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For the record, I am ambivalent about the restructuring question. My dream is of an indivisible Nigeria liberated to pursue its power and purpose. I know that it is fashionable to wield the sword, “restructure.” When you go on television or appear before a microphone, it seems to be the default thing to say to […]
Continue ReadingI was shocked last week to hear the President, Major General Muhamadu Buhari (retd) criticising those who “want me to fail.” He described them as sponsors and orchestrators of insecurity in Nigeria. How on earth, I questioned, is it that Buhari pretends not to know that his failure is not opinion but fact; that when […]
Continue ReadingNigeria’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, last week hurled himself feet first into a dry swimming pool as he tried to object to a southern ban on open grazing. In the television event, Mr Malami struggled to assert himself, but was painfully unprepared and incompetent. He described the collective decision of the […]
Continue ReadingIn September 2019 in New York, Nigeria ruler Muhammadu Buhari was asked: “Nigeria has a very young population; perhaps you might highlight what a pathway for a resilient future looks like?” On the calendar, it was the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, and General Buhari was participating in the Climate Action Summit. […]
Continue ReadingA book in honour of First Lady Aisha Buhari was launched in Abuja last week. ‘Aisha Buhari: Being different,’ was authored by Hajo Sani, a senior administration official. Chief Bola Tinubu, the National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), who chaired the event, took it upon himself to interpret the Nigerian story. “Remember […]
Continue ReadingNigeria ruler General Muhammadu Buhari is back in London. In a terse, 35-word press statement on Monday, spokesman Femi Adesina announced that his principal would be traveling the following day “for a routine medical checkup.” “The President meets with Security Chiefs first in the morning, after which he embarks on the journey.” The announcement appeared […]
Continue ReadingWhy do prominent Nigerians seek medical care abroad? Preparing for his seventh year in office, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) provided an answer to this question last week: Nigerian medical care workers (minus the doctors) are unfriendly. For perspective, it must be remembered that the general himself is Nigeria’s poster boy for international medical tourism. It is […]
Continue ReadingAnyone who takes the trouble to read this column knows that I gave up on the Muhammadu Buhari candle a long time ago. It flickered out the day after the Nigeria ruler took office in 2015. That was the day he decided that having won the election, he no longer needed to declare his assets publicly. […]
Continue Reading[I dedicate this article to Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the new Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). We celebrate you, despite the grief of your motherland. May you be an inspiration for every African girl!] Mercifully, the abducted 300 students of the Government Girls Science Secondary School, Jangebe, Zamfara State, have returned home unharmed. […]
Continue ReadingNigerian crook Obinwanne Okeke, who was arrested in the United States about 18 months ago, last week received a 10-year jail term. Also known as Invictus Obi, the 33-year-old had lived two lives. In the first, he posed as a picture of effort and intelligence, celebrated by Forbes as an influential entrepreneur. In the other, […]
Continue ReadingI was going to congratulate the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) for finally getting rid of his security chiefs. Together with them, he had authored Nigeria’s most insecure chapter since the civil war. The Boko Haram insurgency grew worse. Kidnapping became an industry. Armed robbery returned. Cattle herdsmen began to carry AK-47s, communication equipment, […]
Continue ReadingSadly, the United States last week became the laughing stock of the world. It is important to admit this: that the nation which has led the world in advancing the democratic principle for so long seemed to unravel, and on live television. In some fledgling democracies and failing states around the world, I am sure […]
Continue ReadingFor a while now, I have signed this column with the following note: “This column welcomes rebuttals from interested government officials.” And every week, my readers have asked privately—by phone, email, sms—“Are you receiving such rebuttals?” Of course not. If they wrote, I would publish. But they do not, because they know it is a […]
Continue ReadingFor your consideration ahead of the new year, I examine five prevailing myths. One: A saviour is coming For most of Nigeria’s 60 years as a so-called independent nation, we have thrived on the false notion of a liberator or saviour arriving to make everything alright. Two of such figures are prominent: Olusegun Obasanjo, who […]
Continue ReadingI do not know if the government of Muhammadu Buhari has noticed the crying question awaiting its attention: Who are Ogueri Ugochukwu Pascal and Olasehinde Micah? The government’s new Open Treasury Portal shows that late in 2019, it paid to the first man in 306 tranches, an astounding ₦1.6bn, and to the second in 34, ₦1.4bn. The payments are part […]
Continue ReadingIn a new move, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) last Monday installed a committee to sell off all assets recovered by the Federal Government. The idea would be straightforward, but there are screaming problems. First, the committee starts at a whopping meat market of 22 persons. Second, it comprises a multiplicity of government […]
Continue ReadingEvery Nigerian has a terrible police story. The disbanded rogue Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was only one of its elements, and it is fitting that it was buried by the #ENDSARS initiative of Nigeria youth last week. But what is at work in Nigeria is bigger than one movement and one moment of anger and […]
Continue ReadingThe Muhammadu Buhari government is demonstrating an admixture of bravado and nervousness. I offer three pieces of evidence from last week. One: Abubakar Malami, Attorney General and allegedly Minister of Justice, who appeared on Twitter to announce the repatriation of the $311 million to Nigeria in Abacha loot by the US and the Bailiwick of […]
Continue ReadingHello, Excellency!” “Hello Mr. President. It is always so good to hear that: Excellency. It is wonderful. People like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, they never call me that.” “It is not a problem, Excellency. I know you are very busy, Excellency. They said you wanted me to call you?” “Oh really, who? You know […]
Continue ReadingIn his book, “From Third World to First, The Singapore Story,” former Singapore leader Lee Kwan Yew (LKY) revealed how his country’s development miracle, including the forging of a nation out of a disparate assemblage of immigrants, was accomplished in one generation. It is a big book, nearly 700 pages long. But is a riveting, […]
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