Olaniran News Network ONN

Ademola Adeleke  At the mention of democracy, what easily comes to mind is the fact that it is a system that places the power to decide leadership on the people. But the experience of the people of Osun state has been the entire opposite of this enticing feature that endears people to democracy. Politicians who fail to get the mandate of the people seem to have found a way to use the court to impose themselves power. The most recent instance of such a repressive approach is the Justice T.A. Kume led Election Petition Tribunal decision that waved aside the will of the people for a different choice. In the majority judgment read by Justice Kume, the panel made a sweeping attack on the power of the people to choose their leaders as envisaged by the democracy. The judgment was a clear indication that the law court is now an abode for politicians rejected at the ballot to sneak into power. Before now, violence and manipulations are the tools for politicians to force their way to power, but

   They call them names: Zombidients, Obidiots, name it but they hold on tenaciously to what they believe in. The Obidient Movement is a movement named after Mr Peter Obi, a Nigerian presidential candidate of the Labour Party who has come to disrupt the Nigerian political space in a manner never seen before. In asserting himself, Peter Obi, a former member of the opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and a running mate to the party’s presidential flag bearer, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the 2019 election broke away from the usual tradition of servitude to emerge the candidate of a fast growing political party, the Labour Party. Peter Obi, well known for prudent management of resources became the darling of a mass movement, the Obidient Movement. The movement is growing at an astronomical pace that it has sent jitters into the camps of the two front-running major parties: The All Peoples Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). The election that either of the

Peter Obi  In agreement to the primacy of gratitude among human virtues, please allow me to begin today with words of gratitude. I am most grateful to Chatham House, Dr. Alex Vines and his team for the global impact of their mission and commitment to engagement with Nation building in Nigeria. In providing this global platform to interrogate the vision of those seeking to lead Nigeria, at this time when clear existential threats as I will discuss shortly are pervasive across our dear country, this Chatham House event challenges us to new thinking. We have alarming insecurity that has led to loss of many lives and properties, significant decline in food and economic output, immense trauma that has compromised the mental health of communities, and in some cases, irredentist pressures and disaffection with the Nigerian project. The economy is in crisis with a troubling debt profile worsened by oil theft of proportion once hard to even imagine, two economic recessions in six years and a la

        By the law setting up the Nigeria Police Force, the officers and men are meant to primarily maintain law and order in the country. Specifically, they are to provide security and protection for the civilian population. At a point in history, they discharged this responsibility so well that the country was substantially safe for all and Nigerians were proud of their police force. In fact, on the international plain, they earned accolades and laurels from time to time in peacekeeping operations and other assignments. However, with the incursion of the military into the country’s governance, the Nigeria Police Force gradually started losing its potency and relevance. Part of the reasons accountable for the ugly trend was the deliberate act of the military rulers to amputate the police in order to forestall any threat to its rulership. Consequently, appropriation to the Nigeria Police Force started dwindling and funds for weapons, recruitment and capacity-building, among others, bec