Author: Editor

By Sebastine Okafor, Ph.D.

A few days ago, various media platforms were filled with reports of the withdrawal of one of the gubernatorial aspirants of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Enugu State Chapter, Prof. Enenwannaji, following his alleged truce with one of his fellow aspirants, Sir Chinyeaka Oha. The Prof. is said to have emerged from what many described as an “illegal primary” conducted by the state chapter of the party, led by Dr. Johnpaul Anih, whom they claimed was not recognised. However, after a series of peace talks, he decided to step down for Sir Oha, whom he described in the media as his brother.

That act was seen by many as a welcome development, to the extent that many media houses reported that the crisis bedevilling the party was over. But, in reality, it may only be the beginning of the main crisis.

Where there are two allegedly disputed processes and one person decides to step down, the withdrawal of one does not, by itself, cure the alleged legal defects surrounding the process that produced the other. In law, a disputed process cannot simply become valid because one of its participants has withdrawn.

It is a well-known fact that the National Working Committee of the party did not conduct any primary election in the state, while the state faction recognised by INEC, led by Dr. Johnpaul Anih, conducted what it described as one of the best primary elections to be held by any opposition political party in the state.

Going by the legal questions surrounding the process, NDC may be heading into a deep electoral problem in Enugu State. The party, for instance, swore affidavits to protect some of its earlier fielded candidates, including Hon. Emeka Aba for Igboeze North/Udenu Federal Constituency, Barr. Agubuzo of Udi/Ezeagu Federal Constituency and Bishop Oscar Ossai of Enugu North Senatorial District, among others, before somehow removing them.

In those affidavits, the party allegedly confirmed that it did not conduct any primary, while filing a series of conflicting documents. In one document, the party stated that the chairman of the electoral committee, Chief Teddy Obey, conducted the primaries with his team. In another affidavit, the party denied that Chief Teddy Obey was the chairman of the electoral committee.

The reason for this is not far-fetched. Chief Obey is the Zonal Vice Chairman of the party in the South-East Zone and also a member of the 20-member National Selection Committee and Screening Committee. Chief Teddy’s alleged involvement in these different capacities has raised substantial questions about compliance with the party’s guidelines, especially where the party itself appears to have attempted to remove his name from the list of those who conducted the primary election.

It is also a known fact that, even where the party claims to have conducted a primary in Enugu, questions remain about the existence of a clear and verifiable list of electoral committee members who conducted the alleged primaries across the senatorial zones, federal constituencies and state constituencies.

This is important because the courts have repeatedly held that a party’s primary process must comply with the law, the Constitution of the party and its own guidelines. In APC v. Nelson & Ors (2023) LPELR-59758(CA), the Court of Appeal stressed that evidence must establish that the primary was actually conducted by the competent organ of the party before other issues surrounding it can have legal effect.

As it stands, the party has about 40 cases challenging the outcome of the primary in the Federal High Court, Enugu, and more than 11 doing the same at the Federal High Court, Abuja.

One clear position running through these disputes is the allegation that the NWC of NDC did not conduct any primary election in Enugu State and that even the primaries the party claims to have conducted are not supported by a clearly established INEC monitoring report.

The courts have recognised that the conduct of party primaries is not completely beyond judicial scrutiny where statutory or party rules are alleged to have been breached. In Mansur v. PDP & Ors (2023) LPELR-59791(CA), the Court of Appeal considered the legal consequences of an alleged failure to conduct a valid primary, while in Agi v. PDP, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that the courts can intervene within the limited area created by electoral law when the nomination process is alleged to have violated the law or party guidelines.

Another angle to this is that, in some cases, the party would allegedly deny the involvement of the plaintiff in the pre-primary election process, claim that its candidate emerged through affirmation and still publish the names of those it claimed never participated, with the names appearing in certified copies of its primary election result sheets reportedly signed by the same Chief Obey whose involvement the party had denied.

These conflicting positions are not matters that can simply be wished away through political negotiations. They raise questions of evidence, credibility and the legal foundation upon which any candidate seeks to stand.

The Supreme Court has made it clear that the political party plays a central role in the sponsorship of a candidate. In Ozomgbachi v. Amadi & Ors (2018) LPELR-45152(SC), the Supreme Court addressed the relationship between political parties and their candidates in electoral contests.

It is a known fact that a series of allegations have been flying around about the party in Enugu, but the truth remains that you cannot build something on nothing. You cannot collect money from people, write names of candidates, create conflicting records and expect those affected not to seek justice.

Where a party wants its candidate to appear on the ballot, the foundation of that candidacy must be legally defensible.

A settlement between two aspirants may resolve a personal disagreement, but it does not automatically extinguish the rights of other aspirants who have approached the courts, nor does it erase questions concerning the legality of the primary process.

The courts have repeatedly treated the statutory and party-guideline requirements as relevant where a genuine aspirant challenges the nomination process. As the Court of Appeal noted in Labour Party v. Nnaji & Anor (2023) LPELR-59426(CA), disputes surrounding party nomination can turn on whether the party complied with the applicable legal and internal requirements.

As it stands, the party in Enugu State may find it difficult to escape the legal tussle in which it has allegedly found itself because just one successful suit out of the many pending cases could have serious consequences for its candidates and its participation in the election.

This is why the question is no longer simply whether Prof. Enenwannaji has withdrawn for Sir Chinyeaka Oha. The bigger question is whether the process that produced the candidate who remains can survive judicial scrutiny.

If a court finds that the relevant primary was not conducted by the competent organ, was not properly monitored or was otherwise not conducted in accordance with the Electoral Act and the party’s guidelines, the withdrawal of one aspirant cannot rescue the process.

In that situation, the real possibility is that NDC may be left without a legally sustainable candidate in Enugu State and, consequently, may not find its name on the ballot for the affected election.

The only potentially sellable candidate for the party in the state, therefore, remains Peter Gregory Obi, but even that political strength cannot substitute for compliance with the law.

–By Abdul Mahmud

There are countries that build monuments to their heroes because they understand something that Nigeria appears to have forgotten: a nation does not preserve its memory by allowing history to remain in books, archives and speeches alone, it gives memory a physical address, places the faces of its heroes in the public square and tells succeeding generations, through bronze and stone, that these are the men and women whose lives enlarged the meaning of the country they served; Nigeria should begin such a conversation with Tobi Amusan, and I would go further, I think Nigeria owes her a statue.

The argument has little to do with athletics alone, and even less to do with the transient excitement that accompanies victory on a track, for Amusan did something considerably larger than win a race: she placed the Nigerian flag at the summit of world athletics, became the first Nigerian world champion in an athletics event, broke the world record in the 100 metres hurdles in Eugene in 2022 with 12.12 seconds, and returned almost immediately to win the world title in a manner that transformed her from a gifted athlete into part of the country’s permanent sporting history. The world record has now been taken from her by America’s Masai Russell, but records move, champions change and sporting history keeps rewriting itself; what cannot be erased from Nigerian history is that Amusan was the first Nigerian athlete to hold a world record and win a World Athletics Championships title.

A statue would therefore not be a reward for a race, nor an ornamental gesture towards a successful sportswoman, but a public declaration about the kind of citizenship Nigeria chooses to honour; in a country where too much public space has been appropriated or effectively privatised by people whose careers have left the country poorer in both material and moral terms, there is something almost radical about returning the public square to the public and filling it with the likenesses of people whose achievements belong to everyone. Nigeria has become remarkably generous with the elevation of political power into public memory, with the names and images of officeholders appearing on roads, buildings, and institutions, while their records remain contested, but the people who have given the country reasons to feel proud are too often left with medals, photographs and the fading applauses of ceremonies. Other countries understand the difference. Britain has placed Nelson Mandela in Parliament Square in London, among figures whose public lives have become part of the moral language of the country and the wider world; India has filled its public spaces with monuments to Gandhi, Ambedkar and other figures whose lives are inseparable from the country’s history;

Such monuments do something more than preserve likenesses. They tell a nation what deserves remembrance.

Nigeria has no shortage of people deserving such remembrance. The country has produced writers who enlarged the African imagination, scientists whose work travelled beyond our borders, athletes who made the Nigerian flag visible on the greatest stages of world sport, soldiers and civilians who paid the ultimate price in moments of national crisis, teachers who spent entire lives educating children without receiving anything approaching the honour accorded to less deserving public figures, and ordinary citizens who performed extraordinary acts of courage without cameras, government delegations or ceremonial titles. Joseph Blackson should belong to this conversation. In 2018, when a passenger boat capsized in Rivers State, Blackson, a 36-year-old diesel supplier and father of two, repeatedly entered the water and rescued 13 people; he was attempting to rescue the 14th when he died. There is something deeply unsettling about the fact that such a man can disappear almost completely from national memory while the names and faces of men who have done considerable harm to the public good remain permanently reproduced across Nigeria’s civic landscape.

Abuja offers us an extraordinary opportunity to correct this imbalance. The Federal Capital is a city of hills, and those hills already give the capital a natural scenery from which to contemplate the city below. I would like to see Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, consider turning one of those hills into a national place of remembrance, perhaps the hills around the intersection of the road beyond NICON Junction and the expressway running from the AYA Junction towards Gwarimpa, into what might appropriately be called Heroes’ Hills. Or the hills overlooking the city gate. Imagine approaching Abuja and seeing, rising above the metropolis, the statues of Nigerians whose lives have given the country something larger than political office: Amusan standing with the quiet authority of an athlete who carried the Nigerian flag to the summit of world sport; Blackson looking towards the city whose citizens he once risked his life to save; and, alongside them, the men and women whose courage, intellectual achievement, sacrifice, or service have enlarged the grand Nigerian story.

The idea has an appealing symbolism because Abuja was conceived as the capital of a nation that sought a common centre, a place that could stand above the claims of particular regions and speak to the idea of Nigeria as one country. What better place, then, for a hill of heroes? From such a height, the statues would look over a city that represents the Nigerian idea of unity, while the city below would look upwards towards people whose achievements belong to no single ethnic group, religion or political party. Heroes’ Hills could become a place where a Nigerian child from Sokoto stands beside another from Rivers and sees in the monuments a shared inheritance; a young athlete from Edo could encounter Amusan’s story and imagine a future of her own, while the story of Blackson could remind another child that heroism does not require office, wealth or fame. A visitor to Abuja would encounter not another monument to political power, but a hillsscape devoted to the memory of people who gave something to the nation without demanding the nation in return.

A country should know the difference between power and heroism. Power can purchase a billboard, commission a portrait and name a road; heroism does not need an office before it deserves remembrance. Amusan ran for Nigeria when the world was watching, Blackson entered a river when people were drowning, and the moral value of their acts does not depend on whether either of them possessed political influence. A child walking past a statue of Amusan would encounter the image of a Nigerian woman who reached the highest level of her sport; a child standing before a monument to Blackson would encounter the story of a Nigerian who saw strangers in mortal danger and entered the water until his own life was lost.

There is also a deeper reason for putting Amusan in bronze. Her world record may have been taken from her, but the passing of a record should strengthen rather than diminish the case for preserving her place in Nigerian memory. Records belong to the present; monuments belong to memory. Another athlete may run faster, another generation may produce a greater hurdler, but nobody can become the first Tobi Amusan again. Her 12.12 seconds in Eugene belongs permanently to the history of Nigerian sport, just as her world championship belongs to the country’s history. The statue should stand somewhere Nigerians actually encounter it in the course of ordinary life, somewhere young people pass on their way to school, work or sport. A monument should interrupt the ordinary movement of a city and ask the passer-by to remember. Heroes’ Hills would offer precisely such a setting.

Let us build the hill where Nigeria’s real heroes can look over the country they helped make proud. Let us put Tobi Amusan in bronze.

Under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), Nigerians have experienced an abhorrent failure of governance.  Eight years of Muhammadu Buhari was a disaster. In its aftermath, and four years of President Tinubu’s presidency, nationalism, governance, unity, peace and security have foundered progressively.  Patriotism is all but dead.

APC’s leadership -in the three arms of government – has behaved so capriciously that rule of law and, our entire democracy is at stake.  Tinubu’s administration, has mortgaged the future of Nigerian children, including the unborn. Our lives and our governance modalities are broken. That’ is sufficient grounds to vote them out in 2027.

Under Tinubu’s watch Nigeria has borrowed itself into a huge debt trap; so much so that our national economy and fiscal profile are unsustainable.  Presently, Nigeria owes a whopping N160 trillion in debt. Meanwhile, the government has squandered N9.3 trillion saved from fuel subsidy on salaries and other non-capital and non-generative expenses.  The government now wants to raid the N270 billion in dormant accounts and unclaimed dividends belonging to private citizens.

As a nation, Nigeria has never been this weak and this exposed. This explains why the government is running national budgets from three fiscal cycles concurrently. Budget padding has become the norm. Due process, savings or the sovereign wealth fund is not their priority. APC has been so fiscally profligate that there is neither a firewall nor a safety net for the national population.  And there are no proper guardrails against official malfeasance. Nigeria is now a crime scene. The evidence abound.

Then there is the blatant failure in delivering basic education and primary healthcare, resulting in 20 million out-of-school children and a globally high rate of infant and maternal mortality.  Pervasive insecurity nationwide, threatens communities, livelihood, food security, manufacturing, and has resulted in 350,000 civilian deaths and over 900, 000 internally displaced persons (IDPs).

Overall, the government has failed in its primary responsibility to protect Nigerians. Hunger and poverty stand weaponized. Ungoverned spaces are expanding. Cost of governance and cost of living have spiraled sky-high.

Tinubu’s government is audaciously undemocratic. Constitutional violations abound in its actions. Budget padding and whimsical alteration of legislative bills is now the norm. A case in point, the presidency altered provisions of the 2025 tax reform bill passed by the National Assembly.  The presidency by subterfuge arrogated to itself authoritarian powers like seizing and selling of taxpayers assets without court orders.  This is not just criminality; it is authoritarianism writ large.

All our national development indices now point southwards.  180 million Nigerians are strapped in multidimensional poverty. We have 20 million out of school children, the highest globally. A bulge of our national youth population falls within the NEET cadre-Not in Education, Employment or Training.

Tinubu’s Nigeria represents the classical case of leadership hubris and arrogance. Tinubu’s leadership is so fraught with hubris that our national psyche is egregiously damaged. The president’s personal and leadership credentials continue to demarket Nigeria. Bigotry, nepotism, and tribalism in governance, appointments, projects and resources distribution has worsened our deep-seated challenges in ways hitherto unimaginable.

Disconcertingly, the present cadre of leaders does not only display extreme false pride, but also a false sense of superiority.  Their groupthink deludes them into believing that they know best; they refuse expert advice and often contend that the rule of law is not applicable to them.  It’s hardly surprising that the government’s top hierarchy as well as the APC presidential campaign team is replete with public officials with pending criminal cases.

Tinubu’s government has wittingly become fascist. The present administration is driven by precepts rather than best practices. Government’s purpose and possessiveness are tribe-driven. So despite visible and indisputable infrastructural blight and palpable broad disenfranchisement, such gross domestic disapproval has been muted by bigotry and tribalism.

Tinubu and the ruling APC are the very antithesis of clean governance. What is most troubling is that the leadership seems insensitive or clueless as to how bad things are in Nigeria.  They also seem oblivious that price hikes of over 20% on commodities like medicine, food and fuel induce adverse shock on the society.

For most Nigerians, there is no aspirational quality to national life. Indeed, life under Tinubu is short, brutish and cheap.  Bloodletting and death becomes us. Things are so bad that if APC were a manufactured product, it would have been pulled off the shelves and banned for being detrimental to human existence.

Clearly, Tinubu’s governance modality is off-kilter and his administration is so undisciplined that the government has no compassion or moral compass. Misaligned policies elicit toxic legacies. As such, a patent glaring distrust and distance now exists between the Presidency and the national population. This is the result of a perversely broken system, broken lives, and Tinubu’s toxic legacy. This is a disaster for Nigeria. The status quo cannot stand. It cannot continue, not when Nigeria faces an existential threat.

Year 2027, will serve as Nigeria’s meeting moment. Presently, most political discourse in Nigeria revolves on bad governance, excessive borrowings, and excessive cost of governance; the parlous economy, pervasive insecurity, impunity, blinkered corruption and diametric State Capture.  These are undemocratic dividends under Tinubu that must end.

Already public criticisms of Tinubu’s government and open dissent are on the rise.  Public anger is also simmering, especially amongst Gen Z youths. Some scrimmages have occurred publicly. The situation seems fragile and ready to snap at which point the anger might spill into the streets.  As things stand, Nigeria runs the risk that an electoral incident, a faux electoral outcome or a mere happenstance, might be catalytic to such an uprising.  Those who deem that possibility unlikely are living in a fool’s paradise. They should be thinking of how to avoid or react to the type of violent Gen Z uprising that occurred in Bangladesh in 2024 and Nepal in 2025.

Despite presumed sectional gains and coveted advantages, President Tinubu has done enormous political damage to his tribe in the context of Nigeria. Nonetheless, only Nigerians can redress their national plight. As such, Nigeria’s political opposition must rally to the common cause of voting out Tinubu and the APC.  Another four years of Tinubu and the APC means that we won’t have a nation called Nigeria. 2027 might be Nigeria’s tipping point.

———-

Obaze is MD/CEO, Selonnes Consult – a policy, governance and management consulting firm in Awka.

By Professor Ani Casimir, KC

​Osara in Kogi State, Nigeria, has turned into another Jerusalem and a history maker for the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, administration in the critical sub-energy sector. The Honourable Minister of Innovation, Science, and Technology is chalking up huge creditable records that are increasing his validity and positive visibility in the eyes of the Presidency—something never witnessed before by his predecessors in office. He is a record breaker, as Osara has made national history under President Tinubu’s watch as the new vista of sustainable energy generation. In a historic leap toward sustainable power and green economic growth, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, has commissioned the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN) Complex and the pioneer Barefoot Renewable Energy College in Osara, Kogi State, Nigeria. Described as the first of its kind in Africa, the project stands as a strategic cornerstone of the Federal Government’s commitment to energy security, technical capacity building, and clean energy transition under the Renewed Hope Agenda.

​The Honourable Minister waxed poetic as he hailed the commissioning of BARECKS and the Green Hydrogen Pilot Plant, which President Tinubu reaffirmed as a practical manifestation of his commitment to innovation-led development. The elated President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, represented by Vice President Senator Kashim Shettima, GCON, commissioned the Barefoot Renewable Energy College (BARECKS) and the Green Hydrogen Research and Demonstration Pilot Plant in Kogi State. The Honourable Minister of Innovation, Science, and Technology, Dr. Kingsley Tochukwu Udeh, SAN, beaming with patriotic pride, described the landmark projects as a bold demonstration of the Federal Government’s commitment to innovation, renewable energy, and sustainable national development. While giving his keynote address at the commissioning ceremony, the Minister said the twin projects reaffirm the Federal Government’s resolve under President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda to build a knowledge-driven economy where Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) serve as catalysts for industrialization, job creation, economic prosperity, and sustainable national development. He noted that the Ministry remains focused on translating research into practical solutions, innovation into commercial opportunities, and scientific discoveries into national wealth.

​The National Strategic Investment for a Sustainable Energy Future

​Highlighting the transformative vision behind this historic development, the Honourable Minister of Innovation, Science, and Technology, Dr. Kingsley Tochukwu Udeh, SAN, described the complex as a strategic national investment designed to bridge Nigeria’s technical skills gap and power its renewable energy infrastructure. “The Energy Commission of Nigeria Complex and the Barefoot Renewable Energy College perfectly align with and project the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr. President,” Minister Udeh stated after the successful commissioning of the Osara Energy Project. “It will promote job creation, economic diversification, improved energy access, poverty reduction, and sustainable development.”

​The Barefoot Renewable Energy College is structured to deliver hands-on, practical training in solar technology, biomass, and other decentralized renewable platforms. By equipping technicians, youth, and rural innovators with market-ready skills, the institution will nurture and sustain a massive concentration of an indigenous workforce capable of installing, maintaining, and scaling clean energy systems across West Africa. The Honourable Minister and the Presidency have spent quite some time ensuring that everything is in place for the success of the commissioning. Now that it has taken place, we need to highlight the insider details of this strategic breakthrough in Nigeria’s sustainable renewable energy institutionalization.

​Key Highlights of the Osara Complex

​1) Each facility and unit in the College is an innovative project initiative with core functional impact for Nigeria’s technological transformation and development. Nigeria is on the move in Africa as a core driver of technological innovation. A conceptual clarification of the complex’s separate units will illustrate this strategic benchmark with the Osara College curriculum layout:

​2) Barefoot Renewable Energy College: Practical vocational training in solar, biomass, and renewable technologies to build a skilled workforce.

​3) Green Hydrogen Research & Demonstration Pilot Plant: Decentralized green hydrogen testing as a clean alternative to diesel generators.

​4) National “Research to Revenue” Alignment: Translating home-grown indigenous scientific innovation into commercialized, market-driven energy solutions.

​5) Net-Zero 2060 Commitment: Targeting greenhouse gas reduction across the industrial, transportation, and power sectors.

​Pioneering Green Hydrogen Innovation

​The four core functional areas go beyond vocational training. A technical layout identifies the Osara complex’s technological innovative energy project that houses the Green Hydrogen Research and Demonstration Pilot Plant. The facility serves as a testing ground for decentralized green hydrogen systems—a zero-emission alternative designed to offset heavy reliance on diesel generators, particularly in regions with fragile grid infrastructure. Dr. Udeh emphasized that diversifying Nigeria’s energy mix with green hydrogen directly advances the country’s pledge to attain net-zero carbon emissions by 2060. The Ministerial vision mirrors the President’s Renewed Hope vision that cascades to many functional divisions: first, the Barefoot Energy College, and second, the Green Hydrogen Facility. In the first place, the Barefoot College will generate and activate practical training, workplace upskilling, and local technical assembly. On the other hand, the Green Hydrogen Facility will establish a diesel alternative for Nigeria, increase grid stabilization, and help Nigeria achieve the 2060 net-zero target set by Mr. President.

​As the Honourable Minister, Dr. Kingsley Tochukwu Udeh, SAN, assured: “Osara will empower Nigeria and Mr. President to achieve this strategic energy target for the nation.”

​…to be continued in the next part.