Category: Opinion - Page 2 - African News Today

19Mar

By Obiajulu Joel NwoluNo Comments

News, Nigeria

We Are All Together – Femi Adesina

Those who are younger than 55 or thereabouts may not easily get the joke in the expression, ‘We are all together,’ which I’ve chosen as the headline of this piece today. The event happened 45 years ago in the country. A drunken military officer, Lt Col Buka Suka Dimka, led a military coup in which the then head of state, Gen Murtala Ramat Muhammed, was killed. He then proceeded to Radio Nigeria, made a rambling broadcast, which he concluded thus: “Everyone should be calm. Please stay by your radio for further announcements. All borders, air and seaports are closed until further notice. Curfew is imposed from 6 am to 6 pm. Thank you. We are all together.” Dimka was so uncoordinated, possibly tipsy and inebriated, that he declared a curfew from 6 am to 6 pm, instead of the other way...

My $1.9 Billion in Minnesota Bank – Femi Adesina

26Feb

By Obiajulu Joel NwoluNo Comments

Corruption, News, Nigeria

My $1.9 Billion in Minnesota Bank – Femi Adesina

Let’s have a comic diversion today from weightier matters of our national life. Because what I want to discuss can only be comic, if not also idiotic and otiose. Yes, you read the headline right. The money I allegedly stashed at a bank in Minnesota, United States of America. Not millions of dollars. But billions. $1.9 billion. Holy Moses! This misinformation, disinformation and hate speech first came out in 2016, about one year into my stint in government. Before then, I had been enjoying my work as a journalist and newspaper manager, in what I considered a comfort zone, never sparing a thought for service in government. And then, the offer to serve President Muhammadu Buhari came. Of course, I would follow him from Cape to Cairo, from Sambisa to anywhere. So I accepted. Goodbye anon...

Nigeria 1999 Constitution Deceit: Lawyers, Pastors and Priests – Unmute Yourselves!

18Nov

By Ndidi Uwechue1 Comment

Human Rights, Justice, News, Nigeria, United Nations

Nigeria 1999 Constitution Deceit: Lawyers, Pastors and Priests – Unmute Yourselves!

18th November 2020 As the end of 2020 approaches, needless to say Africa, and notably Nigeria will not achieve the African Union (AU) pledge set in 2013, “not to bequeath the burden of conflict to the next generation of Africans and undertake to end all wars by 2020.” Silencing the Guns in Africa is a chief initiative of the AU’s Agenda 2063, but it seems that Nigeria has chosen to go in the opposite direction for conflicts escalate, weapons proliferate, injustice increases. Whether one is a Unionist or a Non-Unionist* it is becoming clear that Nigeria is going to be reconfigured through the Union being reviewed. The reason being found in the defective social contract that Nigeria operates. Its 1999 Constitution was not only imposed upon the people, but is a prove...

Opinion: The “Terrorists” of IPOB – Femi Fani-Kayode

2Nov

By Obiajulu Joel NwoluNo Comments

News, Nigeria

Opinion: The “Terrorists” of IPOB – Femi Fani-Kayode

I watched my brother Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s interview with my brother Chief Dele Momodu on Thursday evening and I was inspired and encouraged. Nnamdi spoke with such eloquence, passion, courage and strength. He is brilliant and irrepressible. He cannot be underestimated or ignored. Every African should listen to that interview. He cleared a lot of misconceptions about himself and made his position clear on so many issues. Most important of all is the fact that he had the decency and humility to tender his regrets and apologies where he may have got things wrong. That is the mark of a great leader. President Muhammadu Buhari I have loved and trusted him dearly ever since the first day we met and spoke for 3 hours when we were both incarcerated at Kuje prison in 2016. From the firs...

Nigeria: Referendum By Ethnic Nationalities Not Restructuring

22Oct

By Ndidi UwechueNo Comments

Human Rights, News, Nigeria, United Nations

Nigeria: Referendum By Ethnic Nationalities Not Restructuring

So here we are. Sixty years after Independence we are the world’s poorest Black nation. Quoting from Borgen Magazine in August 2020, “Nigeria, a third world country in Africa, is known as the poverty capital of the world. The nation just exceeded India with the largest rate of people living in extreme poverty. In Nigeria, about 86.9 million people live in severe poverty, which is about 50% of its entire population….the nation is failing at lowering the rates of poverty. This is partly due to the mismanagement of the oil business and the presence of corruption. Along with this, the nation is going through a “population boom,” which will make managing poverty rates more difficult. One of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals is to end extreme poverty by 2050. However, Nigeria’s poverty ra...

Inside Story: How Plainclothes Policemen Wounded, Abandoned a Commercial Motorcyclist in Kubwa, Abuja

19Oct

By Obiajulu Joel NwoluNo Comments

News, Nigeria, Safety, Security, Youths

Inside Story: How Plainclothes Policemen Wounded, Abandoned a Commercial Motorcyclist in Kubwa, Abuja

At a time when thousands of youths have taken to the streets to protest police brutality and alleged extrajudicial killings of the now-disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), it appears the infamous unit does not have autonomy of dishing out violence to the citizens it ought to protect. African News Today has gathered a story of how men of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), in plainclothes, chased a commercial motorcyclist popularly known as "okada" into a life-threatening road accident that led to severe injuries in Shelter Farm Byazhin, Kubwa, a suburb in Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, last week. The FCT administration had announced a ban on okada in Kubwa area due to alleged reckless driving and reported cases of some heinous activities allege...

16Oct

By Obiajulu Joel NwoluNo Comments

News, Nigeria

An Enemy of the People – Femi Adesina

For well over one week, the polity has been suffused with what President Muhammadu Buhari describes as “genuine concerns and agitations by Nigerians about the excessive use of force and in some cases extra-judicial killings and wrongful conduct by men of the Nigeria Police Force.” And in that period of time too, I have had strident efforts being made to position me as an enemy of the people. Very serious efforts by mean people, who are simply out to generate hatred and animus against other people, for no other reason than Luciferous and pernicious feeling of smug satisfaction. As a year two undergraduate at the then University of Ife in 1982, one of the texts recommended for us in English Literature class was Enemy of the Public by the Norwegian writer, Henrik Ibsen. I remember...

Opinion: Buhari Goes Rail-Wire Says Femi Adesina

2Oct

By Obiajulu Joel NwoluNo Comments

News, Nigeria, Transportation

Opinion: Buhari Goes Rail-Wire Says Femi Adesina

Have you heard the news? I’m sure you have. But just in case you haven’t, here’s the news on the hour: After 33 years, the 326 Km Itakpe-Ajaokuta-Warri Rail Line and Ancillary Facility Yard has been commissioned for commercial operation. The event came up Tuesday September 29 with President Muhammadu Buhari flagging off the project in a virtual ceremony. Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, announced that the rail project was conceived in 1987 under the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida military regime, but “underwent protracted hiccups and prolonged abandonment,” suffered massive vandalization, till it was resuscitated by the Buhari administration, completed, and now commissioned. Minister Amaechi added that the single track standard gauge railway line was built strictly...

Nigeria’s Growth Hindered by Jaded and Unworkable System – Atiku

1Oct

By Obiajulu Joel NwoluNo Comments

News, Nigeria

Nigeria’s Growth Hindered by Jaded and Unworkable System – Atiku

Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2019 general election has said that the Nigerian system hinders its growth. He made the statement in a post on his official Facebook page to mark the occasion of Nigeria’s 60th Independence. Atiku in the statement titled, “Nigeria's future depends on our commitment to a common destiny,” obtained by African News Today said that the country should not hope to continue doing the same thing with jaded and unworkable system and expect to get a remarkable result. The statement in full: Nigeria's future depends on our commitment to a common destiny. On Saturday, 26 September, 2020 in far away Abu Dhabi, Israel Adesanya, an illustrious Nigerian, who embodies the indefatigabl...

Nigeria: Indigenous People and their Right to Self-Determination

28Sep

By Ndidi UwechueNo Comments

Africa, Biafra, Human Rights, Justice, News, Nigeria, United Nations

Nigeria: Indigenous People and their Right to Self-Determination

28th September 2020 Between years 2000 and 2002, a full one-third of the states of Nigeria declared that they would be governed by Islamic Sharia. These are twelve adjoining states in the core north also known as the Arewa region. In taking up Sharia for themselves, Arewa took up their entitlement to self-determination, and were not criminalised or penalised for it. In characteristic Nigerian fashion of confusing matters, although the 1999 Constitution (Section 10) that it operates mandates that Nigeria must be a secular country, it is also known that this Constitution is a forgery, thus null and void, and invalid. Therefore could it be that Arewa simply ignored the Constitution being unwilling to keep to the demands of an illegitimate social contract? What is clear is that A...