Election Fever (The Senate vs The Executive)

They are the quintessential power couple in Nigeria; The Senate President Bukola Saraki is one of the foremost contenders for the presidency in the 2019 general elections, should President Muhammadu Buhari not seek a second term. Being a medical doctor by profession, conservations with Saraki about the government usually points towards his forthright perspective on economic stratagem, based on his own experience. Skeptical about state-owned enterprises, Saraki argues the government could use proceeds from the sales of Oil and Gas assets to boost critical health and education budgets as well as supporting investment in growth areas such as agriculture production and processing.

During the years of military rule Saraki qualified as a medical doctor at London’s Kings College and practiced then and there for a couple of years before returning to Nigeria to take charge of the family’s holdings, comprising of Pharmaceuticals, Banking, Real Estate and Trading Conglomerates. In the advent of Democratic rule in 1999, the then President of Nigeria, President Olusegun  Obasanjo, sought out for young technocrats in business to help shape the new government, hence Saraki  was brought in as a budget adviser in the Presidency. He was entangled in the political arena, fighting battles around the presidency and the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP). An aggregate of a high-powered government connections, business acumen and backing from his father, a political Titan in the region, help Saraki win two terms as a governor in the state of Kwara, Nigeria.

That skyrocketed him into the top political “cream de la cream” in the country. But it earned him several adversaries, in which the Saraki family has a substantial stake, had its operational license suspended in 2007 after conceding heavy losses. Saraki fought back strongly, establishing a reputation as a canny political operator, first as the mastermind of the Governor’s Forum, and in 2013, tag-teaming with his “jolly fellow”, Rotimi Amaechi, the then governor of Rivers State, to set up a new opposition party, the All Progressive Party (APC) in alliance with the present “democratic dictator” in the person of President Muhammadu Buhari. Elected Senate President in 2015, Saraki is again showing political imagination, as his political honeymoon with President Buhari turned sour overnight, Saraki has ultimately gone back to sought out for an Umbrella shade of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) like the biblical prodigal son to forestall is political ambitions of becoming the number one citizen of the country against which President Buhari’s second term is at stake.

On the other hand for President Muhammadu Buhari, 2019 general elections will be a test of his political life. What happens during the general elections will determine both his legacy and his next move. Two task conquers his so called elections agenda; combating corruption to forestall the already destroyed Image of the Nigerian Nation and re-organizing the armed forces that are struggling to curtail insurgency in the north. A reflective and timid man, 75-year-old Buhari is the antithesis of the gambler, but he nonetheless will throw the dice in 2019, i.e. he will push ahead on full steam with big spending policies particularly geared towards his political campaign come 2019. He has envisaged the biggest budget, some $29bn in Nigeria’s history and plans to borrow at least $7.5bn to finance new projects.

For the mean time his health looked restored after about 20 months of treatment, Buhari faces the challenge of a lifetime. He has to turn around a government that was drowning in its first two years in power. It is utmost that before the year runs out, Buhari would have solidified his decision whether to run for a second term in elections due in the first quarter of 2019.  Buhari remains a hero in most part of northern Nigeria, especially his home state of Katsina and a nightmare to the rest of the nation. Yet for northern Nigeria there are still questions on security. With “Lip Service” the Islamic Sect (Boko-Haram) have been driven of their domain in the Sambisa Forest, but the Organization still launches deadly attacks on mosques and open marketplaces. The Nigerian army has been push to its brinks but it is still plagued with internal rivalries and fight over arms deals.

In the south Buhari is perceived differently, will he be able to fire up the economy of Lagos, the country’s and West Africa’s commercial power house? And in the Niger-Delta, can he be taken seriously as a peacemaker? The minister of state for petroleum and Vice-President Yemi Osibanjo have been in romance with the militants there, but they seem to have patched up old system, not broken the jinx. Buhari will struggled to win the assurance of the South-East, plagued by calls for secession by the so called Indigenous People of Biafra Movement. In most cases the South-East have no time for secessionist talk but argue their region has been marginalized by the government in Abuja. With more growing doubts about President Buhari, he will have to dig deep for votes much more energetically in the South-East and the Niger-Delta.

“He who thinks he is leading and has no one following him, is only taking a walk”

One of Africa's Greats

The "Politricks" of Democracy

One would envisage that democracy as it is often labelled, “A government of the people, By the People and For the people” in other words a rѐspublica, or republic from the Latin rѐs, meaning thing or affair, and pŭblicus or pŭblica, meaning public –thus, a republic was a thing that belong to the Roman people, the populus romanus which the renowned politician in the name of Abraham Lincoln were he didn’t mince words, gave his Gettysburg address that isn’t even a full manuscript long, yet it still manages to declare that the United States, not the divided states of the Civil War, will not crumble. And if anyone tries to bring it down, Honest Abe will chop their heads off with an axe. Abraham Lincoln wasn’t farfetched from the truth as to what the Romans practiced immediately after the Hellenistic era, If we are to journey back into the times of the great Roman Emperor of Gaius Julius Caesar, who rose to become a dominant power in the Roman Republic because of his accomplishments during the Gallic wars, his populist and authoritarian approach earned him so many enemies that began to conspire against him which led to his demise.

The Romans practiced democracy on political structure so complex and idiosyncratic that later democratic leaders chose not to emulate, they used not only an extremely powerful senate but also four assemblies and was composed of 30 curiae, or local groups, drawn from three tribes. Not until the 17th century democratic theorist and political leaderships largely ignored the possibility that a legislature might consist neither of the entire body of citizens, as in Greece and Rome, nor of representative chosen by and from a tiny Oligarchy of hereditary aristocracy. Even in the middle ages local assemblies developed into self-governing cantons, leading eventually to the founding of the Swiss Confederation in the 13th century by the local assemblies of the Vikings were meetings were held in many areas of Scandinavia. Eventually the Vikings realized that to deal with certain larger problems they needed more-inclusive associations, and in the icy regions of the Scandinavia, assemblies developed and they created the example of what today would be called a national assembly, Legislature or Parliament “The Althing’.

As of today in most nations of the globe, most especially Africa, Democracy in its true sense has been bastardized to mean a thing of ridicule of which was supposed to be an aristocratic institution with honorable men, men of competence. Today it is a game of inter-switching political parties when the populist is no longer favoured. There can be a pinched of a case study from the present political quagmire plaguing the Nigerian state, whereby the incumbent leadership of the Nigerian Ship has become very docile and ineffective to the populace and members of the opposition have resorted to defection from the ruling national political party in the believe that it was going to be rosy all through the dispensation but the reverse has been the case and they have been stuck between the Devil and The Deep Blue Sea with no feasible plan forthcoming other than feed back from their vomit. The mass defection has swopped through like a Tsunami that no one seems to have a definite agenda to the future of Nigeria as a nation. the present political dispensation in all sense have failed to enact majority of its campaign manifestos, even the basic amenities of life that was specifically hammered-on before election cannot even live up to its billings, the Power supply have gone from epileptic to a state of nihilism, the spate of insecurity and pockets of restiveness in the country has gone through the roof, were macro-economic policies cannot work, were there’s always a clamour for separatism, these are some of the paradigms of leadership failure.

The fundamental objectives and directive principle of the state policy of the Nigerian Constitution should be given a candid review and not made to favour the aristocrats but the common populace, The Great Roman Empire survived more than four hundred years of stronghold rule with transparency, steadfastness and a political will that made its immortality second to none and a model for the present day governance, “An army of sheep led by a lion can defeat an army of lions led by a sheep”

The Nomadic "Killer Tribe" Of West Africa

In a contextual description, the word nomad originated in the Middle Ages, French nomade, from Latin Nomas (genitive Nomadis) ‘wandering group in Arabia” from Greek nomas (genitive nomados, plural nomads) ‘roaming, roving, wandering” (to find pastures for flocks or herds), related to nomos “pasture, pasturage, grazing,” literally “land allotted’ from PIE root *nem- ‘assign,allot; take.’

That of course translates to the modern usage of the term which describes the Fula people or otherwise known as the Fulani tribe of the Sahel Savanna of West Africa. Their tribal lineage span across the across the West African Axis down to the Futa Djellon and owing their roots to the Middle East, they are known specifically for livestock grazing and pastoral farming as a source of livelihood through ages, where some of them were captives of the slave trade era. The Fulas consider themselves as forerunners of agriculture in Africa, specifically West Africa, where some of the descendants have held strategic positions in modern times, an example of such include the current president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, the president of Senegal, Macky Sall and the vice president of Sierra Leon, Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh. The fula people have been an integration with the Niger area for some donkey years before the genesis of the sovereign state of Nigeria whom have co-existed peacefully with the Niger-Congo tribes overtime, but since the advent of the Nigerian Leader in the person of President Muhammadu Buhari in the democratic dispensation, activities of the fula people became vivid as an opportunity to reenact their traditional agendas of dominance.

In the past cattle grazers were mostly restricted to their immediate environment, as time went on they extended their tentacles to other neighbouring environments which caused severe chaotic strains and encroachment on private lands and properties. Of recent, the Fula tribe in Nigeria otherwise known as the Fulanis have become known for their notoriety of hijacking farmlands and disturbing the peace of various habitations in the Nigeria, there have been countless number of times of committing acts of brigandage and murder on innocent and defenseless people of their various communities across Nigeria. There have been numerous calls to checkmate their evil and nefarious trends going on but have all fallen on deaf ears of the government of President Muhammadu Buhar and co., one could envisage that  nepotism is a greater evil than corruption which can severely damage the coexistence and lead to the breakdown of any given society or group.

The Nomadic Killer Tribe of the Fula people are alien to the Niger-Congo Area of West Africa, they have been mollycoddled by the current Nigerian democratic regime and have enjoyed preferential treatment at the detriment of defenseless tribes been murdered and wiped out, which could be regarded as a crime of ethnic cleansing to their adopted land. It is said that “Justice delayed is Justice denied” if assiduity is not given to the current trend of vandalism and carnage being bestowed on innocent lives across the Nigerian state is not confronted, all hell should break lose because a goat pushed to the wall will retaliate accordingly.

The Sovereign state of Nigeria is owned by the predominate settlers with rich cultures and livelihood, not the vagabonds of the times. “Desperate times calls for desperate measures.