Clay Richie

As the ink is yet to dry on the analysis of the results of the recent Ekiti poll and the landslides that are reminiscent of 1983 under the now-defunct NPN (National Party of Nigeria) now seems like child’s play, I feel compelled to comment for many reasons, which I will summarise below:

The Nigeria Centenary Awards UK took place in the Waltham-Forest Town Hall, London on the 27th June 2014. The event was well attended by Nigerians in the country with more than 400 people in the capacity Hall. Among them were the Nigeria High Commissioner to United Kingdom, HE. Dr Senator Dalhatu Tafida, His Deputy, Ambassador Lawal, Ministers and Counsellors who came to witnessed the major event in support of Nigerians doing wonderful things in the UK.

Hundreds of former Niger Delta militants mostly of Ijaw extraction have asked President Goodluck Jonathan to declare his intention to contest the 2015 presidential election or risk being banished forever from Ijaw land.

A report by the United States Institute of Peace has given reasons why the Boko Haram terrorist group has been able to recruit many Nigerian youths.

I was at work sometime in 2003 when I got a call from my wife. She said with a form of excitement: “There is this man called Ayo Fayose, he is going to win the governorship election in Ekiti State.” I was amused. Before I could ask her to justify her proposition, she said: “I just watched him on Channels TV distributing water and medicine to the people. The Ekiti people are so happy with him. Channels interviewed them.

When the idea of the ongoing national conference was muted, it came with mixed feelings. Wjile some believed it is an opportunity for Nigeria to yet again right the wrongs and fix the fundamental deficit plaguing the country, many others see it as a camouflaged move to promote certain agenda.

Former governor of Borno State, Ali Modu Sheriff may have concluded plans to dump the All Progressives Congress Congress (APC) for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Socialite and son of late jurist, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, Charles (Charly Boy) Oputa Thursday explained his reason for storming out of a colloquium organized in honour of his late father by the Imo State government.

Two Presidency officials and some security experts at the weekend described the report of the presidential committee on the abduction of some schoolgirls from Chibok, in Borno State, as fundamentally flawed.

On June 26, the Washington Post published an article written by President Goodluck Jonathan ostensibly to appease the international community who has variously criticised him for the handling of the abducted chibok girls more than 2 months ago.

I was astounded and full of dismay after reading your short sighted article on a Muslim /Muslim ticket and your total condemnation without thinking for one moment of the people of Nigeria and the gains they might benefit from the candidature of Alh Mohammadu Buhari and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu .

In an attempt by Jonathan to ‘spin’ his image, with the upcoming presidential elections eight months away, President Goodluck Jonathan has begun his image laundering effort with an opinion piece titled ‘ Nothing is more important than bringing home Nigeria’s missing girls by Goodluck Jonathan ,’ that appeared in the  Washington Post  on June 26.

A lot of things are running through my head right now and it seems difficult to be able to comprehend the shape of Nigerian politics, not with what happened recently in Ekiti state. The question then ask is this, Are we really ready for the so called change we are clamouring for, or we are just engaging ourselves in arguments and discussions to while away precious time.

By Vanguard A requiem mass organised for the late Socrates of the Supreme Court, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa at his country home in Oguta Local Government Area of Imo State was disrupted yesterday, when the first son of the former erudite judge, Charles Oputa, a.k.a Charley Boy prevented Governor Rochas Okorocha from paying tribute to his father.

The dust raised by the just concluded national convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is yet to settle, but the party is set for another showdown: the camps of General Muhammadu Buhari and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso and former Vice-president Atiku Abubakar may clash over the party’s presidential ticket.

Fellow Nigerians, once again I’m inclined to take you down memory lane. In a country that has become completely reticent to both ancient and contemporary history, it is pertinent to refresh our collective memories once in a while. The danger of collective amnesia is grave. It may send us back to where we were decades ago. Only the blind would not see where we are headed. Without mincing words, we are not too far from the abyss.

The United States said on Friday it had decreased its surveillance flights in the search for more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by Islamist militants in Nigeria, but added that the overall effort was unchanged due to more flights by other countries.

President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday admitted that the activities of the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram, have curtailed his movement and prevented him from going to wherever he loves.

President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday said for Nigeria to defeat the violent Boko Haram sect, the country must first overcome what he called political, religious and ethnic cleavages.

Following the emergence of Mr. Ayodele Fayose as the governor-elect in the just concluded governorship election in Ekiti State, the Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko may soon decamp from his party, Labour Party (LP) to the Peoples Democratic Party in the next one month.

The Defence headquarters yesterday said more explosives were seized from  suspects believed to have coordinated the bombing of Emab Shopping Plaza in Wuse II, Abuja on Wednesday.

But for the timely intervention of the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, APC and PDP senators would have engaged each other in exchanging blows as tempers rose yesterday over the outcome of the just-concluded Ekiti election.

An anti-corruption group, Transparency International, has faulted the decision of the Federal Government to drop corruption charges against Mohammed Abacha, son of the late military Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha.

The time was the beginning of the year 2003 and the place is somewhere inside the city of Abuja. It was a secret location but the mystery was even more about the meeting, because of the time of the day, on which the event is taking place, the personalities involved in the negotiation process, the issue being discussed and the last but not the least, it was the year of the general elections or specifically, it was on the eve of the first election to be conducted by politicians, after the one heralding the Fourth Republic, which was guided by the military.

Nigeria’s celebrated novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, is an interviewer’s delight, whether she is talking about Nigeria, novels, feminism or hair. A few weeks ago, she was a guest of Stephen Sackur’s HARDtalk on BBC where she talked about Biafra, ethnicity in Nigeria, the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War and the censorship of the movie version of her novel about the civil war, Half of a Yellow Sun.

A chain of fortunate events have led to the discovery of a ritualists den in Ikorodu area of Lagos, where the General Overseer of Holy Family Ministry a.k.a House of Mercy, Pastor Ernest Nwankwo kidnapped and held victims in chains to be used for rituals later.

“Politics is dynamic.” ~ Godswill Akpabio Unfolding events in the political sphere in Nigeria are clear attestations to the dynamism of politics. Everyday we are confronted with watershed moments filled with lessons that will certainly be valuable to students of political history in the future.

I am frustrated. Nigeria has reached breaking point. This is the point where we either come together united or perish together divided. What happened in Abuja yesterday could have killed an average person who lives in the city. That was not an outskirt town, that was right inside the city. We need to realise that if we don’t unite against these forces of evil, the bombings will keep getting closer until we all rea lise it is a problem for us all and not some few people up north.

Some members of the Islamic militants, Boko Haram, arrested yesterday at Mairi Ward, behind the University of Maiduguri, by members of the vigilance group ‘Civilian JTF’, have confessed that most of them fled the Sambisa forest camp as a result of ‘spiritual attacks’ by mysterious snakes and bees, which have killed many of their colleagues.

Twice on Wednesday, and for the first time since the National Conference was inaugurated on March 17, delegates to the conference held closed-door sessions to discuss issues bordering on national security.

Although I have told the story before, I do not think of anything better which speaks to a time like this. In March 1993, the then two political parties, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and National Republican Convention (NRC) had their national conventions to elect their presidential candidates. While the NRC members went to Port Harcourt to pick their flag bearer, it was to Jos that the SDP members went. As a Senior Staff Writer with African Concord magazine, I was one of the people detailed to cover the Jos convention where our Chairman, the late Bashorun MKO Abiola, was a contender.

A leader is someone who has the interest of his followers at heart, one who strives at all times to ensure that he carries the people along in his daily duties and governance. No leader who is genuinely elected by the people can or should despise the people because he owes what he is to them. And considering the transience of power and life, he knows that someday he will leave power and go back to the level of the people. No matter how tasteful power is, he must guard himself from becoming power drunk.

Suspected Boko Haram militants yesterday attacked a military checkpoint at  Bulamburin village in Borno State killing at least 16 soldiers and losing scores of its members in a fierce exchange of gunfire.

A meeting on Tuesday scheduled between the national executive of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) and Government officials to discuss solutions to close down of Polytechnics did not hold.

Military officers and men were placed on red alert yesterday — no thanks to the increasingly daring moves of the deadly Boko Haram sect.

If you are talking about results from a population of 2.3million. With over 1.6 million eligible voters and 700 thousand plus registered voters from which meager figures of 100, 200 and 40 thousand, totaling just about half of registered voters voted, as victories and loses, then you can have a field day celebrating or crying. But if you are really recognizing the depressing reality and hopelessness of Nigeria under its current democratic, if we can use that term, dispensation; then the results of the Ekiti election are a cause of consolidated grief and reason to ask – when will the people stand up?

The Ekiti State governor-elect, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has accused the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state of depleting the state’s treasury.

An investigation by Thisday has revealed how the strength of the Nigerian military as well as it’s arsenal has depleted over a period of 44 years, thus making it difficult to meet security challenges like that of Boko Haram and other insurgency in the country.

It is not news that former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi was been on the card of President Goodluck Jonathan to be nominated as a cabinet minister, particularly to replace the former minister of aviation, Stella Oduah. What is however news is that Peter Obi’s nomination is that the Peoples Democratic Party in Anambra state is divided over the choice of Oduah’s replacement.

A northern-based rights activist and President of the Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria, Mallam Shehu Sani said on Tuesday that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), did not win the June 21 governorship election in Ekiti State.

A lot of aspersions are being casted on the Leaders of the All Progressive Congress by Femi Fani-Kayode in an unholy calculated attempt to confuse the vast majority of Nigerians that subscribes to the importance of an opposition party in a fair political environment. It is on record that Femi Fani-Kayode, a Former aide to President Olusegun Obasanjo and a Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party at this moment is leaving no stone unturned in his numerous attacks against key Chieftains of the All Progressive Congress, especially those of Yoruba Origin.

Bola Tinubu is standing on the horns of a dilemma.  He became the godfather of the APC out of burning personal ambition to seek greener political pastures for himself in Abuja.  The APC calculus is to present a Northern presidential and Southern vice-presidential ticket against the PDP’s Jonathan/Sambo ticket in the 2015 presidential election. 

By Leadership A suicide bomber yesterday disguised as a fresh student of the Kano School of Hygiene, along Sabuwar-Kofa, Kano State, had attempted to blow up the school.

The political acrimony between the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Governor Kayode Fayemi and that of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ayodele Fayose officially came to an end with the governor-elect of Ekiti state paying a visit to the incumbent in Ado-Ekiti.

The protest tagged “#BringBackOurGirls” was a pressure machinery initiated to compel the federal government to constructively organise serious search and rescue operation for the release of the abducted girls.

The Nigeria Police in Kano State has arrested a suspect in connection with Monday afternoon’s bomb blast at the Kano State School of Hygiene, BUK Road, which killed eight people and injured 12 others.

Dear Hungry Generation, I was compelled to write this letter to you for some earnest, patriotic reasons. One, you are human beings. Two, you are Nigerians. And three, you are hungry (pardon my French). Initially, I never thought about the idea of writing you on this. Forgive me, it’s because I assumed that you all are not hungry. But now I knew how hungry you are, so I ventured to write.

The PDP National Chairman , Alhaji Adamu Muazu, on Sunday said   Fayose would not have been   the party’s candidate   if “the Nigerian factor” was considered.

“Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable.” – Milton Friedman

Firstly, Let me congratulate Mr. Ayodele Fayose on his emergence at the Ekiti poll. Without mincing words and from all the pieces of information at my disposal, I didn’t hear that the activity in any polling unit was disrupted, therefore it is commonsensical to accept that the major verdict of the Ekiti people, which is that Dr. John Kayode Fayemi is not good enough for them, in good fate. It is also important to congratulate him, his followers and other numerous Ekiti people who believed so much in him and in his ideology.