OLU IBEKWE

A former Vice President and stalwart of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Atiku Abubakar, on Saturday disagreed with the position of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government that Boko Haram terrorists have been defeated. The Turakin Adamawa, who spoke in Yola, the Adamawa capital, at the 11th Founder’s Day Ceremony of the American University of Nigeria, AUN, averred that the terrorist group rema ined deadly. “The insurgents still occupy a specific geographical space. They (Boko Haram) still retain the capacity for occasional deadly attacks. Many citizens in the zone still remain vulnerable and live in fear,” he said. This comment seem to counter repeated claims by President Muhammadu Buhari and his Information minister, Lai Mohammed, that Boko Haram had been Technically defeated, and was no longer holding any territory in the country. In his 2016 Democracy Day speech, Buhari had insisted that the sect has been defeated, saying: “We marshaled our...

In tune with the feelings of majority of Nigerians, the Senate on Tuesday rejected the request by President Muhammadu Buhari for approval to borrow $29.9bn from international lenders. In rejecting the request, the Senate pointed out two errors that were reflected in the document received. In the first place, the Senate observed that contrary to the claims in the first paragraph of the President’s letter to the Senate, that an attachment of the draft of the borrowing plan was available, they could not find any attachment of the draft of the borrowing plan. Secondly, in the last paragraph of the same letter, the President wants the Senate to approve the borrowing plan pending when the details of the plan would be ready, a decision frowned at by the lawmakers, wondering why they will be attending to a non-existent borrowing plan in the first place. Have we forgotten so soon, how much debt the military plunged Nigeria into before Obasanjo took over in 1999? A...

OKOROCHA VERSUS IHENACHO: REVELATIONS FROM A STATE UNDER SEIGE By Mike Onuoha In the last couple of weeks, Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo state have been responding to criticisms of his administrative style in such a vehement manner that observers wonder whether it is the some fellow who once gave the impression that it didn’t matter to him what people said. But the worry actually is that his change of style is costing the state much. In a strange and bizarre style, Governor Okorocha seems to have amassed a war chest to fight his critics. This is how we knew: A few months ago, his predecessor, Chief Ikedi Ohakim, handed to him a five-page letter in which the latter urged his successor to review some of the policies of his administration that are compounding the economic and social problems currently faced by the people, he, Okorocha, is supposed to be governing. That letter got leaked to the press and some newspapers published it verbatim, some in two pages, most i...

More African countries are looking East for inspiration on how to grow and manage their economies. According to a survey by Afrobarometer, China is the second-most popular international presence on the continent, only slightly behind the United States. “China rivals the United States in influence and popularity as a development model,” the report, released today (pdf), concluded. About 30% of 56,000 people surveyed in 36 African countries ranked the US as the most popular model for national development, compared to 24% who ranked China first. However, in several regions—Southern Africa, North Africa, and Central Africa—the popularity of China’s example of state-led economic growth matched or outpaced that of the US. Several aspects of China’s rise from one of the world’s poorest countries to its second-largest economy in the span of three decades likely resonate in African countries. Agriculture is the largest employer (pdf, p. 20) in sub-Saharan Africa, but Africa...

How Poor Leadership Is Failing Africa IN his book ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’ Walter Rodney contends that Western capitalist nations developed through a process that underdeveloped African nations. It is true that the relationship between the colonies and their colonizers was nothing but parasitic. Economic wealth was transferred from the colonies to the colonizers. Thus I can safely argue that Western imperial powers set the stage for Africa’s underdevelopment. But being an African, to continue blaming Western powers for under developing Africa decades after most countries have gained independence, is simply failure to take responsibility. This is not to discount the continued negative effects of imperialism and neo-colonialism, but a sheer understanding that for us to turn things around we must take responsibility for own actions. We must ask ourselves tough questions, and provide brutally honest answers. We cannot keep blaming these imperial powers ...

With the advent of independence in 1966, Botswana did not have an attractive future by any standard. With a per capita income of $70, 12 km of paved road and a GDP dependent largely on agricultural exports, the country was on a socio-economic death row. However, with changes following the discovery of diamonds in the sub-Saharan country, it rose to become the antithesis of most countries in Africa. This has led to its marked development and stability over a period of over 4 decades. According to an article by Michael Lewin, Botswana had 7,000 kilometers of paved roads, and per capita income had risen to about $6,100 ($12,000 at purchasing power parity) by 2007, making the Southern African powerhouse an upper middle- income country comparable to Chile or Argentina. Its success is also evident in other measures of human development. At independence, life expectancy at birth was just 37 years. By 1990 it was an impressive 60, 10 years above the African average. ...

This is clearly a commendable lesson in grace that African leaders, Nigerian politicians in particular, can emulate.