Nigeria: June 12: Every Life Matters

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

After the elaborate ceremony of apology and award of honours, it is now time to come to terms with the fact that the greatest tribute has not been paid to the victims of the truncation of the nation’s democratic watershed on June 12, 1993.

*Abiola 

Clearly, there has been in the past 25 years a persistent clamour for restitution for the victims. Every June 12 has witnessed calls for the closure of the sad political trajectory in the nation’s life. President Muhammadu Buhari has apparently heeded these calls. But sadly, Buhari’s action has rather shown the poor premium we place on life in the country. 

Nigeria: Their Tomorrow Will Surely Come!

By Dan Amor

Are Nigerians hopeful of the day after? The collective answer to this rhetorical question is a resounding NO. If Nigerians are no longer hopeful of tomorrow, they deserve pardon. For, never in the history of mankind have a people been so brutalized by the very group of people who are supposed to protect and take care of them. They ought to be pardoned knowing full well that their manifest state of hopelessness has extended beyond disillusionment to a desperate and consuming nihilism. Which is why the only news one hears from Nigeria is soured news: violence, arson, killing, maiming, kidnapping, robbery, corruption, rape.

*Buhari, Obasanjo and Abdusalami

It is sad to note that Nigeria is gradually and steadily degenerating into the abyss. Even in a supposedly democratic dispensation, a sense of freedom, a feeling of an unconditional escape, a readiness for real and absolute change, is still the daydream of the whole citizenry. Everything is in readiness for the unexpected, and the unexpected is not in sight. You cannot possibly conceive what a rabble we look. We straggle along with far less cohesion than a flock of sheep. We are, in fact, even forced to believe that tomorrow will no longer come. Quite a handful of us are simply robots without souls, as we are hopeless because we are conditioned to a state of collective hopelessness.

Nigeria: Buhari, Saraki And Politics Of Guns

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

While we cannot credit President Muhammadu Buhari with a transformative genius that has redounded to the citizens’ wellbeing, we must not ignore his masterstrokes in self-preservation. What we have been confronted with in the past three years is his craving for self-protection with its trappings of paranoia.

*President Buhari and Senator Saraki

Thus, beyond the need to punish crime no matter the station of life of the allegedly culpable, the alleged linkage of Senate President Bukola Saraki to armed robbers who raided banks and killed over 30 people in Offa, Kwara State seems an extension of the politics of Buhari’s self-survival.

Through his words and actions, Buhari has not concealed his prejudice that it is only from the executive arm of government flows a genuine desire for good governance that would improve the citizens’ lot. Buhari feels trammelled by the legislature and the judiciary. He is riled by the absence of military powers that could enable him to decree life or death in a democratic milieu. This was why he sought emergency powers that the legislature refused to grant him. 

APC’s Recent Congresses: Omen Of Impending Calamity

By Godwin Etakibuebu

At the last count, eight states of the federation have drawn up parallel Executives to counter what some people called “authentic Executives” of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, during the recently concluded congresses. One of the most unbelievable states where this happened is Lagos. That some people, albeit members of the APC in Lagos State, could challenge the supremacy of the de-facto Jagaban of the South-West politics would remain one of the wonders of modern Nigerian political history.

 

Emergence of the parallel Executives in the eight states came with re-introduction of politics of blood-spilling into the Nigerian polity and this is the most unfortunate dimension of the APC debacle. These eight  states of Lagos, Oyo, Ondo, Zamfara, Enugu, Ebonyi, Kwara and Delta, where parallel Executives emerged saw violence. A few people died in some of these states while in others, it was a day of bloodbath; like the case in Ondo State, where notable citizens were grossly humiliated as most of them were stripped naked. This is without mentioning Imo State where Rochas Okorocha, the APC governor, was completely demystified and dethroned by the  machinery of the APC itself.

The Offa Robberies, Political Thuggery And The Near-Death Of Nigerian Democracy

By Kennedy Emetulu

There is something rotten in the state of Denmark and it’s either we clean it up now or we all die from this stench. This is not an alarmist testament; it is real. The killings and findings following the Offa robberies have provided us an opportunity to cleanse the Aegean stables once and for all.

Thirty-three citizens woke up on Thursday, the 5th of April 2018 to go about their lawful businesses, but they were brutally murdered in cold blood by a group of young people in apparent armed robberies involving six banks in Offa, Kwara State. The banks are the First Bank, Ecobank, Guaranty Trust Bank, Zenith Bank, Union Bank and Ibolo Microfinance Bank. Amongst the dead were 9 police officers, pregnant women and other ordinary citizens. The police have arrested some of those behind the killings, including leaders of the gang and they have allegedly been making confessions. I say “allegedly” because whatever they are saying now has not been tested in a court of law.

Nigeria: The Road To Babylon

By Reuben Abati

Nigeria is on the road to Babylon: a place of confusion. Three years ago, the people were convinced that they had found a messiah who will lead them to the Promised Land, and meet all their expectations. 

*Buhari 

Today, everyone is speaking in different tongues; “turning and turning in the widening gyre…the falcon cannot hear the falconer… things fall apart; the centre cannot hold/Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world/The blood-doomed tide is loosed, and everywhere/the ceremony of innocence is drowned…surely, some revelation is at hand…”

But just may be, there is still, no cause for despair. The good thing about democracy is that it teaches people lessons – ask them in Malaysia and the United States – and even when the people refuse stubbornly to learn – ask them in Syria, Venezuela, and Libya –  the lessons exist nonetheless.

Nigeria: Dirty Buses In Lagos

By Oshineye Victor Oshisada

It is conventional that, whenever we, as Nigerians are confronted with challenges, the usual mantra that is invoked is: “Prayer to God is the solution.” It is believed that “prayer’’, “prayer” and nothing, but “prayer” is the solution to our numerous problems. But, can our resort to “prayer” without pragmatic efforts solve problems? I doubt if it is the panacea for every challenge. Two instances readily come to my mind. 

In the early 1970s, my radio-mechanic assured me that, if he retired into seclusion for prayer, he would successfully accomplish the task of repairs. Instantly, I concluded that he was incompetent and a failure. The second instance was a student who confidently told me that if she prayed on to her bath- water, she would succeed in her examinations. The lazy drone spent hours praying in the bathroom, but failed her examinations. I have it on the authority of the ancient Romans: `Ora et labora`, meaning. “Pray and work”. The Romans did not exhort us to pray, and fail to work. Therefore, actions and not prayers alone can solve our problems. It is against this backdrop that our public utilities are examined.

Buhari And The Petroleum Trust FRAUD

By Ray Ekpu

It is not known to this column how close Brigadier Sani Abacha was to Major General Muhammadu Buhari by December 1983. It was Abacha who announced at the end of a few minutes of martial music on New Year ’s Eve that the government of President Shehu Shagari had been thrown into the dust bin of history. Buhari became the fulcrum of that history as Nigeria’s head of state. On August 27, 1985, there was another game, the Revolving Doors’ game. Buhari was out, thrown out, while Ibrahim Babangida, was in, thrown into the pinnacle of political power in Nigeria.

Babangida clamped Buhari into the dungeon for some months where he cooled his feet, while his colleagues were bestriding the Nigerian political and military firmament like they owned the world. Babangida left or was forced to leave the throne after eight years of dangerous foot work. He called Chief Ernest Shonekan, a successful private sector entrepreneur, to come and take the baton of leadership.

Nigeria: Apologies For Gen. Sani Abacha

By Dan Amor

​Friday this week indubitably marks the twentieth anniversary of the death of General Sani Abacha, Nigeria’s most treacherous tyrant and who ranked with Agathocles and Dionysus I of Sicily, as the most notorious dictators, not only of the age of antiquity but of all times. He died in Abuja on June 8, 1998 as a sitting military dictator. It is true that the degree of cruelty and loathsome human vulgarity that the Abacha era epitomized is already fading into the background due largely to the mundane and short character of the human memory. But his timely exit ought to have been marked by Nigerians just as the United Nations marks the end of the Second World War not only for posterity but also as a thanksgiving to God for extricating mankind from such epoch of human misery.

*Gen Abacha 

Abacha emerged as head of state from the ashes of the June 12 crisis. The General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida military administration had annulled the June 12, 1993 presidential election with a clear winner. It was the most placid election ever conducted in the annals of our country. The contest was between Alhaji Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention (NRC) and the billionaire business mogul, Chief MKO Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Abiola was coasting to victory when the Babangida military regime halted the announcement of the election result superintended by the Professor Humfrey Nwosu-led National Electoral Commission. The Federal Government eventually announced the annulment of the result on June 23, 1993. This action triggered a violent protest especially in the South West which led to Babangida stepping aside.

Nigeria: Combating Poverty With Proceeds Of Corruption

By Ayo Oyoze Baje

As the ping-pong blame game over corruption charges unfolds between two former military generals – incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari and erstwhile counterpart, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo – what matters at the end of the day is that the cause of justice should be served; that such public funds brazenly stolen be recovered back into the national till and the culprits be made to pay for their crimes against the Nigerian state. And more importantly, that such funds be judiciously utilized to lift the quality of life of the average citizen. 

The significance of this clarion call is hinged on the fact that successive administrations have made promises in this regard but much more has been said than done. Indeed, discerning Nigerians are tired of being regaled daily by accounts of humungous sums of money so far recovered from thieves of state. The issue took a new dimension when the All Progressives Congress (APC), administration went to town to list the names of the public treasury looters( without any of their members) and the huge amounts of money recovered.

Nigeria: Of Lawmakers And Bribe-Takers

By Olusegun Adeniyi 

From the judgement of a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos which orders President Muhammadu Buhari to “urgently instruct security and anti-corruption agencies to forward to him reports of their investigations into allegations of padding and stealing of some N481 billion from the 2016 budget by some principal officers of the National Assembly” to damaging allegations by both former Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and former Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, the spotlight is now on our federal lawmakers who are being perceived as no more than cheap bribe-takers. 

*Senate President Saraki and House Speaker Dogara

The situation is not helped by the widespread knowledge that the National Assembly has become the watering hole of high-maintenance ex-governors, semi-literate political contractors, wanted international criminal suspects and some yesterday’s men who are now in desperate need of economic empowerment. Yet, in a situation where lawmakers behave like gangsters, the various executive bodies like ministries and agencies will begin to see their assignments in transactional terms as oversight becomes a ritual of appeasement of the greed of committee members and the budgeting process, which ordinarily should be a serious assignment, degenerates into an annual bazaar. 

Unemployment, Corruption And Nigeria’s Youth Dilemma

By Matthew Ozah

Their story is very pathetic and heart-breaking: You cannot help but feel sorry for Nigeria’s youth. At every step the Nigerian youth wonders where he or she is going and why. They worry about unemployment and cost of living as the creeping inflation following the recent economic recession which has raised prices of commodities. In the face of all these challenges, youths across the country are determined as they struggle to make themselves relevant by acquiring university education.

However, being a graduate does not save one from enlisting in the army of unemployed people. The strong expectation and desire to be gainfully employed saw the youth entangled with the All Progressives Congress (APC) change trap. The sound of ‘change’ that engulfed the entire nation then, was like the midnight drumming sound Alex Harley described in his book: Roots, which led some slaves in America during the era of slavery to escape to freedom. Indeed, Nigeria’s youths were captivated and entangled with the APC’s change bait to escape joblessness and live a good life. As we all know, the APC promised to create millions of job and pay unemployed graduates a stipend of five thousand naira monthly among other mouth watering promises which are still in wait three years on.

As Ebola Returns!

By Tayo Ogunbiyi

Ebola is a dreadful disease that once ravaged the West African coast, leaving in its trail sorrow, tears and blood. According to a World Health Organisation (WHO) data, at its peak, Ebola had over 10,000 victims in West Africa. The WHO records further reveals that 9,936 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone contracted the disease. Nigeria also had her own share of the Ebola brouhaha, no thanks to the dastardly escapade of late American-Liberian, Patrick Sawyer.

After weeks of scary Ebola episode, Nigerians were understandably over-joyous to hear the news that the country was certified Ebola-free. While the Ebola trauma lasted, 19 cases were recorded out of which eight died and 11 survived.  Aside the number of lives it claimed and attendant psychological trauma, the Ebola ordeal came with lots of economic losses. 

Arabisation Of The Nigeria Police?

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

As though to prove the sceptics wrong, the country suffers no deficit of evidence of its descent into anomie. This is underscored by the fact that what seems only plausible in the provenance of macabre fantasy easily becomes reality.

It sounds implausible that a country and its leaders would do nothing while citizens are being killed and pillaged. But this is the reality in Nigeria - Fulani herdsmen are busy raping, maiming and killing citizens. 

Even places of worship that should have served as refuge from bloodlust and plunder have become the prized targets of the herdsmen.

Security Under President Buhari’s Watch

By Kolawole Anthony

The first official covenant a leader makes with the people, on the first day of official function is security of lives and property of the citizenry. It is neither negotiable nor subject to compromise under any guise.

A law abiding and peaceful nation is the panacea to uninhibited development and prosperity. It is the primary essence of governance. And the capacity of the Armed Forces anywhere in the world is gauged by its capacity and competencies to assist the President to defray internal and external aggressions against its country. But the military abdicated on this basic constitutional responsibility under the last administration.

And the consequences were quite grave. No Nigerian can agree less that Nigeria was on a precarious cliff of total breakdown of law and order, by May 2015, when President Muhammedu Buhari took the reins of office.

Nigeria was literally and practically handcuffed by subsisting, budding, consuming and persistently explosive acts of terrorism, local armed conflicts, militancy, violent separatists’ agitations, ethno-religious conflagrations and other insurrections. They did not only disturbingly assail and crippled Nigeria, but had morphed into threats to regional insecurity threats.

Burdened by an extremely weak Military, prior to the ascension of the Buhari Presidency, Nigeria replaced its peaceful soul with almost everyday violence, deaths and agonies from terrorism. Dominantly at the home front, Boko Haram Terrorists (BHTs) obstinately pulled the cord of disunity and disintegration of Nigeria. It went paranoid and regrettably unchallenged in the organized atrocious acts and heinous crimes against Nigerians. But Buhari has smothered the fire.

Why Federalism, Confederalism Or Restructuring Is Not Enough

By Chinweizu

Sundoor999@gmail.com

22may18

The Federalism of the First Republic, of the 1963 Constitution,  is being demanded by some as the solution to Nigeria’s problems. The proponents of this view seem to think that once Nigeria returns to that constitution, with possibly some slight modifications, they and their interests will be protected, and their cherished “One Nigeria” can go on.

*Chinweizu 

But they are mistaken, I think.

They haven’t considered why that constitution failed them. If it failed them before, can’t it fail them again?

Like the 1963 constitution, the 1960 Constitution limited the powers of the Federal Government to Defence, Foreign Affairs, and a few other items.

2019: Why We Must Vote In Young Nigerians

By Dan Amor

At the dawn of civil rule in 1999, after about fifteen years of uninterrupted military gangsterism, rapacity and greed, there emerged on the nation's political firmament, an assembly of politicians and professionals under the age bracket of 50 years, the National Integration Group (NIG). The group's aim was ostensibly to re-engineer the Nigerian public life and take over the mantle of political leadership from the old brigade. There were, indeed, conflicting reactions to the development.

*Gov Yahaya Bello of Kogi State:
Nigeria's youngest governor 

While some Nigerians believed that the group had ulterior motives, and therefore its mission preposterous, many believed and still believe that amidst the despair that has enveloped the nation, there is an obvious need to call to question the desirability of continuing with business as usual. This issue has remained prominent in the upper reaches of our national discourse especially given the woeful failure of the old generation of politicians to improve the standard of living of the people and engender positive development in the country since independence.

Paradoxica Nigeriana

By Dan Amor

Nigeria is a beautiful edifice built with bricks of contradictions. Somewhere between the idea and the reality hovers a huge geographical abstraction that beguiles the imagination. Situated at the Eastern end of the Gulf of Guinea, between the 4th and the 14th Parallels, Nigeria occupies a total area of 923,768 square kilometres, slightly more than the combined areas of France and Germany. From Lagos in the South-west to Maiduguri in the North-east is the distance between London and Warsaw.

*President Buhari 

Its population estimated at about 190 million, exceeds the combined population of all other countries in the West African sub-region of the Sahara. Endowed with enormous wealth, a dynamic population and an enviable talent for political compromise, Nigeria stood out in the 1960s as the potential leader of Africa, a continent in dire need of guidance. For, it was widely thought that Nigeria was immune from the wasteful diseases of tribalism, disunity and instability that remorselessly attacked so many other new African states. But when bursts of machine gunfire shattered the pre-dawn calm of Lagos its erstwhile Federal Capital in January 1966, it was now clear that Nigeria was no exception to Africa's common post-independence experience.

Nigeria: Gen Gowon’s Desecration Of History

By Sunny Awhefeada

Nigeria’s history has been so abused and distorted that there is hardly a consensus on what constitutes a genuine national narrative. Nigerian rulers have had to manipulate the history of their record in office to suit their whim. History ought to be sacred as the ultimate guide of a people. It is the unseen, but powerful propelling force from which a nation derives inspiration in the tortuous odyssey of national evolution. But when the history of a nation is subjected to deliberate distortions then such a nation is bound to be moored to the past with the people as captives. This has been Nigeria’s lot. 

*Gen Gowon

Nigeria hosted the 8th Commonwealth Regional Conference for Heads of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Africa last week. It was at that forum that Nigeria’s former military ruler, General Yakubu Gowon (rtd) did what amounted to a desecration of history. Hear him: “During our time, we did not know anything like corruption”.

He went a great length to buttress his assertion. Let us dream up an apotheosis for Gowon so that even in his lifetime he could become Saint Yakubu Gowon! What Gowon told his audience was far from the truth. The government he led from the hurly-burly of 1966 to the sedate ambience of 1975 was one of massive corruption.

If President Buhari Were A Patriot…

By Benjamin Obiajulu Aduba

President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) is one of only two people who have ruled Nigeria both as a military dictator and as an elected president. In a country of about 100 million citizens, this is not an insignificant accomplishment. In Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, President Buhari should be at the top, Self-Actualization level. He should not have any more needs. If he were a patriot he should quit right here and right now. 

But he is not.

If he were a patriot he should read the warning signs.

1. His most ardent supporters are showing signs of weariness. They still offer some defense and protection for him but they seem tepid. Mr. Lai Mohammed can lie on his behalf for only so much as his integrity begins to deteriorate. Even Professor Aluko is now willing to accept that some of PMB’s actions/lack or actions are mistakes. Mr. Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma (former Defense Minister), one of his richer and early backers has openly called for the North Central (NC) citizens to buy arms to protect themselves as the government is unable to do so.

2. The massive demonstrations by Christians in Abuja a few days ago show how deep the disgust of Christians with his administration is. Christians constitute about 50% of Nigerians. When a leader loses the support of most his nation, patriotism demands that he, the leader, steps aside.