Nigeria's President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari.

I congratulate the President-elect of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, General Muhammadu Buhari, on his selection as President after a most traumatic process.

General Buhari's emergence today, in no way obviates the trust deficit and suspicions that exist regarding his candidature and likely thrust of his regime.  

The faulty structure and composition of the Nigerian Federation remains one that must be frontally addressed to ensure sustainable peace and development.

Salute also to the incumbent President, Goodluck Jonathan, who engendered and sustained an atmosphere for various freedoms which precipitated a relatively free and conducive electoral process.

The healing process begins. Nigeria will yet prevail.....

Picture: Nigeria's President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari

Nigeria Decides 2015

by Eze Eluchie

As Nigeria decides on 28th March 2015.....

Whichever way the pendulum swings, there will be change: It will be a new dawn; a new tenure/regime; a new National assembly; a new more involved electorate.

If President Jonathan is re-elected, with the ear-full the President has been inundated with during the past few months and the electioneering periods: There must be changes in the tempo of governance and response to issues; Renewed efforts at restructuring and implementing the outcomes of the National Conference; Drastic changes in personnel manning key Ministries and agencies which proved incredulously and deliberately incompetent; Re-energized response to terror; Strengthening and ensuring stability in the attainments in the economic sector; Sustained changes in key national infrastructure, particularly agriculture, power and transportation sectors; Entrenchment of electoral reforms which have served to increase popular participation and interest in governance; and so on.....

If on the converse General Buhari emerges: There will be a near instantaneous quietening down of terror activities in the northeast region; Drastic efforts to upturn policies and programs of the past government with a view to robbing it of whatever glory it might claim to have and thus creating instability in economic and governance policies; Reduced emphasis on formal education in the light of the head of governments lack of such qualifications; Clampdown on fundamental freedoms, particularly the rights to freedom of speech and free press; The Judicial system and the rule of law will be peripheral in a haste to 'fight corruption';  Our defective national structure and composition will be sustained as efforts at National dialogue will be jettisoned; The Shari'a system will be prioritized at the national level; The systemic privatization of national assets as exemplified in the States in Nigeria's southwestern zone; Likelihood of Nigeria attaining the status of a pariah state in the light of pending litigation against the head of State for 'crimes against humanity' emanating from the 2011 Presidential elections; and so on....

There will be change any way the votes turn out - let's make the change a positive one....

If, for this purpose, we can contain the antics of the character that I have dubbed 'the saint', Nigeria will prevail.



Picture: Ballot box for Nigeria's elections

Is It The International Or African Criminal Court?

by Eze Eluchie

Clearly International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, acted well outside her brief and authority when she issued her statement on Nigeria's forthcoming elections (see video link below), further buttressing believes in several quarters that the ICC has an institutionalized bias and penchant to 'look into' African affairs whilst paying little or no attention whatsoever to ongoing commission of more heinous crimes in other parts of the world.

Madam Prosecutor should try to focus on the core mandate of the ICC: Genocides, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity. Electoral crimes or violence ensuing therefrom which our domestic legal and security system can contain is certainly not an issue for the ICC - it was this same disrespect for the sovereignty of African States that led the ICC on its degenerating wild-goose efforts at prosecuting the sitting President of the Republic of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta.

To discerning observers, particularly on the African continent, the real mandate of the ICC, conspicuously Afrocentric, is increasingly getting suspicious.

Prosecutor Bensouda should remember that she works for the International Criminal Court (ICC) and not the Africa Criminal Court (ACC)!!

ICC's Bensouda's statement:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BjqcebgHPY

Picture: ICC Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda.