By Ogaga Ifowodo By every standard, even in Nigeria  where new standards are set every day in our never ending quest to shock and awe the world with impunity, the figures reeled out against former National Security Adviser Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd) would boggle any mind. According to Femi Adesina, special adviser to President Buhari […]

One of the qualities that recommended, even endeared, President Muhammadu Buhari to a majority of the electorate over and above former president Goodluck Jonathan in the last election was that of resoluteness. His first coming as military head of state had left no one in doubt that his mind, once made up, can be as unbending as his steely spine.

THE failure, two times in a row, of the Senate to screen ministerial nominee Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi based purportedly on a contrived corruption allegation against the former Rivers State governor has all to do with politics in the bad sense and very little with due diligence.

IT was Prof. Tanimu Abubakar, I believe, of the Political Science department and Aminu Yusuf, a postgraduate student at Ahmadu Bello University, the one a stalwarth of the ABU branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities and the other of the campus student movement at the time, who (if my memory serves me well), were fond of repeating this intriguing question whenever the moment came to drop the gown and bring some town — nay, village — perspective to our discussions of how to save Nigeria.

THE formal filing of charges against Senator Bukola Saraki at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, not to speak of the issuance of a bench warrant for his arrest for failure to appear in court to take his plea, leaves him with only one honourable course of action: resignation in order to clear his name

ON the 27th of August next year, Delta State will be 25 years old. Carved in 1991 out of the old Bendel State, formerly Mid-West Region, Deltans may be forgiven for feeling that their state is a much riper half-a-century-and-two years old.

ANYONE who knows that his hands are dirty,” says Professor Itse Sagay, “should come out and confess. I am sure certain lenient terms can be obtained by him.”Sagay made this “altar” call as chairman of the recently constituted Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption. A Christian he is, and a gentleman, too, but he does not suffer criminals gladly, certainly not the heartless breed of social vampires that have sucked Nigeria dry to bare bones.

AS I watched Air Chief Marshall Alex Badeh, the recently retired Chief of Defence Staff, elaborate on the confession in his valedictory speech of 31 July that he, as the nation’s number one soldier, presided over a military “that lacked the relevant equipment and motivation to fight,” I searched for signs of shame and penitence. I saw none.

JUSTICE Oloyede Folahanmi must be relishing his starring role in Osun’s unpaid salaries saga even though his call for Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s impeachment is unlikely to result in a special assizes to celebrate the victory of the judge as opposition politician. The learned judge’s 30-page petition—actually, a rant—was part Sunday sermon (“Neglecting the welfare of members of the community under the guise of wanting to provide infrastructure, runs contrary to the teachings of Christ, the son of God, Jesus of Nazareth”), part chic internationalism (“Instead of pursuing . . . the ideals of social order . . . ensur[ing] a just world economic order . . . and universal brotherhood

ON 3 June 2015, I was a guest on CoolTV’s morning programme, “Good Morning Nigeria.” The topic was “Buhari’s job as a democrat.” I added “so far,”on reading the invitation e-mail, wondering if the show’s producer or anchor hadn’t betrayed an unusual case of what might be called “change anxiety.”

SINCE that accursed day of 12 May 2012, when Olaitan Oyerinde, former student activist, trade unionist and principal private secretary to Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, was murdered in his living room, death has been a deliriously happy visitor in the camp of Nigeria’s radical humanists. So much so that hardly are the bereaved done wiping away tears of the last funeral than news of another untimely death arrives to set them wailing afresh. The list grows is long: Oyerinde, Festus Iyayi,Baba Omojola, Bamidele Aturu,Oronto Natei Douglas. Did I mention Chima Ubani? And now Emman Ezeazu.

SINCE that accursed day of 12 May 2012, when Olaitan Oyerinde, former student activist, trade unionist and principal private secretary to Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, was murdered in his living room, death has been a deliriously happy visitor in the camp of Nigeria’s radical humanists. So much so that hardly are the bereaved done wiping away tears of the last funeral than news of another untimely death arrives to set them wailing afresh.

ON Friday May 29, our so-called Democracy Day (October 1 to me), I was at Tafawa Balewa Square to witness the swearing-in of Mr Akinwunmin Ambode as the 14th governor of Lagos State. I went with a sizable number of fellow old students of Federal Government College, Warri, Ambode’s alma mater, equally delighted to mark the ascension of a product of the unity schools to the governance of the most cosmopolitan and unifying city in a country cleft to the marrow by tribal sentiments and the atavistic fears they stir.

OF COURSE, we have no such office as Governor of Nigeria, the closest to that being in the anachronism of Governor-General of the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria during the benighted days of British colonialism, a post first occupied by His Imperial Political Alchemist, Lord Frederick Lugard. But on 14 January, 86 clear days before the governorship elections, I referred to Akinwunmi Ambode as the next Governor of Nigeria.

THIS question which agitates the minds of an ever larger number of citizens in the Niger Delta ought to underline every domestic policy consideration of President-elect Muhammadu Buhari,as he gets ready to assume office,and of the leaders of the victorious All Progressives Congress