Federal Republic of Fiction @ 63

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

Nigeria is fiction. The country’s Constitution has been transferred to a new shelf in the library: the shelf containing fictional works. The latter-day patriots of Nigeria can cry all they want against me, but in this instance I only choose to stand solidly in solidarity with the words that Samuel Johnson uttered on the evening of April 7, 1775, to wit: “Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels.”

There can never be a short supply of toadies and ill-assorted scoundrels defending the many fictions of the government of Nigeria in this new age when former activists and revolutionaries have turned into government spies and informants. 

Nigeria: Go To Court, Or Go To Hell?

 By Andy Ezeani

It has not been too long ago that Nigerians celebrated the coming into being of Electoral Act 2022, the new body of laws for their electoral system. The Act replaced Electoral Act 2010, on which proceedings in the country’s electoral process had hitherto been anchored. 

The process that eventually culminated in the enactment of the new electoral law was not easy, by any means. The forces that preferred the continued reign of the hitherto existing electoral law, were determined to retain the status quo. The reason was obvious. The provisions of Electoral Act 2010 were more amenable to what politicians want than what the new body of electoral laws was promising. 

Tinubu-CSU Certificate Saga And Nigeria’s Value System

 By Emeka Alex Duru

No matter how one tries not to bother at the certificate issue involving President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Chicago State University (CSU), the institution he claimed to have attended for a degree, the matter keeps popping up. Like the mythical incubus, the bad dream which hardly dies, it keeps coming and does not let go. In a way, it has become a sore on the thumb, which only Tinubu can cure. 

In our days in the rested The Post Express newspapers, a hardworking colleague was about being made the daily editor, when, overnight, his rival contemporaries connived with corrupt minds in the administration department and all his academic records were removed from his file, leaving only the West African School Certificate. The smart Aleks had their way and rumours were injected into the organisation that he was not adequately educated for the position.

Macron Plays The Outlaw In Niger Republic

 By Owei Lakemfa

French President Emmanuel Macron loves acting on the world stage. In the on-going drama about the West and some West African leaders threatening to use force against the military regime that came to power in Niger Republic on July 26, 2023, he chose to play the outlaw.

*Macron 

Exactly a month after they came to power, the new authorities in Niger declared French Ambassador Sylvain Itte persona non grata saying he “no longer enjoys the privileges and immunities attached to his status as a member of the diplomatic staff of the embassy”. He was given 48 hours to leave the country. The deadline expired on August 28. The Nigeriens also withdrew the diplomatic cards and cancelled the visas of his family.

Nigeria: Propaganda and Lies As Governance Tools

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

In the last four months since Bola Tinubu became Nigeria’s president, many Nigerians have watched in utter horror as the administration continues to fumble. The missteps are simply unacceptable, more so for a government that claims to be on a self-assigned mission of renewing the hope of longsuffering citizens. But I doubt if any discerning Nigerian is surprised at the embarrassing slipups and gaffes. In fact, what would have been surprising is a situation where Tinubu, in Aso Rock, levels with Nigerians.

President Bola Tinubu and President of the UAE President, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (With them is Ajuri Ngelale, Tinubu's spokesman)

It is in the character of those who are presently allocating the country’s collective values, authoritatively, to deploy propaganda and lies in governance. To them subterfuge and outright sleight of the hand are legitimate governance tools. But are they? I daresay they are not because government propaganda threatens democratic self-governance. In other words, it is an enemy of democracy. 

First 100 Days: Tinubu Puts Inflated Rhetoric Above Credible Actions

 By Olu Fasan

For those who have not yet noticed it, here’s a major difference between Bola Tinubu and Muhammadu Buhari, his immediate predecessor as president. While Buhari was tongue-tied and taciturn, Tinubu is free-tongued and expressive. While Buhari kept most of his limited thoughts to himself, Tinubu has something to say on virtually every subject, except his personal life, and is more than willing to say it. Indeed, he’s been speaking!

*Tinubu

That, clearly, is a positive thing. For, as Professors Paul Collier and Tim Besley put it in their seminal report Escaping the fragility trap, “Leaders are first-and-foremost communicators.” They argued that “narratives” are a powerful tool that leaders can use to transform their nation: narratives about their vision for a better future, narratives about what must be done to achieve that future and narratives about how they intend to lead their country towards that better future. So, it’s a good thing that Tinubu is talking to Nigerians.

Why Doesn’t Corruption Bother Us Anymore?

 By Ochereome Nnanna

The recent disclosure by the Nigerian Extractive Transparency Initiative, NEITI, of massive corruption in the oil sector under the government of Muhammadu Buhari has gone down the drain without causing the required stir. Neither the Federal Government nor the people whose money was allegedly looted has moved a nerve.

Nigeria has become a desensitised society. It is now akin to a sick person who no longer feels pain in his body. When you get to that level, you are almost dead. Just imagine! NEITI, the Nigerian chapter of a worldwide initiative to monitor corruption and promote transparency and accountability in the oil sector, recently addressed the media and made damning allegations.

Interrogating President Tinubu’s UNGA Speech

 By Jideofor Adibe

On September 18, 2023, President Bola Tinubu gave a speech from what could be called the grandest stage of them all – the United Nations General Assembly in New York. It was his maiden speech on such a stage. For a first speech at the UN, I feel Tinubu performed above expectation. Overall, I would score him a ‘B’. There is however still a big room for improvement.

*Tinubu

The speech highlighted five themes- (a) the need for global institution and other nations to see Africa as a priority; (b) an affirmation of democratic governance as the “best guarantor of sovereign will”; (c) the challenges posed by violent extremism; (d) Problems of illicit mining and pilfering by extra-African powers and companies; and (e) the threats posed by climate change. 

Bola Tinubu’s UN Fantasies

 By Casmir Igbokwe

The majority of Nigerians are in agreement that President Bola Tinubu made a fantastic speech at the 78th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York last week. Some sound bites from his speech made many Nigerians proud and projected his speech writer as a candidate eminently qualified for promotion.

*Tinubu at UNGA 2023

Like a motivational speaker, our President intoned, “To keep faith with the tenets of this world body and the theme of this year’s Assembly, the poverty of nations must end. The pillage of one nation’s resources by the overreach of firms and people of stronger nations must end. The will of the people must be respected…” Good talk, Mr. President!

Wole Soyinka’s Faux Pas

 By Amanze Obi

By now, it is clear to one and all that Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, is decidedly partisan on issues pertaining to the 2023 presidential election. He tried hard enough, initially, to mask his sympathies and loyalties. But recent developments have laid him bare. He is now unable to hold back.

*Soyinka 

Soyinka himself knows this much. He betrayed this tendency copiously while reacting to the criticisms that trailed his faux pas in South Africa penultimate week. He declared, rather blandly, that Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar lost the February 25 presidential election even before the election held. His reason? That both candidates split the votes of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and, consequently, granted Tinubu and his All Progressives Congress (APC) an easy access to victory.

How Nigeria’s Courts Became ‘The Lost Hope Of The Common Man’

 By Chidi Odinkalu

When Ogbonnaya Ukeje died in Lagos two days after Christmas Day in 1981, Bode Rhodes-Vivour was a 30-year-old lawyer making his way up the rungs of public service in the Ministry of Justice in Lagos State. Mr. Rhodes-Vivour had been called to the Nigerian Bar a mere six years earlier, in 1975. 

In 1989, when Mr. Rhode-Vivour succeeded Nureini Abiodun Kessington as the Director of Public Prosecutions in Lagos State, the case concerning the estate of Ogbonnaya Ukeje was already in its sixth year in the High Court of Lagos. Mr. Ukeje’s daughter, Gladys, had filed the case in 1983 to challenge her exclusion from a share in her father’s estate merely on the ground that she was female.

Prospects Of Fighting Poverty In Nigeria

 By David Ugolor

As you already know, the fight against poverty remains one of our society’s most pressing challenges today, particularly in regions where a substantial portion of the population live in abject poverty. Current data from the World Poverty Clock, has pegged the number of extremely poor Nigerians at 71 million. Nigeria, with its 213.4 million-strong population, faces this stark reality.

Approximately 63 per cent (133 million people) live in multidimensional poverty according to National Bureau of Statistics data, experiencing a range of deprivations that underscore the urgency of robust intervention. Certainly, the sudden removal of fuel subsidy only increases these numbers exponentially as the cost of living is at a very worrisome level, one of the worst since Nigeria gained independence in 1960.

It’s Still An Unjust World

 By Dan Agbese

The world talked to itself this week from September 18-22 in the most famous talk shop in the world – the annual UN General Assembly (UNGA). This important annual global political ritual is rooted in the belief of the founding fathers of the UN 78 years ago that jaw-jaw triumphs war-war. The man with his finger on the trigger will be minded not to pull back so long as the world leaders talk to one another. Still, the world war-wars within and among nations.’

World leaders, big and small, rich and poor, have duly performed the 2023 ritual. Each world leader let the world into his informed prescription on how to save the world or what nations must do to build better and more mutually beneficial international relationships for peace to reign.

Nigeria Without Trucks And Their Drivers?

 By Adekunle Adekoya

Project Nigeria, started by the British with the 1914 Amalgamation, is still work in progress, after a century. In fact, next year will make 110 years of the Amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates. Many people will say we have made a lot of progress since flag independence in 1960, while another multitude will counter them by saying we have made none. We are actually not progressing, they would say.

A coin has two sides; so I find on both sides — those that say we have made progress and those that are of the belief that we have not. It is a recurring debate where many are gathered, either at parties, bars, workplaces, or even in the molue or danfo, wherein self-appointed pontiffs who claim a lot of knowledge about what should have been done or not proclaim the way the country should have gone. In all the discussions, what is usually omitted is the fact that the individual has a role to play in the nation’s development, and that since many Nigerians don’t think they have an obligation to their country, they find themselves in situations they don’t like and are impotent to do anything about.

The Gates To Hell Were Opened Long Ago

 By Owei Lakemfa

The world gathered this week under the United Nations to talk peace, security and socio-economic justice, but hawks circled and beneficiaries of a skewed world sat silent in cold complicity.

It was the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, UNGA, and even as the world on Thursday, September 21, complemented the UN objectives by marking the International Day of Peace, the voices for conflict were sounding more strident.

Recipe For Unqualified Teachers In Private Schools

 By Daniel Ighakpe

This is a rejoinder with respect to a piece published in The Guardian newspaper of Thursday, July 20, 2023, titled: “Tackling the menace of unqualified teachers in private schools.”

This is a humble appeal directed to the concerned authorities, requesting that at least some form of consideration be shown to some competent and quality teachers, who would, otherwise, be referred to as “unqualified,” going strictly by their non-possession of the N.C.E/B. Ed./PGDE or other education-related qualifications, as well as their status of registration with the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (T.R.C.N).

South-East Beyond 2023: Time For A Reset

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

The title of this article, I must confess, is not original to me. It is the theme of the South-East Summit on Economy and Security which is scheduled to hold in Owerri, Imo State, next week. There couldn’t have been a better time or even a better theme for the Summit. Ndigbo are at a socio-economic and political crossroads in Nigeria and crucial decisions with far-reaching consequences have become inevitable. 

*Iwuanyanwu 

The idea of the Summit, therefore, is to galvanise Ndigbo, a people hitherto proud of their heritage, but who seem to have lost their sagacity in the face of debilitating national conspiracy, to look inwards to harness their inner strengths and abundant resources in order to reshape their collective destiny. A new trajectory has become imperative. 

Coups In Africa: It’s Time Politicians Accepted Soldiers As Rival For Power

 By Olu Fasan

The recent resurgence of military coups in Africa calls for further exposition, and I would do that here through the theory of militarism. From a cause-and-effect point of view, it’s futile, even irrational, to condemn coup d’états and ignore their root causes.

Unfortunately, a lot of contrived denunciation has dogged recent coups in Africa, whereas the underlying problems are glossed over. Indeed, some would view this piece as “coup-baiting”. Yet, the real coup-baiting is the failure of politicians to recognise that soldiers are their real rival for power, and that they must do the right things, democratically and in good-governance terms, to keep the military in the barracks and out of politics. 

Nigeria: From Buharisation To Tinubuisation

 By Ochereome Nnanna

When a woman marries twice, she is better placed to know which husband treated her better. As a country, Nigeria has married two husbands since 1999: the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the All Progressives Congress, APC. No doubt, we experienced a far better Nigeria under the PDP than the APC. This claim has nothing to do with partisanship. Whatever evil the PDP committed, the APC regimes have multiplied them tenfold and added fresh, vile inventions of their own.

*Buhari and Tinubu 

The PDP was founded by political leaders who tried to use the outcomes of the Abacha Constitutional Conference to build an improved democracy and governance system. The PDP was built on the foundation of equitable power sharing and rotation, as well as the Federal Character Principle enshrined in Section 14(3) of the 1999 Constitution, as agreed at the Conference.

Reno Omokri's Weak Attempt At Revisionism

 By Ejike Anyaduba 

If there is anybody eager to rewrite history just to intone falsehood and malign a group of people, it is the squit called Reno Omokri. 

*Omokri

It is not clear what informs his choice of being an ethnic profiler. But whatever his reason, be it complex(inferiority) or  the need to generate traffic on his X handle (formerly known as Twitter),  or both, one thing is certain he has chosen for himself an unenviable task that offers no good reward.