To probe corruption: Buhari’s dilemma

Also published in Daily Trust

As President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari prepares to assume the presidency in a few weeks’ time, many Nigerians increasingly expect him to launch exhaustive probes into particularly the most staggering cases of corruption involving some top current and former government officials and subject them to appropriate judicial prosecution processes to be convicted hence compelled to return the public resources they misappropriated and eventually face appropriate punishments accordingly. 

Nigerians have rightly emphasized the imperative of extensive corruption probe as the only means to expose and eventually stop the persistent acts of systematic thievery and misappropriation of public resources in the country. They therefore now apparently count on Buhari’s intolerance of corruption and credibility to see that happen. This is even though his responses to the various questions of whether or not he will take these steps have so far been largely too ambiguous to provide a definite answer.

Lest another ‘PDP’ evolve

Also published in Daily Trust

For the sake of clarity, I put the Peoples Democratic Party’s acronym in inverted commas to highlight the differences between the PDP as a political party theoretically defined by its official name and manifesto, on one hand, and the de facto ‘PDP’, which could be defined as a political attitude and practice characterized by sheer obsession with power and insistence on clinging to it by hook or by crook, on the other.

Basically, there is nothing wrong with the former i.e. the PDP in theory, however since the latter i.e. the de facto ‘PDP’ has actually overshadowed the theoretical PDP, I approach the issue that way to address it accordingly.

Now that the 2015 elections are mostly over and the widespread euphoria prompted by the dramatic fall of the hitherto seemingly unconquerable Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) continues to subside for the time being pending the inauguration of the incoming federal and most of the state governments when the euphoria definitely resumes, there are justifiable worries that, the persistent decline, and in some cases, the virtual eradication of the PDP and the unprecedented wave of defection from it to the victorious All Progressives Congress (APC) may, unless utmost care is taken, create yet another ‘PDP’ albeit  in disguise.

As Kano decides….

Also published in Daily Trust

A fortnight ago we looked forward to seeing who would win the fiercely contested presidential election between the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari, while the parliamentary elections conducted simultaneously with the presidential election added to the unprecedented political hustle and bustle in the country.

Now that the presidential election is over, our attention has shifted to the gubernatorial and state assembly elections, which take place tomorrow. Also unlike during the presidential election, our concentrations now largely and predictably focus on the local politics within our respective states.

It is in light of this that this column today focuses on the politics of my home state, Kano especially as it relates to the gubernatorial election and the two main contenders i.e. Malam Salihu Sagir Takai of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The power of willpower

Also published in Daily Trust

Before I comment on Muhammdu Buhari’s election victory in the recently concluded presidential election, which signified the triumph of the collective willpower of the electorate over the power of incumbency, I would like to comment on a similar willpower, which the outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan had unpredictably summoned up, which also enabled him to conquer his own pride and concede defeat in the election even before the final vote tally was officially announced, of course after it had become obvious that he was unavoidably losing it.

Like the majority of Nigerians, I rejoiced at President Jonathan’s election defeat; in fact I had admittedly decided to write this column gloatingly about his defeat in view of the sheer amount of his frantic efforts to cling to power after 29 May 2015. I however changed my mind following his surprising display of sense of responsibility (in this regard) by conceding defeat and congratulating his political rival, Muhammadu Buhari for winning the election.