It was exactly 100 days in office last week for President Bola Tinubu and all governors sworn in on May 29 this year. So far, it has been a bumpy ride for President Tinubu. For reasons not exactly his fault, he has been confronted by a myriad of challenges. For Nigerians too, it has been harrowing experiences living in this country these last 100 days. Perhaps, out of a desire to be seen as being in a hurry to make a mark the president immediately, on being sworn in, pulled off the plug on fuel subsidy, and the nation has…
Author: Charles Okoh
Chief Government Ekpemupolo (aka Tompolo), former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), has become subject of controversy since he took on the pipeline surveillance contract between his Tantita Security Service Nigeria Ltd, and the federal government. The federal government in August 2022, awarded the pipeline surveillance contract reportedly worth N48 billion per year (N4 billion per month) to Tantita to check the massive oil theft in the Niger Delta region. Despite the controversy that trailed the contract, the company has discovered several illegal connections into major pipelines. According to reports, the company discovered at least…
Last Monday, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu inaugurated his cabinet and the newly appointed ministers immediately reported for work. Although, the president’s decision to wait for almost four months to do this came to many as a surprise, especially given that Nigerians roundly condemned the previous regime where former President Muhammadu Buhari had to wait for six months to set up his cabinet. However, like Buhari, President Tinubu seems poised to make the very same errors of his predecessor. Why it took him four months to compile a list of what is at best a roll call of those who played…
There has never been any love lost between America and Russia. The power tussle for relevance and authority between both superpowers has become very frosty with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As the war between the two countries rages, America and Europe’s support for Ukraine will only ensure that this conflict will not end anytime soon and that the war theatre would also be extended to other parts of the globe. The ouster of President Mohamed Bazoum in July by General Abdourahmane Tchiani, the Nigerien military leader, has the potential of creating a veritable ground for the re-enactment of the Russia/Ukraine…
Perhaps, the greatest reason good leadership has continued to elude us is because the executive has consistently cowed the other arms of government into total submission and capitulation. Such that the executive can effectively do without the necessary input of the other more critical arms of government; the legislature and judiciary. Under President Muhammadu Buhari, the legislature and judiciary were reduced to mere appendages and branches of the executive. In fact, Ahmad Lawan’s 9th leadership of the Senate hit an all-time low in that regard. For Lawan, he was even proud to announce to a bewildered nation that under his watch,…
The craze for anything foreign over locally produced ones has become a reality we will have to live with. Elected political office holders, who are supposed to lead the way, are unfortunately the worst culprits. The basis upon which these rejections are made have less to do with the quality of the local products and more on the inordinate desire and preference for foreign goods over locally manufactured ones. There is an urgent need today more than ever before for this trend to be reversed. It is rather sad and pathetic to think that at a time when the nation…
Last week, the men of the Department of State Services (DSS) showed to the world the reason things are not working in the country. They displayed the level of barbarism, cruelty and lawlessness that characterizes leadership not just in the country, but also on the continent. On that day, Tuesday 25, the rule of law gave way for an open and brazen display of unruliness. It is not that the display of the DSS within the premises of the Federal High Court in Lagos, was a novelty or that it came as a surprise to Nigerians but it was a…
The fears entertained by some Nigerians on the worrisome open romance and tolerance of insurgents and bandits by Vice President Kashim Shettima, when President Ahmed Tinubu chose him as his running mate, is appearing justified with his recent recommendation on how best to handle these murderous groups. Shettima’s antidote for ending the protracted war against insurgency and banditry is the very same reason that the effort of the federal government has been unsuccessful till date. Those who like Shettima have continued to compare the Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s amnesty approach to Niger Delta militants to the problem of the…
Perhaps, one of the biggest problems that confronts and is holding this nation back is the skewed reward system that is targeted only to satisfy the crooked and villain at the expense of those who seek to remain patriotic and live within the ambit of the law and their honest means of livelihood. How else can one describe a system that presents a Melford Dokubo Goodhead Jr. aka Asari Dokubo as a hero for the rest of the population? How else do you rationalize the fact that Dokubo can boast of his fraternity and association with the president of the…
In one month, between May 29 and now, the nation has experienced less tension and strife than it had ever experienced at any given period within the eight-year rule of President Muhammadu Buhari. The reason for this, beyond the mere fact that there was a change of government, was as a result of the very toxic, divisive and biased approach to issues of governance by the Buhari government. There is no gainsaying that Buhari brought out the beasts in lots of Nigerian the resultant effects being that insecurity gained national spread. In packaging the Buhari proposition to Nigerians, his promoters…
It is said that you cannot really tell a man’s true character until you give him money or power. For many the lure of power, influence and affluence are the only motivating factors for which they seek office. And once they get into that office they soon throw the entire state in turmoil. With Nigerian governors, the state can burn and the people can die of hunger, deprivation and lack, just to satisfy their egos. In Kano, the war between Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and his successor and former deputy governor, Abdullahi Ganduje would not end anytime soon. In fact, with…
Changing Security Chiefs, Not Solution To Insecurity If there is any lesson to learn from the fight against insecurity during the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari it is the fact that the intractable and pervasive nature of the breakdown of law and order during the eight-year period was a consequence of the lack of political will to fight that war to a logical conclusion. It proved that the problem was not entirely that of the service chiefs or IGPs, but that of failure of the political class to do what is necessary to secure the land. An encounter with a…
For President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his first three weeks in office have been a success so far. He has demonstrated grit and a nerve that was lacking in the past eight years of his predecessor. Interestingly, unlike Muhammadu Buhari who enjoyed tremendous goodwill before coming to office, Tinubu’s legitimacy is being contested. Also, unlike Buhari who had failed three times before finally becoming president, Tinubu became president at his first attempt and has shown a high level of preparedness to push through his agenda as president. While President Buhari spent the first six months of his administration floundering not showing…
It is not a mere happenstance that the nation has remained bitterly divided along ethnic and religious lines in the past eight years. Perhaps, the event of the past eight years has brought to the fore the urgent need for the nation to begin to think of how best we can begin to address the many schisms that have held us down for so long. How do we build that nation of our dreams where justice and fairness will prevail? How do we build that egalitarian society of our dreams where all will be treated as equals irrespective of their…
Straight from the Eagle Square in Abuja last Monday, President Bola Tinubu, during his inaugural speech as the 16th President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, promised and failed the nation. He had promised that as president he would consult and involve all in the policy making decisions of his administration. President Tinubu had said inter alia; “Our administration shall govern on your behalf but never rule over you. We shall consult and dialogue but never dictate. We shall reach out to all but never put down a single person for holding views contrary to our own.” But the president immediately…
First, let me wish all Nigerians, especially those who are at the lower rungs of the economic ladder, happy survival. After what is without doubt a ruinous eight years reign, the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari has finally come to an end. Thank God. Wasted eight years! Where do we start from? How do you judge the performance of a man who clearly was aloof to his responsibilities especially as regards securing the nation, which is the primary responsibility of every government? Today, Monday 29, would afford the nation another fresh start to retool, rejig and reset the state of…
Last week, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, stated what many of his northern elite have always known but have chosen to ignore, when he lamented that the present educational backwardness in the Northern region was caused by people of the region. He spoke in Abuja at the public presentation of the Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS) Book 1 series for universities and a book in his honour. He said the North is in self-imposed educational backwardness because the interest of the North is Islam, and Islam is the greatest promulgator of knowledge. Adamu said while the first two…
When the presidency announced that the out-going (thank God) President Muhammadu Buhari would be visiting the United Kingdom for the coronation of Charles III and his wife, Camilla, as King and Queen Consort of the United Kingdom penultimate Saturday, something told me that the presidency was telling its usual lies and that the president ultimately was going for a medical trip. And I said that openly to those around me. Now, the president is human and like every other human being, is liable to fall ill and deserves all the best the country can give as a nation to its…
The recent ordeal of the former deputy speaker of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu and his family is most unfortunate. This experience is unfortunate because it speaks to the sad reality that we are in this nation. Ekweremadu deserves pity because everybody, given the same circumstance, would go to any length to seek help for their loved one. It is the same desire to seek help for a child in need that has driven Ekweremadu and the wife to the predicament they now find themselves in. A United Kingdom court, having found Senator Ike Ekweremadu, his wife, Beatrice and doctor, Obinna…
It is human to err. No mortal man, born of a woman can claim to be without blemish. Anybody who lays claim to being righteous is the biggest jester you can find anywhere on this planet earth. Therefore, when people err and beg for forgiveness; it’s to be expected that they be given a second chance. But when a man makes the same mistakes over and over again and begs to be forgiven then the joke is no longer on the man but he that forgives and forgets, especially when the atrocities of that fellow are outrageous. President Muhammadu Buhari,…
It appears that there will be no end in sight to the killings in Kaduna as well as Benue states. The lackadaisical approach of the Federal Government to halting the carnage in both states remains worrisome. If it is argued that the sheer spread of violence and wanton killings across the country have become too much of a burden for the government to handle, will it be out of place to demand from the Federal Government what its plan is towards ending the senseless killings especially in these states? No fewer than 29 people have been killed in a fresh…
Femi Adesina is shameless. To think that he is even a supposed cleric makes him even more shameless. Only a shameless man would make bogus claims and with a straight face still insists that the gibberish he spews forth is the truth. Personally, I had resolved not to react to whatever Adesina or those who are media minders of President Buhari say, because it’s obvious that they have completely made a mess of whatever their assignment is and inadvertently done a great deal of disservice to their floundering principal. To be sure, Buhari will go down in history as the…
Last week, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, criticised several Western nations for endorsing the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), which he said has been categorised as a terrorist group. He issued the warning in Washington, D.C. during official meetings with a number of foreign media outlets and policy organisations. According to NAN, the minister said IPOB remains a terrorist group as declared by the Nigerian government and should be treated as such by Western countries. He claimed that the group had been using funds raised in foreign countries to “destabilise” Nigeria. Mohammed argued that it is…
Penultimate weekend, the Governor of Anambra State, Chukwuma Soludo, celebrated his first 365 days in office. To mark the anniversary, he pulled some very important dignitaries to Awka, the state capital. Topmost of the distinguished personalities that graced the occasion, was former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Also present on the occasion were notable Igbo personalities like former governors of the state, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, and Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the last presidential election; Chairman, Council of Elders of Ohanaeze, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, former governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke, amongst others. Sadly and largely because of…
Since perhaps after the reign of Adams Oshiomhole of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) from 1999 – February 2007 as president, it is safe to conclude that the umbrella body of organized labour in the country has been in coma. It has pretended since then to be oblivious of the hardships workers in the country have been going through, just to remain politically correct. Perhaps, to underscore this unfortunate situation Oshiomhole while admonishing Ayuba Wabba, who succeeded Abdulwahed Ibrahim Omar, the President of NLC from February, 2007- 2011 amid a post-election crisis that split the labour movement, had urged Wabba’s…
Last week, Nigerians got some sort of relief as the Central Bank and Federal Government finally complied with the Supreme Court ruling on the lingering cash squeeze which practically squeezed life out of many Nigerians. I am not particularly interested in the debate as it concerns the independence of the CBN or otherwise or the right of the Supreme court to intervene in monetary policy administration. The arguments for or against, are neither here nor there, my pain is the unwarranted hardship which the federal government under president Muhammadu Buhari unconscionably subjected the people to. This level of hardship is unprecedented.…
Every election season in the last couple of years, especially since the beginning of the fourth republic, has brought to the fore a negative tendency that must never be allowed to fester. Each time an election comes we begin to remember that there are indigenes and settlers. Lagos is gradually becoming a hotbed of ethnic bigotry and political violence against non-indigenes. This dangerous dimension to Lagos politics has continued to grow in dimension and scope, while the politicians pretend not to notice. What all of this points to is the fact that the peace accord often signed by contestants each…
For a lot of Nigerians who had looked forward to using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) technology in the presidential and National Assembly elections of Saturday, February 25, it was a huge disappointment to see that that was not to be. Well, maybe, except for those who conspired to see that the device, which the INEC chairman Yakubu Mahmood and his team had touted as the game changer, did not work. The BVAS, it was expected, will help deepen our democracy by removing as much as possible human intervention in the process. Opportunities were provided by INEC for manipulation,…
The financial sector is easily the most chaotic of the economy today, and this is not attributable alone to the disarray currently in that sector but owing a great deal to the obvious lack of delineation between the fiscal and monetary policies. So for a casual onlooker the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, has been wearing both caps for all intents and purposes. This is only a confirmation of the seeming lack of direction and coordination in the President Muhammadu Buhari government. As a result, not a few have argued that the nation is currently running on autopilot. We are…
I cannot think of any other election that Nigerians looked forward to, after the still-born 1993 election midwived by Ibrahim Babangida, like this coming election on Saturday, February 25. In many ways, the 1993 election shares several similarities with the election of Saturday. Like the 1993 which came after a long time of military rule, this election is coming at a time when Nigerians have become weary as a result of the very poor sequence or streak of misgovernance and retrogression. It has never been this bad. The total state of despondence of the people can be seen and felt…
