Author: Reuben Abati

On Tuesday, May 11, 2021, 17 Governors of the Southern States of Nigeria met in Asaba, Delta State to discuss issues of common interest. They came up with a 12-point communique in which they raised key issues about the future of Nigeria and the Southern region. This was not the first time Southern Governors would meet under the same roof. They are all members of the Nigerian Governors Forum –a pan-Nigeria Forum for all CEOs of Nigeria’s sub-nationals. There is also the Progressive Governors’ Forum which is the umbrella body of the Governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the…

Read More

It is most unfortunate that the proposed appointment of new judges for Nigeria’s Court of Appeal has been controversial since the announcement of a shortlist in December 2020. The President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem has now found herself in an uncomfortable situation where she has to defend the integrity of her Court and the process that led to the emergence of a list of 20 preferred candidates and a list of additional 20 reserved candidates. To have the judiciary dragged into the mud of Nigerian politics and the usual culprits: ethnicity, religion, Federal Character and nepotism…

Read More

On Sunday, February 14, the Nigerian Presidency, in a statement signed by spokesman Garba Shehu, reportedly affirmed that President Muhammadu Buhari is determined to ensure the protection of all religious and ethnic groups in the country, whether majority or minority, “in line with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.” The statement added that the government “will not allow any ethnic or religious group to stoke up hatred and violence against other groups.” As if to give effect to this, the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) announced that the NSA, Major…

Read More

“My brother, how you dey?” “What can we do?”  “E ku recession”  “Excuse me?”  “I said er ku recession…” “Are you Yoruba people alright at all? You people always make a joke out of everything. Does recession look like a joke to you? Second recession in the last five years, the worst in Nigerian history in 33 years, and all you can think of is some meaningless local greeting. Someone at your level should be above such provincial fixation that instinctively compels a Yoruba man to create one form of greeting or another out of every situation. That was how one of…

Read More

I was very skeptical when the current leadership of Organized Labour in Nigeria objected to the decision of the Federal Government to withdraw fuel subsidy and hand over the pump price of petrol to the forces of demand and supply, also known as market forces. Labour, represented by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), and their affiliates and privies in civil society, further threatened that they were opposed to the hike in electricity tariffs. They issued a statement in which they railed against neo-liberal policies, bad timing, and the insensitivity of government. They made heavy…

Read More

The announcement of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as Nigeria’s nominated candidate for the position of the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) which would now be vacant by September 1, 2020, and not 2021, following the incumbent’s decision to take his exit a year earlier, was received with great excitement among Nigerians. This enthusiasm is in itself a reflection of the high regard in which NOI, as she is otherwise known, is held by her compatriots. It didn’t matter that Nigeria’s President had withdrawn an earlier nominee for the post, Ambassador Yonov Frederick Agah, Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the WTO…

Read More

This year’s eid-al-fitr, the Muslim festival marking the end of the month of Ramadan, during which Muslims fast for 29 or 30 days, in observance of one of the Five Pillars of Islam, was celebrated on Saturday and Sunday, May 23/24, but it was a different kind of eid. It was sombre, low key, and completely overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In close to 100 years, there has been no eid like that: the world’s nearly 2 billion Muslims observed the Ramadan under imposed conditions. People were advised to avoid congregational prayers and stay in their homes. On Sunday, many could not observe the traditions…

Read More

This is a piece around and about what I have seen about Corona Virus in Nigeria, from a sociological perspective, and not a report of any pathogenic experience. It has been more than a month since the Federal Government placed Lagos and Ogun states, and the Federal Capital Territory on lockdown on account of the spread of COVID-19 in those three parts of the country. Ogun state asked to be allowed to join the lockdown a week later to allow the people in the state to stock up on food and other essentials which is why as Lagos and the…

Read More

The global economy is in a tailspin. IMF and the World Bank have both predicted a contraction of the global economy with developing economies likely to be worst affected. This situation is the direct result of the menace of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the energy crisis that the world faces. With many businesses and factories on lockdown, with the tourism and travel industry playing possum, the world is confronted with a demand and supply shock, and a financial and economic shock in addition to a catalytic global health crisis, the end of which no one knows. Commodity dependent countries like…

Read More

Aso Villa, Nigeria’s seat of presidential power is bereaved. On Friday, April 17, 2020, it recorded its first major casualty of the Corona Virus disease, in the person of the President’s Chief of Staff, Malam Abba Kyari. With Kyari’s death, Corona Virus has claimed its third high profile victim in Nigeria. Before Kyari was the former Managing Director of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), Suleiman Achimugu and Ambassador Kabiru Rabiu, the first index case in Kano. As at the time of this writing, Nigeria has recorded a total of 21 COVID-19 deaths. But Kyari’s death resulting from complications related…

Read More

This is my third commentary on the Coronavirus pestilence (see “E ku Corona o” – ThisDay, March 3, and “Amala and the Coronavirus patient” – ThisDay, March 10), and now, three weeks later, the most important subject still remains this mysterious plague that has changed the way we live, the way we think, the nature and character of markets, physical and futures, the face of globalization, relationships, and the world as we know it. This is not the first time a pestilence will afflict the world: commentators have traced the genealogy all the way to pre-historic times, with the most…

Read More

Of all the updates that have been given so far by the Lagos State authorities on the government’s efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus, and ensure proper care for the reported index case, and other possible cases (there is a second case now), the most intriguing update for me is the disclosure that the Italian index case who has since been quarantined at the bio-security facility in Lagos, is recovering –  indeed so well that he now eats a local delicacy, called “Amala”. This disclosure was attributed to the Manager of the Bio-security Centre in Lagos, Dr. Bankole Akinwale. Let…

Read More

The Yoruba people of South Western Nigeria, described by one English Language dictionary as the fun-loving people of the Southern part of West Africa have a habit of greeting people over everything. Whatever the matter is, they just like to greet, and they will go to any extent to design a message around any event. If the sun is high in the sky, they will greet you and draw your attention to the heat. If it is too cold, the average Yoruba man will remind you that the weather is cold and try to identify with you: “E pele otutu yi.” For…

Read More

Over the weekend, the Yoruba community in the South Western part of Nigeria was treated to the shocking news of a fight that broke out between two traditional rulers at an arranged peace meeting in Osogbo, Osun State, with one traditional ruler punching another in the face and the neck, sending the beaten traditional ruler to the hospital. The appropriate title of the duel is Oba Abdulrasheed Adewale Akanbi, Oluwo of Iwo vs. Oba Dhikrulahi Akinropo, the Agbowu of Ogbaagbaa. The winner was the Oluwo of Iwo – he gave the Agbowu a few blows to the face and the…

Read More

The biggest threat to our collective humanity today is not the suspected threat of a Third World War, but a corrosive, debilitating, murderous pathogen known as new Corona Virus. The fear of World War III was fuelled by tensions and differences among key superpowers dictating contemporary geo-politics notably: the US, China, Iran, Iraq, Israel, North Korea, South Korea, and the entire Middle East. But while relationships with the world’s power axis will always have implications for global peace, security and stability, the biggest and the most urgent threat by far is the outbreak of a new strain of the Corona…

Read More

ON January 24, at the Federal High Court in Ilorin sitting over the matter of Asa Investment vs. Attorney General of Kwara State, counsel representing the plaintiff, in this case, the Olusola Saraki family, informed the court that both the family and the state government have agreed to “an amicable out-of-court settlement.”  At a previous sitting, the Court had advised that this option should be explored, in the interest of peace, so obviously both feuding parties heeded the advice of the Court. Counsel to the Saraki family confirmed in open court that the State Government had in fact written a letter to the…

Read More

The Buhari administration has given Nigerians a most unusual and disturbing New Year Gift, in the form of a proposed increase in electricity tariffs, enforceable from April by the Electricity Distribution Companies (Discos) and to be completed by the end of 2021, with the full backing of the regulator, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). What happened? I am in a state of shock. What we knew, what we saw, before now, indeed what we were told, was that the electricity distribution companies were the weakest links in the electricity supply chain. They were accused of different infractions by the…

Read More

One of the major indications of the dysfunctional nature of the Nigerian social and political ecosystem is what can be best summarized in pidgin English as the “Na my brother dey there” syndrome. It is the politics of proximity by another name, the thinking by an average Nigerian that he or she is much safer, better off psychologically and in a better position to gain access to opportunities, and even exercise power and influence, only when in the company of a kinsman, or surrounded by kinsmen or when someone of the same ethnic group or who speaks the same language…

Read More

Members of the Nigerian National Assembly, and by extension lawmakers across the country, have been under scrutiny lately with regard to their engagements with citizen-voters whose interest they are expected to represent in parliament. Two issues: constituency projects and constituency offices. President Muhammadu Buhari brought the issue of constituency projects to public attention when at an event organized by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), in November, he lamented that there is very little evidence or benefit to the grassroots of the One Trillion Naira that had been earmarked for constituency projects in the last 10…

Read More

Last week, The Supreme Court of Nigeria announced its verdict in the matter between Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and President Muhammadu Buhari, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). After the February 23 Presidential election and the declaration by INEC, of incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari as winner of that election, the PDP and its Presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar went straight to the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to challenge the result. INEC not only declared Buhari winner of that election. The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal further upheld the declaration in…

Read More

Since Nigeria’s return to civilian rule in 1999, Deputy Governors have always tended to have issues with their bosses, that is the Governors, and the Governors in turn have often had problems with their Godfathers. Whatever shape the conflict takes, it has been more of a blight on our democratic process and the health of the polity.  Mini-dictators converting a democratic dispensation into an opportunity for self-aggrandizement and childish power games end up hurting us all. As Governor of Anambra state in 2003, Chris Ngige, now Minister of Labour and Productivity, had problems with a certain Godfather known as Chris…

Read More

General Yakubu Gowon, Nigeria’s military Head of State from 1966 -1975, turned 85 on Saturday, October 19, 2019. In a congratulatory message, President Muhammadu Buhari described him as a living legend and a symbol of national unity. The statement from the Presidency gushed with phrases such as “visionary leadership style, wisdom, disciplined outlook…elder statesman, simplicity and humility, good governance… sacrifices, wide respect….”. There were other tributes: The Senate President, Ahmed Lawan praised Gowon for defending and preserving the unity and territorial integrity of Nigeria. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, described Gowon as a “statesman and national…

Read More

Today marks the 59thanniversary of Nigeria’s independence from British colonial rule. On Saturday, October 1, 1960, Nigerians gathered at the Race Course (now Tafawa Balewa Square) in Lagos as Princess Alexandra, the representative of Her Majesty the Queen of England handed over the instruments and symbols of independence to Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa. It was 12.01 am as the Nigerian flag of green white green was hoisted. It was a high moment for Nigeria. It was a major turning point since the amalgamation of 1914. It marked Nigeria’s exit from colonial, imperial rule. It was the birth of a new,…

Read More

We are told that South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa apologised on Saturday for the xenophobic attacks against foreigners living in South Africa, particularly persons involved in business who are seen by the ordinary South African as enemies. He reportedly did this in Harare, Zimbabwe, at the funeral ceremony of former President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Most appropriately, the South African President was booed. He was offering too little too late, and other Africans have every reason to think that South Africans having behaved badly deserve to be booed and even shut out of the African Union, or reported to the…

Read More

The Goodluck Ebele Jonathan Administration in Nigeria (2010 – 2015) has generated quite a number of post-tenure publications which significantly, in varying degrees of articulation, veracity and delivery shed light on key developments during that momentous phase in Nigerian politics. The books under reference offer accounts of  individual experiences or outsider perspectives, but altogether, they stand out as remarkable contributions to the growth of the bibliography on governance, politics, democracy and sociology in Nigeria. They include, in this particular regard, Reno Omokri, Facts vs. Fiction: The Story of the Jonathan Years, Chibok, 2015 and the Conspiracies (2017); Olusegun Adeniyi, Against the Run of…

Read More

My favorite passage from the many essays by the 20th Century management theorist, prophet of customer-centricism, and dialectician, Peter F. Drucker, on the subject of change and innovation has to be his argument that we now live in a modern era where everything changes at the speed of light. To be able to cope in this season of creative destruction, and disruption, the manager of the future must constantly innovate and grow. Skills die faster in the age of constant change, hence, it is only the worker who is constantly developing himself and his or her skills-set that would in…

Read More

On August 27, 2015, that is four years ago, Nigeria lost Professor Adebowale Adefuye, one of our most dedicated public servants, a fiercely patriotic, loyal and hardworking diplomat and an accomplished academic who brought to every assignment such level of energy and panache that won him the admiration of all and sundry including his critics. At the time of his death, he had just completed his tour of duty to the United States as Nigeria’s Ambassador, having been recalled along with other ambassadors, by President Muhammadu Buhari. The general belief was that President Buhari was going to give him another…

Read More

This is not the best of times to be identified as a Nigerian, especially if you are a Nigerian in diaspora. It is indeed the worst of times to be Nigerian because of the kind of daredevilry that our compatriots have demonstrated in recent times, in criminal pursuits of such scale, texture, volume, and depth, not at intervals but at an alarming pace and regularity, not just in one country or continent, but from continent to continent, country to country, giving such impression that perhaps apart from the traditional Cosa Nostra, the Italian Mafia, or the Russian Mafia, or the…

Read More

The report that a commercial court in the UK has ruled that Nigeria must pay a UK firm, Process and Industrial Development Limited (P & ID) a sum of $9.6 billion or have its assets in the UK to the tune of that amount forfeited has generated more than a little interest. For a country with a foreign reserve of $45 billion and sovereign debt profile of over $80 billion that judgment debt is quite a lot, potentially capable of rendering Nigeria even more technically insolvent. Dayo Apata, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice and Solicitor-General of the Federation…

Read More

If anyone is looking for a perfect illustration and confirmation of the “coming anarchy” in Nigeria, that person needs not look farther than the on-going conflict and crisis of mutual distrust between the Nigeria Police and the Nigerian Army. Turn away, for a moment, from Boko Haram (Nigeria is still unable to find a solution to the menace of terrorism), turn away from bandits and kidnappers (it is sad that the state seems to be aiding and abetting criminality and impunity due to its incompetence, negligence, and impotence). But you can not turn away from the crazy drama being enacted…

Read More