A FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ON AUTO PILOT

By Armsfree Ajanaku
THE framers of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution must have taken the enormity of governance into consideration when, in their wisdom, decided to create a space for ministers of the government of the federation.
And as if a pointer to the inclusiveness and broad character that must underlie governance, the Constitution makes it mandatory for each of Nigeria’s 36 states to produce, at least, one minister to work with the nation’s helmsman.
While the ministers hold their offices at the pleasure of the President, the constitution has envisaged them as inseparable components of the entire governance architecture.
Added to this are the various provisions that give the body of ministers, designated as the Executive Council of the Federation (EXCOF) in the Constitution, wide powers to take certain fundamental decisions that go beyond policy making and implementation.
If, for instance, the President is incapacitated, the Executive Council of the Federation is one body the Constitution gives the powers to rescue the situation.
It is, therefore, apparent that the Constitution does not intend any form of sole administration in the governance of the country. This is why Section 147 provides, “there be such offices of Ministers of the Government of the Federation as may be established by the President.”

A DESPERATE MEMO TO PRESIDENT BUHARI

By Dele Momodu
Your Excellency, I write to you today with a heavy heart. The reason should be obvious. I was one of those latter day converts to Buharism, a political philosophy that believes in the reincarnation of former leaders in the days of tribulation. You were never the first man to resurrect from retirement and near political oblivion. General Olusegun Obasanjo bounced back from prison to Aso Rock Villa. In nearby Benin Republic, former military dictator and strongman, Mathieu Kerekou who had served as maximum ruler for about 17 incredible years, came back to defeat incumbent President , Nicephore Soglo in a 1990 election. He led his country for another ten years and almost got another five-year term but for the age barrier that disqualified him.
It is normal for Africans to run towards the wise elders of the village when trouble comes knocking. That is one of the major reasons Nigerians in their millions voted with their feet and thumbs to elect you President. Many of those who supported you did so for several other reasons and you must understand that they were mainly not members of your political party, APC. So, apart from your age, they backed you because they believed in your impeccable pedigree as an incorruptible and honourable man, a strict disciplinarian, a Scrooge who would not fritter away our meagre resources, a scourge of rogues and prodigal sons, a metamorphosed tyrant now a born-again democrat, and so on and so forth. Nigerians ardently placed their hopes in you and fervently prayed you won’t disappoint them. This is the principal reason I have decided to send you this desperate memo today before some despicable politicians tarnish your hard-earned reputation and truncate this beautiful chance again.

OKUPE’S PREDICTION AND THE APC By Niran Adedokun

When the Senior Special Assistant, Public Affairs to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr Doyin Okupe, swore that the All Progressives Congress would not last one year, many Nigerians went after him in anger.
Maybe Okupe sowed some seeds that justify what he got, but the medic turned politician saw something that most of us did not pause to consider. In our anger, we condemned the message because of the messenger.
Experienced politician that he is, having been in the top echelons of a national party as far as 24 years back, Okupe must have seen the congregation of politicians from every shade of opinion and interest coming together in a hurry and concluded that at some point, there would, without fail, be a conflict of interests, which could precipitate a conflagration that the APC may be unable to weather through.
Those who were in a hurry to condemn Okupe must be having a rethink now. Reports following the elections of leaders of the National Assembly indicate that combatants in the APC are determined to snuff life out of the in-house opponent without regard to what that may do to the party and a country that is haemorrhaging.

THEY HAVE HIJACKED OUR CHANGE, AGAIN

By Pat Utomi
It may sound naïve, especially for a person who is obviously a partisan, but my concern and alarm have little to do with who won or lost in the National Assembly leadership elections palaver. Easy as this can be lost on the gladiators, we could be collectively sabotaging the poor ordinary people of Nigeria desperate for change. Could this elite which has consistently failed to find its mission and do for its people what their old classmates in schools in the United States and the United Kingdom and elsewhere in the West, have done for their people in Asia and Latin America, unwittingly miss this window built on a change mantra, and betray another generation? It was with this spirit of wondering how easily we chase power, unmindful of purpose that I exclaimed on seeing the political bloodletting in the National Assembly leadership selection. My reaction was, Oh my God, not again! With the process and outcome clearly signalling disunity, lack of discipline and weak goal-setting, and severe goal displacement, the least impact would be challenged implementation of what the people voted for.

YOU TAMBUWALED ME, I SARAKIED YOU!

By Zacheaus Adebayo
“Senator Bukola and Hon. Dogara are not the candidates of the APC and a majority of its National Assembly members-elect for the positions of Senate President and House Speaker…. The party is supreme and its interest is superior to that of its individual members.
Consequently, the APC leadership is meeting in a bid to re-establish discipline in the party and to mete out the necessary sanctions to all those involved in what is nothing but a monumental act of indiscipline and betrayal to subject the party to ridicule and create obstacles for the new administration… There can be no higher level of treachery, disloyalty and insincerity within any party”.
-Alh Lai Mohammed, National Publicity Secetary, APC
Unless you saw the National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Lai Mohammed, gallantly defend the party’s position on national televisions, you would hardly believe that he indeed issued the statement, which excerpts I quoted above. It is a typical case of talking from both sides of the mouth.
It is easily recalled that the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN’s spokesman applauded when Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal beat Hon. Mulikat Akande-Adeola blue and black against the zoning formula and directive of the former ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP through ACN’s conspiracy with some ‘rebellious’ PDP lawmakers. It was all about Ahmed Bola Tinubu ensuring that the PDP did not have any rallying point in the South West and also to trigger internal discord. And indeed, the PDP and Jonathan’s administration never recovered from that blow.

A REGIME OF ‘CHANGE’ AND ITS EMERGENT CRISIS

-Guardian
The crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC)- led Federal Government is threatening the kind of positive impact expected to be made on the socio- political and economic life of Nigeria and Nigerians by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
So much acrimony, rancour and suspicion now characterise the relations among the leaders of the APC who, despite all odds, were able to take power from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which ruled the nation for 16 years.
At the root of all the troubles that had held the much celebrated new government hostage is the scramble for the political positions available at the federal level by many anxious and impatient party leaders, most of whom are only concerned about their selfish interests as against the talk of national interest that dominated the APC campaigns for votes.
As the nation anxiously awaits the new government to fill key offices and fulfill the promise of change that gave birth to the Buhari administration, the President seemed to be waiting for the rather unimpressive political battle over who gets what.

A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT BUHARI

I love Nigerians with all my heart. They always put a smile on your face. Moments after President Muhammadu Buhari was inaugurated on May 29, his tenure was already being appraised on the social media! One witty chap said something like: "It is now 30 minutes since Buhari was sworn in and we still don't have fuel or light!" If that does not make you laugh, nothing else will. Nobody would expect power supply to stabilise in Buhari's first one year, much less in the first 30 minutes! The guy was obviously pulling the legs of Buhari's supporters who had marketed him during the presidential campaign as the solution to all the problems bedevilling Nigeria.
Within hours of Buhari's inauguration, I already knew where his biggest opposition would come from: the social media. In just one week, the signals are emitting furiously. Former President Goodluck Jonathan got the raw taste of the social media venom. At some stage, he described himself as the most abused president in the world. I don't know about that, but there is no president of Nigeria that will not face fierce criticism. People are in pains. Preaching patience to them — in the midst of debilitating fuel shortages, steady blackouts, mangled infrastructure, crippling corruption and high unemployment — is never going to be a fluent homily.

TINUBU: THE FAULTY PIN THAT MIGHT RUIN APC

By Nosah Ikharia
On May 29, former President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) handed over power to the Muhammadu Buhari-led opposition All Progressives Congress party (APC), and then, kick starting a new look and APC dominated 8th National Assembly.
A need therefore arises for Nigerians to critically examine the factors that are likely to play out and point to the direction of leadership and largely determine the progress or otherwise, to be made by the new administration.
In all democracies, beyond the passion by politicians to positively impact on the populace through people-centred policies and programmes, the equitable distribution of political offices plays critical part in determining the speed, shape and manner of progress by any administration.

HIGH EXPECTATION AS BUHARI TAKES OVER TODAY

Daily Trust report
Perseverance, determination, hard work, never-say-die spirit, ascetic life style, a long Army career including meritorious war service, rich public service experience, squeaky clean service record, stern no-nonsense posture, historic alliance building and adroit political campaigning will all be rewarded today when Muhammadu Buhari is inaugurated as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
The inauguration ceremony will start at 8 o’clock this morning at the Eagle Square in Abuja. Also to take the oath of office is Professor Yemi Osinbajo as Vice President of the Federal Republic.

GO YE WELL, PRESIDENT JONATHAN

By Dele Momodu
Our dear President, please permit me to write my last epistle to you as our leader and Commander-in-Chief. By this time next week, I expect you to have flown back to Yenagoa via Port Harcourt. How I wish I could have the opportunity of being on that last trip, not to mock you but to capture your swinging moods in those few moments of realising that the end has come eventually. I would love to know how many of your big friends would take the pain to follow you or if most would abandon you to your fate and move on pronto to the new brides. Even as a writer with what I believe is vivid imagination, I’m not able to paint a picture of the sort of life or future that awaits you in Otuoke, Yenagoa, Abuja, Chad, Germany, Dubai or wherever you decide to hibernate in the short or long run.
Let us give thanks to God no matter the situation. You have been the luckiest man I know in Nigeria or anywhere else for that matter. You have been in high office for the past 16 years and I doubt if any other soul has had such uncommon favour. Therefore, it shouldn't be any big deal to you, Sir. Though as a human being, one would still expect that you would feel the pain of rejection and dejection as they usually walk hand-in-hand like romantics do. It is sad that it had to end like this despite many warnings and prophesies foretold by me and a few others.

THE DAY GOODLUCK JONATHAN BECAME MY HERO

By Femi Aribisala
I WRITE this as someone who does not know President Jonathan personally. I have never met the man. Neither have I ever spoken to him electronically. All I know about him is what I read in the papers, or what I have seen of him on television. Nevertheless, he has been my president for the last five years.
When you write positively about the president, his opponents insist you must either be a card-carrying member of the PDP or be looking for a job. They act as if it is impossible to like him without having an ulterior motive. I have ignored this cheap blackmail designed to discourage people from expressing freely their liking for the president. But it has already outlived its usefulness. In a matter of days, the president will leave office. From now on, those ostensibly looking for a job are the praise-singers of president-elect Buhari.
Sabotage

WHO IS A LAGOSIAN?

By Muyiwa Adetiba
About 12, 15 years ago, when the issue of who is really a Lagosian was nothing more than a stimulating debate among friends, I had asked a friend to write an article on it for me. His was one of the more passionate voices when the issue was discussed at Ikoyi Club amidst banter and drinks then. He had every reason to be passionate. He was born and bred in IsaleEko, the ‘cradle’ of Lagos of Edo father and Yoruba mother.
He bears his Yoruba name and his spoken Yoruba is rich and often laced with proverbs and idioms. He is also now a Chief in one of the suburbs in Lagos. Surely he qualifies to be called a Lagosian. Unfortunately, his surname gives him away. Another friend who was also born and bred in Isale Eko goes to the Campos area every fortnight to ‘feel the earth’ and identify with his roots.He proudly bears his Yoruba name but there is nothing he can do about his surname. Does that make him less of a Lagosian? Another, a colleague in my days at the Vanguard is an Ijaw from Bayelsa, but was born and bred in Lagos, and attended one of the popular secondary schools in Lagos. Even when he ventured out, it was to the University of Ife and it was to Lagos he came during breaks and holidays. He says proudly ‘omo Eko l’awa’. (We are Lagosians) despite his names which scream Ijaw. Is he in denial?

PDP MANAGED POVERTY, WE WILL END IT – TINUBU

ADDRESS OF THE CHANCELLOR, LADOKE AKINTOLA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, OGBOMOSO, ASIWAJU BOLA AHMED TINUBU, DELIVERED AT THE 12TH CONVOCATION CEREMONY, HELD ON THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 2015
Protocol
I am delighted to address this assembly for the first time since my investiture as the 4th chancellor of our university. When we assembled here for that memorable event exactly one year ago, many national and international personalities were among our guests.
We had the privilege of the eminent presence of General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), now the President-elect of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. At the time, we could only hope and pray that all would be well with our dear country, Nigeria. Today, we are grateful to God because he has heard our cry and has answered our prayer for a better nation. It is, therefore, my privilege to welcome you all to this important occasion of the 12th Convocation Ceremony of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso.

HOW THE ‘GODFATHER’ OF LAGOS COULD SHAPE NIGERIA’S GOVT – REUTERS

“I am a talent hunter. I put talents in office, I help them,” says former Lagos state governor and opposition alliance leader Bola Tinubu, being quite open about his role as one of Nigeria’s most powerful political godfathers.
“I use the best hand, the best brain, the best experience for the job,” he told Reuters after voting this month in a governorship election in Nigeria’s economic capital which, as expected, his hand picked candidate Akinwunmi Ambode won.
But it isn’t only in his traditional fiefdom in the ethnic Yoruba southwest that Tinubu has sought to be a kingmaker. His support for former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari was seen as a key factor in the latter’s win against President Goodluck Jonathan in the March 28 presidential election in Africa’s biggest economy and oil producer.

BRING BACK NUHU RIBADU BY DAN AGBESE

When the then President Obasanjo appointed Mr. Nuhu Ribadu as the pioneer chairman of EFCC in 2003, he was an unknown quantity. Some of us saw his appointment as a sick and cynical joke in the so-called war against corruption that has generated intense heat since 1966 but no fire.
There was a good reason for our cynicism. It had to do with Ribadu’s primary constituency, the Nigeria Police Force. The force has been nobody’s idea of a knight in shiny armour capable of rescuing our distressed country from the iron grips of corruption. It was too much to expect Ribadu to fight corruption when many of his colleagues in the force were proud of the palm oil on their fingers. As we say, where would he start from?
Ribadu proved us all wrong. Within a few months of taking up his appointment and despite the initial lack of logistical support from the president himself, he showed that he did not see his appointment as part of the cosmetics of the war against corruption. His passion was proof of his commitment; his commitment was proof of his determination to help clean up our country and gain it some respect in the international community. He was the real fresh breath of air in a stuffy country that had lost its way trying to fight corruption in a dark tunnel.

THE OBA’S WORDS MATTER - CHIMAMANDA ADICHIE

A few days ago, the Oba of Lagos threatened Igbo leaders. If they did not vote for his governorship candidate in Lagos, he said, they would be thrown into the lagoon. His entire speech was a flagrant performance of disregard. His words said, in effect: I think so little of you that I don’t have to cajole you but will just threaten you and, by the way, your safety in Lagos is not assured, it is negotiable.

There have been condemnations of the Oba’s words. Sadly, many of the condemnations from non-Igbo people have come with the ugly impatience of expressions like ‘move on,’ and ‘don’t be over-emotional’ and ‘calm down.’ These take away the power, even the sincerity, of the condemnations. It is highhanded and offensive to tell an aggrieved person how to feel, or how quickly to forgive, just as an apology becomes a non-apology when it comes with ‘now get over it.’

THE YORUBAS: OUR POLITICS, YESTERDAY AND TODAY

By Doyin Okupe
The Yoruba in national politics

THE Political era of the second Republic 1979-1983 saw the Yoruba playing a role which was not too different from the one played in the first republic. The only difference was that unlike in the first republic when the role of opposition was officially recognized in line with the Parliamentary System of government, the Presidential system created no specific role for the party outside government.

Even though the Unity Party of Nigeria, formed by the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was the first party to be formed after the Military lifted the ban on party politics in 1978, the party was generally regarded as an off shoot of the Action Group which was the main Yoruba party of the First Republic.

A CULTURE OF CHANGE

By Femi Fani Kayode
Last month, supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC), whilst chanting “sai Buhari” and carrying brooms, stoned our candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan, whilst he was on his way to a rally in the north. It happened in Yola, Adamawa State. That was the third time that that had happened in just a few days. The first time it happened in Katsina State and then in Bauchi State.
In the case of Bauchi State, the violence resulted in the brutalisation, wounding and hospitalisation of no less than six of President Jonathan’s security operatives. In Yola, just as it was in Katsina and Bauchi, the whole thing was well-orchestrated and well-funded by the APC and there is an obvious and insidious conspiracy to hurt and intimidate the president and his supporters and to prevent them from campaigning in the north. This is despite the fact that Jonathan is very popular in many parts of the north and has millions of followers there. There was also the incident in Gombe State in which a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) supporter had his fingers chopped off simply because he was putting up posters of Goodluck Jonathan.

BUHARI AND THE LION OF BOURDILLON

By Femi Aribisala
ONE month ago, the APC had whipped its supporters into frenzy in believing it is bound to win an election it really has no chance of winning. In truth, if the election had been conducted then for chairman of the EFCC, Muhammadu Buhari would have been declared winner by a landslide. However, with postponement of the election, a lot of water has passed under the bridge. Even Buhari’s self-styled credential as Mr. Integrity has unraveled.
Buhari’s entire campaign posture for the 2015 presidential election stands on two shaky grounds. He fashions himself as Mr. Integrity; the implacable enemy of corruption in Nigeria. He is the one who reportedly is going to ensure that corruption is a thing of the past in Nigeria. He is also the one who is going to destroy the Boko Haram in the twinkling of an eye; even though a number of months ago, he was negotiating for amnesty and golden handshakes for the insurgents, and they nominated him as their preferred middleman in any truce negotiation with Nigeria.

WHY BUHARI WILL NOT AGREE TO A DEBATE WITH JONATHAN

By Femi Arbisala

IN all my years of studying elections, I have never seen a campaign as bogus as that of Muhammadu Buhari. It is amazing that, for a man who is running for election as president for a marathon fourth time, Buhari is so bereft of ideas as to how he would do anything if he were to become president. Campaigning in 35 states, Buhari has spoken for a total of less than 60 minutes in all. Surely, he wants to be president; but he clearly has no presidential agenda.

Buhari’s blueprint for the presidency is similar to his Cambridge/WASC certificate; it is yet to be discovered. It is an article of faith of things hoped for by his admirers, the evidence of things neither seen nor articulated. No man becomes president of Nigeria on the basis of vain platitudes. No man becomes president as a result of social media blogs and soundbites. No man becomes president by giving two-minute speeches in craftily-packaged rallies, one minute of which is spent introducing his entourage.