My Personal Encounter With Mr Peter Obi

 …I don’t need to verify

By Adim Williams

‘Go and verify’ has become a new slogan since the eventful emergence of the enigma called Peter Obi for the Nigerian presidential race. It’s not just a slogan but actually a new practice; a new culture. Before now, Nigerians used to take whatever politicians said hook, line and sinker. But not anymore.

*Gov Peter Obi inspecting flooded communities in Anambra State 

With Peter Obi’s  ‘go and verify’ challenge, most people now have their fingers on the phones and laptops to Google whatever claim any politician makes to confirm, to contest or to counter it. It’s a good development.

 It explains why the other presidential candidates now dread granting interviews, especially live interviews; so that their lies won’t be busted. However, some of us do not need to verify anything as far as Mr Peter Obi is concerned because, we had firsthand experience of his claims. Experience, they say, is the best teacher.

Nigeria: Writing Buhari’s Scorecard

 By Rotimi Fasan

The consensus among Nigerians across different parts of our country today is that President Muhammadu Buhari has failed both as a leader and a two-term president. His inability to deliver on his electoral promises to secure Nigeria, making it a safe polity for life and property aside food and job security in the wake of what Nigerians then thought was the demolition job of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP-led government of Goodluck Jonathan; fight corruption and relate with the people of Nigeria without fear or favour, in regard to religion, ethnic and gender identity- all of these have conspired to undermine his claim to a favourable place in history.

*Buhari

For a man who at a point enjoyed the unalloyed support and admiration of the vast majority of Nigerians from his part of the country, was accorded grudging respect from other parts on account of his apparent spartan lifestyle (which was seen as the appropriate antidote to the corrupt profligacy of the Jonathan years) and spent the latter part of his adult life aspiring to lead the country he once ruled as a military dictator for almost two years before he was ousted from power in a military putsch, this turn of events is without any doubt tragic. The more so it does not appear there is much the administration can achieve in the few months left before a new government comes into office.

President Buhari, indeed, has just about five active months, between August and February, left to ameliorate the harsh verdict of history. Not enough time to do much to say nothing of achieving a fundamental shift in opinion, expectations of Nigerians or his own capacity for any miraculous transformation in the state of the nation.

Everyone’s Obituary Is Inevitable

 Chuks Iloegbunam tells Sam Omatseye to cleanse his journalism 

*Peter Obi

 Some have called you foolish, dear Sam Omatseye. Others insist that you are plain stupid. There are those who hold you to be beneath contempt. Their howls of execration upon you are in reaction to your August 1, 2022 article entitled Obi-tuary. For me, however, you are a dear friend. Our friendship started in the 1980s at Newswatch magazine where both of us practiced journalism before you travelled to the United States for further studies.

 

It continued upon your return and strengthened to the point that, sometimes, you get the producers of your TV Continental programme to connect me to field questions live. Besides, living in different states, we often chat by telephone. I demonstrated our amity again last May when I was in Nigeria’s commercial capital for the Lagos International Book Fair. I phoned you and, within the hour, you were at my stand where we spent quality time reminiscing about the good old days and prognosticating on the future of our dear fatherland.

 

Armed with this handle of friendship, I have just the one advice for you: Be careful. It is in elaboration of this counsel that I write all that you read hereon. Please look back to the time of the Nigeria-Biafra war of 1967 to 1970. You will find that, military or civilian, none of the political actors of that era is still in a position to fight elections today. The final curtain long fell for most of them. Of the lot that remains, some have become vegetables, or are propped up with a suffusion of drugs or would not find their way to the loo unless hired attendants or swearing relatives point it out. Together with the handful that is still blessed with something close to robust health, they have one thing in common. They are seated, restless or restive, in various existential departure halls, clutching fitfully at their boarding passes and waiting for that inevitable voice that cannot be disobeyed, to announce their flights into past tense. 

Where Is The Federal Government Of Nigeria?

 By Ray Ekpu

Going through the newspapers last week it seemed as though the Nigerian world was crashing, ready to come down and bury all of us. And it is not as if we are strangers to bad news; we experience it every day, every week and when a new piece of bad news comes it is easy for people to say nonchalantly “what is new?” But last week took the trophy. It was like the coming of the apocalypse, an Armageddon, some kind of tsunami.

*Buhari 

Let us pigeonhole the news into three sectors. First, the national strike by ASUU was joined last week by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its affiliates. The strike had gone on for about six months without the government being able to resolve it.

How can any government worth the name allow its tertiary institutions to be shut for nearly one semester? It has never happened in this country before. And the amazing thing is that as NLC threatened to join the strike in sympathy, President Muhammadu Buhari, as evidence of taking action, commanded the Minister of Education, Mr Adamu Adamu, to end the strike within two weeks. I am sure that the minister who knows that resolving it is a matter of forking out a lot of cash, and he doesn’t mint money, must have laughed haughtily at the impossible directive.

A Captive President, Blighted Country, Docile People

 By Chris Gyang

Those Nigerians who once thought that the Buhari presidency would take our country to a destination better than this forlorn outpost of stasis, anarchy and overwhelming misery now know better. They are shaking their heads in utter regret, and sheer bewilderment.

*Buhari 

When we warned, even as early as the days before the 2015 presidential vote, that Buhari’s rabid sectionalism and extreme religious proclivities would push Nigeria to a sad precipice, we were excoriated and branded as hateful and irrational peddlers of Islamophobia. But those who pointed accusing fingers at us then are now also crying, painfully – victims of Islamist terrorism, Fulani herdsmen’s terrorism and expansionism, armed banditry, kidnapping for hefty pay-offs and sundry criminalities that have become the chief themes of Buhari’s reign so far.

But, lest we forget, this is the man whom Boko Haram once penciled down as their spokesman before he became president – based on his strident support for them (once upon a time?) This is a president in whose cabinet a popular and self-confessed Al-Qaeda apologist snugly perches – one of the president’s closest allies.

It’s Not Muslim-Muslim Ticket, It’s Tinubu!

 By Dele Sobowale

“I will be fair to all.” Tinubu, Sunday Vanguard, July 10, 2022. 

That Asiwaju Bola Tinubu opted for a Muslim-Muslim ticket after winning the election primaries of the All Progressives Congress, APC, was not a surprise to me. I expected it, even as I was predicting that he would emerge as the flag-bearer for the APC. Several reasons account for this but they all come to the same thing: Tinubu is an unrepentant Muslim bigot; as I will explain later fully. 

*Tinubu

So, for me, the issue is not Muslim-Muslim, M-M, ticket as such. It is Tinubu at the head of that ticket. In my opinion, he cannot be trusted to be fair to Christians. His words and actions in the past demonstrate the fact that Christians allowing themselves to be lulled to sleep by the illogical statements of Tinubu’s supporters will regret it later. To be blunt; I don’t believe that Tinubu will be fair to all. That is the sort of politicians’ promise which only gullible individuals will swallow. He has never been fair to Christians – except the few who received crumbs from his table.

*First a diversion 

Now That Abuja Is Under A Siege!

 By Dakuku Peterside, PhD

Once upon a time, Abuja, Ni­geria’s federal capital, was a serene and sprawling city that accommodated persons of all faith, social strata, and economic pursuits. Abuja, to the elite, offered an escape from insecurity, hustling, and bustling that plagued other major cit­ies in the county. It was a city in which most elite wanted to own a property, raise a family, or even retire in old age.

The city was a haven for the pro­fessional middle class linked to the public sector. It was a city of hope to the many poor people who migrated to its surburbs with the dream of ad­vancement.

Abuja , a prototype of future cities in Nigeria. It was founded on the vi­sion of a centralised symbol of our national unity . But the era of Abuja being a fortress of peace and tranquility seems to belong to history.

Vote Buying As Clear And Present Danger

 By Nick Dazang

Shortly after Professor Attahiru Jega assumed office as the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in June 2010, his first major outing was a visit to the INEC state headquarters office in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. By the same token, shortly after Professor Mahmood Yakubu was inaugurated as INEC Chairman on October 21, 2015,  he replicated Professor Jega’s pilgrimage with modifications.

He visited the South-West geopolitical zone, by beginning with a tour of the INEC state headquarters office in Ibadan, Oyo State.

*Voting day in Nigeria 

After receiving a rousing welcome by the Oyo State INEC officials, the media savvy Professor Yakubu flagged off a visit of media houses in the zone with a robust engagement with the editorial board of Tribune Newspapers at Imalefalafia, Ibadan. One of the issues raised by a member of the Tribune editorial board was how Professor Yakubu intended to address the scourge of of vote-buying and selling also known popularly in the South-West as “see and buy”.

At the time of this engagement, the menace of vote-buying and selling was as inchoate as Professor Yakubu was new to the Commission. Therefore, Professor Yakubu requested that the said editorial board member elaborate on what he meant. An election cycle down the line and the conduct of many off-season governorship elections and a legion of bye-elections under his belt and watch, the phenomenon of vote-buying and selling has since assumed the proportion of a clear and present danger to our electoral process.

From what stakeholders have witnessed recently during the conduct of the FCT Area Council Elections to the presidential primaries and the conduct of the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections, vote-buying and selling have become rampant and commonplace. Whereas vote-buying and selling were carried out in the full glare of observers and the media during the FCT Area Council Elections and recipients were liberally rewarded with Naira notes,  the currency of vote-buying in the presidential primaries morphed from the Naira to the Dollar, with deleterious consequences to the economy and the electoral process.

Following the token arrests of perpetrators of the act by anti-corruption agencies during the conduct of the Ekiti governorship election, the perpetrators, who are our own version of geniuses of travesty, have contrived other means. Votes were reportedly bought in lieu of the Osun governorship election days ahead either by direct cash or by way of offerings or gifts. Rather than display thumb printed ballots, following the prohibition of android phones at voting cubicles, commitments were extracted during the Osun governorship election through vouchers by agents who then proceeded to take care of complicit persons who voted for their preferred candidates.

Instead of playing by the rules as enunciated by the Constitution and Electoral Act, thereby upholding the sanctity of the electoral process and putting our democracy on an enviable keel, our unscrupulous politicians seem to excel in gaming the system. Each time INEC plugs a loophole created by them, they proceed, with frenetic zeal,  to create new ones. The upshot of their prolific negative genius is clear: they imperil and make nonsense of the onerous efforts of the Commission to sanitise the electoral process and to deliver wholesome elections which reflect the true and genuine wishes of the Nigerian people.

My fear- and indeed that of most stakeholders in the electoral process- is that if vote-buying and selling  are left unchecked and untrammeled, they will not only torpedo and undermine the integrity of the electoral process, they will rubbish all the gains and reforms which INEC and its partners have fought for and instituted over more than one decade.

Vote-buying promotes the outright sale of political office to the highest bidder. It brings diminishment and devaluation to political power which ought to be sacred and hallowed. And when or where a deep pocket buys political office he will either covet or abuse it. He will seldom deploy it to uplifting ends. At best he will obsess himself with recovering his “investment”. At worst he will enrich himself with a view to further perpetuating himself in office. In this sordid scenario or circumstance, good governance and delivery of democracy dividends are the first casualties.

 The office holder is not obligated to deliver them. The voter who has exchanged his birthright for a miserable dish of pottage loses the moral high ground from which to hold such an office holder to account. We have arrived at a sorry pass on account of bad governance and the arrogance and betrayal of the political class. Should we compound our woes by selling our votes and condemning ourselves and our children to untold and continuous suffering and servitude?

To rise to the challenge of vote-buying and selling, INEC has had to expand its Interagency Consultative Committee on Elections Security, ICCES, by co-opting the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Commission, ICPC. In response to the threat of vote-buying, the two anti-corruption agencies made a few arrests during the conduct of the Ekiti and Osun  governorship elections. 

But given the widespread manner in which vote-buying reportedly took place in the said elections, the arrests were at best niggardly. The arrests pale in significance when compared with the large number of alleged perpetrators. As if the arrests were not significant enough, we are yet to hear of the prosecution and sentencing of perpetrators by our courts in what appear to be open and shut cases.

As the Election Management Body, EMB, and, therefore, the chief driver of our elections, INEC has a responsibility to insist that those apprehended are prosecuted to the full extent of the law. INEC should upscale its voter education, underscoring to voters the danger which vote-buying and selling constitute to our democracy and good governance. 

INEC and the anti- corruption agencies should be proactive and anticipate in advance the shenanigans and tricks deployed by politicians to buy votes and to stop them in their tracks. In addition to being on top of their game,  subsequent arrests of perpetrators of vote-buying should not be limited to the minions.

Arrests should be extended to their high-profile sponsors. Beyond these, INEC must work with other stakeholders to ensure the establishment of the Electoral Offences Commission and Tribunal ahead of the 2023 general elections. That way we shall have a separate body which remit shall be the apprehension and punishment of those who seek to undermine the electoral process. 

This should strengthen the integrity of the electoral process and divest INEC of the legion of responsibilities with which it is saddled and for which it has limited resources to discharge. The establishment of the Electoral Offences Commission and Tribunal will also help check impunity in the electoral process and further improve the quality of our elections.

*Dazang is a former director in INEC (nickdazang@gmail.com)

National Assembly’s Best Option Is To Impeach Buhari

 By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

This past week, education came to a halt in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, FCT. It began with the order by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, on July 25 closing down all six Federal Government Colleges (better known as Unity Schools) in the FCT while the students were in the middle of their end of year examinations.

*Odinkalu

The reason for this order, according to the Minister, was “a security breach on Sheda and Lambata villages, suburbs of Kwali Area Council which also threatened FGC Kwali”. He provided no details as to the nature or extent of the “security breach”.

In a separate announcement issued on the same day, the Education Secretariat of the FCT summarily informed “parents and guardians that the 2021/2022 academic calendar for FCT schools will come to an end on Wednesday, July 27, 2022”. They did not much care to provide any justification for this measure. The assumption that the reason for the closure of all schools in the FCT was the same as that cited by the Minister of Education when he closed down the Unity Schools, does not necessarily explain the two more days of grace given by the FCT administration to all the other schools in the FCT.

Insecurity: ISWAP’s Threat To Attack Lagos State

 By Ayo Oyoze Baje 

”Nothing is as dangerous as power with impunity”   – Isabel Allende (Chilean journalist and author) 

My dear concerned readers, lest we forget, when yours truly wrote and got published the opinion essays titled:  ‘The Gathering Storm!’, ‘Of Gumi, Bandits and Impunity’ both in March, 2021 and followed them up with ‘Tackling Insecurity: The Hard Way, The Only Way’, it was with the fervent hope that the current crop of politicians, constitutionally entrusted with the protection of our irreplaceable lives and precious property would live up to their matching mandate. But unfortunately, they have not!   

And not unexpectedly, things have gotten worse, more than ever before in our country’s chequered history. Consider the critical issues of high inflation rate, economic challenges with alarming youth unemployment, the incredible Naira-to- Dollar exchange rate at 710( as at this day), education lockdown courtesy of the lingering ASUU strike, the aviation meltdown with huge cost of fuel. They all stare us all right on the face and we cannot but ask ourselves if we are watching a horrifying midnight movie or these encapsulate both the ‘change’ and ‘higher level’ puerile political promises the All Progressives Congress(APC)-led government promised the long-suffering Nigerians in 2015 and 2019.

The Awomama Massacre And Matters Arising

 By Obi Nwakanma

Last week, dear reader, I felt too overwhelmed to write this column. It seemed pointless. Nigeria does this to you, yes. Events of such significance happen far too rapidly these days that it is no longer easy to respond to any without feeling a sense of despair.

*Gov Uzodinma of Imo State

Just like last week, there are too many things this week that dog our steps: the Tinubu choice of a Muslim-Muslim ticket certainly requires urgent interrogation; the spittle had not dried from the mouth of Nigerians when again from the Tinubu camp, in utter disregard of the feelings of the Christian community, the Tinubu-Shettima campaign caused another outrage: they went all out to hire all kinds of characters – mechanics, carpenters, a few others whom they found on the streets, gathered them, offered them cash, put cassocks on them, and declared them “Christian Bishops” at the ceremony “unveiling” of  Mr. Bola Tinubu’s APC running mate, Kashim Shettima.

It was a most insensitive disrespect of Christians, already feeling utterly dissed by the APC candidate. But there was also the inauguration, this week, of the new NNPC Ltd by President Buhari. Nothing good will come out of this. It is startling that the National Assembly brazenly passed a law that steals the Nigerian commonwealth from the Nigerian people.

President Buhari Is Overdue For Impeachment!

By Yemi Adebowale

A large number of senators, across party lines, showed a bit of courage last Wednesday by pushing for President Muhammadu Buhari’s impeachment in the face of the appalling security situation of beloved Nigeria. But the coldblooded President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan tactically stalled the motion to give the inept Buhari six weeks to improve the country’s security or face impeachment.

*Buhari 

It is appalling that Lawan did not allow the senators to discuss the raging insecurity in the country as agreed during an earlier Executive Session. He knocked it off the day’s Order Paper, preemptively, making it impossible to accommodate the debate on this vital issue at plenary. I was not shocked by Lawan’s action. This man has never been on the side of traumatised Nigerians. The senators eventually walked out of the red Chamber in protest, chanting “Buhari must Go,” “Lawan Must Go”.

Nigeria: Things Fall Apart, The Centre Cannot Hold

 By Donu Kogbara

On Tuesday, President Muhammadu Buhari took off to Monrovia to celebrate Liberia’s Special Independence anniversary (commemorating 175 years of self-rule) with other African leaders. According to Garba Shehu, his Senior Special Assistant (Media and Publicity), one of the important issues Mr. President was going to address in his speech at this event was West Africa’s security. 

*Buhari and Weah 

A couple of days before this announcement was made, a harrowing video clip went viral globally. It depicted terrorists flogging male passengers who were abducted from a Kaduna-bound train on March 28 and are still stranded with their tormentors in the middle of a forest, alongside female captives who were seen weeping and wailing. Since Buhari became our head of state, Nigerians in all six geopolitical zones have been subjected to endless security disasters.

World Hepatitis Day: Have You Been Tested Yet?

By Abowine Alfred

Hepatitis is simply the inflammation of the liver. It can be caused by alcohol consumption, use of some drugs and certain other health conditions. But the most common causes are viral infections.

There are five main classifications of viral hepatitis based on the type of virus that is causing it and they are; Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Hepatitis D and Hepatitis E. However, hepatitis B and C are the most common types of viral hepatitis. The WHO estimates that 354 million people across the world are living with chronic Hepatitis B and C and causes more than one million deaths each year. These two are transmitted via contact with body fluids such as vagina secretions and semen. Sharing same razor and having multiple sexual partners increases your chance of being infected.

Nigeria: There Is Fire On The Mountain!

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

There is fire on the mountain

And nobody seems to be on the run

Oh, there is fire on the mountaintop

And no one is a-runnin’

I wake up in the mornin’

Tell you what I see on my TV screen

I see the blood of an innocent child

And everybody’s watchin’

… One day the river will overflow

And there’ll be nowhere for us to go

And we will run, run

Wishing we had put out the fire, oh.

*Buhari

These are the immortal lyrics of Bukola Elemide’s song, Fire on the Mountain, the fifth track on her inimitable album Asa. Bukola, the 39-year-old musician, professionally known as Asa, sang this song at the launch of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, on Tuesday, July 19, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Several high-ranking government officials, including President Muhammadu Buhari, were in attendance.

Integrity Matters In Politics: Britain Shows It, Why Not Nigeria?

 By Olu Fasan

Call it a tale of two countries. One, Britain, puts integrity at the heart of its politics and punishes any departure from it, as evidenced by the recent toppling of its prime minister, Boris Johnson. The other, Nigeria, lacks integrity in its politics and tolerates acts of impunity, as proven by the prevalence of vote-buying and other dishonest practices in its elections. The contrasting stories of both countries and the implications for Nigeria’s democracy are instructive and deserve our attention. Let’s start with Britain!

*Buhari and Johnson

In December 2019, Boris Johnson secured a landslide victory for his party, the Conservative Party. He won an 80-seat parliamentary majority, the party’s biggest for 40 years. Yet less than three years later, he was brutally defenestrated by Members of Parliament, MPs, from his own party.

Ironically, last week, the same Tory MPs gave Johnson a standing ovation during his final prime minister’s questions, PMQs, after a barnstorming speech, which he ended with the words: “Hasta la vista(goodbye; see you later), baby!”

So, within three years as prime minister, Boris Johnson was ousted from the job he coveted his entire political life. The question must be: Why? Well, here’s why. Conservative MPs admired Johnson’s charisma and electioneering skills, but they strongly detested his personal flaws, his perceived lack of integrity, and the latter feeling trumped the former. As one Conservative insider put it, “the principal reason for removing Johnson was to restore honesty to public life”.

Antimicrobial Resistance: Where Did We Go Wrong In Our Efforts To Help Humanity?

 

By Nana Afua Agyemang Mensah-Bonsu

Antibiotics were discovered in a stroke of luck almost a century ago like an answered prayer to the cries of mankind as lives were being lost to and heavily affected by (treatable) infections.

Unbeknownst to man, the discovery of antibiotics brought in its wake, poor antibiotic usage and practices which has led to Antimicrobial Resistance, a public health and healthcare menace taking us back to square one.

The first true antibiotic known to man is Penicillin. This was discovered in 1928 by Alexander Fleming, a Scottish bacteriologist who returned from a vacation to find green mold (Penicillium notatum) growing in one of his petri dishes which contained Staphylococcus, bacteria known to cause boils and sore throats, inhibiting the growth of the bacteria.

Women Entrepreneurs In Africa Face More Climate Risks Than Their Male Peers

 

By Kate Gannon

The world's climate is changing. All of us will ultimately be affected by climatic shifts – but some will be hit harder than others.

On the African continent, for instance, small businesses are on the front lines of climate change. Over 50% of the African labour force works in agriculture, which is both very exposed to and dependent on climatic variability and change. But even businesses in urban centres are increasingly dealing with climate-induced challenges. These include unstable water and power supplies, extreme heat and flooding. These hazards interrupt processing and manufacturing activities. They also limit transportation of goods and make it harder to provide services to customers. And they increase the risk of unsafe working conditions.

HIV: A Looming Epidemic!

 Latest UNAIDS Data Paint A Grim Picture Of The Pandemic…

By Shobha Shukla

A new report, “In Danger”, launched by UNAIDS just ahead of the 24th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2022) in Montreal, Canada, paints a grim picture of the global HIV epidemic. It reveals that during the last two years, progress in prevention and treatment of HIV has slowed down and resources have shrunk, putting millions of lives at risk.

As per the report, there were 650,000 AIDS related deaths in 2021, despite there being effective HIV treatment and tools to prevent, diagnose and treat opportunistic infections.

Also 1.5 million new infections occurred in 2021– over 1 million more than the 2025 global targets. This amounts to the smallest annual decline in new HIV infections since 2016 – a drop of only 3.6% between 2020 and 2021.

Cumulative Evidence Of Buhari’s Failure

 By Olayemi Olaniyi   

If you’re not in academia, there is a good chance you don’t know what the hell a Nomological Network of Cumulative Evidence means. I came across this rather prolix and strange phrase during one of the many podcast interviews granted by the Lebanese-Canadian Professor, Gad Saad, that I have been binge-watching for weeks now. Gad Saad is arguably the world’s leading expert in Evolutionary Psychology; a field that theoretically explains psychological structure through modern evolutionary context.

*Buhari 

According to Saad, to build a nomological network of cumulative evidence essentially means to provide a wide range of evidence across various disciplines to explain a theory. The results of this interdisciplinary voyage usually would lead to the same conclusion, hence, giving the researcher an airtight premise to support their case. He often cites how Charles Darwin used this framework in On the Origin of Species. Darwin presented a nomological network of evidence from geology, archaeology, biology, anthropology, and a mélange of other disciplines in support of his theory of evolution in his seminal book.