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Before our very eyes and at an unexpected moment, a horror movie may be unfolding. Last Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, warned that a Third World War between Russia and NATO is possible and that it would be a nuclear war. On the same day, Russian artillery fire set off a blaze at a […]
Continue ReadingThe APC was birthed out of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s resilient appetite for presidential power. Its victory in the 2015 presidential election was a product of both his regional cultic followership and a nationwide rejection of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’s bumbling presidency. Seven years afterwards, Buhari’s appetite for apex power has been fulfilled and arguably squandered. His […]
Continue ReadingFormer President Olusegun Obasanjo and Chief E.K Clark are unrepentant but useful fossils. Both suffer a common affliction: they like to hear their own voices. In their constant refrains on major national issues, they never tire of tormenting us with ancient interpretations of the country we all know. Both men share a common expired conception […]
Continue ReadingVery few Nigerians remember any quotable utterances by former President Goodluck Jonathan. A self confessed introvert, the man was more preoccupied with finding enough confidence to fill a job whose scope clearly overwhelmed him. A man who hardly found shoes to wear till rather suddenly found himself struggling to fit into the oversized shoes of […]
Continue ReadingIn one respect, President Muhammadu Buhari may have worked so hard to prepare his successor for the acclaim that has so far eluded him. He has unconsciously scripted a higher popularity rating for that lucky successor. The next president will harvest national and international acclaim by doing something that requires little or no effort: just […]
Continue ReadingPoliticians tend to get into trouble when they tinker with language to conceal mischief. Former US president Donald Trump, the most advertised quintessential linguistic idiot, was in the habit of getting lost in a forest of simple distinctions. He could not distinguish between truth, facts, fiction and faction. He tinkered with ‘alternative truth’ instead and […]
Continue ReadingIt is the season for all the common symptoms of end of term political ailments. Politicians in prime positions are of course the most prone. At the apex of power, a vice president in our kind of system can show more pronounced symptoms than other political animals. In function, he is expected to be neither […]
Continue ReadingFrom the Niger Bridge looking East, a canvass of desperate unhappiness spreads out before you. Crossing the ancient creaky Niger bridge into Onitsha and beyond is like a great crossing into a crowded wilderness, another country. At first, it is the specter of neglect and decayed infrastructure. But on every face of every man, woman […]
Continue ReadingIn the pantheon of Nigerian rulers, President Buhari occupies an uncontestable stool. He is the first leader to return to power on the strength of a faulty myth rather than on a record of demonstrable achievements. The political marketers of the Buhari candidacy in the count down to the 2015 elections were armed mostly with […]
Continue ReadingThose paid to protect the guardrails of democracy hardly look in the direction of the courts for enemies. Nor do most people suspect that judges could become facilitators of authoritarianism and subtle promoters of anarchy. As custodians of the rule of law, judges and the courts over which they preside are the insurance for democracy’s […]
Continue ReadingSeparated by great distance but proximal in influence and geostrategic thinking, Nigeria and Afghanistan are drifting closer. For most Nigerians, Afghanistan is not exactly their next favorite tourist destination. But aspects of Afghanistan’s undulating history of trouble making and theocratic fixations are beginning to resonate more with Nigeria and indeed the rest of the world […]
Continue ReadingOn 19th May, 2021, Mr. Abu Mohammed Abubakar bin Mohammad al-Sheikawi (Abubakar Shekau), life ‘president’ of Boko Haram, finally died on his own terms under the supervision of his fellow ISWAP terrorists. The Nigerian presidency was silent. I am not aware that there has so far been any official presidential statement on the death of […]
Continue ReadingA gun in many illegal hands is the readiest metaphor for a state consumed by insecurity. The consequence is something even more unnerving and sinister. It is the democratization of the ability to kill through uncontrolled access to arms. Indiscriminate death in the hands of random assailants is perhaps the closest you get to anarchy. […]
Continue ReadingPresident Buhari has just rendered invaluable service to an uneasy nation. He used this year’s political anniversary season to grant two revealing interviews and deliver a beneficial Democracy Day address. With these pronouncements, he has lifted the veil from his troubling trademark silence. The television interviews, one with Arise Television and the other with Nigerian […]
Continue ReadingThe Buhari administration has just stumbled on a convenient but unexpected political diversion: the Twitter ban. We can keep debating Twitter while an orchestrated project of deepening authoritarianism takes hold. While Twitter rages, the president has said in his latest television interview that he has ‘ordered’ the police and the army to be more ‘ruthless’ […]
Continue ReadingUnlike the rest of us who are shivering about the prevalent insecurity and uncertainty over the future of the country, I doubt that President Buhari and his inner core of strategists have cause to lose much sleep. They have no cause to share our fears. They have always known something that we did not. The […]
Continue ReadingOn the eve of the 2015 presidential election, this reporter had cause to write a dying minute column in this newspaper entitled: “A Call at Midnight”. It was a warning on the clear and present calamity awaiting the nation if the Jonathan administration mismanaged the election and its eventual outcome. At that point, there was […]
Continue ReadingFrustration and anxiety have driven major opinion leaders to a dead end of options on our worsening insecurity. President Buhari is being asked to literally outsource Nigeria’s internal security operations to some foreign power. Wole Soyinka, ever the incurable patriot, has pointedly suggested that the worsening security situation leaves Buhari no better option than to […]
Continue ReadingPresident Buhari’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Sheikh Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, could have casually slithered through public office with scant notice if he could delete his past. Unfortunately he cannot run faster than the jagged shadows from his past. In these parts, a ministerial portfolio with an oversized office and some fancy title […]
Continue ReadingBetween economists and their enabling politicians, the fate of nations often hangs precariously on a balance. On their own, economists can be a miserable enough bunch in ordinary circumstances. Their professional relevance hangs on the precarious uncertainty that all things may never become equal in real life. Like Delphic oracles, economists keep their relevance and […]
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