Clay Richie

  Lie repeatedly told becomes the truth — Joseph Goebbles. This quote aptly captured the current orchestrated media attacks on the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN). It is no more news that in November 22, 2017, President Muhammadu Buhai, in line with his administration’s zero tolerance for corruption, set up a Committee called: Presidential Committee on Audit of Recovered Assets (PCARA), to audit assets recovered by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other agencies between 29th May 2015- 22nd November 2018.

  They say necessity is the mother of invention. Cliché. Cliché can wear your life out with boredom but it does not ever tell a lie. Cliché oils so much of monotony in our life, to the extent, that one is pressured into taking a second look at his beliefs or forever live with them. Living with them doesn’t seem to be a preferred alternative; it can mark the difference between a liberating feeling where knowledge is supreme and a hermetic legacy dwelling underpinned by unending ignorance.

  There is hardly any country in which nation-building is a finished business. To build a nation its people under a leadership with a sense of historic mission must continuously strive for renewal. That’s one organising principle behind the stories of those countries to which Nigerians like to compare their nation.

  Turn to your family members, friends, neighbours and colleagues and say congratulations! Yes, we have reasons to be joyful and thankful as we mark our 60th independence anniversary this week — the Federal Republic of Nigeria will be 60 years old on October 1. At least, we are alive to witness the auspicious occasion and tell the story at a time COVID-19 pandemic threatens our common humanity. Let us count our blessings and name them one by one.

  Nigerians had endured series of untold economic hardships since the inception of this regime, but none has been as excruciating as the policy a month ago, that thoughtlessly reviewed petroleum prices and power tarrif upwards.

  I was very skeptical when the current leadership of Organized Labour in Nigeria objected to the decision of the Federal Government to withdraw fuel subsidy and hand over the pump price of petrol to the forces of demand and supply, also known as market forces. Labour, represented by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), and their affiliates and privies in civil society, further threatened that they were opposed to the hike in electricity tariffs. They issued a statement in which they railed against neo-liberal policies, bad timing, and the insensitivity of government. They made heavy weather out of the hardship that COVID-19 has imposed on the people and why any form of additional taxation that could pressurize the people would be utterly unacceptable. Deregulation of the downstream sector is not a new subject in Nigeria. Removal of fuel subsidy is an old subject. Only the dumb and the deaf would deny being aware of the persistent argument that a fu...

  The concept of legitimacy is well entrenched in political science even though it continues to be a topic of great philosophical controversy. Typically, it is the right or acceptance of authority usually a governing law or a regime by a people. For this authority to be legitimate, it must have the right and political justification to exercise power. This captures the thesis of German Political Philosopher, Dolf Sterberger who argues that legitimacy is the foundation of governmental power, exercised, both with a consciousness on the government’s part that it has a right to govern, and with some recognition by the governed of that right.

  If you picked a random Nigerian with a decent grasp of the economy and asked what major issue they wanted the Nigerian government to fix, most respondents will say “power”. This was also my choice when some fourteen years ago, I was, in the recruitment process of a Finance firm, asked to write an essay on what I would give priority if given the chance to rule Nigeria in one hundred days.

  I start by congratulating African leaders on the opening of the AfCFTA secretariat last month. I believe the secretariat will further help to facilitate the prompt actualization of the AfCFTA vision.

  As the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) retreats to lick its wounds from the crushing defeat it suffered at the hands of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) at the recent governorship elections in Edo state, many questions are bound to be asked. The hows and whys will follow thick and fast, and possible recriminations are bound to follow within the party.

  The British colonialists chucked the power console to the aborigines of Nigeria in 1960. Let me rephrase that. The British prowlers tossed power into the palm of native champions and ‘’non-functionally’’ exited the dais before the close of 1960. But these infiltrators did not go with the evils and vices of their craft. The perils of colonialism remained. So, long after they are gone, the colonial construction still stands sturdy.

  We often tell ourselves a lot of beautiful lies in Nigeria. One of my favourite is the saying: “This is not the dream of our founding fathers.” By that, we often try to claim our founding fathers had a dream for Nigeria from which we have deviated — the dream of oneness, of national unity. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Most of those who led the country to independence did not believe in one Nigeria and did not do enough to unite the country. By the time we gained independence from Britain in 1960, most of the founding fathers represented nothing but their ethnic cocoons. And it is the divided Nigeria they built that we have inherited and are operating till today.

  Nigeria will be 60 years old as a formally independent country next Thursday, but the divisibility and tiresomely endless feuding that have emerged as some of its defining features since its forced birth more than a century ago show no sign of abating.

  I first heard of the name Ezenwo Nyesom Wike sometime in 1999. Then, he was the dashing chairman of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State. He had contested the local government election as the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and had to reclaim his mandate through the court. A staunch believer in the rule of law and the efficacy of the judicial process, Wike has a rich history of engagements in this critical arena that undergirds society and anchors democracy. And he is a consummate lawyer to boot. Beyond the realm of law, it is noteworthy that Wike has remained faithful to the PDP since its formation. Unlike many fair-weather politicians in the country, he has not been swayed by the vicissitudes of partisan politics and its changing fortunes to leave the PDP. This uncommon trait speaks to consistency, principle, and loyalty to his political party.

  A nation's culture resides in the heart and soul of its people. It's not the honour you take with you but the heritage you leave behind. What would we want the coming generation to remember us for as leaders? Would it be honourable and fair to pass the current state of our nation to the next generation just the way our parents ceded it to us?

  The Babcock Model United Nations invited the immediate past president of the United Nations General Assembly, Tijjani Mohammed Bande, to a live virtual session on August 5th this year. In the event tagged “reaffirming collective commitment to multilateralism”, one of the participants asked the diplomat an important question: “Is the United Nations aware of the genocide and ethnic cleansing going on in Southern Kaduna, and if it is, why is it not speaking up?”

  Bola Tinubu, national leader of All Progressives Congress (APC), for some strange and unnecessary reason, made himself an issue in the just concluded Edo State governorship election. For an election whose dominant message was a protest against godfatherism, a message aptly projected with the #EdoNoBeLagos hashtag on social media, it was ill-advised for Tinubu, the last of the godfathers whose persona is synonymous with Lagos, to have made a video broadcast appealing to the Edo people, a few days before the election, not to re-elect incumbent Governor Godwin Obaseki. I was a little surprised that Tinubu, an accomplished political strategist, persuaded himself, or allowed himself to be persuaded, to make such a video broadcast that was dumb in concept, poor in messaging, and weak in presentation.

  There is a story that President Muhammadu Buhari likes to tell. He has done so many times in public and private meetings. It goes thus: “After we got inaugurated into office in 2015, I asked the Governor of Central Bank for the state of our finances. He said no money.

  The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) called on its members and the public to embark on demonstrations and strike actions to protest the increase in price of petrol and electricity tariff from Monday 28 September. I call on NLC to call off the actions as this is not the time for protests but a time to come together in solidarity and support the government to prevent a health catastrophe and an economic meltdown.

  The Internet has been awash with yet another alleged brutal murder. This time, a young lad, allegedly shot dead by a Mobile Police Officer in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. News have it that the young man was asked to provide the password to his device, and when he refused, was cruelly shot dead by the officer. There is another version of the story which says he was shot while running away from SARS operatives. The facts are still emerging, and this article is not intended to validate (or not) the authenticity of any version. This article will only look at the former of the two scenarios; since it is a frequent occurrence here. Without prejudice to the investigation going on, this piece will examine the legal provisions of search and seizure, particularly of mobile phones and electronic devices. In this analysis, I will examine the scenario, looking at two jurisdictions: USA and Nigeria. 

  Popular American author and speaker, Natalie Golberg, has written a lot about writing, including what writers should do when they have no clue about what to write about—a situation I find myself in right now. In such moments, Golberg suggests writing about “What disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about.” I have several times taken her counsel but it does not work for me this week. There are so many things that disturb me or that I fear or that I would rather not speak about. Take the death last Sunday of Colonel Haliru Bako who was killed in a firefight with insurgents in Gamboa, Borno State.

  Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq was in Aso Rock yesterday to seek federal government’s support in tackling the menace of floods in his state. According to AbdulRazaq, about 15, 000 persons have been internally displaced and 5,000 houses destroyed in the state, which has lost an estimate of between N5 billion and N10 billion to flood disasters.

  Life is full of ironies, many unintended and unanticipated consequences – good and bad consequences alike. When on the 5th of December, 2019 the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos convicted Orji Uzor Kalu (OUK) for fraud, and sentenced him to 12 years in prison, many, including me, saw what happened just as another instance of the falling of the mighty, with the emphasis on the falling. But there has been some unintended consequence to it all.

  There is hardly any homogeneity between khaki (military) and Agbada (civilian). Which is why anyone with a descent respect for, and recollection of the country’s history will confess that the relationship has not fared better than a poisoned chalice. Premised on the foregoing, it will not be farfetched to suggest that apart from being initially nonplussed about the coming together of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) and Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) to run for elections as president and vice president of Nigeria, quite a number of people may have gotten sufficiently relaxed by the cooling thoughts that the SAN is able to introduce malleable manageability of the rule of law to the military adroitness or even stubbornness of the general.

  I got what was perhaps my first baptism of fire in politics when at the 2018 Osasu Symposium organized by Osasu Igbinedion at the NAF Centre, Abuja early December of that year, I was brutally taken down by Mrs Oby Ezekwesili. In my usually effusive and if you like, self-deprecating style, I had rushed to greet upon sighting her. I also made references to her in my opening speech, wherein I also tried to push some of my more radical ideas that prompted me to run for President of Nigeria in 2019. One of them was that Nigeria’s economy should be growing much faster. I believed – and still do – that ours is a toddler economy in terms of achievement and experience, and if this is so, a toddler should grow much faster than adults. The US economy was then growing at 4% under Donald Trump and I didn’t see why we cannot do much better. That was my sin.

  I am not a fan of APC or PDP. I believe APC is Lucifer, PDP Satan. The two political parties are one and the same. Both are corrupt and anti-people. 

  The pundits who had predicted the outcome and the nature of the Gubernatorial election in Edo State got it all wrong. The Edo 2020 election may well prove to be a turning point in the management of elections in Nigeria, and if not, there are certainly lessons to be learnt from it. It was in every sense a rude awakening for both the actors in the drama and the community of observers who witnessed and monitored the election. Pundits predicted that the election would end up as war, a do –or die affair and that there would be blood-letting in all the state’s three Senatorial Districts. That didn’t happen. An official of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was shot in Etsako Central LGA, another person was macheted and given a cut on the face. In Orhionmwon LGA, a person was killed. In Egor, Ovia South West, Ikpoba-Okha, Oredo LGAs there were reports of skirmishes involving vote buying, and physical assault, but on the whole, the election went on peacefully. There wer...

  I had late on 19/09/2020, seen a post/comment going round on the social media, and suggesting that the Nigeria Police Force (Establishment) Act, 2020, had finally brought to an end the ugly era of use of Lay (non-lawyer) Police Prosecutors in Courts of Law in Nigeria.

  These are indeed challenging times for Nigerians and Nigeria. For the majority of our countrymen who have been grovelling under the yoke of unrelenting economic malaise and acute insecurity, the COVID-19 pandemic is akin to a malignant salt added to a festering sore. A country, said to be the poverty capital of the world, is sinking even deeper into the dungeons of penury. There is some sense of relief that the feared millions of dead bodies from the novel Coronavirus has not materialised. But the economic impact is real, it is here, and it may get worse.

  “In the US, after the Great Depression, they invested heavily in infrastructure to create a lot of employment. In Germany, after the war, there was the Marshall plan for roads, rail, housing, energy, water and so on. That created massive employment after the devastation of the war and helped them to rebuild the country.” -Raila Odinga

  Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide recently instituted a fund for the development of Alaigbo to the elation of every right-thinking Igbo man or woman as there is no meaningful federal government presence in the South East. When the Biafra war ended in January 1970, the Gowon regime instituted the so-called 3 Rs, namely: Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation but ostensibly left out Reintegration, the most crucial.

  Nigeria is currently like a small hamlet invaded by a thousand witches, each bearing a sack full of assorted plagues and poxes. The trouble is in not knowing which affliction ails us most or which is likely to deal the ultimate fatal blow. Of late, sensitive elders, faction leaders and honest citizens have put a name to our key affliction: the nation is badly divided and the structure of state is tethering towards cataclysmic failure. To sound this alarm, to my mind, is not a mortal sin but the height of patriotic duty. Those who fear that the nation may implode under the weight of its novel divisions are by no means less patriotic than those paid to comfortably preside over this dreadful gala. We have come to the Nigerian ship by different boats but our fate is now tied in a common ship caught in perilous waters.

  Each time former president Olusegun Obasanjo makes his frequent interventions on national issues, there are always people who would ask that we ignore the messenger and consider instead the message he brings. Impliedly, this is to urge that Nigerians ignore his well-known and documented negative political and other traits and read the opinions he offers on national issues with gritted teeth if necessary. It is like the popular saying in Naijaspeak; ‘’Comot eye for the thing wey dem write for moto, enter moto”.

  Fellow Nigerians, I’m aware that many of us have given up on President Muhammadu Buhari changing his modus operandi. I won’t blame anyone for arriving at such decision. After spending over five years in power, we can only await a miracle of volcanic proportions to alter this perfidious drift towards cataclysmic perdition into which the President is leading us. There are not many human beings as lucky as a man once known as Major General Muhammadu Buhari, who was Nigeria’s military Head of State, from 1984-85, and who is now the civilian President, from 2015 until, hopefully, 2023.

  Someone once said: "Power is arrogant and the arrogance of power is stupidity and foolishness." There have been an avalanche of reactions from Bola Ahmed Tinubu's camp to the video I had made calling him to order over his earlier video in which he had described himself as the leader of all democrats, irrespective of party affiliations. 

  It couldn’t get worse. Like many family feuds, offence festered as quickly as affection grew. In this case, though, there was some hope that the feuding parties had too much going for them to risk losing all. And for what?

  Cybercrime and advanced fee fraud is growing at a very disturbing rate almost everywhere in Nigeria. I read recently in the news that two lecturers of the Kwara State College of Health Technology were arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over alleged involvement in Internet fraud. 

  Finally, the fog surrounding the fraudulent motivation behind the failed Gas Supply Processing Agreement (GSPA) between Nigeria and Process & Industrial Development Limited (P&ID) is being cleared gradually by a United Kingdom Commercial Court, which has established a prima facie case of fraud against P&ID. The Nigerian conspirators are being exposed and men who had long presented themselves as the epitome of civility and patriotism have been outed in court records in a foreign land and pronounced dishonest. They have become the shame of our country and the legal profession that for far too long has rewarded rent and cant with the nobility of its silk.

  If only Nigerians are fully aware of the damage being done to the nation’s tertiary education sector, especially its universities, with this impasse in negotiations between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities, perhaps there would have been a concerted approach to resolving the problem.

  I watched with rapt attention the video that you made for the people of Edo concerning the 19th September gubernatorial elections. Indeed, no matter where we are from, we are all part of a social web of life that supports and sustains us. So, I want to thank you for the interest that you have shown in the political happenings in our dear state. So much so that you took the pains to record the four-minute and forty-seven seconds-long message.

  Residents of Zaria Kalakala in Koko-Besse local government, Kebbi State, were still counting their losses from the flood that washed away their farmlands and destroyed their houses when they were confronted by a huge hippopotamus that had strayed out of the water to scavenge. Rather than go for their guns or other assault weapons as most often happens in such situations in the country, they helped the semiaquatic mammal back to its natural habitat (see video).

  It was President Olusegun Obasanjo, who during the 2007 electioneering campaigns, told us that the elections were a “do or die affair”. He was determined to install his own successor and nothing was going to stand in his way. The beneficiary of that electoral heist, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, did acknowledge the tainted nature of his mandate during his inauguration. He proceeded to set up the Justice Uwais electoral reform committee that was charged with the responsibility of bequeathing on the nation a better electoral system.

  In 2015 I said Buhari WOULD divide Nigeria, you didn’t believe me. In 2017 I said Buhari HAD divided Nigeria, you didn’t believe me. In 2019 I said Buhari had pushed Nigeria to the BRINK of disintegration, you didn’t believe me.

  In his closing remarks at the ministerial retreat last week, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered members of his administration to “go on the offensive“ against “irresponsible and politically motivated activists.”

  In 1996, General Sani Abacha launched Vision 2010. It was a total failure. In 2005, President Olusegun Obasanjo came up with Vision 20:2020. President Umaru Yar’Adua launched the blueprint in 2009. 

  Dear Alhaji Lai Mohammed, I didn’t know I would have to comment on the state of the nation again so soon after a recent response to Presidential spokesman, Mallam Garba Shehu on the courage exhibited by President Muhammadu Buhari in running #Nigeria.

  It is a factual error to conflate the subsidy uprising of 2012 and the crisis of 2020. True, both speak to a national emergency, but the circumstances are starkly dissimilar. Nigerians that marched across the nation in the harmattan-scorched January of 2012 were actually protesting a touted rising economic tide that didn’t in any way raise their individual boats.

  It is now more than six months since Nigeria reported its index case of Corona Virus. On March 23, the country closed its airports to all international flights and commercial operations, for a month, in the first instance, with the exception of emergency and essential flights. Previously, in August 2019, the country had shut down its land borders in an attempt to check smuggling. With COVID-19, those borders remained closed. On March 30, 2020, at 11 pm, Nigeria began the first phase of its COVID lockdown – initially for a period of 14 days in Lagos and Ogun States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Gradually, the entire country was locked down. Inter-state movement was restricted. Curfew was imposed. Six months later, where are we? How safe are we as a people and as a country? What future challenges do we still need to worry about? What has been the impact of COVID-19 on our lives?

  You must have come across a phrase which says, "The world is a global village".  This is a phrase which is most likely thrown around during discussions in regard to business as it refers to how much the world has opened up, with boundaries removed, making trade and communications between people in different countries easier. 

  A recent lengthy submission from the elder statesman, Ahmed Joda, rested on a telling conclusion: Northern Nigeria is not developing its human capital. It also does not have the time to do so anymore. Therefore, it is now ill-equipped to fit into either the knowledge-driven world of today or the new world of tomorrow. It needs at least 20 years to become significant in any way. But, rather than wake up to this benumbing fact, there is the pursuit of the illusion of dominance. Meanwhile the people of the region lack the skills for tomorrow, as majority of its youth lack everything that could make them part of a 21st century world. The major point in Joda’s intervention is that the triumphalism of cattle rearers whose illusion of invulnerability is fuelled and sustained by a national security framework that is skewed to promote insecurity in specific regions of the country will go burst sooner than later. Confiscation of the headship of institutions of state is not the same thing a...