The electoral process
is fraudulent, too much rigging, too much thuggery and so, decent people run away from it. So we do not really have quality
people in government

Chief Benjamin Ndi Obi seldom talks to the media. Starting from his days in the Nigeria Advance Party, NAP, Ben Obi, as he is simply called, makes no bones about his foray into politics and his mission. But in this session, Obi speaks on the state of the nation and the mega party being packaged by some politicians.

*Says section 143 is the only option before National Assembly *Manner of president’s absence is cause of confusion *Declares: ‘Nigerians are watching’ Olorunimbe Mamora is a two-time senator. Before going to the Senate, he was Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly where his four-year tenure was marked by exceptional leadership. Therefore, when Senator […]

Those who were to help us raise the money said no problem, that even if we needed N1trillion, they would raise it. But there was a condition which they gave and that was that the foundation cannot be a Presidential committee. They said they could not give their money to such foundation except it is purely a private foundation that is run by a committee, by the private sector people that would be accountable to them.

In the 50s, 60s before independence, people like Zik, Chief Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello and many others, who were political giants, were in the field. Many of them owned newspapers to fight for independence

Between 2001 and January 2003, the House of Representatives held the nation spell bound. This was the handiwork of the duo of then speaker, Ghali Umar Na’Abba, and his vice, deputy speaker, Chibudom Nwuche. They were dubbed Tiger. In this interview, Nwuche, who served as a very loyal deputy to Na’Abba, explains the intrigues of that era: “There was coincidence and a confluence of aspiration and vision; Ghali was a nationalist and I am.

It is really very sad that 49 years after independence, we’ve not developed ourselves. It is just like one having a child who is supposed to be a full grown man but is still developing clay feet at 49. You find out that in terms of education, people in Nigeria even take their wards to study in Benin Republic and Accra because of the fact that our institutions have not been developed.

We as civilians tend to have our own skewed perception of this country. But the military, because of the training they’ve been through and whatever you may say about their incursion into politics, they felt it was more holistic and more patriotic.

I will give a good example: Once IBB (Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida) called me and said: What then do you think we can give you? I said, nothing, just this national service is a pleasure and that my wish is to serve the nation free of charge. I am just someone serving my own country and I derive joy for doing so without any hope of acquiring anything from there.

Look, I get so amused with Nigerians about Nigeria and in their reaction to political issues, I believe we still have this Boy Scout attitude, this Boy Scout mentality about events. We forget yesterday, right. And we address today as if today did not emerge from yesterday and as if tomorrow is not going to come about.