By Law Mefor Nigeria is yet again on the threshold of history. This historic time is different and filled with omens. Since the return of the country to the current democratic dispensation, elections have been marred by irregularities. Rigging and all other forms of manipulation have been the norm. The 2023 general election promises to be way different for several reasons. The introduction of BVAS and the vow of President Muhammadu Buhari and INEC chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu to hold a free, fair, and acceptable election are the real factors making the 2023 general election uniquely different and exciting. Buhari…
Author: Law Mefor
Just when you think you have seen it all in Nigeria’s deepening leadership rot, something worse pops up. Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has taken how leadership underdeveloped Nigeria to a new low. Ortom while reveling with the other dissident PDP governors he hosted in Benue over the weekend said he will never vote for a Fulani man to become President of Nigeria. This is the most unfortunate ethnic profiling to come from a sitting governor in recent times. In case you missed the vituperation in question, his words: “Anybody supporting Atiku in Benue is an enemy of the…
The identity crisis surrounding the person of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has grave implications. The question regarding who Bola Ahmed Tinubu truly is remains one that will not go away until truth cures it. This question is overarching and encompassing. It is related to all aspects of the man’s identity and personality that have been shrouded in mystery and secrecy; his ancestry, parentage, education (in early and later life), as well as his private and public life such as his actual legacies as Lagos state governor. Tinubu is like a bat growing amorphous by the…
Nigeria’s problems are essentially civilizational. Contrary to permutations that the 2023 presidential election will be significantly different from the past ones, it is still niche-carving, cult-following, and primordial sentiments that will produce Nigeria’s next president. The 2023 Presidential Election is upon us and surely it will be peculiar in many respects but much more will remain the same. Initially, the 2023 general election was perceived as a two-horse race between the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and the main opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which is quite determined to return to power. However, the emergence of Mr. Peter Obi…
There is a disturbing executive rascality and mob mentality brewing in the buildup to the 2023 Presidential election. The recent occurrences by some state and non-state actors typify the unfortunate trend – Zamfara, Ebonyi, Lagos and Akwa Ibom cases are ready examples. Governor Matawale of Zamfara shut down media houses for covering the PDP rally. Labour Party’s senatorial candidate in Ebonyi state Linus Abah Okorie was arrested by the Police and charged to court for allegedly insulting almighty Governor Dave Umahi. The Police just tear-gassed the youths who gathered to mark EndSars at Lekki Tollgate, Lagos. Some non-state actors are…
The task before the incoming President of Nigeria is twofold: providing astute leadership and resetting the nation’s unworkable structure. In order words, the core challenges confronting Nigeria today are reducible to just two factors: parochial leadership, and dysfunctional structure. Both have left the country as a mere geographical expression. And as a former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo recently asserted, Nigeria is still a country and not yet a nation. Obasanjo is in a privileged position to know. Since everything rises and falls on leadership, it will be right to assume that the structural crisis being faced by Nigeria was caused…
A man whose life ambition eluded him deserves sympathy. Days ago, the governor of Rivers state Nyesom Wike held a national press conference on the crisis he is visiting on his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. He said not much that was new. But he re-emphasised that his grouse was that the South has been shortchanged by the PDP allowing a northerner to emerge as its presidential flag-bearer. In order words, Wike presented himself as speaking for and defending the South. How true is Wike’s posturing? The truth can be found when the persons who blocked the PDP presidential…
Nigeria practices presidentialism, and in a presidential democracy, the nation rests on the shoulders of one man. Health is therefore of major concern in determining the electability of a candidate. This gives no room for arguments. All public offices, the office of the president inclusive, demand occupiers who are sound both in body and in mind. This is necessary so that efficiency and proficiency will be brought to bear in the discharge of responsibilities of the office. Nigeria is one county where the unthinkable happens all the time; a nation where many citizens for primordial reasons sleepwalk into quagmires and…
The recent statement by Ohanaeze Ndigbo calling for the Federal Government’s intervention in the travail of Senator Ike Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice, in London revives some hope that the Igbo philosophy of “Onye aghana nwanne ya” (all for one, one for all). The Ohanaeze plea came on the heels of Attorney General and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami’s declaration that the Federal Government would not intervene in the Ekweremadus’ legal battle in the UK, claiming that it was never Nigeria’s tradition to intervene when her citizens are caught up in criminal legal issues overseas. It was therefore reassuring to…
The Indian iconic leader, Mahatma Gandhi, once observed; ‘Nobody shakes hands with a clenched fist.’ The nation’s leading opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has been embroiled in crisis since its special national convention, which produced Atiku Abubakar as its preferred presidential candidate. Recall that Governor Nyeson Wike of Rivers state, before the primaries, publicly declared that he was not an aspirant for the PDP presidential ticket but a candidate. Wike further told the public after the party presidential primary that he was shortchanged. He hinged his claim on the way and manner Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto…
Four Catholic nuns have just been kidnapped in Imo state, one of such sad tales that have become almost a daily occurrence since Hope Uzodinma became the absolute ruler. The phrase, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely” suggests that whenever a person has absolute power over other people or things, it makes him corrupt. It morally destroys their nature and fills them with destructive pride. However, if the person redeems himself from this abuse of power, he is humble enough to align with the people and rule for the common good. Again, a leader who hasn’t lost touch with reality works to…
An obituary is for the dead, not for the living. So, no matter how one looks at Sam Omatseye’s ‘Obi-tuary’ on Peter Obi and the movement Obi’s entry into the 2023 presidential race has become, it is all about a death wish. It rhymes with nothing else. Yes, death for the Peter Obi movement and possibly for its progenitor, Peter Obi himself is Omatseye’s underlying deep psychological wish. To clear the doubts, a death wish is a desire, often unconscious, for the death of another person, toward whom one has unconscious and terminal hostility. Out of the abundance of the…
Democracy is about choices and freedoms. In a pluralistic nation such as Nigeria, democracy is also about inclusivity, social justice and fairness. The latter consideration brought to bear the principle of rotation and zoning in this dispensation. The need for stability and unity has become a big issue in sustaining the ongoing democratic dispensation in a nation more sharply divided than ever before. In order words, individual ambitions and legitimate aspirations ought to be carefully weighed side by side with these national sentiments. But the emergence of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the Presidential flag-bearer of the All Progressives Congress, APC,…
The window for substitution of candidates has been slammed closed by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, thus fully setting the stage for the 2023 Presidential Election. Though subtle campaigns have been raging, real campaigns will start legally in earnest in September. Before Peter Obi seized Labour Party turf and its presidential ticket, turning it into a movement, many had narrowed their attention to a two-horse race – between Atiku Abubakar/PDP and Ahmed Bola Tinubu/APC. It is now a three-horse race. One issue that has been generating interest is the choice of running mate. Conventionally, in compliance with the national…
Citizens across divides who wish Nigeria well are raising their voices against the Muslim-Muslim ticket, which Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his party, All Progressives Congress, the APC, are determined to force down the throats of Nigerians. The APC Muslim-Muslim ticket is also an affront to the Nigerian Constitution if one considers the spirit and letters of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which states… “The government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote…
The issue is the bruised ego of Gov Nyeson Wike who feels so wronged he is said to constitute the reason the return of the PDP to power is hanging in the balance. Some other political parties’ leaders are wooing Wike to join them, turning him into a beautiful bride of a sort. The electoral value and popularity of Wike are not in doubt. Twice, he won the guber election of Rivers, a swing state, by a landslide. In his second term, Wike subtly launched his presidential campaign by inviting many important Nigerians of all walks of life to commission…
The approaching 2023 Presidential Election promises to be like none other in the nation’s annals. And the die is already cast as the pretenders and contenders have been already separated. It is a three-horse race, with Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of NNPP already discounting himself as a possible winner if he does not pair up with Peter Obi as his running mate. It is therefore a three-horse race. The remaining 15 political parties are just vying for honours and personal records. Barring any strange odds, the race is between the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar and his…
‘Ifeanyi’ is a generic name borne only by the members of the Igbo ethnic stock. The name means: nothing is beyond God. Why then is one who bears the name required to prove that he belongs to the Igbo ethnic group or to prove such ancestry? This pettiness of some Igbos who go to the extent of claiming that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa is not one of them is pathetic, mischievous or borne out of outright ignorance. Governor Ifeanyi Okowa is from Owa, one of the major Ika Igbo settlements across the Niger. The differentiation being mounted artificially between the South-east…
One read with considerable amusement and amazement the claim by some Southern and Middle Belt leaders that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta state betrayed the divide by accepting to be the running mate to Atiku Abubakar, the presidential flag-bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Talk of the chicken that left the knife that slaughtered it to make face to the cooking pot! This claim is a misguided missile, to say the least. Yes, the Southern and Middle Belt Forum pushed the position that the presidential power must return to the South in 2023. The group however did not pursue…
It was Mallam Nasir El Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, who once observed that the real problem with Nigeria is impunity, not corruption. Of course, he was right that the brazen corruption and primitive accumulation rocking the nation today and warranting psychiatric evaluation, is borne out of impunity and callous disregard for civilised conduct and integrity. What is more, the said impunity is breeding and transmogrifying into other worse conditions in Nigeria, and one of them is trampling on the religious rights of Nigerians, manifest in the idea of the Muslim-Muslim ticket, which El Rufai and few others are now…
When Lord Aton, the British historian, stated that ‘Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely’ he had some leaders like Governor Dave Umahi in mind. The governor of Ebonyi State reminds one of the Lord of the Manor, the English lord who enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seigniory, the right to grant or draw benefit from the remainder; the ancient Russian Czar. That is how Governor Umahi perceives himself as Governor of Ebonyi and chairman of the South-East Governors Forum. His sense of entitlement…
In Nigeria, where politicians lack alternative business addresses, depending on power, political patronage, contracts, and so on to survive and remain relevant, the election is a do-or-die affair. Those who seek to topple incumbents and incumbents who want to retain power need to be guided. Seeking political power in Nigeria is not a patriotic endeavour. This situation has been worsened by a near absence of a political party system in the real sense of the word. A political party is a platform where like-minds come together to seek political positions to implement their ideas for common good. Each political party…
While congratulating His Excellency Mr. Peter Obi, for picking the Labour Party Presidential ticket, one would seize the same opportunity to share some insights on how the man could win the 2023 Presidential election. It will be a very tough contest and Peter Obi is coming into the fray as an underdog who has all the trappings of a dark horse. By the way, a dark horse is a contestant that on paper should be unlikely to succeed but yet still might, and Peter Obi is just typical. The way the nation’s politics is structured, it is a grand elite…
The crisis and haemorrhage rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South East in particular and across the nation, did not come to many as a surprise. There is nothing happening to the party in that region that I did not predict in my tribute to former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, on his 60th birthday earlier this month of May. It wasn’t even difficult to predict either. The PDP lost its soul long ago and behaves like a man destined for doom, who arrogantly takes the wrong step at every corner and arrogates to himself…
TO YOU, HISTORY AND POSTERITY BECKONS Dear Party delegates, Nigerians have come a long way together and have more to lose dividing now. However, the components that make up Nigeria must first unite and resolve all the contradictions in nationhood to make way for development. Give me a moment or two to share some thoughts with you as you respond to this historic summon to decide on the nation’s next President. How you handle this national assignment can remake or mar our country, Nigeria. For not assenting to further amendment to the Electoral Act, President Muhammadu Buhari, has consequentially…
One would want to join President Muhammadu Buhari and millions of Nigerians to celebrate a rare statesman, ace legislator and three-time deputy president of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, as he turns 60. The lawyer and politician is indeed the unsung hero and scion of Nigerian democracy, who, unknown to many, led the National Assembly to break the jinx of constitutional amendment in the current dispensation and through the unprecedented four successful amendments of the unitary 1999 Constitution. Thus he has made the most salutary impacts on constitutional and electoral reforms in Nigeria as deputy senate president and chairman of the…
By Law Mefor “Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.” – Psalm 42:7 There has been a misguided counter-narrative against the campaign for Nigerian President of South-East extraction. The opponents of this just and noble campaign say that zoning is against merit and as such, the nation is robbed of the chance of being led by a capable hand that will be cut off by zoning and rotation. This argument is warped, baseless and incurably defective for there is no zone in Nigeria that cannot survive and grow…
By Law Mefor “The Buhari/Osinbajo presidency is a perfect definition of toxic leadership; toxic leadership is the type that leaves a place worse than it met it. Yes, things were bad when Buhari and Osinbajo took over in 2015 but they have made it worse, thus qualifying ultimately as toxic leaders…” It is no longer news that Vice President of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo, has declared to run for the office of the president. By declaring, he ended months of hide and seek and speculations that he would go for the top position in the country. Douglas MacArthur once noted…
By Law Mefor The chairman of the PDP zoning committee, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State cut a pathetic sight while laboriously explaining the so-called unanimous decision of his committee on zoning. Ortom wanted the world to believe that his yeoman committee did not recommend that the PDP presidential ticket be thrown open. Ortom must have believed very much like Adolf Hitler that the intelligence of the Nigerian masses is very low. Let us for a moment believe Ortom, the beleaguered governor of Benue state who has had a running battle with killer herdsmen that have attempted his life…
By Law Mefor Initially, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stated that the fate of Atiku Abubakar’s presidential ambition would be decided by zoning regardless of the party constitution, which dictates that presidential power has to move South in 2023. The PDP has also claimed that since the party is not in power at the centre, it has nothing to really zone. Coupled with nomination form the party sold at prohibitive cost to aspirants from both North and South, it was almost certain that the work of the Governor Samuel Ortom zoning committee is just to fulfill all righteousness. Fact…
