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In March 2017, a remarkable memo sent seven months earlier to President Muhammadu Buhari, leaked. It had been written by Nasir El-Rufai, the then Governor of Kaduna State and member of the president’s inner circle, in September 2016. Hate or love Mr. El-Rufai, he is a brilliant man. His brilliance — which is sometimes dedicated to questionable causes — […]
Continue ReadingWe all know the pathetic profile of leadership in Nigeria. In his famous 1983 pamphlet, “The Trouble With Nigeria,” Chinua Achebe captured it like a camera: “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land […]
Continue ReadingIf you have ever used a Nigerian road, you are familiar with the experience of the motor vehicle breakdown requiring the intervention of a mechanic. If you are lucky, there is one nearby. If your luck happens to be somewhere else, it may take hours—and a succession of mechanics, or days—to get that engine fixed, […]
Continue ReadingFirst, I commend Mr. Bola Tinubu for his official recognition of the 17 soldiers who were murdered this month in Okuama, Delta State, while reportedly on official duty. In addition to giving them national honours, he gave homes to their families and scholarships to their children. We await a proper investigation of the tragic incident, the president’s […]
Continue ReadingOn May 29, 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari and his wife, Aisha, arrived at the Abuja venue of his second term inauguration in luxury and style: a customised 2019 Mercedes-Maybach S-Class S 560. Value: over N61m. President Buhari, in his decades-long self-advertisement, was not a corrupt man. Which was probably why a car, which inflicted such an egregious […]
Continue ReadingLast September, five months after he took office, Nigerian leader Bola Tinubu recalled all but two of Nigeria’s ambassadors from their foreign posts. “The president is determined to ensure that world-class efficiency and quality, will henceforth, characterize foreign and domestic service delivery to citizens, residents and prospective visitors alike,” a presidential aide said. Four months after Nigeria’s […]
Continue ReadingThe day I met Gregory Sallust, everything changed. It was in my first year in secondary school, and somewhere, I stumbled on a work of fiction called ‘Faked Passports’, by Dennis Wheatley. His Sallust was a British spy who was on the run, his plane having been shot down in Nazi Germany. People – particularly […]
Continue ReadingI confess that last Wednesday, I feared I may be a masochist. I do not know what else one diagnoses after he spent most of 10 hours listening to the Presidential Election Petitions Court. I mean, I had other things to do, and I should have moved on to them the moment I learned that […]
Continue ReadingIt’s merely weeks ago, on this page, that I was commenting on how, in the hands of Nigeria’s new ruler, the country was steadily eliminating the concept of ethics or morality in public life. At the time, a new Senate President had been installed: Godswill Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa Ibom State, whom for eight years […]
Continue ReadingThe government of Lagos State denied it, as did the federal: that in the #EndSARS incident of October 20, 2020 at the Lekki tollgate, people were shot and killed. They denied that corpses had been hurriedly evacuated. No government or official was guilty of anything, they insisted. But protesters and other witnesses at the toll […]
Continue ReadingExactly one month out of power, former Nigeria leader Muhammadu Buhari has appeared on Twitter. He was wearing one curious item: a pen. I wondered why. Known neither as a reader nor a writer, he entered the presidency with a lot of important documents and items he needed to read or have read to him. He never […]
Continue ReadingLast Monday, All Progressives Congress chieftain and one-time governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, was inaugurated President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Mr Tinubu’s inauguration was indexed in Nigerian law, which I acknowledge and respect. The ongoing legal challenges to his election are also indexed in the law, and I am happy to acknowledge […]
Continue ReadingWith increasing intensity as the President, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)’s era hurtles to an embarrassing end, the truth has become inescapable: his government is as much a lie as any other. I have given him credit for some infrastructural work, but Buhari ought to be insulted that he may be remembered in that light, especially […]
Continue ReadingA hotel room, by nature, is owned by nobody. You rent it, and after you, someone else does the same. If there is no default by a renter, there are often no major problems. Among others, that renter can choose when his room is cleaned by hanging a sign on his door which says, “Do […]
Continue ReadingEveryone who observes Nigeria knows there is a large body of religious people and self-confessed prophets who hear, or claim to hear, the voice of God in political affairs. The Nigerian who fascinates me in this regard is Moshood Ademola Fayemiwo, the Spiritual Head & Founder of The Jesus Christ Solution Centre in Texas, United […]
Continue ReadingScenario One: Nigeria’s so-called secret police, the Department of State Services, on Wednesday announced that it had “identified some key players in the plot for an interim government in Nigeria.” “The Service considers the plot, being pursued by these entrenched interests, as not only an aberration but a mischievous way to set aside the constitution and undermine […]
Continue ReadingLast week, I opened my case for Nigerians not to vote for the All Progressives Congress this year. I refer to Nigerians who are led by reason, not sentiment; by the facts, not conjecture; by logic, not hot air; by self-respect, not idol worship. Such a Nigerian, wherever he may be, is a witness to the perfidy […]
Continue ReadingWith less than one month to Nigeria’s general election, one political party ought not to be on the ballot at all. That is the ruling All Progressives Congress. If dignity was of any concern to APC or if it had any sense of character or shame whatsoever, it would have called or written to the […]
Continue ReadingHappy New Year, Nigeria! According to the calendar of the Federal Government, insecurity is now ‘over.’ Following seven years’ worth of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari’s (retd) meetings with security chiefs, various and persistent directives and orders, repeated budgetary provisions and outlays, declarations of intent and ambition, speeches at home and abroad, expensive orders of […]
Continue ReadingNigeria leader Muhammadu Buhari turned 80 yesterday. The older and richer he has grown, the less respected and influential he also has become, and the greater the efforts required to sustain his desired image as a “successful” leader. For instance, Senate leader Ahmad Lawan, in a birthday message, told Buhari that millions of Nigerians are “inspired” by the […]
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