Clay Richie

The first hundred days in office for President Muhammadu Buhari has since passed. The next landmark in the horizon will be one year in office. By the end of this week, the potential ministers must have been named. The argument about who deserves to be there and who should not have been named will last for the next few weeks. Once the ministers are sworn in, the new government should settle down to deliver on election promises.

It is with all nostalgia that I recall the zeal, enthusiasm and hope with which thousands of Bayelsans made a statement in the direction of change in August, 2015. I can also vividly recall a mental replay of the occasion wherein a qualitative representation of the leadership of our great party, the All Progressives Congress ( APC) ushered in respected leaders and members from their then party, Peoples Democratic Party(PDP).

Ahead of the list of ministerial nominees on Wednesday’s by President Muhammadu Buhari, the President on Tuesday said he would head the Ministry of Petroleum Resources. Buhari dropped the hint in one of the interviews he granted one of the foreign media in his hotel shortly before departing New York.

President Buhari must send a bouquet of flowers to His Royal Highness Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Emir of Kano. When you miss a side meeting on Boko Haram at the UN General Assembly, which was not on your schedule and to which you were not invited, and your media team characteristically makes a spectacular mess of explaining something as simple as you were not even invited to the said meeting, and there is national outcry and a feeding frenzy by wailers who would have complained about the colour of your Kaftan had you attended the said meeting anyway,

Those who have been keenly watching the ongoing travails of the Nigerian Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, in the net of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) over the last two weeks must have noticed that a number of media outfits have been at the forefront of the campaign to sway the tide of Saraki’s ordeal in a certain direction that does not favour the ‘Number 3 Citizen’. Additionally, recent allegations seem to suggest that these media outfits are under the control of powerful forces in the ruling party.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that President Muhammadu Buhari never intended to appoint ministers because his plan was to run a “monocracy”. Speaking at a news conference in Abuja on Monday, National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Olisa Metuh said the president will not respect his appointed ministers because they will be of no value to them.

The apex Igbo socio-cultural group,Ohanaeze Ndigbo,yesterday,appealed to the Igbo nation to remain calm in the face of seeming lopsidedness of appointments made so far by President Muhammadu Buhari. Ohanaeze was reacting to the strident outcries that have attended the appointment of the president’s ‘kitchen cabinet’.

“Nothing is politically right which is morally wrong” - Daniel O’Connell. It is very evident that Nigeria is in dire straits. It is clear enough that Nigeria is in serious trouble. For anyone that still doubts it, we have just been handed the evidence that this country called Nigeria is straddling the line between good and evil.

Troops of Operation Pulo Shield (OPS) of the Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt have seized 2.3 million litres of allegedly stolen diesel worth N3.45 million from an illegal bunker site in Rivers. The petroleum product was siphoned from the pipelines belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC).

President Muhammadu Buhari Sunday in New York restated his determination to fully sanitize Nigeria’s oil industry and make it totally free of corruption and shady deals. Speaking at a meeting with President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the 70th General Assembly of the United Nations, President Buhari said that a necessary first step in this direction had already been taken with the appointment of a new management for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsequent reorganisation .

More details have continued to emerge in the Friday night attack on the Kogi State office of the Department of State Security Services by suspected members of the Boko Haram sect. The attackers stormed the DSS office located along Hassan Katsina Road, Lokoja, after using a truck belonging to Obajana Cement Company to block part of the access road leading to the office and engaged the DSS personnel in a shoot out.

United Nations representatives and Chad Basin countries including Chad, Niger, and Cameroon met to discuss security and terrorism issues in the Lake Chad Basin area, especially Boko Haram, on Friday according to Reuters news. However, it was learned that Nigeria was not present during this meeting organized on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

I cannot help but have sympathy for Buhari’s supporters. Most of them supported him genuinely, believing that he would bring an end to the old order and usher in the much desired change by engaging in nation building and urgently tackling the deficiencies in all critical sectors as anchored in their campaign manifesto. The revolution was such that even in the South East and South South were the populace mindful of Buhari’s antecedents where largely not sold to his agenda, he nonetheless still had a modest following of fanatical supporters who stood against the dissenting storm of opprobrium as they daily mounted vociferous campaigns in the social media and elsewhere on his behalf.

Nigeria’s military said more than 200 members of Boko Haram surrendered Friday as troops regained control of the northeastern town of Banki, from where attacks had been launched into Cameroon. “Over 200 members of the terrorist organisation Boko Haram have surrendered Friday to the Nigerian troops in Banki town,” army spokesman Sani Usman said in a statement.

It is within the fragility of the moral structure of our society that one can surprisingly witness the stripping of the old base of the colonialists. Yes, Lagos is now being undressed on a fashion runway of change. Within three months, we were ushered back into the Lagos that BBC described as ‘hell’, the untamed Lagoon brewed with debris of lawlessness.

Fellow Nigerians, this is not a good season for some reason. I have written several obituary tributes on this page in a matter of several months and can only pray that this trend would stop forthwith. While it is true that the departed icons we eulogised were generally old, they were too dear to us and we would have wished to have them around much longer.

Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Chief Olu Falae yesterday revealed that his kidnappers have links with the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents even as he says he saw hell in captivity. Falae who was released Thursday four days after his abduction by suspected Fulani herdsmen said he slept on bare floor while in the kidnappers den.

48 hours after Senate President Bukola Saraki appeared before the Code of Conduct Tribunal on charges leveled against him by the Code of Conduct Bureau, national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, said the present administration cannot overlook certain things in its fight against corruption.

Since his assumption of office on May 29 this year, President Muhammadu Buhari, PMB has not left anyone in doubt that he is truly out to fight corruption as part of the change he promised Nigerians during his electioneering campaign for the presidential seat. Most of his actions so far have clearly shown that we are certainly in an era of change, geared towards achieving a better Nigeria where it would no longer be business as usual.

Many have been puzzled and piqued over this question. How did the new Buhari/Osinbajo government suddenly and rather drastically improve the power situation in Nigeria literally overnight? Apart from Asari-Dokubo and the people of Borno, most Nigerians have celebrated  stretches of uninterrupted power like never before. My niece and nephew were overheard arguing on if it had been a full 24 hours of uninterrupted light. One said it was, the other said it was over 20 hours but not 24. In the past they barely had 20 hours of light per week. It’s been so across Nigeria, an unexplained miracle of the new “change” government.

Former governor of Bayelsa state, Timipre Sylva, has accused Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo state, of plotting to frustrate him out of the December 2015 governorship race in the state. Maintaining that he won the primary election held in the state as scheduled, Sylva said Oshiomhole set the motion for the exercise, which eventually produced him as the winner.

After five days of drama and intrigues, the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) on Tuesday finally charged the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT). The real trial has now been fixed for late next month when he will answer 13 charges bordering on alleged corruption and making “anticipatory declaration” of assets in 2003. And as the saga of the CCT versus Saraki continues, there are perhaps only few Nigerians who can be deemed neutral in the matter. Even at that, as the late Professor Omo Omoruyi was wont to say, “neutrality itself is a position.”

The biblical quote, “To your tents, O Israel”, is the latest dissonant hit tune that has found it’s melodious cymbals in our polity. Even with it’s reverberating beats, many are still not comfortable. Those that thought jumping ship in the middle of the sea would berth them to safety have found themselves in a pity party.

The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria on Tuesday warned that the country’s economy could slip into recession by next year if proactive steps were not taken by the Federal Government to revive key sectors of the economy.

Senate President Bukola Saraki has explained the reason why he is being tried at the Code of Conduct Tribunal. Saraki in a statement personally signed by him attributed his ongoing trial to his position as the senate president, saying he would not have been singled out if he was” just a senator”.

Ikechukwu Aduba, former Delta state police commissioner, has insisted there is something more dangerous than the dreaded Boko Haram sect in Nigeria. The retired police officer raised alarm over the illegal activities of Fulani cattle rearers and urged the man incharge of the country, President Muhammadu Buhari to address the situation before it is too late. Ex-CP Aduba explained why these guys are worse than Boko Haram:

The All Progressives Congress in Kwara State has strongly condemned the call for the resignation of the Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki by desperate politicians and their agents while also dismissing a statement credited to Lagos APC Spokesman, Mr Joe Igbokwe as a clear act of impersonation.

As the sun rises and sets every other day in this month, the average political observer in the country right now takes note of how many days September has to elapse, seeing as President Buhari has assured that by the time September passes, the names of his cabinet members will be public knowledge. The level of anticipation attached to this ministerial list is one that has never been matched by any previous government in the land and this anxiety is simply borne out of the anxiety by the people to see the change they voted manifest in the choice of ministers. How does change come in the form of a list?

Our newly-forged critics are on overkill. They came through the historical electoral feat of March 28. They are over-charged; ready to pounce and kill. They are dripping with Viagra and venom, and they have an unmistakable target: President Muhammadu Buhari. They don't want to spare anything. They are not giving any chances, not letting any space. They wait on President Buhari like lascivious and hungry dogs, ready to attack his person, his policies, his actions and his pro increments. . Oh yes, he must be cut to pieces for daring to topple the sordid order from where they freely fed. Since he had the audacity to take on their carefully erected Augean stable and turn it over, he must pay, so says our hyperactive critics.

One of the biggest problems facing Nigeria today is impunity. It has led to corruption, arrogance, brigandage, deep political crisis and outright murder. This pandemic disease has led to near collapse of our economy, collapse of values, collapse of institutions and collapse of governance. This high table mentality in Nigeria has led gullible people to take laws into their hands and damn the consequences to the detriment of 160 million Nigerians.

Kidnappers of the National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Cheif Olu Falae has demanded for a N100 million ransom which they demanded must be paid before the elder statesman can be released.

“… Taxpayers funds are being wasted on trying to remove a perceived political ‘non-conformist’ like Saraki by hook or by crook – without adherence to the book (i.e. the Nigerian Constitution).” – Bashir Akanbi

The point of today’s article is to offer advice to our “one-per cent” population how to spend their money. Somewhat presumptuous, admittedly. Please bear with me. All I’m doing is arrogating to myself the sort of audacity embodied in the title of one of my favourite magazines, “How To Spend It”, a part of the Financial Times family.

It’s over He had a decent run, captivated a minimum of the foremost fervent among Change believers from Kwara State, deceived by their Peoples Democratic Party counterparts. Here was a man; young, attractive and vibrant, having traits similar to former vice-president Atiku Abubarkar (or a minimum of, one was imputed to him). He captivated listeners’ and viewers’ attention with a compelling story of rising from a humble circumstances to attain success.

As part of a strategic move to grow Nigeria’s oil and gas reserves and generate more income, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC has secured a $1.2 billion multi-year drilling financing package for 36 Offshore/Onshore Oil wells under the NNPC/Chevron Nigeria Limited Joint Venture.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that no amount of blackmail and diversionary tactics by the All Progressives Congress (APC) would deter it from exposing the deliberate agenda, already in motion, by the present administration to destroy the nation’s democracy and impose a dictatorship in the country

If anyone needed a good hint on President Muhammadu Buhari’s likely economic policy direction, he has given one by declaring that there will be “no more devaluation of the naira”. It is the clearest signal yet that the exchange rate policy may not be formulated by the monetary policy committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). It is going to be determined, effectively,from Aso Rock. Thus, the exchange rate may have no direct connection to the interplay of demand and supply in the currency market. Is this good or bad? Actually, every policy has its good and bad sides, but I honestly don’t know how well Buhari’s pronouncement will work out. Things could even get messier.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday denied any involvement in the ongoing corruption trial of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki. The president may be responding to a statement credited to the Peoples Democratic Party accusing Buhari of Desperation to remove the Senate President, who went against the will of his party, the APC to contest the seat of the president of the senate.

A former President of the Nigeria Bar Association, Chief Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), has faulted the Code of Conduct Tribunal for declaring itself at par with the Federal High Court. The former NBA president was reacting to the issuance of a bench warrant for the arrest of Senate President Bukola Saraki by the CCT on Friday.

The Central Bank of Nigeria on Friday released the list of 19 states that have benefitted from the workers’ salary bailout package which is in line with the recent resolution by the National Economic Council, NEC.

For about 28 years now, the National Assembly of Nigeria has evolved from one dispensation to another. Right now, we happen to be in the dispensation of the 8th Assembly, with an All Progressives Congress majority led by Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki as the Senate President of the Federal Republic.

The Cross River National Park was first proposed in 1965 but was not established until 1991 with the help of World Wide Fund for Nature-UK (funded by the Department of International Development of the United Kingdom).

Nigerians waited for so long to get the public declaration of assets of President Muhammadu Buhari and when it came two weeks ago via a press statement by Garba Shehu, his Senior Special Assistant on Media & Publicity, it left much to be desired.

Fellow Africans, it is good to be great. It is great to be accomplished. Ambassador Chief Antonio Oladeinde Fernandez combined both and much more. If there were doubts about the wonderfulness of God in the life of Ambassador Fernandez before now, they were gloriously removed yesterday at the one-of-a-kind funeral service which was powerfully and meticulously planned by his widow, Mrs Halima Fernandez, and members of their extensive and extended families. It won’t be an exaggeration to describe it as the event of this year already. Despite the short notice given to guests considering the suddenness of unfolding events, the occasion still drew a large turnout of caring mourners.

Myriad of publications have kept reverberating in the national dailies and buzzing on the online media with respect to the panache and leadership style of the former governor of Kogi State, Prince Abubakar Audu while he superintended over the affairs of the State as a governor between 1999 and 2003, and his intention to contest the gubernatorial election which comes up on 21st November, 2015.

Following a 13-count charge against the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, by the Code of Conduct Bureau, over alleged falsification of assets he declared, Senators of the upper chamber of the National Assembly have vowed to stick by the Senate President as he appears for trial before the tribunal today.

The Code of Conduct Tribunal has ordered the arrest of Senate President, Bukola Saraki. The tribunal gave the order at the resumption of proceedings in the 13 point criminal charge slammed on him by the Code of Conduct Bureau.

So Buhari wants to appoint “Noise Makers” as Ministers – very interesting! Apparently, if this man had his way, he would appoint no Ministers at all – he would simply continue running Nigeria from “his palace” [which is he is now complaining of being too big for him] with his “Multi-purposed Daura Task Force!”

Tiécoro Diakite, the French economist of Malian origin, has published an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, warning the Nigerian president about the real goals and objectives of France in Africa. According to Diakite, those goals are far from what is declared officially by the French President Francois Hollande.

Nine operatives of the Department of State Services, DSS, were on Tuesday night shot dead by vandals at Konu, a border between Arepo in Ogun State and Ikorodu, Lagos State, even as scores of persons have been declared missing as a result of the attack on the area.