In many States of the Federation, the story is the same: State governors treat Local Governments as appendages and not the independent third tier of government that the 1999 Constitution (as amended) proposes them to be. The three tiers of government in the awkward Federal system that we operate are the Federal, State and Local Governments, each of which are supposed to be independent of each other, the head of which is supposed to wield executive powers; perhaps, it is to emphasize this fact that many of us still affix the needless “Executive” to presidents and governors! Thus we have…
Author: Bola Bolawole
The trending news in Lagos right now is the list of commissioner-nominees that the governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, sent to the state House of Assembly for confirmation – 39 in all – out of which the House approved 22 but rejected 17, six of them sitting Commissioners being nominated to return for second term like the governor. Since 1999 when the Fourth Republic kicked off, this is the first time that such an ominous occurrence will happen in Lagos, which is usually a one-party state, so to say. In a 40-member State House of Assembly, a whopping 38 are members of…
If you ask many Nigerians the name of their local government chairman, they will most likely not know. I, for one, do not know mine. Maybe you can say it is because I do not reside at home (Owo in Ondo state) but live and work far away from home (in Lagos state). Even at that, I do not know the name of the local government chairman where I live in Lagos (Agege) or the one of Ikeja (where my office is) or of Agboyi/Alapere, Ketu where I have my church. Undue emphasis is placed on the Federal Government while…
Now that the Ministers are empanelled… On Monday, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu welcomed 45 out of 48 Ministers, with just three more to complete his bloated cabinet. Hours before their inauguration, some Ministers-designate swapped offices. Should we call that cabinet reshuffle or what? Or is it another sign of the ill-preparedness of the president to govern, as some critics have suggested? While it is damn too early to categorically affirm such a thing, the morning, as they say, shows the day. So, the president must watch it. He needs to put his acts together. Too many unforced errors make even…
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has assigned portfolios to his motley crowd of Ministers. Close to 50 Ministers in a depressed economy calls for jeers, not cheers. This is not to mention the plethora of advisers and assistants, each of them with their own retinue of aides, all with tantalizing perquisites of office. One is bound to query whether, truly, this economy is depressed. The crowd of Ministers, Advisers and Assistants is one thing; their suitability for assigned portfolios is another. I also thought we were told that Tinubu will not appoint Ministers of State; how come they have now reared…
Which one is more appropriate: To say that I am in support of the South West Development Commission Bill introduced to the Senate penultimate week by Senator Justus Olugbenga Daniel (Gbenga Daniel aka OGD) former two-term governor of Ogun state and senator representing Ogun East in the current 10th National Assembly, or to say I am “in defence” of the bill? The same bill was concurrently sponsored in the House of Representatives by Hon. Olufemi Fakeye and 80 others. It is instructive that all the senators from the Southwest were co-sponsors of the OGD bill. “I am in support” will…
Let us start our discussion today by considering a few quotes. “Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but right or wrong, our country!” – Stephen Decatur. “My country, right or wrong” has gone down in history as an expression of patriotism but what is patriotism? Patriotism is defined as the quality of being patriotic; devotion to and vigorous support for one’s country. Put in another way, it is the love for or devotion to one’s country, if I may add, with unquestioning submission. This must have been what propelled a one-time…
Last week, we ended the first part of this treatise with the question whether Nigerians think the right thing to do is to go back to Egypt, as it were, because of the hardship occasioned by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s policies of “fuel subsidy is gone” and the floating (devaluation) of the Naira. “Going back to Egypt” here means being nostalgic, so soon, about the Muhammadu Buhari ruinous administration or even of the clueless, corrupt and incompetent Goodluck Azikiwe Ebele Jonathan administration before it. Life under those regimes appear today as “better” than what we are experiencing under Tinubu because…
A “wind of change” is blowing across Africa but this time around, it is not the same wind of change that erstwhile British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, spoke about – the positive wind of change blowing away colonial rule and ushering in Independence to the African colonies of Britain. Macmillan made his famous speech to the parliament of apartheid South Africa on 3rd February, 1960. The current wind of change sweeping across Africa, however, is that of military coup d’etat overthrowing so-to-say democratically-elected African governments and returning to power those that Samuel Edward Finer had referred to as the men…
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back at you” – Friedrich Nietzsche. Comrade Yinka Odumakin wrote a book with the above title in which he lambasted former President Oluseegun Obasanjo as the hunter who became the hunted. Ironically, Obasanjo, whose administration (1999 – 2007) birthed both the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC) on 29 September, 2000 and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on 12 December, 2002, later became the butt…
I received the material you are about to read from a beloved first cousin of mine, Architect Akintunde (Tunde) Imolehin way before the inauguration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as president. Titled “ASIWAJU: 10 Things before May 29”, I cannot actually say why I did not print it before Tinubu’s inauguration since the “10 things” listed therein were meant as a guide or advice to the president. But some writings are best enjoyed posteriori than a priori. I enjoy reading old news reports and analyses and then amuse myself with how far away from the point many of them turned…
Our elders have a saying, to wit, that once hunger is removed from poverty, what is left is manageable. Another way of saying that is: Once hunger enters a stomach, nothing else can find its way there! Little wonder, then, that the Jamaican reggae superstar, Bob Nestar Marley, crooned that a hungry man is an angry man. Nigerians in their millions, thus, must be angry as we speak because there is hunger in the land. This must have been what informed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s declaration, last week, of a state of emergency over food shortages and rising cost of…
Penultimate Wednesday, 5th July, 2023, all roads led to Chrisland University, Abeokuta as my friend and brother, Prof. Babafemi Adesina Badejo, delivered his inaugural lecture as Professor of Political Science and International Relations. Badejo’s inaugural lecture stood out for at least two reasons: It was the first in the university founded in 2015 and the topic was just one word, “Interests”. Quite captivating and intriguing, even as it was profound and illuminating! Starting out from Lagos early that morning, I chose to go through the Lagos-Ibadan expressway despite the gridlock associated with that road whose unending construction, which reportedly started…
It is often said that crime, criminal activities and criminals are one or two steps ahead of the law, law enforcement and law enforcement agents or agencies. So, the latter often have to engage in catching up with the former. Everyone admits that prevention is better than cure and to be proactive is far better and less expensive than shutting the manger after the horse has bolted; but technology now appears a two-edged sword that is not making the fight against crime any easier. A recent example is the education sector where the scourge of examination malpractice has assumed a…
For the first time since Independence in 1960, Nigeria’s economy expanded slower than its population between 2015 and 2020. Nigeria’s GDP per capita declined by 0.02 per cent, 4.16 per cent and 1.78 in 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively; in 2018, 2019 and 2020, it declined by 0.68, 0.38 and 4.57 per cent respectively. Nigeria’s annual GDP growth rate also declined from 6.22 in 2014 to 3.10 in 2022. Under Buhari, Nigeria’s economy fell into recession twice.The exchange rate of Naira to US dollar in 2015 was N197 but today the rate on the black market where most Nigerians source…
The allegations – or do we call them the road to prosperity – that human rights activist and legal luminary, Comrade Femi Falana, has forcefully pushed into the public domain in the past one or two weeks are too weighty to be ignored by the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration. It is like you have a problem and someone says not just that “I have a solution” but “this is the solution!” You either try his solution or tell us why his touted solution is not the solution. Falana’s argument is that subsidy should first be withdrawn from the rich; that…
On Tuesday, 13 June, 2023, I was at the University of Ibadan where I delivered a public lecture titled “The task before Nigeria’s 16th Head of State, Bola Ahmed Tinubu” at the 31st anniversary of the Resurrection Morning Star Society, Chapel of Resurrection of the university. Following is an abridged version of the lecture: “Tinubu is an enigma. To borrow from the words which the self-styled “evil genius” and self-conceited military president-cum-dictator, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (IBB), employed while describing the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Tinubu has been “the issue” in Nigerian politics since the current Fourth Republic kicked off in…
A video is trending online; in it, a man mimicking lawyers with his funny wig and gown was heard reporting a case of theft, ostensibly to a judge: ”My Lord, they have stolen our mandate – but e be like say the thief na better thief!” He then reeled out the good deeds of the “thief” so far! He mentioned the student loan act and the sacking of the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, among others. He then concluded: “E be like say I go leave am; the thief na better thief!” Something like that! Without conceding, I am sure you…
Remembering MKO Abiola: Thirty years after My June 12 day was hectic as usual; it started very early in the day as I led my parishioners to pray against destiny destroyers. There are many intriguing cases of destinies that were, well, inexplicably destroyed in the Bible; a few examples were Abel, whose offering God accepted but who, as a result, got killed by his brother Cain whose own offering God had rejected; a thoroughbred and conscientious soldier, Uriah the Hittite, whose brutal murder was orchestrated by a loafing King David to cover up his adultery with Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife; and…
“Don’t pity me! I asked for the job (of president). I campaigned for it. No excuses! I will live up to the bill” – President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. “Nigeria’s wealth is the commonwealth of all; it belongs to everyone and I promise…that with your help and the help of God, we will set this country on the right path…We have been bruised (and) our body is not the same again (but) we will do the right thing by the grace of God…We need your prayers… I can tell you (that) I for one, I am a silent worker (achiever); I…
I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer it, for I shall not pass this way again. – Stephen Grellet Some days ago when I watched, on social media, a post of the immediate past vice-president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, and his wife alighting from an aircraft with just two or three persons around them, and the caption said that was the VP returning home after eight years as the country’s Number Two citizen,…
Nice to hear that the nationwide strike action threatened by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) over the removal of fuel subsidies, which would have begun today, has been postponed, Commonsense, which actually is nowhere common, appears to have prevailed. We thank God for little mercies! Let the NLC learn from the experience of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) whose eight-month strike action during the Muhammadu Buhari administration yielded nothing, although NLC may argue that it is not ASUU. Let the government on its part understand that an economy already cannibalised by Buhari and his wanton troopers will be…
On Monday, 29 May, 2032, our renascent democracy took another giant step forward with the seamless handing over by one democratically-elected civilian president to another, as retired Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Commander-in-chief of its Armed Forces, handed over the baton of leadership to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, winner of the Saturday, 25 February, 2023 presidential election on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). The current Fourth Republic is the longest stretch of democratic experiment that we have had as a country. The First Republic (October 1, 1960 – January 15,…
Udom Emmanuel: Signing off in a blaze of glory I recall my perennial visits to the three South-south Nigerian states of Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Rivers in the late 1980s and early 1990s when I was the Features of The PUNCH newspapers and, later, the Acting Editor of The Sunday PUNCH title with responsibilities for editing and producing the paper. Those were the days when Akpandem James was our State Correspondent in Akwa Ibom , Timi Fakrogha manned Cross Rivers (Calabar) and Ken-Fash Ayibaemi held sway in Port-Harcourt. I recall that Akpandem was one of the best writers we…
Which of the following three things do you think should break IBB’s heart the most: The opportunity he missed being a national hero and an international statesman with the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election won fair and square by MKO Abiola; the death of his wife Maryam; and his present state of health? Despite the many shenanigans of IBB, his many sins would still have been forgiven had he allowed the June 12, 1993 presidential election to stand, and had he relinquished power to a democratically-elected government like Olusegun Obasanjo before him and Abubakar Abdulsalami after him.…
The hullaballoo that attended the election of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the vicious agitation that has trailed it ever since have kept me wondering whether there is anything to the Tinubu election that was absent in the elections before it. When they allege rigging, previous elections have been rigged; even more scandalously, more blatantly and more brazenly. For instance, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua was forthright enough to admit, publicly, that the election that brought him to power was tainted. How did Obasanjo as sitting president capture all but one (Lagos) Alliance for Democracy (AD) states in 2003 and…
A young man was led into my office as the editor of The PUNCH one day decades ago; his name: Ibe Eresia-Eke (where is he now?), Executive Chairman (as title-crazy Nigerians often over-burden the title “Chairman” as if, standing alone, it is not “executive” enough!) of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers state. He should be happy being an “Executive Chairman” but he was not because fire was on his rooftop. The advertisement notice he brought for publication, and which moved me to cause him to be interviewed, is as captured below. Titled “Don’t break IBB’s heart”, it speaks for…
Top of the news that has trended in the last few days is the “dirty slap”, as they call it, that Seun Kuti gave a policeman in uniform last Saturday. Seun is the son of the iconoclast and Afro-beat king, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. The event leaves much to be desired on many fronts. If it is true that it was Seun that bashed the policeman’s car and the policeman complained and was then offered a dirty slap to the bargain, this is impunity of the highest order. It is also what they call insult upon injury! According to reports, the policeman…
Tunde Obadina (where is he?) was one of the columnists of yore that I relished reading, both for his flair and bluntness. I think he was of the National Concord stable. Others were the likes of Lewis Obi and Sina Adedipe (both also of the Concord); Sonala Olumhense of The Guardian, Muyiwa Adetiba of The PUNCH (published here last week) and, of course, Kayode Samuel of the Vanguard. I have not stopped wondering why Kay stopped maintaining a column – and I have told him so. The riposte he fires regularly on Facebook does not, in my view, compensate for…
The interest generated in “Ubuntu and Omoluabi: Kindred spirit or what?” published in this column on March 22, 2023, is yet to die down. That day’s column was actually devoted to my brother and friend, Prof. Babafemi Badejo’s chronicle of his first visit to Zimbabwe titled “Quick visit to Zimbabwe: My case for rekindling of the Ubuntu spirit in Africa” Badejo drew a parallel between Ubundu as enunciated by Paul Kagame’s Rwanda and the Yoruba’s Omoluabi ethos, philosophy or way of life. In a world fast becoming individualistic or atomistic and losing every sense of communalism, Africans, propounding and spreading…
