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By   Simon Abah   Many military strategists x-ray strategies to tackle the scourge of terror which has damaged the image of Nigeria globally. It is highly commendable that President Muhammadu Buhari as stated in the past, “has absolute confidence in the ability of the Nigerian military to bring to an end the insurgency spearheaded by members of the Boko Haram sect.” But I have always believed that the military alone cannot end the war on insurgency without the support of the political benefactors of terror in the first place. In 2013, I asked a young army officer (now late) if the military can stamp out Boko Haram, he shook his head, “not with this commander-in-chief of the armed forces,” he said. Whatever that meant I didn’t bother to ask. But I know that fighting troops must respect their C-IN-C and must have the backing of same to succeed in wars prosecuted. Again, I know that a nation’s armed forces are as strong-willed as the commander-in-chief and, the mil...

By   Paul Onomuakpokpo A justification for an inevitable return of President Muhammadu Buhari to Aso Rock in 2019 has not unexpectedly accompanied the frenetic campaigns in some quarters. The president’s political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the leaders of his government reel off the epochal achievements that have validated an end to the citizens’ serial negation of his quest to occupy the presidential office. *Aisha Buhari  For them, these achievements redound to the bid for his return as a means of completing the good governance he has espoused and enthroned. And more importantly, they want the citizens to appropriate a campaign for his return as serving a purgatorial purpose – a way of discharging their obligation of gratitude to him for bringing uncommon integrity to bear on governance. Yet, these people lack the right credentials to proselytise the suitability of Buhari for re-election. Their fold lacks that authentic voice to signal the readiness of Bu...

By Reno Omokri Have you read Buhari’s Opinion Editorial in the  Church Times  of UK in which he accused his political opponents of politicising religion? If you have not, do yourself a favour and do not read it. The hypocrisy will make you want to march to Aso Rock and donate two slaps to Buhari’s face! *President Buhari  It is just annoying, and certainly hypocritical, that a man who in 2003 said ‘Muslims should only vote for those who would uphold Islam’ is now writing an Op-Ed (can Buhari write?  A consultant wrote it) asking Nigerians not to politicise religion. No man has politicised religion in Nigeria like Muhammadu Buhari! It is an insult for Buhari to claim in his consultant written Op-Ed that “Along with the millions of Christians in Nigeria today, I believe in peace, tolerance, and reconciliation”.  This is a man that threatened to “soak” his political opponents in “blood”. I blame  Church Times  for giving him a platform to lie! This is a m...

By   Paul Onomuakpokpo Aside from the occasional death of soldiers in their battle against Boko Haram, the nation is now confronted in Metele with a seeming culmination of the military’s losses to the insurgents in the north-east.  The government has often fumed at the obduracy of its traducers who instead of trumpeting the wonders of its military in Sambisa Forest have rather warned that more still needed to be done to defeat the insurgents in the light of the occasional suicide attacks on civilians and losses of two or four soldiers to the insurgents. But the recent killing of about 100 soldiers in Metele, Borno State, so shattered the charade of triumph over the insurgents that President Muhammadu Buhari had to dispatch his defence minister to Chad for more collaboration in defeating them.  Clearly, the dead soldiers deserve all the garlands for their bravery and patriotism for which they have paid the supreme price. Yet, we should not ignore the important fact that th...

By   Tony Afejuku What is the significant significance of President Muhammadu Buhari to us in contemporary Nigeria? For readers who possess a medical or psychological or religious or even chauvinistic perspective he is Mr. President, who, always in his Northern medieval-like chausses, impresses or tries to impress as an answer to the illness, to the sickness of our contemporary times. *President Buhari  For those readers with a forward-looking view he is a mere undertaker, who proffers no constructive plan to living Nigerians who are being denied living wages and fabulous education and bodily and economic health they direly need. The man has simply fluffed his three years plus pre-presidential election promises and wishes. And his new next level theory – which I won’t bother to read – will not make him the saccharine president of our dreams. His next-level wishes must enter our Nigerian psyche as those of a political and presidential homunculus.  Politically, his next-lev...

By  Reno  Omokri A most disturbing thing happened in  Nigeria . Over a period of 3 days last week, the allegedly  ‘technically defeated’  Boko Haram managed to overrun multiple military bases and reportedly killed close to a hundred Nigerian troops and carried away heavy military hardware. *President Buhari with COAS Gen Burutai  But that is not the disturbing thing that occurred. The killings were shocking, but something much more disturbing happened. The Nigerian President, who is the Commander-in-Chief of the military and who is supposed to be the most pained over these avoidable deaths had time to: *attack former President Jonathan for agreeing with Transparency International that corruption had increased in  Nigeria *attack Priti Patel for saying that Mr. Buhari’s anti-corruption war is a sham. But the President could not find time to speak on the killing of over 70 troops by Boko Haram. As I write these words, almost a week after these gruesome k...

By Dan Amor It sounds very much like an apocryphal tale. But it is true that the joke is once again on the Nigerian society. What I am saying is that Nigeria is constantly losing batches of experts to the larger world. Thousands of highly trained medical doctors and other professionals are daily departing these shores for greener pastures abroad. They are going to join millions of talented Nigerian intellectuals, academics and professionals, who had been driven out of our land by the harsh realities of our current existence. It is not a matter of profound argument or intellectual debate to say that the death of the Nigerian middle class due to equivocation and compromise has long been awaited. Yet, implicit in the very meaning of compromise as a means of harmonizing the best features of opposing values is an element of tension. And it is this unwearied straining after the ideal within the actual rather than any lame begging of issues that imparts so invigorating a tone on the social l...