Category: Opinion

By Osita Nwanevu

In January 1973, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., a 30-year-old county councilman who won an upset election by just over 3,000 votes, was sworn in as one of the youngest senators in the nation’s history. Today, at 78, he will take office as our oldest elected president. The 48 years Biden has spent in national politics are often referred to as years spent in “public service” to this country. But not even our best politicians of long tenure can claim to have served the country as consistently well as they might have in retrospect. By his own admission, Biden has spent significant portions of his career on the wrong side of issues ranging from criminal justice to foreign policy.

The substantive case against him as a political figure has been made repeatedly and at length over the last two years; the response to many of these criticisms has been that Biden is a different man today than he once was. But the better part of his career has been marked by one damning and instructive constant: Despite his failures in judgment and policymaking and through years of sweeping social and political change, Joe Biden’s preferred solution to the problems facing the American people has always been Joe Biden. And in his third run for the presidency, evidently the charm, he finally got a majority of the American electorate to agree with him.

The job Biden’s been angling for all these years is a terrible one in the best of times. And these, to put it mildly, are not the best of times. By the time Biden lays his hand on the inaugural Bible, the coronavirus pandemic will have killed over 400,000 Americans. His first major legislative push will be for a nearly $2 trillion relief package aimed at keeping the economy above water and reshaping the federal government’s public health response. Everyone in Democratic and progressive politics agrees that his main project afterward will be “rebuilding.” What the word actually means is an open question. As the pandemic worsened and November drew closer, Biden and his surrogates took to insisting, after a primary campaign defined by a promise to govern from the center, that he would instead pursue “an FDR-size presidency.” Democratic control of Congress will give him the power to make good on that commitment if the party’s moderates eliminate the Senate filibuster. Biden has yet to push for this, in part because the move conflicts with a task he has suggested is even more important: healing our political divide.

This cannot be done, and Biden probably knows it. But there’s a chance he, like many Americans, has been fooled by the relative peace and concord of the past few decades into believing peace and concord have been the American norm—a stable state we might return to if the right leaders say the right things. This isn’t so. Our history as a country has been bloody and fractious. It is violence and division that have been the norm. The domestic tranquility of the years since the early 1970s have been an odd interlude, one that is apparently ending. And every spiritual crisis we’ve ever faced has been produced or dwarfed by long-standing material ones. They are not hidden, although sometimes they manage to surprise us.

On Monday, the Capitol was locked down once again as smoke rose ominously behind the building. A rehearsal for the inaugural ceremony was evacuated. There had been an explosion—not a bomb from one of the president’s supporters, but a propane heater at a nearby homeless encampment. A woman trying to keep warm had set a fire that engulfed her tent. She declined a trip to the hospital. It was decided by the authorities that she posed no threat to the Capitol and the people within it. They were right. Our institutions have been placed safely beyond her reach.

Before we set about trying to restore our nation’s soul, shouldn’t we prove to ourselves, first, that we have one?

Before we set about trying to restore our nation’s soul, shouldn’t we prove to ourselves, first, that we have one? Is there really some noble purpose that we’ve strayed from? One of President Trump’s last acts in office, the release of the partially plagiarized 1776 Report, was putatively an attempt to silence the skeptics on this question; it’s implausible that it convinced any of the unconverted. But what would? How might Joe Biden and our political leaders renew faith in the American project? This was the question on the minds of the nation’s least interesting commentators throughout last summer. And then, as now, the answer was simple: commit to making America a democratic society capable of meaningfully addressing its largest problems.

We have an economy built upon extraordinary and abominable inequities of wealth and power—one that leaves thousands of people in our nation’s capital and in cities across the country searching for warmth on cold January mornings. Reorder it. We face an ecological crisis that will disrupt and destabilize American life 10 times more than another 10 years of Donald Trump would have. Confront it. We are governed by skewed political institutions that, by design, grant some Americans more political power than others. Remake them.

None of these objectives will unite America. But neither did most of the moral and political advances we’re now urged to take pride in. Biden has an opportunity now to remind the American people of this—to frame division as the price for progress and not an obstacle to be evaded. He will not take it. The interests governing his party and our politics will not permit it. And so the tasks of speaking frankly to the American people and agitating for the deepest changes they require will fall to activists and voices outside our political system.

We will fall short—the work of remaking this country will be the work of decades and generations. But we might succeed in setting ourselves off on the right foot. Joe Biden and the political actors who will be subjected to pressure from the left in the coming months and years will not be ideologically converted. They will not be made stewards of progressive values or crusaders in a fight against capitalism. They will remain, forever, dogged opponents in that fight. But there are moments in history when, if conditions are right, the resolve of critical actors with an instinct for political self-preservation can be cracked and material gains can be made. We may well be on the cusp of one now. Let’s find out.

• This article was first published in www.newrepublic.com

By Tony Ademiluyi

In 1988 Donald Trump made speculations that he will be throwing his hat in the ring in the US presidential race. Nobody gave the ‘Real Estate’ mogul a chance as the then Vice-President George Bush Sr was the front liner by the opinion polls to succeed the legendary Ronald Reagan.

Trump known for his publicity stunts carefully weighed public opinion and decided not to press his ambition further. Not tired, he tried the same stunt in 1992 shortly after his famous bankruptcy filing and decided not to go ahead as there was no way he could have gotten the Republican party ticket as Bush had a very high approval rating no thanks to the Gulf War.

When he announced in 2016 that he will be running for the highest political office in Uncle Sam under the Republican Party, few gave him half of a chance. Historians saw it as one more stunt as the blonde clearly loved being in front of the camera. Political pundits laughed at him to scorn as well as his fellow contenders in the Grand Old Party (GOP). He did the unthinkable by clinching the ticket and the then US President Barack Obama warned the nation that he was unfit to govern the country.

No sooner had he won the primaries that he began to show his true colours of a racist and vile populist. He whipped up anti immigrant sentiments by opining that the immigrants were stealing jobs forgetting that America’s beauty is that it is a land built on the labour of immigrants and he himself is the grandson of a German immigrant. He promised to build a wall reminiscent of the Iron Curtain in the days of yore of the Cold War to permanently keep the Mexicans out of American soil. Like the Scion of the infamous Ku Klux Klan, he appealed to the Caucasians especially those whose economic fortune had nosedived, the Christian Evangelicals who were aghast at the progress being made by the Far Left especially with the legalization of same sex marriage under the Obama Presidency and the massive funding for abortion and its exportation overseas, his fellow racists who couldn’t live with the fact that a first generation immigrant of a Kenyan who went back to his country after his studies at Harvard now sat in the White House as real proof of the American dream. In the end he defeated Hillary Clinton by 304 to 227 even though the former First Lady surpassed him by nearly 2.9 million popular votes.

The Bull in the China Shop in fairness to him has to his credit massive job creation for Americans owing to his controversial success as a businessman. For the first time since Franklin Delano Roosevelt who launched the New Deal in 1933 which saw the American economy recover exponentially from the Great Depression, the economy in the early years of Trump roared like a Lion and it was inclusive of the blacks and other ethnic minorities.

His asinine racist tendencies greatly eroded the gains he made. He placed a ban on some Muslim nationals coming into the country dismissing them as terrorists. He abolished Obamacare that brought relief to millions of poor Americans who were hitherto denied affordable healthcare as it is the most expensive in the world. Trump didn’t mind leaving the vulnerable including the homeless at the mercy of the ruthless sharks called the Pharmaceutical companies who operate like the modern day reincarnation of the Shakespearean Shylock. His immigration policies separated children from their immigrant parents especially from Mexico and illegal immigrants lived in the perpetual fear of a heartless deportation even in some cases when they were children of illegal immigrants.

His ‘America First’ saw the shrinking of Uncle Sam in global politics as he pulled her out of the Paris Climate Agreement and the Iran Nuclear Deal. He snubbed Africa as his relationship with the continent was paternalistic and patronizing and he couldn’t be bothered to visit any country there.

Some officials from the World Health Organization warned him as far back as January 2020 of the corona virus but he dismissed it with the wave of the hand. His lackadaisical attitude towards providing effective leadership cost his countrymen over 400,000 lives and made mincemeat of his economic progress as over one million of his countrymen filed for unemployment benefits.

When he was up for re-election against Joe Biden late last year, he called the latter all sorts of derogatory names most notably ‘Sleepy Joe.’ Biden went on to defeat with a landslide of 306 to 232 Electoral College votes and by securing 81 million popular votes – the highest ever in the annals of American electoral history.

Trump, being a sore loser would hear none of it. He couldn’t act like a gentleman by congratulating Biden. Instead he called the election a fraud and rallied his riotous supporters on Twitter to an insurrection on the Capitol Hill on January 6 when the Senate met to confirm Biden’s electoral victory.

At the end of the day, the social media giants – Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Youtube permanently banned him from their platforms and his right wing supporters found refuge in Parler created by John Matze and backed by conservative journalist Dan Bongino which was later yanked off from Amazon web hosting services. Like a child whose candy was taken away from him, he refused to attend Joe Biden’s Inauguration yesterday.

Joe Biden has the onerous task of uniting the bitterly divided country which has been badly polarized by his predecessor’s childish and rancorous antics. He has to make sure that all Americans are given the equal opportunity to dream without any iota of racial barriers.

The theme of his inaugural speech was hope as he said ‘We will write an American story of hope.’ America badly needs a gargantuan dose of hope as the pandemic has rendered many economically destitute.

We commend his $1.9 trillion stimulus package which will see the poorest of the poor receiving $2000 a month. This will in no small measure restore their dignity and put a smile on their beleaguered faces.

Biden has the common touch which makes his story relatable and resonates with the common American. He struggled through school and didn’t attend any of the Ivy Leagues that traditionally produce the Presidents. 2020 was his third attempt at the Presidency having lost in 1988 and 2000. He had a personal tragedy in 1972 when he was just elected into the Senate. He lost his young wife and daughter in a car accident and was sworn in from the hospital as he attended to his injured son. He also lost his son, a former Attorney-General of Delaware to brain cancer while he was Vice-President. In a video widely circulated by Arise News, he put a call across to a Nigerian man and his daughter thanking him for his $12 contribution to his campaign and bonding with them on the phone. This shows the humane side of him not common with African especially Nigerian politicians.

On his first day at work he has overturned some of Trump’s policies by signing some executive orders which included the rejoining of the Paris Climate Accord, Ending the travel ban from several Muslim majority countries and bringing back America into the World Health Organization (WHO).

We are confident that his Presidency will spell a better deal for Africa as opposed to Trump’s isolationist one.

Biden scores a first in being the oldest American President at 78 and the second Roman-Catholic after John Fitzgerald Kennedy to sit in the White House.

We wish him the best of luck!

Over to you Biden!

• Tony Ademiluyi wrote from Lagos.

By Bolu Adeosun

THE importance of quality roads to the development of the Nigerian society is constantly in the national discourse, and so needs no repetition here. In Ogun, as in every other state, there is apparently a veritable need for good roads to link communities and create an enabling environment for investment to thrive. Since coming on board as the fifth democratically elected governor of Ogun State on his 59th birthday on May 29, 2019, Prince Dapo Abiodun has left no one in doubt about his desire to make Ogun State an investment destination and development hub ready to live up to its billing as  Nigeria’s Gateway State.  Underrated by many based on the false notion that a billionaire business mogul attuned to years of boardroom presentations would not make it in the murky waters of politics, a notion easily disproved but nevertheless tenaciously held on to by naysayers, Abiodun has unveiled an ambitious acronym ISEYA philosophy; “Building our future together”, solidly anchored on business models and the notion  of governance as problem-solving, setting up new institutions and intervening to make extant institutions more relevant and able to deliver on their social mandates.

Bad roads, Nigerians have come to learn time and again, are a major bane of the economy. Vehicles get spoilt on the roads almost as a daily ritual even as the movement of goods from one place to the other is perpetually imperiled: as if by compulsion, perishable produce rot on farmlands. Happily, though, long abandoned roads are receiving attention in Prince Abiodun’s Ogun where campaign promises have become articles of faith. As has been previously remarked, anyone visiting Ogun in recent times will readily attest to the fact that it is gradually becoming a huge construction site. In this regard, it is crucial to remark on the ongoing rebuilding of the Abeokuta-Sagamu interchange road for a moment. Constructed by the Gbenga Daniel administration and Obasanjo inaugurated by the then President Olusegun Obasanjo, the road had suffered from the normal wear and tear over the years. Last year, as part of the efforts by the Abiodun government to rehabilitate existing roads in the three senatorial districts of the state, attention quickly shifted to the Sagamu interchange- Abeokuta road, which had become notorious on account of its state of disrepair and the nightmare of travellers.

The road, 42 kilometres long and 14.6 meters wide, is strategically important as the major route linking Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, to Nigeria’s commercial hub, Lagos, as well as the Eastern parts of the country. It originates from the Government House, Abeokuta, and traverses the densely populated business districts and residential areas of Ibara, Kuto, MKO Abiola Stadium, Oke-Mosan, Laderin, Kobape and Siun, terminating at the interchange. The two-lane dual carriageway separated by a two-meter median boasts of state-of-the-art architecture, including standard drainages and functional streetlights. There is of course the reconstruction of existing earth drains with adequate turn outs where necessary. And, again, there is a divider on the road with ornamental trees planted to create aesthetic appeal. When the construction began, as noted by the state Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Ade Akisanya, three milling machines were sited on it to remove the entire asphaltic portions and replace them with new asphalt overlay of both binder and wearing course, to ease traffic congestion in the area, as well as improve the socio-economic development of the people along that corridor. The rehabilitation of the road became necessary in order to alleviate the hardship of riders and motorists plying the route and, in any case, the people along the corridor stood to benefit a great deal, as the rehabilitation would improve their socio-economic status.

Apart from commercial motorists plying the corridor who lauded the Abiodun administration for embarking on the construction of the road and eliminating the hardships previously faced by motorists and other road users, the communities along the corridor have been witnessing exponential growth and development.  That is the main point that this essay wishes to draw attention to. Remarkably, even though the project has hardly extended beyond 70 per cent completion, users are already singing happy tunes. In the past, if you were going to Abeokuta from Sagamu you would spend about an hour and 25 minutes: but now, because the road is smooth and boasts modern road architecture, the journey takes only about 30 minutes. Invaluable man hours are no longer wasted in nerve-wracking hold-ups. Accidents have reduced to the barest minimum, and the potholes that caused motorists so much despair have disappeared. Industrial estates are springing up along the corridor:  all of a sudden, the place has become an industrial hub. Distilleries are doing well there. Many people are now coming there to establish businesses, which is facilitating development. The lesson is clear: you must have a good road network for businesses to thrive.

Apart from this, roads are of course being built across all the local government areas in the state. Last September, while inspecting the laying of asphalt on the ongoing reconstruction of Adigbe road in Abeokuta South local government area, Governor Abiodun promised to continue embarking on projects that would attract more development into the state. As he noted, his administration had commenced full rebranding of the entire state, and road construction was ongoing in various parts of the state, including Sagamu-Abeokuta road, Adigbe road, the reconstruction of which has been extended to Obaada in Ewekoro local government area to enhance the economic value of the axis; Oba Erinwole road in Sagamu, Obantoko road, and Ijebu-ode/Epe road. The Adigbe road was initially awarded by the Ibikunle Amosun administration but was abandoned by the contractor due to non-availability of funds. Besides, Governor Abiodun also approved the reconstruction of 12 roads across 11 local government areas of the state. The roads included the Ijebu Ode-Epe/Sagamu-Ore Interchange Flyover in Ijebu-Ode/Odogbolu, the 1.2km Ilishan Market Road in Ikenne, the 2.0km Itori Junction-Total road in Ewekoro, the1.3km Joju Road in Ado-Odo Ota LGA, the 3.41km Olomore Junction-Sanni Road in Abeokuta North, the 5.9km Sagamu Junction-Iperu Roundabout road in Sagamu/Ikenne, the 3.0km Iperu Roundabout-Ode Road in Ikenne, and, of course, the 7.0km Ago Iwoye-Oru-Ijebu Igbo road in Ijebu North. Others were the 5.7km Somorin-Kemta, Idi-Aba Road in Odeda, 3.8km Ilashe-Koko-Alari road in Ipokia, the 8.0km Orile Oko road in Remo North, and the 2.3km Obafemi Awolowo Way-Mada-Takete in Remo North.

Without noisemaking and without any frills, Governor Abiodun is proving critics wrong. He is no doubt a silent achiever who loves the state passionately and wants to make a mark. And make a mark he certainly will.

By Igboeli Arinze

As Ohanaeze NdiIgbo gets a new leadership to steer its affairs for another two years it is imperative that members of the NdiIgbo commentariat as well as the academia begin to engage the George Obiozor led executive with ideas via which the Pan Igbo organization may positively impact the lives of NdiIgbo and help the single largest ethnic group in Nigeria interact with other groups in a manner that is dignifying but with results in improving the Nigerian nation that all ethnic groups living in Nigeria may live harmoniously with each other.

This is not to say that past leaderships of Ohanaeze have not been impactful, for me the stewardship of Uwechue, Igariwey and Nwodo were quite remarkable save for one thing only, their resort to dragging Ohanaeze into the muddy waters of unhealthy partisanship, which has rubbed off poorly on Ohanaeze NdiIgbo and the Igbo nation.

I am not saying that Ohanaeze can not speak for the Igbo nation or negotiate the interests of the Igbo nation with the political players of the Nigerian nation, but when it seems that the group is seemingly draped in the robes of one political party and is seen as an appendage of that party which for 16 years did little or nothing for NdiIgbo as compared to what the party she has repeatedly booed and scorned is presently doing, then one must wonder to what strategic ends the pan Igbo group is playing for.

Thus the George Obiozor leadership must chart its course as an unbiased body, strategically negotiating from the point of non partisanship in order to give NdiIgbo her place in the sun. The perpetual painting of other ethnic groups as our enemy while we hobble  over little or nothing will continuously place hurdles before us where we should be sprinting. There are a number of key issues as well as challenges before us, Ohanaeze must therefore begin an entente of sorts with the other ethnic groups, negotiating our collective interests out of strength and not fear.

The twin issues of restructuring and Igbo Presidency should be chief among such an agenda. Restructuring of the Nigerian nation should be paramount to Ohanaeze as it is key to ridding Nigeria of a number of impediments that have bogged down the nation’s progress since independence. Ohanaeze must sit with other ethnic groups particularly those within the minority and chart an agenda for restructuring but in doing so it must allay the fears of others that its quest for restructuring is not a prelude to wanting to secede from the Federation but to further strengthen the unity of the country and cement in the much needed harmony that development, peace and progress may follow.

The issue of Igbo Presidency is also key to such an agenda as it is the turn of NdiIgbo to produce the next president come 2023. Ohanaeze must begin to also demand that the two major parties zone their presidential tickets to NdiIgbo as well as begin to look inwards to engineer a process that will prevent the Igbo phenomenon from rearing it’s head again as it did in 2003 and 2007 when a number of Igbos flew the presidential party flags of a number of parties. It must in doing this understand the political arithmetic that no zone can make a president on its own, it needs the support of the other zones, which are populated by a number of ethnic groups, otherwise it can kiss such an opportunity goodbye.

Other issues affecting the Igbo nation such as its economy as well as security should also top its agenda. Ohanaeze must look inwards and evolve from the perception that it is an old men’s club into an organization that is dynamic, resonating with the much needed intellectual bent to move the Igbo nation further, let us have an Ohanaeze of ideas , one that runs, thrives and build on ideas! Ohanaeze can engage the political leadership within the Igbo nation or serve as a link between the political leadership and the experts  on agriculture, manufacturing, oil and gas, telecommunications, media and services. Why should the Igbo nation not be the industrial hub of the nation’s industry 2.0

The issue of security should also top Ohanaeze’s agenda, insecurity within the SouthEast will continue to rob us of the much needed investment needed to create jobs and increase the standard of living within the states that make up the Igbo nation, it is about time that the Pan Igbo group fashions a security road map for the Igbo nation and gets the five governors to agree on such a road map.

The list is endless but I am quite sure that should the Professor Obiozor led executive hit the ground running, the Igbo nation would be in good hands at least for the next two years.

Nigeria will succeed.