Buhari Is Dead? So, What?

 By Obi Nwakanma

Let me begin here by saying that Mr. Femi Adesina is a very dishonest interlocutor of Nigerian history. I really do wish to emphasize the word “dishonest.” Perhaps a stronger word might even suffice, but I am in no mood for invention. I would like it to be as clear, and as plain as possible, that Adesina, a one-time newspaper editor is bent towards hagiography. Buhari found his Shadwell in Adesina. His memoir of his time as Buhari’s factotum, for whom he spent eight in Aso Rock as Spokesman, Working With Buhari, is an annoying insult on Nigerians. In this book, Adesina launched an EMP on truth in aid of Buhari. 

*Adesina and Buhari 

Nigerians cannot recognize the Buhari in that book, nor fathom the credentials of the writer of that tome full of all kinds of subaltern cliches that no serious writer should now be caught using, e.g. “ straight as an arrow…clean as a whistle” Very elementary use of language.  Too many tired phrases that to me, indicate the stasis in which Adesina lived. But that is not the real point. The real point is that, that book, as much as its subject is a lie. When a book is a lie, it marks its time on the shelf. Eventually, it will end up in the dustbin of history; certainly not among the great chronicles of an era.

Nigerian Voters Have A Constitutional Right To Join In Election Petitions

 By  Chidi Anselm Odinkalu 

“The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.”

–Article 21(3), Universal Declaration of Human Rights

In April 2017, Maina Kiai changed the face of presidential elections in Kenya. He is neither a politician nor was he a candidate or aspirant seeking political office. Maina trained as a lawyer. For five years, from 2003 he Chaired Kenya’s National Human Rights Commission. In 2011, Maina became the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association. He held that position until 2017.

Flooding And Property Loss In Nigeria: Case For Urgent Action

 By Amos Jolaoye

What was once viewed primarily as a natural or humanitarian issue has now evolved into a pressing threat to real estate investment, infrastructure, and sustainable urban development across the country.

Flooding occurs when water overflows onto land that is typically dry, often due to heavy rainfall, inadequate drainage systems, or overflowing rivers. However, beyond natural causes, it is essential to acknowledge the man-made dimensions of this crisis. Poor urban planning, lack of maintenance of public infrastructure, and a general absence of proactive policy implementation have significantly worsened the situation.

Empowering African Youths With Phebe Ejinkeonye-Christian, Trade Skills

By Phebe Ejinkeonye-Christian 

There is a growing sense of restlessness among today’s African youth. Many are questioning the systems that surround them. They want more than just formal education or another training program that leads nowhere. You find it in the way they talk about soft skills, tech, crypto, side hustles, and remote jobs. They ask questions at conferences, on X, and even in WhatsApp groups. 

Peter Obi, The Main Issue!

  -----------------------

Chuks Iloegbunam toasts to a political phenomenon on his birthday...

Peter Obi, currently the main issue in Nigerian politics, is 64 years old today. It says a lot that one person in a country of 200 million others can encapsulate through their worldview the hopes and aspirations of the masses across all age groups, ethnic divisions, religious beliefs, and political allegiances. He manages to attract and repel with remarkable calmness the polarities of love and rejection from vast segments of the nation, displaying exceptional bravery and supreme confidence as he extends this invitation to his fellow countrymen and women: “Please, come with me, I know the destination of our national salvation, and I have meticulously charted a sure course to it.”

Decades ago, there was another politician in this country who believed in ideas, in planning, and in directly facing challenges. He always aimed to identify the core issues, not for fame, but to find ways of mastering them. As a Premier, he ran a government that invested heavily in education, building a university, a pioneering television station, and housing estates for his people. Yet not one of his achievements was named after him.

In a moment of inspiration, General Ibrahim Babangida, as Military President, sent the man a birthday message in which he declared him “the main issue” in Nigerian politics. That man was, of course, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. There were a few others in Awo’s mould, including Dr. M. I. Okpara, who, as Premier of Eastern Nigeria, oversaw the fastest-growing economy in the world. Dr. Okpara rapidly industrialised Eastern Nigeria and escalated educational growth from kindergarten to the tertiary level. Yet, he named none of his achievements after himself. By the time he passed in 1984, he did not have a house to his name.

Between Awo and Okpara, there is a common set of traits that are evident in Peter Obi. Neither valued extravagance nor engaged in chasing shadows. Neither made grand claims of unearned academic laurels, dubious ancestry, or unverified identities. Neither would have entertained, even for a millisecond, the inane thought of riding in a 100-vehicle cavalcade with sirens and horns blaring through dirty, potholed streets to showcase their political stature. To this practical and realistic duo, who harboured neither illusions nor pretensions, being grounded in thought and positive actions was the guiding philosophy.

Peter Obi is cast in that mould, which is why, for each of his claims and postulations, he optimistically leaves a challenge: “Go and verify!” As a State Governor, Peter Obi was often in convoys of just a handful of vehicles bearing only officials, security personnel, and pressmen. Well, Awo passed in 1987. Neither he nor Okpara departed with their legacy. Their positive footprints in the sands of time remain with the people they led – a testament to steadfastness and purposefulness.

Peter Obi is very much around. So, how would he mark his anniversary today? One thing is certain. There would be no parties. Stories abound in this country of folks with undocumented pedigrees and undeclared sources of wealth who hire tourist Caribbean villages in any of Barbuda, the Cayman Islands, Mustique, Eleuthera or Saint Kitts, etc., for the celebration of their birthdays with bashes crawling with aspiring felons, freeloaders, hangers-on, never-do-wells, assorted parasites, and plenary sycophants. Count Peter Obi out of such bizarrity. He would rather sit alone or with like minds to ruminate and meditate on ways to improve the Nigerian condition.

It is this practice of subjecting Nigeria to constant interrogation that has enabled him to proffer, at every turn, the best steps forward for the country to become meaningful. Baldly, he has repeatedly declared that directing the affairs of a nation should never be left to the devices of drug barons, turncoats, kleptocratic vultures, conceited ignoramuses, and their retinues of “cut it down, whether ripe or not.” To demonstrate that he wasn’t simply all talk and no action, he contested a presidential election in which he trounced, even in their backyards, self-declared electoral “champions” and political “strategists.” Then the heist came. Who doesn’t know that, just as the shell follows the snail, so does desolation trail plunder? Today, woe is in ascent. The entity, previously in a state of stasis, has degenerated into sepsis.

*Iloegbunam

That is why a coalition has come up. A coalition to determine whether an 11^th-hour salvation is feasible in the circumstances of near hopelessness. How does one say no in the face of thunder? No new jobs are being created. The employed are rapidly receiving severance letters. Those clinging precariously to jobs are hardly paid. Of the miserable few that earn at all, the shock is that, in most cases, the take-home pay is barely enough for commuting.

There’s no health system worthy of the name. A good percentage of the available drugs are either fake or expired. It bothers them not because, when ill with even an earache or a toothache, they jet off at public expense to the Riviera or somewhere nearby for expert medical attention. When, as sometimes happens, they kick the bucket in alien territory, their remains are crated home, again at public expense.

Tell that to the doubly jeopardised septuagenarian afflicted by diabetes and hypertension. Holding tightly to her doctor’s prescription, she rues the insufficient money in her purse and mutters, “I will buy the diabetes drug and go home. The management of my high blood pressure can wait.” Why should this tragedy of unrelenting proportions be commonplace in an oil-rich country? 

How could it be said and repeated that Fulani herdsmen invaded and wiped away 200 lives in one night, with Abuja unable to call the massacre by its name? How can it be the case that Abuja is unable or unwilling to confront, halt, and reverse the bloody effrontery of mass killers prowling across the national vastness with impunity? The dire straits in which the country is trapped are the reason a coalition has been formed to determine whether an 11^th-hour salvation from national despondency is attainable. This alliance to overturn dismal political leadership is a frontal attack on injustice. After all, clueless leadership is a gross injustice to the people. There is, therefore, one piece of advice for anyone who would come into equity. Come with clean hands! It would be absurd to confront blatant injustice with a process that is itself unjust.

All other geopolitical zones have produced presidents, some for repeated times. But not the South East. When the 2022 PDP presidential primary election discarded the process that could have addressed the grievous injustice, Peter Obi, on principle, ditched the party and became the Labour Party’s presidential flagbearer, a role in which, with his unwavering army of the Obidients, he stunned the cynics.

The coalitionists know, or ought to know, that in treating conjunctivitis, the application of pepper is anathema. If, despite this knowledge, they give him a short shrift, Mr. Peter Obi, the main issue in Nigerian politics today, will look in another direction because nobody will be allowed to use him and the Obidients to boost their political avarice.

If Mr. Obi turns his back to the coalition, it will instantly collapse like a pack of cards, and it will become clear to all that the alliance cheerleaders were insincere charlatans livid because power resided other than in their backyard, and not because of the imperative of extirpating a cancerous tumour from the body politic. Will reason and statesmanship ultimately prevail? Or will covetousness and a rabid sense of entitlement press the default button for the sustenance of a decadent status quo?

If, in choosing a presidential flagbearer, the coalition gets its act right, the challenge will shift to the critically patriotic duty of teaching the perpetual perpetrators of electoral corruption that the head is bigger than the body. From all indications, the foreseeable future promises a basketful of news, wholesome and unwelcome, for those who care and others who pretend to be unconcerned. For now, two prayers must end this piece.

One, may God deliver the long-suffering peoples of this country who, interminably, are being incessantly and remorselessly raped with a barbed phallus. Two, and for the birthday celebrant: May the Creator of Heaven and Earth keep and lead you in so far as you intend to place a healing balm on the essences of the severely wounded peoples of your fatherland. 

 *Chuks Iloegbunam is the author of The Promise of a New Era, a biography of Mr. Peter Obi.

Nigeria And Its Tunnel Vision Elites

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Nigerians are hypocritically sanctimonious, a trait that has become evident since the death of President Muhammadu Buhari in a London hospital on Sunday, July 13. Many, particularly politicians, have lied against the man, literally, by clothing him in borrowed robes in a bid not to speak ill of the dead.

*Late Buhari and Tinubu

All manner of adjectives have been deployed in eulogising the departed leader. But in doing that they lie against him, almost to the point of defamation.

But there is no use flogging a dead horse. While Buhari was alive, I wrote tons of articles lamenting his leadership style not because I hated him but because I wanted him to change. But he was a man set in his ways. Now that he is dead, the inevitable judgement of history will take its natural course. But one fact remains undeniable as Professor Anthony Kila aptly put it: Buhari is a promise unkept.

Critique Of Renaming University Of Maiduguri To “Muhammadu Buhari University”

 By Umar Ardo

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s decision to rename the University of Maiduguri as “Muhammadu Buhari University, Maiduguri” in honour of the late former President Muhammadu Buhari has raised fundamental questions regarding its logic, appropriateness and historical justice. While the gesture may appear symbolic on the surface, a critical examination exposes its lack of intellectual, cultural and moral grounding.

2. First and foremost, Muhammadu Buhari was a career military officer and a politician – not an academic, educationist or intellectual in any public sense. His legacy, whether praised or criticized, is rooted in his military career, his ascension to the presidency and his distinct governing style marked by authoritarian tendencies, economic conservatism and a controversial anti-corruption crusade. Renaming a university, a citadel of learning, knowledge, research and intellectualism, after someone whose relationship with academia is at best peripheral, if not outright tenuous, dilutes the institution’s identity and purpose.

Buhari’s Death And The Political Economy Of Memory

 By John Onyeukwu

With President Muhammadu Buhari’s death, Nigeria entered a familiar season of national confusion, not about the event, but about how to feel about it. Some Nigerians invoked religion: “Only God can judge.” Others cited culture: “Don’t speak ill of the dead.” Yet a third group, often younger and historically alert, asked: “Why should death erase the need for truth?” 

*Buhari 

This division is not just emotional; it is structural. It is a mirror of the political economy of memory, how societies remember, what they choose to forget, and who controls the narrative. In the days following Buhari’s death, one thing became painfully clear: we are a country uncomfortable with honest remembrance. 

What Ironsi Told Bamigboye

 By Emeka Obasi

General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi was firm when he ordered Captain David Laisi Bamigboye to stick to Beatrice Chinyere Asagwara forever, after their wedding at St. George’s Garrison Church, Point Road Apapa on Saturday February 6, 1965.

*Ironsi

Ironsi who was the General Officer Commanding (GOC), Nigeria Army, chaired the wedding reception which held at Headquarters, Nigeria Army Officers Mess, Child Avenue, Apapa. Among officers present were Bamigboye’s Nigeria Army Training College (NMTC) Course One mates, Alani Julius Akinrinade, who served as Bestman and Ignatius Ngwu Obeya who coordinated the wedding.

2027: Why APC Is Jittery About ADC Coalition

 By Dan Onwukwe

The adoption last week, of African Democratic Congress(ADC) by opposition leaders ahead of 2027 general election, has unleashed a great wave of commentaries, columns and articles about lessons in power, the nature of Nigerian politics,  the temperament and behaviour of our politicians as well as the struggle for power. 

Little is being said about the imaginative visionary necessary to achieve great things with that power. When things go wrong in a country, it’s fair to ask, why? Why are things getting worse, rather than better since Bola Ahmed Tinubu was sworn in as President of Nigeria, 26 months ago?  

Is The World Shutting Its Door To Nigeria?

 By Dakuku Peterside

For years, Nigerians have walked through the world with a quiet pride, knowing that their talent, resilience, and creativity were respected far beyond the country’s borders. Our people have built lives in faraway places, contributing as doctors, engineers, professors, artists, and entrepreneurs. 

*Tinubu and Akpabio 

From Silicon Valley to the lecture halls of Oxford, UK, and Philadelphia, US; from the oil rigs of Alberta to the studios of Nollywood, the Nigerian spirit has pushed boundaries and opened doors that seemed locked to others.

Why Nigeria’s Election Petition System Is Unconstitutional

 By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

“Sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through this Constitution derives all its powers and authority.” Section 14(2), Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.

In 2007, the contest to rule Nigeria was between two sons of Katsina State. From the Katsina Emirate, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua ran on the ticket of the then ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) to succeed outgoing president, Olusegun Obasanjo. His elder brother, Shehu, had served as Obasanjo’s second-in-command during military rule from February 1976 to October 1979. From the Daura Emirate, also in Katsina State, Muhammadu Buhari who also served alongside Obasanjo and Shehu Musa Yar’Adua in that military government, was the leading opposition candidate on the platform of the All Nigeria Peoples’ Party (ANPP).

As Buhari Departs: A Personal Reflection

By Olayinka Oyegbile

When the news of the death of Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s immediate past president broke, the first thing that came to my mind were the immortal words of the poet John Donne, who wrote years ago that: "Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.” 

*Buhari 

The death of anyone affects people in different ways. People cannot feel the same emotion no matter how alike they look. That is the reason why the death of a parent always affects siblings in different ways and manners. The same with the death of Buhari. We cannot all feel it the same way. His family, close friends, associates, good-weather friends, et al, would all feel his death in different ways from the common folks. It is as Leo Tolstoy put it in one of his books Anna Karenina. He wrote: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." 

Benue Killings: Probing The Killers’ Identity, Motive And Viable Remedy

 By Tony Nnadi

“Nigeria must now suspend the doomed voyage to 2027 Elections and initiate an immediate Transitioning Process to first address the multiple Existential Threats Confronting Nigerians, and threatening the very existence of the Nigerian Distressed Federation”

As bloodletting, lamentations recriminations, accusations and counter-accusations continue around the killings in Benue State, there has been a remarkable conspiracy of silence amongst the political leaders in both Benue State and Abuja regarding the well-known  Fulani Conquest Agenda that is at the heart of the Invasions and Killings, as well as the role of the Caliphate-Imposed Unitary Constitutional Arrangements of Nigeria which makes it impossible for the embattled Benue Indigenous Peoples to defend themselves with appropriate Arms against the onslaught of the invading, Heavily Armed Fulani Militia, masquerading as “Fulani Herdsmen”

Babangida Should Apologise To Nigerians

By Godwin Afam Nkemdiche

As recently reported in the media, the heir of the widely acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 Nigerian presidential election, Chief MKO Abiola, Kolawole Abiola used the occasion of the 32 anniversary of the controversial annulment of that election to remind the Federal Government of Nigeria that there are many more heroes and heroines of the June 12 election that are yet to be recognised and honoured.

*Babangida 

He also used the occasion, according to the same reports, to inform the world that the Culprit-in-Chief of that vexatious annulment, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida has yet to apologise to the Abiola family. Weighty pronouncements those, more so the latter. An unreserved apology from IBB to the spirit of MKO Abiola and his family is a necessary step to attaining a holistic closure on the June 12 presidential election.

What Can Nigeria Learn From China’s Electricity Revolution?

 By Dakuku Peterside

The moment of revelation came unexpectedly on a high-speed train leaving Beijing, where a screen showed that 36 per cent of the train’s traction power came from wind energy. Outside, rows of wind turbines turned gracefully under the sun. For someone familiar with Nigeria’s unreliable grid—where diesel generators hum through the night and candles are often the only light—this was astonishing. By nightfall, Shenzhen’s LED-lit skyline shone brighter than Nigeria’s entire grid on its brightest day. 

After ten days engaging with institutions and professionals in Singapore, Qatar, and China, I am convinced Nigeria’s energy independence is achievable. The raw materials and technology to power Nigeria exist; what is missing is an unwavering commitment to unite our resources under a common vision.

The Roads Not Taken On Insecurity

 By Adekunle Adekoya

If it’s not over, then it’s not over, and therefore we cannot stop talking about it. We cannot, indeed, we must not stop talking about a problem that threatens our very existence. It is trite to restate that as at this time, majority of Nigerians are feeling insecure, what with the news of  killings and kidnappings in various parts of the country continuing to dominate news headlines. Things are so bad, security-wise, that people are getting benumbed by news of killings. If Boko Haram strikes and kills people in Borno now, the reaction of an average Nigerian would probably be: “Na today?”

That reaction means we are used to getting killed by mindless, Luciferous gangs of killers on a blood-sucking mission. They are on repeated missions to kill people and execute other sinister agenda.

See China And Live Longer!

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Time was when the refrain, “See Paris and die,” reflected the global view that Paris, the capital city of France, was so magnificent that once you have seen it, you can happily die, having experienced the apogee of life’s splendour. It was a refrain that also echoed the Italian saying “Vedi Napoli e poi muori” – “see Naples and die.”

*Tinubu and Chinese President Xi Jinping

That was an expression used at a time Paris was the ultimate tourist destination, a place so extraordinarily beautiful that life afterward might feel incomplete. And make no mistake about it: Paris is still an iconic city. Its art, architecture, cuisine and, indeed, atmosphere still make it an alluring and charming city. But the French capital is no longer the “End of Discussion” as Nigerian car enthusiasts branded the Honda Accord 2006 model a couple of decades back.

Bola Tinubu’s First Major Political Blunder

 By Emmanuel Aziken

Just a week ago, President Bola Tinubu was hailed and nailed on this page over his score in his first two years in office as assessed by the 2023 Social Democratic Party, SDP, presidential candidate, Adewole Adebayo.

*Tinubu

Adebayo had in his assessment of the two years spent by Tinubu in power scored him an F9 in governance and an A1 in politics.

The reasons for the scores were robustly marshaled. On one side he was ‘hailed’ for becoming the first chief executive in the country to reduce the totality of the opposition into insignificance. On the other hand, he was scorched for the foibles that have forced Nigerians into their worst living condition in generations.

The Pain And Power Of ‘One Chance’ Governance

 By Dan Onwukwe

Have you ever had the misfortune of boarding a ‘one-chance’ bus anywhere in Nigeria?  Coming to terms with ‘one chance’ bus is a traumatic experience. Reliving such ordeal is like been in kidnappers’ den. But, what really is ‘one-chance’ bus? In Nigerian pidgin English coinage, it’s a situation where someone has been tricked or scammed. It often involves a deceptive or dangerous situation, particularly transportation. It makes escape by the victim difficult, if not impossible. I had been a victim of ‘One chance’ in Lagos.     

*Akpabio, Abbas and Tinubu

On a fine rarefied late Saturday evening December on 21, 2002, the harmattan haze had just set in, making visibility poor. I had closed from work as Sunday Editor, Champion newspaper, along Ilasamaja/Oshodi expressway. The stress of editing a weekend newspaper had weighed heavily on me.