As the Governorship election unfolded in Kogi State on November 11, residents of Magongo in Ogori-Magongo area of the State were in for a rude shock. While they were still queuing up for accreditation and voting, results of the elections, which showed a landslide victory for the ruling All Progressives Congress, mysteriously appeared. The residents duly gave It a protest, during which they accused the APC and INEC for collusion and complicity to deny them of their choice. Dino Melaye the PDP candidate during the election, may have gained notoriety for being a rablerouser despite previous stints in both chambers…
Author: Kenechukwu Obiezu
The Abacha loot readily reminds increasingly poor Nigerians of their past, but especially of the relentless avarice of those who have led them at different times. In many respects, Nigeria appears to be a plundered country. Whether it is money, historical artifacts or the intangibles that ground proper and dignified human existence, many things have been taken away from Nigerians. If foreigners are go blame for the priceless cultural artifacts taken to Europe during the colonial era, Nigerians themselves are to blame for the dizzying amount of public funds stolen from the country and stashed away in other countries. In…
It is unacceptable, and even scandalous that Nigeria, a country where women have always stood tall, and continue to play such critical roles, has been ranked the sixteenth unsafest country for women. Where do Nigerian women rank in the grand scheme of things? Certainly, the country of Tobi Amusan, Chimamanda Adichie, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Hilda Baci, should have enough space for women to thrive? No? According to the 2023 Women,Peace and Security (WPS) Index report,Nigeria ranks as the sixteenth most unsafe country for women in the world. If this is not a scandal, then pray what is? The odds stacked against…
The apple does not fall far from the tree, it appears. In Kano State, this timeless idiom is proving spectacularly true. Only recently, the state government bid farewell to about 1000 indigenes of the state who were going to India and Uganda for their post graduate education. It continues a laudable legacy which started under Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, a two-term former Governor of the State whose strides in education will not be forgotten in a hurry. It Is really no surprise that like Kwankwaso, Abba Kabir, the present governor is toeing the line of his predecessor and mentor. During the…
Half measures. Band-Aids. Papers over cracks. One can describe Nigeria’s attempt at poverty eradication in many ways and still have a lot left in the tank. What won’t Nigeria give to eradicate poverty? A monstrous problem, entire budgets and even generations have been guzzled up in an attempt to eradicate it. Successive administrations have thrown everything but the kitchen sink at the problem, or so they said, but the problem it has persisted. Poverty in Nigeria has become an affliction as well as a symptom. An affliction many years in the making. A symptom that has manifested for many years.…
In Gaza, Palestine, war continues to rage between Israel and Hamas with catastrophic consequences for children and conscience. On October 7,2023, Hamas militants broke into Israel from its Southern frontier, slaughtering hundreds and abducting hundreds more. At the end of the operation, more than 1400 Israelis lay dead with about 200 abducted and taken into Gaza by the militants. The attack which has generated an outpouring of support and sympathy the world over has provoked Israel into action. It was in furtherance of an age-old conflict between Israel and Palestine. It has also provoked Israel into responding with a bombardment…
Nigeria’s seemingly unstoppable guillotine of mob justice has claimed yet another victim with the brutal killing of Mr. Fwinbe Thomas Gofwan by a mob in Jos for stealing a car he owned, by all accounts. In Nigeria, the mob that has shown itself lurking and lethal in Sokoto State, the Federal Capital Territory, as well as Delta State usually moves with such lightening ferocity whenever there is a sacrifice to be made. In May 2022, Deborah Samuel, a student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, had life brutally snuffed out of her by a mob in the state…
An open letter to the Inspector General of Police on the gruesome killing of Mr. Fwimbe Thomas: Too many beasts for a sane society. Sir, On Wednesday, September 27th 2023, Mr. Fwimbe Thomas, an old student of the prestigious College of St. Joseph(CSJ) Vom, in Plateau State, was killed by a mob in Jos, the Plateau State capital. There are conflicting reports, but the most authentic version is that of his brother, who said in a Facebook post that Fwimbe was mistaken for a thief, and when a rendition of“ thief, thief,” rent the air around Bali junction in Jos,…
The Presidential Election Petition Court sitting in Abuja delivered its eagerly awaited judgment on Wednesday, September 6, 2023. In affirming the victory of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the February 25, 2023 elections, it duly delivered a rude shock to those who expected a different outcome. Nigerians are no strangers to seismic shocks. On personal and national level, many Nigerians have lived things that no one should fairly have to live in a thousand life times. Nigerians have seen it all: from absolutely shocking and senseless depredations visited on public funds to heinous terrorist attacks visited on families and their…
With the appointment of Dr. Tahir Mamman,SAN as Nigeria’s minister of education, never in the history of Nigeria has a round peg been so fittingly rounded into a round hole. In a country of misfits, misfiring tailors and hideous sartorial choices, the appointment of Tahir Mamman SAN as Nigeria’s minister of Education is a masterstroke. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s presidency may reek of illegitimacy for many Nigerians as they eagerly await the September verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Court, but while the court decides, the man himself continues to show that he has a nose for the right people,…
Cutting The Cost Of Governance In Nigeria As governments in Nigeria take shape, it is reward season for those whose loyalty was tested and confirmed in the furnace of Nigeria’s treacherous electoral system between February and March. With those who passed this test eager to retain the services of those who helped them pass preparatory to future elections, there has been so much lobbying for political appointments. The lobbying never really ends. There have been conflicts and there would be conflicts as cabinets around the country take shape to set in motion the business of little governance and no little…
Nigeria’s ruling party, the All Progressives Congress, has named Umar Abdullahi Ganduje, the former governor of Kano State as its new national Chiarman. Ganduje would have been just another appointment was he not coming to the post on the back of an uninspiring stint ad governor of Kano State which featured an embarrassing scandal that continues to be dredged up each time his name is mentioned. The All Progressives Congress appears to have a particularly short shrift for public opinion or optics. Many ranking members or the party reek of one scandal or another. President Tinubu himself came to office…
Nigeria is in a season of political appointments and turmoil. As new governments take shape in many states and the federal level, there is a consensus among Nigerians that those appointed into public office will determine whether those who appointed them will sail or sink. Nigeria has always been plagued by a failure of leadership since 1999. Following decades of disruptive military regimes, many of those who got into public office in the ensuing years largely failed to cover themselves in glory. On May 29,Bola Ahmed Tinubu was sworn in as Nigeria’s 16th president, having controversially own keenly contested elections…
Nigerians know a thing or two about what it really means to have a close shave with law enforcement. In 2020,it was reactions from the manhandling of a man in Sapele, Delta State that triggered the unprecedented wave of protests which rocked Nigeria to its core. Since Nigeria returned to the path of democracy in 1999, there have been many instances of extrajudicial killing of Nigerians by agents of the state. Unfortunately, many of these killings have gone unpunished. It speaks volumes about a situation that has become a nightmare for human rights that more than three years after innocent…
It was only by whiskers that a man who has sentenced many to death during the cause of an illustrious judicial career escaped death himself in circumstances that would have been amusing were they not so alarming. On Wednesday, July 12, 2023, while in his office apparently attending to some urgent administrative duties, a section of the High Court Complex in Ekiti collapsed sending the Chief Judge, Oyewole Adeyeye, to the hospital. In the aftermath of the shocking incident, the Nigeria Bar Association which is the umbrella body of lawyers in Nigeria released a statement. Many Nigerians also weighed in.…
The raging conflicts in Ukraine and Sudan forcefully remind the world that peace is the only path to progress, and war is never an option. As the war in Ukraine hit the 500-day mark recently, it was confirmed that about 9000 persons had been killed, including many children with properties worth billions of dollars destroyed. Add the tumult within Ukraine to the surge in global food prices and the upheavals many lives have experienced since the war began, and the true cost of the war would seem unquantifiable. In Sudan, two military generals are fighting for the soul of the…
It would always be unfair to pin the hopes of an entire people on one man’s shoulders. But many times, life throws up heroes just for those occasions. The moment Muhammadu Buhari signed out of office as Nigeria’s fifteenth president on May 29, 2023,the people of Southern Kaduna breathed a sigh of relief, and it was not just because Bola Ahmed Tinubu came into office. The palpable relief was also because Buhari’s exit meant the exit of Nasir El-Rufai who had been in power in Kaduna for eight years. Under Buhari and El-Rufai, the security situation in Kaduna State, which…
The two-day Israeli-led operation in the Jenin Refugee camp which killed about twelve people harshly laid bare the fault lines and friction that abound in the Middle East. In 1948, as the world picked up pieces from the ashes of World War 2, the Jews who were dealt a particularly heavy hand established the Independent state of Israel. To establish this state, however, the Jews, six million of whom perished during the calamitous World War 2, laid claims to vast swathes of land which had earlier been occupied by Palestinians. Israel, unimaginably persecuted themselves, established the state of Israel in…
Can Bola Tinubu Clean The Augean Stable The recent suspension of the Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele by President Tinubu and the announcement that the activities of Nigeria’s apex bank under his watch will be probed was an attempt at house cleaning which must be extensive and sustainable. For a long time, there was a distinct sense that the days of Mr. Godwin Emefiele Nigeria’s Central Bank Governor was numbered. Indeed, early this year, as critical elections bore down on the country, there was a bit of uncertainty and even anxiety whether he would be arrested by men of the…
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has tapped George Akume a former Governor of Benue State to be the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. Can his appointment heal the festering wounds in the state? In 2015, Benue State in Nigeria’s North central was one of those states where Muhammadu Buhari stormed to victory to loosen the hold of the People’s Democratic Party over the country. Indeed, the decision of a state that had been a traditional PDP stronghold was one of the clearest messages to the incumbent Goodluck Jonathan. However, despite overwhelming good will, the state’s script was written with…
The brouhaha surrounding the supposed take-off of Nigeria Air appeared to be a desperate attempt to hoodwink an entire country. In the “Giant of Africa” the more you look is obviously the less you see. In a country where reptiles and rodents have been known to chew up millions of Naira in public funds with mysterious fire outbreaks targeting key government offices and cleaning up the rest, anything is possible and has indeed become possible. On May 26, 2023,as the iron curtains of time and transience prepared to cast his eight-year-long administration into the dark rooms of history, the Muhammadu…
Hilda Baci stirs Nigeria’s melting pot: Between May 11 and May 15 , celebrated Nigerian chef Hilda Baci whipped Nigerians into a frenzy as Nigerians shed their prejudices and forgot their problems to gather round her pot and watch her cook for over 100 hours and break a record in the process. It is not exactly clear when the 27-year-old from Akwa-Ibom decided to go for an almost impossible feat. But some years ago, she became convinced she could somehow break the world record for the longest cooking time of 87 hours set by an Indian Chef Lata Tondon. When…
Mangu attack: The killers who gave Nigerians a breather during the 2023 general elections have since returned with a vengeance, seemingly eager to make up for lost time .They leave a bloodied nation on the brink. On Tuesday, May 16, 2023,gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen attacked two communities in Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State. Official figures of death have since leaped above eighty-five with a heartrending search still ongoing for missing persons. Since 2001 when Jos,the otherwise scenic Plateau State capital, erupted in an orgy of blood and gore, the state has remained a haunted ground. Occasionally,violence…
The people of Kaduna State have been dealt an incredibly difficult hand in the eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari’s presidency. As President Muhammadu Buhari prepares to leave office on May 29,a defining legacy of his eight-year-long rule is the extent to which insecurity has pummeled Nigerians. From within the Federal Capital Territory to Buhari’s native state of Katsina to Borno,Yobe, Zamfara,Kaduna, Benue and Niger states, determined killers have defiantly exposed how soft Nigeria’s underbelly is. In leaving vulnerable communities criminally exposed to ruthless killers, the Nigerian State under Buhari has continued to take a rather bizarre gamble on the…
For Babayemi Olaniyan,a young Nigerian lawyer and philanthropist, recognition keeps coming from far and near. The consummate legal practitioner whose heart for the distressed and disadvantaged is well-known has built a school for poor children in Nasarawa State as well as feted prisoners, street cleaners ,teachers and the sick within the Federal Capital Territory. On Wednesday, 26th April 2023, Olaniyan who is the Lead Partner of Lehi Attorneys, was recognized by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) at its 5th Anniversary held at the state house, Abuja for his role in promoting Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria. Mr…
The decisions to name key state projects after their mother and wife respectively marks David Umahi and Nyesom Wike as champions of cronyism. In Nigeria’s convoluted political space, there is always something to be done or said to keep conversations going. Every day, those who consider politics their forte congregate to learn something new or do something new about themselves or the political space. In Nigeria’s political space where novelty still manages to somehow reel of obnoxiousness and notoriety, there are none more prominent in the past eight years than Nyesom Wike,the outgoing governor of Rivers State,and David Umahi,the outgoing…
The discovery of the lifeless body of Dons Udeh, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance(APGA) in the just concluded governorship in Enugu State is yet another cadaver in Nigeria’s macabre museum of political assassinations. As the 2023 general elections approached in Nigeria, tension gripped Enugu, particularly the Ebeano political confraternity. The source of the tension was Peter Obi. His Labour Party (LP) and the boisterous Obi-dient movement derided as structure-less suddenly threatened the power structures of the “coal city.” By the time the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections overwhelming won by the Labour Party neared,…
Around the country, a wave of kidnapping and violent criminal attacks signal a return to the past, to further confirm that the recent lull was only a false sense of security. In Zamfara State in northwest Nigeria, more than 85 people were recently kidnapped in Tsafe Local Government Area of the State. In Benue State in North Central, Samuel Ortom, the State Governor, recently confirmed that 18 of the 23 local government areas in his state are under siege by a criminal militia. In Nasarawa State, a businessman was kidnapped and killed, while Professor Onje Gye-Wado a former deputy governor…
The Commandant General (CG), of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Dr Ahmed Abubakar Audi, has sympathised with families and friends of the two personnel ambushed and killed at Umuolulo, Obiangwu Community, Ngor Okpala Local Government Area (LGA) of lmo state. The attack took place on Monday 27th January 2023, while the officers were on official duty to protect Critical Assets and Infrastructures in the state. The CG described the death of Assistant Superintendent of Corps I (ASCI) Onwuzuruike Sixtus and Corps Assistant I (CA I) Simon Simon alongside two other civilians as saddening and unfortunate. He prayed…
Oyibo Victor Chukwu, who was the candidate of the Labour Party(LP) for the Enugu East Senatorial District was killed three days before the election of February 25. His death has opened old wounds. Nigeria’s return to democracy was finally confirmed on May 29, 1999, when Olusegun Obasanjo was sworn in as president. A new president, a new constitution, a new National Assembly, new governors and a revitalised democracy were expected to give fresh impetus to a country that had stalled under corrupt military regimes. The chaotic presidential election of 1993 which saw the death of M.K.O Abiola, the winner, and…
