed, since the citizens are the more adversely affected, vice chancellors should not expect parents to get money to bear an additional cost of university education. Is it the parents who have been rendered jobless by the closure or relocation of their companies that would pay the tuition? Or is it the parents who receive N18,000 minimum wage that would pay it? Even with the universities operating the so-called tuition-free system now, is it all the citizens whose children are qualified for university education that can afford it?

The idea of stopping the tuition-free policy should be jettisoned simply because of the poor. Remember, most of these vice-chancellors and others who are canvassing the payment of fees in universities enjoyed tuition-free university education. But for this, most of them would not be where they are now. Those in the South West during the government of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo often recall with a high sense of gratitude how his free educational policy made it easy for them to go to school. Yes, the population of university students then was not as much as we have now.

When Buhari Shamed His Megaphones

By Mike Ozehkome

It  was Izaak Walton (1593 – 1683), an English writer, who once said: “Look to your health: And if you have it, praise God, and value it next to a good conscience; for health is the second blessing that we mortals are capable of; a blessing that money cannot buy.”

Health, it is said, is wealth. And anyone who has been ill from mere headache can relate to the travails of Mr. President in recent weeks.

*Buhari 

When the president transmitted his letter to the Senate for vacation to the United Kingdom, little did we know that the subsequent events to follow would raise much ruckus and fuss within the polity.  However, for a minute, let us all sheath our ideological swords and thank God Almighty for the president, his family and Nigerians at large, for  making it possible for the president to return alive; for it could have been, indeed,  worse.  God forbid!

Nigeria is sui generis-on a class of its own. There is hardly any country in the world that is akin to Nigeria. Our ideologies, credos, languages are multifaceted and multidimensional. Truth be told, it would be a Herculean task for any leader to placate the various interests and tendencies of this nation in one breath. This has been the major challenges of previous leaders in this nation, whether military or civilian, including Abacha, Gowon, Murtala, Shagari, Shonekan, Abdulsalam, Yardua, GEJ, OBJ, IBB, et al, however well-intentioned they might have been.

What makes a Southerner happy to be a Nigerian is quite different from what makes a Northerner happy to be a Nigerian. Sometimes, this is caused by ignorance, sometimes by the weakness of the human mind, which loves to categorise. Other times, because of the various vested interests by different groups. One fact is indisputable; uneasy lies the head that wears the crown, particularly in Nigeria, a country with about 388 ethnic groups that speak over 350 languages (Onign Otite); some say over 500.

Sometimes, we forget that our leaders are also human, with their weaknesses, foibles, strengths, fears and anxieties. It would be unfair to gloss over some great things that President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) has done for Nigeria. His has been that of service to his nation, since his youth, when he was born of a Fulani family on 17th December, 1942, in Daura, Katsina State, to his father, Adamu, and mother, Zulaihat. He is the twenty-third child of his father. Buhari was raised by his mother, after his father died when he was about four years old.

President Buhari’s Return

By Wale Sokunbi

 At last, President Muhammadu Buhari returned to the country last week as announced by his Special Adviser on Media and Communication, Mr. Femi Adesina. His prolonged absence had been a source of intense acrimony in the polity with anti-Buharists insisting that he was either dead or gravely ill, and should resign on account of his incapacitation. His defenders and party members, especially his media team on the other hand, had insisted that he was only resting and taking medical tests. As such, he was expected to   return to the country at any time.

*Buhari and his wife, Aisha, after his return

However, the stridency of the demands of the wailing Buhari naysayers who chose not to be placated with photo-shoots of the president’s “hale and heartiness” in London, soon combined with the rising profile of the then Acting President,  Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, to bring the President back into the country.

And, since the president arrived in the country, there has been an attempt at a restoration of some form of normalcy, with the president even “resuming” and spending three hours in his office on Monday.  No sooner had the President sat on his “presidential seat”, however, than the Internet again went viral on close videos of the President’s gait as he walked from the plane that brought him from London.

The close-up videos, undoubtedly, showed a much-emaciated and limping president, who was still badly in need of medical attention. It is not surprising, then, that Mr. Adesina said that the president would still travel in a matter of weeks for a medical review of his condition.

That is as it should be, as the president appears clearly in no position to take on the challenge of administering a country that is battling a debilitating recession in the midst of ferocious opposition from the former ruling party and some segments of the polity.

The Buhari Govt’s Tower Of Babel

By Onuoha Ukeh

When President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated his cabinet,  six months after assuming office, many Nigerians did heave a sign of relief, believing that a government had eventually been formed. With ministers duly assigned portfolios and sworn in, all was set for government to roll and begin to address the myriad of  issues plaguing the country, with the view to catering to the needs of the people. It was a legitimate wish by a people who had high expectations from a government that promised heaven and earth.

*Buhari 

Sixteen months after the government was formed, and 22 months after President Buhari took over the reins of governance, I have often asked myself this question: Is this really a government or just an assemblage of people, who are just doing whatever please them, in the name of working for the good governance of Nigeria? I ask this question because what we have as a government appears mainly like a mere party, where those in office operate like islands, doing and saying what they like, while humanity suffers. There is no synergy  whatsoever.  In the government, there are discordant and cacophony of voices.

This week, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, issued a travel advisory on the United States (US). No doubt, feeling that as a presidential aide on foreign affairs, she could talk about foreign policy and issues related to her office, this former federal lawmaker advised Nigerians not to travel to the US for now, if they do not have any compelling business in the North American country. She said her advice became necessary, since Nigerians, who have valid US visas, had been denied entry into the US. In her wisdom, Dabiri-Erewa wanted Nigerians to freeze their trips to the US until the immigration policy of the Donald Trump administration was clear.

Apostle Suleman Writes Keyamo, Demands 1 Billion Naira Damages

*Apostle Suleman

Apostle Johnson Suleman's letter to the Festus Keyamo Chambers is reproduced below: 

Festus  Keyamo  Esq,

Festus Keyamo Chambers

Anthony  Village, Maryland, Lagos.

Sir,

Allegation Of Professional Misconduct And Unethical Practices.

Sequel to our letter to you dated 6th March, 2017, we have observed with shock and dismay your deliberate and relentless efforts to malign and convict our client, Apostle Johnson Suleman, through media trial.

By your relentless media campaign, you are conducting yourself in a manner inconsistent with S.1 of the Rules of Professional Conduct For Legal Practitioners 2007. Instead of gathering your facts and evidence before a court of competent jurisdiction for adjudication you have cleverly resorted to blackmail and intimidation of our client through the media – both traditional and social media. In short, you have threatened and indeed executed your threat of conjuring, manufacturing and synthesizing bogus and unverifiable exhibits in the social media and newspapers, all with a view to poison public opinion against our client and reduce his esteem and reputation in the eye of any reasonable man. Your attitude is also to ambush a fair trial while litigation is anticipated. This is contrary to S.33 of the Rules of Professional Conduct For Legal Practitioners 2007.

In the Punch newspapers of Tuesday, March 7, 2017 Vol. 41 No 21,388 page 10, you were quoted in an interview threatening to “release more bullets.” You said your client under your supervision will be organizing a world press conference and “we will begin to release bullets.”

Furthermore, you grossly and recklessly maligned our client, saying, “these men of God are not what they claim to be, we have a duty to protect the public. Many of them are fake and fraudsters. You will see the video very soon in the next few minutes.” True to your threat of trial publicity stunts, the video clips have flooded the social media networks.

Nigeria, Xenophobia And Afrocentricism

By Dan Amor

In 2005, a new diplomatic law was introduced in South Africa which compelled travelers from Nigeria and a few other countries to meet certain transit visa requirements before stepping into that country. Those other countries include Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Bangladesh and Sierra Leone. Other countries affected by the law were India, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Somalia, China, Russia, Ukraine, Pakistan and Kenya. Principally, the anti-visitor law was targeting Nigeria. This shows that xenophobia is an official state policy of the South African government.

 

*Zuma and Buhari

There is indeed nothing wrong with the idea of an independent country choosing who her visitors should be and who should not. Yet, it is not only a diplomatic shortsightedness but also a demonstration of chronic ingratitude for South Africa not to recognize her benefactors. It also shows, to a large extent, the limpid docility in the mindset of those at the commanding height of that country's diplomacy. Even when one can safely argue that the prolonged period of apartheid in South Africa virtually turned black natives of that country to psychopaths, it is a terrible malaise for black South Africans not to remember those who fought relentlessly for their freedom.

Of course, there is so much to say in the justification for the proclaimed Afrocentric foreign policy thrust of Nigeria. With about 180 million people, Nigeria's population is more than double of that of Egypt - the second most populous country in Africa; twenty-five times that of Benin Republic and thirty-five times that of Togo. This demographic edge is matched by comparatively high economic endowments, with Nigeria being, for instance, the sixth largest exporter of crude in the world. In terms of human capital development, there is no country in Africa that churns out the magnitude of graduates from institutions of higher learning like Nigeria.

It is, perhaps, in realization of this that the country has played a crucial role on the African political stage. For example, Nigeria helped in no small measure in dismantling apartheid in South Africa thereby earning the sobriquet of "a distant frontline state" during the struggle against white minority rule in the entire Southern Africa. She also played a decisive role in the formation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which metamorphosed into the African Union (AU) recently, and later the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) of which she continues to be a central player. More recently, Nigeria was the chief architect of the ECOMOG, the military wing of ECOWAS, which has successfully checked military aggression in some countries in the West African sub-region, notably, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

No Prohibition Against Nigerians From Entering The US – US Embassy

PRESS RELEASE

From the United States Embassy in Nigeria 

Meawhile, Abike Dabiri-Erewa Repeats Her Travel Advisory…

Olusegun Obasanjo At ‘80′

By Ochereome Nnanna

I have only encountered President Olusegun Obasanjo twice. The first time was in 2001 when his Media Adviser, the late great journalist, Mr. Tunji Oseni, invited me to Aso Villa for the Presidential Media Chat series. The second event was quite dramatic. I visited a friend, Osita Chidoka, in his office in August 2007.

 

*Obasanjo 

He had just been appointed Corps Marshall of the Federal Roads Safety Commission, FRSC. At lunch time, he asked me to accompany  him to see “someone” at the Hilton, Abuja. When we arrived at the hotel, I became suspicious when we rode the elevator to the topmost floor and Chidoka led me to the end of a hallway with two coated security guards on duty.

It was then that I knew we were seeing a VVIP. After signing us in, Chidoka stood aside as a bespectacled elderly man still wearing shabby bedclothes (at 2.00pm) came out. Everyone in the room stood reverently. He bantered with Chidoka and I took a closer look. It was former President Obasanjo!

Chidoka introduced me: “Baba, this is Ochereome Nnanna of Vanguard…” Obasanjo, who was already about to shake my hands, quickly withdrew it as if I had turned into a cobra. He gave me a hostile stare and walked away. I whispered to Chidoka that I would wait for him downstairs.

All this drama apart, the lesson I took away from the encounter was that, contrary to Obasanjo’s pretensions that he does not read Nigerian newspapers, he does. His reaction to me just proved it. I have never hidden my disdain for the recycling of the military generals who fought the civil war as elected “civilian” presidents.

Why Osinbajo Can’t Undo APC’s Damage

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

With the emergence of Prof. Yemi Osinbajo as the Acting President, we seem to have suspended our disbelief. Against all logic, our hopes have soared to stratospheric heights. We wager that Osinbajo holds the magic wand to turn around the beleaguered fortunes of the nation and its citizens. But we need not sally forth at this moment of the nation’s life in exultation at the prospect of better times ahead. What we direly need is introspection. We need that to steel ourselves for the grim reality that would befall us at the end of the four years of the presidency under the All Progressives Congress (APC) – its abysmal failure to improve the citizens’ lot.

*Osinbajo 

To be sure, Osinbajo has the passion to turn things around. He seems to be conscious of the immiseration that the Buhari presidency that was hobbled by paranoia and parochialism inflicted on the citizens. This is why he has launched himself into a miniature shuttle diplomacy that has taken him to the much-disdained south east and south south. But as long as Osinbajo is the acting president, there is a limit to which he can do. Even if Buhari is no longer directly involved in daily governance, there are the power mongers in government who are deluded with the notion of power as their birthright who would drop his name and go to a direction that is different from that of Osinbajo. In fact, there could be cases of willful sabotage of the good plans of the acting president.

We do not deny that there could be genuine citizens in government who would see their service to the nation as paramount. Such people do not mind who their principal is – whether Buhari or Osinbajo. But we must note that most of the appointments were done by Buhari and a bulk of them not on merit but on cronyism and political and religious affiliations. For instance, most of the ministers are bereft of ideas of how to positively impact the citizens’ wellbeing. We are thus confronted with the danger that despite the good intentions of Osinbajo, those appointees who are incompetent cannot help to actualise his vision. Worse still, those corrupt officials who ought to have left the government under Buhari would still be in office. They would pretend to be serving the nation whereas they are busy stealing public funds meant to alleviate the suffering of the citizens. Yet, as only the acting president, Osinbajo cannot sack these appointees of Buhari.

Where Northern Nigeria Fails

By Yakubu Musa

Those of us who read Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson’s ‘Why Nations Fail’,have seen, in the best-selling book, some convincing arguments on how countries of the world can seize the momentums of critical junctures of their histories to achieve economic greatness. Likewise, we have seen, in the same book, how elite’s phobia of Joseph Schumpeter’s “creative destruction” can either stunt growth or completely truncate it.

 Yet, while Why Nations Fail is a book rooted in political economy – from capitalistic perspective – its numerous analogies clearly abound everywhere, in terms of the realities of our dear country, Nigeria.

Although, the parallels one seeks to draw in this piece are much nuanced from what the book presents, it suffices to say that nowhere are its numerous examples more vividly expressed than in the northern part of the country. Since the moment the Union Jack gave way to the green-white-green flag to herald the nation’s independence in 1960, the two major geographical divides in the country have tried to rival each other. Paradoxically, however, it is the north that appears to have been muddling along in this competition– in spite of its comparative numerical strength.

In pre-independence times, there had been a glaring struggle to convince the large portion of the society to embrace western education. The North was, and still is, left to do a catching-up job as a result. The disparity between the two regions in terms of the population of private universities simply speaks volumes. Ditto commercial banks.

For Onukaba (Adinoyi-Ojo)

By Taiwo Obe

The book, Atiku – The Story of Atiku Abubakar, has the author’s name as Ojo Adinoyi. Unless, of course, you were familiar with the author or, and, knew that he was a special aide to the former Nigerian vice-president, you would have thought that it is not the same person as Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo. But then, when he joined The Guardian as a reporter in June 1983 immediately after his National Youth Service Corps primary assignment at Radio Nigeria, Ikoyi, his name was simply Shaibu Ojo. Till date, one of our colleagues at The Guardian still calls him, perhaps jokingly, Shaibu. He had written an article celebrating Nigeria’s rich culture including taking pride in our traditional lines, signing it with “Shaibu Adinoyi-Ojo.” A reader responded wondering why he was bearing an Arabic name, Shuaib (that’s the correct spelling and it means “stream”), advising him to live by example. Trust Shaibu, a principled person, he quickly dropped that name. His father’s name was Shaibu Onukaba. His own middle name was Adinoyi.

*Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo

So, he became Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo. He likes now to be identified as Adinoyi Onukaba Ojo. As that is mouthful, we shall agree here to call him simply Onukaba, which is what I call him. He calls me Taye, which most people who knew me from childhood still call me. Taye, of course, is the abridgement of To aye wo – (I came to) “taste” the world for my twin, Kehinde, who the Yoruba lore says, sent me – which, for convenience, has also been clipped to Taiwo. By the way, Onukaba means hard work and Adinoyi is “father of the multitude.”

Seest thou a man who is diligent in his work, that’s Onukaba. Anyone who is familiar with this wonderful guy – and this is not patronising him – knows that he gives his all to any project he commits to, and, yes, he’s truly someone who bears the burden of many, particularly his kin, some of whom won’t think twice before abusing the privilege.

Onukaba and I bonded almost immediately when we met. He had studied theatre arts at the University of Ibadan and had been taught playwriting by Prof. Femi Osofisan, who was the one who influenced his admission to The Guardian. He was a quintessential reporter. He shunned unethical practices like a plague.

A little digression, please: the other day a visitor in my office overheard a telephone conversation where I was vouching for Onukaba’s incorruptibility. The visitor wondered if he was a Nigerian. Yes, he is and a proud one at that. 

Yemi Osinbajo As Argument

By Dan Amor

Against the backdrop of palpable apprehension in high places over public appreciation of the enduring leadership qualities of the Acting President Professor Yemi Osinbajo, it is necessary to pontificate on some critical underpinnings in the relationship between leadership and followership as a philosophic construct. The fact that President Muhammadu Buhari officially handed over the reins of governance to his deputy, as required by law, before proceeding to the United Kingdom on medical vacation on January 19, 2017, need not delay us here. It is obvious that the All Progressives Congress (APC) won the presidential election on a joint ticket of Buhari/Osinbajo, from campaign to inauguration. 

*Osinbajo 

This, also, need not delay us here.  But what has generated more heat than light in recent times is the concept of delivery and appreciation. Whereas Nigerians overwhelmingly believe that a messenger who delivers neatly and squarely must be roundly appreciated or commended for a job well done, a cabal which is jittery over the messenger's looming popularity and sturdy bulwark does not. That is the crux of the matter. Yet governance is a contract between the government and the governed. We give you our mandate to deliver our needs and security. If you deliver, we applaud you; if you don't, we murmur. 

So far, since he mounted the podium of leadership of Nigeria as Acting President, Prof. Osinbajo appears to be performing. From his body language, his utterances and his actions, the Ogun State-born professor of law is not prepared to hoodwink anybody. His rapprochement with the Niger Delta, the goose that lays the golden egg, is legendary. The oil-bearing region had experienced leaders or rulers who wielded the big stick thereby amplifying their restiveness. Abacha militarized the Niger Delta and murdered their agitators. Obasanjo spent over N200million daily for eight years to maintain the Joint Task Force in the region and ordered the extermination of Odi and Odioma communities in broad daylight pogroms. 

Yar'Adua it was who brandished the carrots because he recognized their anxieties. Buhari had mobilized troops to the region and talked tough with unpretentious swagger before the current intervention by Osinbajo. Whether or not he ordered the latter to do what he is doing, or whether Osinbajo's shuttle diplomacy in the Niger Delta is part of their party's manifesto, the truth is that the messenger deserves applause. It is not only that we should complain when our leaders are not leading welł; we must also show some appreciation when they are doing well enough.

Pitting Buhari Against Osinbajo

By Wale Sokunbi

The Presidency on Monday raised an alarm on what it believes to be a plot to cause a division between President Muhammadu Buhari and Acting President Yemi Osinbajo. The Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs, Mr. Babafemi Ojudu, described the trending comparisons of Buhari and Osinbajo as the handiwork of those who do not wish the country well.  He also said it was a ploy by the opposition to cause unnecessary division between the two men who share a joint ticket.

*Osinbajo and Buhari 

He was quick to say that Osinbajo was only carrying out the economic policies of the government which the public was only now beginning to feel their impact. As he put it, “it is not a question of one person being better than the other.” Even Osinbajo’s visit to the Niger Delta, he said, is an initiative of the president, and the attempts to divide the two men can only rob Nigerians of the dividends of democracy.

The concerns of the Presidency over what appears a direct effort to pitch Buhari against Osinbajo are well placed. The gambit has apparently been seized by well known Buhari naysayers who have started praising Osinbajo to the high heavens for his modest and sincere efforts at governance, while painting Buhari as lacking in ability to solve the nation’s problems.

For those who have immersed themselves in this worrisome narrative, Buhari is a non-performer while Osinbajo is the magic wand that is gradually making a difference in governance and solving some of the nation’s problems, especially the nation’s forex woes, which has seen the naira appreciate from N520 to N420 to the dollar, while electricity supply is improving with the reducing militancy and bombing of oil pipelines in the Niger Delta area of the country.
Vice President Osinbajo has, undoubtedly, been playing his role well but that is no reason for tattling tattlers to seek to draw a wedge between him and his principal, Buhari. Those who cannot appreciate the wisdom of allowing Osinbajo to do his work as Acting President in peace, while Buhari attends to his health in London, will do well to reread the story of David and Goliath in I Samuel, chapters 17 and 18 , of the Holy Bible.

The young boy, David, killed the giant, Goliath, and King Saul was, indeed, happy to have such a young man who could help the nation get rid of the vaulting Goliath (economic recession and forex woes?) from his nation. The king, initially, harboured no evil at all against David.

Ojodu, Osinbajo And The Sleeping President

By Paul Onomuakpokpo  

Nigerians are legendarily associated with patience. But it is troubling when the distinction between this virtue and the propensity to brook the excesses of our political leaders is blurred. The danger of the conflation of this virtue and the vice of acquiescence is often signalled by our political leaders’ exploitation of our famed patience to turn public office to an opportunity for self-valourisation as manifested by regular heists in government.

*Osinbajo

Our leaders strive to over-stretch this patience. They do not expect us to interrogate their excesses. So, whenever the citizens occasionally lose their patience, show signs of alertness and query why their government has become their affliction, our leaders fume with rage.

Just on Monday, the presidency demonstrated this. It was furious that the citizens could be aware of the fact that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has become an ogre rather than a means of succour as it ought to be. Bristling with rage, the Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs, Babafemi Ojodu, wondered why Nigerians dared to review the now almost two years of the administration of Buhari and declare that it has been a period of an unspeakable ordeal. The presidency, as articulated by Ojodu, did not expect the citizens to know that they have been suffering. The presidency is enraged that the citizens have realised that it is possible for a president to make a difference despite the recession, the crash of the price of oil and the so-much lampooned looting of the common patrimony by the previous government.

The presidency was reacting to a people who have been subjected to so much suffering and depression in the past 20 months and more and who now saw a reason to be hopeful in Osinbajo and they expressed this. Does this require the flagellation of the citizens by the presidency? If the presidency really felt that it must correct some wrong impressions, it should simply have said that Osinbajo is executing the agenda of Buhari and stopped there. But Ojodu committed the same blunder that he accused the citizens of – launching into a campaign of a Manichean categorisation of Buhari and Osinbajo.

But if Osinbajo is only executing the agenda of Buhari as Ojodu would like us to believe, why did Buhari fail to execute this agenda in the past 20 months while he was in charge? What the citizens can see is that Osinbajo has some ideas of governance he is pursuing that were not known to them until now.

Osinbajo And The Demand Of Leadership

By Rotimi Fasan

It’s been more than one month now since Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, assumed the status of Acting President. Even when this is not the first time he would be holding forth for the president, it is the first time he would be doing it for this long. Except in an actual state of incapacitation it is doubtful if anyone could envisage a situation like this when the president would be away from office for over a month without being declared ill or incapacitated.

*Osinbajo 

But by embarking on a medical vacation which has been indefinitely extended on the advice , Nigerians have been told, of his British doctors President Buhari has afforded his deputy an opportunity to demonstrate what he could do if given the chance. Before now, Osinbajo had operated in the shadows of President Muhammadu Buhari. This is the way things should be as the presidential system of government is a monarchy of sorts that does not leave room for two heads.

The Vice president in such a system is a ceremonial leader who can only operate at the behest of the president and to the extent the president permits. Which thus makes the office of the vice president that of a sinecure. The vice president performs delegated duties, only such responsibilities assigned him or her by the president. But President Buhari is not a stranger to such a system of delegated responsibility. As a military head of state he had a deputy, Tunde Idiagbon, that many Nigerians thought had as much power as the head of state.

This was in a dictatorship that had no room for democratic niceties and in which the word of the leader was itself the law. Yet Idiagbon functioned apparently with the full support of Buhari. Although others with a revisionist mindset have had cause to read things differently but that Buhari gave Idiagbon a wide latitude within which he shared the power of the leader with him was a sign of self-confidence. The same self-confidence, even if unintended, appears to be at work now. Ag Pres Osinbajo Osinbajo has never looked the part of the over-ambitious; he appeared content to operate from behind Buhari where he belongs constitutionally.

But the dramatic manner in which the president’s medical vacation of ten days has now been extended indefinitely has thrust him into the limelight in a way he may not personally relish. For it is turning out that some Nigerians are already making invidious comparisons between his mode of leadership and that of his principal.

While President Buhari Is Away

By Sunny Ikhioya

There is a need for us to understand the context under which the country is being run presently. Only a fool will have a death wish for Mr. President because it will benefit the country more for President Buhari to stay alive, otherwise, the consequences will be too grievous to imagine. But, we tend to over dramatise basic issues, so, things that are supposed to be normal in every society becomes complex here.

 

*Buhari 

The more open and transparent a leader is to the people, the less controversial his actions and inaction are to them. Sickness is normal to man. That the President is sick should not be a big deal to the citizens. That there is so much cover up is what boggles the mind. Even in his present condition, the intrigues and scheming are ongoing amongst politicians, the ruling party, The All Progressive Party, APC, is  not exempted.

Everyone is trying to take advantage of the situation. So, when you attempt to point out the flaws in this administration, people attribute it to supporting corruption. Sonala Olumhese’s  column of Sunday February 19 2017 titled “As Ibori Stirs Buhari’s Tea” opined that the presidency have up to nine media advisers and assistants, working “to react to all media content critical to the President and attack/demonise/smear the people critical of the President”.

We have stretched the debate for so long that focus is lost. From what have been happening these past weeks, it is safe to conclude that President Buhari is being shielded from the true situation of things in the country, it is either that, or, he is ignoring the truth, which I doubt. Why am I in all of these rigmarole? One has noticed that there is a subtle change going on in the attitude to governance these past few weeks; not that of arrogance or fear, but, a positive change that is.

The type or kind that the people have been waiting for these past two years, which  has eluded them. Things appear to be working, albeit positively. If the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,  failed us in the past, it does not guarantee a repeat by the APC and this is what those sympathetic to the cause of this government have failed to realise. The people wanted positive change.

Buhari And Conspiracy Theories: Mahmud Jega Is Right

By Moses Ochonu

I study Northern Nigeria for a living. I am a Lugardian Northerner. I grew up in and schooled in Northern Nigeria. I know that conspiracy theories have a high resonance in the region. I know that implausible and sometimes ridiculous alternative explanations and alternative facts circulate in the region to devastating effect.

*Buhari 

Conspiracy theories led to non-Muslim fellow Nigerians being killed in Kano shortly after the beginning of the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. The ignorant interpretation of cosmic and climatic events as recompense for sin by some Muslim clerics led to Christians being attacked in Maiduguri when there was a solar eclipse--years before Boko Haram emerged.

Conspiracy theories and outright fabrication about insults and plots against Islam got Gideon Akuluka and Grace Usha beheaded in Kano and Gombe respectively. I know several northerners who are Truthers, believers in the theory that the 9/11 attacks were the work of the US government and/or Jews. I have seen posts written by Northern Nigerians on my Facebook timeline alleging that jews and/or Americans created ISIS to destroy Islam. Such posts garner many likes from Northern Nigerians.

Until Buhari's election, there was a cottage industry of conspiracy theories about Boko Haram being the work of the CIA or of being a plot by then President Jonathan to destabilize the North. Former Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State even went to Washington DC to spout this nonsensical theory, lending executive credence to a previously fringy contemplation. Some Northern Nigerians alleged that the US and French governments were supplying weapons to Boko Haram to destroy Islamic solidarity and pit Muslims against one another.

One interlocutor even told me that his village people had seen some Baturai (white people) among the terrorists, insinuating that that was proof of Western backing for Boko Haram. The abiding power of this particular conspiracy theory is the reason that when stories circulated in the wake of the capture of Camp Zairo in Sambisa about a "white man" being among the captured insurgents" the stories was a particularly enduring sensation in Northern Nigeria. In fact, Northern Nigerians dug up and widely circulated photos of the moment Cameroonian soldiers rescued a German hostage released by Boko Haram several years ago. The fake photo gave the story even more resonance in Northern Nigerian social media circles. The story found a primed audience in Northern Nigerians because it confirmed what many already believed. Its spread was aided by the existence of confirmatory bias in the region.