Buhari, Kachikwu And NNPC

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

No matter how much we strain to sustain the illusion that the President Muhammadu Buhari government is on the right track, we are often jarred into reality by his regular missteps and seemingly intentional negation of the common good. Buhari’s platitudes about patriotism and the indivisibility of the country notwithstanding, we are confronted with a situation where it is clear that he ignores the exploration of the opportunities that have frequently come his way to blur the fissiparous tendencies in different parts of the country.

*President Buhari and Dr. Kachikwu

We have seen this in his refusal to heed the calls for the restructuring of the country as a means of quelling agitations for equity that clearly threaten the unity of the country. Rather, Buhari has a penchant for regarding those criticising him for taking wrong decisions as courting government’s attention in order to be settled – a euphemism for bribery. But by making this argument, the government is rather indicting itself. For the government is only saying that public service in the Buhari era is still fabulously lucrative; a means of self-enrichment as it has not been made less financially attractive. If it had done this and public office had been rightly turned into just a means of serving the people with its attendant sacrifice, it would not have considered government officials as privileged Nigerians who other citizens are striving to join or replace.

Nigeria: Building A Nation Without Nationalists?

By Kayode Komolafe

While Nigeria marked the 57th Anniversary of her independence on Sunday one streak of the national mood was not explicit in the messages sent on the occasion. Here is the point: it is hardly fashionable anymore to wave the flag of Nigerian nationalism or defend the unity of the country as a matter of historical responsibility. The latest fad is that of championing ethnic, regional or religious interests at the huge expense of national integration and cohesion.

*President Buhari

The tragedy of the moment is simply that it used not be like this; a generation of Nigerian youths once made Nigerian nationalism their career. For example, the young men in the Zikist Movement proudly and selflessly fought in the spirit of Nigerian nationalism; they did not champion northern or southern interests. No, a century of British colonialism did not come an end on October 1, 1960 without a fight.

To be sure, there were no guerrilla fighters who went to the bush; but there were radical youths agitating in the cities. As the late Marxist historian, Bala Usman, used to put in his inimitable polemical fashion, the struggle for independence was for the nationhood of Nigeria and not for ethnic or regional divisions. In fact, 70 years ago, some of the young men were so immersed in the liberation of Africa such that Nigerian independence was expected to be the launching pad for the total liberation of the black people. It was not for nothing that the appellation of the chief inspirer of the young nationalists, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, was not “Zik of Onitsha” or even “Zik of Nigeria.”

Nigeria Is A Lost Nation!

By Tijani Sheriffdeen

Countries around the world wake up every new day to do something different, and of course productive. They attend to the challenges their yesterday brought them, and draw brilliant inferences from them to improve on their today. When one understands this, one begins to wonder less why their tomorrow is always a lesson for many others. Nations around the world who mean to develop and grow don’t look down on anything, especially elements capable of irreversible and inerasable growth and development. Developed nations understand the impact every single member of a community has on that particular community, as such; they respect their contributions, suggestions and complaints when they come, because they are only meant to bring about growth or change when need be. Who respect opinions in Africa? Not to talk of Nigeria!

Nigeria is a country with over 180 million people, one of the facts we enjoy telling people, yet, with the status of a developing nation since ever. Why should a country have the number without it amounting to anything? Maybe this question is not as important as when we want to make the number we have count as a nation. Looking beyond population, Nigeria is blessed with bounteous natural resources, but it has only help in tearing apart our nation, rather than helping it gain good grounds. Maybe the only time Nigerians appreciate their ethnic diversity is when they have to come closer with Ayodeji Balogun (Wizkid) hit song titled “come closer.” Our ethnic diversity is a reason for us to worry as a nation, as if other nations are monotonous in this regard.

'Lewdpapers' Or Newspapers?

By Banji Ojewale

It troubles one to observe that Nigeria’s clean weekday newspapers metamorphose into lewdpapers at weekends. Saturday and Sunday when you look forward to domestic company with child-friendly weeklies, you are trapped in an oppressive nightmare, wrestling with nudepapers. They flaunt naked images of female bodies not healthy for impressionable young minds. But these expressive photos also harm the larger society with destructive far-reaching consequences: they devalue the dignity of our womenfolk; they offer false and ungodly standards about intimacy between man and woman; they trigger an unending chain of loose moral conduct among the youths and the adults.

We appear to have become quite tolerant of this creepy soft and hard pornography on the sacred pages of our newspapers. It used to be a coy feature in the gossip outlets and fashion magazines in the local media. Later, our submission to the decadent values of the capitalism of the Western world took us to an adventurous and bolder threshold that led to the publication of wholesale underground cover to cover magazines trading in sex.  

Osinbajo Panel Report: One Month After

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

When President Muhammadu Buhari cancelled the August 23, 2017, Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, the first on his return from a 103-day medical trip to the United Kingdom, in order to receive the report of the Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo-led committee, which was asked to probe the allegations of fraud against the suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, and the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ayodele Oke, some Nigerians were scandalised.

*VP Osinbajo and President Buhari 

And the reason was simple. The Council remains the highest policy making organ of the federal government and after a three-month absence from Nigerian shores, many had thought that the president would have had the urge to be brought to speed on the happenings in the country by those he entrusted with the responsibility of making the authoritative allocation of our collective values while he was away convalescing.

So, to such people, the reason for the cancellation was preposterous. What does it take for the president to receive a report? Is it no longer a matter of scheduling? Besides, that week’s cancellation would be the fifth time the president would be in the country but unavailable for the meeting of the Council which consists of himself, his deputy, Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief of Staff to the President and the ministers.

Nigeria: Eighteen Years Of Threatened Democracy

By Alabi Williams

After 18 years of democracy, we do not need to search very far to know how well the journey has fared. The glaring evidence of how troubled it has been is the very fact that we are still discussing the idea of a coup, no matter how embryonic and remote it may have been. That some people still nurse nostalgia for the salvation procurable via coups suggests that this democracy is not offering what it was programmed to deliver. There is sufficient amount of desperation that triggers a search for alternatives. Unfortunately, the one ready alternative people tucked somewhere in their psyche, is the military, with capacity to obliterate the present nonsense and begin afresh. Very tempting.

But many have rushed out to condemn the thought of a coup because of very ugly past experiences. The military has so debased itself that its original messianic capacity has been squandered. At the point it was forced to exit from civil governance, the military had transformed into a rampaging occupation force, abusing rights of citizens and stealing their money.

President Buhari: Stop Blaming Jonathan And Learn To Accept Responsibility

By Reno Omokri 

It is rather unfortunate that instead of sticking to the facts in its tiff with Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the Federal Government decided to drag former President Jonathan into a matter he knows nothing about by stating that "We inherited a country in tatters- its economy, its security and its social relations. President Buhari deserves credit for rebuilding what has been destroyed."

*Buhari

Thankfully, no less a personality than the President's own confidante, Professor Itse Sagay, has revealed that the APC is an 'evil' party, built on propaganda. This recent statement by Garba Shehu only serves to corroborate that statement.

For one, President Muhammadu Buhari DID NOT inherit a country in tatters. Rather, on May 29th, 2015, the day he was sworn in, President Buhari inherited a nation that was the largest economy in Africa and the 24th largest economy in the world.

How Not To Spoil The Female Child

By Udodilim B. Ijeoma

The role of woman in life can’t be over emphasized. Her womb houses her fellow creature for nine months and, under a laborious process, delivers him. She nurtures him until he matures to tread his own path. He is very close to the mother than to the father. In the light of this, he is easily influenced by the mother. Much of what he learns or does is credited to the mother.

(*pix: Ventures Africa)

A good mother transforms her home into paradise for her family and other people with whom she comes into contact. Under a good woman, the wider environment blossoms in all endeavours. A female child develops into a woman. The entire society will swim in an ocean of bliss if the female child is brought up responsibly. Otherwise, sorrow and catastrophe will be the order of the day

To bring up the female child in the most responsible manner several factors are inextricably involved. As the first social unit she comes into contact with, the family sets the ball rolling. Sexual promiscuity which exists in some families today should stop so that the child will not have the impression that it is the normal way of life. The couple should keep their marriage vows by being faithful to each other under any situation. Also bitter quarrels that can degenerate into flexing of muscles should be avoided.

Nigerian Army And Human Right Obligations

By Emmanuel Onwubiko

It is no longer news that the Nigerian Army has commenced an internal military operation in the largely peaceful South Eastern states of Abia, Enugu, Anambra, and Ebonyi. They have not been withdrawn.

It is also no longer news that the key civilian population that inhabit this geopolitical entity of the South East of Nigeria stridently opposed the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to so deploy such heavy weapons and operatives in the streets of the South East states.

This deployment has clearly constituted a cog in the wheel of economic progress of millions of people in the South East of Nigeria who due to panic and social upheavals created by the activities of the Army had to shut down their business premises to be safe. 

Revisiting The Call To Revive Igbo Language And Culture

By Okechukwu Keshi Ukegbu

There is a bill before the Lagos House of Assembly tagged “A Bill for a Law To Provide for the Preservation and Promotion of the Use of Yoruba Language and for Connected Purposes’’ that seeks to make Yoruba language a core subject in schools and also to enhance the preservation of the language. The bill further recommends the translation of all the laws in the state into Yoruba language in order to get to its target.

The above move by the House is not in isolation. Previously, the Assembly had made moves to make teaching and learning of Yoruba Language compulsory in both public and private schools in the state. The measure was aimed at preserving and promoting the indigenous language of the South West from going into extinction.

Nnamdi Kanu: Nigerian Army Is In Contempt Of Court

By Aloy Ejimakor

This piece is a summary of the legal/other consequences of the Army's mid-September armed invasions of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu's homestead at Umuahia, Abia State. The state of affairs before the invasion was that Nnamdi Kanu was free on bail on a subsisting court order; his bail was not on personal recognizance but on a bond posted by a third-party obligor/surety; and Kanu was neither judicially-ordered to be re-arrested for breaching his bail, or on account of any new charges filed.

*Kanu

It is beyond argument that the invasion achieved complete routing of Nnamdi Kanu's home and caused fatalities and injuries to a yet to be determined number of people, including Nnamdi Kanu, who were present and trapped at the premises throughout the attacks. The invading forces also 'captured' an undetermined number of occupants of the premises, none of whom is accounted for to date. Most significantly, Nnamdi Kanu has not been seen or heard from since then.

The inevitable question that has arisen from the foregoing set of facts is this: What are the consequences of such an obviously deadly military action against an accused person who was free on bail? The following analysis will provide some answers.

South East Governors, IPOB And Politics Of 2019

By Nnedi Ogaziechi

These are not the best of times for Ndigbo. The people under reference are the very ordinary people in villages, clans and streets of major capitals of the five states in the region. These are the people that are literarily hanging on the edge of the precipice. The IPOB discourse seems to have created a deeply blurry view of who those to be held accountable really are.

*South East Governors and Leaders meet with
IPOB Leader, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu

It is politically safe to blame the federal government for marginalization, to complain about lack of federal presence as regards the chronic absence of infrastructure in the region since the end of the civil war. But then, IPOB comes on the scene and the governors are somewhat glad for the seeming ‘alibi’ for lack of a strong regional economic plan for development of both human and natural resources that the region has in amazing abundance.

Since 1999, there has  been several economic summits, conferences and fairs by both independent and state economic think tanks. Most of these conferences had been targeted at educating governors from the region to form a stronger regional bond that would be beneficial to the region economically, socially and even politically.

The idea has always been that if the governors of the region can manage to look beyond politics and think of development of the region for the people, there must be a coordinated and deliberate effort by governors of the five states to harness to the maximum the resources available to the states which by the way had worked in the past with the past visionary leaders of the region.

Why I Joined IPOB: The Elite Vis-à-Vis The “Crazy Youths”

By Nathaniel I. Ndiokwere

 Preamble

I was the senior prefect of Bishop Shanahan College (BSC) Orlu that final year and there was an important Mc’Nulty Soccer Final March between BSC and College of Immaculate Conception (C.I.C) Enugu, the two giant and prestigious colleges those days, East of the Niger. In the field of soccer competition BSC and CIC used to be great ‘enemies’. The Rev. Brother Lewis, the principal as well as the BSC soccer master or coach, just to demonstrate ‘holy disapproval’ of what was called those days ‘rough play’ and misconduct in the soccer field, did something students thought was an abomination. And on account of the principal’s action, BSC witnessed the biggest students’ riot in history.

*Msgr. Nathaniel Ndiokwere

Though not the referee, Rev. Brother Lewis decided to call for the expulsion of the BSC most important brilliant defense player, aka ‘Tiger’ from the field . BSC students and soccer fans could not understand the madness of the white Scottish principal! BSC continued the march with ‘minus one player!

Let me cut the long story short!

BSC was defeated by the visiting team and for the first time in the history of the College the students rioted, singing war songs and threatened to set buildings on fire. They went out of control and sang songs : “Lewis must go. Lewis in a criminal. Death to the Scottish pig!”

Restructuring Nigeria: Decentralisation For National Cohesion

By John Nnia Nwodo

Paper presented by President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nnia Nwodo at Chatham House, London, on Wednesday, September 27, 2017 

Let me begin by extending my deep sense of gratitude to the Royal Institute of International Affairs, for inviting me to participate in this current series of discussions on Next Generation Nigeria: Accountability and National Cohesion. The involvement of this reputable British Institute in discussing and proffering suggestions for extant Nigeria’s problems is not only commendable, but I believe most relieving for the British establishment, who must understandably feel a deep sense of vicarious responsibility for putting together a country confronted with such grim future.

 

*John Nnia Nwodo

Nigeria became a united British colony by the amalgamation of its Northern and Southern Protectorates in 1914. In 1960 it attained independence, fashioned a federal Constitution which had three and subsequently four regions as its federating units. The pre-1960 and the 1963 constitutions of Nigeria were fashioned by the people of Nigeria as represented by the leaders of their ethnic nationalities. The coup of January 1966 and the counter-coup of the same year occasioned by ethnic tensions and disagreements within the military-led our country to disastrous consequences.

Our first Prime Minister, Rt. Hon Tafawa Balewa and the then premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello, as well as the then Minister for Finance Festus Okotie-Eboh, were murdered. A massive pogrom was unleashed on South Eastern Nigerians living in the Northern Nigeria. A sitting Head of State from the South East, Major General Aguiyi Ironsi and a governor from the South West Col. Adekunle Fajuyi were murdered. The military suspended our 1963 constitution and adopted a unitary system of government to fit their command and control structures. Opposition to this move by Southern Nigeria led to constitutional talks in Aburi, Ghana. The agreements reached at Aburi were jettisoned. War broke out and claimed more than three and a half million lives mostly from the South East.

Lai Mohammed Says US Non-Recognition Of IPOB As A Terrorist Group Is Unfortunate

Minister of Information, Mr. Lai Mohammed, said in a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) interview in London on Wednesday that the refusal of the United States’ government to classify the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) as a terrorist organization was “very unfortunate”.

*Lai Mohammed 

“That’s very unfortunate because if countries decide to pick and choose which organizations are terrorists and which are not, bearing in mind that terrorism has no boundaries, I think what we should do is, every country should work together to ensure that terrorism does not strive,” Mr. Mohammed told the BBC.

Nigeria: Is The Past The Future?

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

Since the failure of the President Muhammadu Buhari government became intolerably manifest, a noticeable feature of discourse in the public space is its polarisation. In one camp are those who argue that the present status quo is precisely what the country needs and in the opposing camp are those who seek its replacement with a political system that existed in the past. Indeed, the Buhari’s years have been marked by the citizens’ hankering for the past and the rejection of the present. Having appropriated the past as the only means of corporate survival, they want to make it not only the anchor for the present but also the future.

Clearly, we are not witnessing this laudation of the past for the first time. Ever since the oil boom evaporated and the country has been afflicted with a governance crisis, the Nigerian people have often sought to recover a past that they consider a golden era. They do not seek the co-opting of only some useful values from the past into the enrichment of the present and the future. No, they want a wholesale displacement of the past with the present and the future. In this regard, their march to their collective destiny has often been disrupted by prolonged moments of contemplation of the desirability of replacing their present with the past. 

The Dancing Python And The Smiling Crocodile

By SOC Okenwa

The reckless militarization of the South-East and South-South geopolitical zones of Nigeria never started today nor yesterday. The federal government has been accused in the past - and present - of treating Igboland as a conquered territory. I remember when I travelled back home in 2013 and was driving from Onitsha to Benin City I had encountered a monstrous 'go-slow' just before the Niger Bridge head. From Upper Iweka Road towards the major entry and exit point to and from the South-East I spent several hours in the artificial gridlock that stretched well over a kilometer! It was a disgusting, suffocating spectacle to behold as motorists heading towards the bridge were forced to drive at a snail’s speed. The heavily-armed soldiers were directing traffic and monitoring every vehicle that passed by, parking some for verification of documents or passengers or waving off others.

*Burutai and Buhari 

And again traveling from my hometown of Ihiala to Port Harcourt a few days earlier, I had met some gun-wielding military and paramilitary officers posted to mount roadblocks on the ever-busy Onitsha/Owerri Expressway. After an altercation with the officers at one of the many checkpoints, I wondered if in the northern states some Igbo soldiers or policemen could be drafted and allowed to do what the predominantly northern military elements were doing on our roads in 'Biafraland.' Or was that the price to pay for losing out in the 1967-70 pogrom? Was it a harsh reminder of defeat?

The ongoing Operation Python Dance 2 in the South-East and the imminent relaunching of Operation Crocodile Smile in the South-South areas of the embattled country are not only provocative but intimidatory. The so-called "show of force" is a show of shame that advertises our country to the outside world as a nation with the jackboot mentality. It is primarily meant to intimidate the people and silence them. We hold that in a democracy such an anti-constitutional demonstration of crude force that believes in 'crush-crush' policy in a time of relative peace is uncalled for and unnecessary.

Atiku Is A Scoundrel, A Bloody Nonentity...He Thinks He Will Become President By Insulting The North – Junaid Mohammed

*Atiku Abubakar 

Second Republic lawmaker, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, has dismissed former vice president, Atiku Abubakar as “a scoundrel and a bloody nonentity” who is nursing the false hope that “by insulting the north,” he would finally actualize his ambition to become Nigeria’s president.

Junaid’s remarks came in response to Atiku’s interview published in the Daily SUN on Monday (September 25, 2017) where he said that those scared by the widespread calls for the restructuring of Nigeria “must be lazy” people.

“We fought the civil war with the Igbo. Today, the Igbo have been completely rebuilt, but we still find mud houses in the north. Is it the fault of the easterners that the north is like that?” the former vice president said.

Remembering Christopher Okigbo Fifty Years On

By Kola Omotoso

Mbari Club was a natural draw for an aspiring writer. Situated a mere street walk from Mokola Roundabout, past the ancient Palm Chemist and you were there in the midst of Chinua Achebe, Ulli Beier, Amos Tutuola, Wole Soyinka, Duro Ladipo and Christopher Okigbo. Lindsay Barrett had arrived from Kingston Jamaica via London perhaps. Poetry published in their journal Black Orpheus was available at the counter bookstall. There was a bar somewhere at the back and a small performance and rehearsal stage, again somewhere in the two-storey building.

*Christopher Okigbo and Chinua Achebe

It was my second year as an undergraduate at the University of Ibadan. Student Union activities had been part of the life since my closest friend Ladipo was running for PRO of the student union government. Nigerian electoral politics was boiling over. The Action Group had imploded and the federal government of Ahmadu Bello in collusion with SLA Akintola had put Obafemi Awolowo out of action away in prison in Calabar for treasonable felony. Of course, nobody in Western Region believed any of this fable about treasonable felony. Awolowo as far as the region was concerned was still very much in action.

The federal elections of 1964 came and went. It was heavily rigged in the Western Region ensuring victory for the Akintola party now in alliance with Ahmadu Bello’s Northern People’s Party (jamiatu mutenen arewa). 

Time For Buhari To Reshuffle His Cabinet

By Oshineye Victor Oshisada

“Time changes everything,” was the title of Tummy Duncan’s song, recorded by Miki & Griff of Pye UK Recording. Truth to tell, there is time for everything and, indeed, “time changes everything.” There is the time for a motor driver to change the gear for effective acceleration; he cannot maintain the same gear for too long in the old manual gear lever. A school headmaster or principal changes his teachers for effectiveness, or even requests for his transfer to another school, if it is necessary to do so.

*President Buhari and his Cabinet 

In the same vein, I am inclined to reason that it is time for President Muhammadu Buhari to reshuffle his cabinet. But because sometimes not all the ministers are included in a cabinet, I shall generalise by the use of “ministerial reshuffle,” instead of “cabinet re-shuffle.” Be that as it may, the phrases can be used alternatively. President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministers came on board after the elections of 2015. The size of a cabinet can be large or small, depending on political and economic circumstances. Invariably, in war-time, cabinet size is small. For instance, during the Nigerian civil war of 1966 to 1970, General Yakubu Gowon, under Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s directives, himself an astute political leader with stickler for discipline, maintained modest cabinet size. Ministries were combined in one person -- Chief Anthony Enahoro, another shrewd politician, had the unique opportunity, variously holding Information, Labour, and External Affairs portfolios.