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The bare concrete parade ground of Eagle Square will tomorrow be animated by the symbolism of state ritual. Like most structures in Abuja’s homeless architecture, Eagle Square was originally designed by soldiers in power as a tribute to the legacy of parade grounds, a venue for rehearsing their trade. It has now become a favourite […]
Continue ReadingThe ruling All Progressives Congress is entitled to roll out the drums in an orgy of triumphalism. The feverish inauguration rehearsals at national and relevant state levels are all in order given the announced outcome of the last general election. After all, democratic succession is ultimately a ritual of collective self-renewal. We have an entitlement […]
Continue ReadingIn a tragic sense, Sudan is somehow lucky. Its leading political figures, who also happen to be combatant generals, have not hidden their differences beneath a façade of mutual deceit. They have instead allowed their differences to blossom into an open bloody confrontation. The two top generals who also happen to be the top political citizens […]
Continue ReadingOf all the cards that I carry around with me, none is a political party membership card. I have never and do not belong to any political party in Nigeria. Nor have I ever belonged to one or aspired to belong to any. My attitude to political party membership is pretty much the same as […]
Continue ReadingThe period between a general election and the swearing in of a successor administration ought to be filled with excited anticipation. It is usually a time of pleasant speculations on the new faces that will soon grace television screens and newspaper front pages. For the masses in a polity in virtual captivity, it is time […]
Continue ReadingNigeria’s much anticipated presidential election has yielded an outcome, leaving behind a thick smoke trail of disquiet and global infamy. Mr. Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has since been announced winner of the February 23rd election. At home, the emotions are unevenly mixed between the minority whose partisanship has triumphed and […]
Continue ReadingPoliticians on a nationwide campaign for the top job in the land are condemned to a life of compulsive nomadism. They are perpetually on the go, sometimes armed with a compass they alone can read or no compass at all. Mapping their itinerary can be quite an arduous task. Worse still, matching the marketing routes […]
Continue ReadingNigerians are a very impatient people. Our hunger for instant outcomes should have made us the nation that invented the microwave oven. But our impatience is directed at other ends. We can at least content ourselves with the many unusual things that we have reinvented and perfected our instincts in, namely, politics and religion. Politics […]
Continue ReadingAn urgent threat hovers over Nigeria’s democracy. It is not just the spectre of bad elections or the predominance of atrocious politicians. It is instead the rise and increasing numbers of authoritarian governors all over the country. Though enthroned by our often murky democratic process, an increasing number of state governors now carry on more like […]
Continue ReadingThe distance between political campaign promises and their fulfilment is an infinity. Between when these promises are made and the end of the tenure of those who usually promise paradise and deliver hell, people are often too dazed to remember. As it were, empty promises seem to be part of the language of political campaigning. […]
Continue ReadingThe crowds of power wear amorphous but identical faces. It does not matter whether they are the Roman plebeians, renegade factions of the Athenian metropole, or the rough racist hounds that accompanied Donald Trump to defile the US Capitol on 6th January 2021. They are all roughly the same. Political crowds troop out in passionate […]
Continue ReadingThe truths of history often reveal themselves to us by a ruse. A president who in 2015 happened on us on a mantra of ‘Change’ is today the object and embodiment of a clamour for decisive urgent change. Call him Mr. Change and pronounce it anyway you like, something is clearly undeniable. Mr. Buhari has […]
Continue ReadingPolitics as usual has run into trouble. Decades of political bad behaviour have birthed a new and subversive urgent counter force, a movement with a momentum of its own. An unusual man in black with a husky voice and a shy mien has mounted the soap box with a message of fearsome urgency and unanimous […]
Continue Reading(In line with what has become my annual tradition every August, I devote this column as a tribute to my friend and compatriot, General Ibrahim Babangida, as he marks his 81st birthday this week) General Ibrahim Babangida, the former military president, has never told anyone that he is a politician nor has he seen or […]
Continue ReadingThe reign of terrorists is not without its own sardonic humour. Soon after storming Kuje prison in Abuja to free their comrades in arms, ISWAP terrorists indicated an interest in two pricey trophies: President Muhammadu Buhari and, my friend and brother, Nasir El Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State. While their interest in the president as […]
Continue ReadingThe All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Mr. Bola Tinubu, has merely announced a longstanding intention. His naming of former Borno governor, Mr. Kashim Shettima, as his running mate confirms what is perhaps a long conceived preference for a Muslim-Muslim ticket for his 2023 race. That preference is neither so original nor earth shaking. On […]
Continue ReadingThe period between now and May 2023 is Nigeria’s season of expectations and grave anxiety. Nigerians are expectant that the forthcoming general election will enable them as an electorate to renew our national leadership through the ritual of voting. On the other hand, the perilous state of the state has raised the level of anxiety […]
Continue ReadingThe recent presidential nomination primaries of the two big parties and the just concluded Ekiti state governorship elections are united by a paradox. In both, Nigerian democracy recorded some dubious progress. An orderly and fairly credible electoral processes seems to have finally evolved. Correspondingly, however, the monetization of the electoral process hit the highest peak […]
Continue ReadingBishop Hassan Matthew Kukah of the Sokoto Catholic Diocese has a robust definition of his flock. His patriotism is predictable. His preoccupation with matters of good governance, responsible statesmanship and the welfare of ordinary citizens has become axiomatic. Above all, his abiding preoccupation with the ultimate moral burden of political leadership has been consistent and […]
Continue ReadingWe are witnessing the coming of a new type of politics. Between the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC) and its rival, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), some strange political bad manners is taking root. In this political tradition, the actions and conducts of politicians have no bearing to the prevailing mood of the nation. Politics is […]
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