I have now taken a closer and more subjective view on the current crisis rocking the All Progressives Grand Alliance –APGA. And although I have been very critical of the way the party has been going about without due recourse to various interests within the party to harmonize and aggregate the same, it, however, remains the truth that APGA must not be destroyed by both the leadership and those that are aggrieved in the party....
The ongoing leadership tussle in APGA did not come to many as a surprise. With the sustained assault on APGA by groups supporting aspirants on the party’s platform, who pose to speak for the party in many instances, and tend to dictate the path the party takes, political crisis was only a matter of time. Every serious party man or woman must be concerned and worried at how low the party is going. And so...
Basic interpretation of the quintessence of a democratic government is that it is a government that is sanctioned by the people; one which goes about in performance of its duties, as the people pleases. In other words, a democracy is a government that is literally owned by citizens, within the territory of which the government exerts authority. When we put this into perspective with regards to Nigeria’s own brand of democracy, what we see is...
By Michelle Garvin, Guest Columnist and Blogger On May 31st, the people of Somaliland went to the polls to participate in long-delayed parliamentary and municipal elections. The largely autonomous region in the north of Somalia, which had a different colonial history from the rest of the country and declared its independence in 1991, is building an impressive history of credible elections and peaceful transfers of power. While Somalilanders were peacefully making their will clear at the...
“Nigerian government thinks that it can do just about anything that it deems fit but the world has moved beyond that stage ―Ebuka Onyekwelu The evident political incompetence of the current Nigerian regime gives it away as a government that lives in the past. Even a casual observation of the choice of language used by known pillars of the administration smacks of empty arrogance with no substance in view. Clearly, not only does it appear...
“The idea of lock down and work from home conceivably has come to stay”, ―Ebuka Onyekwelu Around this time last year, so many government and private organisations have fully adopted, partially or considering the idea of allowing some or most of their workforce, to work from home. A good number of organisations in Europe and America, do not have the luxury of a variety of options even till now, owing to the severity of the...
By John Campbell, Guest Columnist and Blogger As the results of the 2020 U.S. national census become known, the American media is digesting the finding that the country’s population is no longer growing. The May 23 Sunday New York Times lead article “above the fold” highlighted how new a stagnant or declining birthrate and immigration is for the United States. The United States is joining Europe and East Asia, where a demographic decline and collapse of birth rates...
Desperate activists bastardize Biafra’s “May 30, sacredness” into an outrageous blood-spattered rite of remembrance. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombarded Pearl Harbor, killing thousands of U.S. servicemen. America, divided by ideological differences concerning warfare, united behind a declaration of war with Japan. That is the power of communal closeness after a tragedy. Thus, the psychology of unity after tragedy remains a natural phenomenon that instills a feeling of closeness following a tragedy. It breaks down walls...
“Moving on, the government must not give its citizens the impression that they are less wanted to remain part of the union”―Ebuka Onyekwelu No matter how successive Nigerian government decides to view the Biafra declaration which then led to a civil war that left no fewer than three million Easterners dead, the fact that cannot be disputed is, the event, cannot be erased in Nigeria’s existential history. And so, of all the possible cause of...
By John Campbell, Guest Columnist and blogger The Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA) has announced that it has replaced Abubakar Shekau with Abu Musab al-Barnawi. Abu Musab “takes over all territories that were under Shekau. The immediate replacement of Shekau was a major revenge against the former Boko Haram leader that exhibited ‘highhandedness and ruthlessness’ against humanity in the Northeast.” The announcement also included that ISWA had arrested thirty top commanders that were loyal to...
