The Cancer Is Spreading By Abba Mahmood

As a reminder, our issue with this Senate leadership is the fact that it came to office using fraudulent Senate Rules, and only 47 out of 109 Senators were in attendance on June 9 2015 when the so-called election of Senate leaders took place. The ruling APC which has a majority did not produce the Deputy Senate President too. To make matters worse, Bukola Saraki who heads the Senate has a lot of moral, ethical and legal cases that are yet to be answered. Yet he is behaving as if he is a co-President or even a super President of Nigeria. Meanwhile, time and opportunity are being wasted.
The consequences are there for all to see: a respected institution like the Senate has been reduced to fighting the personal battles of its illegitimate leadership. It has been effectively used to checkmate many good things for Nigeria. The presidency is divided; government agencies are divided; the

The Political Permutations Towards 2019 (II) By Abba Mahmood

For the first time since independence, the Igbo of the south east voted themselves out of the centre. Regardless of which party they followed, they always find a way of aligning to the centre – the NCNC/NPC coalition in the first republic and the NPN/NPP accord of the second republic. Being himself partly Igbo, President Jonathan got the total support of the Igbo and when he was defeated in the 2015 presidential election they suddenly found themselves in opposition, and they are not used to opposition. It was thus a matter of

From Bipolar To Unipolar And Now Tripolar World by Abba Mahmood

After the Second World War, the United States of America (USA) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) emerged as the two superpowers in the world. From the Red and White Kingdoms of the Nile Civilization, there have always been two superpowers in the world. One would be politically/ideologically powerful while the other would be economically strong, all through history. So it happened that the US-led capitalist camp became economically dominant while socialism/communism ideology of the Soviet bloc was

AU: The Decline Of Nigeria And The Eclipse Of Africa by Abba Mahmood

Perhaps no other issue has shown the glaring decline of Nigeria’s foreign policy and reduced international prestige than the just concluded African Union (AU) elections, this week in Addis Ababa. Nigeria was occupying the AU Political Affairs Commissionership during the administration of Dr. Nkosazana Zuma, Ambassador Dr. Aisha Abdullahi was the Commissioner, who won the election five years due to her personal merit as well as the influence of her country, Nigeria, then. Instead of contesting for the same position this year, Nigeria opted to contest for the Peace and Security Commissioner (PSC) this time. The PSC has been occupied by

The Contemporary Nigerian Politician by Abba Mahmood

One of the major requirements of the contemporary Nigerian politician is to have money. After all, Saddam Hussein once said that if one cannot be corrupted with money, one can be corrupted with too much money. In other words, everyone is assumed to have a price, and if the price is right he or she can be bought. While there are many who acquire money through legitimate means, some acquire money through petty stealing or armed robbery. Others get money through practicing fetish things. Yet others get it via stealing from public/government sources. By hook or crook the aspiring politician has to get money and if he does not have any of his own then he has to surrender to godfathers who have the money to

The Wood Will Never Be Crocodile by Abba Mahmood

Of all the political parties formed in Nigeria by the first-generation leaders, the National Council for Nigeria and Cameroons, later National Council for Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) first led by Herbert Macaulay, and later Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, was the most national. All the others were regional parties and had no pretence about it. Dr. Azikiwe, popularly known as Zik, can rightly claim to be the first Nigerian leader in the true sense of the word. Born in Zungeru in the North, educated in the West and having parents from the East, Zik belonged to all parts of Nigeria. The rest of the first republic politicians were practically local champions who did not have this much connections across the country, but subsequently became national leaders.

Abu Najakku’s Advice by Abba Mahmood

Abba Mahmood

Abu Najakku is one of my favourite columnists. He writes for Daily Trust newspaper. I read one of his pieces entitled “Buhari doesn’t need to be ‘smart’ “ which I want to share with you my dear readers. Happy reading:

Abimbola Adelakun, a columnist for the PUNCH newspaper, has a lot of misgivings about people giving credit to President Muhammadu Buhari for the little turnaround in our national fortunes, whether in terms of increased electricity supply or rising foreign reserves or the fight against corruption or Boko Haram.

Both before and after the election, Adelakun had been one of the most painstaking critics of the Buhari candidacy and now, the Buhari Presidency. Apart from her pretty-looking prose, Adelakun has continually drawn attention to the possible gaps between the Nigerian problems and Buhari’s (lack of) understanding of them or the capacity to solve them; the contradictions of “change” as the mantra of the All Progressives Congress and how Buhari is an unfit representation of that change. She wonders how a political party that professes change could field an old

The Rejected Stone… By Abba Mahmood

Abba Mahmood

Exactly 30 years ago today, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida overthrew General Muhammadu Buhari in what came to be known as a palace coup. I remember I was visiting an Emir and overheard the discussion about that morning’s announcement by Gen. Joshua Nimyel Dongonyaro, and one of the palace guards, a funny old man, was telling the Emir that the Buhari he saw did not have the stomach to finish even a N1 plate of food and so he didn’t think they would accuse him of “eating money.” And it was true: even those who overthrew him did not mention corruption as one of their reasons