Headline

Opinion: The Road to Babylon

Published

8 years ago

June 5, 2018

Eric

By Reuben Abati

Nigeria is on the road to Babylon: a place of confusion. Three years ago, the people were convinced that they had found a messiah who will lead them to the Promised Land, and meet all their expectations. Today, everyone is speaking in different tongues; “turning and turning in the widening gyre…the falcon cannot hear the falconer… things fall apart; the centre cannot hold/Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world/The blood-doomed tide is loosed, and everywhere/the ceremony of innocence is drowned…surely, some revelation is at hand…” But just may be, there is still, no cause for despair. The good thing about democracy is that it teaches people lessons – ask them in Malaysia and the United States – and even when the people refuse stubbornly to learn – ask them in Syria, Venezuela, and Libya – the lessons exist nonetheless. But it is a very bad thing not just for democracy but the entire society when the leadership elite ignores apparent lessons and fails the people.

About 23 years ago, we did a series of editorials titled “To save Nigeria.” As our country continues on a journey towards Babylon, such editorials may again be necessary. The pity is that those who are in charge at the centre do not seem to understand this. I once wrote that persons who wield power like a whip – a dated military strategy – that is completely out of place today in a democracy, have surrounded and “captured” President Muhammadu Buhari. But as we can see, their strategy of alienation has failed. This is the biggest challenge facing this government. Each time their strategy fails them; their standard response is to say that the President is not “aware” of whatever transpired. They have been so adept in selling this line to the boss, that the President himself once declared publicly that he was not aware that his Inspector-General of Police ignored, perhaps modified, or changed his instructions and went on a frolic of his own.

Things have not only gotten worse since then, the entire country is in a state of shock, and I won’t be surprised if a funny character shows up before this week runs out to tell us, again, that President Muhammadu Buhari is not aware that the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, the Chairman of the 8^th Assembly has been summoned to appear before the Nigeria Police under the authority of the same Inspector-General of Police who has been having a running battle with the National Assembly and its members – first Senator Isa Misau, then Senator Dino Melaye and now Senator Bukola Saraki. It doesn’t take much intelligence to figure out the script: what has happened between the Senate and the office of the Inspector General of Police is much less about the personalities involved but a lot more about the intra-governmental and intra-party crisis that continues to pose a threat to the Buhari government.

No other government in recent times has been this divided and suicidal. I won’t be surprised anyway if some vocal, genetic trouble-makers on social media (specially made in Nigeria since 2015) argue otherwise but let the point be made that President Buhari’s problems have all been self-inflicted, and his loss of favour within and outside government and the party have been due largely to the saboteurs within.

And if indeed President Buhari is not suffering from what Nigerians call “home trouble”, let someone explain to me why the EFCC is fighting the Department of State Security and the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, why the woman who sees the President first thing in the morning and last minute at night inside “the other room” is fighting a so-called cabal and has had cause to chide her husband publicly, why the legislative arm of government has been systematically sabotaging the Executive arm of government and vice versa, why the security agencies have been busy making enemies for President Buhari, and why the judiciary behaves like a frustrated arm of government, and civil servants have had to condemn the government they should serve as obedient servants. I believe that the chickens have now come home to roost with the latest attack on Senate President Bukola Saraki. The drama has reached its climax.

The Inspector-General of Police has summoned Saraki. It is pubic knowledge that this same public officer, Ibrahim Idris, publicly shunned the Senate when he was asked to appear before it. Now, exploiting the powers of his office as the country’s chief police officer, he has declared that Bukola Saraki has a case to answer at the police station in a typical my-Mercedes-is-bigger-than-yours fashion, or for the benefit of those who will remember, if you Tarka-me-I-will-Daboh-you. Senate President Bukola Saraki has been called a thief by this administration. He is now being indicted as the Godfather of Offa Armed Robbers. When a government advertises its No. 3 citizen as a thief and an armed robber, whatever happens, it is the country that loses at the end of the day. It is good news that Saraki has agreed to appear before the police to clear his name. It is also good news – coming in as I write – that someone with some grey matter has quickly intervened and introduced a face-saving measure to wit: Saraki no longer has to go the police, instead, the police will go to him and take his statement.

Before that spoilsport intervention, I was already imagining very ugly optics. Imagine: Saraki would have gone to the Police in Abuja with about two-thirds of the National Assembly of Nigeria in tow. Dino Melaye would have led the pack and organize placards. He and the dancing Senator Adeleke could have added a special dance and song to create colour and tragic melodrama. Without knowing it, the Inspector-General of Police would have created a popularity contest between Saraki and Buhari and between the Executive and Legislative arms of the Nigerian government. In the eyes of the world, that will amount to a serious crisis in Nigeria. So, how does the public disgrace of Senator Saraki help us as a country, or Buhari as President?

Somehow, despite the last minute adjustments, President Buhari’s managers have turned almost the entire National Assembly against him. The Speaker of the House of Representatives who has been so far supportive has also been alienated. The days ahead will not only be very interesting with the do-me-I-do-you tango that has been initiated at the highest levels of this government, the developments will have serious implications for the politics of the 2019 elections.

The Executive arm of government, for sure, has alienated the Federal legislature; it has similarly done the same to the judiciary. The humiliation of judges and lawyers was meant to be part of the war against corruption by the Buhari administration but the selective nature of that assault on the judiciary, and the brazen disregard for the rule of law, has left the entire establishment bruised. Not even under the military were the Bar and the Bench so badly treated. It is obvious that the judiciary is beginning to take its pound of flesh especially at the appellate courts. What kind of government would go out of its way to alienate other arms of government?

The media is the fourth estate of the realm. It has not been spared either. In three years, the Buhari government has managed to intimidate, harass and frustrate the Nigerian media, including freedom of expression on the social media. The relationship between this strategic institution and the government of the day has been propelled more by fear and caution rather than respect. Those media houses that used to be very aggressive under the previous administration have gone into a sit down and look mode. I can reveal for free that although a few sections of the Nigerian media are beginning to crawl out of their shells, the prevailing attitude is rooted in the belief that the media will always have the last say, and what we have is a media establishment that is waiting for the right time to take its own pound of flesh. Obviously, nobody is thinking of President Buhari’s legacy and how it will be remembered. “Making Enemies for the President: How President Buhari Won and Wasted the Presidency” would probably be an appropriate title for a future book.

Just imagine the number of enemies that have been made, and how the number increases almost weekly. Do these guys really want a second term? In 2015, the likes of Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who had contested against President Buhari during the primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC) ate the humble pie and supported him. Today, Atiku has left the APC. He is a leading critic of the same government and party that he helped to create and bring to power. Kwankwaso has been declared a persona non grata in the same state of Kano that he delivered to Buhari during the 2015 elections.

In 2015, President and elder statesman Olusegun Obasanjo wanted President Goodluck Jonathan out of Aso Rock by every means possible. He wrote letters, de-marketed the man locally and internationally and he told the whole world: anyone else but Jonathan. Three years later, Obasanjo is an unwanted guest at Aso Rock. The man he helped to bring to power has publicly dissed him. He has himself had cause to offer Buhari a compulsory reading lesson by referring him to a trilogy: My Watch written by him. Buhari’s attack dogs have warned Obasanjo to keep quiet or he would be dealt with. That is like asking for “double wahala” because Obasanjo is also obviously ready for a show-down. He is leading a Nigerian coalition whose ambition is to do in Nigeria what Mahathir Mohamad has done in Malaysia and if he succeeds, he has enough clout to do far more damage with his pen and mouth, than the entire Nigerian media.

So, who is left with President Buhari? Definitely not President Goodluck Jonathan the man who lost power to him in 2015, and who quietly and dutifully handed over, only to be harassed and hounded later. Not the army of Nigerian youths either who supported Buhari and the APC in the 2015 elections only to be dismissed as an idle and opportunistic lot. Definitely not the social media crowd that carried Buhari on its head as if he was a crate of eggs. Many are those who have since apologized openly to Jonathan and Nigerians for allowing themselves to be misled. And certainly not Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the man who corralled the entire South West into the APC alliance in 2015, and who has been rewarded with ingratitude, insults and marginalization.

His relevance in his own immediate political constituency has just been queried with the rejection of the results of the recent APC party congress in Lagos State on wait for it – constitutional grounds. The APC National Working Committee has the guts to tell Tinubu that he is a law-breaker, and if he is not careful, he too will get the Saraki treatment? Really? The same man who risked everything to make the APC possible? But he knows what is good for him though; he has been wisely quiet. The South East has since turned its back on the Buhari government. Rochas Okorocha, the pro-Buhari governor of Imo state has been shown the handwriting on the wall. Other Igbos having seen how their region was turned into a battle-field are quietly waiting for 2019, to use their voters cards in a more informed manner than they did in 2015.

So, really who is left with the Buhari government? Bukola Saraki, with all the humiliation he has received would have to be an “ogbologbo omo ale” (let some twitter trolls translate that for me), to deploy his political structures in support of Buhari in 2019. He won’t anyway. Already, his political group in the APC alliance- the nPDP has declared that it is no longer interested in any further dialogue with the APC Federal Government. They have opted out. As for Tinubu, he would have to be really naive to go before the Yoruba people in 2019 to ask that they should vote for Buhari again. Rotimi Amaechi who was a leading gladiator in 2015 is still hanging in there, but it would be most strange if he were to be seen acting as he did in 2015. Even up North, the APC is in deep crisis in Benue, Kogi, Bauchi, Kano, Adamawa, Kaduna, Taraba, Sokoto, Kebbi and elsewhere. Last week, in Oyo State, the APC lost the bye-election in Ibarapa East and the ones gloating are not PDP members but factional members of the APC! Where the APC and the Buhari government are right now is not a good place to be in the people’s reckoning.

One Jonathanian phoned me the other day and said this is the God of Jonathan at work! I told him: “I won’t talk like that, I mean: #se-o-mo-age-mi-ni”. But I made this point: that it is the dew that will certainly destroy a house made of spittle; as a man sows so he reaps, the laws of nature are constant and immutable and the ways of God are forever mysterious. Nobody is shaking the Buhari-APC table. They are the ones who have on their own removed the legs from their own table. I have said my own. If some herdsmen are looking for me, tell them I am currently in Abeokuta enjoying Iya Sunday’s amala and ogufe! But also tell them that some of the boys at this table are very angry that Buhari has increased the cost of beer, water, and “smoke”.

Headline

Parties’ Deregistration: ADC, Not NDC, is the Target

Published

20 hours ago

June 29, 2026

Eric

By Eric Elezuo

As the 2027 presidential election draws closer, intrigues, manipulations and maneuvers have continued to be the order of the day as political parties engage in one gimmick or another to outdo and undo one another.

While some are playing politics of numbers and conviction, others are engaging tendencies that tend to question the status quo and established principles under which genuine democracy is formed. As a matter of fact, fingers have been pointed at the President Bola Tinubu-led Federal government as the brain behind all machinations that have attempted to derail multi-party democracy, and institute a one-party state, which is alien to the Nigerian democratic roots. This is as a result of the constant imbroglio that has consistently engulf almost all the major political parties in the country.

Fresh facts have however, emerged to prove that every act of frustration thrown at the opposition has been indirectly aimed at the main opposition party, the African Democratic Congress (ADC), and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

According to reliable sources, the recent deregistration of parties, especially the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC), was actually targeted at the ADC.

Recall that the Federal High Court in Lokoja, Kogi State, on June, 26, set aside its earlier judgement directing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to register the NDC as a political party. A ruling that put a question mark on the eligibility of the party presenting candidates in the forthcoming 2027 elections

The presiding judge, Isah Dashen, held that all relevant parties must be heard before any substantive decision can be made in the matter.

The court upheld the application filed by a certain organization, the Peace Movement Party (PMP), ruling that the party was a necessary party to the suit.

According to the judge, the earlier judgement was constitutionally defective as it was delivered without hearing from all interested parties.

He declared that such an omission rendered the entire process null and void.

Mr Dashen further ruled that the status quo be restored to what it was before the December 10, 2025 judgement, pending the determination of the substantive suit.

He also observed that certain material facts were suppressed in the earlier proceedings, which justified the decision to set aside the judgment.

Consequently, the court ordered that the substantive suit should begin afresh, with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the PMP and the NDC as parties to the case.

According to NAN’s reports, the applicant’s lawyer, Chikezie Ekeocha, told journalists that the PMP approached the court after discovering that NDC’s registration was based on a logo it had previously submitted to INEC before the commencement of the suit.

According to Mr Ekeocha, the court agreed that the applicant’s rights had been affected and consequently vacated the earlier judgement.

“The court has ordered all parties to return to the position they occupied before the judgment of 10 December 2025, and directed the claimants to join all necessary parties to ensure the issues in dispute are effectually and completely determined,” he said.

He explained that the implication of the ruling is that every action taken by INEC in compliance with the now-vacated judgment stands reversed.

“The recognition of the NDC, the issuance of its certificate of registration, its inclusion in INEC’s records, and any appearance on ballot papers arising from that judgement must be withdrawn pending the final determination of the substantive suit,” Mr Ekeocha stated.

He, however, clarified that the substantive case remains before the court and has not been decided.

“The matter has not been concluded. The court merely set aside its previous judgment and directed that the party whose interests were affected be joined so that all sides can be heard before a fresh decision is reached.”

Mr Ekeocha also dismissed suggestions that the court merely ordered parties to maintain the status quo, insisting that the ruling specifically directed a restoration of the position that existed before the 10 December 2025 judgement.

The ruling effectively returns the dispute over the registration of the NDC to the Federal High Court for a fresh hearing, with all relevant parties expected to participate before a new determination is made.

It would also be recalled that a few weeks earlier, the Federal High Court in Abuja, had ordered the deregistration of five political parties including the African Democratic Congress (ADC). The others are Action People’s Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) and Accord Party.

However, on June 16, the Court of Appeal in Abuja halted the enforcement of the judgement, ruling that it violated its earlier ruling staying proceedings before the Federal High Court.

While INEC awaits the release of the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the judgment to deregister the NDC, the NDC has reacted, rejecting the judgment as travesty of justice.

Lending credence to the notion that the President Tinubu-led administration is basically targeting the establishment of the ADC as a party, and the candidature of its presidential flagbearer, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who is also the presidential candidate of the ADC, has stated categorically that there are plots to prevent the party from participating in the 2027 general election.

Atiku’s position is stated in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu on Monday, notifying the public that he had received credible information suggesting that political and legal manoeuvres were being deployed against the ADC, stressing that the persecution that has been thrown towards the NDC was a clear distraction as the main target is the ADC.

Atiku alleged that anti-democratic elements within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) were working to ensure that the ADC is excluded from the ballot.

“We are fully aware of their plots. While they seek to sow confusion within the opposition, we know their real target is the ADC because it represents the most credible alternative,” he said.

Atiku called on Nigerians to reject any attempt to determine which opposition parties participate in the election.

“We therefore call on all Nigerians — not just ADC members and supporters — to rise in defense of democracy and reject any attempt by the ruling party to cherry-pick which opposition parties are permitted to participate in the next general election,” he said.

“Our message to the APC and the hooded men plotting in dark chambers is simple: you may conspire, but you will not succeed.

“If the APC is truly confident in its popularity, why is it so terrified of the ADC?”

He said he hoped the information available to him would not materialise but argued that recent political developments made such concerns difficult to dismiss.

“The pattern has become all too familiar. First, institutions that ought to be neutral are drawn into partisan contests,” he said.

“Then, frivolous litigations suddenly gain unusual momentum. Administrative powers are selectively deployed.

“Political pressure is mounted behind closed doors. Before long, democracy itself becomes the casualty.”

Atiku alleged that the ruling party has focused more on weakening the opposition than addressing the country’s economic and security challenges.

“The obsession with silencing the opposition has become so consuming that governance itself has taken a back seat,” he said.

“At a time when Nigerians are battling hunger, inflation, unemployment, insecurity, and collapsing purchasing power, those entrusted with public office appear preoccupied with political survival rather than national survival.”

Nigerians recall that ever since the official rejuvenation of the ADC in June/July of 2025, where the duo of Senator David Mark and Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola emerged as the party’s chairman and secretary respectively, the party has not known moments of peaceful coexistence as litigations from corners unknown have sprang up in a bid to destabilize the party and deprive it of the opportunity of featuring on the ballot paper come 2027.

ADC, as a child of circumstance emerged from the rumbles of the litigation-ridden former main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), where two factions have consistently remelained at loggerheads over leadership. While the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, who is working assiduously to ensure the reelection of Bola Tinubu, leads one faction, Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, who became a defacto head, leads the other faction. In all, PDP appeared to have no direction, forcing many of its members to jump ship, thereby birthing the ADC, and to a large extent, the NDC, which is presenting Peter Obi as the presidential candidate, with former Kano governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, as his running mate.

Sources also informed The Boss that the hasty reading and passage of the Electoral Act 2026 by the Godswill Akpabio-led National Assembly, with many great areas left unattended to, were also part of the grand design to deprive the ADC the constitutional rights of presenting candidates for the 2027 elections.

But both the ADC and the NDC has vowed that they would follow every process to ensure that the crackdown on opposition parties by the Tinubu administration comes to an abrupt end.

But beyond the intrigues, Nigerians are gearing up to participate fully in the forthcoming election with cross sections of the population either hailing Tinubu for his policies or knocking him for the untold hardship in the land.

Headline

South Africa Nothing Without Africa – MTN Boss, Mcebisi Jonas

Published

3 days ago

June 27, 2026

Eric

The MTN Group Chairman, Mcebisi Jonas, has condemned the ongoing anti-foreigner sentiment in South Africa, describing it as a symptom of State failure being cynically exploited by politicians with no interest in genuine solutions.

The speech is seen as one of the most substantive interventions by a senior business figure into xenophobic crisis currently plaguing South Africa.

Delivered during the funeral service of Zimbabwean-born activist and public servant, Thokozani Damasane, Jonas’ words have sparked a wave of discussion across South African civil society.

“I was thinking, what is home to Damasane?” he said. “Because I understand, and I understood very early in life, that home is where humanity is. Home is about humanness. It is about the good of humanity and striving for the good of humanity.”

Thokozani Damasane was born and educated in Zimbabwe before relocating to South Africa during the post-apartheid transition period. Jonas described him as arriving “as an outcast” into a country still finding its post-liberation footing – and choosing, nonetheless, to commit himself entirely to its struggles and its people.

“He immersed himself deeply into the struggles, into the pains of South Africans, and he became one of us,” Jonas said.

“In Damasane’s strength, our strength as South Africa and South Africans is reflected. And in his weaknesses, our own weaknesses are reflected.”

Speaking further, Jonas blamed the state for the failure being witnessed, emphasising that if foreigners leave South Africa today, the country’s problems will still persist.

“Foreigners can leave tomorrow – inequality will be with us,” he told the congregation.

“Foreigners will leave tomorrow – unemployment will be with us. Foreigners will leave tomorrow – our police will remain corrupt. Foreigners will leave tomorrow – our politicians will still be concerned with one thing: being elected and re-elected.

“The problem is the failure of the state. The State doesn’t manage immigration. It doesn’t manage its borders. It doesn’t enforce
law enforcement. It doesn’t manage education. What are you expecting?”

Jonas argued that this failure created fertile ground for political manipulation. “When people feel the burn, they become vulnerable to politicians whose sole purpose is to be elected and re-elected. Some of them have no credibility whatsoever. But they lead marches and tell our people that the problem is not us – it is foreigners.”

Jonas recounted a conversation he had witnessed between Damasane and a young man who had challenged the right of foreigners to be in South Africa. Damasane’s response, Jonas said, had stayed with him ever since.

“Damasane said to this guy: Just wait fifteen or twenty years. You will also want to leave your country.”

Jonas told mourners those words now carry a weight Damasane may not have anticipated. “As I stand up today, I look at South Africa. The level of oppression and inequality, the level of exclusion of our people, the level of corruption, the betrayal of the dream of liberation – those words of Damasane ring very loud in my ears.”

South Africa is nothing without Africa

Jonas closed with a call for what he described as a return to “national consciousness” – one rooted in continental solidarity and economic interdependence rather than ethnic exclusion.

“We are a nation embedded in Africa,” he said. “And without Africa, our growth as a country – economically – our fortune is intertwined with the growth of Africa. South Africa is nothing without Africa. And Africa is nothing without South Africa.”

He also reframed the question of legacy and identity for Damasane’s children, who were present. “Sometimes this thing called meritocracy is measured in wealth. No. It is values, it is principles, it is integrity. And your father had all of that.”

“We cannot judge people by their origin,” he told mourners. “We cannot determine the legal status of people by their origin.”

Headline

NDC Rejects Court Ruling on Party’s Registration, Heads to Appeal Court

Published

3 days ago

June 27, 2026

Eric

The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), on Friday, vowed to challenge the judgment nullifying its registration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), insisting that it would exercise its constitutional right of appeal.

Reacting to the ruling on Thursday, the party’s spokesman, Osa Director, said the NDC was still awaiting the certified copy of the judgment before making a comprehensive statement on the court’s decision.

He, however, confirmed that the party had resolved to head to the appellate court.

“We are still waiting to obtain a copy of the judgment. After reading the comprehensive judgment, we will make a detailed statement,” he said.

The spokesman added: “For now, what is certain is that we will exercise our right of appeal.”

Insisting that the party would challenge the ruling, he said: “It is our constitutional right to appeal, and we intend to exercise that right.”

When asked specifically whether the NDC would appeal the judgment voiding its registration, the spokesman replied: “Yes, the party will appeal the case.”

The party’s reaction came shortly after a Federal High Court sitting in Lokoja, Kogi State, in a judgement that nullified its registration by INEC, a development that could have significant implications for the NDC’s participation in the country’s political process ahead of the 2027 general elections.

The NDC, however, maintained that it would refrain from making further comments on the substance of the judgment until it had studied the full text of the court’s decision.

The party’s planned appeal is expected to set the stage for a fresh legal battle over its status and continued existence as a registered political party.