There is Nothing Normal in the way Buhari is Ruling over Nigeria.

“...There appears to be confusion in the Buhari administration and this also has to do with delay in acting on intelligence. Someone was quarrelling with me that we were always apologetic regarding Buhari and I said, no. I speak as I see it and this is what I see. The signals coming out now indicate that the illness (suffered recently by Buhari) had a very destructive side effect on his concentration and somebody who is helping him is not doing a very good job. If that is not true, then we will tell him that he is confusing us with some of the things that are happening. They don’t make sense. There ought to be clear decisions and they should come on time. The security situation is serious and the challenging aspect of security comes with intelligence gathering and I know that the intelligence gathering of this country is good. I know that the men and the women who work in this system work very hard. When you bring intelligence to your principal, all you can do is say, ‘If you don’t work on it and act on this, this is going to happen.’ The leader doesn’t have to delay their action, but when they do, it becomes a reaction. I can’t understand how a precise military commander like Buhari who came to power with Idiagbon and whose actions we saw the first time he was in power (is the same one now). You cannot compare that with what is happening today; it is not normal.” – Dr. Paul Unongo. 

How will Nigeria Repay all these Loans?

“Two days ago, Nigerian leader Muhammadu Buhari commenced his sixth year in office. He had spent the most disappointing five years in charge. But in a tweet three days earlier, presidential spokesman Femi Adesina, again proclaiming himself a “Buharist,” described his principal as leading Nigeria “well.”

Nonetheless, the spokesman may have been preparing the ground for Buhari’s resumption of his inexorable borrowing journey: within 48 hours, Buhari was at the National Assembly with a new external loan request of $5.513bn. Remember: in early March, just three months ago, the Senate approved for him a massive loan request of $22.79bn; and in April, an N850bn domestic loan request.  There have been several others.

Every nation borrows, of course. But not every nation borrows with a kleptocracy mindset. That is what Buhari’s borrowing is: having arrived without a plan to produce or create or even inspire, he borrows to convey a sense of motion, not movement; of activity rather than action.

Remember: the government explained three months ago that $500m of the $29.96bn it was borrowing was to upgrade the nation’s “broadcasting infrastructure” and elevate the Nigerian Television Authority to the standard of CNN. CNN is privately-owned. This explains why, in the past five years, there has been far more Shakespearean sound and fury about transparency in governance, but far more corruption.  Is the objective to accomplish goals and serve the people?  If so, nepotism ought to embarrass the Buhari government, as would the kind of incestuous sycophancy in which paid appointees extol a ruler.” – Excerpts of an article by Sonala Olumhense in the Punch Newspaper.

In Nigeria, all Top Jobs are Reserved for Muslim Northerners.

Top Management positions held by Northerners in Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC): 

1. Group Managing Director (GMD): Mele Kyari.

2. Chief Finance Officer (Finance and Accounts): Umar Ajiya.

3. Chief Operating Officer (Gas and Power): Yusuf Usman.

4. Chief Operating Officer, (Corporate Services): Farouk Garba Sa’id.

5. Chief Operating Officer, (Refining and Petrochemicals):, Mustapha Yakubu.

6. Corporate Secretary/Legal Adviser to the Corporation:, Hadiza Coomassie.

7. GGM, International Energy Relations, IER, Omar Ibrahim.

8. GGM, Renewable Energy, Kallamu Abdullahi.

9. GGM, Governance Risk and Compliance, Ibrahim Birma.

10. GGM, NAPIMS, Bala Wunti.

11. MD, (NNPC Shipping): Inuwa Waya.

12. MD, (Pipelines and Product Marketing, PPMC) Musa Lawan.

13. MD, (Nigeria Petroleum Development Company, NPDC), Mansur Sambo.

14. MD, (Duke Oil/NNPC Trading Company), Lawal Sade.

15. MD, (Port Harcourt Refining Company), Malami Shehu.

16. MD, (Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company), Muhammed Abah.

17. MD, (Nigeria Gas Marketing Company): Abdulkadir Ahmed.

18. MD, (Nigeria Gas and Power Investment Company Limited):, Salihu Jamari.

19. MD, (NNPC Medical Services), Mohammed Zango.

20. Director, (Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR), Sarki Auwalu.

Compiled by Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF).

Abba Kyari: Speaking ill of the Dead by Remi Oyeyemi.

"The evil that men do live after them." -- William Shakespeare.
I am aware that this is breaking with the conventional wisdom. I am conscious that this is a rebuke of tradition. I am not oblivious to the fact that it is against the norm. I am not unaware that this is not in tune with the mainstream. I am aware some would loath me for it. Some would deride me. Others would call me names. Those who really never liked my guts, would have this reinforced it for them. But those who have the objective ability to see things the way they are and are able to call them as exactly as they should, would see some sense in this.

The idea of not speaking ill of the dead is not a good idea, especially if the dead person did nothing deserving of praise. The idea of praising the dead, regardless if the dead, during his or her life was mean spirited, greedy, selfish, inconsiderate, odiously acquisitive, ruthless and disdainful, is totally unacceptable. It is wrong and should be done away with. We should be able to say exactly what kind of person someone was during his or her life. I have been reading in the media unbelievable eulogies about the late Chief of Staff to President Mohammadu Buhari, Mr. Abba Kyari. I have been reading some hypocritical praise - singing of this man who, to many Nigerians who celebrated his infliction a couple of weeks back, was no less a monster, because he has become the casualty of the Coronavirus 19. I have read from those who hated him saying embarrassingly 'nice' things about him. What a fraud. What a dishonesty.

It is a sad day when people cascade into casual casuistry with unbridled audacity. It is an act of deliberate undermining of the societal values to heap praises on someone whose remains ought to be used to cast away evils from the entire society. To project a mean - spirited public office holder as a saint when he is not, is a sin in itself.

I take serious objection to the rain of praise that has been raining down on the corpse of the late Abba Kyari. Though, this is a matter of choice to which we are all entitled depending on the way we see it. In my own view, Kyari is not deserving of any praise whatsoever. It is alright for President Buhari to cry himself hoarse. Kyari was his Chief of Staff and his relative. It is okay for his goons in Aso Rock, his partners in crime to weep without end. It is okay for those who are beneficiaries of his corrupt practices, his impunities to gnash their teeth to numb. It is their loss. His immediate and extended family members reserve the inalienable rights to mourn him infinitely and indefinitely.

I also believe that it is alright for the rest of us who are victims of the first family and their collaborators in Aso Rock, to acknowledge the loss of a soul, not because of any other reason other than the fact that we are all human beings. And this is where it ought to end. No more, no less.
For those who are Buhari's sycophants and who still hope to benefit from the misery he is visiting on Nigeria, it might be acceptable to them to shed their crocodile tears even if they really did not like the man when he was alive. They are welcome to do so.

Here is a man, who never got a single vote, whether rigged or not, from the Nigerian people, but who hijacked the executive powers of the Presidency. He held Nigeria and Nigerians to ransom since 2015. He rode roughshod over the people of this country. He appropriated all the appurtenances of power for his personal idiosyncrasies.

Abba Kyari never cared. He never gave a damn. Yes, he did not give a damn how many Nigerians died. He did not care how many Nigerians went hungry. He did not care how much injustice was perpetrated. He did not give a damn how many innocent Nigerians were murdered. He did not give a damn how many Nigerians were chased off their ancestral lands. He did not care how many of our daughters were raped. He did not give a damn how many were maimed by his tribesmen.
He was a perniciously greedy soul. He was remorseless in his ways. The 500 million naira bribe he took from the MTN was emblematic of his innate rapacity. It was emblematic of his bloated edacity. He appointed himself to the Board of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). It was the first time in the History of Nigeria for an incumbent Chief of Staff. It was against the norm of decency and restraint. It was impunity at its worst.

Kyari relentlessly harassed the Vice President, licentiously anchoring Professor Osinbajo's deliberate disempowerment.  He unabashedly intimidated the Ministers and prevented them from meaningful collaboration with the man who appointed them, or whom he helped appointed. With a mien akin to that of a dove, he was a heinous hawk, a vicious vulture that is egregious and atrocious in its debauchery and cupidity.

He was mindless and mean. He was cruel and cold. He was crude and callous. His greed was congenital. His insouciance encrypted his guiled mendacity. He was hung up on power hunkering. He had disdain for the rules. Like his principal, Buhari, he believed and acted above the law. His arrogance was horrifying. His condescension, sardonically sickening in the way and manner he exercised unmerited power.

Yes, the idea of not speaking ill of the dead is a VERY WRONG one, especially if that dead person never did anything to deserve it. If this practice was to continue, it means every criminal in our midst should look forward to being praised after he/she was dead regardless of the crimes committed. This would also mean a genuine disincentive for those who strive to do positive things and improve their communities.

It is very important to ensure that dead people's memories be imbued with their acts of omissions and commissions when they were alive. It is an act of injustice to arrogate false achievements, fake qualities to monstrous figures more notorious for their kleptomania as they gallivant through the inner rooms of power.

Hopefully, when I die, people would have the unburnished courage to say exactly what they feel about me and not deodorize my omissions and imperfections. Hopefully, those who would feel the need to mourn me would not see the need to be hypocritical and dishonest in their elegies. In all this, what became clearer is the vanity of vanity itself. It brought to the fore the cliché popularized by the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State in the early 1980s, "...vanity upon vanity, all is vanity." It underscores the ephemeralness of not just power, but of all things that are human, except our deeds. This probably informed William Shakespeare's ageless rumination captured in the   phrase, " The evil that men do live after them."

We should not praise villains when they are dead. It is a great disincentive to those who labored to be above board and did the right thing. You don't have to agree   with me. You don't have to like me. Please, don't like me, just respect the truth.

“The world tells us to seek success, power and money; God tells us  to seek humility, service and love.”  -  Pope Francis.

African Elites who Seek Treatment Abroad are now Grounded.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic could narrow one gaping inequality in Africa, where some heads of state and other elite jet off to Europe or Asia for health care unavailable in their nations. As countries including their own impose dramatic travel restrictions, they might have to take their chances at home.

For years, leaders from Benin to Zimbabwe have received medical care abroad while their own poorly funded health systems limp from crisis to crisis. Several presidents, including ones from Nigeria, Malawi and Zambia, have died overseas.

The practice is so notorious that a South African health minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, a few years ago scolded, “We are the only continent that has its leaders seeking medical services outside the continent, outside our territory. We must be ashamed.”

Now a wave of global travel restrictions threatens to block that option for a cadre of aging African leaders. More than 30 of Africa's 57 international airports have closed or severely limited flights, the U.S. State Department says. At times, flight trackers have shown the continent's skies nearly empty.

Perhaps “COVID-19 is an opportunity for our leaders to reexamine their priorities,” said Livingstone Sewanyana of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative, which has long urged African countries to increase health care spending.

But that plea has not led to action, even as the continent wrestles with major crises including deadly outbreaks of Ebola and the scourges of malaria and HIV.

Spending on health care in Africa is roughly 5% of gross domestic product, about half the global average. That's despite a pledge by African Union members in 2001 to spend much more. Money is sometimes diverted to security or simply pilfered, and shortages are common.

Ethiopia had just three hospital beds per 10,000 people in 2015, according to World Health Organization data, compared to two dozen or more in the U.S. and Europe. Central African Republic has just three ventilators in the entire country. In Zimbabwe, doctors have reported doing bare-handed surgeries for lack of gloves.

Health experts warn that many countries will be overwhelmed if the coronavirus spreads, and it is already uncomfortably close. Several ministers in Burkina Faso have been infected, as has a top aide to Nigeria’s president. An aide to Congo's leader died.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness and lead to death.

“If you test positive in a country, you should seek care in that country,” the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. John Nkengasong, told reporters Thursday. "It’s not a death sentence."

In Nigeria, some worried their president might be among the victims. Long skittish about President Muhammadu Buhari's absences from public view, including weeks in London for treatment for unspecified health problems, they took to Twitter to ask why he hadn’t addressed the nation as virus cases rose.

Buhari's office dismissed speculation about his whereabouts as unfounded rumor. When he did emerge Sunday night, he announced that all private jet flights were suspended. The international airports were already closed.

While the travel restrictions have grounded the merely wealthy, political analyst Alex Rusero said a determined African leader probably could still find a way to go abroad for care.

“They are scared of death so much they will do everything within their disposal, even if it's a private jet to a private hospital in a foreign land,” said Rusero, who is based in Zimbabwe, whose late President Robert Mugabe often sought treatment in Asia.

Perhaps nowhere is the situation bleaker than in Zimbabwe, where the health system has collapsed. Even before the pandemic, patients’ families were often asked to provide essentials like gloves and clean water. Doctors last year reported using bread bags to collect patients' urine.

Zimbabwe’s vice president, Constantino Chiwenga, departed last month for unrelated medical treatment in China, as the outbreak eased in that country. Zimbabwe closed its borders days later after its first virus death.

Chiwenga has since returned — to lead the country's coronavirus task force.

But some in a new generation of African leaders have been eager to show sensitivity to virus-prevention measures.

The president of Botswana, Mokgweetsi Masisi, initially defied his country’s restrictions on travel by government employees to visit neighboring Namibia for its leader’s inauguration. But he entered self-quarantine and now reminds others to stay home, calling it "literally a matter of life and death.”

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced he had tested negative, just ahead of a three-week lockdown in Africa's most developed country. Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina has as well.

Other leaders, including Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kabore and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, have tweeted images of themselves working via video conference as countries encourage people to keep their distance.

While African leaders are more tied to home than ever, their access to medical care is still far better than most of their citizens'.

In Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, medical student Franck Bienvenu Zida was self-isolating and worried after having contact with someone who tested positive.

The 26-year-old feared infecting people where he lives, but his efforts to get tested were going nowhere. In three days of calling an emergency number to request a test, he could not get through.

Associated Press writers Sam Mednick in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda, contributed to this report.

COVID-19 as a Blessing in Disguise for Nigeria.

Excerpts from an article written by his Eminence, Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie.

...But COVID-19 is also revelatory, a blessing in disguise, because it has exposed Nigeria as a country where quality of leadership is of low grade...
We are spending billions buying brand new cars for our political office holders, paying them sundry allowances, when we have no good hospital to handle the current emergency. Government impoverishes Nigerians, and, the same government has now decided to spray raw cash on the people it impoverishes. On prime-time television, we witnessed the spectacle of bales of naira notes, and a minister of the Federal Republic was doing the distribution...
In the same vein, we have heard how billions of naira are being donated to government without government telling Nigerians how the donation will be spent.
COVID-19 has also revealed to us that there are false prophets living among us. In a country where once you grab a Bible and a microphone you become a pastor or prophet or apostle, where you can become founder of a church without any serious theological formation, we have seen how some of our religious leaders have resorted to dishing out false prophecies. We have been treated to the cruelty of conspiracy theories woven by attention-seeking pseudo-apostles to nurture fear in the minds of people. We have seen how those who did not foresee any pandemic when, at the beginning of the year 2020, they claimed to be “prophesying” for Nigeria, now lay claims to have received a message.
Rather than join the government in providing palliative measures, we have also seen how some pastors have been asking their members to pay tithes even when those members are unable to venture out to earn their daily bread. Some who ventured out were brutalized by policemen and soldiers who are not held accountable for violating the rights of citizens they are paid to protect. Can’t we reason? Let us think!...

The Nigerian Leadership Crisis under General Buhari.

There is no gainsaying the fact

that General Buhari is the worst thing

that has ever happened to leadership in Nigeria.

Buhari's COVID-19 Speech.

I used to take the writings & comments of Reno Omokri with a "pinch of salt" because he was in a previous government that wreaked havoc on Nigeria due to clueless leadership.
   However, I can't help but concur with his analysis of General Buhari's speech on COVID-19.  Here is what Omokri posted on his official Twitter page after Buhari locked down Lagos, FCT and Ogun state:
1-General @MBuhari did not say anything new. @NOIweala already told us to wash our hands and maintin social distance. We want to hear what he plans to do to help. Nothing like that. Instead, he was praising himself. A robot would have done better .   2-General @MBuhari boasted about providing ₦15 billion intervention. Nonsense. That is $37 million for a population of 200 million people. That is less than the ₦150 billion he budgeted for NASS. India released $27 billion for food alone!  
3-How can the FG compete with the private sector in amount provided as relief? You collect taxes, oil rents and Abacha loot and all you give is ₦15 billion. The private sector gave more. Why do we pay you tax? Why do we have a government.  
4-General @MBuhari ordered a lockdown of Lagos, Abuja and Ogun. These areas have already been on lockdown for a week. Does it mean Buhari did not know? How can you ask people to stay in lockdown without providing a adequate reliefs to them.   5-General @MBuhari said the school feeding program should go on. Has he been living in a cave? @Google it. The states have been complaining that the program had been abandoned. He is unaware! So, students will stay at home and eat at school?  
6-Nigeria has a Strategic Food Reserve established by previous governments. If General @MBuhari had compassion, he should have ordered that the grains be released to Nigerians. After all, during Ramadan, Government shares good. Why not now?  
7-You can imagine the cheek of General @MBuhari talking about his useless #Tradermoni now! What nonsense! What is the relevance of tradermoni and NPOWER to #CoronaVirus if you are not mobilising beneficiaries as auxiliary health workers?  
8-In summary, General @MBuhari’s #CoronaVirus broadcast was just hot air! He did not redirect the $37 billion budgeted to renovate NASS or the $150 billion budgeted for less than 500 Reps and Senators towards providing relief for Nigerians  
9-General @MBuhari said he has instituted adequate fiscal measures. That is a lie. He has done little or nothing for individuals and businesses. No economic package for citizens forced to stay at home, even while NASS shares exotic cars  
10-Finally, if I have to describe General @MBuhari’s broadcast, I would say it was dishonest, disjointed, and symptomatic of the incompetence and cluelessness of a man who wants to feed school children while there are no children in schools.

The Nigerian President Refuses to Address his People on COVID-19.

General Buhari is more concerned about the fate of his cows than the Nigerian people.

General Buhari is Determined to Bankrupt Nigeria.

Another loan again! Must General Buhari bankrupt Nigeria before his term ends? Here is one of the many unfavorable comments made by readers on Bloomberg.com: “…Close to 80% of that loan will be used for oil and gas prospecting/development in the North of Nigeria and refilling of Lake Chad. I guarantee you 20% of that loan will end up in private pockets.”

Sowore’s Ordeal just Drives Home the Point that Nigeria's Buhari is Clueless about Governance by Ayo Akinfe.

(1) Like 200m other Nigerians, I simply cannot get my head around how this government has the time, energy and interest in pursuing critics at a time when it has a plethora of major socio-economic challenges facing it. I ask myself if some of those in the corridors of power actually think at all. Can any rational person faced with an annual $100bn infrastructure deficit, a meagre gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of just 1.9% a year while the population is increasing at a rate of 2.6% really have the time for social critics?

 

(2) Only this week, the international ratings agency - Moody’s -downgraded its outlook on Nigeria to negative from stable because of  sluggish economic growth. According to Moody’s, Nigerian government revenue is not increasing, so the country will have no option but to keep borrowing. It added that this will soon make the debt-to-GDP ratio untenable and unsustainable 

(3) Of our 36 states, only Lagos is self-sustaining and can survive without oil income. All the other 35 states are wholly dependent on federal handouts to survive. If this life support known as federal allocation is switched off, all these states will just crumble like a pack of cards 

(4) As we speak, Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world, the open defecation capital of the world, the out-of-school capital of the world and the polio capital of the world. In all these areas, we embarrassingly top the global charts 

(5) As if that is not enough, insecurity is scaring away investors by the day. Boko Haram and Fulani cattle herdsmen are running riot across the country while kidnappers are having a field day 

(6) We only generate about 7,000MW of power, of which about 4,000MW is delivered. We need at least four mega hydro-electric plants to bring generated output to around 20,000MW and we have not yet figured out how to make our privatised distribution and transmission companies effective. Many of them are heavily indebted, lack the access to capital to invest in equipment and the sector has struggled to attract international investors 

(7) When it comes to transport, we are sitting on a mega time bomb. Lagos has a population of 22m and does not have a tube or metro network. Shanghai has a similar population and it has an urban metro with 413 stations used by 10m people every day. Their Maglev train which connects the city with the airport runs at a speed of 431km an hour. It is a magnetic levitation train that does not have wheels or an engine. Are we blind to all this????

(8) Look at our port debacle. We only have one functioning sea port despite having 853km of coastline. How to dredge Warri, Forcados, Port Harcourt, Calabar and Ikot-Abasi has surely got to be something that keeps our ministers up every night. How do they sleep soundly with such problems plaguing the nation and no programme to resolve them on sight?

(9) Were I in government I would not even have the time to notice that the likes of Omoyele Sowore and Ibrahim El-Zakzaky exist, yet alone find the time to order their arrests. This government simply has too much on its plate to be bothered about what it’s so-called enemies, both real and imaginary are doing. 

(10) Who remembers the phrase: “Nero is dancing while Rome is burning?” Is it just me but surely it would have made more sense to deploy those heavily armed DSS men to Sambisa Forest or against murderous herdsmen than to the federal high court in Abuja where a totally civilised legal sitting was taking place. Is this paranoia or what because it totally blows my head away. If the government is so bothered about Sowore’s propaganda, why not take him on in a series of public debates? Even the Nazi’s were not this paranoid. Joseph Goebbels made his name taking on hecklers and beating them with his charisma. Is there nobody this government can deploy to engage its critics intellectually? I am astounded at the level of intellectual laziness we are faced with in Nigeria. I am not sure who is the greater culprit, the paranoid government or its sycophantic, hero-worshipping praise singers.

Assault on the Nigerian Constitution.

"...Slowly but steadily, a supposed Democratic government began its relentless assault on what our Constitution had enshrined as a government of separation of powers. President Buhari took up the role of an avuncular leader and school headmaster. He simply encroached into territories that were clearly not his to tamper with. If Jonathan had tried a small fraction of this, hell would have known no bigger fury. Yet most of our leaders and elders have disappeared from the radar without as much as a whimper...You brood of hypocrites! Jonathan was our whipping boy and we trounced, thrashed and trashed him mercilessly. But now, we have lost our voices, it is not just that our criticism has become muted, they have become practically non-existent because the Presidential trolls have been relentless in the way and manner that they have traduced the few honorable critics. Our pen tigers have stopped writing. Our loquacious activists have since absconded and abdicated their once noble responsibilities. Such is life. The oppressed, according to Paulo Freire, only fears and respects his oppressors. We have all seemingly been cowed (no pun intended) into submission. Heaven forbid! That is neither the Nigerian spirit nor psyche!..." - Dele Momodu.

Joke for the Weekend.

President Buhari of Nigeria met with the Queen of England in London and asked her...how do you run such an efficient government here? Are there any tips you can give to me? I want to help Nigeria.

QUEEN: The most important thing is to surround yourself with intelligent people.

Buhari: How do I know the people around me are really intelligent?

QUEEN: Oh, that's easy. Just ask them to answer an intelligent riddle. The Queen sent for Theresa May, the Prime Minister. Theresa May walked into the room,

MAY: Yes, your Majesty. You sent for me.

QUEEN: Answer this riddle. Theresa, your mother and father have a child, it is not your brother and it is not your sister. Who is it?"

MAY: Hmmm... that would be me.

QUEEN: Yes, very good.

When Buhari got back to Nigeria, he sent for Abba Kyari, his Chief of Staff.

Kyari walk in to Buhari's office.

Kyari : Sir you called me.

Buhari: Yes sit down and answer this; Your mother and your father have a child, it's not your brother and it's not your sister, who is it?

Kyari: I'm not sure, let me get back to you.

He asked all his staff in the office but none could give him an answer. Kyari then ran to Fashola.

Kyari asked:  Your mother and father have a child and it's not your brother or sister, who is it?"

FASHOLA: That's easy. It's me.

Kyari smiled and said, Thanks. Then he went back to speak with President Buhari.

Kyari: Sir, I have the answer to that riddle, It's Babatunde Raji Fashola...

Buhari got angry, and said to Kyari; No wonder Nigeria isn't moving forward, I am surrounded by dummies! The answer is... Theresa May! 

The Current State of Unrest in Nigeria.

Sometimes, one can’t help but wonder why too many of our folks, especially those back home just don’t care about the current state of the nation. While a whole lot of them are nonchalant due to selfish reasons, some others are simply burying their heads in the sands like a bunch of ostriches. The following statements, as made by seasoned columnists, aptly sum up the situation:

"Few Nigerians understand that our chaos, our urban rot and rural decay, our decrepit roads, hospitals, and universities, our power failures and water shortages, and our fuel scarcity are collective consequences of our wanton embrace of the ‘unthought’ and ‘unreflected’ society". -Pius Adesanmi.

"The Sultan of Sokoto was reported yesterday as expressing worries about the future of Nigeria. Given his position as the Caliph and his pedigree as a battle-tested General of the Nigerian Army, he should be worried. We should all be worried too. And I wish those in government share in these worries. Every sensible person knows the country is exactly in a pre-crash state, except God takes absolute control of the cockpit..." - Lasisi Olagunju.

“Boko Haram is festering, bandits are slaying, killer herdsmen are advancing, SARs are maiming, secessionist are agitating, militants are emboldened, young people are idle and hunger is killing you, yet all you do is muse on base things. .. like a Phoenix, common sense is buried somewhere in the ashes of this national mediocrity and it's resurrection (which will lead to an insurrection) is at hand…” - Senami Kojah.

Nigerians protesting against tribalism.

Leader of the Boko Haram terrorists.

Nigerian soldiers.

The Hausa/Fulani North and the rest of Nigeria.by Lasisi Olagunju.

“I know that no captor, no slave owner wants the captive free. I know that the day the fool gains wisdom is the day the wise loses his power. But since Buhari no longer needs the Almajiri as the tap root of his electoral power, he should use his last years to assist all of us by taking his 'boys and girls' to school. It will help the future of Nigeria if the North gives us men and women who have competence and knowledge to contribute to the national asset pool.

Poor, illiterate Northern Kids

We just had an election in which the two major candidates were northerners. An election conducted by a president who is from the North and by an INEC chairman who is also from the North. These men just gave us a challenged presidential poll closely guarded by security chiefs all from the North. The North, through this election, has told us clearly that it owns the yam and the knife of Nigeria. It should therefore learn to be a responsible husband, doing things well and tidying up properly going forward. I would have said that we need an educated North to give us a believable election in 2023 but my friend would counter that. My friend would say 2023 is too soon for our unprepared North to do right. So how long should we wait for the North to be ready for excellence? This 2019 stuff is sick and sickening. Was it INEC's incompetence or pure mischief that figures in our 2019 presidential election became problematic? The figures announced by Professor Mahmood Yakubu are these:

Total number of registered voters: 82,344,107

Total number of accredited voters: 29,364,209

Total votes cast: 28,614,190

Total Valid votes: 27,324,583

Rejected votes: 1,289,607

Did INEC not tell us some hours to the elections that it registered a total of 84,004,084 voters? So where did it get the new number of 82,344,107 as our total registered voters? What happened to the balance of 1,659,977 voters? Did they vote in that election and if they did, where are their votes? Or they died before the elections or they went on exile renouncing their citizenship? Or they reside in Sambisa forest where there were (are) no polling booths? What happened to them

 

A Northern Nigerian King

Again, why did INEC announce different figures for accredited voters and for total votes cast when all of us who voted saw clearly that voting and accreditation were done simultaneously? INEC said accredited voters were 29,364,209 and total votes cast 28,614,190. Between those two figures are 750,019 voters and their votes. What happened to them? Or did INEC give ballot papers to these almost a million persons who took the ballot papers home instead of dropping them in the ballot box? Then there is the huge number of rejected (cancelled) votes - 1,289,607 (4.5percent of total votes cast). What explanation has INEC for these? Or, again, is it too much to demand reasons for the wasted efforts of millions of our compatriots?

Above all, if you have Buhari's ears, tell him to help us by educating the children of the North. They should not be useful only on election days.” 

Democracy Will Not Be Emasculated in Nigeria.by Waziri Atiku Abubakar.

Waziri Atiku Abubakar.

I thank the Nigerian people who trooped out in their millions to perform their civic duty this past Saturday. The patriotism of Nigerians is heartwarming and affirms my oft-repeated statement that we are brothers and sisters born from the womb of one mother Nigeria.

 

With regards to the Presidential elections that took place on February 23, 2019, it is clear that there were manifest and premeditated malpractices in many states which negate the results announced.

 

One obvious red flag is the statistical impossibility of states ravaged by the war on terror generating much higher voter turnouts than peaceful states. The suppressed votes in my strongholds are so apparent and amateurish, that I am ashamed as a Nigerian that such could be allowed to happen. How can total votes in Akwa-Ibom, for instance, be 50% less than what they were in 2015?

 

Another glaring anomaly is the disruption of voting in strongholds of the Peoples Democratic Party in Lagos, Akwa-Ibom, Rivers and diverse other states, with the authorities doing little or nothing and in some cases facilitating these unfortunate situations.  

Lagos, Nigeria

The militarization of the electoral process is a disservice to our democracy and a throwback to the jackboot era of military dictatorship. In some areas of the country, such as, Rivers, Akwa-Ibom and Imo states, troops deployed for the elections turned their guns on the very citizens they were meant to protect. This is condemnable and should not be associated with our electoral process in the future.

 

I am a democrat and there are democratic avenues available to present the truth to the nation and the watching world. Already, many international observers have given their verdicts, which corroborate our observations. I am sure more will come in the coming hours and days.

 

If I had lost in a free and fair election, I would have called the victor within seconds of my being aware of his victory to offer not just my congratulations, but my services to help unite Nigeria by being a bridge between the North and the South.

 

However, in my democratic struggles for the past three decades, I have never seen our democracy so debased as it was on Saturday, February 23, 2019. 2007 was a challenge, but President Yar’Adua was remorseful. In 2019, it is sad to see those who trampled on democracy thumping their noses down on the Nigerian people.

 

Consequently, I hereby reject the result of the February 23, 2019 sham election and will be challenging it in court.

 

I want to assure my supporters and the entire Nigerian people that together, we will not allow democracy to be emasculated.

 

I hope and pray Nigerians will someday summon the courage to defend democracy. That is the only way we can move away from being the world headquarters for extreme poverty.

 

Signed:

Waziri Atiku Abubakar

27th February 2019

The Ranka Dede Republic by Sonala Olumhense.

“…It did not take long before the Buhari administration, so openly and so warmly received by Nigerians when it came to power, began to show its true and frightful face. Soon enough, it became clear that his administration had a conception of government in which the governed were regarded as a hostile, adversary force, and in which government was virtually an end in itself…

 

“…Blackmailed into silence, Nigerians watched as the traditional foundations of the state were eroded. Ethnicity became a principle of state policy. The economy sputtered along. Educational policy was in shambles. Our hospitals became graveyards. And all along we were invited to believe, as an article of patriotic faith, that we lived in the best of all possible worlds.

 

“Ultimately, it was the arrogance of the Buhari administration that led to its downfall. For arrogance always leads to moral and political blindness. Blindness leads to isolation, and when any government is isolated from the governed, its end is always predictable…” - “The Arrogance of Power” – The Guardian Editorial of August, 1985.

 

Buhari, a 76-year old man who has served in various federal posts in the past 40 years, had justified every appointment profile by claiming that he appoints people he can trust. To begin with, that cannot be the truth given that on several occasions he has declared that he made those appointments on “merit,” not previously knowing the individuals involved. On what basis do you trust people you do not know to such an extent that the ensuing demographic overwhelmingly tilts towards your village?

 

The obvious and immediate interpretation of that claim, to the embarrassment of many northerners, is that southerners and non-Muslims are untrustworthy.

People that will not vote for Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.

1. The Intellect that believes education is a very important background for a purposeful leader.

2. Victims of Fulani "herdsmen" attacks and, especially, the people of North Central Nigeria such as Benue, Southern Zaria, Plateau and Southern Kaduna whose major crime is because they dare to practice Christianity in a predominantly Muslim North.

3. Eleven million Nigerians that lost their jobs since Buhari came to power.

4. Twenty million young people he called lazy and useless youths while his own kids (all educated in U.K) are flaunting some ill-gotten wealth all over the place. His son even has a million-Naira bike with which he had an accident sometimes ago.

5. Shittes that are being victimized for practicing a different form of Islam.

6. The southeasterners and, especially, the victims of Operation Python Dance.

7. People that want Nigeria to grow irrespective of the ethnic background of the leadership. When former president Jonathan was messing up the country, the slogan of these progressive people was "Anyone but Jonathan." And now that Buhari is dragging our nation down socio-economically while pretending to fight corruption (only against his political enemies), the same progressives are saying, "Anyone but Buhari ".

8. All the APC members oppressed by Tinubu and Oshiomole especially in the southwestern states.

9. All the people affected by the current economic meltdown...especially those young graduates who have no rich, privileged parents to provide for them.

10. All the people who were deceived in 2015 by Buhari when he claimed to have a WAEC certificate and when he pretended to be poor.

11. Anyone that really cares about the development and growth of our nation.

Dialogue With Nigeria by Akin Osuntokun.

While expressing a routine disappointment with his naked display of Northern/Muslim parochialism the other day, I was quickly cautioned by a supposed beneficiary of this identity category that Buhari has rendered those of them outside the Kano/Katsina/Kazaure loop the latest victims of his penchant for parochial discrimination. This was about two years ago. If we are not there yet and given his record, there is the distinct possibility that he is ultimately headed towards converting Nigeria into a Daura dominion writ large.

As it is well known, I have a chronic allergy to Buhari’s brand of toxic politics-predicated on tribalism, hypocrisy and primitive demagoguery. I have a fundamental and longstanding opposition to his assumption of the Nigerian Presidency. My opposition is rooted in the conviction that any political leader who rose to prominence on the wings of dividing the people of this country should never be rewarded with the Presidency of Nigeria. It is a contradiction in terms to propose that a politician sworn to pseudo jihadist vision of Nigeria should be entrusted with the role of fostering an enduring Pan-Nigeria consensus and unity. He is as undeserving and incapable of rising to the occasion as Donald Trump is incapable of uniting America. The dangerously divided state of Nigeria under Buhari’s watch is a reflection of the caution that you cannot give what you do not have. Unity and national harmony are not in Buhari’s DNA and his natural instincts tend towards fractional conquest and political subjugation.

Buhari, Nigeria's current president.

To the regret of many critical stakeholders who supported him to win the 2015 presidential election, the reasoned counsel that you cannot know Buhari more than what the man has shown of himself was discountenanced. They were blinkered by the non-strategic focus on the disappointment with the Goodluck Jonathan’s Presidency. But, again, as the saying goes, to every disappointment, there is a blessing-and that there could be a hidden utility in the costly miscalculation, after all. Were he to be denied the presidency and remain untested Buhari would have gone down in the history of Nigeria as a martyr of messianic proportions and handily break the record of the contemplative status of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo as the best President Nigeria never had.

Yet if only the unwary had exercised greater caution and listen more carefully to the rhythm blowing in the air they would have detected the premonition of his romance with the dollarized rogue governor from the North, in the blind exoneration that ‘Abacha did not steal any money’. They would have made the inference of misplacement of belief in his capacity to secure Nigeria from the antecedence of being swept away like a forlorn obdurate child by the Ibrahim Babangida coup of 1985. The speculation that he was not in charge of the mandate entrusted to him by the Nigerian electorate was ultimately confirmed by his wife. This is also an echo from his past incumbency as military head of state where it was common knowledge that it was his deputy, Babatunde Idiagbon, who was the indispensable power behind the throne. It certainly was no coincidence that his removal from office was timed to coincide with the absence of Idiagbon in the country. 

Nigeria's founding fathers: from left, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello and Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

There is no doubt the chemistry of a godfather/godson relationship has bonded Buhari and El Rufai. Shortly after the Kaduna State governor drove a bulldozer to demolish the residence of a political foe in Kaduna he paid a visit to Buhari in Aso Rock Presidential Villa. Upon sighting him, the choleric president broke into a wide smile and approvingly hailed his protégé ‘the bulldozer governor’ or something to that effect. It is not exactly clear how the characteristic low scale intensity of the interminable violence that has bedeviled Kaduna escalated into genocidal proportions but the degeneration coincided with the assumption of office by both men in Abuja and Kaduna in 2015.

The fact that el-Rufai saw nothing wrong and was in fact spitefully gloating over the joint Muslim/Muslim governorship ticket in a state that is defined by religious dichotomy and conflict is an indication of a mental indisposition to seek a meaningful amelioration and healing of the fraught religious divisiveness that has predisposed the state to perennial violent upheaval. What is more chilling is the precise information provided on the guardian angel role of President Buhari in deliberately aiding and abetting the institutionalization of a formula he knows will encourage rather than discourage the deepening of the divisive volatility in the state. Is a winner takes all formula the best instrument of fostering the spirit of consensus, cooperation and harmony among contending pluralistic groups? Would the governor and president have similarly found nothing wrong in the orchestration of a joint Christian/Christian ticket? How does this decision promote confidence building among the warring communities? Take note that this was a decision taken in the thick of the rampaging genocidal bloodletting in the Middle Belt provoked by a similar fractious and callous identity politics.

And then as if intent on reminding Nigerians and the international community of a Nigerian potential to relapse into the international pariah status fostered by the Sani Abacha military dictatorship era, el-Rufai launched a seemingly mindless attack on the international community. The million naira question is what does he know that we don’t? Was this what President Olusegun Obasanjo was warning us about? Are these people preparing for a free and credible elections or large scale brigandage? Was the siege on the National Assembly a while ago an isolated incident and a sole lunatic overreach of a rogue security chief? Is there no sequential logic tying this development to the orchestrated subversion of the judiciary via the subterfuge of scapegoating a light fingered Chief Justice? Why all this desperation and impotent rage? Haven’t Obasanjo and Jonathan proven that there is life after power?

And just when you think it cannot get any worse, Buhari springs a new trick on you. Given to stretching and breaching the delicate thread that ties Nigeria together he is always to be found in the laboratory experimenting with fissiparous tendencies. He was neither the Sultan nor the Grand Khadi yet it was him who became the chief missioner for renewed Sharia agitation once he spotted the negative potential to rally the Muslim North against the Obasanjo government and the rest of Nigeria- “I will continue to show openly and inside me the total commitment to the Sharia movement that is sweeping all over Nigeria. God willing, we will not stop the agitation for the total implementation of the Sharia in the country”. As we were made to believe, he was neither the founder nor leader of Boko Haram, yet he was the one nominated as the group’s representative in an abortive mediation proposal. The backdrop to the recognition was his divisive and inciting demonization of his predecessor’s military engagement with the terrorist group ‘as tantamount to injustice against the North’.

Now our president has become the first Nigerian leader to invite leaders of another country for political mobilization against his fellow nationals. “Tomorrow, it will be officials from Togo or Benin or even Equatorial Guinea dictating to us. Indeed, international intelligence agencies recently confirmed heightened influx of tons of persons into Nigeria from Niger. Everyday thousands are entering Kano, Katsina and Jigawa axis. What is going on?” laments a concerned Nigerian.

What a way to reciprocate the statesmanship of his predecessor who rose to the occasion in 2015 in a rare African display of enlightenment and adult comportment. Were the potential winner of the election not a personality who shares the same ethno-regional identity with the incumbent only God knows the extent to which Buhari would have exploited the attendant cleavages to drive Nigeria to the precipice.