Forty-three years ago, on the 15th of January 1966 to be precise, a certain Major Chukwuma Nzeagwu addressed Nigerians through Radio Kaduna announcing martial law and the takeover of power by the Supreme Council of the Revolution. Their aim, he said, was to establish a strong, united and prosperous nation free of corruption and internal strife. Our method of achieving this is purely military”. By the end of the day, a significant part of the political class in the North and the West had been wiped out and the military had taken over the political system. In his column in Daily Times (3/2/1966), the late Tai Solarin blasted the civilian political class for destroying Nigerian politics through their twin evil practices of corruption and election rigging. He confidently boasted that Now we have been saved and we want to stay saved. Today, we are all wiser and almost nobody believes the military can save any country.
Browsing: Prof. Jibrin Ibrahim
Yesterday, friends, relations and colleagues of Salihu Bappa met at the Pavilion in Abuja in remembrance of his contributions to society, his commitment to progress and in recognition of the role he played as an anchor of networking across generations, disciplines and numerous associations. The memorial event was chaired by his friend and school mate Ahmadu Muazu, former governor of Bauchi State who emphasized Bappa’s role as a bridge builder across communities and networks since their childhood days in Gindiri where they grew up in a very mixed convivial Plateau State.
The big story this week is that the Nigerian government has suspended the evaluation and accreditation of degree certificates from universities in neighbouring Benin and Togo. The announcement comes a few days after an undercover report by Daily Nigerian exposed certificate racketeering from a university in Benin. The suspension, according to the ministry, stands pending the outcome of an investigation involving the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Education of Nigeria and the two countries as well as the State Security Service (SSS) and the NYSC.
Once again, there is outrage throughout Nigeria as armed men invaded communities in Plateau State over the Christmas weekend killing an estimated 200 innocent villagers and forcing tens of thousands to flee their land in search of self-preservation. For Plateau state, it has been over twenty years that such attacks have occurred regularly. As is the tradition, our President, Bola Tinubu, in a statement in Abuja by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, condemned the attacks and ordered a manhunt for the killers. Tinubu assured Nigerians that “these envoys of death, pain, and sorrow will not escape justice.” We have heard such condemnation/promise to act hundreds of times from our successive Ogas that all we do is shrug our shoulders and move on until our turn comes.
One thing everyone was agreed upon is that Salihu Lukman, the famous trade unionist turned politician is a very stubburn man. For almost a decade, he has been very steadfast, focused and committed to transforming his party, the All Peoples’ Congress (APC) into a democratic, ruled-based, open, people-focused and people-led party that would set the highest standards in internal party democracy. Six books and hundreds of memos, letters and pamphlets later, the party has not changed and Lukman has not deviated from his laser-focused advocacy to change it. On Tuesday, he invited the party, comrades and friends to the public presentation of his latest book – APC and Transition Politics.
Yesterday, the Rivers state governor, Siminalayi Fubara, signed the 2024 Appropriation Bill of N800 billion into law. It appeared to be a banal act as has been done by so many other governors. Rivers however is special drama. He had transmitted the Bill to the State Assembly only the previous day. Calling the 4 legislators he submitted the Bill to as the State Assembly is a bit of a stretch as the body is composed of 32 members. The court appointed speaker he works with had dismissed the 27 other members of the Assembly for carpet crossing the previous day. It would have been silly old type unrealistic comic Nollywood drama has the issue not been such a serious one.
The revelations in the CTC of the judgment of the Court of Appeal on the Kano governorship race is the clearest indication that politics rather than law is determining judicial outcomes on election litigation. The three-member panel of the Court of Appeal led by Moore Adumein had nullified Governor Kabir’s victory on the ground that he was not an authentic member of his political party, the NNPP. Consequently, the appellate court declared his closest challenger, Nasiru Gawuna, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the winner of the 18 March governorship election. However, the certified true copy (CTC) of the judgement issued by the Court of Appeal, states in some sections that Mr Yusuf won the election but also said the opposite in other sections, contrary to its clear ruling last Friday.
On October 24, a statement by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres caused a sharp reaction by Israel. He had condemned in the strongest terms the massacre committed by Hamas on October 7, but also reminded the world that it did not take place in a vacuum. He explained that one cannot dissociate 56 years of occupation from our engagement with the tragedy that unfolded on that day. Israeli officials demanded Guterres’s resignation, claiming that he supported Hamas and justified the massacre it carried out. The Israeli media also jumped on the bandwagon, asserting among other things that the UN chief had demonstrated a stunning degree of “moral bankruptcy”. The Israeli position has been that the definition of anti-Semitism be expanded to include criticism of the Israeli state and questioning the moral basis of Zionism.
In 1994, representatives of two sworn foes stood before the world to accept the Nobel Peace Prize for their leadership in promoting a truce and peace in the Middle East between Israel and Palestine, the two arch-opposing camps. The Nobel Peace Committee recognized Yasser Arafat (1929–2004), the leader of the Palestinian people, and Israeli politicians Shimon Peres (1923–1923) and Yitzhak Rabin (1922–1995) for their efforts to bring peace to the unstable Middle East.
The West African Sahel has recently been rocked by military uprisings and coups. In the past three years, rogue soldiers have taken over power in Chad, April 2021, in Mali (August 2020 and May 2021), in Guinea (September 2021), in Burkina Faso (January and September 2022) and in Niger, July 2023. This means much of the eastern Sahel is in the hands of the military. ECOWAS is greatly affected because its political map at the beginning of 2020 showed a West Africa where the political convergence principles directing all States to operate democratic regimes based on regular multiparty elections has been profoundly transformed and the Supplementary Protocol of Democracy and Good Governance that guides democratic practice profoundly breached.