Clay Richie

Dissent and criticism are not only core structural components of democracy, they, in fact, mark the difference between autocracy and democracy. But it’s precisely these elements of democracy that are in grave danger in Buhari’s Nigeria.

A British theologian, William Ralph Inge once remarked that ‘A nation is a society united by a delusion about its ancestry and by a common hatred of its neighbors. In Nigeria, we love our neighbors, but we have miserably failed to develop a conscientious approach in resolving conflicts and mutual distrust between groups. This has produced multiple dragons with wild roving eyes like the Avengers, OPC Boys, AREWA Youths, IPOB, MASSOB, and farmer-herdsmen bloodbath. The resulting bloody conflicts had torn the land and its people apart.

Dear Kelechi Deca, There are some dynamics you have overlooked in terms of why the brilliant proposition you espouse here is a non-starter. At least not in this current phase of project nationhood in which to dare to imagine and discourse Nigeria on loftier and multidimensional planes must first pass a number of smell tests relating to the persona of the President.

Fellow Nigerians, let me say exciting times are here again. You may ask what is so exciting about this period with our myriad of problems? Please, allow me to put it this way. Politicians are like students while the voters are their teachers. Every now and then the chickens come home to roost and politicians are forced to test their popularity and performance. The examiners are the voters who have waited patiently for this time to come so that they can pass or fail their representatives as they deem fit. Sometimes the electorate get things right. Oftentimes they get it wrong, as we’ve seen on many occasions. What is important is that it is payback time, for good or for bad.

What suddenly happened? Has crude oil stealing stopped? Is it not curious that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Navy, the Joint Military Taskforce (JTF) and the International Oil Companies (IOCs) seem not to bother anymore about the menace of crude oil theft from facilities in the nation’s Niger Delta, shallow, and deep offshore arenas? How could a ferocious campaign against the menace in our yesterday suddenly go blank?

On December 12, 2015 in Kaduna state, north-western Nigeria, the military allegedly mowed down hundreds of Shiite Muslims who allegedly tried to obstruct their path. Till date, their leader, Ibrahim El Zakzaky and his wife are still in detention, although authorities like to sugarcoat it as protective custody.

I met Professor Itse Sagay for the first and only time thus far one evening in the early 1990s. It was at his office in the law firm he set up somewhere around Alaka area of Surulere in Lagos after being forced out of the University of Benin — where he was dean of law — by a dominant reactionary group which could no longer stand his principled position on issues of the day.

How do I begin to write about former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar’s presidential ambition? Where do I start from? I hardly know with any certainty. But what I do know with the certainty of day and night is that former Vice-President Atiku Ababakar, an indigene of Adamawa State wants to be the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria come 2019.

"We the SE governors have no regret proscribing the IPOB. The group’s activities had endangered the lives of over 12 million Igbos living in the north and other parts of the country. Their activities were also threatening the lives of people from other parts of the country living in the South East. So we had to take the action we took and I have no regrets about it,” ~ Gov. Umahi.

Dear Prof, I feel very privileged to be able to address this letter to you. As one of the leading lights in the teaching and practice of law in Nigeria, the opportunity to speak to you, a teacher of teachers and an accomplished legal luminary, is what someone, a relative non-starter in the area in which you are an authority in, should cherish forever. I do not take this lightly.

“My countrymen and women, every new government inherits problems. Ours was no different. But what Nigerians want are quick solutions, quick solutions not a recitation of the problems inherited.”– President Muhammadu Buhari, October 1, 2015

When on 19th April this year President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the suspension of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr David Babachir Lawal and the Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ambassador Ayo Oke, he instituted a three-man committee headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to investigate the allegations against the duo. For those who felt that setting a committee to deal with straight-forward matters was needless, they were comforted by the fact that there would be a quick closure on the matter since the committee had just two weeks to submit its report.

If you can get beyond her extremely heavy, funny, and distracting Britico accent (if u have lived too long in North America, they sound so funny to you in Britain), that white British Airways Flight Attendant in the racist video about Nigerian men is so fixated on a certain geo-political region of the black male anatomy.

In 1965, Nigeria was operating regionalism, in which every region was controlling its own resources when the first set of violent agitators picked up arms to express their grievances and confront the state violently. This was before the first military coup that eventually pushed the country into civil war.

The reckless militarization of the South-East and South-South geopolitical zones of Nigeria never started today nor yesterday. The federal government has been accused in the past - and present - of treating Igboland as a conquered territory. I remember when I travelled back home in 2013 and was driving from Onitsha to Benin City I had encountered a monstrous 'go-slow' just before the Niger Bridge head. From Upper Iweka Road towards the major entry and exit point to and from the South-East I spent several hours in the artificial gridlock that stretched well over a kilometer! It was a disgusting, suffocating spectacle to behold as motorists heading towards the bridge were forced to drive at a snail’s speed. The heavily-armed soldiers were directing traffic and monitoring every vehicle that passed by, parking some for verification of documents or passengers or waving off others.

A few months after President Muhammadu Buhari appointed his ministers, I had a personal conversation with one of the 60 people who decide Nigeria’s fortune (apologies to Professor Pat Utomi). Perhaps my source may not be in the top 60, but he is a very influential player in today’s Nigeria. We spoke about the ministers, the vice president, the 2015 run of play and some things about the politics of 2019.

President Buhari’s notable achievement at the 72nd United Nations General Assembly in New York was doing a good job of reading out a high-minded speech that contradicted his worldview as if it were a poem from his heart.

There is an ongoing debate on reforming pensions, yet again, in Nigeria. Since 2004, Nigeria has largely adopted the contributory pension scheme. But as years go by, this system has continued to be gradually chipped away.

Much as both labour to put up gestures suggesting cordiality, truth is there is no love lost between them. And interestingly, the one thing that came between them is corruption, which is also supposed to be the only thing that should see them basking in a harmonious relationship in this dispensation. What a paradox!

We have never met. I only know you by reputation and I have had cause in the last year to write on your activities within the public arena and offer my own views about you, your persona, and your interventions in the Nigerian debate. I sincerely hope you would get to read this letter wherever you may be, that is assuming you are still alive.

It has been one hell of a week or two particularly in the south eastern part of Nigeria. Prior to this time, the Indigenous People of Biafra, (IPOB), had assumed such a larger than life image that it could order a sit-at-home strike and people would comply strictly. The jury is still out concerning the reason why the order recorded that kind of total compliance.

These are interesting times. We’re entering an interesting, new journalism era when newspaper editors will cast simple headlines but the public will nevertheless be confused. “Troops kill 14 terrorists in Plateau,” a headline could read. And readers would wonder: What kind of terrorists? Were they Biafra terrorists or Boko Haram terrorists? It could soon happen that we find our ourselves using the word ‘terrorism’ with the same ordinariness with which we do ‘armed robbery’. For that, we have ‘almighty’ President Muhammadu Buhari to thank.

Whatever becomes of what is said this day, let it be noted that we gathered under this roof in the spirit of democratic discourse and enlightenment. In the fateful procession of time and events, Justice, Progress and Compassion shall eventually overcome the awful strength of their opposites.

For Ndigbo, another chance beckons in 2019. Yes, in 2019, Nigeria will go through another election process. After the self-inflicted tragedy of 2015, the coming election should be an opportunity for Igbo to mend or further mar their chances in a Nigeria that is built on multi-ethnic chassis. Will it be a period for Igbo to undo the mistake they did to themselves in 2015, which has worsened their fate? Will Ndigbo use that golden opportunity to make political peace with the rest of Nigeria and most importantly, signify their intent, their readiness, and their suitability to handle the baton in 2023? Or will Ndigbo fail to seize the current and rather make another egregious political miscalculation that will reduce their chances of leading the country in 2023? These are critical questions, whose answers are still whirling in the wind but which, one way or the other, must be answered by how well the Igbo play their card in 2019.

‘Only a peaceful solution must be found to arrest the present worsening stalemate and restore normalcy. The Eastern Region must be encouraged to remain part of the Federation. If the Eastern Region is allowed by acts of omission or commission to secede from or opt out of Nigeria, then the Western Region and Lagos must also stay out of the Federation… A war against the East in which Northern soldiers are predominant, will only unite the Easterners or the Ibos against their attackers, strengthen them in their belief that they are not wanted by the majority of their fellow-Nigerians, and finally push them out of the Federation’.-Obafemi Awolowo, May 1st 1967

There is no doubt that Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai embodies one of the most morbidly toxic strains of political intolerance in Nigeria. He exteriorizes his discomfort with opposition by literally wishing death upon his opponents or claiming credit for their death.

As November 18, a date marked by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the conduct of 2017 Anambra State Governorship Election approaches, many events are already trending on the state political scene. Some of the trending issues include the outcome of the recently concluded Primary elections conducted by two top political parties in the state namely the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). While all participants in the APC primary except Senator Andy Uba accepted the result that produced Dr. Tony Nwoye as the winner in good fate, all the contestants of that of PDP except the man announced as the winner Oseloka Obaze rejected the result announced. These contestants alleged that the Primary was doctored to favor Mr. Oseloka Obaze. They also alleged that delegates that voted in the PDP Primary were not the authentic delegates of the party. Some of the PDP contestants even withdrew from the race before the conduct of the exercise citin

Riddle: name the Nigerian ethnic group known for being “arrogant” and “clannish”. I will give you one or two clues to make things easier. They are perceived by others as thinking and acting like they are God’s greatest gift to Nigeria. They think they are by far superior to the other ethnic groups. Give them a space in public office and they will take a yard, filling every available position with people from their ethnic group. Even the gateman, the cook and the cleaner will be from their own part of the country. When one of them starts a line of business, sooner than later they will populate and dominate that space with their kith and kin. Any guesses? Yoruba? Hausa/Fulani? Igbo?

Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, says killer herdsmen are not terrorists.  His opinion is not stupefying to me. But what is jarring for me is that Shehu’s divulgence represents the thinking of a sensitive entity – the presidency.

Fellow Nigerians, I finally returned to Port Harcourt after over two years of absence. It is strange how time flies and how it changes everything. Port Harcourt had always been one of my favourite cities in our dear beloved country. Once upon a time, Port Harcourt was known and referred to as the garden city because of its blossoming flowers. The good people of Rivers State are particularly warm and affectionate and I really enjoyed their generous hospitality which is so lavish and sincere. I will never forget the wedding of one of the daughters of the great Chief and former Minister, Alabo Graham-Douglas. Port Harcourt, and Rivers State in general, was so peaceful that I flew in our European photographer, Dragan Mikki, to cover the epochal event for us. Security was not even an issue as we boarded a speedboat to go to Abonema, the ancestral home of the Graham-Douglases. There was no fear of our Oyibo photo-journalist being kidnapped. We also flew Dragan from Port Harcourt to Abuj

Introduction: When I concluded plans to visit London this week, it was for the purpose of making a presentation on primary health care at Chatham House. But about a week ago, I received a request to also speak here about the restructuring debate in Nigeria. I accepted with reservations because I chair the APC’s Committee on True Federalism.

I am hugely delighted to return to my alma mater the great and only University of Nigeria to speak at your 42nd convocation. Twenty eight years ago I sat just like you those of you who are part of the graduating Class of 2013; excited by my graduation. It was 1985 and I was very privileged to be one of the then only 3% of our own youthful population that had the opportunity of a university education. Today, you are still fortunate to be one of the yet paltry 4.3% of your own youthful generation with an opportunity for university education. For Nigeria that percentage does not compare favorably with 37.5% for Chile 33.7% for Singapore 28.2% for Malaysia, 16.5% for Brazil and 14.6%. Our lag in tertiary education enrollment is quite revealing and could be interpreted as the basis of the competitiveness gap between the same set of countries and Nigeria.

Oh! There was plenty of debate in New York this week. The 72nd Regular Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 72), at the UN Headquarters on Tuesday had several interesting part as leaders read speeches prepared for them and in some cases by themselves.

Love Nnamdi Kanu or loathe him. You cannot ignore him. He is young, bold and brave. He took a path young politicians of Nigeria, feared or failed to walk on, in our nation’s political turbulence. He came and disturbed our nation's conscience. He was the proverbial gunpowder waiting to explode. Nnamdi exploded to national prominence with his call for a separate entity from Nigeria, threatening death and destruction to his once nation which in later years, he branded a “zoo”. Nnamdi was once a Nigerian patriot.  But for his “thuggery”, lack of discipline, careless utterances and unchecked rage, Nnamdi Kanu would have succeeded in his call to arms struggle for the secession of Biafra.

The Federal Government of Nigeria through its learned Attorney General, Abubakar Malami, SAN, via a Motion Ex Parte (i.e. without Notice to the other party) pursuant to Section 2 of the Terrorism (Prevention) Act 2011/Terrorism Prevention (Amendment) Act 2013 (TPAA), Section 45(1) of the 1999 Constitution (As Amended) and under the Court’s inherent jurisdiction approached the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja seeking several Orders inter alia (i) declaring that the activities of Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) in any part of Nigeria especially in the South-East and South-South Regions of Nigeria  amounts to acts of terrorism and illegality, (ii) proscribing the existence of IPOB either in groups or as individuals by whatever names they are called, and (iii) restraining any person from participating in any manner whatsoever in any form of activities involving or concerning the prosecution of the collective intention or otherwise  of IPOB.

Dear President Buhari, I had planned to meet you one-on-one during the United Nations General Assembly in New York. But recent events have convinced me that the central issue of this letter has outgrown a private affair.

When the founder of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Ralph Uwazuruike, told The Interview in August that the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, was being used to destroy Biafra, I thought it was their private fight playing out at last.

Originally, upon reading about the court order declaring IPOB a terrorist organization, I was a little amused; but now this amusement has been replaced by sadness. I am sad that people who are horribly incompetent and who may plunge this nation into a terrible crisis we may not be able to recover from are the ones ruling us. Okay, let me explain.

As one would expect from such IT persons, the duo of Mr Ye Zhenzhen, the CEO of People’s Daily Innovation and Mr David Chen, Vice President of Microsoft, dazzled their audience with the coming world of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the implications for the new media age. This was at a discussion session last Tuesday evening in Dunhuang, Gansu Province of Western China. But it was a personal story told by Ye that really got me. He recounted what happened when he was five years old, growing up in his village that had no electricity.

True to prophecy, the mere shadow of armored tanks approaching River Niger bridge last week was enough to dismantle the rather imposing castle of conceit Nnamdi Kanu had erected across the South-east in recent times, like straws under a Category 5 hurricane. The little braggart who had romanticized rebellion so vigorously, who had threatened fire and brimstone so darkly, suddenly went into hiding when war arrived his doorstep.

“We are grateful to God for intervening in stopping what could have been the greatest bloodbath known in the history of mankind” The above were the remarks of Abia State Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu when he visited the Press Centre of the Nigerian Union of Journalists in Umuahia on Sunday, 17/09/17 to commiserate with them over their altercation with soldiers.

It would have been okay to dismiss reported happenings around the Buhari Presidency as part of opposition blackmail and negative agenda setting of partisan press but for the publicly manifested interplay of the antics of the gods and demons at the seat of power.

On behalf of my country, Nigeria, I congratulate you Mr. President on your election and Mr. Gutteres on his first General Assembly outing as our Secretary-General. I assure you both of my country’s solidarity and cooperation. You will indeed need the cooperation of all member States as we are meeting during extra-ordinarily troubled and dangerous times. Let me also thank former Secretary-General Mr. Ban ki Moon for his service to the United Nations and wish him peaceful retirement.

Mr Adams had six wives. Each of the wives had a minimum of five children. Years ago, Mr Adams was wealthy. He lavished his wealth on his family. However, there was always some misunderstanding in the family, as expected in a polygamous family. To make matters worse, Mr Adams did not have the skills in managing a large family. He did not use the same rules on members of his family. He was either favouring one child or discriminating against another. Distrust, hatred, quarrels, fights, and even deaths occurred frequently in his household.

President Buhari is held prisoner by what appears to be an obsessive impulse to desert Nigeria when the going gets tough. On at least two occasions, he has publicly confessed to feeling the urge to abandon his mandate in midstream.

Operation code-names have been an important part of military operations since the Germans first applied them in World War 1 but it may be said that the recent (or ongoing?) controversial military exercise in the South Eastern part of Nigeria codenamed Operation Python Dance II is the first major incident in Nigerian military history to draw attention to this seemingly routine aspect of military operations worldwide. An operational code name requires creativity, it is meant to be a cover up, hide the real intentions of the operation, achieve a public relation stunt if possible, and ease communication and strategic documentation within the military hierarchy.

Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding. — Albert Einstein Whoever he is, the military officer who coined the codename ‘Python Dance’ is a genius. Although an original version of the military operation, the Python Dance I, held between November 27 and December 27, 2016, no one should have looked any further than the codename to deduce the possible outcome of the army’s latest incursion into the south-east. As a rebel scientist, I’ll break this down.

Even a stranger would not need any comprehensive briefing to know that Nigeria is not at ease, and Nigerians are not sleeping easy. All a first comer to the country needs to comprehend the situation is to scan the headlines, listen to radio news bulletins and watch prime time television.

What is going on in Nigeria today is beyond comprehension. I have no clue what the young man called Nnamdi Kalu wants from the Igbo, or how he came to such huge fame so quickly. However, his rise strikes me as indicative of the state of the Igbo in the current dispensation. It goes to say that the Igbo, especially those at home, have no faith in their leaders—hence the blind adoration and celebration of Nnamdi Kanu, a man whose academic and professional biography is as shrouded in mystery as his political antecedents are unknown.

There are two research questions I have to start asking Nigerians who were at least 40-years-old between 1960 and 1970: what was your police experience? What was your perception of the sociology of policing in Nigeria? For Nigerians who came of age in the 1970s and after, I do not need to ask these questions. The sum total of your policing experience can, in the main, be summed up in the three scenarios discussed below.