Salihu Lukman, until a few days ago, vice-chairman (north-west) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has had to resign his position as a member of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party. In his July 26 resignation letter addressed to Abubakar Kyari, acting national chairman of the APC, Lukman explained that his resignation was informed by his conviction that the atmosphere in the party had become completely at variance with the founding vision of forming a progressive party.
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EXACTLY 70 years separate the July 26, 1953 suicidal attack on Moncada Barracks by Cuban youths who wanted to remove the military from power, and this Wednesday’s coup in Niger Republic which removed elected President Mohamed Bazoum and restored military rule.
Fuel subsidy removal by the present administration of President Bola Tinubu has come with a thunderous alarm. Although the intention may be good, pure and sincere, and in fact it is even noble but the reality now is that it is severely haunting everyone. Both the haves and haves-not are wailing. It is dealing a fatal knockout punch on teeming citizens, whose lives have since been made miserable and wretched. The Nigerian economy had almost strangulated them.
On Wednesday, 26th of July, 2023, I attended a programme organised by Ota Total Academy (OTA), Ota, Ogun State. It was done as a mini valedictory service for their junior students transiting to the senior classes. I was among the special guests invited to grace the occasion, given that it was not opened to everybody. The parents of the students were not part of the programme.
In Nigeria, the phrase has been over used, time-worn and cliched, but it still resonates with the media and some electorates. Usually, elected officials and sundry appointees promise to ‘hit the ground running’ upon assuming office. Indeed, this self-imposed covenant, often made at the hustings, puts them under a lot of pressure from the very beginning.
The meeting of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) held on Tuesday, July 25, 2023, was attended by the Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, along with the Commission’s members, and Leaders of Political Parties to Review the 2023 General Election.
The recent movements in the top national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has created vacancies and opened a discourse on an apparent rush to appoint or elect a new national chairman and secretary for the party.
Let me begin with the golden words of Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller, a German theologian and Lutheran pastor. He is best known for his opposition to the Nazi regime during the late 1930s and for his widely quoted 1946 poem: “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out–because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out–because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out–because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me.”
With the Women’s World Cup launching this month, FIFA is still siding with corrupt national football federations over women players. Across Africa, wage theft for female players and rampant gender inequality continue to characterize the women’s game.
Nigeria is an interesting country and one with peculiar set of citizens. It is an intricate place to govern. Anyone, who is not prepared for leadership, but found themselves in political position of authority to lead, would be overwhelmed in no time with the kind of complexity in the nature of the country and its people. Sometimes ago, when the newly sworn-in President Tinubu was asked how he felt with the challenges facing the country as he took over, his response was epic and depicted someone who knew what he was getting himself into. He simply answered that “nobody should pity him because he asked for the job”.