Nigeria: Let’s Address Campaign Violence

 By Ray Ekpu

It is only one month since INEC blew the whistle for the campaigns to begin. And within that one month there have been serious cases of campaign violence and related incidents. The most prominent is perhaps the harassment of the campaign convoy of the former Vice President and presidential candidate of the PDP, Mr Atiku Abubakar. The thugs pelted the Atiku’s convoy while on its way to the Palace of the Shehu of Borno. Several vehicles were said to be vandalised while 70 persons were hospitalised. The Borno State PDP Chairman, Zamna Gaddama alleged that the attack was carried out by some miscreants from the APC.

He said that the attack occurred at three points from the airport to the Shehu of Borno’s palace. On the other hand the Director of Media and Publicity for the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Mr Bayo Onanuga said that the attack could be the result of the infighting in the Borno State chapter of the PDP. He insisted that the APC had no hand in the attack.

Federal Government, Apathy And Flood In Niger Delta

 By Braeyi Ekiye 

Understanding how to use political power constructively makes a difference in leadership. Therefore, political power and the use of it can be broken into the negative and the positive. Such use of positive political power, imbued with the desire to evoke regulatory command in the process of giving leadership, is capable of galvanising a people to achieve set goals.

Furthermore, such use of power has the kinetic energy of firing previously frustrated and helpless people during times of harrowing challenges, such as the recent flood in parts of Nigeria, particularly in the Niger Delta, including the oil and gas rich Bayelsa State. 

I doubt if any Nigerian leader led from the front in this regard as the governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri did when the flood came rushing into the state like a thief, consuming properties, destabilising human traffic, and causing dislocations of unimaginable proportion. Bayelsa State was cut off completely from her neighbouring states to the east and to the west.

Abdullahi Adamu Living In A Fool’s Paradise

 By Charles Okoh

The greatest disservice any man can do to himself is to deliberately deceive himself; thinking he is fooling others. Many years ago, the then chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the late Chief Vincent Ogbulafor, woke up one morning, perhaps filled with an overdose of self-worth and having overrated his party, concluded that the PDP would rule for the next 60 years.

*Adamu and Buhari

Nothing else could have prompted this outburst, other than the fact that he would probably have been too convinced that his behemoth party, the self-styled biggest party on the continent, was doing very well, so much so that it would remain in office for as long as it wished. Well, he and his party members were well alive to realize the tomfoolery in trying to play god or not taking appropriate assessment of the party’s significance, relevance and true worth.

Nigeria: Presidential Debate Dies A Sudden Death

 By Amanze Obi

Nigerians have just come to the sudden realization that the political culture called presidential debate is dead in their country. The death knell for the debate was sounded by Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress. 

*Tinubu

Tinubu had declined to participate in the town hall meeting put together by Arise News for presidential candidates. He had a load of reasons for his decision. His campaign office went further to alert Nigerians and other concerned publics that he would not participate in any presidential debate in whatever guise or form.

The organizers of the Arise town hall may not have envisaged this. Even if they suspected that a Bola Tinubu may not be willing to participate in the debate, they may not have imagined that he would put a stamp of finality on possible future appearances. But the debate went on regardless of that. But what turned out as a rude shock to the organizers was the refusal of the audience to accommodate any presidential candidate represented by his vice. 

Beware Of 'Emilokan' And Promise Of Continuity

 By Dele Sobowale

“Standing on the foundation emplaced by the current [Buhari] administration, we shall build a Nigeria…” – Renewed Hope 2023: Action Plan For A Better Nigeria, p 3.

Buhari and Tinubu

Whenever there is a document promising to make Nigeria a better place, I am ready to get it; read it; analyse it and publish my findings. I now have a copy of what might be regarded as the Tinubu/Shettima/APC Manifesto for the 2023 Presidential Election. The full analysis is almost finished; but, it is too long for this column. So, the reader should not expect the details here. I might add in passing that I also intend to obtain; read and analyse every manifesto published – providing the owners arrange for me to get them. “Men make history; but, not just as they please” – Karl Marx, 1818-1883.

That said; we now turn to the matter on hand. Let me start my stating that Asiwaju Tinubu has my sympathies. Those of us who were intimately involved in the struggle for the actualisation of the late Chief MKO Abiola’s mandate from 1993 till 1998, when the man died, can never forget his contributions. But, for his sagacity and street wisdom, when former President Olusegun Obasanjo deceived the leaders of Afenifere, and the Alliance for Democracy, AD, decided not to field a presidential candidate in 2003, the entire South-West would have been captured by the PDP.

Ending Impunity For Crimes Against Journalists

 By Gbemiga Bamidele

The International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists (IDEI) is a UN recognized international day observed annually on 2nd November. The day was declared to be marked on November 2 in the United Nations General Assembly resolution A/RES/68/163. The resolution calls on all members states to take concrete steps to combat the culture of impunity in their countries.

The day was chosen in commemoration of the assassination of Claude Verlon and Ghislaire Dupont, two French journalists from RFI radio station, who were kidnapped from the town of Kidal in Mali after they had finished interviewing a local political leader on November 2, 2013. According to UNESCO, in the past decade, a journalist has been killed on average every four (4) days. The year 2019 had the lowest death toll recorded by UNESCO in the last decade with 15 deaths.

Questions For Aisha Buhari

 By Promise Adiele

Titubi’s character in Femi Osofisan’s Morountodun attracts different interpretations from many people across the world. The ebullient daughter of the wealthy Alhaja Kabirat, leader of the market women, commits class suicide by repudiating the ideals of her class and identifying with the poor struggling, impoverished farmers. 

*Aisha Buhari 

Cast in the mode of the mythical Moremi of Ile-Ife, the splendour and opulence of Titubi’s bourgeois background do not impair her appreciation of the enervating realities suffered by the helpless, exploited farmers. In all her Spartan disposition, Titubi failed to save the people from the agony of losing Marshal her husband at the end of the play. The unanswered question for Titubi is – why was she unable to stop Marshal from embarking on that fateful journey at the end of the play thereby plunging the people into despair and grief? 

How To Prevent Your Network From Cyberattacks

 By Nicholas Ibenu

A vulnerability assessment is a systematic review of security weaknesses in an information system. It evaluates if the system is susceptible to any known vulnerabilities, assigns severity levels to those vulnerabilities, and recommends remediation or mitigation, if and whenever needed.

According to the 2021 World Economic Forum report on global risks, “Cybersecurity measures in place by businesses, governments and individuals are increasingly being obsolete by the growing sophistication of cybercriminals.” And this is true as businesses continue to keep a blindfold on the importance of security.

2023: Yoruba Elders Are Playing Politics Of Greed, Where’s The ‘Omoluabi’ Ethos?

 By Olu Fasan

Bola Ahmed Tinubu, presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress, APC, always has the extraordinary capacity to split Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba socio-political group. He has the uncanny ability to wrap Afenifere and some of its leaders around his finger and twist them as he wishes to serve his purpose.

*Pa Fasoranti 

Tinubu rode on Afenifere’s coattails to become governor of Lagos State in 1999, but once he acquired political invincibility, fuelled by state resources, he turned ruthlessly on the group. To further his political interests, Tinubu divided Afenifere, pocketed some of its leaders and sponsored a renegade faction called “Afenifere Renewal Group.” 

But the mainstream Afenifere regrouped and acquired national respectability under the energetic and principled leadership of Chief Ayo Adebanjo. Now, however, in pursuit of his “lifelong ambition” to become Nigeria’s president, Tinubu has again ruptured Afenifere. He has set Chief Reuben Fasoranti, the group’s supposedly retired and hitherto reclusive leader, against Chief Adebanjo, Afenifere’s public face, as well as its intellectual and moral force.

Soludo, Where Are The Coins?

 By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye  

As Central Bank Governor (2004 – 2009), Professor Charles Soludo woke up one morning with a big dream. He wanted to mint coins for the use of Nigerians as legal tender. Those with better acquaintance with the psychological and cultural disposition of Nigerians told him pointedly that the policy was dead on arrival. They explained that given the behavioral pattern of Nigerians, the policy would be viewed by the majority as a needless burden.

*Soludo

But Soludo, who often appears and sounds as if every audience before him is a class of freshmen Economics students, dismissed with characteristic arrogance and cocksureness every contrary opinion. 

He went to town marketing the great benefits of the coins, harping on their durability and how billions of naira will be saved from not having to frequently replace well-worn notes any more since the coins would last till almost eternity. Seeking to talk him out of the clearly unrealistic policy was like singing ballad to the deaf!

Corruption: Nemesis Ripens What Our Hands Have Sown

 By Emmanuel Okoroafor

Corruption has woven itself into the tapestry of the Nigeria narrative such that it has become the eternal plague of this most populous African country. For decades, this malady in its various manifestations – embezzling, backhandedness, kickbacks, internet fraud, thievery and all what not – have defined us more than our characters, capabilities and accomplishments. It is so bad that even one United Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister had the cheeks to brand us “fantastically corrupt.”

For a country touted as the giant of Africa, the tragic flaw of corruption has whittled down Nigeria’s goliath stature to that of a Lilliputian. Today, it has become the gangrene eating away our corporate structure, the poison oozing from every pore of our collective body and the bile in our cup of wine. What is worse, even the younger generation has gradually bought into the corruption franchise. It is now fashionable to hear young people say, “If I get there (public position), I go chop (embezzle) my own.” Which means “if you can’t beat them, then join them.”

Why Lagos-Ibadan Should Not Become Abuja-Kaduna

 By Semiu Okanlawon

Imagine yourself having two daughters traveling along a route and you suddenly receive information that the very direction they were headed, a kidnap incident had happened some eight hours before and that vehicles from where the hapless victims were snatched away were still left on the road, with no one knowing the fate of the captives.

That was my situation early morning of Saturday October 28th. To worsen the phobia, a call put through to them to confirm how far they had gone with their journey showed they were just some 5 minutes drive to the very scene of the kidnap the night before.

Nigeria: Terror Alert And Doubting Thomases

 By Ray Ekpu

The United States and United Kingdom embassies in Nigeria have raised the alarm over possible terror attack on facilities in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. Other countries have followed suit. These include Denmark, Bulgaria, Germany, Ireland and Canada. Although these countries are addressing their message to their citizens living in or visiting Nigeria, it is obvious that the message is also for the benefit of Nigerians and the federal government. 

The United States advisory says that the terrorists might target such places as government buildings, places of worship, schools, markets, shopping malls, hotels, bars, restaurants, athletic gatherings and transport terminals, facilities belonging to law enforcement agencies and international organisations. The American embassy therefore directed its non-essential staff and their family members to either leave the FCT or avoid public places. Many of the places mentioned by the embassy have been attacked by terrorists either in Abuja or elsewhere in the country so they are all potentially vulnerable. 

Why Tinubu Is Cocky

 By Ochereome Nnanna

Of the three main political parties, only the All Progressives Congress, APC, has not openly flagged off its presidential campaign. The People’s Democratic Party, PDP, was the first to go in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, while the Labour Party, LP, got going in Lafia, Nasarawa State.

*Tinubu

LP’s Peter Obi is actively and openly marketing himself and soliciting for votes; so is PDP’s Atiku Abubakar, but with much less energy. Tinubu, on the other hand, has been very dodgy. He has only appeared once at a public forum whose atmospherics his party controlled to accommodate his physical and mental failings.

Even when he invited the who-is-who in the business world, he merely read from a prepared speech and could not take questions from his audience. He left his hangers-on to answer them for him while he became part of the audience. Even before becoming president, Tinubu is already showing he will rule by proxy or cabal. He will not lead from the front. 

Nigeria: The Victims Of APC And PDP Reign

 By Promise Adiele 

Isidore Okpewho’s novel The Victims conveys all the soul-wrenching, tragic trappings of conquered people under the scorching atmosphere of polygamy. It would not have mattered much if the tragedy in the novel descended on the reprobate harbingers of flame and furnace, namely  – Obanua and his mother Ma Nwojide. But the knowledge that the tragic whirlwind consumed innocent children continuously pulls at the strings of the heart.

Why is it that sometimes the perpetrators of tragedy are always spared while innocent people bear the brunt of truculent fate? Why should Obanua and his mother Ma Nwojide remain alive in the novel after releasing hailstones which decimate innocent children whose death breaks the barriers of our emotions? It just was not Okpewho’s creation. It is a typical reflection of Nigeria where wicked people write tragic scripts and choose innocent populace as characters. 

Understanding Flooding In Nigeria And Finding Solutions

 By Femi D. Ogunnigbo and Taiwo Ogunwumi

As of October 24, 2022, the situation report reveals that 612 people have been killed, and 2,776 persons injured by this year’s flood, Nigeria Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiyya Farouq, stated. 

Finding a solution to flooding remains understanding the root causes first which can either be natural or human factors or both, Dr. Josiah Omirin, a lecturer at the Urban and Regional Planning Department at the University of Ibadan stated in a phone interview in gathering information for this report.

Natural factors can be classified into two. First, primary factors include excessive rainfall resulting in pluvial flooding (caused by climate change); and sea level rise which causes coastal flooding. Second is the secondary factor such as dams breaking, blockage of culverts; and narrow drainage channels.

That U.S. Terror Alert And A Headstrong FG

 By Charles Okoh

On October 23,  the U.S. Mission in Nigeria issued what it tagged elevated risk of terror attacks in Abuja, the federal capital territory. In the advisory, the US government said there is an elevated risk of terror attacks in Nigeria, specifically in Abuja.

It said targets may include, but are not limited to, government buildings, places of worship, schools, markets, shopping malls, hotels, bars, restaurants, athletic gatherings, transport terminals, law enforcement facilities, and international organizations.

Some Western nations including the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Bulgaria, Germany, Ireland and others swiftly issued similar advisories to their citizens.

Buharism: As The Naira Collapses, So Does Nigeria

 By Tony Eluemunor  

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.

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”!

The Buffeted Naira

 By Luke Onyekakeyah

The recent announcement by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on the introduction of newly redesigned N200, N500 and N1, 000 banknotes, has political and economic implications. Like a thunderbolt, the move has jolted many people, particularly, politicians who promote money politics. Those who have amassed naira and dollar waiting for the forthcoming elections are biting their fingers.

The move is a masterstroke against corrupt politicians, who have hoarded huge sums of money for vote buying during the 2023 general elections. By redesigning the naira and releasing it barely a month to the elections, the CBN may have played the trump card to frustrate all the permutations by politicians who banked on the hoarded naira. That way, the CBN may have contributed to the country having a more credible election in 2023.

Afenifere: All’s Well That Ends Well

 By Sola Ebiseni 

It takes discerning spirit to see the unequalled blessings to the Afenifere from what ordinary folks see as crisis from the recent gathering in Akure. To start  with, it is apposite to say and as revealed in his interview with the Sunday Punch of November 6, that the meeting was conveyed by Dare Babarinsa and Otunba Kole Omololu through the ‘Conscience of the Yoruba Nation’,  a WhatsApp Group administered by the latter who incidentally is the National Organising Secretary of Afenifere.

Chief Ebiseni 

The invitation which was on the letterhead of the group and now in circulation on social media, was said to be a meeting with the leadership of the Yoruba nation “to discuss the historic 2023 General election and take a definite and wise decision” and also with “one of the leading candidates,  Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu”, within a specified two hours duration of 11 am to 1.pm.