As Anambra State Confronts An organized Crime Family

 By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

On 6 November, 2021, Anambra State, at 4,844 km² the second smallest state by landmass in Nigeria – Lagos State with 3,577 km² is the smallest – is scheduled to go to the polls to elect a new governor. Preceded by no campaigns or debate and defined by an orgy of mass murder, this Anambra election will go down as one of the most disembodied in Nigeria’s recent history. It is a battle between those who see elections as a game of numbers (no matter how procured) and those who seek to ensure that elections are based on credible counting and accounting.

This election is a defining battle for the future of (south-east) Nigeria. If Anambra produces a governor who, like the one in neighbouring Imo State, is manifestly without legitimacy, there will be no end to the crisis in that part of Nigeria. To understand why this is so, it is essential to recap the story of how Anambra’s governorship elections went off-cycle because it presents a resilient cast of characters that represent a dominant strain of criminal impunity in electoral politics in Nigeria.

Ken Nnamani And Odinkalu’s Misplaced Aggression

 By Reginald Okafor

Chidi Odinkalu has cut a niche for himself as a critic of the intellectual hue in the last few years in Nigeria so much that his views are well regarded. His place in advocacy and as a former Chairman of Nigeria Human Rights Commission (NHRC) place him in a privileged position. They confer some credibility on whatever he says. But, in a recent piece he wrote titled ‘Ken Nnamani:The Man Who Sold His Conscience’, Odinkalu missed his shot by a mile!

*Chidi Odinkalu

Odinkalu, in what is understandably his frustration with the state of anomie in the southeast, where killings and unexplained kidnappings have been the lot of the people, took umbrage with the current administration and dragged some persons in the ruling All Progressives Congress into the sordid affairs in Anambra State, one of them former Senate President Ken Nnamani, a man who has earned his badge of integrity even in the murky waters of Nigerian politics.

Nigeria: From Freedom To Anarchy

By Dan Amor

Once upon a time, there was a young country struggling in the comity of nations to find her place in the sun. For, in this young country of brave people, it was discovered that free­dom was a God-given right. So impressed were the citizens with this belief that they lit a candle to symbolise their freedom. But, in their wisdom, they knew that the flame could not burn alone. So, they lit a second candle to symbolize man’s right to govern himself. The third candle was lighted to sig­nify that the rights of the individual were more important than the rights of the State. And finally, they lit a fourth candle to show that government should not do for the peo­ple those things which the people should do and have been doing for themselves.

*Buhari 

As the four candles of freedom burned brightly, the young country prospered. And as they prospered, they grew fat. And as they grew fat, they got lazy. When they got lazy, they asked the government to do things for them which they had been doing for them­selves, and one of the candles went out.

Why Is Buhari Not Exposing Boko Haram’s Sponsors?

 By Reno Omokri

On September 21, 2021, Buhari’s spokesman, Femi Adesina, said the Buhari junta ‘is not interested in naming and shaming Boko Haram’s sponsors”. A month later, on October 21, 2021, Abubakar Malami, Buhari’s Attorney General of the Federation, said the Buhari regime had identified Sunday Igboho’s ‘sponsors’. We are watching!

Buhari and Malami

It is apparent to any unbiased observer that Buhari lacks the impartiality to be Nigeria’s leader. He is obviously a tribal irredentist. And his irredentism is seen in the way he treats terrorists and bandits who are almost 100% from his ethnic Fulani nationality, which is in stark contrast to how he treats people of other ethnicities.

We do not even need to look too far to see Buhari’s parochialism. The Nigerian Federal Government has three arms, the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary. And Buhari had abused his Presidential powers to ensure that all three of these arms are headed by Northern Muslim Males.

The Church And The Challenges Of A Nation

 By William F. Kumuyi

At a public forum in Lagos in September this year, a visibly disturbed former Vice Chancellor of Ajayi Crowther University, Professor Dapo Asaju, challenged me and my brother minister, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, to speak up in the face of the pall of insecurity overlooking our dear country, Nigeria, and threatening us all with a pin-down. He says it’s not enough to ‘’keep quiet’’ and pastor only our congregants. He wants us, among other charges, to meet President Muhammadu Buhari and tell him, ‘’Enough is enough.’’

*Pastor Kumuyi's recently published biography 

The don said: ‘’All ministers of God must speak out…I (am) looking forward to Baba (Kumuyi) addressing a World Conference, with Baba Adeboye seated beside him. Let them call people and say ‘Enough is Enough.’ They need to lead other people to convene a high-powered meeting with the President.’’ He tied his call to the Scriptures, where troublous times in ancient Israel always witnessed the emergence of faithful messengers offering Divine succor and intervention. Nigeria of this age is also under the weather, Asaju laments; she needs the clerics’ cuddling and comforting care.

We cannot dismiss the concerns of Bishop Professor Asaju. The patriot that he is, he like all of us, wouldn’t want the escalation of our problems to get to the boiling point of no return. If all else has failed, he seems to say, God’s true representatives in the confines of His Holy Church here in Nigeria cannot fail to lead us away from the cusp pointing down to a dark abyss.  He is also right to insist that pastors must not be satisfied with the ‘narrow’ mission of entering the annals as the clergymen with the largest congregation in Africa or the world. They must worry more about the environment these worshippers go into when they are discharged from the precincts of the Church. Do they march into the deadly embrace of harlots, armed robbers, kidnappers, drug addicts, the sick, unemployed youth given to crime and hopelessness, corrupt political office holders, broken homes, occult campuses, idolatry, immorality, urban violence etc.?

At Deeper Christian Life Ministry, we are far more aware of this existential crossroads than many perceive. We present the Word of God as delivered in the Holy Bible, alright. But we warn that in the long run, the Lord is interested in a fusion of obedience to His Word and relating amicably with fellow human beings, regardless of class, colour, caste (religion) or culture. We teach that if you’re a genuine believer in Christ, you wouldn’t hate your neighbor. Nor would you disdain those in power because they appear not to be delivering on electoral pledges such that you would go on the rampage, destroying government property or pillaging the public till. We teach a linear life of Christian walk: you can’t be a saint on Sunday and a monster on Monday.

Needless to say, God recognizes the dual nature He has clothed us with, physical body and soul. Both need to be fed proportionally. The inner soul requires the Word, while the external body needs material fulfillments through food, shelter, healing, job, joy, justice etc. The Creator hasn’t annulled that order. He expects the state to cater for the body while He saddles the Church with providing for the inner being. None is mutually independent of the other. Societies run into straits, setbacks and storms when they neglect this arrangement.

But diligently keying into this plan as individuals, nation and Church, gives us the far-reaching blessedness of obedience to His Word. We can testify to this as we have adopted the strategy, given by Heaven, to constantly embark on Global Crusades, with the community, and not the Church, as the epicenter. The gatherings are all inclusive, nondenominational. The limitless reach of today’s smart media and Internet has enabled us to touch almost every inch of the globe. In real time audiovisual streaming, many across Nigeria, the African continent, Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia and New Zealand are able to get connected to our crusades. Those who can’t make it to the viewing centres connect to me in their homes, hospitals, workplaces etc. Everywhere the Lord has been faithful to His promise to answer our prayers.

As the Lord graciously uses me to deliver His Word at these events, He never ceases to accompany the ministration with astonishing miracles of salvation, healing, restoration of hope to the despondent and deliverance of the nations from instability, insecurity and the invidious grip of the devil.

We have verifiable testimonies all over the planet underscoring the incredible power of the God of the Bible times being here with man again. He is leaping from the past to the present to prove that in any generation He doesn’t forsake those who repose full faith in the finished work of Christ, in His promises and in His prophets.

In Zambia, after one of the crusades, I met a caterer, Sylvia Banda, who asked me to pray for a successful surgery on her right foot following a tendon rupture. A sharp-edged bone was growing on top of the main bone. The pain she was having was unbearable and only an operation could save her. But I told her there would be no operation, since God would heal her. I went ahead to offer a short prayer. Back in the hospital for check-up, the growth had disappeared.

Still in Zambia, a lady in Lusaka, the capital, Arien Gama, received the rare miracle of the restoration of her dismembered finger. In simple faith, she pointed the challenged limb at the screen showing me at a crusade in Nigeria. The power of Heaven which recognizes no physical barriers of distances hit the finger and made it grow out again. There was no human surgery.

A young man who was in the village preparing for one of my crusades learned of the death of his father. He was under pressure to stay behind for the funeral plans. But he said: “I have made a pact with God to honour His invitation to the program. I can’t renege.’’ So he came to the crusade. God also honoured the consecration of the man by bringing his father back to life during prayers while he was serving Him at the program.

These are just a few of the instances when God has deployed His Church to intervene in the affairs of the nation and its citizens and institutions.

And as we now head for Port Harcourt, capital of Rivers State in Nigeria’s south-south for another 5-day Global Crusade from Wednesday October 27, 2021, I foresee more of the Lord’s focus on attending to the challenges of our nation and the countries of the world. I see Him containing the conflicts confronting His people as we pray in the Name of Jesus.

*Pastor Kumuyi is the General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry

The Church And The Challenges Of A Nation

 By William F. Kumuyi

At a public forum in Lagos in September this year, a visibly disturbed former Vice Chancellor of Ajayi Crowther University, Professor Dapo Asaju, challenged me and my brother minister, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, to speak up in the face of the pall of insecurity overlooking our dear country, Nigeria, and threatening us all with a pin-down. He says it’s not enough to ‘’keep quiet’’ and pastor only our congregants. He wants us, among other charges, to meet President Muhammadu Buhari and tell him, "Enough is enough."

*Pastor W.F. Kumuyi

The don said: ‘’All ministers of God must speak out…I (am) looking forward to Baba (Kumuyi) addressing a World Conference, with Baba Adeboye seated beside him. Let them call people and say ‘Enough is Enough.’ They need to lead other people to convene a high-powered meeting with the President.’’ He tied his call to the Scriptures, where troublous times in ancient Israel always witnessed the emergence of faithful messengers offering Divine succor and intervention. Nigeria of this age is also under the weather, Asaju laments; she needs the clerics’ cuddling and comforting care.

Remembering Thomas Sankara

 By Ben Nkem Oramalugo

October 15, 2021 marked 34 years since Thomas Sankara was assassinated in Ouagadougo via the inhuman conspiracies of the Western imperialists, Ivory Coast and his good friend Blaise Compaore on October 15, 1987. Nevertheless, even in death Sankara has joined the pantheon of immortals whole ideals and praxis dominated and influenced Africa and will therefore live forever in the hearts of the people. His life was story of revolutionary regeneration of Burkina Faso (with a population of 8.5 million in 1985 and now 19.7 million).

Before his emergence as the leader of Burkina Faso, his country was one of the poorest countries in Africa ravaged by the exploitation of the Western Powers in collaboration with corrupt internal collaborators. At the age of 33 in 1983 when he became President, he immediately unleashed profound changes in the social, economic and political trajectory of his country. In tacit alliance, with socialist inclined states like Cuba, North Korea, China, Russia and China etc, he awakened the ideological consciousness of Burkina Faso people.

Buhari Presidency: Insecurity ‘Dividend’ For Everybody?

 By Bisi Olawunmi

Flash back to May 29, 2015 when General Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in as president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. A nation, anticipating a redemptive government, waited with baited breath for the inaugural speech of the former military dictator, now a rebranded, born-again democrat. And President Buhari spoke.

It was neither a flowery nor a fire-spitting speech but what rang out and got stamped in the consciousness of the people was his declaration that he belongs to everybody and belongs to nobody, implying that he is for everybody and will not be held hostage by anybody. The general interpretation then was that he was declaring his independence of the political sorcerer at Bourdillon Street, Ikoyi, Lagos who willed the genie of his presidency to life. He was going to be his own man. Malevolent haters had gleefully greeted Buhari’s declaration of his independence as putting the sorcerer ‘in his place, clipping his wings’.

Guilty Of Being Nigerian In Ghana

 By Leo Igwe

The Nigerian government should look into the treatment of Nigerians in Ghana because there are reports of police harassment and extortion from Nigerians in the country. A Ghanaian friend recently shared a Facebook post on some police raids that targeted Nigerians. 

His post reads: “My apartment has been raided by the Ghana Police 4 times in less than a year. Whatever reason you think for this. It’s worse! The apartment used to be occupied by some Nigerian men who were tired of being harassed by the police”.  So many Nigerians in Ghana suffer constant harassment by the police. The harassment has gone on for too long that some are tired. Yes, some Nigerians are tired of being targeted, stopped, arrested by the police in Ghana. 

As the post further reveals, the raids have become a pretext for extortion: “The neighbor told me that they packed and left the day after the final raid; after they had to find 7000 Cedis bribe for the police to bail themselves out. They were not the only Nigerians who packed and left. More than five apartments became available after that raid”. 

Ken Nnamani: The Man Who Sold His Conscience

 By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

Kenechukwu (Ken) Nnamani, trustee of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and leader of the party in South-East Nigeria is about to embark on a book tour with a story about how he, as Senate President in 2006, stood between a rampant President Olusegun Obasanjo and a constitutionally impermissible Third Term.

                   *Ken Nnamani (2nd left) greets President Buhari 

His book is impressively titled Standing Strong. The story would ordinarily be a bestseller if its release was not timed to coincide with the Anambra State governorship election in which Ken Nnamani leads the charge on behalf of Andy Uba, the candidate of the APC, who was coincidentally Obasanjo’s bag-man for Third Term. What Ken seeks to do is plainly grubby and disreputable and he needs to be told so in clear terms.

Soludo, Central Politics and the Rest of Us

 By Chuks Iloegbunam  

I write this letter with a very heavy heart. For some time now I have watched events in Nigeria with alarm and dismay. I have watched particularly the chaos in my own state of Anambra where a small clique of renegades, openly boasting its connections in high places, seems determined to turn my homeland into a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom. I am appalled by the brazenness of this clique and the silence, if not connivance, of the Presidency.

*Soludo 

The above is from a letter Chinua Achebe wrote to President Obasanjo on October 15, 2004, rejecting his nomination for national honours on the grounds that under the President’s watch Anambra State had become a political gangland. Anambra State is once more sitting precariously on the horn of a dilemma. The gubernatorial election is slated for November 6, 2021. There are over a dozen candidates, which, comparatively speaking is merciful. Ordinarily there should be more than 200 candidates, something close to the scenario of a church with more pastors than the congregation.

There is a matter of primary concern. Where are the election materials to be stored? The Awka branch of the Central Bank has vaults spacious enough to store all the materials necessary for the election. The place was previously used to store such election materials. Why might it not be used this time around? INEC says the election materials would, instead, be stored in Owerri, Imo State. Why?

Dele Giwa’s Assassination: 35 Years After

 By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye 

“Death is…the absence of presence…the endless time of never coming back…a gap you can’t see, and when the wind blows through it, it makes no sound” – Tom Stopard    

In the morning of Monday, October 20, 1986, I was preparing to go to work when a major item on the Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS) 6.30 news bulletin hit me like a hard object. Mr. Dele Giwa, the founding editor-in-chief of ‘Newswatch’ magazine, had the previous day been killed and shattered by a letter bomb in his Lagos home. My scream was so loud that my colleague barged into my room to inquire what it was that could have made me to let out such an ear-splitting bellow. 

*Giwa

We were three young men who had a couple of months earlier been posted from Enugu to Abakaliki to work in the old Anambra State public service, and we had hired a flat in a newly erected two-storey building at the end of Water Works Road, which we shared. My flat-mate, clearly, was not familiar with Giwa’s name and work, and so had wondered why his death could elicit such a reaction from me. 

But later that day, as he interacted with people, he realised that Giwa’s death was such big news, and by the next couple of days, he had become an expert on Giwa and his truncated life and career. Across the country, Giwa’s brutal death dominated the news not just because of the pride of place he occupied in Nigerian journalism practice, but more because of the totally novel way his killers had chosen to end his life.   

Remembering Dele Giwa

 By Yakubu Mohammed

Remembering Dele Giwa? No, we have not forgotten him. How do you forget a colleague and a friend who was more like a brother? How do you forget a co-conspirator with whom, in 1984, we decided to quit our comfort zone in Concord where he edited the Sunday Concord and I, the National Concord, to venture into an uncharted waters that in no time birthed the trailblazing Newswatch?

*Dele Giwa 

How can you forget the iconoclastic reporter and editor who took exceptional delight in speaking truth to power? How do you forget? Like we do for the dead, we remember him every day and, as enjoined by our religion, we pray for the dead every day. 

But Dele Giwa lives in every journalist who pursues professionalism and extols the virtues of excellence, not the one who enthrones cant and hypocrisy and worships them like an ancient deity. We remember Dele everyday. As we did yesterday, October 19.  

When they snuffed life out of him on October 19, 1986, the novelty, even the senselessness, of his assassination through a parcel bomb was a mortal mistake. By that method and its cowardly means of delivery, they had made an immortal hero out of Dele. And forever he has to be mourned. As we do even now.

Compaore: Paying For Sankara’s Murder At Last?

 By Afolabi Gambari 

The man on the left of the photo below (Blaise Compaore) was 36 years old in 1987. Today, he is 70 years old. He was boyhood friend to the man on the right (Thomas Sankara). They lived together in the home of Thomas whose parents (Papa Joseph and Madame Marguerite) adopted Blaise as their own son and showered on him all the love and care that dutiful parents shower on their offspring. 

*Blaise Compaore and Thomas Sankara in 1984

Indeed, Papa Sankara took both Thomas and Blaise to the Army where he got them enlisted and wished for the brotherly friends a bright future together.

As fate would have it, Thomas' star shot higher in the Army and he became head of state of their country, Burkina Faso. The fate also made Blaise fall behind his friend in hierarchy, although they ran the government together – to the pride and joy of Papa Joseph and Madame Marguerite who saw the friends grow from boys to men.

Nigeria: Official Refusal To Declare Bandits As Terrorists

 By Femi Falana

It is public knowledge that the dangerous criminal elements who kidnapped the Chibok and Dapchi secondary school girls in the North-East Zone in 2014 and 2017 respectively were not referred to as bandits. They were called terrorists by the Federal Government and the media. The description was correct as the abductions carried out by the criminal elements were acts of terrorism.  

*Femi Falana 

But for reasons best known to the Federal Government the criminal elements who are currently involved in the brutal killing of innocent people and abduction of thousands of people including primary school pupils in the North-West Zone are called bandits and not terrorists. 

A few weeks ago, the so called bandits downed a fighter jet belonging to the Nigerian Air Force. Curiously, it was reported by the Federal Government and the media that the dastardly act was perpetrated by a gang of bandits.

Nigerian Legislators As Enablers Of Election Rigging!

 By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

There is no doubt that members of Nigeria’s National Assembly have grown too big for their boots and it is time the Nigerian people are massively fed with the liberating enlightenment that they possess the powers to cut them to size. Yes, the lawmakers need to be served an urgent reminder that they are in that Legislative House because the people have so far chosen to tolerate their deficient representation and can wake up one morning, decide that they have had enough of their abject lack of patriotism, suffocating arrogance and insensitivity and ask them to pack their loads and return home.   

  Senate President Lawan, Pres Buhari and Speaker Gbajabiamila

Their recent decision to brazenly sabotage the yearning of Nigerians for a more transparent and credible electoral process by voting against electronic transmission of results only served to open the eyes of many Nigerians to the extent these lawmakers have convinced themselves that they have become untouchable emperors who can ride roughshod on the citizenry and abort their most cherished aspirations without the minutest fear of any consequence.

Buharism: As The Naira Collapses, So Does Nigeria

 By Tony Eluemnor

I may not be an Economist but I don’t need an Economist to tell me that as the Naira tumbles in the foreign exchange (of currencies) market, thus Nigeria collapses. Or to put it in a proper perspective, thus the quality of the livelihood of Nigerians collapses, degrades, vanishes, disappears, is tarnished, is destroyed. I added that really needless second sentence because there could be some people out there that could claim that the country Nigeria is totally different from the citizens.

*Buhari 
As strange as that may sound, some people actually think that the country Nigeria is different from her citizens, or that the health of her economy does not really impact on the lives of the citizenry. If not, the cost of necessities such as petrol, cement, electricity tariff, food, transportation, books, newsprint, even sachet water and bread, should not be rising every day and our leaders would be congratulating themselves for a job well done. Also, no government official has seen it fit to resign. Yes, they also tag themselves as “progressives”! 

Nigerian Lawmakers As Champions Of Electoral Malpractices!

 By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

There is no doubt that members of Nigeria’s National Assembly have grown too big for their boots and it is time the Nigerian people are massively fed with the liberating enlightenment that they possess the powers to cut them to size. Yes, the lawmakers need to be served an urgent reminder that they are in that Legislative House because the people have so far chosen to tolerate their deficient representation and can wake up one morning, decide that they have had enough of their abject lack of patriotism, suffocating arrogance and insensitivity and ask them to pack their loads and return home.  

 *Senate President Lawan, President Buhari and Speaker               Gbajabiamila   

Their recent decision to brazenly sabotage the yearning of Nigerians for a more transparent and credible electoral process by voting against electronic transmission of results only served to open the eyes of many Nigerians to the extent these lawmakers have convinced themselves that they have become untouchable emperors who can ride roughshod on the citizenry and abort their most cherished aspirations without the minutest fear of any consequence.

2023: For Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, Son Of Mauritanian Cow Seller Who Speaks For The North

 By Lasisi Olagunju

Alhaji Baba Ahmed, a Mauritanian cow seller, plied his trade from his country to the Gold Coast (now Ghana) and to Dahomey (now Benin Republic). Business was very good but at a point, his customers in Dahomey, with impunity, refused to pay for his cows. Is it not the law that every seller must collect the proceeds of his sale? This was not the case with the cow seller who was not a son-of-the-soil in Dahomey. 

*Hakeem Baba-Ahmed and President Buhari 

The options before him were very limited. My people say if the landlord offends the tenant, it is the tenant who must go; again, if it is the tenant who has wronged the landlord, it is still the tenant who must go. This trader from Mauritania had to move out of Dahomey, leaving his money behind. And he moved, crossing over to Nigeria; first to Sokoto and later to Zaria. He entered Nigeria all alone but soon found Zaria a very conducive environment for his business, for his Islamic scholarship and for raising a family (See Daily Trust of Saturday, January 13, 2018). The Mauritanian finally settled in Zaria around 1920 - that was about 100 years ago - and died on November 5, 1987 in Zaria, reportedly at the age of 104 (see Facebook post of Abdulrahman M. Baba-Ahmed of 9 July, 2021). 

Does Nigeria Still Matter To Nigerians?

 By Dan Amor

It is the biggest question of the day! Does Nigeria really matter? Like an inscrutable nightmare, the ponderous mystery of the Nigerian national question, which is ultimately the nation’s enduring essence, is still at issue. Jolted by the scandalous and shocking display of the obvious limitations of the human evolution, the unacceptable index of human misery in their country, and willed by a recent memory of oppression inflicted upon them by discredited soldiers and their quislings, Nigerians have been singing discordant tunes about the state of their forced Union.   

This has further been exacerbated by disarming pockets of inter and intra-communal clashes, wanton killings by herdsmen, senseless Boko Haram bombings, frequent kidnappings by armed bandits, violent robbery and mindless ritual killings across the country. Therefore, the matter for regret and agitation is that a supposedly giant of Africa has suddenly become the world’s most viable junkyard due to the evil  machinations of a fraudulent ruling class and the feudal forces still determined to keep the country in a permanent state of medieval servitude.