Travails of Citizen Ojokoh: Open letter to IGP Usman Alkali Baba

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Sir,

Let me apologise from the onset for reaching you through this medium, considering that a private, albeit, official letter may have been more ideal. But two things informed my choice of open letter. First, I don’t want the letter to be lost in transit, mislaid in the miasma of officialdom. Second, time is of the essence here.

*IGP Usman Alkali Baba

So, my hope is that even if you don’t get to read this letter first-hand, someone who did will promptly draw your attention to it. I am also aware that Mr. Okechukwu Nwanguma, Executive Director, Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre, RULAAC, sent a petition to you on Monday, May 8, on the same issue. This letter is to reinforce the position of RULAAC on the travails of Citizen Thaddeus Ikechukwu Ojokoh in the hands of officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force, Imo State command.

G-5: The Fallacy Of Wike’s ‘Contribution’ To Tinubu’s ‘Victory’

 By Olu Fasan

Last week, Nyesom Wike, the outgoing governor of Rivers State, gave Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s putative next president, extravagant welcome to Port Harcourt, the state capital. Tinubu was in Port Harcourt to open a Magistrate’s Court complex that Wike named after his wife. Wike declared a public holiday and closed down shops so that Rivers people could turn out to welcome Tinubu. He later hosted Tinubu to a grand reception, a lavish banquet! Surely, those acts were an extraordinary abuse of power.

*Wike welcomes Tinubu to Port Harcourt

How would you explain a sitting governor naming a monument, built with state resources, after his wife? How would you explain a state governor declaring a public holiday, closing businesses, thereby crippling commercial activities, so that someone could “open” the monument? And would any responsible would-be president be part of such abuse of office and waste of state resources?

Why Do The Worst People Rise To Power?

 By Dan Onwukwe

First, a confession: The above headline is not original to me. It’s that of a young American political scientist, Brian Paul Klass. Brian is a contributing editor at The Atlantic, America’s flagship monthly magazine. He is the author of Corruptible: Who Gets Power and how it Changes Us. He’s the co-author of How to Rig an Election.  His research interests include: Authoritarianism , Democracy, US politics, Political violence, and more.

Lessons in power will continue to elicit intellectual conversation. It’s not for nothing. It’s so because what leaders do while they are trying to get power is not necessarily, to borrow the words of historian Robert A. Caro, “what they do after they have it”. It’s, therefore, not unkind to say that it has been the misfortune of Nigeria to watch worse people rise to power and use that power to bend people to their will and impoverish the citizens.

ViG: Imperative Of Reducing Cost Of Governance

 By Ayo Oyoze Baje

“The only way out of the valley is uphill”
 –Anonymous
If there is one persisting, yet critical issue of national importance that must be frontally tackled by the incoming administration, after May 29, 2023 it has to be that of drastically reducing the huge burden of the cost of governance. So debilitating it has become that it is weighing down the steps towards economic recovery. Though the cost of governance is incurred by the government in the course of providing goods and services to the citizenry, the statistics on its effects on the national economy and the human development index are humongous and unsustainable.

*President Buhari 

For instance, as at April 2023 it was revealed that Nigeria reportedly spends 96.3 percent of its revenue on debt servicing! That is up from 83.2 per cent in 2021. And the World Bank has raised a timely warning on how the fiscal deficit has worsened the nation’s public debt stock. But that is just part of the scary figures on our worsening economic paradigm.

2023 Polls: Is Nigeria Beyond Redemption?

 By Clement Uzoanya

Whatever has a beginning is said to have an end. But it seems that the deplorable Nigerian situation keeps reinventing itself, thus robbing citizens of the dividends of democracy. Is this God’s will for Nigeria and Nigerians or have Nigerians failed repeatedly to actualise God’s plan for a country that is rich in virtually every ramification? 

Many Nigerians looked forward to the 2023 General Elections for many reasons, among which were: the large number of youth population involved and interested; the fact that the elections were not the traditional two-horse race; the repeated assurances from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC); the signing of the 2022 Electoral Act which contained the deployment of technology; and the increasingly depressing state of the economy. So, the build-up to the elections was one filled with a nostalgia of anxiety, apprehension, hope that the time had come for us to get things right. But did we? 

Inaugurating A New President On May 29 Is Not Absolute

By Aloy Ejimakor

Yesterday (May 4, 2023), I tweeted on my Twitter handle that “Given that the FINALITY of election result is decided by the Court, except where the INEC-declared result is uncontested, it’s unconstitutional to swear-in a winner whose victory has not been affirmed by the Court. Where’s the law that says such a winner must be sworn-in? None!”

What We Must Do To End Building Collapse In Lagos

 By Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour

It is a common refrain on social media that Lagos State is easy to pick on, especially when there is negative news trending. So, let’s be clear: this is not another attempt to “pile on” the state. Yet, the truth must be said. Building collapses in Lagos have now been elevated to man-made disaster status, instead of the acts of God. 

*Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour

We can reference three specific large-scale tragedies to buttress this point. The recent collapse, just seven days ago, of a 7-storey building under development in Banana Island, the 21-storey building collapse on Gerard Road in Ikoyi on November 1, 2021, and the March 13, 2019 building collapse at Itafaji, Lagos Island. These tragedies make the news for obvious reasons. Yet, these are just a few of the numerous building collapse incidents that have occurred in Lagos State over the years.

Peter Pan: A Giant Departs The World

 By AbduRafiu

A leader and a giant in the world of journalism has discarded his earthly cloak and departed earthly life. He is Peter Enahoro more known as Peter Pan. The news of his exit has reverberated around the world. His was a distinguished career in journalism.

*Peter Enahoro

He joined the Daily Times in 1955, after leaving school, Government College, Ughelli, armed with love of reading and mastery of English language. And fearlessness. He rose rapidly and became the editor of Sunday Times in 1958 at 23, the editor of ubiquitous Daily Times in 1962 in succession to Alhaji Babatunde Jose at the age of 27.

Nigeria: Appeal To Housing Developers

 By Sulaimon Yusuf

When the 7-storey building collapsed at Banana Island, Ikoyi, Lagos on April 12, 2023, the holy month of Lent /Easter and Ramadan/Eid-El-Fitri seemed desecrated. However, for this incident to have occurred around this sacred period, an auspicious time to intensify the evangelism against building collapse and stir the conscience of those who are currently the domineering factor in the Nigerian Housing Sector is now! 

Real estate and housing development have become an alternative booming business for investors following the collapse of the stock exchange and manufacturing in Nigeria. So many business-oriented people, who possess nil training in building construction, have flooded the nation’s construction sphere with little respect for professionalism and due process.

Will The Real Beneficiaries Of Petroleum Subsidy Allow Its Abolishment?

 By Anthony Agbo

Nigeria has been confronted with the economic quagmire of petrol subsidies for the past 20 years. Though the programme dates back to the 1970s, the fact that it has since become a conduit for the corrupt few around the corridors of power has been concealed by our stupendous national wealth, which eventually yielded to the mismanagement of successive governments. With our national wealth depleting faster than a rocket set for orbit, it became clear that this programme was unsustainable. 

Regardless of this obvious fact, many continue to hammer on the dangers of abolishing the programme and the possible negative impact on the ordinary person on the street. These doomsayers have big mics, too, and they talk straight to the nerves of ordinary Nigerians who swallow their bait hook, line, and sinker. The result has been the engineered uproars we see each time the matter is discussed.  

My Democracy Is Not Your Democracy!

 By Owei Lakemfa

We were gathered. Some intellectuals, social activists, journalists, serving and retired diplomats. The primary issue was democracy. Is it universal and is there just a single, or multiple roads to democracy? Is the British democracy which calls itself the Mother of Parliaments, superior to the American version; is the latter better than the Australian or the Chinese? Is Russian democracy superior to the Ukrainian?

It was Thursday, April 27, 2023 and the venue was the Cuban Embassy on Diplomatic Drive, Abuja. The out-going Cuban Ambassador Clara Pulido Escandell was presenting the report of the  April 19, 2023 general elections in her country and explaining Cuban democracy within the context of  democracy in the modern world.

Constitutional Interpretation: Nigeria’s Democracy Is On Tenterhooks

 By Olu Fasan

In just over three weeks, on May 29, Bola Tinubu will be inaugurated as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Yet, in parallel, election petitions seeking to nullify his declaration as winner of this year’s presidential poll are earnestly afoot. Given that the petitions won’t be determined before May 29, a sword of Damocles, in the form of his removal from power, potentially hangs over Tinubu’s head. Theoretically, that’s a possibility; otherwise, what’s the point of the presidential election petitions?

The 1999 Constitution, under section 239(1), allows the Court of Appeal and, ultimately, the Supreme Court to determine whether someone has been validly elected as president; the Electoral Act 2022, under section 136(1), requires the court to nullify the election of someone not duly elected as president. Thus, constitutionally, Tinubu’s election as president could eventually be nullified, however long it takes to determine the petitions. But that’s theoretical.

Building Bridges For A New Nigeria

By Mike Ozekhome

This topic, “Building Bridges for a New Nigeria,” admits two things, namely, that Nigeria has failed or is failing; and there was an old Nigeria which was divided and that there is the need for a new Nigeria whose goal is to improve relationships among people who are very different, or do not like each other. So, this topic is about how to foster good relations among Nigerians. 

*Ozekhome 

Ethnicity, language and religion have divided and destroyed Nigeria. They drive our politics. Some Nigerians will vote for a thief provided he is from their tribe. Ethnicity, language and religion promote disunity, unhealthy rivalry and disenchantment. In this presentation, I will examine and probe the problems, and discern how bridge-building is the way forward for this nation. I particularly like the goals of Nzuko Umunna (NU), which is a general platform for creating effective management of Igbo professionals, both at home and in the diaspora, uniting and bridging the gap between the various Igbo groups; and promoting cooperation, peace and good neighbourliness between Igbos and other ethnic groups in Nigeria.

Nigerian Elections And Limits Of Opacity And Transparency

 By Victor C. Ariole

Opacity and transparency are two axes that the African governance processes are greatly undermining. Hence African governments are rarely trusted by their people as either opposition groups are clamped upon by force or litigations that call upon the judiciary to adjudicate upon are embarked on, and somehow ridicule the images of the “learned”, the bench and the bar as some adjudications show in Nigeria.

World over there are governance processes that warrant opacity and those that must be absolutely transparent and elections are one of those that must be absolutely transparent; however, in Nigeria, it is not so.

The First Fruits Of A Crooked INEC

 By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

Evidence of the scope of the mess created by Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) under the leadership of Mahmood Yakubu began to emerge this past week. It all suggests network egregiousness on a monumental scale that easily rivals the elections of 2007, until now seen as the nadir in Nigeria’s journey of elective governance.

*Yakubu

As the National Judicial Council (NJC) released the names of the 257 judges who will sit to consider and decide on elections petitions around the country beginning in May 2023, it emerged this past week that so far 1,044 petitions have been filed against results declared by the INEC in the 2023 elections. That is already more than 70% of the 1,490 seats contested and it appears that these are not the final numbers.

Buhari’s Apology Not Accepted

  By Charles Okoh

It is human to err. No mortal man, born of a woman can claim to be without blemish. Anybody who lays claim to being righteous is the biggest jester you can find anywhere on this planet earth. Therefore, when people err and beg for forgiveness; it’s to be expected that they be given a second chance. But when a man makes the same mistakes over and over again and begs to be forgiven then the joke is no longer on the man but he that forgives and forgets, especially when the atrocities of that fellow are outrageous.

*Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari, ranks as one of the two most fortunate Nigerians from whom this nation has invested so much on and from whom much more is expected. The nation has taken care of virtually all his needs in all his working lives. He was a minister of this nation, at a time when many of those who are reading this had not been born. Served as military governor and headed various military formations. And as he lives after the end of his second term on May 29, 2023, he remains a minister after over 40 years.

Import Food, Not Poison Into Nigeria, Please!!

 By Anda Damisa

Nigerians are dying every day with every meal we consume. Are you shocked? I was as shocked as you are right now when I found this out recently. We have a major problem right before us and it seems like no one is talking about it so, here I am, writing about the increasing dangers we face due to the proliferation of Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs) in Nigeria.

Do you know that over 60 per cent of food produced in Nigeria are made by peasant farmers and over 90% of them use chemical pesticides? most of these chemical pesticides are HHPs that have severe health and environmental impacts when proper application and safety is not within reach.

Nigeria: From ‘Go To Court’ To ‘Withdraw From Court’

 By Promise Adiele

A new strand of neurosis seems to pervade Nigeria’s political sphere compelling victims to embrace bipolar conditions with relish. Indeed, political exchanges before and after the recently concluded general elections convey a degree of rational deficiency among some observers, especially those sympathetic to power desperado’s inclination to State Capture. 

*Peter Obi 

These developments force one to ask the all-important question reminiscent of Sunny Okosun’s timeless song - Which Way Nigeria? The current election season has exposed many people, hitherto perceived as sensible, in their stark, irreconcilable idiocy which calls to question public perception of individuals. For some Nigerians, the meaning of politics is distilled in shamelessness, dishonour, debauchery, and the subtle inauguration of treacherous culture across the country. 

May Day And The Workers’ Woes!

 By Ayo Baje

 “A labourer is deserving of his wages.” – Deuteronomy 25 vs 4 (The Holy Bible). 

Back in June 2015, the piece of news that got millions of Nigerians enraged was that of the unpaid workers’ salaries in 23 out of 36 states! It came against the dark backdrop of the jumbo pay packages of elected and selected politicians and their appointees. 

The paradox of payment inequality was worsened subsequently, when the lawmakers, each on allegedly monthly salary scale of over N30 million found it extremely difficult to approve the paltry minimum wage of N30,000 for the beleaguered workers. 

You Cannot Swear-In A President Twice

 By Obi Nwakanma

“If you do not know where to put your hand, rest it on the knee” – Igbo proverb.

The inauguration of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria into office is a pretty serious constitutional event. It transfers power definitively to an individual who is then expected to embody the moral, philosophical, visionary, and constitutional ideals of the nation, and direct the executive function of state. The Constitution establishes the power of Nigeria in three institutions of state: the National Assembly, the Supreme Court, and the President. The National Assembly makes the laws.

The Supreme Court interprets those laws, including the permanent laws established by the Constitution. The President, as the Head of the executive branch of the three arms, executes the laws. These three powers together make up the Federal Government. They operate separately, and each is granted the power to oversee the other in order to create a balance of power, and prevent the misuse of authority. For instance, the National Assembly, which is actually the most powerful institution of state in a democratic republic, controls the Treasury of Nigeria, by law. Not the President.