By Chidi Odinkalu
In 1968, Stanislav Andrzejewski, the former Polish soldier and prisoner-of-war, who later founded the Sociology Department at the University of Reading in England, coined the word ‘kleptocracy”, which he defined as “a system of government [that] consists precisely of the practice of selling what the law forbids to sell.” He saw in the system of Nigeria’s First Republic, “the most perfect example of a kleptocracy” in which “power rested on the ability to bribe.”
By Ugoji Egbujo
In The Emperor’s New Clothes, by Hans Christian Andersen, two rogues go to a vain Emperor to say they can make him a wonderful dress that will be invisible to fools. The emperor, who believes he is as wise as Solomon, agrees. With the new clothes, he will sift the competent and clever from the chaff amongst his ministers and special advisers.
The swindlers tell the self-absorbed Emperor that the dress will fit a special parade. He agrees. The emperor loves pomp and parades. Parades allow him to flaunt himself and bamboozle the public. The swindlers collect exquisite royal linen and threads and stash them away in their roofs or banks. In Nigeria, judges loot looters—politicians—and stash away. Mugu having paid, the crooks resume at their looms.
By Tony Eluemunor
Which infernal forces seized Mr. Oludele Idowu when he poured scorn on late Prof Ben Nwabueze, a man well-respected whether in life or death, an author of over 30 books, the second Nigerian to have a PhD based on his publications and the second Nigerian academic to become a SAN based simply on his publications?
It is a testimony to the nasty times in Nigeria that a man could disdain verifiable facts, and actually not feel ashamed that his name should be associated with crass untruths, and actually publish such nastiness to further bury the concept of unity in Nigeria.
By Evance Kalula
The sad news of the passing on of Professor Benjamin Obi Nwabueze, first academic Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), “Professor of Professors”, as he was fondly referred to in Nigeria, is still reverberating in academic, legal fraternity and international circles. Many well-deserved tributes to the remarkable man and his memory are still circulating.
Please indulge me, l also thought I should share a personal tribute to him, expressing my gratitude and indebtedness to the great man. Ben Nwabueze was a remarkable man, an outstanding teacher, lawyer, law maker and scholar. He typified the excellence that Africa produces, for the most not fully acknowledged. He was an African treasure of the highest quality.
By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
As the November 11, 2023, governorship elections in Imo, Bayelsa and Kogi states draw close, widespread and justifiable concerns continue to mount about the capacity and willingness of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to organize free, credible and transparent polls to gratify the deep yearnings of the people to be allowed to exercise their constitutional right to choose their own governor.
Given the very demoralizing performance posted by INEC in the last general elections earlier in the year, whose glaring evidences are showing their egregious faces at the various Election Petitions Tribunals across the country, the people have every reason to be very apprehensive and distrustful of INEC under the leadership of Prof Mahmood Yakubu.
By Obi Nwakanma
In the last three weeks, I have suffered from a very devastating writer’s block. I could not move my mind. It felt stiff and unyielding – unwilling to grasp, or grapple with any kind of ideas, relating particularly to Nigeria. I have felt completely drained; as though there was no more gas left in my tank. I have felt like there is nothing left to be said about Nigeria.
We have imagined the impossible. We have become the impossible. I just felt cynical. In these last few months, I have also thought long and hard about fully and completely giving up my Nigerian citizenship. I mean, what is left of this country, really? What is Nigeria to me? I have asked these questions, rolled it in my mind; weighed it. And I very nearly made the move of officially renouncing any more affiliations with Nigeria, and thereafter, stay quiet, and stop worrying about this very tragic and demonic country.
By Ikechukwu Amaechi
In recent times, I have asked myself why anyone should bother about Nigeria since no matter how hard you try, evil still triumphs.
For the first time in recent history, Nigerians from all walks of life, having agreed that military rule was an aberration, and their hopes buoyed by the assurances of the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, that their votes in the 2023 elections will not only be counted but will count in determining who superintends over their affairs, came out in their numbers to make a difference.
By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
Tribalism is the ism topping all isms! All the talk of Socialism, Communism, Humanism and so on must now be put on one side to make way for the true king of the jungle: Tribalism! Of all the isms of the whole wide world, the most triumphant ism is without any question whatsoever Tribalism.
Look, I’m not just writing about Nigeria where the current wave of Tribalism has exposed all the erstwhile charlatans of the land. Many pseudo-intellectuals and para-academics have made a meal of wearing tattered beards all over the place and crowning themselves Emperors of Communism or Kings of Marxism. The former Marxists have all been unmasked and the erstwhile apostles of Communism have all been excommunicated.
By Alabi Williams
Rotimi Amaechi, former minister and governor of Rivers State, at a public lecture on Thursday, October 26, sounded rather melancholic. For a man who has been in government since 1999, first as two-term speaker of Rivers State House of Assembly and later as governor for eight years, before he served as minister of the Federal Republic for another eight years, all on a platter, the privileges he amassed do not justify the grief he attempted to offload. And he was most unfair and incorrect as he tried to blame the polity’s woes on the people.
That same week, Port Harcourt was in turmoil as former governor Nyesom Wike vainly and desperately sought to protect a so-called political structure he claimed to have built. In a democracy, do individuals own political structures to the exclusion of the political party? And whose resources did he deploy to build the structure, Rivers’ taxpayers’ monies?
Remarks at a Press Conference by Mr. Peter Gregory Obi, CON, Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party on The Supreme Court Judgment of 26th October, 2023 On the 2023 Nigeria Presidential Election Held in Abuja, FCT, on Monday 6th November, 2023
1.Fellow countrymen and
women. Gentlemen of the Media, Good day and welcome to this press conference. Kindly
permit me to make some brief remarks on the recent ruling of the Supreme Court,
the highest court in Nigeria.
2. About a fortnight ago, I was traveling abroad on a prior scheduled engagement when I received the notice that the Supreme Court would give judgment on Thursday 26th October 2023 on our challenge of the ruling of the Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC). That judgment has since been delivered as scheduled. The leadership of the Labour Party has already pronounced its position on the judgment.
By Ochereome Nnanna
The Constitution gives our Judiciary a role – sacred one at that – in our democracy. It is mandated to give justice to whom it is due. But we are now in a situation where some corrupt members of the Bench collude with powerful politicians to remove and emplace those rejected at the polls. The Nigerian Judiciary is now a self-styled “power broker”.
Nigeria is not the only country where the courts are called upon to adjudicate in electoral cases. Even in the United States where we copied our presidential system from, the courts had their hands full at the end of the 2020 controversial elections. Back home in Africa, the Kenya Supreme Court was saddled with adjudicating a presidential election outcome, and it delivered justice to the true winner of the August 9, 2022 presidential election, William Ruto.
By Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa
“Truth must
be told, the non-transmission of results to the IReV portal may also reduce the
confidence of the voting population in the electoral process.” – Hon Justice Inyang Okoro, Justice of the
Supreme Court of Nigeria.
These are words on marble, coming from the highest court of the land. They simply summarise the failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the 2023 general election and they remain indelible marks on the record and history of the electoral umpire.
We have now gradually come to the reality of the bastardy of democracy. An institution established to strengthen democracy is daily eroding it, through crooked elections, dribbling tactics and electoral malfeasance.
By Chuks Iloegbunam
Ihechukwu Madubuike’s new book is entitled Aka Ekpuchi Onwa: Ndigbo Unbowed, (Eminent Biographies Limited; 2024). Professor Madubuike devoted the book’s Chapter Five to demolishing the infantile thesis of Moses Oludele Idowu, a poseur with claims to political punditry and Christian evangelism. Idowu posited a fallacy on Ndigbo by arguing that "The Igbo political culture of compromises is at the root of the lackluster, unenviable position of the Igbo as a people in the political process and equation rather than any conspiracy as their scholars and hagiographers have always maintained.”
A sample of Dr. Madubuike’s rebuke
I am troubled that some of our Yoruba cousins keep drawing us backwards, because they believe the Igbo are their immortal political enemies. To make the above assertions about the Igbo without qualms by Moses Oludele Idowu in his Wages of Compromises: The Igbo Race As Object Lesson is pushing provocation and illogicality to the level of the absurd. The thesis is as unsustainable as it is otiose. If the article is intended to be seen as part of the continuing conversation to interrogate the Nigerian geopolitical space, to inquire into and understand the fundamentals of nation-building, and the overall importance of justice in determining the affairs of human beings, then it can be tolerated. But the write-up is about none of these.
By Owei Lakemfa
My mind raced back 34 years as I stood on Saturday in the assembly of human rights defenders who had gathered in Ilorin. Back in 1989, some of us had the choice either to surrender or confront the rampaging Generals who had seized both power and the national treasury and were ruling Nigerians as they would: a conquered people. The 1775 words of Patrick Henry, an American planter, rang in our heads: “Give me liberty or give me death!”
We were guided by the examples of our ancestors like Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi, Raji Abdallah, Bello Ujumu and our mothers in Eastern Nigeria in 1929 who fought what seemed to be unwinnable battles for freedom.
By Joseph Ikpea Igiagbe
I write as a true Nigerian to make an appeal to our collective sense of national responsibility towards getting rid of official and illegal small weapons and light ammunition in our society. I particularly want to appeal to all the Distinguished Senators of the Federal Republic to treat this matter with the urgency that it deserves.
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I will like to state that there is no contesting the fact that the amount of ammunition and weapons in the hands of legal and legitimate security agencies as well as private individuals, let alone the ones in the hands of non-state actors, is a soft threat to our national security and it is becoming very worrisome, thus demanding a concerted effort at retrieving same as well as demilitarising our society.
By Adekunle Adekoya
I am sure that I number among the millions of Nigerians that were stupefied when a senator justified expenditure of N160 million on one SUV for each of our lawmakers. To put it in street lingo, I was “flabberwhelmed and overgasted” when I read the rationalisation of the immoral act. To put it in proper context, let me recall the conversation.
Chairman, Committee on Senate Services, Sunday Karimi (APC, Kogi) spoke with newsmen on the public outcry against the vehicles’ purchase, and said the criticism was uncalled for as members of the other arms of government use similar vehicles.
By Robert Obioha
The 10th National Assembly (NASS) is always in the news for the wrong reasons since its inauguration some months ago. Although such hiccups are not unexpected with the newly elected leadership, but when they became so frequent without any sign of abating soon, there is indeed something to worry about the present crop of legislators. This is also not actually the best of times for the turbulent NASS. Some members are still grieving over how the current leadership of the NASS emerged and the sharing of perks of office. It is time to bury the hatchet and move on.
When the members are not protesting over the sharing of committee jobs, they are complaining over the sharing of some perks of office or what Senate President Godswill Obot Akpabio humorously described as prayer points sent to their bank accounts, sorry, mailboxes, or both, for want of better expression. Nigerians were not deceived over what actually transpired with the prayer point episode. Recently, the Chief Whip, Senator Ali Ndume, from the North-East, walked out of the Red Chamber over minor issues as point of order or point of correction over how Akpabio handles issues. The Senate President promptly overruled Ndume.
By Banji Ojewale
The West has no business sending missionaries to Nigeria; they can’t help us; they have lost Christianity…substantially…They are the ones who need us. We will give (the erring West) pastoral help…Africa is now the historical custodian of (true) Christianity. – Bishop Professor Dapo Asaju, former Vice Chancellor of Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo State, Nigeria.
As July of 2022 closed, Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi, General Superintendent of Deeper Christian Life Ministry, DCLM, was also closing a chapter that, according to some theologians, made his ministry somehow ‘insular and centripetal’, even if his messages, as we all know, have always been universal. At an event in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic hub, Kumuyi drew our attention to a new point in his evangelical trajectory, when he formally launched the initiative he christened Global Crusade with Kumuyi, GCK.
By Emmanuel Onwubiko
In 2019, Mr Omagbitse Barrow wrote that many Nigerians have never really thought seriously about the competencies required to be an effective legislator and using these competencies as the basis for selecting legislators and evaluating their performance.
He
then said that in case you have not reflected on this before, there are five
core competencies that every effective legislator should possess that are
acceptable all over the world and align with oversight and legislation.
He listed them but I will borrow three which are: character; communication and courage. On character, he argued that legislators as the promoters and defenders of the Constitution and the laws of Nigeria, must seek to be beyond reproach. They must have very high standards of personal integrity and conduct themselves in a disciplined and ethical manner at all times.
By Ikechukwu Amaechi
Obviously, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Mahmoud Yakabu, must be in love with the sound of his own voice. That is why he keeps blabbing even when no one is listening.
He is, once again, playing the
game he knows how best – lying to himself and taking Nigerians for a ride. In
doing that, he probably thinks he is fooling the people.
But he never reckons with the admonition of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, who once said: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”
