Clay Richie

In political science, the ‘trias politica’ model for the governance of the state, popularised in modern democracy recognises the separation of powers, the division of state powers into three branches – legislature, executive and the judiciary. The idea contrasts with the fusion of powers in the parliamentary system, where the executive and legislative branches overlap.

Last Sunday, the media was awash with reports that the federal government had denied entering into any agreement to pay the Kebbi State Governor, Abubakar Bagudu, or any other third party, $100 million from funds recovered from the family of the late Nigerian head of state, General Sani Abacha. According to the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, the Nigeria government remains committed to working with the United States and other countries to recover the country’s assets stashed abroad.

Fellow Nigerians, let me say emphatically that nothing travels faster than bad news. We were all enjoying our supposedly tranquil country, with the equanimity of mind that comes from being a long-suffering people bedevilled by man-made problems, when suddenly all hell broke loose two days ago. It is usually in our character to treat serious issues very lightly and with criminal levity. That was the case with the corona virus brouhaha as the beginning of denouement of tackling this harbinger of death travelled across the world. While most countries prepared for the worst-case scenario, Nigerians and their leaders carried on as if they are invincible and have death locked up in their pouches, like Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. I guess we’ve always been very lucky with our carefree, cavalier and oftentimes lastminute.dot.com attitude and approach to life. Well guess what, the chicken has finally come home to roost and the corona virus or COVID-19 as it is also referred to internationally ha...

In 2018, President Buhari hurriedly withdrew $496m from the excess crude account without the approval of the senate as is stipulated by the Nigerian constitution to pay for 12 Super Tucano planes. In a letter sent after the money had already been withdrawn, Buhari deliberately left them in the dark as to the model of the planes and told the senate that he was rushing to meet a deadline. That is the first red flag as far as the purported $496m purchase of 12 Super Tucano light assault airplanes is concerned. Was our President being duped by fraudsters?

Yes I’m not a lawyer but from commonsense I can say that Ihedioha’s motion asking the apex court to reverse itself has merit.

In a recent interview with NTA International which I watched, Governor Ben Ayade said his government was not to fill potholes. He said his tenure was focused on turning Cross River State into a mega economy through industrialisation.

If there was dividend for controversy, the stock of the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdul-Rasheed Akanbi, would be perhaps the most bullish among investors in royalty, coming next in demand to that of the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.

While blaming the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole for “the problems associated with candidates’ selection process” in the party, the Director General of the Progressives Congress Forum, Mr. Salihu Lukeman added that democracy in Nigeria is now anchored not on the choice of the electorate, but on “what can be regarded as an electoral college”. As he put it, “Citizens can vote but our Supreme Court will eventually determine the winner.” His reaction was to the internal contradictions within APC but he could not have been more apt about what democracy has become in Nigeria today.

Call it a mere coincidence. You might be right. You may even choose to see it as just a positive response to some constructive criticisms - that could also be true. Whichever way one decides to look at it, the decision of Kano State governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, to ban Almajiris from begging on the streets of Kano, a few days after he was bashed for appointing special assistants on street lights, is a positive development.

The diminutive governor of Kaduna State, Mr Nasiru el-Rufai, must have a very low opinion of the public. They are no more than stupid stuff and they is why he can afford to play silly pranks with their sensibilities. If he does not see the Nigerian public as Almajiris, he would not take them for non-thinking people in front of whom he can spin contradictory yawns and they would not be able to connect.

The events of the past few days have called for reflection and an assessment of the patriotic credentials of the members of the National Assembly. And this is particularly so when we consider their stance on the need to consume what we produce, and their decision when it was time to put words to work. Their actions have unfortunately capped how we keep saying the right things and doing the exact opposite. They passed off another opportunity to demonstrate patriotism and leadership of a high order needed to prove to Nigerians, even if by pretence, that they are on our side.

Here is the main problem with Nigeria’s electricity sector: Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation, but it has failed consistently to generate, transmit and distribute enough electricity to power its development process and accelerate economic growth. Between 1999 and 2007, President Olusegun Obasanjo focused on the reform of the electricity sector as one of the major priorities of his administration. Gas-powered plants were set up across the country under his watch, turbines and other equipment were imported.

“Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the Lord showed him the whole land—from Gilead to Dan, all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Mediterranean Sea, the Negev and the whole region from the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar. Then the Lord said to him, “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.” And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab, as the Lord had said.” (Deuteronomy 34: 1-5)

I’ve been observing with keen interest the National Assembly’s recent efforts to solidify President Muhammadu Buhari’s offer of Nigeria-Delta-like amnesty to ‘repentant’ Boko Haram members. Buhari first made the offer in March 2018 while receiving the 107 of the 111 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Dapchi, Yobe State, two months earlier. The following month, the military established a rehabilitation camp to “rehabilitate and reintegrate surrendered and repentant Boko Haram terrorist members” via an exercise known as Operation Safe Corridor. Last week, the Senate started considering a bill for an Act tagged ‘National Agency for Education, Rehabilitation, De-radicalisation and Integration of Repentant Insurgents in Nigeria 2020, SB. 340’, sponsored by Ibrahim Gaidam, the immediate-past governor of Yobe State, who now represents Yobe East Senatorial District in the National Assembly.

The kids abandoned on the streets of northern Nigeria should not be given the legitimacy of almajiranci but kids pushed into misery by irresponsible parents. No sane mind will send a child into the wilderness in the name of Quranic education. My friend Suleiman Mohammed runs a Quranic school here in Abuja, my kids attend this Islamiyah and are the kids of other Muslims here. Every day, we drive the kids to this school after school and return them home. I don’t understand the logic of sending kids in search of Quranic education far away from the care of their parents. This school run by my friend has produced great Arabic graduates and they are all children of Muslim parents. Are we saying these children are not sufficient in the kind of Quranic education preferred in the north?

Every citadel of learning derives its claim to greatness from the reputation and accomplishments of its students and staff: the great academics and scholars to whom has been given the enormous task of instructing, guiding and inspiring the minds and talents that are destined to define the future. Your task is possibly the noblest anyone could ask for, yet often without great reward or even gratitude. But we thank you today for your great and priceless service to this and coming generations.

Is it a sign of the times that Nigerians have, generally, appeared not bothered any longer by certain anomalies in the polity, such as President Muhammadu Buhari’s failure to fill vacancies in several agencies? As I write this, many agencies have been in the hands of acting chief executive for years without any sign that Buhari is interested in taking a definite action to put things right. Of all the grave problems facing Nigeria — namely insecurity, poverty, low revenue, smuggling, and unemployment, among the legion — making appointments should be one of the easiest boxes to tick. Or are we saying there are no Nigerians qualified or good enough to hold these positions?

Unmasking of National Security Adviser Babagana Monguno’s secret memo, which revealed that Abba Kyari, Buhari’s Chief of State, exercises presidential powers on President Muhammadu Buhari’s behalf, is only the official confirmation of what I have written in many columns and social media updates in the past two years.

"Every man must decide whether he will walk in light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness."       - Martin Luther King Jr.

Before delving into my subject let me asks God forgiveness for believing only GMB can change the country without seeking Allah’s guidance and SWT leave us with PMB. Oh Allah we bow before you seeking your forgiveness. Help us in our trying moment as people and the country at large. One of the most important qualities of a leader includes integrity, accountability, empathy, humility, resilience, vision, influence, and positivity. In order to be an effective leader you must think about people and situation facing them.

In spite of all the evil that Boko Haram, its affiliates, splinters and other opportunistic groups, perpetrate, Nigeria still does not seem to be doing much to arrest the situations.

In many ways the massacre of scores of persons and abduction of many more by Boko Haram insurgents at a checkpoint in the town of Auno, some 25 kilometres to Maiduguri the capital city of Borno state represents a turning point not just in president Buhari’s war against insecurity, but more significantly on the direction that the administration is taking the country. We can assess this through a sequence of events and pronouncements that followed the unfortunate incident.

Dear Mallam El Rufai, Happy Birthday.Let me first start by saying i have nothing personal against you.Expect to see me singing your praises when next you do anything that calls for such.You i must say, are a queer type of politician.The type everyone agrees does well any time he is called upon to serve but is also curiously enough, widely despised for aligning personal interest with public discontent to pursue his selfish ends.Your reputation for hypocrisy is legendary.

Northern Nigeria is a tragic paradox. A walking contradiction, I mean. For over 40 years, the North has ruled Nigeria and controlled every aspect of her national life. The current President of Nigeria is from the North and virtually every security agencies in Nigeria including the paramilitary ones are in the hands of Northerners.

In the eyes of some neo-liberal experts, the abysmal lack of social protection for the poor is hardly an issue. Poor social protection is not often made the topic of discussions because those adversely affected lack power. It is, of course, in the nature of the unjust system to distribute power grossly to the disadvantage of the majority.

People can say anything about the Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi Lamido, but one thing that is not likely to be taken away from him is his frankness – always honest and direct. He speaks the truth, at least, to his fellow Northerners. His candour is often condemned by the Northern oligarchy, but he doesn’t seem to care. His speech at the 60th birthday of Governor Nasir El’ Rufai of Kaduna State, is a classical example. There, he told his people that the north would destroy itself except there was a paradigm shift in the region. Although some people have argued that the speech was a gambit to gain sympathy, and that he too had benefitted from the same system he is now trying to condemn, this hasn’t taken away the fact that he spoke the truth. I agree that the emir has always been in the corridor of power and that he had enough influence in the past to have done something before now about the ugly situation in the north if he was truly concerned, however, it is not too late to start d...

From the killings of innocent villagers by Katsina State bandits to the abandonment of more than 600 corpses in a Delta State hospital, life has become very cheap in Nigeria. Demoralised by what I see around me, I thought it was going to be another of those weeks of doom and gloom. But it was not until four friends visited me yesterday afternoon that I made up my mind to let things pass this week. I had asked if any of them could offer me an idea on what to write about. The first suggestion was a big No. I definitely was not going to write about the turf battle in Aso Rock that has pitched the National Security Adviser (NSA), Major General Babagana Monguno (rtd) against the Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari. I know both men very well, though my decision has nothing to do with my relationship with the duo. Monguno was Commander, Guards Brigade under the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua so we worked together and Kyari was on THISDAY editorial board (which I chai...

“I sincerely believe that the incessant cries about Igbo marginalization in Nigeria is unfounded” – Ola Kassim Mr. Kassim in a well written article (On Feb 17, 2020, at 3:43 PM,) wrote the above. He went to try to prove the impossible, that the Igbo is not marginalized except for the period 1967-1970 (the war period). He cited examples: The Igbo are doing just as well as other ethnic groups;

Political genius has flown under the radar for far too long in Nigeria. There is a need to appreciate and publicise the level of political acumen and sagacity from the top echelons of power. Organising mass weddings is one cardinal part of political genius in Nigeria. It fulfils the divine command to procreate and replenish the earth. Why would anyone disobey? Political leaders organizing such weddings should be acknowledged for what they are — messengers from above. The story of a 20-year old man who participated in one of such weddings is worth iterating. He had no education, no job, no known skill and could not have taken a second wife but for the genius of his state government. Think about it: What else do men think about in their 20s? Marriage.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is as flawed as Ibrahim Magu, its acting chairman, who has revised the agency to a personality cult. The foibles and defects of Magu are no longer distinguishable from the character of this once illustrious institution. Where Magu falters, the EFCC stumbles.

The muffled weeping is unmistakable. It cuts into the thickness of the night. It sounds so far, yet so near, like wind whistling through a palm plantation. The weeping is so ghostly; so sinister it makes the hair stand on end, sets the teeth on edge, makes the head become heavy and transfixes the feet. This eerie weeping belongs only to the “egbere”, a vicious gnome in Yoruba folklore, who inhabits the forests and moves about at night with a mat. Anyone who dispossesses the “egbere” of its mat comes into stupendous wealth.

Before the Nigerian Government starts blaming communities for terror that abounds, they need to take responsibility as do all other countries in the world. Rather than sentencing terrorists to death as ordained by Nigeria's Anti Terror laws, the Buhari government cosies with all sorts of terrorists, signs agreements with them and releases them back into societies illegally without passing them through proper and serious courts to be given capital punishment due. This is the reason why recalcitrant terror abounds in Nigeria.

Over the weekend, the Yoruba community in the South Western part of Nigeria was treated to the shocking news of a fight that broke out between two traditional rulers at an arranged peace meeting in Osogbo, Osun State, with one traditional ruler punching another in the face and the neck, sending the beaten traditional ruler to the hospital. The appropriate title of the duel is: Oba Abdulrasheed Adewale Akanbi, Oluwo of Iwo vs. Oba Dhirulahi Akinropo, the Agbowu of Ogbagbaa. The winner was the Oluwo of Iwo – he gave the Agbowu a few blows to the face and the neck, and that one had to be taken to hospital, to be treated for the Technical Knock Out (TKO) that he got in the very first round of the fight. The only thing to note is that this was not a commercial boxing tournament, and so, everyone is surprised that traditional rulers would resort to fistfights at a meeting.

Abraham Lincoln described democracy as “government of the people, by the people, for the people” during the American civil war in 1863. His notion later became the often quoted definition of democracy and a benchmark of rating its success globally.

From the outset, let me declare unequivocally that I am breaking away from the norm by not recognising a Supreme Court judgment.  With malice to no one, I am personally not going to dignify and acknowledge Senator Hope Uzodinma as the legitimate, duly elected governor of Imo State. I have taken this extraordinary approach to this issue based on the multifaceted challenges we are facing and the extraordinary times we are in, that demand extraordinary action. Even more so is the fact that the Supreme Court judgment gifting him the governorship was anchored in inconsistencies and a statistical sleight of hand of the worst sort.

When it sits on Tuesday, 18 February 2020, to consider the application to review its judgment of 14 January in the matter of the petition on the outcome of the March 2019 governorship election in Imo State, Nigeria’s Supreme Court will find itself presented with a signal moment to re-set the balance in the monumental enterprise of election dispute resolution in Nigeria, a balance upset increasingly by an appearance of decision making un-moored to law or principles. It is an opportunity that the Court should embrace with clarity and an eye on posterity.

To a casual observer, the philosophy of maize signifies that the process of life is gradual. The first thing you see in maize, when it is growing, is the root, followed by the shoot, before the leaves eventually appear.

Introduction: I have perused the judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria delivered on Thursday, the 13th day of February, 2020 in the case between Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) & 2 Ors. V. Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo & 3 Ors.

The Supreme Court has been adding a lot of spice to our politics in recent times, but I did not see the Bayelsa bombshell coming. Less than 24 hours to the swearing-in of APC’s David Lyon as the governor, the court nullified his election because of the credentials of Senator Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo, the deputy governor-elect. The two-time senator was accused of providing “false information” and swearing to an affidavit to back his claims in the nomination forms submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Since his candidature was nullified, that also meant Lyon, his principal, suffered the collateral damage. Both of them had to go down together.

Nigeria’s ruling class has presented the nation with a number of issues around which the Nigerian Left can build an agenda of political engagement for the year 2020, or which, to use an old journalistic expression, the Left can use as “pegs” to construct an agenda of close and integrated engagement with the rulers for the year 2020 and beyond. The rulers of Nigeria regularly “oblige” us in this way.

When Comrade Adams Oshiomhole decided to continue with his talk before thinking in this 2020, we shall continue to educate him on the position of the law .

Why would the security forces of a country that are expected to protect every part of it choose to lock down a highway and abandon innocent travellers to the mercy of merciless terrorists?

On a hot, dusty harmattan day last week, the Independent National Electoral Commission loaded its gun, and pulled the trigger, terminating 74 political parties. The grieving remnants were left to bury their dead in what seemed a most unkind Valentine gift.

Those who are asking for the sack of the service Chiefs as a solution to the upsurge in Boko Haram terrorism are missing the point. Nigeria is not currently being overrun by terrorists because we have a set of incompetent service Chiefs or soldiers who can not fight the terrorists. Not at all. THE ONLY REASON THE BOKO HARAM TERRORISTS ARE HAVING A FILLED DAY IS BECAUSE WE HAVE A PRESIDENT AND COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF WHO SHARES THE SAME IDEOLOGY AS The TERRORISTS AND AS A RESULT, PREFERS PANDERING TO THE TERRORISTS AS AGAINST FIGHTING THEM.

Suddenly, the wave of euphoria sparked across the social media by the story of Madam Obiageli Mazi of Shehu Sanda Kyarimi 2 Primary School, Borno State, has vanished, no thanks to the tragic massive attack launched on the state Monday night by the so-called technically defeated Boko Haram insurgents. The attack left 30 people dead, 18 vehicles burnt and several women and children abducted, according to the state government spokesperson, Ahmad Abdurrahman Bundi.

Nigeria faces an existential threat. Slowing but surely, Nigeria is dying. Its demise will not be by implosion and a bang as some had forecasted; but by agonizing segmental dissipation, and a whimper. The National Assembly recent kneejerk effort to review the Constitution panders to the incremental approach, when the needed review should devolve to the people as was done in 2014. With ongoing zonal coalescing and alignments, the nation is already at risk of a constitutional force majeure. Nigeria will not decline into a categorical failed state; it will just disintegrate, courtesy of bad leadership and the crass unwillingness to act and arrest the nation’s insecurities and prevailing dichotomies. Whether Nigeria’s splintering will be peaceful, or by force of arms, remains an open-ended question.

In a recent lecture in honour of Professor Muyiwa Awe in Ibadan, people’s lawyer Femi Falana drew a vital link between the physical and social dimensions of security. The topic of the forum put together in memory of the celebrated physicist at the University of Ibadan was actually the “Legal Framework of Policing in Nigeria”.

Our Ministers have been giving their performance reports for the last quarter, and it was the turn of Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola last week, at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.

I am not one the biggest fans of the motorcycle as a means of transportation. I wasn’t always an antagonist; it all started in 2010. My friend was on a bike that collided with a danfo in the Ikorodu area of Lagos. It wouldn’t have been too bad if that was where it ended, but after she tumbled off the bike, an onrushing bus overran her right hip. She was a guest of the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, for several months. Ten years on, her life hasn’t been the same. That leg still isn’t the same. Before that experience I was a frequent user of the motorcycle, but in the 10 years that followed I haven’t ridden it up to 10 times. Still, I do not support this wholesale ban on motorcycle and tricycle operations.

Chinua Achebe was arguably the greatest writer of our time. His works remain evergreen and have been translated into numerous languages across the world. One of his titles that I can never get tired of reading is ‘Things Fall Apart’, the epochal tale of how the near perfect Igbo society was torn apart and its values destroyed by the arrival of the colonialists. One interesting episode he related in the book was about Obiakor, the palm wine tapper who, at some point quit his job, ostensibly after the oracle had advised him to stop climbing palm trees or risk falling off from one and losing his life. Another was about Unoka, the good-for-nothing father of Okonkwo, the hero of the book. He was said to have earlier gone to consult the oracle not too long after his own father had died. The oracle, as the story went, informed Unoka that his dead father wanted him to sacrifice a goat to him. Unoka retorted brusquely and asked the Oracle to find out from his father, who was asking for a ...