Afenifere And The Yoruba Interest

 By Sola Ebiseni  

To start with, Afenifere is a sociopolitical and not sociocultural organisation, a tag those bereft of the knowledge of its history, objectives and modus operandi sometimes seem to identify it by. Among its founding fathers, Afenifere is a political party and its irrepressible Leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, still so insist, notwithstanding their knowledge of the provisions of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution to the effect that “no association by whatever name called shall function as a political party unless (among other requirements) the names and addresses of its national officers are registered with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC”.

*Adebanjo 

Such is the degree of commitment to the ideals of the organisation which defines our discussion herein. Whatever your views, the undeniable fact is that Afenifere is not apolitical and the organisation has demonstrated that beyond all reasonable doubts. From its inception in 1951, Afenifere, the Yoruba explanation of the Action Group and its social welfare ideology, even during the heydays of military rule, has never been apologetic about its position in the politics and political development of Nigeria. In recent times, there has been controversy on what really is the position of Afenifere about Yoruba interest, bearing in mind its support for a President of South-East (Ndigbo) extraction in the face of a frontline Yoruba personality in the race.

Senegal: Strengthening African Independence

 By Obiageli Ezekwesili

I believe there are no coincidences in life. Events are divinely orchestrated. While I am in Senegal, one of the African countries where I feel most comfortable among the many that I have had the opportunity to visit in the course of my professional career, its national Independence Day, celebrated this April 4th, reminds me of how much our continent needs to strengthen and consolidate the gains that its countries have made, through the sweat of their peoples and leaders, over the last 60 years. 

*Ezekwesili 

It is therefore with heartfelt joy that I join millions around the world to express my best wishes for Senegal as it celebrates 63 years of sovereignty and independence. 

Nigeria: DSS Can’t Afford Frivolity

 By Amanze Obi

The other day, the Department of State Services (DSS) had cause to talk tough. It said through a press statement that there was a plot by some Nigerians for the installation of an interim government at the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure on May 29. The service said it has uncovered those behind the burgeoning scheme. It frowned seriously on the plot and warned those behind it to retrace their steps.

The reaction from the DSS was predictable. It was its immediate response to the petition brought before it by one of the defenders of Bola Tinubu’s contentious election victory, Festus Keyamo. The Tinubu apologist had alleged that the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the February 25 election, Mr. Peter Obi, and his running mate, Festus Keyamo were promoting insurrection and civil disobedience. Keyamo asked the DSS to arrest them and charge them for incitement and treasonable felony.

The DSS: An Intelligence Agency Or An Arm Of A Campaign

By Charles Ogbu

On March 29, 2023, the Department of State Services, DSS, claimed to have identified some political actors involved in a plot to install an interim government. According to the statement signed by Peter Afunanya, the spokesperson of the Spy Agency, the plot is “not only an aberration but a mischievous way to set aside the Constitution and undermine civil rule as well as plunge the country into an avoidable crisis”. 

The Service identified “endless violent mass protests in major cities” and “frivolous court injunctions to forestall the inauguration of the new executive administrations…..” as the two means through which the unnamed politicians planned to achieve their aim. 

Again, US Snubs Nigeria As Kamala Visits Africa

 By Habib Aruna

Nigeria’s waning influence in global affairs was again badly hit with the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, currently visiting three African countries, while sidelining the so-called giant of Africa. The US VP came to the continent with a first stop at Ghana. She’s on a weeklong, three-nation African tour, the latest in a series of visits by senior US officials as Washington seeks to counter growing Chinese and Russian influence on the continent.

*US Vice President Kamala Harris with her Ghanaian counterpart, Mahamudu Bawumia, in Accra on Sunday, March 26, 2023

She will also go to Tanzania and Zambia. The last time a senior American government official visited the country was when Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, made a stopover in Abuja in November 2021. Nigeria has largely been sidelined in the scheme of things by the international community, especially during the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Are Corps Members Year-Long Slaves?

 By Emmanuel Onwubiko

The current administration is populated by cabinet-level ministers that are not competent but were simply appointed on partisanship basis. Then, the sharing of the ministerial slots was marred by bribery scandals. Some who are now ministers allegedly paid heavy bribes to key members of the cabal in the Presidency to win a seat to represent their states in the Federal Executive Council.

The man Chris Ngige has become very notorious as the Minister of Labour and Productivity under whose watch due to crass incompetence, thousands of university students sat at home for almost a year due to industrial dispute between government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
He also registered two other unions in the universities as a strategic approach to weakening the strength of ASUU.

Why Crucify Chief Iwuanyanwu?

 By Charles Okoh

Penultimate weekend, the Governor of Anambra State, Chukwuma Soludo, celebrated his first 365 days in office. To mark the anniversary, he pulled some very important dignitaries to Awka, the state capital. Topmost of the distinguished personalities that graced the occasion, was former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

*Iwuanyanwu 

Also present on the occasion were notable Igbo personalities like former governors of the state, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, and Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the last presidential election; Chairman, Council of Elders of Ohanaeze, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, former governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke, amongst others.

Attacks On The Igbo In Lagos

 By Obi Nwakanma

A massive wave of discontent has trailed the results of the 2023 general elections. A vast majority of Nigerians believe, and have clear evidence that the results were brazenly stolen by the ruling party, and that this heist is a dare to Nigerians to go do their worse. This is one election result in which not a single sense of jubilation has been witnessed in any part of Nigeria, North South, East or West.

There is no sense of an achievement, or of hope. There is instead, something of a bated breath, a deadly sense of something brewing in the firmament, like a stifled sneeze. The parties have gone to court. Nigerians do not trust the courts. But they seem also to just hold out hope, for one more chance, that judging with the evidence before them, the court of justice would do its duty to Nigeria and restore the mandate of the people based on the truth before them.

World Autism Day: Autism And Acceptance

By Blessing Igwechi

Autism can be managed! As we recognize our friends irrespective of their ages living with Autism in our society, we “light it up blue” in acceptance and zero tolerance to stigma.  Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is noticed before the child turns three which causes skills deficit and delay in developmental milestones. 

University Academics, Election Miasma And Other Matters

 By Ighodalo Clement Eromosele

Desirous to enhance the credibility of the 2015 general elections, the Chairman of Independent Electoral Commission, then Professor Attahiru Jega, invited university academics including Vice-Chancellors to participate in the various processes – collation and announcement – of election results. 

This national assignment was in consonance with one of the tripodal duties of the academic namely, community service, the others being teaching and research. It was, apriori, anchored also on the general belief, over the years, that in the pristine traditions of the academia, the academic is incorruptible and will not lend him/herself to unethical practices without consequences. Further, the academic in taking on the assignment was expected to exercise sound judgment, without fear or favour on matters as may arise in the course of duty.

Nigeria: Comma In The Caution From DSS

 By Emmanuel Aziken

The Department of State Services, DSS, trended this week after the internal police issued a statement of caution over an alleged plot by some political actors to install an interim government.

The DSS in the statement said it had identified the political actors involved and  went further to insinuate the stages that they had gone and the options that the assumed plotters have been weighing in their aspiration.

Nigeria: A Call For Inter-Ethnic Harmony

 By Ayo Oyoze Baje 

“Those beating the drums of war, with their tactless tongues and others stoking the flames of disunity with their treasonable songs, in our dear nation Nigeria must be reminded that war is no picnic in paradise.”  – A. O. Baje (Opinion essay titled: ‘Do not Turn Nigeria into the Devil’s Playground’ published on June 22, 2017). 

Lest we forget, the above stated note of warning added that: “War, propelled by the twin evils of Hatred and Anger escalates to the fore over unresolved, yet preventable misunderstanding between communities and countries. The winged monster rides on the wave crest of base sentiments, fuelled by hate speeches given a free reign by the powers that be. 

We Are All Igbo!

By Olumide Akpata

On Saturday 18 March 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) conducted the gubernatorial and State Assembly elections to mark the second and concluding round of the 2023 elections. On that day, INEC, the law enforcement agencies and the Nigerian populace were presented with a golden opportunity to demonstrate to the rest of the world that, the below par showing on 25 February 2023 notwithstanding, Nigeria’s democracy had come of age. At the end of the day, not only did we fail spectacularly in this regard, but more dangerously, the fragile unity of the Nigerian State suffered a massive set back. 

Before Babies Begin To Emigrate

 By Adekunle Adekoya

There must be a problem in the land, a very big one. I am not talking about the usual that we have lived with for decades — lack of potable water, epileptic power supply, parlous healthcare system and all that. I am talking about a feeling of disenchantment, perhaps hopelessness, especially among the youths which has fuelled what we now call “Ja pa.”

On the internet, it has trended for a few days now that 266 Nigerian doctors have been licensed to practise in the United Kingdom. In my hood, I noticed that I have not seen some of the younger men with whom I relate for some time. To be candid, I don’t remember having seen any of them since before the election. I asked around. Someone volunteered that the guys after whom I’m asking have joined the Ja pa train. “They left for Canada three weeks ago,” my informant said. I shuddered in disbelief. 

An Oil Producing Country Without Fuel

 By Sunny Awhefeada

The ongoing energy crisis manifesting as scarci­ty of petroleum products has for the umpteenth time portrayed Nigeria for what it truly is, a failed nation. Our failure is monumental and tragically so. A friend drew the analogy between Nigeria and a household that grows cassava, but lacks garri and the children from that home go plate in hand starving and begging whereas their parents’ farms hold thousands of cassava stems with robust tubers ensconced in the womb of the earth.

Nigeria prides herself as a leading oil pro­ducing nation, but like the man that lives by the riverside and washes his hands with spittle, Nigeria suffers peren­nial crisis in the petroleum sector. More than anything else, petroleum has been the most intransigent source of our problem as a nation. What has been described as the Dutch disease seems to find a lasting domain in Nige­ria.

Nigeria: Policing The Police For The People

By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

Nigerian policemen and women can be more dangerous than armed robbers and bandits any day of the week for sure. The latest charge is that some of the police blokes are deeply engaged in the sordid business of organ harvesting. 

People get arrested by the police and the arrested ones are never seen anymore because their body parts have been harvested and sold for hard cash. The joy for me is that there are some courageous Nigerians who are determined to hold the police to account no matter the danger.

Debt Trap And Incoming Administrations

 By Jerome-Mario Chijioke Utomi

It is no longer news that some of the first-term governors-elect will face many months of unpaid workers’ salaries and mounting pension liabilities, as well as agitation for the implementation of the nationally agreed minimum wage, rising inflation, escalating prices of goods and services, and dwindling purchasing power. These incoming governors, about seventeen of them, according to reports will have a difficult time boosting the economies of their individual states because they will take over at least N2.1 trillion in domestic debt and $1.9 billion in foreign debt from their predecessors.

It is equally a common knowledge that in January 2023, Patience Oniha, Director general, Debt Management Office (DMO), while fielding questions from journalists at the public presentation and breakdown of the highlights of the 2023 appropriation act in Abuja, noted that the incoming Federal Government would inherit about N77 trillion as debt by the time President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure ends in May.

I Weep For My Country Nigeria

 By Christian Ikechukwu Eze

I cry for my country, Nigeria; a country endowed with both human and natural resources to an enviable magnitude, yet bedevilled by corruption whose stench oozes to the highest heavens. A country where the hopes of her citizens are repeatedly and brazenly dashed by a few individuals who are entrusted with basic responsibilities of safeguarding these hopes. The happenings of the last few weeks make one ponder and ask if there is still hope.

Hope for a Nigeria that works for all irrespective of whether or not you know anybody and not for a few political class and their cronies; hope for a Nigeria devoid of corruption, where diligence, honesty, competence and good character will be rewarded instead of thuggery, bigotry, mediocrity e.t.c.; hope for a Nigeria that we shall all be proud to call a home.

Peter Obi: When The Apparel Of The Tortoise Is Damaged

 By Luke Onyekakeyah   

Once upon a time, the tortoise went to visit his in-laws. While he was there, a stubborn nanny goat picked his apparel, chewed and damaged it. That was a big problem. His in-laws were bothered with what happened. They didn’t know what to do.

*Peter Obi

The tortoise said to his in-laws, you see that your goat has chewed and torn my apparel; I will not ask you to pay for it but I will not go home naked. His in-laws were confused. They were in a serious dilemma. The tortoise left them and went ahead with other activities. At the end, his in-laws had no choice than to get another apparel, which they gave to the tortoise. The tortoise was happy.

2023 General Elections: The Tragic Misjudgements Of Soludo, el-Rufai

 By Olu Fasan

Someday, chroniclers of history will tell the stories of the 2023 general elections, the worst in Nigeria’s recent history. They will narrate the noble and ignoble roles played, respectively, by heroes and villains of the elections. Among the political class, villains abound. But two interest me here: Professor Charles Soludo, current governor of Anambra State, and Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, outgoing governor of Kaduna State. Neither covered himself in glory!

*el-Rufai and Soludo 

You might ask: why single out Soludo and el-Rufai? Well, few political office holders in Nigeria today entered politics with the technocratic pedigree of Soludo and el-Rufai: the former was a smart presidential economic adviser who became a reformist governor of the Central Bank; the latter, a brilliant director of the Bureau of Public Enterprises who became a transformative Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Both are first-class technocrats and administrators.