Members of Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) have voted in favour of entering a coalition with Angela Merkel's conservatives.

The decision clears the way for a re-run of the "grand coalition" which has governed Germany since 2013 and hands the Chancellor a fourth term in office..

It also puts an end to five months of political uncertainty in Europe's largest economy - the longest the country has been without a government in its post-war history.

The centre-left SPD had furiously debated whether to extend the "grand coalition" for another four years after suffering a slump in last year's election.

In the end, 66 per cent of the party's 464,000 members approved a coalition deal. 

Parliament is expected to meet next week to elect Ms Merkel as chancellor, confirming her position as one of Europe's dominant politicians. 

Speaking at the SDP's headquarters iN Berlin, its acting leader Olaf Scholz said: "The vast majority of SPD members followed the party leadership's suggestion."

"We now have clarity: the SPD will join the next German government," he added.

On Saturday, Mr Scholz had said turn-out in the poll had been "very, very high" after an intense internal campaign that pitted the party's pro-coalition leadership against its more radical youth wing, which campaigned for "No".

Ms ​Merkel could be sworn in as Chancellor by mid-March.

Independent

Italians are heading to the polls today to vote in one of the most uncertain elections in years and one that could determine if Italy will succumb to the populist, Eurosceptic and far-right sentiment that has swept through Europe.

The campaign was marked by the primetime airing of neofascist rhetoric and anti-migrant violence that culminated in the shooting last month of six Africans.

The results of the vote, which are expected to be announced early on Monday, could re-establish Silvio Berlusconi, the conservative former prime minister and billionaire forced out of office in 2011 under a cloud of scandal, as the dominant force in Italian politics.

They might also reveal a surge in support for Italy’s two main populist parties, the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and the far-right La Lega, which are both Eurosceptic, anti-free trade, pro-Kremlin and opposed to mandatory vaccinations despite Italy being hit by a measles outbreak.

The centre-left, led by the former prime minister Matteo Renzi, sought on Friday to make a last-ditch appeal for moderation, calling on the significant number of undecided voters – about 30% – to “think carefully”.

While the centre-right coalition that capitalised on the anti-migrant sentiment led the polls last week, analysts predict the likeliest outcome is a hung parliament.

That will necessitate days and weeks of backroom haggling and horse trading to come up with a coalition government that can win confidence votes in parliament. Just which parties coalesce from among the three main blocs — the centre-right coalition, centre-left coalition and the Five Star Movement — will determine Italy’s course.

“It is very likely that, at the end of the day, none of these three groups will have an absolute majority and they will be forced to start talking to each other and see how to put together a coalition government,” said Franco Pavoncello, the dean of the John Cabot University in Rome.

More than 46 million Italians are eligible to vote from 7am to 11pm (6am-10pm GMT), including Italians abroad who already used postal ballots. Exit polls are expected after polls close, with projections sometime thereafter.

With unemployment at 10.8% and economic growth in the eurozone’s third-largest economy lagging the average, many Italians have all but given up hope for change. Polls indicated a third hadn’t decided or weren’t even sure they would vote.

“The situation is pretty bad,” said Paolo Mercorillo from Ragusa, Sicily, who said he had decided not to vote. “There aren’t candidates who are valid enough.”

The anti-establishment Five Star Movement hoped to capitalise on such disgust, particularly among Italy’s young, and polls indicated the grassroots movement launched in 2009 by comedian Beppe Grillo would be the largest vote-getter among any single party.

The Five Star candidates were not expected to win enough to govern on their own, and they have sworn not to form coalitions. The movement’s leader, Luigi Di Maio, recently suggested, however, he would be open to talking with potential allies.

Analysts predict the only coalition with a chance of reaching an absolute majority is the centre-right coalition anchored by Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party. The coalition includes the anti-migrant Lega and the nationalistic, neo-fascist-rooted Brothers of Italy party.

Berlusconi, 81, cannot run for office because of a tax fraud conviction, but he has tapped the European parliament president, Antonio Tajani, considered a pro-European moderate, as his pick if the centre-right is asked to form a government.

Lega leader Matteo Salvini is gunning for the top job too though, and some pro-European analysts envision a possible “nightmare scenario” of an extremist alliance among the Five Stars, the Lega and Brothers of Italy. The presence in Rome this weekend of Steve Bannon, the rightwing populist architect of Donald Trump’s White House campaign, was an indication of the stakes.

Roberto D’Alimonte, of Rome’s LUISS University, said such an outcome would be “catastrophic” for the markets. But he said the Five Stars will have to decide if they’re going to join the right or the left if they’re going to move from their longtime perch in the opposition to actually help govern.

“This will be the moment of truth,” he said.

The Guardian

The Presidency, through the spokesperson for President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, has a message for those it says are jubilating, for political reason, over the abduction of over 100 schoolgirls in Dapchi, Yobe State: You are enemies of Nigeria. Adesina fielded questions from Sunday Vanguard last Wednesday on the Dapchi kidnapping allegedly carried out by a faction of terrorist group, Boko Haram, among other issues.

Let us start with the abduction of the schoolgirls in Dapchi, Yobe State which some people have been accused of politicising and, in fact, jubilating on the grounds that it is poetic justice for the administration following the way President Buhari and the APC, then in opposition, harassed the ruling PDP in 2014 when Chibok girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram under the Jonathan administration.

If anybody jubilates over that (schoolgirls abduction), that person is an enemy of humanity and he is also an enemy of Nigeria.  If you jubilate over the abduction of schoolgirls, you hate humanity, you hate your country. To anybody that is jubilating over that, that is my message for him or her.

Six months into the administration of your government, you told me in your office at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja that those who were calling President Buhari a failure were unfair. You said the President has a mandate of four years and that his performance will determine whether he would go for second term or not. This is the time to assess the President’s performance, especially in the light of current happenings in the country. What is the update?

First and foremost, what I would like to say is that, going for another term is the personal decision of Mr. President. He has not made that decision but when he makes it, just as he said very recently, he will address Nigerians. But the second part of the question is, does he have enough grounds to seek second term? I say more than enough all fronts: Political, economic, social, security, everything! On all fronts there is more than enough. Let’s take it one by one. He promised that he would secure the country, which he has done and he is doing.

In spite of the Dapchi kidnapping?

That was a freak occurrence, calamitous, very sad, but it is not what you should use to determine whether the country is more secure or safer than it has ever been. Those who live in the North-East would easily tell you. Roads that had been closed for years are now open. Emirs that had fled their palaces are back in the palaces. Places where NYSC orientation was not holding are now hosting NYSC orientation. Markets that had been deserted, people are back there. Farms that had been abandoned, people are back there. Of course, the region is a lot of safer. Does it mean that the insurgency is completely over? No. There are still remnants of insurgents who launch occasional attacks, and that is what happened in Dapchi. But in terms of securing the country, yes, the President has done quite well. The job is not fully done but he has done well.

The second promise he made was to fight corruption. If you are honest, despite even the recent report of Transparency International, you will know that at no time had corruption been fought vigorously like this in Nigeria. Do you know how many people are before our courts? Do you know how many people have decided to enter into plea bargain? The anti-corruption war is well and alive and we are making progress.

Despite the view in some quarters that the way the anti-corruption fight is going is one-sided?

They say it is one-sided and I ask, ‘All the former military chiefs who are answering before the courts now, are they PDP members?’ That is one big question they have been unable to answer. The administration’s position is that anybody who runs foul of the law must face the consequence. And the anti-corruption war is well, alive and on course. The third promise was to revive the economy. The National Bureau of Statistics just said that inflation has dropped consistently in the past 12 months. As of this time last year, our foreign reserve was $24billiion. As we speak, it is $42.8 billion. If it was not a prudent government, how would that happen? In six years of the previous government when oil price sold at $112, $113 per barrel, foreign reserve did not go up. How come under this government that took off at a time oil price dropped to $29 but is now between $45 and $50, foreign reserve has gone up? Also, the stock market is growing. It is on record that our stock market is number four best in the world and it has never been as active as it is now in the history of Nigeria. And then foreign investments are coming into the country, heavily, like they have never been. On the Ease of Doing Business, Nigeria has moved up 24 points. So, there is a lot that this government has done for Nigeria in different phases.  So, if it is re-election based on achievements, the government has a lot to show for it.  But then, like I said earlier, it is the President that will determine whether he is running or not. 

In spite all of these, some people claim they have seen nothing that has been done and it is on that basis that they are calling on Nigerians to vote against the President in 2019.  Why do you think somebody would live in a house and he wants the house to collapse on his head?

It baffles me why some Nigerians want to pull down the country.  You see government pulling up and you see those people pulling down.  I think they are people who have not got out of primordial sentiments and loyalties.  They are people who will say, ‘Because the President is not from my area, he doesn’t speak my language, he is not of my religion, so there is nothing he can do.’ Some are in pre-2015 election mood; you know that the 2015 election was very keenly contested.  In fact, Nigeria was polarized along different lines; religion, ethnicity, language, everything; all our fautlines reflected in 2015.  Regrettably, after the election, some people have still not accepted that the election had been won and lost.  So, they are resolutely opposed to the government that had emerged.

But there could be natural consequences for all of these.  What is your advice? It is a democracy and in a democracy, people have the right to their opinions. But this same democracy works for the society where we copied it from. Why is it not working in Nigeria?

We will get to learn.  Let me just believe that we are learning.  Our democracy is how old? Nineteen years.  We will eventually learn and realise that this is our country and what we make of it is what it will be.

It was about the first time that any Nigerian President would appreciate his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity like President Muhammadu Buhari did thanking you for ‘holding out against mischief makers’ at a time hate speeches and fake news spread about him when what he needed was support for his quick recovery with prayers. Talking more seriously, why would you think that such statement could come from the President to you? Well, it shows you that the man has an appreciative heart; and that is just President Buhari for you. 

He has an appreciative heart that whatever you do for him, he appreciates.  He never forgets those who have done him good.  How did I come to work for him? Because since 2003 when he began to run, I had always supported him and, as a journalist, I had always written to support him.  Whenever he read my articles, he would phone me and we would discuss. We didn’t meet one-on-one for many years.  I think the first time I met him was 2009. Professor Tam David-West had written a book on him, which was being launched in Lagos and I was the Master of Ceremony (MC) at that event. That was the first time we met one-on-one.  And then when my mother passed on in 2013 and we were having a commendation service for her in Lagos and I sent him an invitation, he came, all the way from Kaduna! So, the President never forgets people who have shown him loyalty. Loyalty is two ways; when you show loyalty to a man, that man should always be loyal to you.  And that is President Buhari for you. 

Moving forward, you talked about how it is characteristic of President Buhari to appreciate his loyalists particularly anybody who has done him any good. Is that a confirmation of the claim that he gave some of his top government appointments to his loyalists or associates from ANPP, CPC days?

When you are going to give appointments, you start from the known before going to the unknown.  When Obama came, first term, as President of the United States of America, who were the people he appointed?  His college mates, his friends, those he had known for some time.  Those were the people that were predominant in his administration.  So, in appointment, you start from the known to the unknown.

But when you have the known behaving the other way expected of the appointing authority, what then happens to our perception about the appointment of the known like it happened in the Babachir’s case?

There are some things that are prerogative of the leader; the decision is his.  When somebody is appointed and he turns out to behave contrary to expectation, it is the prerogative of the President to then act and decide what will happen and we leave our President to decide that.

But some people still believe, despite the sack of Babachir, for instance, that the President has refused to act on the matter.  What about that?

The prerogative is his; let us leave him to exercise that prerogative.

You replied Dr. Reuben Abati when he wrote about demons in the Villa. How come President Buhari who emerged on the platform of self-integrity and popularly suddenly became someone people talk ill of; recall the allegation of nepotism and so on and so forth?  Is it not the Abati’s tale of demons in the Villa now coming to reality and does it not mean that you are already feeling the heat concerning what Abati wrote about, especially when even your colleagues in the media criticize you that you don’t tell the truth about your government?

Not at all. You know there are some people who just want to believe the worst about the next man.  So, if that is their predilection and frame of mind, there is nothing you can do about it.  But the thing is, we would continue to do what we are doing, we would continue to do what is fair, just and right.  We would continue to tell Nigerians the truth.  We would not deliberately lie to Nigerians.  We have never lied to them and we would never do that. The President I am serving does not want me to twist information for him.  He wants you to just tell Nigerians the way things are.  That is what we would continue to do and there is nothing anybody will say that will push us out of that.  Some people have just made up their minds that, ‘This is what he must say, this is what he must tell us’, and they want you to say it.  But (laughter), it will never happen.

Vanguard

The All Progressives Congress (APC)  is set for another stage of crisis, as pro-Oyegun forces are set to move against chieftains of the party plotting to challenge the one year tenure extension granted the national chairman of the party, Chief Odigie Oyegun, and his National Working Committee (NWC) by the National Executive Committee (NEC).

According to Sunday Tribune findings, the anti-Oyegun group is insisting that the proclamation of tenure extension without recourse to the highest organ of the party, the national convention, was improper.

By virtue of Article 30 of the APC 2014 Constitution, (as amended) only the national convention is vested with  the powers to alter the party Constitution.

The section reads: ‘‘This constitution and the schedules hereto, canbe amended only by the National Convention of the party.”

“Notice of any proposed amendment by any member or organ of the party shall be given to the National Secretary at least 14 days before the date of the National Convention. The Notice shall be in writing, shall contain a clear statement of the proposed amendment and reasons thereof it.”

‘’Notice of proposed amendment(s) shall be served on the members of the National Convention at least fourteen(14) days before the date of the meeting at which the proposed amendment is to be considered.

“Publication of the notice of the proposed amendments in a national newspaper shall de deemed to be sufficient notice; “The Constitution or any part thereof shall stand amended if a proposed amendment is supported by at least two thirds of the delegates present and voting.’’

Joined in the suit marked, FHC/ABJ/CS/219/2018, are the  APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC)  Uzochukwu   through his lawyer, Nnamdi Okere, his asking the court to compel Chief Oyegun and his team to vacate their respective offices with effect from June 1, 2018, when they would have completed their four years tenure.

He also seeking for an order compelling INEC “to reject, cease to recognise and stop dealing with or having official communications with the Odigie-Oyegun-led National Working Committee” and others effective from effective from June 1, 2018, “for having spent the constitutionally allowed tenure of office.”

Uzochukwu’s lawyer also contended that by virtue of Article 13.3 (iii) of the party constitution, ‘’Decision of the NEC shall be binding on all organs and all members of the party, except  the national convention.’’

A party source told Sunday Tribune that similar suit to challenge the NEC decision will be filed by another chieftain of the party from Adamawa states  this week.

But Chief Oyegun’s sympathizers among the governor’s, emboldened by the Presidency, are not worried and have resolved to reprimand any member of the party who initiated court action against the decision of NEC.

A Presidency source told Sunday Tribune in confidence that “whoever institutes legal proceedings against the party will be reprimanded.” He cited Article 21 A, ( x) of the party constitution  to back up his claim.

The section reads: “filing an action in a court of law against the party or any of its officers on any matter relating to the discharge of the duties of the party without first exhausting all avenues for redress provided for in this Constitution.”

Speaking on the Court action initiated by Mr Uzochukwu, national publicity secretary of the party,  Bolaji Abdulai told Sunday Tribune that the party was already aware of the development.

While he refrained from commenting on the case,  since it was already in court,  he declared that the party was determined to rein in recalcitrant members.

He said: “If you take the party to court, we can’t comment on it since it is in court.

“But any member who takes the party to court over its decision will be dealt with accordingly.That is anti -party activity,” he contended

National vice chairman of the party, South South, Hillard Eta, however, differed as he noted that such a member would be exercising his fundamental rights under the law.

Eta further claimed that the party was yet to grant the National Working Committee any extension

“NEC didn’t extend the life span, what it said was that it adopted a motion for the amendment of the constitution. The extension  can’t be done without the amendment of the constitution, “ he noted.

Meanwhile, the NWC of the party has overruled the purported expulsion of the Kogi State chairman of the party, Alhaji Haddy Ametuo, by a factional chairman, Alhaji Ibrahim Ahovi.

Alhaji Ahovi, chairman of the faction, which penultimate weekend opened a parallel secretariat in Lokoja with the state governor, Yahaya Bello and the national chairman of the party, John Odigie-Oyegun, in attendance, had on Friday announced the expulsion of Alhaji Ametuo.

In a statement issued last night and signed by its national publicity secretary, Bolaji Abdulai, the party faulted the action of the factional chairman.

The statement read in part: “The All Progressives Congress (APC) wishes to clarify that neither state nor zonal executives, constituted in whatever name or form can expel anyone from the party.

Only convention can do so. We restate that the State Working Committee of APC in Kogi State led by the Chairman, Alhaji Haddy Ametuo remains the only recognised executive committee of the party in the State.

Tribune

Enyi o, Enyi o…

Enyi o, Enyi o o…

Enyi Biafra Alaa la –

Enyi Biafra Alaa la –

Chetakwanu Odogwu Achuzia –

Odogwu Achuzia bu Enyi Biafra –

Chetakwanu Mike Okwechime –

Okwechime bu Enyi Biafra –

Chetakwanu Ukwu I. Ukwu –

Ukwu I. Ukwu bu Enyi Biafra

Enyi Biafra alaa la –

Enyi Biafra alaa la…

Three great elephants of the Igbo world who fought fiercely in defence of their homeland, and the dignity of their humanity died, each within days of the other, just like a great relay. And what a great race they ran.

In a Nigeria increasingly without authentic heroes, the lives of these three men reflect the meaning of true heroism, and point for this generation, the remarkable quotient of action, and conduct that marked the lives of the best of passing generation, which can be an example for the rest of us.

Each of these men deserves a full, sustained, and longer tribute, but the convergence of their death makes for a unique reflection. It is equally symbolic in a powerful way, for these warriors, held together, and determined in very unique ways, the fate of a people, at a crucial time.

Thus their passing feels symbolic and weighty; like a march-out parade; a lowering of the flag. This hiss in the mouth of time that signals the end of an era.

HANIBAL:

I salute the man they called “Hannibal.” Joe Achuzia earned his pips in battle, and like a true war General – the Igbo call them “Ochi Agha” – he stood tall to the end of his days, unbent by defeat. Like the legendary Carthaginian General from whom he took his inspiration, Joe Achuzia fought wide and deep; he got stymied in the mud; but he led his men fearlessly; wherever the battle was hottest, Achuzia was to be found.

Born in 1928, of the Ahaba (Asaba) by the Cablepoint, the great Niger was the source of his being. As boys they swam in it; crossed the river frequently to the great market town at Onitsha; went to the legendary St Joseph’s Catholic school, and from there to Kings College, Lagos in 1942.

Among the boys he met at the prestigious Kings was a redoubtable boy, Emeka Ojukwu, who came to Kings in 1943 at age 10; the youngest boy for years to be admitted to Kings, but who had a fierce mind of his own, just like “Hannibal” Achuzia.

They were among the boys who in the anti-colonial ferment instigated by the great Nationalist leader Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, staged the first schoolboys resistance to colonialism in 1944, resulting in what basically became the first move towards creating an anti-colonial, pan-Nigerian nationalist front. They were youngster inspired by the great political idealism of that era.

Ojukwu stood trial as a minor; his millionaire father after that ordeal sent away to boarding school in Epsom.

Achuzia finished from Kings, and went on to the UK to study Engineering, and the rest of the years were a mystery, as he clearly received special Forces combat training and was recruited into the Operational Field Services of what might have been the early stages of a shadowy Nigeria’s postcolonial National Intelligence apparatus to conduct international espionage.

That early part of Achuzia’s life remains a mystery. But he did establish himself in Port-Harcourt, and by the 1960s was running his own nascent Engineering Company. The war began, and like most Igbo, Achuzia sided with Biafra.

The massacre of civilians in his hometown, Asaba, by the Federal Army led by Murtala Muhammad must have fueled his sense of outrage and conviction.

He fought like a lion, and his fearlessness earned him the nickname, “Air-Raid Achuzia,” and his military exploits, the name “Hannibal.” Achuzia’s name struck fear in the hearts of fighting men, as well as inspired many a heroic action.

There is the legend that he would, in the midst of a fierce battle, wave away bullets saying, “not for me, not for my boys” – and he would sooner shoot a slack soldier on the legs, just to make an example of such a slacker. War was serious business, and it was also death.

Achuzia was perhaps after General Ojukwu, the most famous Biafran war commander. He stood to the end in defence of the Igbo even after the war, acting at various times as Secretary-General of Ohaneze, and was a consistent campaigner for justice for the entire Igbo.

A true son of the Igbo, Joe “Hannibal” Achuzia deserves his rest among the immortals of the land. When the fullest account of the Biafra war is finally written, it would show that Achuzia ended that war under conditions for which the likes of Tim Onwuatuegwu had to be sacrificed. War was death, and Achuzia understood it fully.

MIKE NDUKA OKWECHIME:

Colonel Mike Okwechime was Obasanjo’s commanding officer in the Army Engineers. He was the first Nigerian to command that group, long before it became the full Corp of Engineers, and established some of its foundational principles. Every professional military Engineer knows that had the crisis of 1966 not happened, and Okwechime still at command, the Nigerian Army Engineers would have been a world class arm of the service.

He was a professional to the core, and a formidable soldier. Educated at the Government College, Ughelli of the class of 1948, he and Arthur Unegbe, Yakubu Gowon, Alex Madiebo, and Patrick Anwunah were in the same class at Sandhurst in 1954.

Among them should have been John Pepper Clark, in his class at Ughelli, who came to the selection board at Enugu in that cadre, but could not make selection, possibly because of his height.

But they were all to make their marks. Okwechime was leading a Nigerian delegation to the Commonwealth games when the July 29 coup that killed Ironsi happened, and he did not return to Lagos.

He was among the Midwest officers who returned to Benin to form the Midwest Army – the Fourth Area Command of the Nigerian Army under Colonel Conrad Nwawo with its Headquarters in Benin.

As it happened, the Midwest Command was the buffer between the Federal Army and the Biafran forces. In the events leading to war, the Midwest under Colonel Ejoor took a position of neutrality. But it was clearly an untenable situation, with the federal troops already established at Idah, and primed to through the Midwest from Agenebode through Agbor towards the East.

To deflate the pressure on its northern borders, and re-take initiative, the Biafrans planned and executed a lightening move through the Midwest, in what is now known as the Midwest campaign, led by General Banjo, clearly with the support of the mainly Igbo officers of the Midwest Area command. That campaign with a planned beachhead got stymied in Ore for all kinds of reasons not within the current purview of this tribute.

The Biafrans were dislodged from the Midwest, an in the melee of the entry of the Federal Army, Igbo officers, among the most senior like Okwechime fell back to Biafra, where they fought to the very end of the war, Okwechime becoming the Adjutant-General of the Biafran Army. Years later of course, after the silence of the guns, he became more known as the Chairman of the Nigerian Football Association, and the National Sports Commission, and remained active in the affairs of the Anioma-Igbo.

UKWU I. UKWU

Poet, Economist, and social theorist, Professor Ukwu was a scholar, and perhaps the finest theorist of the ancient Igbo market systems.

He spent much of his academic life at the University of Nigeria, at the Enugu Campus, where for many years he was Director of its famous Center for Development Studies, and where he made significant contributions in the formulation of development ideas that remain relevant to this day.

But long before that, Ukwu, who was educated at the Aggrey Memorial Grammar School in Arochukwu and the University College Ibadan, where he studied Geography, and where he was first published as a poet in the poetry magazine, Horn, later earned his PhD at Cambridge, and taught in the department of Geography, University of Ibadan until 1966, when the crisis began.

He was active in Biafra, and late in 1968, was appointed by General Ojukwu as Director of the Biafran Organization of Freedom Fighters, BOFF, the Guerilla arm of the Biafran resistance, charged with training and commencing the guerrilla phase of the war, should the formal military options fail.

The war was however resolved on a “No victor, No Vanquished” principle, and one of the most strategic actions by Ukpabi Asika in 1970 was to bring into his government, the active forces involved in the Biafran resistance, like Dr. Ukwu I.Ukwu, who became the Commissioner for Education in East Central state, until the end of that regime in 1975.

He returned to academic life thereafter. Married to Comfort, one of the first graduates of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka’s History department, and former Director of the National Museum in Enugu, the Ukwus were a redoubtable cultural presence in the old Eastern capital.

It is a remarkable lack of foresight that the organizers of the Ahiajioku Lectures did not invite Professor Ukwu I.Ukwu to give that lecture, or that the Nigerian National Order of Merit put its own claim of merit to question by not honoring a man like Ukwu I. Ukwu, who was formidable, and one of the most distinguished contributors to Nigerian and African social thought in the late modern era. I salute his spirit.

Most Nigerians were incredulous on February 19, 2018, when it was confirmed that Boko Haram terrorists had herded a group of students of the Government Girls Science and Technical College (GGSTC), Dapchi, Yobe State, into a waiting truck and driven off.

There were two reasons many Nigerians, at first, found it hard to believe that the Dapchi girls have been kidnapped.  First was the time-honoured belief that lightning does not strike twice on the same spot.  Secondly, after the nightmare of the 2014 Chibok abductions, the continuing trauma of more than 100 parents whose daughters are still in captivity after nearly four years, it was inconceivable that the country could leave the stable door ajar for a “technically defeated” Boko Haram to take the country for a ride again.

President Muhammadu Buhari has described the kidnappings as a national disaster.  We think it is worse.  Indeed, even otherwise sympathetic non-Nigerians think it is a national disgrace.  The frenetic actions of the government in the last one week included two official visits to Yobe State by ministers.

The Interior Minister, Lt.-Gen.  Abdulrahman Dambazzau ordered the relocation to Yobe State of the Inspector-General of Police, Idris Abubakar, and the Commandant of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, Abdullahi Mohammed Gana.  They are to help secure the state and help locate the whereabouts of the kidnapped young ladies.  The Nigeria Air Force is on a 24-hour air surveillance of the North East and by the middle of the week, has been credited with 100 sorties and 200 hours of activity.  A 12-man panel headed by Rear Admiral Victor Adedipe is to investigate the circumstances and identify those who might be culpable. We hope these activities will help the return of the girls.  Otherwise, the country is most unhappy and disappointed.

The similarities of the Dapchi kidnappings with that of Chibok are so uncanny – the timing, the political calendar, the doubts, initial confusion, and the irresolute responses. In the circumstance in which the Governor of Yobe State, Ibrahim Gaidam, found himself, for instance, he could only depend on the military for accurate information in such a war situation.  The Army let him down by first informing him that the girls had been recovered and, later, that they had not.  Distraught parents reacted naturally to such confusion with anguish when the governor threw up his hands.  But even more critical was the Nigerian Army’s withdrawal from Dapchi town, a week earlier, an action which undeniably offered Boko Haram the opening to attack the town and abduct the girls.  The Army has explained its actions saying the town appeared safe and secure.  Yet the decision to withdraw the entire battalion was clearly a miscalculation.  Why was a platoon not left behind, ‘just in case?’  Indeed, as few as a dozen soldiers, properly, defensively emplaced round the school, would have decidedly prevented the disaster.

The recovery of the Dapchi girls is the minimum Nigerians expect from the Federal Government, and the earlier the better.  We cannot afford the same kind of anguish, the open wound, which we have endured as a country over the Chibok abductions.  All the declarations about how successful we have been with Boko Haram stands or falls with the Dapchi incident which has demonstrated for the world to see the failure of our security, and the failure of our intelligence.  The speculation that our forces are probably infiltrated by fifth columnists cannot be an excuse because it is to be expected and no military command should ignore such possibility and its risks and must provide counter-measures.  After all, former President Goodluck Jonathan was ridiculed when he confessed that he had Boko Haram sympathizers in his government, in the National Assembly and elsewhere.

We urge the Federal Government to view the Dapchi incident as an opportunity to review its strategy and tactics in the war against Boko Haram.  We think it is time for a major change of guards, and a change of strategy, and the replacement of the entire intelligence apparatus.  After nine years, it is laughable to tell Nigerians every week as the government has done for three years that Boko Haram has now been “completely defeated.”

Sun

The Independent National Electoral Commission has sounded a strident alarm that the rising number of political parties, with most of them bent on fielding candidates for the highest political offices, could present daunting logistical and legal challenges and threaten the 2019 elections. With just one year to go, the commission should deploy advanced technology and work closely with lawmakers to find a way round this problem.

The threat is real: in 2007, a legal challenge by the then vice-president and presidential candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, almost led to the poll’s postponement. Since then, similar challenges by candidates of fringe parties have secured court judgements compelling the electoral umpire to include their names and party logos on the ballot paper. This had once led to reprinting and inevitable late arrival of ballot papers on Election Day.

How did we get to this pass? Blame the 1999 Constitution that, in line with global practices, makes provisions on fundamental rights, including that of freedom of association. This was cemented in a landmark Supreme Court judgement in 2002 that invalidated INEC’s stringent qualifying rules and opened the floodgates to new associations, from the serious to the quirky, and affirmed their right to field candidates.

While the right to vote and be voted for on one’s preferred legal platform cannot be faulted, desperation by aspirants and lack of internal party democracy usually see candidate nominations ending up in protracted legal battles that are sometimes resolved only a few days or hours before polling opens and after ballot papers had been printed and distributed and other logistics concluded. With court orders that the victorious nominees be included on the ballot, elections stand the risk of being postponed or overturned by the courts on the grounds of their having held in defiance of court orders or for excluding validly nominated party candidates. Said Eyinla, “…if any registered political party is mistakenly omitted from the ballot paper, it could lead to the total cancellation of the exercise.”

With the Supreme Court verdict, there are no easy solutions short of a constitution amendment. Every polity adapts based on its experiences. INEC should work with the National Assembly to consider relevant changes in the ongoing amendment process without eroding fundamental rights to associate, vote and be voted for.

Even the most mature democracies moderate the field. Having a party registered does not always automatically guarantee being on the ballot. In France, to make the presidential ballot, each candidate must obtain at least 500 sponsoring signatures of elected officials in at least 30 departments (regions) or overseas territories. According to the United States Federal Election Commission, American states have different qualifying thresholds for candidates running for president. Registered parties, theirs and independents, are not automatically on the Electoral College ballot in all 50 states.

Ricky De la Fuente of the Reform Party and Daniel Castle of the Constitution Party were on the ballot in only 20 and 24 states respectively, back in 2016. While only two parties − Republican and Democratic − automatically field presidential candidates in all, there are 40 other parties in the US and a slew of regional parties that rarely field candidates nationally.

To assist uneducated voters, Brazil assigns numbers to every political party. In its 2014 presidential election, only 11 parties fielded candidates though 17 parties held seats in the federal senate and 29 in the lower chamber. Countries like the Philippines have also had to contend with chaotic electoral fields, but have devised ways to cope. Of the 130 persons that initially filed papers to contest the 2016 presidential election, the umpire pruned the list to five, labelling some as “nuisance candidates.” To help smaller or new parties, however, the Asian country passed the Party List System Act in 1995 that allows fringe parties that secure two per cent of the popular vote to have seats in the parliament and build up from there.

We need, by consensus, to amend the constitution. Only parties that have been represented in parliament of a state by at least five delegates, can field candidates for federal positions in Germany while, in Nigeria, a one-man party will insist on being on the presidential ballot without any elective presence at federal, state or local level.

To help parties grow and give voters a wider choice, incremental increase in electoral seats should be encouraged. Mexico prescribes that registered parties must obtain two per cent of the vote in federal elections or lose their licences, but allows small parties to form coalitions and share seats in a proportional representation system.

In the meantime, INEC should go the extra mile to prepare for a possible multitude of candidates. It should file its budget quickly, intensify training and invest heavily in technology to cope with all foreseeable challenges.

Punch

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) yesterday said that Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe’s quest for power, dream and greed to lead the world’s biggest black nation and to rub shoulders with the western leaders put Ndigbo in the mess they found themselves today.

The group noted that the Hausa/Fulani caliphate of the North were happy to be ruled by the British and were not ready for independence, saying it was Dr. Azikiwe and his cohorts that persuaded the North to embrace independence struggle even when it was obvious they never wanted to form a country with the South.

The Media and Publicity Secretary of IPOB, Emma Powerful, in a statement, said  it was that unrealisable aspiration and unproductive ambition that ensured the South ended up being led by people whose value system is irreconcilable with theirs.

He said that while Hausa were going on stabilizing their region , Zik was busy dreaming of leading an empire the British built, saying that every current Igbo leader, are also driven by inordinate ambition to rule Nigeria and self preservation.

According to the group “That is why today, we are discussing cows instead of industries, science and technology. We are begging Fulanis  to stop killing their fellow Nigerians. We are begging them  to allow the existence of Nigeria to be renegotiated into acceptable standard of governance to usher in political stability, economic growth and modern development just to say the least.’’ 

They added: “Zik, despite his undoubted brilliance, was not a very good politician. He remains till date the only person that led an independence struggle and never got the chance  to lead the country after independence. Unfortunately, present day Igbo leaders have continued in that failed politics of Zik. The only way out is to dissolve Nigeria, anything short is cosmetic and will be resisted by IPOB.

“Hausa Fulani caliphates of the North were happy being ruled by the British people and were not ready for independence. It was Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and co that persuaded the North  to embrace independence struggle even when it was obvious they never wanted to form a country with the south. This led to the atrocious demand from them which Zik acquiesced to, that the North should be given political power”.

“Zik was naive in thinking Britain was going to hand over power to him. Zik’s dream and greed to lead the world’s biggest black nation just to rub shoulders with the western leaders put us in this mess. It was that unrealizable aspiration and unproductive ambition that ensured we ended up being led by people whose value system is irreconcilable with ours.

“The issue is not about Igbo leaders not doing enough to promote Igbo interest, the problem is that Igbo leaders are actively engaged in the undermining of collective Igbo interest. With the notable exception of Gov. Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, the rest are mere errand boys for Abuja and the caliphate. They are visibly terrified of their Fulani masters and would not want to do anything to jeopardize their cherished lucrative relationship with their masters in the North. 

“The supposedly apex socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, is considerably worse. We thought Ohanaeze Ndigbo couldn’t sink any lower after the shambolic Chief Gary Enwo-Igariwe administration but what is confronting us today in Nnia Nwodo is a man who was made by the North and prepared to supervise the genocidal massacre of his own people in order to ensure the interest of the North is always protected or better put, to ensure that Igbos remain subservient to the North in perpetuity.

“The Fulani caliphate decides who becomes governor, senator, Ohanaeze Ndigbo president general and so on. What you have in Igboland are hungry informants masquerading as leaders. These supposedly Igbo leaders are on record as being the first set of people to condemn IPOB and invite Hausa Fulani soldiers to come and kill Biafrans. Willie Obiano, Okezie Ikpeazu, Dave Umahi, Rochas Okorocha,  Nnia Nwodo and a few senators allegedly, directly instigated Operation Python Dance II. 

“Yoruba elders never publicly condemned OPC, Arewa Consultative Forum till date have not offered any categorical condemnation of Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen but Igbo leaders themselves canvassed for this Fulani government to deploy soldiers to the South-east to kill innocent agitators. These same leaders never ran to Buhari to send soldiers to stop Fulani herdsmen from slaughtering our people all over Enugu State.

But when it came to IPOB agitating to free everybody from the Nigerian bondage we all are in, they found the courage to invite the army to invade Igboland.”

Sun