Osun: Three Candidates, One Verdict and a State at the Crossroads, by Emmanuel Aziken
With campaign activities concluded and the electorate voting today for a governor, the contest has moved beyond the noise of rallies, endorsements and political promises. What remains is the hard arithmetic of voter mobilisation and the capacity of the leading parties to translate their structures into ballots. Fifteen candidates are on the ballot, but the […]
Political Notes: Keyamo’s good fight
By Emmanuel Aziken Those in the know allege that Mr Festus Keyamo belongs to the Mallam Nasir El-Rufai tendency in the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. That is perhaps the first nexus between the two men who have carved a special niche in relationships between the executive branch of government and the legislature. The El-Rufai-Keyamo […]
Was Buhari right to humiliate Oshiomhole out of office?
By Emmanuel Aziken The question as to whether President Muhammadu Buhari and other members of his inner team were justified in humiliating Comrade Adams Oshiomhole out of the office of national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC is one that will endure for some time. After lending himself to the ferocious campaign that returned […]
Imagining Oshiomhole as Chief Justice
By Emmanuel Aziken Comrade Adams Oshiomhole was in a very awkward position on Wednesday night when he was asked if he would appeal the Court of Appeal order that suspended him as chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. Oshiomhole who spoke to Channels Television a day after the shocking suspension, was surprisingly muted […]
Oshiomhole and Ize-Iyamu: A matter of grace
By Emmanuel Aziken The ways of the politician have been well decrypted in the saying, ‘that there are no permanent friends, but permanent interests.’ It is as such not amazing to many that Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu has become the favoured man by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to replace Mr. Godwin Obaseki as governor of Edo State […]
Buhari and our 36 dictators
For whatever his critics may think of him, President Muhammadu Buhari last week took a positive step towards addressing the excesses of Nigeria’s governors. His assent of the Executive Order 10 of 2020 is undoubtedly one of the most poignant steps taken by the administration in its two terms. Executive Order 10 gives the framework […]
How lockdown has kept Buhari for us
It has yet to be confirmed whether the three months President Muhammadu Buhari has stayed in the country without travelling out is his longest stretch with us since his election as president. If it is not, then it is certainly about the longest stretch that our president has stayed around since his first inauguration in […]
Buhari’s big moment has come
By Emmanuel Aziken It is an irony that while many Nigerians are lamenting over the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, that the same situation may turn out to be the biggest break for President Muhammadu Buhari in erecting a veritable legacy! What a twist of fate! Indeed, the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic could turn out to […]
Buhari and Abacha: The matter of double vision
By Emmanuel Aziken The news of the return of another $311m loot linked to the erstwhile military dictator, General Sani Abacha was received by Nigerians with comic relief. With the nation’s economy threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic and revenue inflow diving to unprecedented low levels, an alert at the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN of […]
Where Is Osinbajo?
By Emmanuel Aziken Nigeria’s increasingly vibrant twitter community was last weekend enlivened by questions as to the whereabouts of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. Though the controversy was apparently innocuously started by some social media activists, it was not surprising that naysayers and partisans of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP saw it as an opportunity to […]
Nigeria’s Life-Term Governor
By Emmanuel Aziken He was named David, apparently after the humble but successful King of Israel. However, humility with power seems to be strange to Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State. Governor Umahi’s live broadcast earlier this week, where he announced the life ban on two journalists, might have spurred many people towards the absurdity […]
Chibok girls: Between Jonathan’s jests and Buhari’s banters
By Emmanuel Aziken There are indeed, few incidents that have defined the relationship between Nigerian leaders and the citizenry as the Chibok Girls affair that happened on us, six years ago. The kidnap of 276 girls from their school by the brutish jihadists was provoking enough to have stirred the passions of many world figures, […]
Has Buhari become lame duck?
By Emmanuel Aziken It is shocking that even with more than three years to run in his second term, that there are insinuations that President Muhammadu Buhari has become a lame duck. A lame-duck is an elected political office holder whose successor has been or will soon be chosen. It is a particularly remarkable period […]
Keep your salaries, return the Camry cars
By Emmanuel Aziken The global coronavirus pandemic has seemingly struck the chord of charity among Nigeria’s ruling class. The members of the House of Representatives said this week that they would donate two months’ salary to the COVID-19 relief efforts. As with everything money concerning the National Assembly, the donation is dogged in secrecy and […]
Buhari’s ‘problems’ with coronavirus
By Emmanuel Aziken The news that a daughter of President Muhammadu Buhari was in isolation following a recent trip to the United Kingdom put many newspaper editors in a quandary. Identifying the particular lady in quarantine was an issue. That was because the First Lady, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, who proactively informed Nigerians of the development, […]
Dr. Bola Tinubu’s diagnosis of coronavirus
By Emmanuel Aziken Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s political acumen has been much extolled by his many political devotees. However, whether any one of them would subject himself to the medical diagnosis of a Dr. Tinubu garbed as a medical doctor or take his prescriptions for an ailment is an issue. As Comrade Adams Oshiomhole’s political future […]
