Army spokesman, General Azem Bermandoa Agouna, in statement broadcast on state television, said Mr Deby died of injuries he sustained on the frontline while visiting Chadian soldiers waging a bitter war against rebel fighters in the north.
President Deby “has just breathed his last defending the sovereign nation on the battlefield,” General Agouna said in the statement.
By C. Don Adinuba
1. As the first commercial plane is scheduled to land at Anambra International Cargo/Passenger Airport on April 30, 2021, to test-run the facilities at the airport, a faceless group of hired propaganda guns has crafted and posted on the Internet a so-called news report alleging that the Federal Government of Nigeria, through the Ministry of Aviation, has refused to give the Anambra State Government a licence to operate an international airport but has rather offered the State Government a licence to run a domestic airport. The scammers attributed the purported decision to the Minister of Aviation, Senator Sirika Hadi, a well-respected captain and administrator.
By Mike Ikhariale
Anyone watching the series of unpleasant events that have taken
place in Nigeria in the past few years cannot but conclude that this is a
country on a calamitous plunge. The sad part of the whole development is that
it does not appear as if the leadership and even the citizens themselves fully
appreciate the danger that is looming headlong like an onrushing train as
things have, to an exceptionally alarming extent, been treated in the habitual
lackadaisical manner of “business as usual” despite the increasingly
cataclysmic developments that are manifesting all around them and to which they
have no rational answers.
In a way, I feel as if I have the unusual misfortune of talking ceaselessly about the danger being posed to the polity by bad leadership and corruptive political culture with no one in a position to act positively taking notice of them. For those benefiting from the ongoing misfortunes and tragedies of the country, I might have already earned the sobriquet of an alarmist and possibly that of a prophet of doom.
By Dele Momodu
“Everything that has a beginning must have an end. As they say on the street: “E fit take time, but one day, one day, Monkey go go market”
I love this quote about injustice:
“Every person remembers some moment in their life where they witnessed some injustice, big or small, and looked away because the consequences of intervening seemed too intimidating. But there’s a limit to the amount of incivility and inequality and inhumanity that each individual can tolerate. I crossed that line. And I’m no longer alone.” – Edward Snowden.
“One day, and very soon, Nigerians will cross that line too. For there is indeed a limit to human endurance. One day, we all shall rise to say Enough is enough. One day!”
Fellow Nigerians, I have had to shelve the continuation of the celebration of Ovation International magazine at 25 in order to address matters of pressing national importance. I have just received some new horrific videos of bestial killings in some parts of Nigeria, and it is obvious Satan himself has landed in Nigeria.
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has frowned at what it called the "vulgar, immature language and unprintable words" deployed by the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) to describe the umbrella body of Christians in Nigeria, in its (NSCIA) attempt "to justify the obvious lopsided appointments of the Federal Government in favour of its members."
In statement entitled “Re: NSCIA Accuses CAN of Campaign of Calumny over Shortlisted Justice of the Court of Appeal: A Rebuttal” and signed by CAN's General Secretary, Barr. Joseph Daramola, the Christian body reminded NSCIA that according to the Nigerian Constitution, all Nigerians, both "Christians and Moslems are stakeholders in this country," and that the votes that put the present regime in power "were not collated on the basis of religion."
Muhammadu Buhari and Aisha Buhari got married in 1989. Here is a picture of the couple during the early days of their marriage...
By Farooq A. Kperogi
Danladi Umar, the notoriously vain and sickeningly skin-bleached chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, was caught on camera on March 29 physically assaulting a securityguard identified as 22-year-old Clement Sargwak.
Umar flew into a tempestuous rage because Sargwak besought him to not park his car at a spot that obstructed traffic in Abuja’s Banex Plaza in Wuse 2.
In the aftermath of the swift, across-the-board social media denunciations that his cowardly physical violence against a lowly security guard roused, Umar caused the head of the Press and Public Relations unit of the Code of Conduct Tribunal by the name of Ibraheem Al-Hassan to issue an agonizingly dreadful and error-ridden press release that, among other things, singled out nameless “BIAFRAN Boys” for blame in a show of shame in which he is the main villain.
By Odia Ofeimun
Each time it was discovered that the ship of state was foundering, without compass, and no one seemed to have a handle on how to navigate with a proper goal-orientation, the question, Whither Nigeria?, has been asked as a way of giving expression to where we are as a country, where we are going or where we should be going. Mostly, the issues have emerged from trying to think beyond the scramble by the various nationalities in the country. In a multi-ethnic society, reality tends to be resolved around levels of perception in the practice of governance.
I am interested in how we’ve been fixed by history, and how we’ve always managed to have so many unresolved issues, so embarrassingly many, even now, when the most intense marker of dissension in the Nigerian firmament is the Boko Haram Insurgency in the North-East which has sought many times, unsuccessfully, to declare a Caliphate over parts of the country. Take the other issue around MASSOB (Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra) and the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB). They have raised the Biafran secessionist flag contentiously and ambitiously over what used to be the Eastern Region. Successive Federal Governments have pursued them with punitive measures as if the civil war of 1967-70 did not quite come to an end. Now, look, the clouds are gathering, as fractions of the Yoruba, at home and in the Diaspora, are angling for a secessionist binge of their own, unless, as it is stressed, ethnic nationalities are allowed to become self-governing within the Nigerian Federation.
By Eniola Bello (ENI-B)
For several weeks now, Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello has been running a daily front page strip advertisement, in at least four newspapers, which are, on the surface, a campaign for new membership for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in his capacity as Chairman, APC Youths, Women and PLWDS Mobilisation Committee. Looking closely, however, the daily strip front page advertisement with one bold message, “Join Africa’s Largest Political Party”, is simply Bello’s drive for cheap visibility in pursuit of his much-trumpeted ambition to take over from President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
Since the beginning of the year, some members of Bello’s cabinet, Secretary to the State Government (SSG) Folashade Ayoade and Information Commissioner Kingsley Fanwo in the forefront, have enjoyed listening to their own voices, granting interviews, addressing press conferences, and organising marches all for Bello 2023 Presidency. The Matthew Kolawole-led Kogi Assembly even visited their counterparts in Sokoto to drum support for Governor Bello. The Kogi governor has also played host to all manner of youth groups pledging support for his ambition and honouring him with some funny awards. Some ex-Super Eagles players, with Jay Jay Okocha in the forefront, packaged the latest of such awards, ‘The Captain and Pillar of Nigerian Youths’.
By Olusegun Adeniyi
Even with a mask practically covering his face, I saw the expression of surprise when I posed this question to the Osun State Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola. Seated directly in front of his desk at the Osun State Government House in Osogbo, I was observing every gesture.
After a long pause, he said: “That
is a very difficult question but I will answer it.” Another long pause
followed during which he was apparently processing his thoughts. Then finally,
the governor responded: “What Yoruba
people want is a peaceful, secure and prosperous region in a just, peaceful and
prosperous Nigeria that every citizen would be proud to call their country.”
The governor was candid as he explained the challenge of insecurity in the South-west, the process that led to the establishment of ‘Amotekun’, the operational guidelines and structures that are still evolving from state to state and the need not to mix security with religion or ethnicity. At the end, I left Oyetola better educated about the problem South-West governors are trying to confront and the stand of the Yoruba nation within a diverse Nigeria. The governor also explained how he was able to defuse the crisis in the Osun education sector as well as the financial engineering and alternative project funding that has helped the state to rid itself of the notoriety for non-payment of salaries while still embarking on a number of infrastructural projects. These of course are issues we will come back to another day.
By Dan Amor
In September 2011, yours sincerely was amongst media executives invited to grace the World Press Conference organized to mark the 23rd anniversary of the creation of Akwa Ibom State. In attendance at the conference were the Voice of America (VOA), the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the Le Monde of France, major radio and television stations, major Nigerian newspapers and magazines, and three Editorial Board members.
It was hosted by the Executive Governor of the oil rich Niger Delta State His Excellency Obong Godswill Akpabio. That was before he defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), in which he is now Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs. At the conference, this writer was privileged to speak on the emerging state of insecurity in the country. As at then, the major security threat Nigerians had to contend with was the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East.
By James Eze
Standing on the tenth floor of the Control Tower of the Anambra International Airport, Umueri two days ago, I felt a tremor ripple through me. Six months earlier, the spot where the tower stands was a wrinkled patch of earth. Now upon it stands a towering monument to the resilience of a proud and enterprising people. It suddenly dawned on me that sometimes; the thin line between dream and reality is fear…fear of failure, fear of uncertainty, fear of being caught on the wrong side of history. And beyond this overcast of fear, success waits in silvery brightness.
By DAN AMOR
In all democratic nations of the world, there are three major arms of government: the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary. As an assembly of elected and authentic representatives of the people, the legislature makes the laws that govern the day-to-day operations of government. The executive formulates and implements policies based on the framework of the laws promulgated by the lawmakers; whereas the judiciary, as the safety valve or sole arbiter of the common man, interprets the laws of the land and adjudicates on matters arising from any breach of the law between parties to the common wheel.
What makes the legislature the bastion of democracy in any society, except in a few totalitarian states, is that its functions encapsulate representation of the people, lawmaking and over-sighting the executive. This is the crux of the matter. In a presidential democracy, like the type we practise here in Nigeria, the legislature exists not only to make laws but also to serve as the voice of the people in government and to make government accountable to the people. This makes the legislature the pillar of democracy.
By DAN AMOR
When the Union Jack (the British flag) was, at the glittering mews of the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos on October 1, 1960, lowered for a free Nigeria’s green-white-green flag, gloriously fluttered in the sky by the breezy flurry of pride and ecstasy, it was a great moment pregnant with hope and expectation. The whole world had seen a newly independent Nigeria, a potential world power, only buried in the sands of time. Endowed with immense wealth, a dynamic population and an enviable talent for political compromise, Nigeria stood out in the 1960s as the potential leader in Africa, a continent in dire need of guidance.
For,
it was widely thought that the country was immune from the wasting diseases of
tribalism, disunity and instability which remorselessly attacked so many other
new African states. But when bursts of machine gun fire shattered the predawn
calm of Lagos its erstwhile capital city in January 1966, it was now clear that
Nigeria was no exception to Africa’s common post-independence experience.
During the following four years (1966-1970), the giant and ‘hope’ of Africa measured its full length in the dust. Two bloody military coups, a series of appalling massacres and a protracted and savage civil war which claimed over two million lives threatened to plunge the entire country into oblivion.
By Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa
Last week, the Senate asked the President to declare a state of emergency on security in Nigeria. From one Senator to the other, the men and women of the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly were unanimous that something has to be done urgently, to stem the slide into anarchy, unbridled violence and bloodshed across the land.
What is the security
situation presently? We have a police force lacking in legitimate leadership,
the armed forces is so politicized that the leadership is loyal only to the
party in power and a commander-in-chief that seems to have been totally
overwhelmed with the crisis. It is by now clear to all and sundry, at least
from the comments and contributions of lawmakers across party lines, that
Nigeria is approaching a failed state.
This was indeed the conclusion reached at a stakeholders’ summit held last week, where Professor Pat Utomi and others x-rayed the dangerous dimension that security has taken in Nigeria. The Sultan of Sokoto said somewhere else that Boko Haram has now transformed into bandits and kidnappers. It is the latest business in town.
By DAN AMOR
For those who were born during or after the Nigerian Civil War, recent publications, provide an illuminating pathway to the events that led to the war. No nation among the third world countries makes a stronger claim on the interest and sympathy of Africans than Nigeria. What Nigeria has meant to the black continent and to blacks across the world, makes her future a matter of deep concern. Nigeria might be doddering or tottering behind less endowed African countries as a giant with feet of clay, no thanks to the tragedy of irresponsible leadership.
*Displaced South Easterners during the Biafra-Nigeria War
But whatever happens to her usually serves as a huge lesson for other African countries. To view therefore with judgment and comprehension the course of present and future events in Nigerian life and politics, we must possess knowledge and understanding of her past, and to provide such understanding within concise compass, we must consult history. Yet it is an unbiased, disinterested and unprejudiced inquiry into the history of our country that will ensure that we leave a legacy of truth for generations yet unborn.
In fact, the true story of Nigeria must begin with the foundations of the nation-its geographical and economic character; its socio-political and religious influences and the psychology of its peoples.
Besides
the existence of multi-ethnic nationalities before the fusion of the Northern
and Southern Protectorates in 1914 by Lord Fredrick Lugard, a British
imperialist military commander, and the almost 100 years of British colonial
rule, the great period of post-independence crisis – 1960 – 1970 – must be vividly
delineated for posterity.
The death in November 2011 of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu who has come to symbolise that great epoch of epic struggle brought to the front burner of national discourse, the issues and convergent forces at play in the Nigerian Civil War. But recent developments point to the fact that our leaders who prefer to learn their geology the day after the earthquake would want history to repeat itself.
Unfortunately, rather than telling in bold dramatic relief, the tragic and magnificent story of what brought about the war and its aftermath, some commentators have elected to mislead the reading public on who actually caused the war. Some have even pointedly accused Chief Ojukwu of having masterminded the war in order to divide Nigeria.
What can be more mischievously misleading than the deliberate refusal to allow the historical sense transcend the ephemeral currents of the present and reveal the spirit of a people springing from the deepest traditions of their tragic experience? How could one begin to appreciate a legend who continued to be astonishingly misunderstood even when the realities of the factors that pushed him to rise in defense of his people are damning on the rest of us more than 50 years after his action? Why is it so difficult for us to appreciate the fact that Ojukwu had come to represent, in large and essential measure, not only a signification of heroism but also a courageous attempt to say no to an emerging oligarchy which was bent on annihilating his people from the face of the earth?
No Nigerian in his right senses should support any nebulous
attempt to re-awaken the Biafran experience. But if we believe the time-tested
aphorism that few men are austere or dull-witted enough to scorn the pageantry
and romance of history, then we must ask ourselves why, for God’s sake, would
people become so barren in thought as to hold the view that Ojukwu caused the
Nigerian Civil or what some mischievously call the Biafran War?
Even for those of us who were born during the holocaust that was the war itself, a deep reflection on what brought it about cannot in all sincerity be divorced from the greed and unbridled ambition of Nigerian politicians – the quest to dominate others and the winner-takes-all mentality of the lackeys to whom the colonialists handed over power on a platter of gold.
Why must we forget so soon the blatant rigging of the 1964 Western Region election by the Federal government – controlled Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) in favour of S.A. Akintola at the expense of Chief Obafemi Awolowo of the Action Group who was believed to have won that election in the first place? How can we forget so soon that it was the upheaval that followed that manipulation in the Western Region and the inability of the government at the centre to contain it that orchestrated the January 15, 1996 military coup and its aftermath?
In fact, in all the accounts of the developments that led to the war, both local and international, none particularly mentioned Ojukwu as a key player in either the coup of January 1966 or the July 29, 1966 counter revolutionary coup led by young Hausa/Fulani soldiers. Ojukwu’s response to the wanton killings of Igbo and other nationals of Eastern Nigerian origin was a latter day development which in all practical purposes followed the natural course of history. He was just an uncommon patriot who responded decisively to the issues of the day.
We bow courteously before the mighty personages of other traditions. The appeal of Nigeria’s annals is not that of a success story. The record of our soulless country is strangely somber. Like in France, our earliest heroes might be heroes of defeat. But the story is shot through with episodes of unequaled magnificence. That history is repeating itself just as we recall our ugly past shows that it is the destiny of Nigeria to live dangerously.
Last month, January 15, 2021, Nigerian leaders pretended to have marked the 51st anniversary of the end of the Nigerian Civil War. All of them, including the victims of the war itself who pretend not to know, went to the graves of the "unknown soldiers" to lay wreaths in remembrance of the supreme price they paid for Nigeria to be one. Yet, in the minds of most notoriously undemocratic Nigerians, the war has not yet ended and the country is not yet one. The last administration made an Igboman Chief of Army Staff and brought the Civil War to its knees. He prosecuted the Boko Haram war almost to its logical conclusion.
Between 1800 and 1945, there have been pockets of civil wars across the world before the Nigerian Civil War which was fought between 1967 and 1970. There was the Castle Hill convict rebellion, 1804; the Gutierrez-Magee Expedition (Texas) 1812-1813; Argentine Civil Wars, 1814-1880; Zulu Civil War, 1817-1819. There was also the Long Expedition (Texas), 1818, 1821; the Greek Civil War, 1824-1825; the Freedom Rebellion (Texas), 1826-1827; Liberal Wars (Portugal), 1828-1834. The American Civil War was fought between April 12, 1861 and May 9, 1865 and the Spanish Civil War was prosecuted between July 17, 1936 and April 1, 1939. All these civil wars ended and the respective countries became more united than before.
If
the Nigerian Civil War has been fought and won or declared "no victor, no
vanquished" by Gen. Yakubu Gowon, then it must have meaning and the end
taken to its logical conclusion. The South East must produce the next Inspector
General of Police and the Service Chiefs, for Nigeria to move forward. God has
endowed this country with all that is needed for it to blossom into one of the
best countries in the world. We must end sectional greed and domineering
postures for Nigeria to get there. The Nigerian Civil War must end without much
ado. Let this country be great again.
*Amor,
a public affairs analyst resides in Abuja
By DAN AMOR
Irrational impulses are not surprising in the stress and tension that characterize a demented society. In an atmosphere of violence, reason is sometimes abandoned and humanitarian principles forgotten. The inflamed passions of the time lead men to commit atrocities. But the concern here is not with the psychological pathology of those who commit atrocities but rather with what has turned our nation into a slaughterhouse where human beings are daily killed with intimidating alacrity. Throughout modern history, atrocity propaganda has often mesmerized readers thousands of kilometres away from the scene of the crime. Often, the improbability of the actions described suggests that the stories were little more than fantasies concocted for diverse reasons from even more diverse sources.
But the reading public in Nigeria has invariably evinced a morbid absorption with the most nightmarish aspects of this national tragedy. It is indeed fashionable to observe that material which should create a moral aversion to the cruelty of our present times often produces a perverse fascination instead. There is, candidly speaking, an alarming rate of mockery killings in Nigeria, especially under this Buhari administration.
By Eniola Bello (Eni-B)
In January, two world leaders bowed out of office and received from their people, the goodbyes their leadership, or lack of it, deserved. While US President Donald Trump stole away like a thief in the night, without a decent farewell from his associates, the object of ridicule and scorn from many Americans, nay many more people around the world for his ignorance and meanness and insincerity and divisiveness and incompetence; German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as she handed over the party leadership after 18 years in office, received from her countrymen and women standing on their balconies, six minutes of applause for her simplicity and diligence and competence, and for making Germany the largest economy in Europe. Coming home, were President Muhammadu Buhari to bow out of office today, reactions across the country most probably would move from sighs of relief, to shouts of triumph, and to jumps of victory, and then to dances of happiness, indeed, to several joyful noises.
By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the
faith…” (2
Timothy 4:7)
When on December 7, 2019, news broke that Reinhard Bonnke, the German-born, world renowned evangelist, whose gospel crusades in many African cities drew multitudes and led many people to make definite decisions to give their lives to Jesus Christ, had died in Florida, the world saw another example of what could rightly be described, by Biblical standards, as a successful ministry. He was 79.
The most important item in Bonnke’s life’s history (despite his great and marvelous achievements in the Lord’s Vineyard as a soul-winner) is that, although, he was the son of a gospel minister, he had a definite testimony of conversion or regeneration, that is, being born again – something every genuine child of God should and must have, but which, sadly, many church people do not have today, including even several preachers!
Indeed, no matter what anyone contributes to advance God’s work in this world, at the end of the day, the only thing that will guarantee the person’s entry into God’s kingdom is his possession of a genuine experience of salvation (which God who sees everyone’s heart can attest to), which the person had taken care to preserve till the end. Any professing Christian that has the salvation experience has got the best thing; but he that does not have it has nothing, no matter what else he claims to have.
By DAN AMOR
With the emergence of Prince Uche Secondus, a former Deputy National Chairman and Acting National Chairman as the elected National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, concerned Nigerians had thought that all was now set for an interesting opposition politics in the country. He defeated all the aspirants who contested for the coveted diadem in a make-or-mar election held at the Eagles Square, Abuja on Saturday December 9, 2017.
But three years down the road, Prince Secondus has failed to ensure a peaceful harmonization of all rough edges in the party. In spite of the horse-trading and other subterfuges which are the hallmarks of all political competitions, PDP leaders must note that the survival and goal of the party should be paramount. So far, like a COVID 19 patient, the party is gasping for relief.
