As members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) gather for the party’s elective convention in Abuja this weekend, the APC can hardly look in the mirror and recognise itself as the vibrant coalition that swept the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) from office three years ago.I still remember Lai Mohammed shelling PDP. The party was a band of thieves, a criminal [...]
Azu Ishiekwene
ON THE GO
As politicians of all shades and stripes converged on Abuja on Tuesday to mark the 25th anniversary of June 12, the declaration of that day as the new Democracy Day and the investiture of MKO Abiola with GCFR, the motive of President Muhammadu Buhari continued to dominate conversations.The President’s action has been described as a bribe for Southwest vote and a mocking [...]
I had to read the story twice to be sure that the minister had not overdosed on the remedial political treatment she received at the hands of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC).Did she actually say that the APC will rule forever?Last September, the Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Alhassan, fondly called "Mama Taraba", had led a [...]
I’ve been to Lisbon before, years ago. Twice in fact. The first time was by proxy, an emotional trip of sorts. At the time I was the Chair of the CNN Multichoice African Journalists of the Year Award and in this particular year, the Award was hosted in Mozambique.During a tour of historic sites in Maputo Bay, we visited an [...]
After weeks of shadow-boxing, the gloves are finally off between President Muhammadu Buhari and former President Olusegun Obasanjo.Obasanjo’s roadshow to drum up support against Buhari’s second term got under his skin. The president, who only weeks ago praised his Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, for his cool and calculated response to the former president, lost his cool and returned fire [...]
Last week, a man travelled over 8,000 miles from Australia to Switzerland for help to kill himself.Self-assisted suicide is not yet permitted in Australia and after years of campaigning for it to be on the same footing as the right to life in his home country, the man, regrettably, pursued his conviction where he could find it. That man was [...]
Offices of the All Progressives Congress (APC) across the country are still littered with broken bones, bloodied faces and shredded tallies from the party’s ward congresses last weekend.In virtually all the states, the ward congresses were marred by violence, with special drama in Anambra where the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige, and a former governorship candidate of the [...]
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) may have a rough ride this week, over a matter that is, in the strict sense, not its business.After weeks of investigation, this could be the week when the Commission finally releases its findings into allegations that the Kano State Local Government election, conducted by the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) using INEC’s register, [...]
Legislative rascality has a long, chequered history. Perhaps one of the most dramatic in the Senate in the last 18 years happened on the watch of Chuba Okadigbo, when former President Olusegun Obasanjo tried by means fair and foul to remove Okadigbo as president of the Senate.After several attempts to remove him, including the executive offering bribes to senators, the [...]
Afeez Baruwa could be on his last mile to jail. Or he could be going home a free man.Three years ago, the former lecturer in the department of Accounting at the University of Lagos cornered an 18-year-old girl.The girl’s father, a friend of Baruwa’s, had sent her to the lecturer for help to gain admission. Baruwa apparently had other plans: [...]
Governor Yahaya Bello does not need to jump into the fire, yet. The Kogi State governor who had, in fact, sprained an ankle in what might have been a practice match for the big leap, was saved the trouble after President Muhammadu Buhari finally gave the hint that he would run for a second term in office. The governor had said [...]
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has no one but itself to blame for the back-and-forth with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the "lists of looters" it released last week.After the bazaar of the Jonathan era, that there’s any argument at all about who was named or omitted in the lists of who-stole-what, is a sign of how badly President [...]
For a government that has swallowed more than it can digest, last week’s extra portion from Bill Gates and TY Danjuma worsened its constipation.If Aso Rock knew in advance what Gates was going to say, it’s doubtful if the government would have organised an extraordinary meeting of the National Economic Council to hear it, however delicately expressed.Almost one year today [...]
It’s like a tale from fish-wifery told by moonlight: how Boko Haram entered a Nigerian town as villains, kidnapped dozens of schoolgirls, and 32 days later returned them to the same town as heroes with flags waving and crowds cheering and not a single Nigerian soldier in sight.Amend the last part. The soldiers who were in sight were present to [...]
The exit of Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson from office in January at the end of her second term as Liberian president left Ameenah Gurib-Fakim as the last African woman president standing.In a world where women have to prove themselves even for what comes to men naturally, whatever reduces the number of women in power preserves the glass ceiling.After Sirleaf-Johnson’s exit, I feared [...]
It was the other way round. Just three years ago, my friend and publisher of the Ghanaian Chronicle, Kofi Coomson, had almost given up on Ghana. He wanted to move.After only one term, John Mahama’s government had brought the country to the brink and Ghana was, once again, near its second major wave of emigration after the first in [...]
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