In the 80s, ‘’resistance to oppression’’ governed the zeitgeist. Reggae music was hugely popular. It resonated with the yearnings of the people for freedom from autocracy, domination, and oppression. Reggae was the conduit for social expression; it was the euphonious channel for agitation and for resisting the ‘’sistem’’. The Mandators evoked the spirit of the times with the ‘’Crisis’’ album. The album had hits such as Rat Race and Inflation. Majek Fashek spoke for a generation with the album – Prisoner of Conscience. And Orits Williki with the album – Tribulation. There were many others in that league. There was…
Author: Fredrick Nwabufo
There seems to be a transitioning. A metamorphosis from the quotidian loan-driven articulations to investment-tailored pursuits and commitments. Nigeria has over successive administrations hypostasised borrowing in its bucket of foreign economic interests. These borrowings have overtime put a cosmic strain on government revenue. Nigeria’s external debt stands at over N49.85 trillion, and with about 73 percent of its earnings used for debt servicing. In June, the Debt Management Office (DMO) described Nigeria’s debt service-to-revenue ratio of 73.5 percent as ‘’unsustainable and a threat’’. The DMO said: “The country’s debt stock remains sustainable under these criteria, space has been reduced when…
In these parts, public office comes with boisterous carnivals, elevated expectations, thrills, and frills. The exigency, delicacy and sensitivity of this office is sometimes lost in bouts of revelries and in the pursuit of temporal nothings. It is an office where a few have made a good name for themselves; it is also a station where a multitude have come tumbling down from grace. Every administration since 1999 seems to have its own heroes and villains – depending on the leanings or dialectical disposition of the objurgator, disputant or interrogator. The classing of heroes and villains on disparate sides is…
Lately, no institution of government has been the object of derision, blackmail, and threats like the judiciary. This venerable and inviolable magisterial conservatory has been reduced to the jack-a-lent of ridicule, hate, and spite by those who are pursuing political profits through guerrilla means. How did we get here? In the past, the judiciary had a sacrality that citizens dare not violate or abuse with wild conjectures, fallacies, innuendos, and invective. The judiciary was like a place of worship, where due obeisance and respects were paid. It was like the holy of holies. Vicious attacks were reserved for the executive…
Plus ҫa change. Does anything ever change? Is there a fundamental immutability in the Nigerian liaison with Nigeria? Is the relationship between a Nigerian and Nigeria fated to be unamenable to change and congruence? Well, I think many Nigerians are by a very decent measure patriotic and consummately committed to fatherland. But while most statespersons are inclined to stay within the observatories and watch phenomena, a few in the obverse end, with bullhorns, attempt to overwhelm the cosmos of opinions with disturbing anti-nationalist tropes. It is concerning, as it should be for every Nigerian, the endorsement of the felony against humanity…
The current challenges, which are the corollaries of a bold policy to reposition Nigeria on the track of financial sustainability, health, and growth, cannot be understated. But there is a plan to address them. There has always been a plan. The abrogation of petrol subsidy was expected to come with some pangs; hence the federal government’s effort to effectively garrison measures to attenuate the concomitants. We must not allow the deeply disturbing rallying of gloom-ridden voices to obviate the eyes and minds of citizens from the Tinubu administration’s efforts to combat hunger and poverty levels. It will get better. But…
Hunger is violence. Many freaks, upheavals and misfortunes of history were by the fashioning of hunger. Hunger is a maximum ruler. It sets in motion inexorable forces of chaos and anarchy. The French Revolution had the spurring of hunger. In 1788, France was scourged by deleterious winter resulting in widespread famine. Citizens were seized by hunger. They starved as the famine ratcheted up its grip. The price of bread became unaffordable. Soon, riots broke out in some cities, including Paris, the country was broke, and by 1789, the revolution conjured by hunger, with the alliance of some concomitants, began. In Africa,…
Events in the past weeks betoken a pristine approach to Nigeria’s foreign policy utility. There are indications that the nation’s foreign policy plank will follow a clear and unconfused trajectory. And it is apparent that Nigeria will play a purposive role in the affairs of West Africa and Africa under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. A firm, decisive and progressive leadership at home, commands global attention and respect for the country. Essentially, a clear direction on the domestic front reflects on the utterly transactional and anarchical international front. Global or continental leadership, as it is with every other aspect of leadership,…
We must tread with circumspection. We must follow reason. Why are we inclined to misadventures? Why are we not having conversations on how the south-east can work with the federal government to improve the infrastructural standing of the zone, and how we can take advantage of the decentralisation of electricity; revive industries and inland ports? Why are we lost in a jive of the mundane, lamentations, finger-pointing, blame-shifting, and denial? It is concerning that a section of the south-east is not, in the immediate, prioritising needed public ingredients and development convenience for the zone. The dominating interest appears to be…
There is a new sheriff in town. One who is a stickler for excellence. One who sees, who listens, who superintends, who manages, and who executes. This sheriff does not take a nap on the shift. His judgment is swift; his decision measured and calculated; his process thorough, incisive, and decisive. Napping federal government agencies are suddenly angling to outdo one another in a show of performance. It is the Tinubu effect; the wand waking up dead matter. With President Tinubu, it is no longer governance by body language, but governance by bold language. It is clear to all that…
In his enriching leadership vade mecum, ‘’From Third World to First’’, the Singaporean enigma, Lee Kuan Yew wrote he knew that Singapore would not survive the pressing challenges of the time if citizens’ attitude to governance, communal responsibility, institutional constructs, and the country did not change. To break the conundrum, Kuan Yew embarked on a series of disciplined and seminal reforms — literally pulling water out of stone. Singapore is a petite country — with a population of about 2 million at the time of Kuan Yew and over 5 million as of 2021. However, the country is diverse, multireligious,…
To suggest that the advancement of any society chiefly hangs on the elements of homogeneity and lateral filial connections is a self-determining fallacy. Nature bubbles in divergence and eclecticism. The beauty and wonders of our world are by the fashioning of heterogenous intelligence. Man was not made to be culturally, socially, morphologically, and linguistically unipolar. So, in essence, Nigeria’s multiformity is not the dominating factor for its seeming ungovernability. Rather, it is the abuse and exploitation of differences; abnegation of civic duty, denuded understanding of citizenship, refusal to submit to the collective interest, native nationalism, and the absence of a…
At a time of topsy-turvy comes change. And from chaos comes order. President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a man destiny has prepared for Nigeria at this time. But his task will not be easy. Governing Nigeria is an invitation to toil. The road will be fraught with thistles and thorns; gallops and bumps, but he must keep going. Nigeria has always been divided along provincial contours. Citizens huddle together in sectional silos, protecting and defending the enclave, against the collective. Nationhood has remained a will-o-the-wisp. Claims of marginalisation, and sectional appropriation and expropriation by different groups have been a permanent deafening wail…
The post-election conversations have been a putrid salad of prejudices, recriminations, and elevated provincialism. Our wits, resolve, temperance, capacitance, and stability threshold as a nation are being tested, and they will be tested further in the months and years ahead. Our history is always ready ammunition to be dispatched in any ethnic combat in that ungoverned social media neighbourhood. Contending sides launch missiles from the war rooms with their own ‘’droppings’’ of history. I will not be a soundboard for those tiresome and unyielding conversations here. The duty of the citizen is to be a dispassionate arbiter, divining truth from untruth, and…
I will make this brief. Scapegoatism is the merchandise of selective outrage. At moments of uncertainty and chaos, ‘’pallbearers’’ are pencilled down to bear whatever guilt or blame for any presumed offence or crime. The 2023 governorship elections have been one of the most turbulent in Nigeria. The days leading to the elections, in particular, were tempestuous. Incendiary comments and threats by political knockabouts simmered into the elections. In the build-up to the Lagos governorship election, some itinerants from the mob crawling all over the ungoverned social media space threatened to upturn the political order in Lagos. Some made reckless…
Anger is a barren human emotion, vacant of logic, rhyme, and reason. It is the stuff of that uncritical, unthinking, and irrational section of the human interior. Anger does not follow thought, and thought does not follow anger. Anger is the mitochondrion of the ‘’mobs’’. Sadly, this anger is misplaced, misdirected and mis-catalysed. The animus seems inspired by primordial schmaltz and not anything altruistic. Anger of which chief aim is to exact vengeance cannot change society but bring doom upon it. I have been overwhelmed by concern over the heightened tension foisted on the nation partly by the declarations, imprudence, and miscues of…
The place of leadership in forging bonds of communality is the place of purpose and deliberateness. The leadership must be very deliberate in managing diversity and in fostering kinship among variegated people. Nation building cannot be left to chance or to the whim of anyone. There must be purposive plans and actions towards uniting the people. We cannot play possum about unity – most especially now. It has remained a reverie, and an elusive expedition for Nigeria. We yearn for it, or rather quibble about it, but we have not really applied ourselves to dismantling the iron curtains of ethnicity…
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo used to be a chimera. His influence was mythical yet sweeping. In the past, Nigeria was too small to contain his stature — as he dominated the horizons across Africa and beyond. He lived up to his legend of being a human Orisa. He is, perhaps, still one of the most respected leaders out of Africa. But Obasanjo’s influence within Nigeria appears to have ebbed over the years. His words seem to have lost lustre and his presence vacant of command. Perhaps, when a masquerade comes out to perform all the time, and sometimes without an…
When ignorance secures matrimony with hate, indoctrination, propaganda, and lies the result is the blood revelries in the south-east. The killings have persisted. Young, promising Igbo citizens, dissenters, and the well-off have become primary targets. It is like the zone is purging itself of everything good. It is emptying itself of all righteous values and desecrating sacerdotal traditions. How did we get here? Igbo youths have never been so disconnected from their elders. They are unruly, unbending to counsel and authority; angry and violent. The resident leadership failed. The elders failed. A generational disconnection spawned by egregiously deficient and rapacious…
In the beginning was a man who professed to be the unifier of Nigeria; he pledged to unite a sundered Nigeria; his campaign motif was ‘’One Nigeria’’, but under a blizzard of political uncertainty, he is retreating into a tribal silo. Why? Nigeria needs a leadership that can hold it together; consolidate on the existing welding efforts, and inspire hope, patriotism, oneness, and fellowship. It is true that over the years, various administrations have struggled with the challenge of harmonising disparate interests and managing dissensions. Every administration is faced with this challenge. But what really matters is the will and…
It must be their way or the highway to hell. These are intellectual indigents who have secured residence on different social media platforms. They maul and bludgeon anyone who differs from the herd. According to them, death is the penalty for differing. But this insidious mob can have their say; they cannot have their way. While Bola Ahmed Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has steadied his campaign on critical issues – economy, security, education, healthcare and the like – some other presidential candidates have been dutiful in advancing hate and fake news. It is dispiriting that…
What is in it for us? When it comes down to brass tacks, this is the question tugging at the heart of zonal political interests in Nigeria. The national integrants think in favour of group interest and protection. How will this government preserve our interest? Will this government be fair to us? Will this government secure our rights and freedoms? Are we going to have an equitable share of the ‘’national cake’’. It is only natural that humans seek self-preservation. Recently, the Arewa Joint Committee held a summit in Kaduna state where it invited the leading presidential candidates to unveil…
Peter Obi did not plan to run for president. If he did plan to run for president, he would not be freewheeling through endless tunnels of gaffes and inchoate ideas. But really, he did not plan to run for president. An accident happened. Peter Obi’s presidential bid is a freak of politics; an idea contrived for performance and political quota. His bid is perhaps only relevant for regional affirmation and for intimation of anger by a section of the youth. In 2019, Peter Obi lobbied to be the running mate of Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party…
Nigeria is a country that has been dependent on oil for much of its 62 years as an independent nation. However, it is by and large an agricultural nation. In fact, there are many who would say that oil has taken much focus away from agriculture. There have been many landmark policies and programs in agriculture over the years. In 1963, the blueprint was all about surplus extraction and export orientation. The year 1972 brought the National Accelerated Food Production Programme, a pillar of the then Gowon administration. There followed Operation Feed the Nation in 1976 by the Obasanjo administration,…
Atiku Abubakar’s campaign motif is vacant of imagination. His ‘One Nigeria campaign’ theme is also destitute of originality and sincerity. Personally, I feel insulted and trolled. And I feel plagiarised. I would explain why. In 2020, under the discordance of the secessionist agitation in the south-east, I began the ‘’One Nigeria’’ campaign, and adopted the sobriquet, ‘’Mr OneNigeria’’. This was born out of the necessity of the times. I wrote essays and did some publicity calling for peace, dialogue, and unity. I believe Nigeria faced its greatest threat yet at the time when the country was becoming ungovernable. I felt…
We, the Igbo, the Hausa, the Yoruba, the Fulani, the Ijaw, the Esan, the Urhobo – and all other ethnic nationalities — must cede our ethnic identities to the Nigerian identity. This does not imply abandoning our roots, culture and traditions but embracing an expansive identity for the survival of our country. Giving up the tribe means putting the interest of the nation first; it means acting on the philosophy of the monolithic whole as against group agenda; it means eschewing divisive utterances and actions; it means accenting our strengthens and areas of convergence rather than promoting discord and points…
Could this be the eclipsing of a coruscating star? Could this be the sectioning of a gadfly? Could this be the end of a political odyssey? Could this be the domestication of the fabled Lion of Ubima? Could this be Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi’s nadir? Amaechi’s political tapestry has been the craftwork of a benevolent fate. At 27, he was the secretary of the National Republican Convention in Ikwerre local government area of Rivers state between 1992 and 1994. He was speaker of the Rivers state house of assembly from 1999 to 2007, and governor from 2007 to 2015. Amaechi is,…
Who wants a mob rule? It is off-putting when a miscellany of threadbare youths taken up in hate and seduced by ignorance unpack threats of violence and curses on people who differ with them on their political choice. Nobody wants a mob to hover around them with a scythe over who they choose to support or who they prefer. Nobody fancies a mob rule except the mob. There is tyranny evidently effusive in the conduct of Peter Obi’s political soldiers. Tyranny of choice. If anyone supports any other candidate outside Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), then…
Could Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), be that unifier a sundered Nigeria needs? What are his antecedents as regards respect for diversity and sensitivity to inclusion? Well, as governor of Lagos, Tinubu had a diverse cabinet; in fact, he is reputed to be one of the few governors who appointed non-natives into state cabinets at the time – when it was unsexy to do so. Tinubu showed his expansiveness as governor of Lagos. And over the years, he has shown an aspect of himself as a Nigerian flag-waver. Tinubu cannot be put on trial for…
The convulsive tenor of the campaign season is bringing out the worst in us. Daggers are drawn, tempers are inflamed; relationships are tested, and our differences are hyperboled. The 2023 presidential election is shaping up to be a tribal contest. Political fandom seems to be built around ethnic allegiance, and not necessarily on leadership stuff. Statesmen have become tribesmen, and nationalists have become tribalists. We will be tested on all sides. It is in this capricious season that our belief in and commitment to Nigeria will be tested. It is at this time, we will look at ourselves in the…
