An end and a new beginning
JUST a few minutes past eleven in the morning last Wednesday, I received a telephone call from Nigeria’s Information Minister, Lai Mohammed. He congratulated me and told me that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved my appointment as the Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).
There is no hiding place for Nigeria’s political opposition
LAST week, a few events significantly impacted upon my thoughts about our country. The first was the national response to Bola Tinubu’s 60th birthday; it galvanized tremendous enthusiasm for Tinubu’s political acumen and the role he has played in the nation’s political space, especially since 1999.
PDP’s coronation aftermath of absurdities
IN the end, what the PDP dished was a standard menu of ‘consensus’; candidates were an outcome of a smoke-filled inner recesses horse-trading, which ensured that the power blocs in the party divided amongst themselves the spoils. President Goodluck Jonathan got his man, the venerable AlhajiBamangaTukur; just like the old despot, Obasanjo got his, a pair of them, really and the different governors.
Tucking ambition and consensus under PDP’s umbrella
A WEEK can be a very long time in politics. And the past week has been most interesting in the cloak-and-dagger world of Nigerian politics; or more appropriately, the cut-throat world of PDP’s politics.
M. D. Belgore and the unfinished work in Kwara State
LAST week, the Suprem Court affirmed that Abdulfatai Ahmed, was winner of the April 2011 gubernatorial election in Kwara state. The verdict effectively closed the judicial challenge which followed arguably, the most keenly contested governorship election in recent history, in Kwara state.
The Ibori phenomenon: Thieves and govt houses
WHILE reporting James Ibori’s guilty plea to the 10-counts charge of money laundering and conspiracy to defraud, last week, in a London court, the BBC reminded that Ibori was “once seen as one of Nigeria’s wealthiest and most influential politicians”. At the height of his national influence, during the Yar’Adua administration, James Ibori formed a powerful duo with former Kwara state governor, BukolaSaraki.
Restructuring, states creation and the accompanying delusions
LAST weekend, the deputy president of Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, held an interactive session with lawyers of South-eastern origin in Lagos. The topic of his presentation was “Constitution Amendment, Ndigbo and Quest for State Creation”.
Southwest: An anthem, a flag and the justification
FOR three days, last week, Vintage Press, the publishers of Bola Tinubu’s THE NATION newspapers, hosted a Legislative Summit on Regional Integration, in Ibadan, regional capital of the old Western Region of Nigeria. It brought legislators from the states that make up the Southwest of today’s Nigeria.
Who really is our President? Azazi or Jonathan?
OVER the weekend, Nigerian newspapers reproduced the interview given to the Financial Times (FT) of London, by Andrew Owoye Azazi, President Goodluck Jonathan’s National Security Adviser (NSA).
Back to the sovereign national conference trenches
LAST year, I was invited by LanreIdowu, of Diamond Publications, to review a book he edited, on the late Chief Anthony Enahoro.
Boko Haram and President Jonathan’s olive branch of dialogue
LAST week, President Goodluck Jonathan told Reuters, in an interview, that the Nigerian government would dialogue with the Islamist organization, Boko Haram, “if they clearly identify themselves now and say this is the reason we are resisting, this is the reason we are confronting government or this is the reason we destroy some innocent people and their properties…then there will be a basis for dialogue”.
