Battered ECOWAS Applies Cosmetic Make-Up

 By Owei Lakemfa

The highlight of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, Authority of Heads of State and Government Summit of December 15, 2024, was the formalisation of its break up. Three of the 15-Member countries, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger Republic which are now ruled by  military regimes, had given notice of withdrawal.

Some of us had hoped that while ECOWAS would acknowledge the three countries’ notice, it would stall for a political solution. It should be a very serious issue for even one country to leave, not to talk of three which is one fifth of the entire membership.

As Governance Confounds Okpebholo

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

When my attention was drawn to Governor Monday Okpebholo’s “Now, it is confusing me” video, I thought his political enemies were at work aided by Artificial Intelligence. The one-minute, 17-second video captured him stuttering while presenting the 2025 Appropriation Bill to the Edo State House of Assembly.

*Monday Okpebholo

Struggling to pronounce the numerical value of the Bill which he christened “Budget of Renewed Hope for a Rising Edo,” the governor said: “The Edo State 2025 budget… appropriation bill of six billion, sixty and fifty, six hundred five billion, seventy six thousand, seventy six million, seventy six.”

Dele Farotimi: Is Afe Babalola After The Truth Or A Pound Of Flesh?

 By Olu Fasan

Most of those who have commented or are commenting on the Dele Farotimi-Afe Babalola saga have not read the book at the heart of the story: Farotimi’s Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System. I have. I bought a digital copy from Amazon last week, and spent four hours slowly reading – more appropriately, perusing – the 115-page book on Kindle.

*Farotimi 

Why did I buy the book? Two reasons. First, column-writing is about topicality and informed commentary. A good columnist should comment on any topical issue of significant public interest and do so from an informed perspective. The Farotimi-Babalola story has gripped Nigeria and has wider implications for the principle of legality. I decided to read the book so I could offer an informed opinion. Second, I wanted to know what irked Aare Afe Babalola so much that he went for the nuclear option, seeking to crush Farotimi personally and professionally. Well, answer: the book is a dynamite! 

2027: Sycophants And ‘No Vacancy In Aso Rock’

 By Dan Onwukwe

The first phase in the struggle for the presidency in 2027 has already started long before the flag off of campaigns.Well, does the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) matter any more?

If you care to know, this is a prelude to rigging the 2027 presidential election. In politics, no less than war, the lessons of the last campaign are prized beyond their application to the present one. But like each battle, each political campaign is dependent upon the experience of the past, but every political campaign is in itself unique. Is it a surprise to you that about 27 months to the next general elections, the desperate pursuit to re-elect President Bola Tinubu has been at fever pitch for days? That’s why Nigerian politics rings alarm. It’s about the manner of characters that pollute our democratic process and makes it look like a sham, if not a scam.

Corruption And Political Party Funding In Nigeria?

 By Tonnie Iredia

With the recent decision of the Supreme Court granting financial autonomy to local governments in Nigeria,   the latter now presumably receive their share of the monthly federal allocation directly unlike the previous practice of such funds getting to them through their respective state governments.

Bearing in mind that most local government chairpersons in every state were greatly assisted if not handpicked into their positions, how easily achievable would the implementation of local autonomy be? 

Bola Tinubu’s Taxing Times!

 By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu 

A mere four years after emerging from a civil war, in 1974, Nigeria was at the beginning of an oil boom. Then, as today, the country was in the middle of a debate about fiscal federalism and revenue allocation.

*Tinubu 
Unlike today, however, there were significant differences: the country was under military rule and the men leading the debate were all soldiers. In the fifty years since then, the structure of this debate and the geo-political symmetries that define it have evolved only a little.

The Peace Ukrainians Deserve

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

On December 6, Ukrainians commemorated the Armed Forces Day. It is an occasion used annually in honouring their “brave defenders who protect their homeland from Russian aggression.” I happened to be at the Ukrainian embassy that Friday where the Ambassador of Ukraine to Nigeria, Ivan Kholostenko, said the heroes being honoured “safeguard not only Ukraine but also the broader world.”

*Ukranian President Zelensky

“On this day, we express our deepest gratitude to all those who defend the freedom and future of our country, ensuring peace and security for millions around the globe. The Embassy of Ukraine in Nigeria commemorates the heroes with an exhibition. Faces of men and women who risk everything for their homeland and peace around the globe are looking from the pictures of the exhibition,” Kholostenko said.

Unending Collapses Of The National Grid

 By Adekunle Adekoya

On Wednesday, the national power grid managed by the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, collapsed for the 11th time in 2024, leaving the country in complete blackout. Some people said that it wasn’t the 11th but the 12th time, on the average, a collapse of once a month.

Data from the National System Operator, NSO, showed that as of 2pm that day, none of Nigeria’s 26 power plants was on the grid.

Okonjo-Iweala, Kemi Badenoch: The Shaming Of Nigerian Statehood

 By Olu Fasan

The strength of any country consists of its natural resources, human resources and capital assets, namely, the economic wealth that delivers higher living standards. The first two determine the third. If a country can successfully harness its natural resources, using its human talent, it will prosper; if it can’t, it will fail.

*Kemi Badenoch and Okonjo-Iweala

Now, Nigeria is known worldwide for its abundant human and natural resources, so why is it one of the world’s poorest countries? Why is Nigeria run so badly that it’s utterly dysfunctional, verging on state failure? The commonest answer people give is “leadership”. But Nigerians run world bodies and lead major Western political parties, so why can’t Nigerians run their own country well? How can Nigerians provide leadership abroad, but not at home?

Atiku’s Presidential Ambition Has Long Expired

 By Mike Ikhariale

Barely 20 months into the present ad­ministration that is yet to find its feet in terms of purposeful gover­nance, some people who routinely profit from the nation’s political misfortune are already talking mischievously about 2027!

*Atiku 
The premature cacophony apparent­ly started with some disgruntled northern federal legislators who have naively played themselves out of some powerful select-cau­cuses that surreptitiously run the National Assembly and are now seeking attention by resorting to the hackneyed regional politi­cal blackmailing cards that have unfairly served them materially for years but all at the expense of their own people.

Ghana Elections And Prof Yakubu’s Sham Claims

 By Ochereome Nnanna

There is something we call omehaa kachie enya in my Abiriba dialect of Igbo. It means a shameless or defiant offender. When a person is caught red-handed while committing an abomination, he is supposed to show remorse or contrition.

*Yakubu
But if such a person adopts a bold face, displays impertinence and opts to brazen it out, that person is beyond redemption. In ancient times, society had ways of quietly getting rid of such people to create deterrence and prevent them from corrupting the rest of the community.

Tinubu’s ‘Do As I Say’ Reforms!

 By Ugoji Egubjo

Tinubu said he came to initiate reforms. And the people waited to emulate him. Because talk is cheap. After taking away subsidies without cushions, he went for a bloated cabinet. A flabby cabinet of the  sons of profligacy to prosecute austerity measures.

*Tinubu
With his deliberate choice of some indicted persons as ministers, he signaled to the EFCC that he wasn’t interested in anti-corruption. Once he awarded his first major contract, the multi-trillion naira  Lagos-Calabar road, to his friend, everyone got the message. The reforms would not include due process. The reforms are not ‘Do As I do’.

What If Farotimi’s Allegations Are Not False?

 By Tonnie Iredia

According to Section 39 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999,"every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference.”

*Farotimi 

To underscore the importance of this right, the constitution further expands the empowerment beyond private discussions by recognizing the use of the media to effect communication across the globe by anyone desirous of consummating the freedom of speech provided by the section. Hence, Section 39(2) explicitly empowers citizens to “own, establish and operate any medium for the dissemination of information, ideas and opinions.”

In The Matter Of Dele Farotimi Before The Star Chamber

 By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

Paul Anyebe was a judge of the High Court of Benue State in north-central Nigeria who had a young son with sticky fingers and a sense of adventure  It was his role as a dad that endangered his job as a judge.

*Dele Farotimi 

One night around 1983, Anyebe caught his son attempting to steal from his bedroom. In response, Anyebe pulled his gun in an effort to scare the boy. The gun went off, discharging a bullet which hit and seriously injured the boy.

The Case Of Two Maniacal Looters And Our Future

 By Adekunle Adekoya

Two major reports on the anti-corruption landscape made the headlines these last few days. Both left me wondering about the mental state of the perpetrators, given the sheer scale of what they were up to.

Pix: Amazon

All of us still remember the late maximum dictator, General Sani Abacha. Since his passing, it has come to light that the redoubtable General siphoned so much money from the national exchequer that 30 generations from him would never have to work again.

Hunger: Nigeria Is Starving Its Own People; That’s Iniquitous!

 By Olu Fasan

Recently, the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, published the results of the General Household Survey Panel, which showed that 63.8 per cent of households face severe food insecurity and are skipping meals, some for a whole day.

Nigeria is not in war or ravaged by famine, so why should two-thirds of the population be in the throes of hunger and starvation? How can one explain the savagery of hunger that has reduced many Nigerians to scavenging for food? Well, here’s the harsh truth: the Nigerian state is starving the Nigerian people through deliberate policy choices.

Death Of the Liberian Warlord General Prince Yomi Johnson

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

The news of the death of the controversial Liberian warlord General Prince Yomi Johnson has just reached me. The man became friends with me whilst he was in exile in Lagos, Nigeria. 

*Prince Johnson 

Let’s just do a quick recall of the gory video scene of the killing of then President Samuel Doe of Liberia. There was the beer-guzzling Prince Yomi Johnson sitting in judgment over the captured and tied-up Doe who was begging for his life thusly: “Yomi, two people fight, one win. Spare me, please.” 

Of course poor Samuel Doe had his miserable life snuffed out. 

Now the news has hit town that General Prince Yomi Johnson too is dead.

A tear for him! 

Prince Yomi Johnson used to live in exile in Ikoyi, Lagos, and I once had a memorable encounter with him. No appointment was fixed with the former warlord. I simply appeared unannounced at the frontage of the man’s Ikoyi home one hot Tuesday afternoon, and settled on a white plastic chair by the door of the bistro that led into the compound.

Nigeria: Deferment Of Renewed Hope?

By Kelechi Deca

In 2022, Nigeria had its first comprehensive Multidimensional Poverty Index, MPI, report, measuring households’ monetary poverty, education and basic infrastructure services deprivation. It incorporated a Child MPI, adding a child development and survival dimension. 

The MPI estimates that 133 million Nigerians, or 63 per cent of the population, are multidimensionally poor, with significant disparities in poverty levels across states. Rural areas have higher poverty rates at 72per cent compared to urban areas (42 per cent).

Continuing Story Of Nigeria’s Undemocratic Posture

 By Tonnie Iredia

No democratic nation is expected to undermine any of the easily recognizable 5 pillars of democracy.

These are: (i)the sovereignty of the people in which government functions only on behalf of the people (ii) the rule of law which presupposes the absence of arbitrariness in a society where everyone is equal before the law iii) free and fair elections, that is, periodic contests which throw up political leaders that are truly determined by only the electorate (iv) majority rule in which government is formed by the political party which has the highest number of lawful votes and (v) minority rights in which government is obliged to protect the rights of the vulnerable and powerless segments of society.

Requiem For PDP

 By Dele Sobowale

“All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies” – Dr Arbuthnot, 1667-1735, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, p 191. 

Note: This article started on the day of the Ondo State election. The result was not surprising. “You can’t beat something with nothing”. PDP is now nothing. Obong Victor Attah, a former governor of Akwa Ibom State and former Trustee of the PDP, is an internationally-recognised architect. He was the first African to be granted licence to practice as an architect in New York State.