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On Bola Tinubu's Chatham House Visit

 By Wole Olubanji

I find it funny that political leaders in Nigeria are more inclined to speak to foreign entities about their country than they are with their people. I am not saying there is anything wrong with openness to cross-national ideas, but there is a problem with suggesting the unworthiness of the press or people of one's country. 

It became a tradition with Buhari that some of us started awaiting the next presidential trip abroad to know the take of the President on policies and national issues. Is it the case that these people think us unworthy of their perspectives on the job they were hired by us to do? 

Aisha Buhari: From Wife Of The President To First Lady

 By Rotimi Fasan

I can’t be sure now how Aisha Buhari prefers to be identified. Is it as the First Lady or as the President’s wife? At present, she’s more often identified as the First Lady than as the wife of the president, which was the Muhammadu Buhari presidency’s own way of distancing itself from the abuse and overbearing tendencies of previous occupants of the “office” of First Lady.

*Aisha Buhari 

But things seem to have unravelled, and the hairsplitting is being or has been exposed for what it is – a mere academic exercise. With no constitutional provision, many Nigerians have in the past questioned the manner in which some so-called first ladies had gone about their duty, which was often characterised by misuse of public funds and resources. 

Weep Not for Tinubu, But Nigeria

 By Dele Momodu

Call it what you will, what happened at Chatham House London yesterday was a complete charade… The Bola Tinubu handlers fumbled, and bungled it big time… They showcased him like a packaged invalid. It would have been better to present him as a brilliant politician and administrator, warts and all, who’s capable of independent thoughts. No man is perfect. His gaffes would have been more pardonable and acceptable… He was expected to sell his own vision and mission…

Tinubu speaks at Chatham House, London

But what we saw yesterday was a theatre of the absurd. It brought back memories of our great President Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua and how he mysteriously disappeared from radar and some of his aides governed by proxy. I was one of those who led the Enough-is-Enough protest against the Yar’Adua cabal in Abuja in 2010. What was unacceptable then is even more unacceptable now with benefits of hindsight. Our country should be placed above friendship. 

Obi, Atedo And Leadership Notes

 By Valentine Obienyem 

You need not lead a corporation or country for your capacity to lead to become manifest. A leader is always a leader even when he is leading his primary school mates. This is the lesson I learnt during our one-day recent trip to an African country. We travelled to one of my favorite destinations and returned the following day. 

*Obi
Mr. Peter Obi had notified me about the trip after which I saw myself included on a WhatsApp group for the  journey. Do we need the roll call? Not at all, because it has nothing to do with politics. What struck me was the fact that like Mr. Peter Obi does, Mr. Atedo Peterside, as common a name in the Nigerian financial world  as Obi has become in politics, was personally directing affairs. He was posting most of the time; telling us what to do. He would always emphasize the importance of communication through deeds: he communicated each step he took and encouraged us to do  the same.

Nigeria's Democratically-Elected Tyrants

 By Andy Ezeani

The exit of the military from political administration of Nigeria in 1999 and the attendant restoration of democratic order was expected to engender the ethos of civil contention of ideas and liberal disposition in the political space. These, after all, are the hallmark of democracy, the antithesis of the command structure of the military that had gone.

Considering that military rule prevailed for a very long time in the country, it was not unexpected that some mannerisms of the defunct regime will linger after them. But for how long? This is the question that has become relevant and increasingly worrisome, against the backdrop of disturbing undemocratic tendencies that seem determined not to go away, years after the military left the scene.

Nigeria: A Season Of Political Malapropisms

 By Chidi Odinkalu

Politics in Nigeria is largely of the transhumant variety. It is not defined by any big ideas. With the exception of perhaps the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Nigerian politicians have been largely devoid of clear ideological moorings.

Freed as such from the forces of ideological gravity, the only impetus that they respond to for the most part is from the stomach. Gravity in Nigerian politics tends to be a force defined by the imperative of human grazing.

An opposition may be essential for democracy to thrive but no Nigerian politician or party wants to linger in that neighbourhood. In power for 16 years at the centre, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has been an abject failure since it went into opposition in 2015, unable to articulate any alternatives to the unmitigated disaster that has been the government of the All Progressives Congress, APC. Both parties are separated by a revolving door.

Nigeria’s Perennial Flooding: Estate Surveyor/Valuer Perspective

 By Toyin Aluko

One of the most prevalent natural disasters in Nigeria is perennial flooding. In recent years, incidents of flooding have been devastating. Some states have been increasingly experiencing flooding, particularly during the rainy season with the attending challenges to food production, food security and livelihoods. The country no doubt experienced its worst flooding in 2022.

Farmers and investors have suffered huge losses as floods destroyed thousands of hectares of farmlands and food crops. The extent and nature of the disaster is such that the actual losses, displacements and fatalities figures cannot be truly established due to poor records and reporting.

The International Day Of The Girl-Child

 By Feyinwa Chime

International Day of the Girl 2022 has come and gone. Should we simply tick ‘done’ and move on? I say ‘no’. Let’s us continue celebrating and working for the good of our female children. 

This year’s International Day of the Girl was celebrated on Tuesday, 11th October, 2022. Its theme was, “Our time is now – our rights, our future.” 2022 commemorates the 10th anniversary of the International Day of the Girl (IDG). 

The girl-child is a biological human female offspring from birth to eighteen years of age. Recently, we have seen a surge of girl-child education debates surrounding the primary, secondary, tertiary and health/safety education in particular for girls and young women. 

Nigeria In A Fix, Let’s Fix It!

 By Emmanuel Onwubiko

Things are truly not looking good all around us in Nigeria and the signals are as bright as the sun with facts showing how tragic things have degenerated to and are piercing through the conscience of Nigerians like the sword of Damocles.

Things have fallen Apart in Nigeria, as prophetically affirmed by the legendary writer, Professor Chinua Achebe, who wrote the iconic novel, Things Fall Apart.

I sat in a corner of a coffee shop somewhere in Garki II, Abuja, and spent over 30 minutes waiting for the waitress to serve my hot cup of Cappuccino coffee, in deep thinking about a lot of things.

Ending Violence Against Women Will Save $1.5tn Annually

 By Patricia Scotland

As we head towards the end of the year, many of us will soon be surrounded by our family and friends sitting around dinner tables as we celebrate the festive season. Looking around the table and reflecting on the fact that, on average, every third woman you see will have experienced sexual or physical abuse at some point in their lives.

*Patricia Scotland

This violence is not a remote act happening in other people’s homes, it lives all around an uninvited guest at the table. It thrives on secrecy, infiltrating homes, communities and workplaces. Yet we are nowhere near an appropriate global response that addresses the scale of this problem. If we are serious about tackling this issue, we cannot continue down the same path, or we will rob ourselves and women around the world of the future and life they deserve.

Poverty: Buhari Should Quit The Blame Game

 By Charles Okoh

These are not the best of times for Nigerians. There are several existential threats confronting the average Nigerian. A man, whose house is on a raging inferno, certainly cannot have any time to spare to chase rats.

*Buhari 

For about two weeks now, Nigerians have been trekking, sweating, thirsty and starving. No thanks to petrol scarcity and the high cost of living. The persistent fuel shortage has continued and people are left running from pillar to post seeking for what God in His infinite mercies deposited in large quantities in our land, yet we have been living in want and scarcity. The paradox is such that a people and nation that have no reason to be poor are wallowing in abject poverty.

Highway To Death!

 By Bianca Ojukwu

On Saturday, November 19, 2022, on my way back from a wedding ceremony late afternoon, I stumbled upon a horrific accident scene at the Ugwu Onyeama Enugu Expressway. A tanker had just collided with a coaster bus carrying passengers who were on their way back from an event.

Mrs. Ojukwu

Mangled bodies covered in blood were strewn everywhere, people had clustered around the scene and the sight was traumatic. I had to make a split second decision whether to move on or to stop. I noticed one of the victims was moving, and requested my drivers to stop.

I alighted from my vehicle with my aides, including those in my back up vehicles and approached the scene. To my shock and dismay, most of the people standing around there, who just parked their own cars by the side of the expressway were simply busy with their cellphones taking pictures and making videos of the gruesome incident.

Nigeria And The Politics Of Hunger

 By Sunny Awhefeada

My first generation’s experience of hunger and its attendant crises was in the mid-1980s. My genera­tion here refers to Nigerians born after the civil war and attained teenagehood from 1983 onwards. We have read in history books of how starvation was one of the major tools that was deployed to fight the Nigerian civil war of 1967-1970.

Pictures abound of chil­dren, youths and older people who suffered from the affliction of hunger. Not even the efforts of humanitarian agencies that tried to alleviate the hunger in the refugee camps that littered the secessionist enclave of Biafra alleviated the crisis. Hunger engendered dis­eases which in turn yielded deaths.

Poor Aminu And The Almighty First Lady

 By Dr. Ugoji Egbujo

The meek ones have, like Shakespeare, said, “The quality of mercy is not strained.” Other others have said, like Moses, “An eye for an eye.” In other words, “spare the rod and spoil the child.” Yet Others have, like Jesus, drawn the line and said, “He who has never sinned alike, let him cast the first stone.”  

*Aisha Buhari 

A student of a university in Jigawa insulted the first lady. Then he disappeared. According to the Student Union, for days, neither the boy’s parents nor the school authorities knew his whereabouts. The Student Union’s president said after a nervous search that exhausted the parents and the union for days, the boy was discovered.

Revisiting Laws Against Women’s Rights And Freedom

 By Adimula Oluwabukola

On September 16, 2022, a 22-year-old Iranian woman named Mahsa Amini died in Tehran, Iran, under suspicious circumstances, potentially due to police brutality. The woman’s death led to countrywide protests by Iranian women against the government. It is worrisome that women can easily lose their lives by not covering their hair the right way. These absurd laws that dictate how a woman should live are common in most Asia and African countries.

Examples of such laws are the inheritance laws against women in Eastern Nigeria, money wives stories in South Eastern Nigeria, and much more. There is a need to tackle these issues through sensitisation, abolishment of harmful practices and enactment of laws.

Poet Of The People: Niyi Osundare

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu 

Poets from all over the world today do not come any loftier than Nigeria’s Niyi Osundare. In my book, he is the next poet destined to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. 

*Osundare 

Lovers of intellection are thrilled that on Wednesday, December 7, 2022, Professor Niyi Osundare will deliver his Nigerian National Merit Award (NNMA) Winners Lecture in Abuja. 

The lecture which is taking place within the context of the Annual Forum of NNOM Laureates is entitled “Poetry and the Human Voice”.

The significant event that is happening physically and virtually calls for celebration because Niyi Osundare is that one poet who speaks for the people. 

A personable mentor who jocularly addresses me as “The Maximum Metaphorist”, Osundare packs enormous craft and courage in his sublime verbs and profound nouns. 

ASUU’S Rightful Battle Of Moral Conscience Against Financial Realities

 By Tony Afejuku

I am suspending my focus on your Speaker of House of Representatives. I hopefully will re-touch next week, barring the un-expected, the first among equals in our House of Polifoolicians (H of P). For now I am yielding space to a reader who introduced himself to me as an un-employed Nigerian graduate – a delightfully articulate fellow. He is Dele Owolowo. Enjoy his peculiar rhythm on the ASUU-FGN’s intangible and tangible battle of wits and bluffs:

Hearty greetings to you, Sir and thank you, for the excellent pieces on ASUU.
On the ASUU-FGN issue ASUU would remain on the back foot while the government calls the shots. The main reason our education sector can be belittled and seemingly betrayed is because it is a sector with few economic aces to play and for this reason it brings little to the economic table (kindly clip the education sector I sent to your WhatsApp). We are running a knowledge-based rather than a productivity-based education value chain with the tertiary sector at the top of this economically unproductive value chain.

Abuse Of Power By Public Officers And Spouses

 By Femi Falana

Of recent, some serving and former public officers and their spouses have been using the police and other security agencies to intimidate journalists, students and other citizens for daring to expose them for engaging in corrupt practices and abuse of power. In spite of the several judgments of domestic and regional courts which have upheld the fundamental right of Nigerian citizens to freedom of expression, the anti-democratic elements have behaving like the former British colonial officials.

*Falana

Since the Attorney-General of the Federation and State Attorneys-General have failed to restrain the law enforcement agencies from from being used to harass the critics of public officers and their spouses it has become necessary to remind the Federal Government of its legal obligation to defend and protect the fundamental rights of the Nigerian people including the right to freedom of expression guaranteed by section 36 of the Constitution and Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Cap A9, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

Bola Tinubu’s Verbal Miscues

 By Rotimi Fasan

The question of how age may have slowed down the physical and mental abilities of Bola Tinubu, the All Progressive Congress, APC, presidential candidate, rendering his claim to the presidency an untenable proposition, has continued to generate debates among Nigerians.

*Tinubu

While he has responded that he is both mentally and physically fit to take up the task of steering the ship of the Nigerian state as president, he has also not been slow to remind his critics that the presidency is neither about brawn nor is it a contest to choose the strongest man in the world.