Abati, Arise TV’s PR Show And Buhari’s Dementia

 By Farooq Kperogi 

That even the vaguest pretense to traditional watchdog journalism is in throes of death in Nigeria’s institutional news media was instantiated by the interview Arise TV’s crew had with Muhammadu Buhari last week. It was out and away a PR job that masqueraded as journalism.

*Buhari and the Arise TV Team
 

The questions were feeble, obvious follow-up prompts were ignored, the questioners were diffident, and the viewer is left scratching their head about what they had just watched. It was the journalistic equivalent of a bad circus. 

I am glad famous Punch columnist, Sonala Olumhense, clinically dissected the interview in his Sunday column and showed what a tragic professional theater the interview was. Even though I was initially inclined to comment on the poor quality of the conduct of the interview, I chose to cut the interviewers some slack because I thought managing to get reclusive and tight-lipped Buhari to talk after nearly six years of ignoring the domestic news media was praiseworthy. 

Nigeria: Where Are The South South Governors?

 By Dan Amor

Undoubtedly, the emergence of brilliant, energetic and dynamic young men as governors in the South South States of Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, and Delta, following the 2019 governorship election is evidence of what God has in stock for the oil producing but largely neglected Niger Delta region. The governorship election couldn't hold abinitio in the two South South States of Bayelsa and Edo because the tenure of their governors had not expired then. The Bayelsa state governorship election was eventually held and Duoye Diri emerged the winner after the Supreme Court case while Gov Godwin Obaseki was declared winner for his second term after the 2020 governorship election in Edo state. 

*South South Governors 

In all, governors of the six South South States are: Chief Duoye Diri, Bayelsa; Hon. Nyesom Wike, Rivers; Mr. Udom Emmanuel, Akwa Ibom; Prof. (Sen.) Benedict Ayade, Cross River; Mr. Godwin Obaseki, Edo; and Sen. Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, Delta. While acknowledging Their Excellencies' well-deserved victories at the polls and commending them for the vigour with which they have started their new assignments since their assumption of office, yours sincerely is inclined to observe that the task ahead is enormous and demands hardwork, resoluteness and team spirit to accomplish. But there must be regional integration in the South South. It is overdue for this development template. 

Nigeria: The Dilemma Over Grazing Laws

 By Eric Teniola

President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, has often referred to the gazette which published the grazing laws in Nigeria. In his television interview to mark his 6th anniversary in power, he made reference to the so called gazette.  The President was echoing what his Chief of Staff, Professor Ibrahim Gambari said on April 1, 2018 when he was the Chancellor of the Kwara State University in Ilorin.

On that day Professor Gambari referred to existing laws on grazing and that the major problem facing us now is the non-implementation of the grazing laws as contained in the gazette. My understanding is that both the President and his Chief of Staff were equating the laws of Northern Nigeria on grazing as if they were laws passed by the Central government. The grazing laws which the two men referred to were passed into a decree by the then the Premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello (12 June 1910-15 January 1966), the Sardauna of Sokoto. The laws were not operative in the West, Mid-West and Eastern regions.

Humphrey Nwosu and the true story of June 12, 1993

 By Ikechukwu Ngene

“I think I did something for the worst possible reason – just because I could. I think that’s the most, just about the most morally indefensible reason that anybody could have for doing anything.” 

— Bill Clinton to Dan Rather on 60 Minutes; June 20, 2004.

Bill Clinton had not found religion as he spoke. He had not found morality either. What happened was that he became wiser by way of being caught cheating. For that indiscretion, Monica Lewinsky hitches a ride with him into the dusk of eternity.

*Prof Nwosu 

We can never regard Prof. Humphrey Nwosu enough. To understand his moral stature and what he achieved under the dubious conditions of the transition programme to civil rule during the regime of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, let me state this with as little intent of hyperbole as possible   “If the US 2020 presidential election was conducted using Nigeria’s centralized electoral system, President Biden would never have been elected.”

Buhari: One Hell Of An Interview!

 By Ozodinukwe Okenwa

President Muhammadu Buhari has finally broken his long silence. He broke his silence last Thursday through an exclusive interview on the Abuja-based Arise TV network. He spoke on a number of important national issues. He talked about IPOB, agitation for Oduduwa and Biafra Republics, Fulani herdsmen and their clashes with native farmers and land-owners, #EndSARS protest, insecurity, poverty, unemployment and lopsided national appointments among others. The interview lasted less than an hour and the hard questions and follow-ups appeared to be a taboo.

*Buhari 

However, that the interview happened at all was a pleasant surprise package ostensibly packaged smartly by the President's media and publicity handlers. Since coming to power democratically six odd years ago President Buhari had remained aloof, mute, stone-faced and stone-silent in the face of the myriad of challenges confronting the nation.

June 12 Without Democratic Reforms

 By Dan Amor

Whatever one’s reservation about it, the recognition of June 12 as the authentic Democracy Day in Nigeria, and honour for Chief MKO Abiola with the title of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR), specifically reserved for presidents and heads of State, is a most salutary development since 2018. For that singular act of magnanimity and statesmanship, President Muhammadu Buhari merits my commendation.

*Abiola 

 On June 12, 1993, Nigeria held a presidential election, which was annulled by the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida. It was presumed to have been won by the late Chief MKO Abiola, who was the flag bearer of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), one of the two political parties decreed into existence by the military. Goaded by pro-democracy organizations and activists such as the National Democratic Coalition, Abiola went out of his way to challenge the annulment of the election considered to be the freest and fairest in the history of the country. 

Buhari: Sad And Saddening Interviews

 By Tony Eluemunor

Ordinarily, any Nigerian should celebrate the very fact that President Mohammadu Buhari granted two nationally televised interviews in two days. This was a man who had been dubbed the taciturn one simply because he would clam up even when the cries of a need to address the nation was howling like the harmmattan wind. 

*Buhari 

Yet, what did the average Nigerian get? On very vexatious issues, the average Nigerian has remained as uninformed about the real issues in BUhari’s mind as though the man never spoke. And yet, he did speak volumes. 

This time, the blame does not lie with the President at all. He never at any moment refused to answer any questions and it is to his credit that he never ruled some topics as no-go areas. So, what went wrong? 

Buhari Is Nigeria’s Problem, Not Twitter!

 By Charles Okoh

President Muhammadu Buhari is a despotic leader. He is anything but a democrat. Those who packaged and presented him in traditional attires preparatory to the 2015 general elections knew that altering the package of a product does not have any effect on the product itself. In their desperation to return power to the north, the northern hegemony sold Asiwaju Bola Tinubu a dummy and he bought into it hook, line and sinker.

 *Buhari

In six years, it has become clear to all that you don’t at old age teach a right-handed person how to begin to use the left hand. The only difference between a military rule and our current quasi-democratic arrangement is that agbada, babariga and ishiagu have taken the place of military uniforms. 

President Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) rode on the power of the social and traditional media to get to office. They encouraged civil unrest, protest, organised mass mobilisation through the media to get to office. Now in power, they have suddenly realised that the same media they once put to maximum use to serve their purpose as an opposition party, can no longer be tolerated and must be stopped at all cost.

WF Kumuyi: Feisty At Eighty

 By Banji Ojewale

Years ago Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi, General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry, opened a chink in the curtains of the future he anticipated for himself. Preaching to a large congregation of local worshippers that also had an overflow of global online audience, he said he happily looked forward to a season when no black strands would remain on his head. It would be a glistening crown of white hair.

*Pastor Kumuyi

The revered cleric said he hoped that before then, by the Mercy of the Great Master he serves, he would have succeeded in spreading the Gospel of Christ worldwide. He is not ready to retire, he assured the assembly. But in very advanced age, he would request the Deeper Life Bible Church to acquire a reclining chair for him to enable him undertake more of searching the Scriptures, more of hearing from Heaven and more of teaching the Word. As Pastor Kumuyi foresaw it, the white hair has since landed, dominantly and decisively defeating the black.

Again, as he predicted, the Church the Lord used him to found is taking the message of Christ’s love to every corner of the globe, beginning right here in Nigeria and to other African countries, and beyond. What we haven’t seen is the chair. Will it be a cane seat? Or the steel version? Either way, many don’t expect the pastor to ask for it soon.

Buhari In Exclusive Interview With NTA

 Press Release

President Muhammadu Buhari In Exclusive Interview With NTA

President Muhammadu Buhari grants Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) an exclusive interview, from 8.30 pm, Friday, June 11, 2021. 

It promises to be revealing and educating. Kindly keep a date.

 Femi Adesina 

Special Adviser to the President

(Media and Publicity)

June 11, 2021

--------------------------------

On Thursday, June 10, Buhari granted an interview with ARISE TV. 

Watch it HERE

President Buhari And His War Against Twitter

 By Dele Momodu

Fellow Nigerians, I had planned to write on a different topic today, but man proposes and God disposes. Nigeria has become such a rollercoaster that it is very difficult to catch up with news and events. Since President Muhammadu Buhari and his acolytes took power six years ago, our country has known no respite from news of gloom and doom. Where we had looked forward to the easing of our pain, what we got was a dissipation and destruction of our gain. It has been one day, one fight. Even a world heavyweight boxing or wrestling champion who fight for fun and for finance will ordinarily get tired at some point and decide to retire, but not these ones.

*Dele Momodu 

Where there is no fight, they will find it and create one, making sure it is bigger and more violent and virulent than the last. There is a sense in which you are made to feel that those in charge of this government thrive only in chaos and confusion. They seem to get off on playing to the gallery and practising dangerous brinksmanship. And so, the country lurches from one foreseen disaster to another unforeseen problem and then back to another foreseen calamity and the orgiastic cycle and circle of a litany of woes continues and persists forever.

Nigeria Is Falling Apart! How Are We Going To Fix It?

 By Joel Popoola

The 2023 election may feel like a long way off, but the battle to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari is already underway.

But who will step into his big shoes?

Just recently, the influential international news agency, Bloomberg, asked the question “is Nigeria falling apart?”

Unfortunately, it’s hard to argue that it isn’t.

*Buhari 

However, the real question is “how are we going to fix it?”

How are we going to fix an economy where unemployment is 33% and inflation is running at 18%?

What are we going to do to improve the lives of the 80 million Nigerians who live on the equivalent of less than $2 a day – a figure the World Bank predicts may rise to 100 million following Covid-19?

How is a nation economically dependent on oil going to face up to a post-oil future?

Inspector General Of Police, Federal Govt And The South East

 By Kingsley Moghalu 

I am as disturbed by the general narrative against the Fulani, because of the failure of the Federal Government of Nigeria to secure our country from invading foreign terrorists – a failure that many Fulani & others in Northern Nigeria find as unconscionable as other Nigerians in the South – as I am with the Inspector-General of Police’s reported order to police to essentially violate human rights and engage in extra judicial killings in the Southeast under the guise of  “Operation Restore Peace” in the region against Biafra secessionist agitators.

*Buhari 

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) says President Buhari has ordered a “shoot at sight” against anyone carrying an AK-47 rifle illegally, ostensibly as a justification for his spurious orders regarding the Southeast. I’d like to know how many terrorist “herdsmen” in Nigeria have been “shot at sight” so far since the President’s reported order. A lack of commitment to a Nigeria based on the equality of every Nigerian and every part of Nigeria is the reason why there are very obvious double standards in security operations in Nigeria. This leads us to simplistic narratives that demonize ethnic groups at large, and to compare apples with oranges.

Between Garba Shehu And Southern Governors (1)

 By Dan Amor

There are rumblings or discontents in Nigeria following an exchange of diatribes between Malam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, and Chairman of the Southern Governors Forum and Governor of Ondo State, His Excellency Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN. Ever since the 17 Southern Governors met in Asaba, Delta State on Tuesday May 11, 2021, and took a collective position on the state of the nation, presidential aides, especially Garba Shehu and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, have been fuming and hurling mud at Southern Governors with reckless abandon. 

*Gov Akeredolu of Ondo State 

First, Southern Governors stand for the unity of Nigeria. To reinforce that unity, they agreed that the country should be restructured. The governors also wanted Nigerians to come together to talk about their country and its future. They wanted President Buhari to drop his overwhelming nepotism and respect or address the overall essence of the Federal Character Commission in appointments into federal institutions including the national security architecture.

Buhari: A Feudal Lord Or Listening Servant Leader?

 By Tony Eluemunor

How many Nigerians really know their President, Gen. Mohammadu Buhari? Who knows his office hours? Does he put in punishing amount of hours into his job of being Nigeria’s President or does he work for just a few hours? How long do files stay on his desk? How much does he delegate duties to others? What does he do during the long flights of his frequent trips to other lands? What kind of books does he read? Does he, like former President Olusegun Obasanjo, be fully at work, poring through files even while ensconced in the Presidential jet, moving from one far-flung corner of the globe to another? 

*Buhari

What is President Buhari’s favourite food? Who are his trusted lieutenants? How diverse are their backgrounds? Does he have friends from all parts of the country, or is he an introversive man of few friends … only those he grew up with? Would this not also make him appear a provincial man, instead of a metropolitan? Yet, would such not be a self-disservice to a man whom soldering has taken to all parts of Nigeria, and professional courses have taken to diverse portions of the globe? 

Ban On Open Grazing: Victory For The South

 By Tony Ademiluyi

The 1804 Jihad spearheaded by Usman Dan Fodio made the Fulani tribe the overlords of the Hausas. Dan Fodio departed from the norm in imposing Fulfulde as the new language of the court. Instead he did the unthinkable by ensuring an adoption of the Hausa language as the lingua franca of the conquered territory. This linguistic affinity spread throughout the north which ensured that they spoke with one voice and were united despite their tribal differences.

The British found this useful in their policy of indirect rule which made the northerners have a general apathy towards nationalistic activities that was largely a southern affair. As a reward, the departing colonialists ensured that they had the majority seats in the House of Representatives which was the more powerful of the bicameral legislature at the time as the senate was ceremonial. This action by the British has haunted us more than sixty years after the Union Jack was lowered. At the moment, the north has 19 governors while the south has 17 and far more seats in the National Assembly than the south which has ensured that they are always in charge no matter who sits in Aso Rock.

International Criminal Court: An Early Warning For Nigerian Officials

 By Aloy Ejimakor

The Rome Statute is the international treaty that founded the International Criminal Court. Comprising of 13 parts, it establishes the governing framework for the Court. Adopted at the Rome Conference on July 17, 1998, it came into force on July 1, 2002, thereby creating the International Criminal Court. The Statute sets out the Court’s jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and – as of an amendment in 2010 – the crime of aggression.

Nigeria has ratified the Statute, thus making the Nigerian State and non-state actors subject to the jurisdiction of ICC. The Nigerian State means its President and his appointees, especially the heads of the security agencies, their commanders, officers and the other ranks under them. It also includes governors and all personnel working under their authority, directly or indirectly.

Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye's Peep Into Nigeria's Looting Culture

 (A tribute to Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye on his birthday, May 27, 2021)

By Dan Amor

Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye is not only a quintessential Nigerian writer and journalist, he is, undoubtedly, one of the most formidable literary and social critics in the country today. Ejinkeonye, whose birthday is today (May 27), is not only a wordsmith of note whose diction and images capture the experiences and nebulous fancies of the Nigerian condition, he is also one of Africa's most celebrated newspaper columnists and public affairs analysts. 

This book is also available on AMAZON

Ugo, as he is fondly called by friends and admirers, is not only trained in the intricate use and application of English words and grammar, he is gifted with the ability and capacity to comment with admirable lucidity and illuminating temper, on the insularity and philistinism of our turbulent existence. Indeed, most of the theoretical and critical essays of Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye have been widely published in local and international newspapers and academic journals with tremendous critical acclaim. 

His recent offering, Nigeria:WhyLooting May Not Stop, is a collection of some of his columns published in newspapers and journals over time. It is an engrossing tapestry of the Nigerian condition. Drawing afflatus from language, literature, journalism, religion, politics, culture and everyday experience, Ugo's book, segmented into two parts of unequal chapters (Part One has 17 chapters and Part Two, 5 chapters), is a forum in which the highly informed commentator effects an in-gathering of his critical sallies. 

Garba Shehu Is A Major Supporter Of The Pervasive Anarchy In Nigeria — Southern Govs

 Following the press statement by presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, dismissing the decision of the 17 Southern Governors to ban open grazing in their states as having “questionable legality,” the Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, has issued a response to Shehu on behalf of the   Southern Governors.

Excerpts:    

---------------------

*Akeredoulu

“Mr Garba Shehu: On the Trail of An Agent Provocateur”

‘Mr Garba Shehu just released a press statement purporting to represent the position of President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, on the farmer-herder “clashes” and what he termed as “Deep Rooted Solutions to the Herdsmen Attacks”.

‘He also attributed a unilateral decision to the President who “clears the way for ranching and revival of forest reserves” as part of the “permanent solution to the frequent clashes between them, as well as the associated problem of the gun-wielding “killer-herdsmen”.

‘Anyone who has been following the utterances of this man, as well as his fellow travelers on the self-deluding, mendacious but potentially dangerous itinerary to anarchy cannot but conclude that he works, assiduously, for extraneous interests whose game plan stands at variance with the expectations of genuine lovers of peaceful coexistence among all the peoples whose ethnic extractions are indigenous to Nigeria.

Killing Nigeria With Senseless Loans

 By Yemi Adebowale

The 2021 federal budget is N13.8 trillion. It has a deficit of N5.6 trillion and this will be funded, largely, through external borrowing. Over 30 per cent of the funds for this budget 2021 will be loans. This is why President Muhammadu Buhari is asking the National Assembly to approve N2.3 trillion ($6.18 billion) external loan to enable him fund part of the 2021 budget. The loan is part of N4.6 trillion federal lawmakers had earlier approved for his government as contained in the 2021 Appropriation Act. About 33 per cent of budget 2021 is set aside for debt servicing. Is this nonsense making sense? 

*Buhari 
This is the level Nigeria has degenerated while binge-borrowing. Budget figures of the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria have become voodoo numbers. They persistently bamboozle Nigerians with humorous numerals. The long and the shot of all these confusing figures is that Nigeria is in serious financial mess compounded by binge-borrowing by the Buhari government. This country parades a long list of creditors – World Bank, African Development Bank, French Development Agency, Islamic Development Bank, China EXIM Bank, China Development Bank, European Investment Bank, European ECA, KFW, IPEX, AFC, India EXIM Bank, International Fund for Agricultural Development and the rest of them.