Sent: Friday, April 29, 2022 5:57 PM
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [External] Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Too Crazy
General overview
I watched two lively discussions, among others, on the question of drug testing and the participation of President Jonathan in the forthcoming presidential primaries. I watched on Arise News a vivacious discussion on the matter of drug testing of the presidential aspirants. The opinions of the discussants on the issue were in favor of such testing but seem to agree that it would be difficult to enforce it.
On the matter of former President Johnathan possibly running as a presidential candidate, I watched the Human Rights Activist Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) on Channels Television. His position based on the constitution is that President Johnathan is not qualified to participate in this contest. He supported his position on this matter by referencing Supreme Court's decisions on other similar cases which prevented politicos from staying in office for more than eight years. President Jonathan, if elected, would serve for more than eight years.
On a lighter note, "it seems as if we already have first eleven and second eleven (in football or soccer parlance) training to compete in the forthcoming primary elections. It is possible that given the number of candidates still declaring their intentions to participate in the primaries, we might soon come up with a third eleven."
Probably, some of these candidates are competing in hopes that they might be appointed ministers should their party win the coveted trophy–the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2023!
Ike Udogu
So, what/which "addiction" caused the disaster called Major General Muhammadu Buhari?-- alcohol?--drug (which type)?-- sex?-- money?
They know the truth, especially the role they played in selling this 3rd Mainland Bridge to serfdom to ethno-religious addicted Nigerians, but they're now diverting attention to intellectual sophistry!
On Fri, Apr 29, 2022 at 11:05 AM Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
--Moses:
The president of any country should not be addicted to anything--alcohol, drugs, or even sex-- so he or she is not persistently distracted from statecraft.
Are you talking about the heavenly power?
Or
The Umma of the Prophet Mohammad?
Obasanjo remains the best president since 1999, a born-again but not from the waist down.
Righteousness does not mean that one will be a good leader. The Satan is constructed as supremely efficient!
TF
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com>
Date: Friday, April 29, 2022 at 12:31 PM
To: USAAfricaDialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Too CrazyDrug tests can be faked, manipulated, or gamed--that is, timed, with expert advice, to produce a desired result. The world of athletic doping, including state-run programs, has taught us that.
When it comes to alcohol, that is a sensitive territory. Abacha loved his Gulder, but did Gulder make him do all he did, steal all he stole? There is something to be said about addiction. The president of any country should not be addicted to anything--alcohol, drugs, or even sex-- so he or she is not persistently distracted from statecraft.
That said, I think that there is a subtle dog whistle in the Muslim North about "alcoholic" Southern or Middle Belt politicians, who cannot be trusted with power. It is a rhetorical strategy of demonization, Othering, and religious mobilization in politics in the north. I've personally heard it from some of my Northern Muslim interlocutors several times, and I've encountered that narrative in many Arewa and Hausa language online forums and social media posts. The failings and failures of many Southern and Middle Belt Christian politicians are attributed to their alleged alcohol consumption rather than to their own individual deficits.
Most of the targets of this narrative do not even drink alcohol or only drink it socially, but it doesn't matter because it is merely a political stereotype that plays on and appeals to Muslims' scriptural disapproval of alcohol and those who drink or abuse it.
I think only Obasanjo has been spared that trope, and that was probably so because was public about his teetotaler lifestyle.
On Fri, Apr 29, 2022 at 8:21 AM Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
Jibrin:
I hope you are not assuming that the sane, drug free politicians will govern better?
I can give you a list of alcoholics, including Churchill, who managed great institutions.
TF
Sent from my iPhone
On Apr 29, 2022, at 7:42 AM, Jibrin Ibrahim <jibrinibrahim891@gmail.com> wrote:
So Many Are Too Crazy to Run
Jibrin Ibrahim, Deepening Democracy Column, Daily Trust, 29th April 2022
I find the request from Buba Marwa, head of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to political parties to support the idea that all aspirants for political office be brought for a drug integrity test very reasonable. Of course, he is asking the parties to accept the tests voluntarily because there is nothing in our laws to compel aspirants take such a test. I was impressed to learn that two parties, the People's Redemption Party (PRP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) have already accepted the challenge. Nigerians should put pressure on the other parties to also accept - that it is in the national interest that drug addicts should not be allowed to run our national or state affairs and that the numerous individuals rumoured to be deep into substance abuse should be kept out of power and the control of national resources.
In its response to the NDLEA, the PRP recommends that in addition to the drug integrity tests, aspirants should also undergo psychiatric evaluation. This is another brilliant idea. Like most Nigerians, I have seen video clips circulating in the media and social media where aspirants for presidential and gubernatorial offices are acting as if they are lunatics and some of them might indeed be mad. Again, we need to ensure that mentally challenged compatriots are provided help in medical facilities rather than being left to run our government houses.
The third concern is that too many hardened criminals have been allowed to hold the reins of power and many more are seeking to get there. Currently, there are petitions against some aspirants claiming they have criminal records and a number of them are reported to have spent time in jail in the United States for their criminal activities. These are the people who have been gradually transforming governance in our dear country into a criminal enterprise. We know from the Hansards of the National Assembly that the late Senator Nuhu Aliyu, a retired Assistant Inspector General of Police has affirmed that he found many of the criminals he was investigating for prosecution as "distinguished" colleagues of his when he was elected into Senate. We must break the drift of our politics into the arena of criminal enterprise.
Outside the drug addicts, madmen and criminals seeking office, we are currently witnessing public office holders, the Vice President, State Governors, Ministers and Commissioners on the road travelling all over the country seeking nomination for various offices. For the Vice President and the Governors, there is the excuse they were elected and have a time bound mandate so they should not be expected to resign. Ministers certainly have no such excuse. President Buhari has made it explicit that his ministers must not be compelled to resign to contest for primaries and almost refused to sign the Electoral Act on that score. While in 2019, he asked his ministers wishing to contest to resign, this time, given his refusal to do same, it is his ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that has announced it will disqualify the Ministers of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige; Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and the Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, from contesting in the party's primaries slated for May 30 and June 1, 2022. The three ministers are running for the presidency on the platform of the APC but are yet to comply with the provisions of the party's new guidelines for the nomination of candidates for the 2023 general elections by resigning their positions as ministers three days to the deadline. There are also reports that the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), would soon announce his intention to contest the Kebbi State governorship poll on the APC platform. APC's new guidelines for nomination of candidates for the 2023 general elections provide that all political appointees must resign 30 days to the party's primaries or would be disqualified.
Currently, these ministers are busy running from state to state with government resources busy campaigning. They are not doing their official work and they are not allowing for a level playing ground for contest with their rivals who have to fund their campaigns from their own pockets. In this third month of the ASUU strike, the Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, has just bought his expression of interest and nomination forms for 100 million naira and is busy in the campaign circuit. It is to prevent such divided loyalty and the abuse of government resources that all previous Presidents of the Forth Republic have demanded that their ministers resign from their positions before embarking on their campaigns.
Run Nkoyo Run
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My good friend and fellow civil society activist, Hon (Amb) Nkoyo Toyo has become a PDP gubernatorial aspirant in Cross River State. She has been an active advocate in movements working for the expansion of our political space and encouraging greater participation of women in leadership. In preparation for the 2003 election, I worked closely with her and the then Women Leader of the PDP, Josephine Anenih to persuade all registered political parties to create more favourable conditions for the participation of women in elective politics. Our advocacy had mixed results and would be recounted on another day. What is clear however is that Nkoyo's engagement in activism over the years has helped produce noticeable and positive strides and changes in many sectors of our society. Nonetheless, the numbers of women who participate on influential platforms of our polity remain miserably low. And this is despite the support women have made to building our democracy and their ongoing determination to significantly affect the way politics advances their interest.
Nkoyo Toyo has lived a life of service to community and country. Her focus has always been on the deepening of democracy by making it more inclusive of women and young persons. She has the type of profile that makes her a democratic actor and therefore a good candidate for public office. I wish her the very best as she engages in this epic contest to become the next and the first female governor of Cross River State. That male-only glass ceiling must be broken.
Professor Jibrin Ibrahim
Senior Fellow
Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja
Follow me on twitter @jibrinibrahim17
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--Okey C. Ihedurue-mail: okeyiheduru@gmail.com
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