Category: Opinion

By Christian ABURIME

Another year, another anniversary. As Anambra State marks its 33rd anniversary today, it is a moment of reflection and celebration, a time to appreciate the monumental strides made and look forward to an even more promising future. Since its creation on August 27, 1991, Anambra State has evolved, overcoming numerous challenges to emerge as a model of progress and development in Nigeria. And under the leadership of the current administration, ably led by Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, CFR, the state has remained true to the dream of its founding fathers: a prosperous and livable homeland for all its citizens.

One of the hallmarks of the current government has been its untiring commitment to security and stability. Recognising that peace is the substratum of development, the administration has implemented comprehensive measures to combat crime and ensure the safety of every citizen. From reclaiming areas previously dominated by criminal elements to enhancing the capacity of law enforcement, Anambra has become a safer place, allowing businesses to thrive and communities to flourish.

Yet, the youth of Anambra are at the heart of the state’s development agenda. Through innovative programmes like “1 Youth, 2 Skills,” the government is equipping young people with the tools they need to succeed in a dynamic economy. With over 13,000 youths already trained in various skills, the initiative is fostering entrepreneurship and reducing unemployment, setting a foundation for sustainable economic growth.

Even more, Anambra’s infrastructural landscape is transforming at an unprecedented pace. Despite the challenges of the rainy season, the government has successfully completed 288 kilometers of roads and is pressing forward with multiple flyover projects. This infrastructure boom is not only enhancing connectivity within the state but is also crucial for the economic activities that drive growth and development.

Environmental sustainability remains a top priority, with the administration dedicating substantial resources to combat soil erosion, a long-standing issue in the state. Projects like the Urban Regeneration Council and community-driven initiatives aim to mitigate erosion, promote urban renewal, and ensure a cleaner, greener Anambra for future generations.

True to the Igbo philosophy of “onye aghana nwanne ya” (no one should be left behind), the state government has implemented several social welfare programmes to support the most vulnerable. Free education up to junior secondary school and complimentary antenatal and delivery services are just a few examples of the administration’s commitment to social equity and community well-being.

With initiatives such as the Anambra Industrial City and the Solution Innovation District, the state is also positioning itself as a hub of economic flourishing in Nigeria. These projects are designed to attract investment, spur innovation, and create jobs, reflecting the administration’s strategic vision for economic diversification and growth.

The litany of achievements is quite numerous, and goes on and on. Today, as we with grateful hearts celebrate Anambra’s 33 years of statehood, Governor Soludo calls on all citizens to participate in building a brighter future. The upcoming local government elections are a crucial step in deepening democracy and ensuring that development reaches every corner of the state. By embracing civic responsibilities and working together, Anambra can achieve the dream of its founders, a state that is not only a light of the nation but a model of progress and prosperity for all.

In all, Anambra at 33 is not just a celebration of years gone by but also a tribute to resilience, innovation, and spirit of greater things to come. The achievements of the current administration, underpinned by a vision of inclusive growth and sustainable development, continue to set the stage for an even more remarkable future. This milestone is a rededication to the ongoing task of making Anambra a place where every citizen can thrive. Long shall continue to shine the Light of the Nation.

Enugu State took a long lane to birth, after two abortions! The quest for ‘Waawa State,’ from the war-causing 12 states of Yakubu Gowon, intensified after the war. It was principally to give aggrieved sections of the Igbo nation a better sense of belonging and to accelerate development beyond the congesting Coal City.

On February 3, 1976, Murtala Muhammed decreed ten states in the north and ten in the south. As the story still goes, ‘Waawa State’ was crossed out on his way to make the announcement. Thus, the 19-state structure emerged and skewed the north-south numerical balance to date.

Ibrahim Babangida revisited the configuration on September 23, 1987. He added two new states and preserved the imbalance, plus Abuja, FCT. Babangida returned to the carving board on August 27, 1991. He added nine more states to make a 30-state structure plus Abuja.

Thirty was a lucky number: Enugu State was finally created out of old Anambra State, comprising Enugu, Nsukka, and Abakaliki areas. Thanks to Sani Abacha, Enugu State shed Abakaliki on October 1, 1996, to form Ebonyi State with the Afikpo zone from Abia via Imo States. The resultant 36-state-and-FCT structure remains to date.

We celebrate the creation of Enugu State for many reasons. It proves that whatever good people put their minds to accomplish, it shall be so eventually. The quest for good governance takes time. Miracles in sprinting are rare; success after marathons, certain. The struggle must continue. It is not just what happened; it is more what we do with what happened. What have we done with the labors of our forefathers? Simply put: It is not yet uhuru.

The regime of Chimaroke Nnamani (1999-2003) turned up the heat in Enugu State. He had a big vision, and he set out to deliver “the dividends of democracy,” a term derived from one of his many lectures on governance. Alas, political intrigues and time caught up with his drive. He retired to the Senate. To his credit, he defined Enugu State politics for a quarter of the new century!

Sullivan Chime picked up the baton. He had his own challenges, both personal and political. In all, he revamped Enugu City and wrote a memoir. His quest for a senate seat hit a tall wall: DSP Ike Ekweremadu was too tap-rooted to be sidelined, and Chime knew when to back off for Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to emerge governor.

The retrogression during Ugwuanyi regime was avoidable. With almost zero political problems and pocketed opposition, he was still unable to get much done. Insecurity, lack of basic amenities, unemployment, housing needs, and dastardly disruptions in the social fabric intensified rural-urban migration and japa!

Two trending videos of ongoing projects in various areas of increasingly enticing Enugu city signal a return to “The Sullivan Years” of a clean capital city with a vibrant nightlife of Sullivan taxis, a state where salaries are paid on time, and where people slept with two eyes shut. Peter Mbah appears determined to deliver on his magnificent manifesto. It will not be easygoing with the current national socioeconomic problems and the gathering storm of sundry opponents itching to rain on his parade, if not eat his lunch before 2027.

The quest for Enugu State is accomplished; ‘Adada State’ still simmers. The five southeast states have built capital cities and institutions worthy of note, plus the emergence of notable community leaders in political, religious, and socioeconomic spheres. Sadly, many developmental goals have eluded us in rural and urban areas.

Ironically, there is a craving for regional realignment. It will not erase the states; rather, it will bring a functional federation if power is further devolved—just as was agreed at Aburi, Ghana in 1967.

One good thing happening now is the autonomy of local government areas. The chairmen and the councils must catch the wave at its peak. Enugu East, for example, can institute a potential trigger for the next phase of development in Enugu State and the entire Southeast. With the administration of Peter Mbah building a new Enugu City, the core of ‘Computer City’ could come. The same principle should apply to other LGAs, using what they possess to get what they want.

Happy Anniversary to Enuguites. May we celebrate the next anniversary by showing the way again, so others may follow.

©MOEne, Tuesday, August 27, 2024
@Aladimma

By Okey Ikechukwu

The real enemy of that section of the Nigerian polity that is generally referred to as “The North” is not Tinubu. It is not banditry, or insurgency.

It is also not political marginalization or the Governor of the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN), who directed that some departments of the CBN be relocated, as alleged by Katsina elders some time ago.

It is, instead, the failure of the Northern political, feudal, business and religious elites to address issues that are central to the region’s future in a 21st century world.

It is as if there is a resolve by those who should know better to maintain deliberate insensitivity to the blinding gale of misfortunes sweeping through the region and burying everything that holds the prospect of a rebirth for the region.

Rather than focus on what really matters, the concern is about more political opportunities for those who are holding the region in an anti-development stranglehold at the moment.

We hear some of them speak of how much of a menace “the North” will be in 2027 if President Tinubu does this, or fails to do that, in the interests of the region.

And all of this chatter, presumably in in pursuit of the overall higher interests of the north, is going on in the comfortable abodes of a disconnected political elite.

While they are at it, that is arguing for the “genuine” interests of the north, the place is being routinely decimated on a daily basis.

It is steadily spewing out an ever-growing population of destitutes and budding criminals who are driven to social deviance by plain, naked hunger and nothing more.

We are speaking here of hunger and the search for food to eat, as distinct from the desire to use crime and criminality as a means of wealth creation.

The cartel of criminals involved in the serious business of kidnapping for ransom, which is actually an elite investment platform that uses daredevil foot soldiers for its operations, make up less than one percent of the criminal population.

And it is apparent from the pronouncements and reflexes of the elite that no new lessons are being learnt.

That is why today, all the issues raised and dramatized on this page on September 14, 2020, in a piece titled “Northern Nigeria: The Pretence Persists”, are still so alive and so painfully fresh.

They are so relevant and roundly timely that the article can bear substantial reproduction here today.

Here goes:

“A recent lengthy submission from the elder statesman, Ahmed Joda, rested on a telling conclusion: Northern Nigeria is not developing its human capital. It also does not have the time to do so anymore.

Therefore, it is now ill-equipped to fit into either the knowledge-driven world of today or the new world of tomorrow.

It needs at least 20 years to become significant in any way.

But rather than wake up to this benumbing fact, there is the pursuit of the illusion of dominance.

The major point in Joda’s intervention is that the triumphalism of cattle rearers whose illusion of invulnerability is fuelled and sustained by a national security framework that is skewed to promote insecurity in specific regions of the country will go burst sooner than later.

Since most of the northern states have many abandoned, ungoverned and even ungovernable spaces, its currently consumption-driven elite is really in no position to do anything, beyond maintaining a hollow swagger that is backed by nothing but the fact that they are living mostly in Abuja and floating on free state funds.

The above was penned four years ago.

In the above-referenced article, I also took us back to and earlier intervention, also on this page, of April 17, 2019, “As the North Goes Under.” In this piece i spoke of a visit to Zamfara State in 2014.

I pointed out that “The then Secretary to the State Government explained how he abandoned his farm and ranch because of cattle rustling and fear for his personal safety.

I spoke of how he confessed that it was impossible to deploy law enforcement agents, even for himself, in any meaningful way because they were mostly outnumbered, ill equipped and answerable to Abuja”.

Even back then in 2019, five years after our visit to Zamfara state, I asked in the aforementioned article: “Have matters improved in Zamfara State today, or gotten worse?

Just as the then Zamfara State governor complained that “the misfortunes” of his people centred around “derivation, as a lot of gold was mined in the state and carted away while his people were ravaged by poverty,” many other states are not faring any better.

And Northern states with over 30% of their geographical space occupied by marauders have been drafting and implementing budgets and development projects covering these areas, where no one lives.

Elite myopia, leadership illiteracy and abysmal ignorance of both 21st Century leadership and cultural anthropology of the Nigerian state are working together here.

Most of Nigeria’s poor are northerners, even when most high profile political and economically rewarding positions are held by Northerners.

Yet, this very same north is being systematically wiped out.

Unlike what happened during the mass massacre of Igbos in the 60s, no religion, ethnic, or political affiliation exonerates anyone today.

For once, the North is actually giving the greatest evidence ever in its history of both political illiteracy and failure to follow the rules of self-preservation.

Are leaders of the North, and our leaders of various regions today generally, doing any form of costs/benefits analysis in their expenditures and use of public funds?

I think not.

No matter how generous you would like to be in evaluating the situation of the North today, you must come away with the painful conclusion that all might not be well with the people for a long time to come.

There is hardly any recent event (and I am talking about the last 15 years) in the home, or village, of most Northern politicians where the guests are not usually overwhelmed by at least 100 shabby looking youths, who are either prowling the vicinity, directly affronting guests, or raiding laid out tables.

They are looking for nothing other than scraps of edibles and, not even a full meal.

And the big men themselves are usually not embarrassed by the spectacle.

Has school enrolment or academic performance improved in the North, in the last ten years, even as all the governors are announcing massive “investments” in education?

Has the region shown any real increase in the number of people registering for SSCE, NECO and similar competitive examinations?

If no, then an inevitable implosion will yet come.

As “their people” come from Chad and Niger, their own youths are begging in the streets; or are in the forests.

Everywhere is turning into a no-man’s-land, where even revered traditional rulers and religious leaders are no longer safe.

A backlash will come when the Sudanese, Chadians and North Africans will suddenly not be so welcome; especially after the Northerners discover that they are displaced in their very homes.

When foreigners are the ones with Nigerian ID cards in the North, when foreigners are voters in the North, when the total number of registered candidates for all competitive examinations from the 19 states of the north continues stands much lower than that of one particular state in the South, when even the cattle business is now in the hands of roaming bands who have no conception of a brotherhood, or the modern state, you will realize what the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, meant by his two books, “Fear and Trembling” and “The Sickness Unto Death.”

Relentless daily killings are going on in all the northern states.

The northern political elite have allowed a new breed of wild youths, not sufficiently socialised even in line with the ‘Ranka dede’ culture to become dominant.

Drugs, poverty, motiveless criminality and rapacious daredevilry have chased all the northern big men to Abuja.

But for how long will they be in exile?

Is Abuja itself still safe?

Are some high-profile estates and exclusive neighbourhoods in Abuja not being quietly attacked these days?”

As property rates crash in the North, as investors flee, as local economies collapse, as re-desertification takes over many places, as farmlands and animal husbandry are abandoned, as the proceeds of crime become the new means for the unlettered, the threat to the children of the elite will multiply.

The peace of mind of those who had the chance to make a difference but failed to do so will evaporate.

The free-band society of cattle herders will collapse before their very eyes, as much of the North is taken over by degenerate marauders.

I need not repeat the old observation that the late Abubakar Rimi would probably still be alive today if he had not encountered his ‘brothers’ on a lonely road in the dead of night.

He spoke to them in Fulfulde and tried to remonstrate with them, but they did not listen to him.

They robbed him, instead, and managed to spare his life after warning him to keep his preachment to himself.

It was the trauma to Rimi’s existing heart condition, as well as the statement of his “brothers” that they were simply trying to “make a living” and feed their families, that saw Rimi out of this world a few days later.

The article, “Northern Nigeria: The Pretence Persists ended on this note: “A region that has the highest allocation from oil revenue, the highest earnings from tax mostly paid by other regions, the highest earning from bunkering and the highest earnings from the illegal mining of gold and other natural resources, is ravaged by poverty, underdevelopment and a burgeoning population of unemployable youths. Is this right? Is this normal? Is anyone paying attention – as the North goes under?

Today, matters have only gone beyond comprehension, in terms of finding a way out of the quagmire.

The former leather works sites of many Northern states are not about to comeback.

The textile factories and groundnut pyramids of Kano and Kaduna are tales from bygone times. Most leaders of the North, and also leaders of various regions today, do not seem to be doing any form of costs/benefits analysis in their expenditures and use of public funds.

The art and practice of good governance and nation-building is not for the apathetic, shortsighted or presumptuous. Only focused, selfless, visionary, adaptive and transformative leaders end up being great leaders and nation builders. For sixty-four years, Nigerian leaders have respectively offered platitudinous intent to make Nigeria great, and to restructure it for greater equity and effect. They all failed. On their respective watch, Nigeria has with disambiguating blatancy stagnated.

The argument has been made continually that Nigeria needs systematic restructuring, or risk being restructured by default, with indefinite outcomes. Realities gleaned from the just-concluded #EndBadGovernance protests offer a scary insight into the unfolding trajectory. Nigeria has never been this polarized. Besides bad governance, Nigeria has been damaged by highly-placed bigotry. The protests have ended, but two salient variables remain: lessons learned and missed opportunities.

Curiously, one of the narratives that emanated from the August protests was the allusion of foreign involvement. This is mythical and mere shadow chasing. It was Nigeria that misplayed her diplomatic and political hands by meddling in Niger’s domestic affairs; thus damning as it were, realpolitik and historical and contiguous affinities. Some protesters unfurling presumed Russian flags on Nigeria’s soil was an outlier that reflected unintended and unforeseen consequences. It’s nonetheless a deeply troubling reality. Relatedly, the usually non-protesting North has finally protested. With its Zanga-Zanga fervor, the genie is out of the bottle and the much touted north-southwest pact stands amortized. Some have translated the Northern protests as indicative clamor for an Arewa Republic.

Nigeria’s diversity used to be her strength. As a composite of over 250 ethnic nationalities cobbled together by the colonialists, Nigeria had always managed to find some balance, by her three major Wazobia tribes symbolically standing in brotherhood, and also through the symbolic protection of minority rights.  This is no longer so. Unwittingly, Nigeria is presently being dangerously dissected by Nigerian elites, for primordial reasons that trumps her rich diversity and hardly serve common cause.

Up till now, it was accepted, even if grudgingly, that each of the 250 ethnicities that form Nigeria’s national mosaic had a place and role in the federation. But as things stand, those places and rights seemingly can no longer be protected. Thus, the places and rights of the big three can’t be guaranteed. Ever more, Nigeria’s tight knit seams that underpin the national mosaic have frayed, making each ethnicity more distinct, yet weaker. Nigerians now seems averse to cohabitation, which denotes clear and present danger.

Sardonically, some mistake and therefore misinterpret the evolving ethnocentric distinction as having achieved leadership primacy or unilateral sectional strength in a secular federal system. But the intrinsic comparative advantage of each ethnic component has not changed.  Neither has the mutually beneficial attributes. Here is the befuddling fallacy; whereas some national parts seem to have become stronger, the resiliency of the parts that form the whole have became visibly weaker. The crux of this challenge is the tactless default of recent leaders who placed sectional interests above national interest.

In her 2018 book, Our Time Has Come; How India is Making its Place in the World, Alyssa Ayres, drew on how two successive Indian leaders, Mamohan Singh and Narendra Modi, single-mindedly and selflessly repositioned India. Apropos Nigeria, except for Murtala Muhammed’s Addis Ababa Declaration that ‘Africa has come of age’, no other Nigerian leader has in the strict sense, visualized and enunciated authoritatively, Nigeria’s place in the world.

Contextually, Nigeria continues to wallow in unbridled leadership ineptitude and bad governance. Her comeuppance has manifested via unvarnished bigotry. And restructuring, as desirable as it is, remains to some, a national buzzword of seemingly inconsequential value. As far as metaphors go, present day Nigeria mirrors in stark reality, the depiction so well-captured by the great allegorist, John Bunyan: “He that is down needs fear no fall.” The apathy that is commonplace in Nigeria is predicated on the contrived willingness of the national elite to ensure that Nigeria, a fallen and failed nation stays down.

Oddly enough, the national elite clearly have not factored in fully, the intent and aspirations of the succeeding generation – Nigeria’s Gen-Zs. Hence, the unfolding battle ground for the soul of Nigeria, is across the generational divide. Perhaps Nigeria no longer needs to be restructured formally. The visible divide in the compartmentalized support of the national protests, speaks clearly to this fact. The people have restructured Nigeria, albeit involuntarily.

Also, the nation’s inexplicable change of her national anthem may yet prove prescient. ‘Nigeria, hail us or let huger kill us’. This assertion is antonym to ‘Nigeria we hail thee,’ which is now often mouthed facetiously and derisively. Such a sarcastic anecdote would be comical, if in reality, it was not so tragic. The scriptural return to the old order, if that was what the perfunctory anthem swap was meant to signify, holds nothing nostalgic, except for foolhardiness and pain, now well beyond suffering and smiling. It was exceedingly painful to hear Nigerians call for a return to military rule. It was also very painful for a nation of 200 million people to come off the 2024 Paris Olympics, without a single medal. Signs of the times!

For long Nigeria has been immersed in a rut. Truly, the rut did not start today. Still, given her dependent-independence status, asserting Nigeria’s independence, is now a bittersweet oxymoron. Nigeria can be whole, but it is not. Her citizens are cofounded by the stupor of independence co-mingled with incivility of deprivation. Long held beliefs of national greatness have turned grotesquely illusory. Due to squalidly bad leadership, Nigeria and her denizens reel in itinerancy. Nigeria and Nigerians have thus become a beggar nation, beggarly people; and debt and poverty challenged.

Bad governance in Nigeria is a reality. At all levels, governance has become a walk in the perilous forest; not a walk in the freedom park. Presently, some of Nigeria’s best brains -youths trying to japa- lay buried in unmarked graves in the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea. Understandably it’s the prevailing dichotomies that compel some to seek an exit from the union; from that ‘sea of mud’ that is Nigeria, or die in the mud while trying. Yet some insist on the reset of Nigeria, convinced that a new Nigeria is possible. Their mission is not to put Nigeria asunder; but to reset it in line with the vision of the founding fathers and the tenets of true federalism and democracy.

There can be no pretenses whatsoever, that unaltered and un-restructured, Nigeria’s future will remain bleak; and her past indeterminate and fraught by a gilded era of disparate voices for unity. There could not be hope; not with interloping faux leaders taking charge in nation building; not with embedded voices in the southwest vociferously promoting the #IboMustGo campaign, without broad censure and disclaimers from the region’s elite; and not with the insipient call for military rule. What these attests to, is that very few true patriots remain who retain a modicum of unshaken faith in the cohesion and indivisibility of the nation. It’s salutary that some Patriots recently engaged the President.

Quo Vadis, Nigeria? Which Way Nigeria? Before ever talking of modalities for restructuring, Nigerians must grapple first with the need to reset Nigeria as one would reset an errantly late clock. There are two parts to this urgent process. There are inherent demands aligned with the national protestations. Too many grievances persist that needs to be addressed. So too, are unmet governance and material needs. Poverty, hunger and deprivations are the common denominators. That totality of bad governance can’t be wished away. And that’s the butt of the protestations by Nigerians.

Those protesters who took to the streets to clamor for change were not scofflaws or miscreants. They are hungry, disenfranchised and disappointed Nigerians. They are also Nigerians cognizant that peaceful protestations are permissible within constitutional ambits. Though separated by ethnicity and religion, they were unified by poverty, hunger and deprivations. As such, no bluster or intimidation can dampen their fervor. And so long as hunger and bad governance persist, we can expect more protestations in the months ahead.

Nigeria is in dire straits, but a sliver of hope remains. In contemplating Nigeria’s curious next steps, the present APC leadership should lead by example. First, is to acknowledge the evident governance fallibilities and quickly rethink its defective governance modalities. Second, is to concede to some key demands aimed at abating prevalent hunger and suffering. Third, with the recent convocation of the National Council of State, present and past Nigerian leaders must undertake measures to expeditiously rejig Nigeria; perhaps first, by embarking on a government of national unity comprised of a team of rivals. They can also elect to dither until unscripted circumstances compel a different trajectory to collective or segregated aspirations. That seemingly hard choice is indeed quite an easy one to make.

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

All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way__ Tolstoy in Anna Karenina

Years ago, a certain report had come up naming my compatriots as the happiest people on earth. A report that sometimes makes you wonder about the parameters through which such judgment was made. It also makes one ponder about what happiness genuinely implies. Does laughter signify happiness? Does the ability to hide pain make one a happy man? The truth is, some people are stronger than others. What breaks one man emboldens another. So, to date, we still don’t know what prompted their report.

Truthfully, we are known as one of the most resilient bunches in the history of humanity. In fact, one of our prophets, whom we wrongly call a musician, said we are people suffering and smiling. Indeed, we are good at hiding our pains with a big, fat, and large smile. However fragile. We may cry in our rooms, complain to our neighbors, shout in the public bus, rant online, but our divine creator was so effective in His craft that He molded us with a clay of hope with touches of all shades of resilience.

The decibel of our pain used to be very low beneath the surface until one bright afternoon, a man working in the government blared out that a man who had lost in the previous election was orchestrating a disaster. He said this failed politician and his supporters were trying to capitalize on the underlying hunger and yet-to-materialize anger of the people, to spur them into mayhem. He further said that these agents of democracy were planning to burn the country down and barricade our fundamental right to the pursuit of happiness.

This was the first time my compatriots came to realize that we have a fundamental human right to pursue happiness. We know of happiness, but God’s truth, we did not know it is something that can be pursued, let alone a human right to its pursuit.
However, God’s truth, we knew we were not happy, just that we didn’t expect this man in government to lay the brick of blame on his fellow politician. And we do not also believe the world must be divided into two boxes: Happy-Sad, Good-Bad, friendly-unfriendly, etc. We believe there are different shades of grey. We used to believe that there is a middle ground, but we don’t have a name for it. But I like to call it bland or blank.

The man in government did not owe us any responsibility to appeal to our expectations. It was a waste of expectations and hope. When has it not been about politics? When has it not been about blame distribution? Even when the government came into power, they had to blame their predecessor even though they were fragments of the same fabric. Same party. Their predecessor blamed the one before it… It has always been a rigmarole. The blame must go to someone, but it must not be the incumbent. It was an unwritten rule.

For my compatriots, many things had informed our unhappiness. At least now that we know we are unhappy, I can tell you about things that informed it. There have been many of them in the last decade, but none is as scorching as what’s now faced by the people. But most painfully, from the coastal villages down to the metropolitan cities, debilitating hunger has eaten deep into society. In all ramifications, families can’t afford to feed. People, especially children, now walk slowly around in the likeness of ghosts due to hunger.

A popular opinion is already taking root among the elite group. The opinion, devoid of human feelings, holds that people should only bring to the world the number of children they can afford to feed and cater for. With the current hunger, many can’t even feed themselves, so it’s logical to say, the opinion implies that the poor shouldn’t bring any child into the world. A subtle version of Jonathan Swift’s modest proposal. Jonathan proposed that the poor and their children should be eaten by the British parliamentarians of his days, but the opinion of today is that the poor should tie their manhood because they are not man enough. Some mothers now whisper about the children that hunger had forced them to abort.

As a researcher and journalist, it’s handy to have a small vocabulary in my line of work. But one hardly knows what stronger vocabulary can be attributed to hunger. The whole issue makes you think the country is recovering from a war. In 1945, the reporter Wilfred Burchett broke the story of a nuclear warhead exploding over the city of Hiroshima for the London Daily Express. He covered what he called “the most terrible and frightening desolation in four years of war.”

Like Burchett, I am a reporter. My nation has not experienced a physical war recently, but a war of hunger waged by the high and mighty. If one looks out of his or her window, the city has taken on a very gory color. The color of hunger. If you can’t see it, then you are one of the people who built their houses in the high hills and look down at our city through a tiny hole on the wall of your building.

Apart from hunger, other things that informed the unhappiness include deepened poverty and hopelessness. Hope has always been a bleak discussion in our national story, but never has it been bleaker. When Sola Owonibi wrote “Homeless not Hopeless,” hope was still a tenable national currency. But today, hope is a lost coin. Many are indeed homeless and hopeless. Hope itself is a long rope many of my compatriots have hanged themselves with.

In the hospitals, there were corpses every night at the height of death from curable diseases. Some from minute illnesses like malaria. Cholera later broke out in the city because our people now feed from waste bins and dungeons. Seven, twelve, twenty-six, fifty-six, hundred, people now die without meaning, some killed by people trying to survive the harsh economy. The brutality can be reduced to a paragraph, sometimes only a sentence each, but the deep stench of penury ravaging my compatriots can’t be well described in an encyclopedia. It’s indeed a multidimensional destitution and hopelessness that we will need more words and new language to describe.

If you define happiness by Hunger, Hopelessness and Hardship, then we are the happiest people on earth. Call us HHH (Hunger, Hardship and Hopelessness).

From the epistles of Ejeagha, we have arrived at the gospel of “Gwo-gwo-gwo-ngwo”: Two individuals walk past each other. They stop. Suddenly, they simulate synchronized steps to a chorus of “Gwo gwo gwo ngwo.” They are amazed and amused by the elaborate and entertaining but deceptive dance steps. Then, for no rational reason and in no obvious order, one chases after the other.

By Lasisi Olagunju

Number 10, Downing Street has been home to Britain’s prime ministers since 1735 AD. Why would a hugely popular new prime minister move into a 289-year-old mansion without spending good pounds on it to buff it up to today’s taste? Keir Starmer, the new British prime minister, moved into that official residence soon after he was appointed last Friday. There was neither a renovation of the building nor a sanctification of the rooms by clerics and priests. Red candles, white tapers were not lit; neither was turari (incense) assigned a role.

You would think that the British who always hailed the way we elected our leaders would copy our ways. This past weekend, the teacher didn’t do the nonsense they taught their students. Their dog refused to follow our monkey to do what locusts do to grain farms. They chose those they wanted as leaders without our usual fireworks and water cannons.

For the winner, it was straight from the polling booth to the Government House; there was no interlude, no respite, no recess. There was even no transition committee; neither was there a budget for new furniture and new cars for the prime minister’s family. The Prime Minister took over almost immediately after the sun set for the man whose party lost in spectacular detail.

Ministers were appointed the same day and portfolios assigned them on the spot, leaving us to wonder why the haste. We didn’t hear of the parliament grilling the appointees and asking them to sing ‘God save the King’ – their national anthem. Was the head of government even sworn in? Who did?

here is nothing they do in the husband’s bedroom that does not happen in the concubine’s bedchamber. We have rats here that eat vital documents and get presidents sick. The British have over there too. But the PM’s residence in London has a simple solution to the problem: a mouser, a celebrity cat is in firm control of the rodent issues there. The cat’s name is Larry; for the past 13 years, it has been helping heads of government in that country to fix what our cowardly presidents run away from here. We’ve not heard that Labour’s Starmer aims at sacking the cat from the residence because the conservatives took it there.

Since his appointment on Friday last week, Starmer, with his family, has settled in properly in 10 Downing Street.

Our own President Muhammadu Buhari moved into our Presidential Villa late in June 2015 – three weeks after he was sworn in. The old man needed to be sure that the residence was properly fumigated of the sacked party and be rid of rodents and cockroaches – visible and invisible. Despite all his carefulness, impudent rats still ran the ramrod General out of the building and out of the country. He was away in London for months suffering from what could be anything.

He came back and, again, got run out of the office part of the building by the same rats. We forget things here. Seven years ago (August 2017), one of Buhari’s spokespersons announced (with uncommon sensation) that rodents had damaged furniture and air conditioning fittings in the president’s “official” office while he was in London receiving treatment. The gentleman said our leader wouldn’t, therefore, be seen working in the president’s office until the damage was undone. And that was it. The big boss stayed off work until the rats accepted his sacrifice and said he should come in.

In his own case, President Bola Tinubu has been more attentive to details. The Yoruba man is well acquainted with the functional relationship between the rolling eyes of the crab and its delicate head. He was sworn in on May 29, 2023, made a rash of careless policy pronouncements but was careful about where he would be accommodated. Unlike Starmer who rushed into the PM’s mansion like a hungry cat, Tinubu rushed nothing and overlooked nothing.

Sixty-three days after he took over power, a reluctant Tinubu gingerly detoured into a villa building called the Glass House on Sunday, July 31, 2023. It was there he hibernated until the main residence begged him to come and occupy it. Perhaps because he is the Capone, we have not heard stories about ratty encounters in the nation’s most secure edifice.”

~ Lasisi Olagunju,Tribune

Deciphering Nigeria can be depressing. Interrogating her history and present political trajectory can also be disconcerting. That awkwardness is further complicated by the fact that, in a nation where governance is now rife with propaganda, the truth is always a conspiracy; and truth-tellers, traducers. That disposition did not prevent two recent unvarnished and non-salutary New York Times assessment of the state of Nigeria. 

Both pieces represent a reality check and the proverbial writing on the wall. Despite the pushback by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) government, what is dawning stealthily on Nigerians is that Nigeria’s long-forecast implosion might actually be self-fulfilling. Put differently, Nigeria is not too big to fail. 

The organised labour has vowed to reject any ₦62,000 or ₦100,000 minimum wage proposal for Nigerian workers by the federal government.

Speaking in an interview on Channels Television on Monday, the Assistant General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Chris Onyeka, described such a proposal as a “starvation wage”.