US President Donald Trump may have lost re-election but he would be escorted out of the White House on Tuesday night with a special prize: Africa’s worst friend in modern times. Not that it matters to Trump one way or the other. We can only hope that after four years of spite, insults and hostilities, he might yet, in a fleeting moment of sanity, ask himself whether going out of his way to annoy or denigrate the continent was worth all the trouble. Trump had a love affair with many parts of Africa, especially among young aspirationals through his books…
Author: Azu Ishiekwene
You cannot inspect the wreckage of 2020 closely without seeing the rubble of spectacularly failed forecasts by reputable seers. I’ve seen, in many forums, fans of renowned predictors trying very hard to defend the reputation of a number of these seers against the onslaught of mocking videos showing just how wide off the mark were their predictions for last year. There’s no need to fuss. And I’m pleased that not one of the high-profile seers involved has, so far, tried to make any excuses or to defend themselves. There’s nothing to defend, really, other than to swallow the humble pie,…
It’s true that Coronavirus is not among the top five most deadly diseases in Africa today. But it’s also correct that at this time, we know far less about the COVID-19 pandemic than we know about malaria, diarrhoeal diseases, Ischaemic heart diseases, meningitis, tuberculosis, or HIV/AIDS. Yet, we’re fooling around with COVID-19 and making convenient excuses as if ignorance or malicious defiance is a remedy. I’ve been a fool, too. When the virus was first announced in 2020, I thumped my nose at it. I argued that anyone who can survive the multitude of diseases in this country – from…
If we could cast a vote in the December 8 presidential election in Ghana, President Nana Akufo-Addo, would have won re-election by miles. Nigerians love him to bits. He talks a good game. In the first two years or more of his presidency, I remember a number of videos shared with me on the Akufo-Addo promise. On a tour of the US, he met with the conference of US governors and awed with his presentation. On another occasion, he wowed French President Emmanuel Macron with his speech on “Ghana Beyond Aid”. That speech, which has chalked over three and a…
I first met him after the 2003 election, which his candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, lost. I was then Editor of PUNCH and Sam Nda-Isaiah, was founding member and Publicity Secretary of The Buhari Organisation (TBO). He came to see me about the coverage of Buhari, which obviously displeased him. He barged into my office, flinging the door wide open, before I had time to figure out if he even knocked. His voice preceded him, booming over the office partition and giving my secretary no chance to announce his presence. “Azu,” he pulled a seat, “you people are not being fair…
When the news of the death of Diego Maradona broke, I was in a friend’s office. Our initial spontaneous reaction was sorrow and regret. And then we drifted, almost as if we had rehearsed it, to the next thing: who is football’s all-time greatest? Maradona or Pele? My friend wasted no time is declaring that for him, it is and always will be Maradona. He spoke about the Argentine’s prodigious talent, talked about his imagination and gushed, above all, about his artistry and genius. Maradona announced himself on the world stage with the World Youth Championship in 1979, where he…
That the slain Borno farmers did not get military clearance is an inconvenient truth, but the real error of judgement was taking the government at its word. In his inaugural speech on May 29, 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the military chiefs – the same military chiefs there today – to relocate to the Northeast, the main theatre in the war on Boko Haram. The previous government had done poorly on security and Buhari said the only way to take the country back from the terrorists and military authorities who deployed troops to fight with bare hands while diverting money…
I have known the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, for a long time, I think. Before I got close, I was first drawn to him when he was chief of staff to former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, even though I had known him earlier at the Nigerian Airports Authority. But my interest grew from knowing to fascination and from fascination to respect when Mohammed became National Publicity Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria, a legacy party of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). In that position, which he held for many years and after…
The saying that a prophet is not appreciated at home may well be referring to former Ghanaian president, Jerry Rawlings, who died last Thursday from COVID-19 related complications, three weeks after his mother was buried. Ghana is in seven days of mourning, but Nigeria is crying more than the bereaved. Among Nigeria’s political elite, there has been a “condolence contest.” And among the wider public, the outpouring of grief and tribute on social media makes Ghana look like Rawlings’ distant second home. Rawlings’ life was a big deal in Nigeria. A very big deal. He was a regular presence in…
I suspected the pregnancy will not be carried to full term and now, it’s playing out. Even before the US electoral monster conceived by President Donald J. Trump was weaned, a few African countries are already taking delivery of their own premature electoral monster babies. We saw that in Mali a few months ago when the military cited fraudulent elections as the reason for toppling President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, leaving the regional body, ECOWAS, confused and stranded. Alpha Conde followed in Guinea by manoeuvring himself in place for a third term presidency. Tanzania is the latest theatre. While we were…
At the beginning, I was tempted to think of the author as a reluctant memoirist. Hon. Justice Sunday Akinola Akintan says his two greatest motivations for writing Reminiscences: My Journey Through Life are 1) to fortify the slender repertoire of written records in Yorubaland and 2) to heed the counsel of famous lawyer T.O.S. Benson that the only way for a man to avoid being buried with a life’s worth of library is for him to write a book before he dies. Reminiscences: My Journey Through Life is not an autobiography and should not be so mistaken. Yet, in six…
If Donald J. Trump were president of Wakanda on the eve of an election, that country would have received several warnings from the US State Department on the need for free and fair polls, and the necessity for all parties to play by the rules. But what is playing by the rules if parties will not accept an orderly transfer of power? During two recent off-cycle state elections in the south of Nigeria, for example, the US Embassy threatened to invoke visa restrictions on candidates, agents or security officials who impede the electoral process. It was not an empty threat…
It was hard to keep up with the torrent of posts as the power of social media was deployed in all its ferocity for good and evil. Through it all though, one thing was constant on my mind on Tuesday night: the images of vulnerable, distressed youths fighting for their lives. You couldn’t make up the chaos, if you tried. How did Lagos, a city of refuge, become a shooting range against defenceless young people waving the flag and singing the anthem? How was it within the powers of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to declare a curfew published within hours of…
You’ll have to go back nearly a decade to find anything resembling what has been happening across the country in the last one week. Back then, civil society deeply offended by trillions of naira stolen by government officials and campaign donors to the ruling party in the name of petrol subsidy mounted protests that rocked the country and nearly brought President Goodluck Jonathan’s government to its knees. As it turned out, nearly didn’t kill that bird. It, however, triggered #BringBackOurGirls, which sent waves of protests, as far away as the US White House, against the cavalier way that Jonathan’s government…
A major headliner last week was the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, calling for restructuring. He didn’t just call for it: he also sprang a surprise. According to news reports, he warned that if nothing was done to restructure, the country might break up, even though he didn’t pray for it to happen. You had to read it twice and pinch yourself to believe that it was Adeboye. It was like the Pope giving a hint that the Church could lose its female members if it didn’t amend the Code of Canon or…
The ruling of a Lagos High Court last week that residents in estates cannot be forced to pay levies and dues set off a frenzy of conversation especially among middle-class residents who for years think they have been unfairly exploited by association managers. Interestingly, it was a private company, Megawatts Nigeria Limited, that sued the registered trustees of Gbagada Phase II Residents’ Association, on grounds that it is not a member of the association even though it is based there. The company also argued that it is wrong for any demands to be made on it because it is responsible…
It was not supposed to end this way. Like the promo of a mismatch between David and Goliath, many believed, with reasons, that Governor Godwin Obaseki would be beaten to a pulp. To make matters worse, Obaseki was not just up against one Goliath. He was taking on Goliath Plus, an array of modern and ancient forces comprising the ecclesiastical armies of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu and the revolutionary guard led by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. Obaseki’s dilemma was highlighted in a pre-election interview which Oshiomhole granted Channels TV. When the comrade was asked his response to Obaseki’s threat to end his…
It couldn’t get worse. Like many family feuds, offence festered as quickly as affection grew. In this case, though, there was some hope that the feuding parties had too much going for them to risk losing all. And for what? Comrade Adams Oshiomhole was the common glue. A decorated unionist and two-term governor of Edo State, Oshiomhole once made trenches his home. He led the fight to dislodge the principalities of godfather politics embodied at the time by Tony Anenih, a man famous for bringing his own shade wherever trouble offered no trees. Oshiomhole humiliated Anenih and degraded the Peoples…
I’m not sure what his daytime job is, but if there was ever a politician permanently parked on social media that politician is Dino Daniel Melaye. He was in the Senate and tried to contest as governor of Kogi State. Before that, he was a member of the House of Representatives; before that, he was the kingpin of his school’s students’ union; and later, Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council on Youths, under President Olusegun Obasanjo. But for some reason, we love to think of and remember him as a clown. Not just any clown, but one with credentials. On…
Three years ago, it was a war spiced with condiments and paste over a dish of grain. Nigeria’s Information Minister Lai Mohammed was answering a question by CNN’s Richard Quest about who makes the tastiest jollof rice in West Africa. But Mohammed heard the question wrong. He thought Quest’s question was about the origin of jollof rice and answered Senegal. The minister had scarcely finished answering when social media began to steam over the mistaken answer that Senegalese jollof rice was tastier than Nigeria’s. The avatars treated it as nothing less than culinary high treason. The minister corrected himself, but…
The headlines, especially in the Western press, suggest that Africa is back again in the news for the wrong reasons. Misery has really never been too far away, but in the last few years foreign journalists looking for stories of deaths, diseases and destruction on the continent have had to find another hobby, the trendiest of which is Trumpoline, a riveting show from the White House. With violent conflicts receding, more orderly transfer of power, better business climate and growing prosperity, Africa has been rising. And then Mali happened. As of the time of writing, efforts by the 15-member sub-regional…
Nine months after the curtains were drawn on the Bayelsa governorship polls, the electorate still can’t be too sure who they voted for or who will be governor. Lawyers have become the new voters and courts the new electoral umpires, yet neither the lawyers nor the courts can say exactly where all this would lead or swear that they are in control of the outcome. It appears that politicians who never accept defeat have found other means to have elections without end, until they win and vanquish the loser. Bayelsa has never been a “progressive” state since the return to…
From the way he addressed the letter, you could almost guess that he had some difficulty writing it, but Olusegun Obasanjo being Olusegun Obasanjo, he wrote it anyway. Usually, condolence letters are addressed to the bereaved family, while others could be in copy. But former President Obasanjo chose, instead, to indulge his pet peeve his own way. He sent his condolence letter on the passing of Buruji Kashamu to Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, hoping that somehow, the family will get the message. Well, thanks to social media, not only Kashamu’s family, but the wider public also read Obasanjo’s letter to…
I’ve been amused by the strenuous efforts to explain exactly what Mamman Daura, President Muhammadu Buhari’s nephew, meant or did not mean when he said last week that rotating the Presidency was no longer useful. I thought what he told the BBC Hausa service, which has existed for decades without any translation problems, was clear enough: When the time comes, the next president should be chosen on merit, not on a “turn-by-turn” arrangement. But the statement caught fire. Afenifere said it was Buhari giving a hint through his nephew that the North may wangle a Northerner as the next president.…
The headline of the article in that edition of Sunday Times seemed audacious: It was all caps and entitled, “Youth with the world at his feet,” published 53 years ago, when I was two. It was not about me, of course. It was about Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi, who at 27, was already Secretary-General of the International Students Organisation (ISO), a body comparable in its prime and transcendence to the Internet of Things, the modern-day religion of Mark Zuckerberg. Outside the context of that time (August 13, 1967) the Sunday Times headline may not only appear audacious, but it would also…
The news last week of the deaths of two young people, Tolulope Arotile and Fahim Saleh (Gokada entrepreneur) whose paths may never have crossed but who nevertheless shared the same kindred spirit of adventure, left me in a daze. Both died in different places and under different circumstances, but you only need to look a bit closer to see the dots connecting the tragedies. Like candles in the wind, as Elton John would say, they burned out before their legend ever did. Let’s start from home, with Arotile. I don’t know which one got me more confused – the first…
Those who opposed the creation of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) 20 years ago must be having a good laugh now. Their biggest concern at the time was that creating another bureaucracy on top of the existing pile of corrupt bureaucracies would serve politicians, not the people in whose name this additional layer was being created. But those who thought otherwise had strong arguments, too. The turmoil in the South-South following the Ogoni crisis and the murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa by the government of General Sani Abacha, had heightened demands for “resource control” in the region. The crisis needed…
After three and a half years of his presidency, US President Donald Trump appears to have exhausted all surprises in the bag, except, of course, the next one. And that next one could be the big one: Will Trump leave the White House if he loses the Presidency on November 3? Discussions about it first started in hushed tones and offline chats. But as poll after poll predicted a bleak future for Trump, discussions about his reaction to a possible defeat were forced into the open. The tide might yet change. As it stands today, however, things are not going…
National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has very strong enemies and a few of them would not wait for him to die before burying him. As soon as there were indications last week that President Muhammadu Buhari had withdrawn support for APC Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the floodgate of attacks opened. Apart from its obvious collateral damage, Oshiomhole’s ouster was scrutinized and interpreted for the worst it could mean politically. It has since been widely celebrated as the ultimate proof that the relationship between Buhari and Tinubu has broken down irretrievably. Tinubu, not Oshiomhole,…
I goofed, but may be just a little because this is not how the story ends. In January, I predicted that the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, and his protege and Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, would drag themselves to the brink, but that just when everyone thinks they’ll fall off the edge, they would stop to avoid mutually assured destruction. They got to the brink all right, but just when the APC primaries screening committee headed by one Jonathan Ayuba, a professor of history at the Nasarawa State University, pushed Obaseki over the edge,…
