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Ghana opposition to ECOWAS: What’s democracy with Tinubu as your leader?
From Ghana, one of Nigeria’s neighbours, came a very instructive question over the moral grounds on which leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) would stand to order a military intervention to restore democracy in Niger Republic, with the legitimate crises trailing President Bola Tinubu, its leader.
The declaration of the former Governor of Lagos State, who contested the February 25 presidential election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is currently facing an intense challenge from Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi, of the Labour Party (LP), at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT).
Questioning the haste with which the Authority of the ECOWAS Heads of Government, elevated him to lead them, Kwesi Pratt jnr, General Secretary of the Socialist Movement of Ghana, one of its main opposition parties, said the move alone underscored the hypocrisy of the leaders, who themselves, had failed to demonstrate any iota of democratic credentials.
Hear him: “One of the things which they have done that is completely crazy, was Tinubu, who had won a disputed election. The matter is in court and has not finished, West African leaders met and made him their chairman. And they say they’re committed to democracy? These crazy leaders we have in West Africa. They’re not even patient enough to wait for the outcome of the petition before the court, but went ahead to make him their chairman and then, they turn round and tell us that they love democracy. What kind of democracy do they love?”
Further lampooning them over their decision after a meeting in Abuja last Sunday, to make military intervention one of the options in their list of actions to force the military junta now in place in the country to return power to the ousted President, Mohamed Bazoum, he described their hasty action as coming from threats that they might be the next, due to their poor leadership that had impoverished their people.
His words: “These leaders who are threatening to stage military intervention are responsible for what is happening. They’re talking about going to restore democracy in Niger, was there democracy before in Niger? Was there anything that looked like democracy in Niger before the coup? These are frightened leaders – leaders who have failed in their countries, who are afraid that what has happened would engulf them and are trying to smother the flames. And they’ll not succeed. They’re only trying to create more problems for the region.
“Now, are they not the same leaders who went to Cote D’Ivoire when the French forces overthrew Laurent Gbabo and installed Alhassan Watara to go and congratulate him? Where is their commitment to democracy? These West African leaders have been changing their constitution, allowing themselves to go for third terms in spite of the massive protests taking place. When they succeed in changing their constitutions and going for third term, is it not the same leaders that go to congratulate them? What’s their commitment to democracy?
The Ghanaian politician, argued that the main beneficiary of the proposed intervention would be the Western countries, that had continued to supervise the poor leadership of the ECOWAS leaders as they had done in the entire African continent, adding that in this case, France, which had remained the major leach sucking the country dry, would continue what they had done for decades – mine the uranium deposits in Niger, while not only pauperising the country but leaving the populace with diseases associated with their mining activities.
“One out of every light bulbs in France is powered by uranium from Niger. Yet, Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world. But our leaders are not thinking about this paradox. What they care about is going to reinstall one of their colleagues, who messed up so much. All the French-speaking African states, keep their money in the French Central Bank. The consequence is that all these French-speaking African countries, borrow this money and pay interest for their own money. Yet, West African leaders are not sensible enough to realize that the way out of this is to have a common currency for West Africa to enable these French-speaking West African countries to break away from this neo-colonialism.
“They don’t even realize that that is the key to solving many of the problems that confront us in the sub-region. They can’t see that. We’ve been talking about West African currencies for how long? What have they done in other to promote that? Then, they go and sit down somewhere in Abuja and they decide to send soldiers. Whose soldier should go and die to install a useless President?”
Nigeria would not be in the sort of socio-political and economic mess it is currently facing but for the cowardice of the present crop of governors, Rotimi Amaechi, former governor of Rivers state, said on Tuesday, saying the country needed courageous leadership at the state levels to confront the ugly situation.
As chairman at the public presentation of Sule Lamido’s autobiography titled: Being True To Myself, written by Sule Lamido, former Governor of Jigawa State, Amaechi, who later became a two-time Minister of Transportation under President Muhammadu Buhari, bewailed the parlous political situation where governors could no longer speak for the people.
Stressing the timidity of his successors, the former governor, who was apparently miffed at the rate at which opposition governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), were defecting to the ruling APC, in spite the parlous economic situation in the country, he said such a crisis would never have been allowed during his own time.
Amaechi, who was chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) during Lamido’s second term, but eventually defected to the APC to lead the campaign for the election of Buhari, told his audience: “I asked you (Lamido) this morning, what is going on currently in the country, in Nigerian politics — would it have happened when we were governors?
“You said no. And the answer is no. We would confront the government, confront the President. That’s how radical we were, that’s how our governors forum operated, that’s how determined we were to change things.”
Dwelling on his relationship with the ex-Jigawa governor, who was in office between 2007 and 2015, Amaechi said their working relationship was strong, despite occasional disagreements — including Lamido’s initial objection to his election as NGF chairman.
“We were quite good friends in government. We had our bad times when we disagreed. I made the mistake of assuming he was as radical as I was. So, he was one of the governors I clung to when it came to radical decisions. The last one before we broke ranks was when we all agreed to go against President Jonathan. We formed a committee of governors and others.
“At the end of the day, he went to find a new party, the SDP. We said, ‘If we go to the SDP, we will lose the election. Let’s hang on to this one called the APC.’ He disagreed and left us. That’s where we parted ways. You must never forget the battles we fought.”
“There is no question that there are huge challenges. But if you look at the balance sheet that this President inherited — massive liabilities arising from the very reckless misuse of ways and means — you’d understand why these steps were necessary.”
These were the exact words of Adams Oshiomhole, Senator, representing Edo North at the National Assembly on the state of the Nigerian economy, expressing confidence that the way the President was going, it would not be long before the parlous situation would experience a marked improvement.
Oshiohmole, former Governor of Edo State and former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who was a guest of Politics Today, a public affairs progromme on Channels Television, said on Tuesday, Nigerians were justified to feel unhappy over the rising cost of living and the closure of businesses since the removal of fuel subsidy in 2023, but urged them to be patient and maintain trust in the reforms.
He added: “It’s a work in progress. The surgeon has gone to carry out the surgery. He understands that there is a level of pain — there has to be pain. But the good news is that the patient is healing. Maybe he could heal faster, but there can be no question that the patient is healing.”
Stressing on the issue of the exchange rate unification as a painful but critical decision to align supply with demand, he warned that failure to do so could have plunged the country into a Zimbabwe-like economic collapse, adding: “The consequential increase in cost of living was predictable. But if that was not done, Nigeria was on its way to Zimbabwe.
“President Tinubu deliberately chose to make all the difficult but necessary decisions in his first term to pave the way for long-term recovery. He took the right decision by insisting that in the first term, he would take all the tough decisions — prayerfully — so that as we move on, the situation improves.
“There is no magic to governance. I don’t think any Nigerian who understands the macroeconomic environment that was inherited by this government would expect that, in 24 months, everything would be fixed. Truly, this economy was badly mismanaged. This is not to blame anyone, but to speak to fact. I can say the worst is over, and we are going to begin to witness improvements in standard of living.
“As a governor, it took me time to have a holistic view of the challenges I inherited and to decide, in terms of priority, what to do first. As a Nigerian, I live in the community and among the people. I can say that there is a level of hardship, but things are improving.”
“Given where we are today in the economy, Tinubu will still win the presidential election. The President eliminated an exploitative foreign exchange regime that previously benefited only a privileged few. Tinubu abolished the ‘benefit of exchange rate’ transfer to bureau de change. Today, what he gets in exchange rate is what I get. Eliminating that free rate — which was available to a few people connected with the CBN management — took courage.”
Senate on Wednesday brushed aside the objections of Abdul Ningi, Senator representing Bauchi South at the National Assembly to commence acerated hearing on a whopping ₦1.783 trillion statutory appropriation bill for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The bill for the appropriation of the amount, came through President Bola Tinubu to the Senate in charge of making laws for the FCT, urging them to approve the proposal for the 2025 financial year.
Shortly after reading the letter transmitting the proposal, the upper chamber on Wednesday, harkened to the request of the President to give the bill expedited consideration, noting that its passage was critical to ensuring an effective and service-oriented administration for residents of the FCT.
But an attempt by the Bauchi Senator, elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to halt debates on it pending when the members were abreast of the details was ignored as the Senate invoked Order 78 to allow the bill to scale second reading the same day it was introduced.
Palpably dissatisfied, Ningi, who was once suspended for questioning the financial integrity of the Senate, had raised concerns about the procedure under Order 77 (3 and 4), pointing out that lawmakers had not been provided with copies of the bill prior to the debate.
Leading the debate on the bill, after the objections were brushed aside, Opeyemi Bamidele, Senate Leader, explained that the proposed legislation seeks to authorise the issuance of ₦1,783,823,708,392.00 trillion from the FCT Administration’s Statutory Revenue Fund to finance personnel, overhead, and capital expenditures between January 1 and December 31, 2025.
The budget breakdown includes N150.35 billion for personnel costs, N343.78 billion for overhead, and N1.29 trillion allocated for capital projects.
Bamidele underscored that the primary objective of the budget was to drive an effective and enduring service-oriented administration, with a strong focus on completing ongoing projects that have significant impacts on infrastructure and essential services in Abuja.
He noted that the budget prioritises the continuation of existing projects in the FCT, with the introduction of new ones deemed crucial.
It was on the same day that the Senate also confirmed the appointment of five Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) submitted by the President in March for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The confirmation, which followed the receipt and consideration of a report by Simon Lalong, Chairman of Senate Committee on Electoral Matters during plenary on Wednesday, who urged members to confirm the nominees having passed the screening exercise.
The approved RECs are Umar Yusuf Garba (Kano State), Sa’ad Umar Idris (Bauchi State), Chukwuemeka C. Ibeziako (Anambra State), Umar Mukhtar (Borno State) and Dr. Johnson Alalibo Sinikiem (Bayelsa State).
Tinubu having his way because today’s governors are cowards – Amaechi
Tinubu almost clearing Buhari’s economic mess – Oshomhole
Wike to get N1.78trillion as 2025 budget *Senate ignores Ningi’s objection
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