Clay Richie

I not only voted against #Change, I campaigned against it all over Lagos with my principal Senator Musiliu Obanikoro and on one of those campaigns, I was seated beside him as gunshots in Isale-Eko not far from Iga Idunganran rained directly on our vehicle. Thank God it was a bullet-proof car. Thank God Koro asked his mobile police security not to return fire for fire.

President Muhammadu Buhari gave what could be likened to a state of the nation address last Thursday. Only that he spoke, not to the nation, but the National Executive Council (NEC) of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). Perhaps because it was meant for people who are more or less members of the same political family, the speech, was plain and devoid of the elegance that memorable speeches are made of. But what it lacks in floweriness, it filled up for in the President’s usual candour, this time laced with very effective imagery.

For the very first time, I chose to neglect the inflation that has caught across all section of the economy and dived the profligacy lane. In the light of expensive and at the same epileptic data service, I chose to open Omojuwa’s article not because of any presumed exceptional stand but wanted to see how a “self-acclaimed righteous activist” will do justice to his selected topic “Nigeria: The Following Class and the Face of Hypocrisy”.

I knew Femi Adesina was a disaster waiting to happen the moment he sat down with Channels Television’s Seun Okinbaloye on Politics Today on Easter Sunday.

If Nigeria has a leadership challenge, it must conversely follow that we have a following challenge. Great leaders are scarce in Nigeria, not because of the excess demand of the following of such leaders but because the Nigerian masses have not particularly called out, in the way they ought to, for great leaders. As a people, we seem to be a lot certain about what we do not want than we are about what we do want. And those that genuinely care about this country have left those who do not care about our collective progress and prosperity to determine its reality of politics and governance.

Permit me to begin this legal discourse by expressing unreserved gratitude to the Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the Executive Governor of Kaduna State, Mr Samuel Aruwan, for furnishing me with the electronic copy of the Kaduna State Religious Preaching Bill 2016 which is currently before the Kaduna State House of Assembly for consideration.

It’s exactly ten months today that President Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And in two months time, it would be one year that the ‘change’ government of the All Progressives Congress (APC) took the levers of power. So, the countdown to the first anniversary of the Buhari administration may just have started already.

We can disregard latest patriotic posturing of Asiwaji Bola Tinubu, who is berating the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, for saying he is no magician and that Nigerians ought to appreciate his efforts, a statement that is rightly being construed as insensitive at best and insultingly arrogant at worst.

When you take Maggi from the market without paying it is called stealing. This is why we don’t like to call billions of dollars escaping our treasury “stealing” even if it was; we seem to think calling it just what it is does not capture the seriousness of the matter. An evil you can’t do anything about frustrates you so much you no longer denounce it in clear terms you begin to speak in sarcasms and satires.

Professor Wahira, a lecturer in the University of Port Harcourt returned from the state Headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to find his wife and kids on their knees. Since, it was lent, daytime devotion is expected and welcome. The no-nonsense Professor of Biochemistry had gone to reassure the Resident Electoral Commissioner of his commitment to serve as a returning officer in the #RiversRerun elections despite threats and intimidations from different quarters. On closer contact with his wife and kids, he discovered this was no prayer session instead his family members were kneeling down, beseeching God and his ancestors to beg him to refrain from partaking in the #RiversRerun elections. Crying their eyes out, they begged him not to die for a country that cares little for its citizens. His daughter Wanjiku cried ‘it is better to die a glorious death than to die like a chicken during an election that is not worth our vote’. His kids narrated how the...

When Asiwaju gave the previous government an advice that looked like asking them to print more Naira notes to bail out the country from its economic troubles, hell broke loose. Dr Okonji Iweala responded by lecturing him on how this ‘ill-thought-out’ solution could cause inflation and end up making our currency worthless. In this article, we shall examine if Tinubu thought through his prescription. Also, we shall be asking why he hasn’t given this prescription to President Buhari and Godwin Emefiele.

Last Thursday was a difficult day for most of us who reside and work in Lagos. The traffic was horrendous and it approached lockdown as we all struggled to navigate our ways from morning till evening. Not through any fault of Governor Akinwumi Ambode’s government who after an initial inchoate way of governance seemed to have find his feet, but through the inadequacies of our dear imperial minister of state for petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu. Doubling also as the group-managing director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC),

Since Muhammadu Buhari came into office, Nigerians have been waiting to get an idea of what his response would be to the current economic melt down. We have an idea that the government would be involved, but we really don't know how it would be structured or how big the involvement would be. We still don't have the details.

Your Excellency Sir, I write you this piece not as the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, but as the minister of petroleum resources appointed by yourself on the 11th of November, 2015.

Two years ago, I wrote a brief update on my social media page to praise the business ingenuity and nationalist economic instinct of Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote. The recent revelations of how the Dangote Group has enjoyed privileged, almost exclusive access to government-subsidized foreign exchange to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars has compelled me to take a second look at my previous endorsement of the Dangote business model.

Our neighbours to the West, the Republic of Benin, have just concluded a Presidential election, which has been considered free, fair and peaceful, from the first round, to the run-off which produced businessman Patrice Talon as winner and next President of that country of about 10 million people.  Commentators have noted with delight the manner in which incumbent Prime Minister and Talon’s main challenger, Lionel Zinsou, graciously admitted defeat even before the release of final, official results, and congratulated the winner. Zinsou has been compared to former Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan. In a continent threatened by a renewed appetite for sit-tightism by its leaders, it is exciting that some politicians are setting good examples.  In the last one year, we have had the example of Jonathan in Nigeria. And now Zinsou, in the Republic of Benin. We hope that there will be more of their kind.

Mr. Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), started a “war” last year by placing a ban on the allocation of forex for the importation of 41 items. Opinion is still sharply divided on the policy. The consensus among free market economists is that he should have liberalised the currency market instead, but I guess Emefiele was trying to apply an emergency brake to stop the foreign reserves from hitting rock bottom in the face of dwindling oil revenue and mounting import bills. With no cabinet or economic team in place then, the CBN was carrying all the policy burden, and it just had to do something instantly and desperately.

Rather than insisting or forcing their opinion on others, some people are, by nature of the habit of even wishing their opinions are not respected by whoever they are trying to advise.  They do this so that when a decision backfires on their neighbour, friend, relative or acquaintance, they just laugh and say “I told you but you wouldn’t listen”.

It is human nature to choose the least option of resistance when faced with tough decisions. That perhaps explains why govt’s reaction to current foreign exchange squeeze, arising from recent drastic drops in international oil price-Nigeria earns approximately 90% of foreign exchange, fx – is to ban allocation of fx for purchase of some items considered not essential.

Fellow Nigerians, you must be wondering why I chose this title for my column today. If you wait a moment and you want to know the real reason, I shall explain in the next few lines. Television has become a most important platform in the world of media today. Its attraction derives from the simultaneous usage of audio and visual mediums. As a young boy growing up in the ancient city of Ile-Ife, I used to marvel at the magic behind this extraordinary human invention. As a “bush” boy, I actually imagined at some point that some people must have been smuggled into television boxes by those wizards and goblins called oyibo (White people). Till this day it remains the eighth wonder.

Like many Nigerians, I’m saddened by the continuing chaos, bloodletting and violent disruptions in Rivers state. Just when one begins to think that the situation is getting better, it gets even worse.

“Easter greetings” “Ok” “I am greeting you” “I see” “Are we quarrelling? Or you have malaria?” “Can’t you see that I am just not in the mood?” “Not in the mood to say same to you?” “Okay. Same to you”

THE mutterings of discontent are growing louder in Nigeria’s street markets. The price of a bag of rice has surged by 12.5% in the past month. Supplies of bread have dwindled after bakers turned off their ovens to protest about the rising cost of flour. The rich lament that milk is missing from supermarket shelves. The poor complain about the price of garri (cassava flour). A fish importer estimates that 70m Nigerians can no longer afford his wares.

Greetings Mr. President with best regards of the day. I was prompted to write this letter to you after reading the one written to you by my brother and friend Japhet Omojuwa. It was the inimitable Prof. Chinua Achebe that said that if you do not agree with what someone else has written, then you should write your own. Japhet did not comprehensively speak for me in his letter so I have decided to write my on letter to you.

The recent suspension of Mrs. Nellie Mayshak, may come as a surprise to many, as she is one of the only government officials hired by the previous administration, that has survived the hurricane of “change”.

“…I always told my boys in their younger days, ‘if you keep running a red light because you can, or no one is watching, or there are no cars in sight, after a while you will stop looking out, and one day there will be a car that you will not see coming’”.

INEC has declared the recent Rivers State rerun election inconclusive. How many inconclusive elections have we had under the new INEC chairman? How about all of them? I am not sure you can do your job so shoddily as many times as this rookie has and still get to keep said job, but he is new so I guess he deserves to make his mistakes and learn from them.

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, on Wednesday said despite the efforts being put in place by the Federal Government, fuel queues might not be completely eliminated until about two months.

“IN THE PRACTICE OF TOLERANCE, ONE’S ENEMY IS THE BEST TEACHER.” DALAI LAMA Tolerance to opposite views and voices of dissents is a basic tenet of liberal democracy. In his book titled “The End Of History And The Last Man”, American Foreign Policy expert Francis Fukuyama invested effort to justifying why tolerance by leaders and between and amongst people is quintessential in liberal democracies.

The vultures are circling yet I am not disturbed because they cannot eat my flesh. The wolves are howling yet I shall not retreat because they cannot crush my bones. The bullies are threatening yet I shall not bow because they cannot break my spirit or conquer my soul. The demons are baying yet I shall not fear because they cannot drink my blood. The liars are lying yet I shall not be deterred for I know the Ancient of Days, the mighty God that I serve.

It is reassuring that the Buhari-led government once in a while shows it actually means business and that we have not completely lost it as a nation. If it is true as reported in the media that the federal government has instituted civil suits against some International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in Nigeria in a bid to recover the over $12 billion in alleged missing revenues being the estimated cost of under-declared crude oil shipments between 2011 and 2014, then we may be on the march to sanitizing and instilling transparency in the way things are done in the nation’s oil and gas industry.

President Muhammadu buhari has made some proposals for consideration as solutions to revive the country’s ailing economy.

Recently, Godwin Emefiele, our central bank governor, suspended one of his deputy governors and four deputy directors for “failing to follow financial regulation and due process, leading to the scamming of the bank by fraudsters.”

Please, if you also have a red or blue passport, this article is not for you. You can take a stroll now if you like. I am speaking to people like me, without a lifeline, whose only means of identification in this world is that green passport that reads Federal Republic of Nigeria and who have no special “connections”. Ordinary people who want to travel with ease around Africa.

It was Christmas Eve last year when I saw the BBC headline “Nigeria Boko Haram: Militants ‘technically defeated’- Buhari“. What immediately came to mind was George W. Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” banner. I was taken aback by this headline because the media reports prior to this day gave no indications that Boko Haram had been defeated.

Today, it seems like the North contributes significantly to all the indices that make Nigeria look poor. Whether you are looking at maternal mortality, school enrollment, poverty or security, the statistics from the North would always bring down our rating. This will change in the nearest future, if Boko Haram can be taken out. Recasting the last sentence, if Nigeria eliminates Boko Haram today, the North ‘will’ be richer than the South in 30 years. Notice I didn’t use the word ‘could’ or ‘would’, I used the word ‘will’. This is a conclusion from a research I’m trying to conclude. Initially, I didn’t want to share this finding, but on a second thought, I felt it would spur southern Nigeria to get serious.

I am writing this article as Petra, a daughter of Kogi State, because the indignation I feel due to the unprecedented and inconceivable rot that has been entrenched in the state of my birth. This decay I see and the agony it weighs on my soul cannot be adequately expressed if I do not remove the toga my office. Ordinarily, this paragraph should not be necessary but, as is expected, there are some people of great mischief and depravity, who would rather pull this piece into their gutter of division and political reproach. This paragraph takes care of such characters.

What Senator Biodun Olujimi (PDP, Ekiti South) did with her presentation of a bill on gender and equal opportunities on March 15, is the equivalent of trying one’s luck. But she deserves praise for her courage and progressive views, and for forcing the issue so well. The subject has generated useful debate and the Senate President has been forced to reassure the public that the bill will be re-presented, after it has been re-drafted “to address some of the reservations that were expressed on the floor of the Senate.”

In my opinion, recent events in the United States point to a very telling reality: Republican leaders do not understand reverse psychology. The mood in America right now is like an angry young man. Donald Trump is like a beautiful but controversial woman. Republican leaders are like parents clashing with the angry young man and ordering him not to marry the controversial beauty.

I may be wrong, but three developments seem to perfectly represent what most of our senators are very passionate about. One, a bill to clamp down on the social media in order to protect themselves against “frivolous allegations”. Two, a motion over the right of Nigerians to watch English football on DStv. Three, the rejection of a bill to declassify Nigerian women as second-class citizens. The commitment displayed by the senators in promoting their positions offered me yet another evidence of the warped mentality of our political elite. Their passion, alas, is never the progress of the society, never equity, never fairness, never justice.

When  sometimes ago,  Professor Wole Soyinka called on President Buhari to urgently organize an economic conference on the deleterious state of the national economic situation, the message that rang out from that call was: “Mr President, you need help!”

For the Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (ABAT) LLC, these are trying times. These times are sour and very discomforting. The times are painful and full of regrets. The “greatest political strategist of our generation” as his employees and ardent supporters would like to refer to him is reeling from debilitating political injuries. There is gnashing of teeth and mopping of lips in the ABAT LLC. Even, for those who are not fans of the mercantilist made for profit political outfit called ABAT LLC, the garish groans oozing out of Bourdillon has been eliciting pores of pity and chasms of empathy.

Let me start by admitting that I may be according significance to a common assumption. I am among the lot who think that individuals who have gone through some notable institutions of higher learning, particularly the coveted Ivy League universities in the UK and America have so much to offer to improve our ailing system. Most especially when placed in positions within their professional borders. Would you really blame us for that line of thought? I guess, no. As a matter of fact, in other countries, graduates and alumni of such great citadel of learning have constituted themselves into a cult of curative intellects and problem solvers.

Fellow Nigerians, I have been greatly troubled by the spate of criticisms and vicious attacks against the Buhari government. You cannot blame me. I was one of those who went all out to campaign for the change movement. Naturally, we must take credit for whatever success President Buhari achieves and face the public odium for its failure, God forbid. My fervent prayer had been that Buhari will not fail because the disgrace would be too monumental for some of us.

After taking an assessment tour of Agatu communities where an estimated 500 lives were lost following an attack by Fulani herdsmen, former Senate President, David Mark, lamented that genocide was committed against his people and that the federal government of Nigeria kept quiet.

Three things cannot be long hidden:the sun, the moon and the truth" Buddah Over the years successive governments generated multifaceted programmes to mope-out over 12m kids of school age wandering the streets as almajiris or guides of physically challenged persons in Northern Nigeria. Aside these millions loitering the streets, there are other millions who simply refused or were denied enrollment to primary schools by parents or guardians . Government efforts to nip in the bud this predicament stemmed from aspirations to meet up with MDG (now SDG), security measures and development challenges concomitant with the menace.

Almost everyone agrees that the problems in Nigeria or failure to address problems is a consequence of the country’s failing institutions. Others argue that there are no institutions at all; if there are, they do not just function. The current band of lawmakers responsible for enacting laws cannot do away with ambiguities to strengthen institutions; if they do, many of them will have no role in government, going by their antecedents.

Whatever problem we may have in Nigeria at this or any other time, this country is sustained by the fact that we are indeed a very special people. We have been described as the happiest people on earth, we have also described ourselves as resilient, gifted and determined, and in one report, Nigerians are said to have the strongest shock absorber against some of the deadliest diseases in the world. If anyone doubted this last point, well, recall that we won the battle over Ebola virus, and polio.  The more you look at it, the more it seems as if there is something in the Nigerian DNA that defies defeat, that automatically deletes any virus that can result in system shut down, there is that X-factor in our affairs that rises when hope seems lost, and life seems tragic.  Somehow, the Nigerian spirit regenerates, recreates and reinvents itself, turns failure into possibilities, pessimism into new expectations, and tomorrow into an anchor for renewal.

Dear Mr. President, Kwana biyu Baba! The last time we met was that day I picked up the microphone and was telling you that if you failed to deliver the change, we’d change you like Goodluck Jonathan was deservingly changed. You remember Mr. President? You said, “I very much appreciate the subtle threat…I will either perform or I will be shown the way out,” and that you would do your best to deliver on the promises made during the campaign. On our part, we promised to always tell you as it is. This piece is part of keeping that promise.

I am writing this piece with a broken heart. I am writing this piece with a deep sense of sadness. I am totally devastated because it seems to me that a vast preponderance of Nigerians prefer Nigeria to remain a nation of anything goes. I know that every country has its own builders and plunderers. I know that builders put things in place and make things work. I know that plunderers decimate and desecrate anything in sight.