Clay Richie

The Buhari government released a list of 17 of its greatest achievements a few hours ago and after reading it, I was embarrassed for the regime. The Buhari administration counts exiting a recession that it put Nigeria into as its greatest achievement of 2017! This government is the definition of cluelessness! We exited recession by growing at 0.5% meanwhile our population grew by 2.6%. Do the math and pray that 2019 is the end of this nightmare!

At the twilight of 2017, and at the threshold of a brand New Year, it is fitting to recount some key achievements of the Muhammadu Buhari administration in the outgoing year. Here we go:

In the accustomed tradition, I wish the nation less misery in the coming year. A genuine Happy New Year Greeting is probably too extravagant a wish. The accompanying news clipping from June,1977 came into my hands quite fortuitously. It is forty years old. It captures the unenviable enigma that is the Nigerian nation. It is however a masterful end-of-year image to take into the coming year, not only for the individual now at the helm of government, General Buhari, but for a people surely credited with the most astounding degree of patience and forbearance on the African continent – except of course among themselves, when they turn into predatory fiends. When many of us are blissfully departed, an updated rendition of this same clipping – with a change of cast here and there – will undoubtedly be reproduced in the media, with the same alibis, the same in-built panacea of blame passing.

It is time to confess my sins. All my adult life, I have never feared for the continued existence of Nigeria as much as I did in 2017. Anybody who knows me very well knows where I stand: I believe in one, united Nigeria. It is not that I am an incurable optimist or that I am the most patriotic Nigerian alive. It is just that after assessing all the issues that so easily bog us down, I have always come to the conclusion that we do not have irreconcilable differences that should inevitably lead to divorce. I have always believed that every ingredient, every resource needed to make Nigeria work is here with us. I’ve always concluded that we have been terribly let down by the ruling elite.

I knew Yusuf Buhari since he was about 3 years old, I watched him grew into a fine gentleman. Yusuf takes after his father’s many qualities, the greatest among them are his humility and kindness towards others. whenever we meet anywhere, he will stretch his hands with his head slightly bowing down as a mark of respect to his elders, and with a smile that melts even a heart made of a stone. He never carries along with him that air of authority known to be associated with those born as privileged Children.

This is an absorbing and detailed portrait of a growing political figure of high stock and promise: the Rt Honorable Dogara Yakubu, currently Nigeria’s No. 4 citizen, that is the Speaker of the House of Representatives and since 2007, the member representing the Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa Balewa constituency of Bauchi State. The art of political biography is a risky enterprise, more for the simple reason that it is often difficult to mask the author’s bias. Autobiographies tend to be self-indulgent, authorized biographies may be too sympathetic while unauthorized ones may be no better than attack jobs in which reputations may be skewered, and yet political biographies must be encouraged, written and read for they deal with the lives of the important people who take the decisions and the actions that affect the rest of the community. They also of course open up the leadership elite to further public appreciation and scrutiny and promote a necessary conversation about values, politics and p...

…I want to preface my intervention with a story I told sometimes in 1999 or thereabout which is still very relevant today. And like I did back then, I seek the indulgence of readers because the story is about a supposedly loving couple having problems which bordered on sex. The husband happened to be a man with healthy appetite hence he would not allow his wife any breathing space. After putting up with his antics for some years, she took the matter to her in-law as the ‘court of first instance’. After narrating her story, her mother-in-law asked whether her son was maltreating the wife in other ways; she said no. Was he providing for her as he should? She answered in the affirmative. The parents of the husband declared that the wife had no case because their son was only claiming his rightful entitlements. Case dismissed!

For Nigerians, the popular slogan – smiling and suffering – borrowed from one of the songs of the irresistible and irrepressible Abami Eda, Fela Anikulapo, assumes a bitter and biting meaning of life of poverty and pauperism, barbarism and cruelty, hate and hunt, hopelessness and helplessness. It is amazing how the brain capacity of Nigerians is able to withstand the extent of sorrow and sadness that cripple their lives to a screeching halt. Nigerians have all lost sense of meaning, sense of life, sense of living, sense of purpose and self-realization. Nigerians are not shielded or sheltered from the brutal man-made disasters of their rulers and from other elemental forces. They all come for them.

When late Chinua Achebe was publicized as one of the beneficiaries of the CFR award in 2004 by Obasanjo administration, he unequivocally rejected it, saying he did so as a protest and wanted it to serve as a “wake up call.” Achebe expressed a fastidious abhorrence with happenings in Anambra, his home state, where “a small clique of renegades, openly boasting its connections in high places, seems determined to turn my homeland into a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom.” Instead of addressing the major issue raised by Chinua of this world, he was taken to the cleaners by one of those speaking for the government of the day. He was told that he was uninformed of the enormous strides and touchable achievements that the PDP led administration made between the year 1999 and 2004.

Year 2017 is ending like its brothers, 2014, 2015, and 2016, featuring at least one major economy-wrenching fuel scarcity. The year is rounding up with biting scarcity of petroleum products, especially petrol, in every nook and cranny of Nigeria. The errors and deceptions of yesterday finally caught up with us as a people, and we have to pay dearly for acting too little, too brittle and too late.

On December 7, 2017, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) was reported to have ordered the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Ministry OF Petroleum Resources to address the fuel scarcity in some parts of the country at the material time. The decision was conveyed to Nigerians by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed at the end of the FEC meeting which held in Abuja on that day. The minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachukwu who could not attend the meeting was said to have given FEC assurance that there was no cause for alarm. According to Mr. Mohammed, Kachikwu had told the FEC that there was enough fuel in the country to last until January 2018. And that there was no intention by the federal government to increase the pump price of fuel.

President Buhari survived so many criticisms this year: from allegations of ‘northernisation’ and islamisation of the country to outright rejection of the Sukuk bonds in some quarters.

At home, we face enormous challenges. Insecurity, pervasive corruption, the hitherto unending and seemingly impossible fuel and power shortages are the immediate concerns. We are going to tackle them head on. Nigerians will not regret that they have entrusted national responsibility to us. — Muhammadu Buhari May 29, 2015.

I want to speak to Nigeria on the topic ‘Healing a Nation Scarred by Injustice’. In this day when Nigerian citizens prefer to face a perilous journey through the Sahara Desert, then risk slavery in Libya and afterwards death by drowning in the Mediterranean Sea, we have to ask ourselves why with all these dangers, more than half a million Nigerians still want to make the journey and leave this nation with all her riches, minerals and opportunities.

In  politics, the intention  of many Vice Presidents to become the number one citizen  had been littered with regrets,  distrust and suicidal to say the least with regards to  their political careers. The easiest way for the few who attained the position  is when the President resigned  or died.

The header of this article is the title of a 55-minute documentary on President Muhammadu Buhari. The documentary has been scheduled to air on NTA this evening.

Recently, young boys were observed tearing the uniforms of girls; school girls, and also holding their private parts at them, because they were excited about finishing up their Senior Secondary School exams. Oh yes, right in the heart of Lagos! The girls were dodging and hiding! And guess what? Police officers were close by. Passers-by were laughing and passing. Well, it’s not their kids, so what the heck! Then someone saw it and confronted the boys to stop them, and they ran. Through further investigations, it was discovered that they had started like two days earlier. Such is the culture we are in, in our society! A culture of hyper-sexuality, heightened sense of sexual awareness and public sexual display garnished with loads of globally recognized sexual ignorance, worse in Africa, and much worse with Nigeria, considering our population and the educational decadence.

After Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo state announced that the governors of the 36 states had resolved to donate $1bn out of the excess crude account to the Buhari administration for it to fight the boko haram insurgency,either 1 of 2 things was bound to happen.Either Buhari and his loyalists blame Jonathan and the PDP for making the war very expensive instead of telling us how the funds were going to be spent or they will try to justify what is practically unjustifiable.They chose the latter.

To start with, I ask on behalf of the voiceless citizens of Nigeria: where in this world is Mr. Andrew Yakubu, ex GMD, NNPC, who was accused of stashing over 3billion naira in his house in Kaduna? After he was comically arrested, he was put behind bars for a few days. And this is December, 2017; Mr. Andrew has vanished off the radar.

Mr. Femi Adesina, I am very disappointed by your birthday sermon on Mr. President titled “Buhari At 75: Why God Kept Him Alive.” You pissed many Nigerians off by only bragging about the impeccable credentials of Mr. President, unmoved by the atrocities being committed by Mr. President’s aides on his behalf. Brother Femi, save your sermon of pomposity for yourself and let Mr. President know that even though Abba Kyari is subtle, he is devastatingly corrupt.

Fellow Nigerians, it is no longer in the realm of speculation that our reticent general would seek a second term in office. It is not just his infamous body language speaking volumes about his intention, his actions and utterances lately give us a clear picture of his desire for a second term. His supporters under the umbrella of the Buhari Support Organisation have already launched Buhari’s 2019 bid. His foot soldiers have commenced nocturnal meetings to sell to the public what they know in their heart of hearts is a bad product. Although this has provoked incredulity and anger among many Nigerians, it is not enough however. Our discomfiture must be backed by unwavering action.

Ok, I understand that we cannot defeat Boko Haram for now, because we have less sophisticated weapons; I get that we cannot immediately halt the shrinking of Lake Chad because climate change is beyond us; I get that we cannot make oil sell at $100 per barrel because there is a global market controlling that. But please, explain to me; why is there fuel scarcity in the wealthiest oil-rich country in Africa?

When my authority inspires sycophancy, I have no followers, only resentful manipulators of my power for their own selfish gain—George Kunz

For me, questions about the $1bn Excess Crude Account money recently approved by the National Economic Council is not so much about whether it was truly meant for the purpose we were told, to fight the already “technically degraded” Boko Haram insurgents, but about the procedures as well as the expediency of the expenditure.

Some of my friends have said that we moved too quickly within the same week from Hijab-Gate (religion) to Innoson-Gate (ethnicity). I told my worried friends that I do not share their despondency.

The medley of pulsating melodies, riding the tranquilizing breeze from the ocean, had soaked up the swanky ambience at the emerging Eko Atlantic City tonight until the youthful Darey Art Alade took over the band-stand.

Nwannem nwoko Rochas, you have been flirting with madness, and it is no longer news that a couple of nuts have gone missing in your head. The news is that madness has started flirting back and your thoughtlessness is now a disability. After a careful observation, I have diagnosed your illness as hubris syndrome associated with power getting into your head and acting as a heady drug that affects your actions. Your hubris syndrome symptom appears as a narcissistic propensity that makes you view Imo State as an arena in which to exercise power and seek glory.

At the House of Representatives public hearing of the obnoxious NGO regulatory bill last week, it was reported that everybody who spoke at the hearing condemned the bill and called for the National Assembly to block its passage. It was a desirable anticlimax for a bill that seeks to put non-governmental organizations (NGOs) under the armpit of the government. It was a dramatic outcome for a bill that had, before now, been condemned by Nigerians for its obnoxious intents suspected to be aimed at crippling civil society organizations in delivering on their core mandates of providing services in areas neglected by governments.  It was reported that every speaker at the public hearing took times to upbraid the bill, as well as its intendment to criminalize NGO activities.

After a keenly contested election yesterday, Africa National Congress(ANC), the largest and leading political party In South Africa, announced Cyril Ramaphosa as the new leader of the party as well as possible Presidential hopeful in 2019. Is there any semblance between ANC and People Democratic Party (PDP) of Nigeria? There may be a lot as they both recently held their national elective conventions and many more. Unfortunately while one allowed the voice of reasons to prevail, the other might have dug its own grave.

Sometimes I think Bill Shankly, legendary manger of Liverpool Football Club, had Nigeria and Nigerians in mind when he uttered these immortal words, “Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I don’t like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that.”

Sentiments apart, some things are just not adding up at all in the manner the present administration is running. Which week passed at least in the last few months that we did not hear mind-blowing rape of our common wealth by people working with, or rather around, the president? And the only thing that keeps coming from our president is that “I am not aware.”

Perhaps in the long run, the most remarkable legacy of the Nigerian leader known as Olusegun Obasanjo would be his personal example, in terms of the manner in which he continues to creatively reinvent himself and the Renaissance quality and force of his achievements. In addition to all that we already know about him, Obasanjo last week bagged a Ph.D degree in Christian Theology from the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).  I am impressed. It is therefore with great admiration that I welcome Dr. Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo to the distinguished class of Nigeria’s Ph.D elite.

The President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has brought utter shame and dishonour to the Noble legal profession and his prestigious office by his impulsive reaction to the arrogant behaviour of a bigoted female aspirant to the Bar who flouted the Rule by wearing hijab to the Call to Bar ceremony.

“I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” Albert Einstein. The above quote, credited to the great Physicist, Albert Einstein, says a lot about the current world in which we live. There has been a debate about whether Einstein actually said this or not. Some argue that this quote first appeared on the internet around 2012, a clear 57 years after Einstein’s death. It may just be that he did not say that, just like Robert Mugabe is credited with numerous quips and pithy statements, but there are a few other things Einstein said that confirm his worry about modern technology and how it impacted negatively on human behaviour and relationships. For instance, in a letter to his friend, Otto Juliusburger, seven years before his death, Einstein wrote, “I believe that the abominable deterioration of ethical standards stems primarily from the mechanization and depersonalization of our lives; a disastrous byproduct of sci...

After making a slow start, the Nigerian energy landscape is set for a major change with the award of a USD 2,809,522,548.36 gas pipeline contract approved by the Federal Executive Council as proposed by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources. The ministry is under the direct supervision of President Muhammadu Buhari.

There is something inherently unsettling about the 12 to 18 months preceding an election year, particularly when a sitting president is seeking re-election. It is a period of sure governance missteps. It is the period when even the strongest leaders slacken their political will, and allow politics rather than governance dominate their decision-making.

A little over 47 years ago, Nigeria's tragic, violent civil war came to a close. It was fought by forces on one side who, in reality, wanted to preserve the Nigerian confederation as was structured by the British, working with Nigeria's founding fathers. That federation was one that guaranteed autonomy to the regions - the basic tenet of the Independence Constitution. It was a solemn compact - of equality of the three major tribes and some buffer to protect the minorities within.

Going down memory lane, a Nigerian government account used to save oil revenues above a base amount derived from a defined benchmark price. Thirteen (13) years ago, the Excess Crude Account was established, and its objective is primarily to protect planned budgets against shortfalls due to volatile crude oil prices. By delinking government expenditures from oil revenues, the Excess Crude Account aims to insulate the Nigerian economy from external shocks.

Let me begin by telling a story. On June 1, 2015, the day I resumed work as adviser on media to President Muhammadu Buhari, he had admonished me: “Adesina, always tell me the truth. That is what I want from you. In this type of position I have found myself, it is very easy not to be told the truth. People will just tell you what they think you want to hear. But from you, I want the truth. As a General, I may argue, but please argue with me. Tell me the truth always.”

Bad news. Every state in Nigeria is blessed with solid minerals. Every single state. North, south, east, west. And in commercial quantity too. Zamfara, Kebbi, Niger and Osun are very rich in gold. Ebonyi, Plateau and Nasarawa are blessed with tin and tantalum. The bitumen in Ondo state is of the highest quality anywhere in the world. Anambra has iron ore and limestone in abundance. Bayelsa has gypsum and limestone. Akwa Ibom has limestone and clay. Imo has lead/zinc and salt. Bauchi has gold and columbite. Gombe has gemstone and gypsum. Katsina has kaolin, marble and salt. Lagos has bitumen, clay and glass-sand. I can go on and on, but boredom would set in.

Nigerians have absolutely no interest in the so-called NGO Bill and this is not according to a twitter poll by anti-elite hate-speech handle.

If you think there is only one way to run a successful, winning political party let me save you time; this is not for you. This article is for those who dream of building a democracy that delivers to the majority or suspect that what we practice now can be greatly improved upon. By loosing the presidency in 2015, PDP gained an opportunity to leave the old order of stage-managed democracy with undemocratic parties for a new order of better-organised, transparent political parties with liberal and democratic ideologies.

Fellow Nigerians, when I woke up yesterday morning in Lagos, little did I envisage I was going to bump into the ebullient Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Seriake Dickson. I was heading to breakfast when I ran into the brand new National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, on the ground floor of my hotel and I congratulated him on his recent appointment. Thereafter, he informed me of the presence of the Governor and said he was sure Governor Dickson would be delighted to meet with me. I replied that I was fine with that especially as I have close friends who have spoken with great enthusiasm not only about the stellar work that the Governor is doing in Bayelsa State on infrastructure and education but also about his wonderful personality and humility. I went on to have my breakfast. As if well timed and choreographed, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Francis Agbo, walked in and I stood up to exchange pleasantries. He told me his boss would like to meet wi...

Let’s first admit the complexity and the difficulty involved in actually describing what historically constitutes the party PDP or what group of people can be seen to constitute PDP and over what time. This complexity is more so when we continue dwelling on the assumption that PDP was responsible for destroying this country in the preceding 16 years before APC. One looks back and discover that many of the major actors that participated in this so-called destruction are either not the major current drivers in the party or are comfortably within some camps that tend to make the most noise about this destruction. Should we then hold the current PDP composition absolutely responsible for this 16 year destruction?

Without doubt, Nigeria is in transition: transiting from a consumerist economy to a productive economy. Perhaps, since independence, the focus of our economy has been on consumption. It had all been about resource sharing and this is the reason the sharing of the legendary national cake has dominated the socio-political discourse in Nigeria since independence. The question of who gets what has been the recurring poser that has defined political relationship in Nigeria since independence. Curiously, little or nothing had been said of baking the national cake. No one has paid even a passing attention to how that cake gets baked. No one asks about the processes, the pains and anguish of baking the national cake. Maybe, we think mother nature takes care of that and we deign that to be perpetual. We are a nation that relishes the taste of the omelet but which doesn’t know that making a fine omelet involves breaking of eggs. The main fight that had dominated our national life has been ab...

Atiku is a founding father of the PDP, the ACN and the APC. The promiscuity is legendary. If he wasn’t rich enough to dole his way to the heart of things every time he has had to move in with one of his ‘offsprings’, he would quite easily have been the most hated politician in Nigerian politics. It was barely 72 hrs into his PDP return before word spread that he had taken over the campaign expenses of Prince Uche Secondus, a party chairmanship candidate and just over a week later, reports emerged that he had donated $10m to the coffers of the party.

From its inception in May 2015 President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has been failing obviously. Recall that the chairman of the Transparency Monitoring Group, TMG, Ibrahim Zikirullahi stated that the continued depreciation of Nigeria’s economy is an indication that the President Buhari led government has no effective strategy to address the problems.

I do have nothing against the man Atiku Abubakar—as he switches political parties as a diaper. Politicians all over the world are fond of switching political parties to achieve their political dreams and aspirations. Even in the United States of America, politicians do switch political parties, so vilifying Atiku for returning to the party he once called “irredeemable” four (4) years ago will certainly endear him some more to the hearts of those who are sick and tired of the current administration as it endeared President Buhari to the hearts of those who grew tired of the administration of Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan when he was paddling the canoe of Nigeria.

The question of how the legal profession in Nigeria deals with the challenges of renewing its values and preparing for the challenges of a difficult future for the Bar is likely to be at the heart of the contest for a new leadership of the NBA to be elected in 2018. Despite its best efforts – or may be because of them – the present leadership of the NBA appears to have purchased for itself an early onset to the contest. There will be a season to choose from among the auditioning aspirants.

If there is any lesson from the current revelations about how men of the Police Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) molest, torture, maim and sometimes kill innocent citizens, it is that seeking questionable validation, especially when not on solid grounds, can go horribly wrong. When the first reports about the brutality of SARS hit Twitter, the police authorities felt so indignant that, aside labeling those peddling such stories as “armed robbers”, they asked for proof. As it would happen, they got an avalanche, backed with concrete visual evidence, as several video clips of sundry acts of brutality by men and officers of SARS were uploaded online.