Clay Richie

Ever before the first ballot in the 2019 presidential elections was cast, some members of Nigeria’s leadership elite, across the political spectrum, were already signaling their intention to run for the presidency in 2023. It seemed as if the President’s term, when re-elected, would be for 48 weeks rather than 48 months. Today marks one full year since the re-elected President Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in for a second term.

There were subtle signs at the beginning of the first four years of the All Progressives Congress’ administration that the party and its main strategists were ill-prepared for the serious business of governance in a country as complex as Nigeria. 

  There are many things that make you sad, even angry, about Nigeria. Recently, the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) asked SMEs to pay N120,000 each for “compulsory fumigation” before they would be allowed to re-open after the COVID-19 lockdown. Look at it again: these businesses had not operated for months, had probably sacked thousands of workers, and are in dire need of money to restart! The best way to get them back on their feet is to charge them N120,000 each for “fumigation”. Somebody had seen yet another avenue to pile more misery on these businesses which they already extort all year round. That is how we want to re-start the economy!

The entire Sabon Birni Local Government Area of Sokoto State is still in tears; tears for the 74 people killed by bandits who attacked Garki, Dan Aduwa, Kuzari and Katuma communities in the area last Wednesday. Children have been turned to orphans and women turned to widows. Some tears may never dry. This brazen attack reflects the level of insecurity in Nigeria in the last five years. Daily, it degenerates.

  Across the world, as countries and economies slowly reopen, Africa lags behind. We were last to experience the coronavirus—and we expect to be the final continent to flatten the curve.

Who are the ‘we?’ Speak for yourself only, some cynics would say on merely seeing the headline of this piece.

Benedict Ayade, Professor of Environmental Microbiology, law graduate and Governor of Cross River State, was at his most vulnerable last Thursday. At the inauguration of an odd body, known as the Cross River State Anti-Tax Agency, the governor’s lacrimal gland betrayed him as he dropped tears uncontrollably. It was for effect that could only have been lost on those who are sworn not to see anything good in the petite academic turned politician, who has had the burden of piloting the affairs of the South-South state for the past five years. Even yours truly was taken in by Ayade’s public display of emotions and justifiably so. Let me explain.

Looters Equality: My Thief, Your thief, Our Thief", was to debut with the story of a General's  generous ghost whose "assets" and not loot according to the Presidency. "Asset" that has continued to grace the hands of public servants and line the pockets of leaders since after his demise. According to his compatriot General Muhammadu Buhari, General Sani Abacha is far from being a thief. However, the twist to our story became necessary since it was Abacha that introduced Muhammadu Buhari to Nigeria as the Head of State and later served in the Supreme Military Council headed by Buhari. Furthermore, today been the 29th day of May, and the 5th anniversary of Mohammadu Buhari's Presidency, it's only proper to turn our search light on him, while not failing to say happy anniversary to His Excellency.

On this day in 1999, amidst pomp and pageantry, General Olusegun Obasanjo took the oath of office as president of the Federal Republic, bringing to an end some 16 years of brutal and bloody military dictatorship, and signposting another era of civil democratic government in what has commonly been accepted as the Fourth Republic. Today marks the 21st anniversary of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic, which, despite its challenges and setbacks, still remains the longest uninterrupted democratic journey since the country’s independence in 1960. In every time and clime, the 21st birthday, either of an individual or a corporate, is celebrated as a major milestone. In many countries, it is the legal age of adulthood – an age to be independent and responsible, if not to chart a path of possibility. Some call it the ‘crown year’, being the year young adults are allowed to carry themselves like royalty. Indeed the 21st birthday is rooted in a rich tradition about the coming of age.

  One of the primary objectives of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) launched by the federal government three years ago was aimed at diversifying the economy. With the price of oil in the global market always going up and down like a yo-yo, we do not need a prophet to tell us that the time has come for us to beam our searchlight on the non-oil sector in the face of declining government revenue.

  Health Minister, Osagie Ehanire, has been in hot water lately. It’s hard to sympathise with him because he jumped into the cauldron with his eyes open, wearing his trademark black cap.

In the past one week, dozens of people have sent me a four-minute video clip of Governor Ben Ayade becoming emotional over the plight of the downtrodden in his state during the inauguration of an anti-tax agency. While the clip was prepared and circulated by government officials in Calabar, I am also moved to tears that Ayade is concerned that “five years as governor, there would still be people living in thatched houses in Cross River. I knew how prepared I was but it didn’t end the way I dreamt for the state. I wish God would intervene because I really wish I could help. It’s very painful.”

This year’s eid-al-fitr, the Muslim festival marking the end of the month of Ramadan, during which Muslims fast for 29 or 30 days, in observance of one of the Five Pillars of Islam, was celebrated on Saturday and Sunday May 23/24, but it was a different kind of eid. It was sombre, low key, and completely over-shadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In close to 100 years, there has been no eid like that: the world’s nearly 2 billion Muslims observed the Ramadan under imposed conditions. People were advised to avoid congregational prayers and stay in their homes. On Sunday, many could not observe the traditions of the eid either: the sharing of gifts, visits to family and friends to share goodwill, hugs and handshakes. In countries around the world, persons were advised to shun large gatherings for their own safety. Eid prayers could not be held publicly in Mecca and Medina. The Grand Mosque was noticeably scanty. Earlier, the Saudi Grand Mufti had advised against large congregations.

Let me tell you a short story: In the early 2000s, there used to be a lot of accidents in the Ojoo end of the Lagos-Ibadan-Oyo expressway. Virtually every weekend, accidents occurred in this particular region of the long road. Cars burnt. Lives lost. Property reduced to ashes. 

If one should go by the prevailing substantive allegations of official misconduct about Mudashiru Obasa, Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, his predecessor, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, would be a saint. That notwithstanding, just like his predecessor, Obasa does not care about other people; he only cares about himself. He displays this wanton attitude by spending billions of naira every year to get whatever he likes. Although saddening, it is true that when people who are saddled with the responsibility of enacting laws are found wanting in discipline, they help to validate the saying by Tacitus: “The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has come under fire over the last few days. Condemnation in the British mass and social media spaces have been far ranging, including from Bishops of the Church of England (i.e. Anglican Church) as well as columnists. This is not just over his government’s general bungling of the COVID-19 pandemic response, resulting in almost 40,000 deaths thus far. The immediate cause of concern is Dominic Cummings, a senior adviser to the prime minister, his contemptuous disregard for the lockdown advice, and to rub salt on an open wound, the prime minister’s backing him and his flimsy excuses.

“Herbal medicine has been around for thousands of years! Indeed, it has and we tested it all, and the stuff that worked became “medicine”. And the rest of it is just a nice bowl of soup and some potpourri” – Dara O Briain

In this season of job cuts and reforms occasioned by covid-19, resentments are bound to occur even in the best-organised institution. This, I believe, is the reason for what looks like a media war waged by some disgruntled directors of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) who were relieved of their jobs recently. Nevertheless, there has been no disquiet at “Revenue House”, the headquarters of the nation’s tax collector. 

The corrupt practices of Mr Mudashiru Obasa, Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly (LSHA) have been brought to light. In a series of articles over the last few weeks, Sahara Reporters revealed several incidents of the chief lawmaker’s plunder of public funds and attempts to cover up by lodging these illegitimately acquired monies under false names. Based on this exposé “Concerned Nigerians”, an NGO, has written to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to have Mr Obasa arrested and prosecuted. But thus far, nothing has been done by EFCC or any government agency charged with ensuring proper conduct of public officials or EFCC and ICPC.

Because I know Professor Ibrahim Agboola Gambari rather well, I had initially decided not to participate in the conversations marking his taking of the office of Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari.  

The Buhari administration did not prime itself for leadership but for power. The regime has titillated more attention from controversies stoked by internecine scrimmages than from any milestone project. It has been five years of intrigues, scandals, and the simply unbelievable. Really, the life of the regime has been more dramatic than a Telemundo soap opera.

The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) was established in the 3rd Quarter of the Year 2000, under the Act No.6 of the National Assembly which provides for the repeal of the defunct Oil Mineral Producing Areas Commission Decree 1998. This bold move was geared towards a re-organized management structure for an effective Commission by the Federal Government, in favour of the Oil producing areas of the Nigeria, otherwise referred to as the Niger Delta region.

There is this legendary debate in the 100 level undergraduate philosophy class on the primacy of Egg and Chicken. The germane issue was the demand through academic research and rigorous mental exercise to uncover which of the two comes first between Chicken and Egg originally. Whereas some of us think that since Chickens are hatched from eggs, it makes a lot of sense to conclude hastily that the egg comes before chicken.

Have you heard any of these statements before? They did not even give me any medication yet they said I had COVID-19. What they treated me for was malaria. Patients at isolation centres in Nigeria are eating, drinking and dancing while patients in other countries are on ventilators. If indeed there is coronavirus disease in Nigeria, how come the death toll is so low? As soon as they say they have discharged 20 patients, they announce 20 new cases. Is this not a ploy by government officials to steal money? And so on. Today, I will tease out some easy-to-use facts and information for those who genuinely want to know about COVID-19. Politicians and cynics can look away now.

This is not being pessimistic. Anyone familiar with the psychological composition and historical antecedents of the peoples of the South South and South East would readily know that pursuing any realistic joint venture between them, as a block, is most likely to remain an exercise in futility.

No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its power of acting and reasoning as fear” –Edmund Burke

As Editor-in- Chief and big-name Columnist for the Daily Sun Newspaper, Femi Adesina, presidential spokesman for president Muhammadu Buhari was a Man of the People. He was a journalist’s journalist, and no Friday passes by without some of us reading from his popular “kulikuli” column in those days when the Newspaper was arguably at its best, complete with some of the finest names in print journalism. As a measure of his reach in the industry, Femi would soon become the president of the Nigerian Guild of Editors. Such was the Femi that spoke truth by deploying a fine prose and occasionally bringing a blend of scripture, music and literature to educate and entertain us in his numerous offerings.

  I imagine that someone would regard this headline as dramatic, even hyperbolic, and that would be totally understandable. Given the statistics of accomplishments that the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 reels out during its daily press briefings and most especially last Monday, it is quite tempting to conclude that Nigeria is on the way to repeating its 2014 performance against Ebola.

 In April 2015, barely two weeks after the presidential election when the then newly-formed All Progressives Congress (APC) was waiting to take over the reins of power following its historic electoral victory, the then outgoing governor of Kano State, Mallam Rabiu Kwankwaso, basking in the euphoria of the moment, declared with triumphant hubris that the North used the Almajiri vote to kick out former President Goodluck Jonathan from the Presidential Villa. It was a striking statement from one of the most prominent, rabidly Northern and religious irredentists in modern-day Nigeria. It was an open admittance of the unrighteous potency of the power of street urchins, locally known as the Almajiri, to sway the pendulum of power in the North’s favour and how the North had used it to gain power.

I was privileged to attend two virtual lectures this week on the invitation of the Distinguished Professor of Science and Computer Education, Lagos State University (LASU), Professor Peter Okebukola. The World Bank support project is powered by the African Centre of Excellence for Innovative and Transformative Stem Education (ACEITSE) and aimed at offering qualitative and transformative training for African postgraduate students.

To avert community spread of the coronavirus, on March 29, president Muhammadu Buhari locked down the FCT, Lagos and Ogun states for 14 days. On Monday, April 27th, Mr President announced the extension of the shut down by another two weeks to May 4th, 2020.

It is on record that the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) doubled the number of taxpayers from 10 million in 2015 to 20 million in 2019.Nonetheless, with Nigeria’s economically active population at 115.5 million, there is still a substantial number of non-taxpayers, which stands at 82.7%.

The African Initiative for Governance (AIG) Advisory Panel meeting last Friday was expected to last no more than two hours. We were still engaged in a robust conversation ten minutes after exceeding the scheduled time when our chairman, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, offered one of his usual anecdotes. This time from a 1961 military parade, involving the Regimental Sergeant Major and a late-arriving Adjutant. We knew what was to follow, as he asked Mr A.B. Mahmoud, SAN, to give the closing prayer. The Zoom meeting was attended by the AIG promoter, Mr Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede and his wife, Ofovwe from London. Dr Jeya Wilson joined from Geneva, Switzerland. The CEO, Ms Chienye Ogwo as well as Prof. Enase Okonedo, Mrs Yemisi Ayeni and Dr ’Dere Awosika participated from different locations in Lagos. Mahmoud and I joined from Abuja while Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, the Finance Minister of Ghana, was in Accra. President Obasanjo, of course, chaired from Abeokuta. Notwithstanding our various venues...

The coronavirus crisis has created a welcome opportunity for us to reassess the relationship between China and Africa on several levels – trade, supply chains, excessive borrowing and predatory lending, racism towards Africans.

The Kanem-Borno Empire is one of the ancient empires on the African continent. As far back as the 10th century AD, it got to the zenith and was an extremely prosperous city which attracted traders and tourists to its city walls. The reigns of Mai Idris Alooma, Mohammed El-Kanemi took the empire to its apotheosis as wealth untold poured into her.

The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped the entire world – the future of everything and the world of work, but perhaps the most visible effect of this disruption is most felt in the financial services sector, the markets and the global economy. In this regard, the banking sector is one of the most gravely impacted. It would be useful to reflect a little on the extent to which this is so in Nigeria and the meaning of the multi-dimensional implications, and hopefully, someday, someone will take on the task of analyzing in greater detail, bank-customer relations and the role of the banks in the time of COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria. I seek to provide a preliminary sketch, throw up a few posers and make some observations.

  I battle lots of misinformation and disinformation on social media daily. As a journalist, quite a good number of people think you have the answers to every question, especially when they found the information in the “news”. I have been asked many questions about the Madagascar cure for COVID-19, which I have dodged and dodged, but today, I have answers.

When the world began to shut down all activities as a necessary step to contain the spread of a virus that has, in its original form,been described as a potent biological weapon, I was, to be candid, really worried.

Change is often touted as a certainty and with the advent of COVID-19, it is no news that almost every aspect of our lives will experience a change that is significantly different in one way or the other, from what and how we lived before the outbreak. First, almost if not all schools across the globe have temporarily closed down in an attempt to suppress the virus spread.

The person you see as your class teacher is known as “husband” by another. His role as ‘class teacher’ does not exist with the person who calls him husband. The person you greet “Good morning Hon. Minister” every morning is seen as “mother” by another and called “Auntie” by others. Her school mates call her by one mischievous, and possibly suggestive, nickname; while a contractor who missed a contract he had hoped for in her ministry calls her “that wicked woman.” Does any of these titles, which are actually role-determined, tell us everything about anyone? In answering this question, we must bear in mind that the role-determined persona projected as we do one thing or the other in life does not always reflect, or even suggest, who we really are.

The global hysteria around the corona virus emergency has birthed many untidy offspring. As the menace of the virus abates, its footprints are everywhere in evidence. Four things seem to be happening simultaneously. First, governments have appropriated and monopolized the fear factor and are perpetuating a permanent mindset of emergency around the virus. Second, majority of the world population have overcome the fear of the virus and broken loose from lockdowns to dare the outdoors, literally daring the virus. As lockdowns have begun to ease, the fear in peoples minds is being replaced by the boldness to live life as it once was. Third, the Covid-19 emergency is fast and increasingly being cornered and put to other uses by crafty politicians and other tribes of ingenious entrepreneurs. Fourth, whichever way it ends, Covid-19 has opened new frontiers and challenges in humanity’s quest to control its destiny and remake the fate of nations and the plight of peoples.

Femi Adesina, presidential spokesman, features in the pantheon of accomplished Nigerian journalists no doubt. In his days of ‘’truth-telling’’ and before the hex of unclean spirits in Aso Rock, Adesina was the man from miyshore – the straight place. He was loved. He cut the persona of a light bearer. But why has the ‘’kulikuli exponent’’ so unravelled?

It’s often said that a lie told so many times, if unchallenged, may - in course of time - begin to pass for the truth. One of such is the terrible lie, institutionally purveyed since the end of the Civil War, to the effect that Igboland is landlocked or that it has no access to the sea. The purpose of this essay, therefore, is to debunk that lie with some simple historical and topographical evidence that are even in plain view, if you care to dig or do some physical exploration of your own.

In the 1960s, when Professor Ibrahim Agboola Gambari was an A Level student at the King’s College, Lagos, the Yoruba students always had a good laugh anytime his surname was publicly announced. They could not figure out how anybody on earth could be named “Gambari”. In much of Yorubaland, “Gambari” is a pejorative name for Hausa. There is a jocular saying among the Yoruba: “Gambari pa Fulani, ko l’ejo nnu!” That is: “A Hausa murdered a Fulani, that’s an in-house affair.” As in, how is that my business? It must have been really funny to the Yoruba students that, indeed, a human being could be named “Gambari” when it was supposed to be a joke, technically speaking.

It is no longer in doubt to anyone that the Covid-19 pandemic has caused a grave devastation of many economies, and disrupted the way nations, their citizens and businesses conduct their affairs. Several media talks, meetings, discussions, seminars, and conferences have been held and are still being held (online and offline) in dimensioning the scope of impact, the consequences, and possible solutions to the enormous adverse socio-cultural and economic effects of the pandemic.

First I'd like to congratulate Mr. Anthony Okolie, Mr. Omoyele Sowore and my brother and comrade, Tope Akinyode Esq. on the well won victory against the State Security Service (SSS) - by the way from the records, the most lawless security agency in our country - who had at the instance of the Presidency instigated the arrest of Mr. Okolie and detained him unlawfully for 10 weeks for lawfully purchasing a sim card once used by Hanan, the President's daughter. That was all his offence. This will go down in history as one of the most ignominious actions of the Buhari presidency. 

The level of human rights abuse being perpetrated by Governor Nyesom Wike in Rivers State under the guise of enforcing COVID-19 lockdown is frightening. The good people of Rivers State must rise and stop this modern day Benito Mussolini, who is bent on destroying our democracy and Rule of Law. Wike’s demolition of two hotels in the state over alleged violation of his lockdown order was most despicable. The fascist governor illegally mobilised armed security agents with bulldozers to Edemete and Prodest hotels in Elele and Onne, respectively, and personally supervised the destruction. It was a blatant violation of the laws of this country.

When President Muhammadu Buhari signed the not-too-young to rule into law, Nigerian youth went frenzy. But every appointment made by Buhari makes mockery of the law.

Add caption The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management is a key player in the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19. The ministry is manning the flank  responsible for implementing palliative policies designed to cushion the apocalyptic consequences the pandemic inflected on economic backbone of poor households in Nigeria. 

Our family is the first government we experience. A government whose system is shaped by the inclinations of its rulers, our parents. Our parents are our first contact with power. It is from the way they govern our household that we pick up our first lessons on how leadership is practised. It is from them we learn our first lessons on how power should reward compliance and punish deviance. Our family’s governance dynamic is our introduction to political culture.