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Tag: New York Times

  • Nigeria’s economic situation: New York Times got it all wrong

    Nigeria’s economic situation: New York Times got it all wrong

    By Bayo Onanuga

    Ruth Maclean and Ismail Auwal’s feature story with the title ‘Nigeria Confronts Its Worst Economic Crisis in a Generation’, published on June 11, reflected the typical predetermined, reductionist, derogatory, and denigrating way foreign media establishments reported African countries for several decades. 

    Because of the misleading slant of the report, we need to clear up some misconceptions conveyed by the reporters as regards the economic policies of the Tinubu administration that came into power at the end of May 2023.

    Most significant about the report was that it painted the dire experiences of some Nigerians amid the inflationary spiral of the last year and blamed it all on the policies of the new administration. The report, based on several interviews, is at best jaundiced, all gloom and doom, as it never mentioned the positive aspects in the same economy as well as the ameliorative policies being implemented by the central and state governments. 

    To be sure, President Tinubu did not create the economic problems Nigeria faces today. He inherited them. As a respected economist in our country once put it, Tinubu inherited a dead economy. The economy was bleeding and needed quick surgery to avoid being plunged into the abyss, as happened in Zimbabwe and Venezuela. This was the background to the policy direction taken by the government in May/June 2023: the abrogation of the fuel subsidy regime and the unification of the multiple exchange rates.

    Read Also: Tinubu hails fathers as true heroes on Father’s Day

    For decades, Nigeria had maintained a fuel subsidy regime that gulped $84.39 billion between 2005 and 2022 from the public treasury in a country with huge infrastructural deficits and in high need of better social services for its citizens. The state oil firm, NNPC, the sole importer, had amassed trillions of naira in debts for absorbing the unsustainable subsidy payments in its books. By the time President Tinubu took over the leadership of the country, there was no provision made for fuel subsidy payments in the national budget beyond June 2023. The budget itself had a striking feature: it planned to spend 97 percent of revenue servicing debt, with little left for recurrent or capital expenditure. The previous government had resorted to massive borrowing to cover such costs. Like oil, the exchange rate was also being subsidized by the government, with an estimated $1.5 billion spent monthly by the CBN to ‘defend’ the currency against the unquenchable demand for the dollar by the country’s import-dependent economy. By keeping the rate low, arbitrage grew as a gulf existed between the official rate and the rate being used by over 5000 BDCs that were previously licensed by the Central Bank. What was more, the country was failing to fulfil its remittance obligations to airlines and other foreign businesses, such that FDIs and investment in the oil sector dried up, and notably Emirate Airlines cut off the Nigerian route.

    President Tinubu had to deal with the cancer of public finance on the first day by rolling back the subsidy regime and the generosity that spread to neighbouring countries. Then, his administration floated the naira.

    After some months of the storm, with the naira sliding as low as N1,900 to the US dollar, some stability is being restored, though there remain some challenges. The exchange rate is now below N1500 to the dollar, and there are prospects that the naira could regain its muscle and appreciate to between N1000 and N1200 before the end of the year. The economy recorded a trade surplus of N6.52 trillion in Q1, as against a deficit of N1.4 trillion in Q4 of 2023. Portfolio investors have streamed in as long-term investors. When Diageo wanted to sell its stake in Guinness Nigeria, it had the Singaporean conglomerate, Tolaram, ready for the uptake. With the World Bank extending a $2.25 billion loan and other loans by the AfDB and Afreximbank coming in, Nigeria has become bankable again. This is all because the reforms being implemented have restored some confidence.

    The inflationary rate is slowing down, as shown in the figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics for April. Food inflation remains the biggest challenge, and the government is working very hard to rein it in with increased agricultural production. The Tinubu administration and the 36 states are working assiduously to produce food in abundance to reduce the cost. Some state governments, such as Lagos and Akwa Ibom, have set up retail shops to sell raw food items to residents at a lower price than the market price. The Tinubu government, in November last year, in consonance with its food emergency declaration, invested heavily in dry-season farming, giving farmers incentives to produce wheat, maize, and rice. The CBN has donated N100 billion worth of fertiliser to farmers, and numerous incentives are being implemented. In the western part of Nigeria, the six governors have announced plans to invest massively in agriculture.

    With all the plans being executed, inflation, especially food inflation, will soon be tamed.

    Nigeria is not the only country in the world facing a rising cost of living crisis. The USA, too, is contending with a similar crisis, with families finding it hard to make ends meet. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen raised this concern recently. Europe is similarly in the throes of a cost-of-living crisis. As those countries are trying to confront the problem, the Tinubu administration is also working hard to overturn the economic problems in Nigeria.

    Our country faced economic difficulties in the past, an experience that has been captured in folk songs. Just like we overcame then, we shall overcome our present difficulties very soon. 

    •Onanuga is Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy 

  • Bill Clinton lauds 8-year-old Nigerian boy for winning Chess Championship

    Former U.S President, Bill Clinton has congratulated the eight year-old Nigerian chess champion, Tanitoluwa Adewunmi and also invited him and his parents to his office for personal introduction.

    The young Nigerian recently won the New York State Chess championship for his age bracket.

    The New York Times reported that Adewunmi had won seven chess trophies including the state tournament, where he outwitted other children.

    The story went viral and got the attention of Clinton.

    According to the New York Times, the young chess champion’s family are taking asylum in a homeless shelter in Manhattan after they fled the Boko Haram insurgency since 2018.

    Adewunmi, went undefeated at the state tournament, outwitting children from elite private schools with private chess tutors.

    Tanitoluwa rating is now 1587 and rising fast and he is being compared with the world’s best player, Magnus Carlsen, who stands at 2845.

    READ ALSO: Winner emerges in Navy chess championship

    His feat has attracted commendations from parents and celebrities.

    In a tweet on his Twitter handle-@BillClinton, the former number one citizen said: “Refugees enrich our nation and talent is universal, even if opportunity is not.”

    The former U.S president now joins the queue of people celebrating the boy and his feats.

    Clinton said “this story made me smile, Tanitoluwa “ you exemplify a winning spirit – in chess and in life.”

    “And kudos to your hardworking parents. You all should stop by my office in Harlem; I’d love to meet you.”

    Tanitoluwa placed first in the New York State Scholastic Championships tournament for kindergarten through third grade, a remarkable win for anyone.

    In an interview with New York Times, the young chess champion said: “I want to be the youngest grand master.

    NAN

  • Reward for honesty

    REFERENDUM on honesty”. That was the way The New York Times captured President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory in the February 23 presidential election. It could not have been more apt. Unfortunately, this was the point missed by those who had been hallucinating about an Alhaji Atiku Abubakar victory at the poll. I had made the point several times; that Atiku and Buhari are not mates when it comes to electoral contest. Atiku may have all the money, he may have been in the trade for decades; but money and experience alone cannot ensure victory for him in an electoral contest with a man like Buhari, given the fanatical support Buhari enjoys, especially among the talakawa (the poor) who constitute the majority of voters in the north.

    I have said it several times , and it bears restating that whatever might be Buhari’s shortcomings in the last three and a half years, Atiku cannot be the solution. I cannot imagine a Nigeria in the hands of an Atiku. A major point that Atiku’s backers missed and continue to miss, and to their own peril, is that Atiku’s baggage is too much of an albatross. It is immaterial whether the baggage is real or perceived. That perception has come to stick; and unfortunately so. To the extent that Atiku has not succeeded in shaking off that tar, he would keep losing elections to a man like Buhari again and again.

    Buhari’s victory only shows that there are some things money cannot buy. The victory is indeed a victory for democracy with its ‘one man, one vote’. Left to the country’s rich, Buhari would not have had the opportunity of even a first coming. And if by some error he got that, they would make sure he never got the revalidation of the mandate. Those of them in the north who know the consequences of openly opposing Buhari after the announcement of the result have since held their peace. They know that denying Buhari’s victory would attract sanctions of unimaginable proportions from the talakawa that they (the political elite in the region themselves bred).

    Indeed, to say that Buhari is a movement, especially in the northern region, is saying the obvious. So, that he got  15,191,847 votes to defeat Atiku who had 11,262,978 should not have come as a surprise to any rational observer of his antecedents since 2003 when he had been contesting for the office of president, before he finally made it in 2015. In 2003, he had 12,710,022 votes; in 2007, he had 6,605,299 votes; in 2011, 12,214,853 votes and in 2015, he had 15,424,921 votes. Except in the 2007 elections which were known to be generally flawed, Buhari had been reaping millions even when he was not in power. So, what is the hue and cry all about now that he had 15,191,847 votes?

    Pray, where did the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) get its 24.4 million votes in 2003; 24.6 million votes in 2007 and 22.4 million votes announced for it in 2011? In all those elections, Buhari believed he was elbowed out by the powers that be. In all of those years alone, over 35 million voters were recorded for the PDP and Buhari on the average. Yet, his was a lone voice in the wilderness. The man was in and out of courtrooms in his efforts to seek redress for what he saw as electoral injustice. He got none; until Dr Goodluck Jonathan was magnanimous enough to concede defeat to him in 2015. And now that he repeated the feat by getting the same 15 million plus votes that he had in 2015, Atiku is crying foul. What happened was that apart from retaining his hold on the north, Buhari was able to use the power of incumbency to garner votes from other regions, including the southeast and south-south where some of the political bigwigs there aligned with his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). That did not happen in 2105, or before.

    The problem with many of our politicians, especially the moneybags, is that they find it difficult to believe that there is nothing money cannot buy. Ask the Late M.K.O. Abiola, he would tell you that he knew money was shamed when, in spite of his billions, all he could do was watch his dear wife (Simbiat) die slowly in the hands of some of the world’s best physicians that money can assemble. One needs to be close to these politicians and their foot soldiers to know how the latter flatter the former at election times, just to get money from them, ostensibly for their campaign. I guess this is one of the things that happened to Atiku that kept giving him the impression that he could floor Buhari. He had probably been deceived by his campaign handlers that the entire country was in his pocket. I do not know how much Atiku committed to this battle of his life; but I know it must have been humongous. Just as I predicted in my column last Sunday, Atiku has indicated interest in seeking redress in court. I wish him whatever he deserves.

    But then, it is pertinent to ask who Atiku’s campaign managers were that gave him the audacity to be hopeful. Senate President Bukola Saraki was the director-general of his presidential campaign organisation. Former Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, led the South-west axis.

    We have now seen that Saraki is only living on past glory; he is indeed a spent force. ‘O to ge’ has silenced him in Kwara State. How could someone who could not save himself in his state and got mercilessly shellacked all round in the presidential and National Assembly elections there have been chosen to lead the campaign of a serious presidential hopeful? If Atiku did not see what happened to his campaign director-general coming, he must have been naïve indeed. Then, what is Fayose’s political worth in the southwest? Atiku aligned with all the spent forces in the region, including Afenifere whose members cannot win elections even in their homes, and hoped to win election. Things don’t work that way. Even former President Olusegun Obasanjo who endorsed Atiku after saying God would never forgive him (Obasanjo) if he ever supported Atiku, has always been a political Lilliputian in his sphere of influence. As a matter of fact, the way things are, anyone supported by Obasanjo is likely to lose in the southwest. The people are too sophisticated to be led by a man who is swinging support at every turn. The dynamics have since changed from the perception of Obasanjo of 2015. It is too bad if Atiku did not reckon with this too. We can go on and on.

    The point is; only Atiku has the kind of money to throw away on a dicey mission as challenging Buhari, with all of the latter’s imperfections. Others who might have coveted Buhari’s job saw through the futility and decided to keep whatever was left of their money for something viable. Even if someone else had emerged as the PDP presidential flag bearer, it was unlikely Atiku would support the fellow financially the way he did himself. This is only natural. Hence, they all conceded to Atiku at the party’s primaries on the ground that the exercise was transparent and fair, as well as pledged their support to him. Indeed, they had no choice; they have a common enemy in Buhari who they could not predict what he could do to them if he got a second term.

    In essence, therefore, Atiku failed to understand that with the massive captive kind of supporters that Buhari has, it would be difficult to push him over in an electoral contest, despite how sunk values have even in our country. It is the kind of thing that money cannot buy. Let Atiku shut the tap of funds, look behind him and see how many ‘yes orchestra’ would still be following him. The opposite is true of Buhari; his supporters are simply crazy about him and would follow him come rain, come shine. In sickness and in health.

    I do not know what Atiku is looking for in court beyond exercising his democratic right to seek redress for real or perceived injustice in the election. I would rather suggest that he does forensic audit of the cash he disbursed to his campaign managers for onward transfer to his supporters. I guess Atiku himself is not a nincompoop in this business. He knows that many of those given cash for sharing to party supporters are not honest enough to share everything. As a matter of fact, those of them who shared between 40-50 percent of the money would have been deemed very honest indeed. What is more? In most cases, these people ‘edit’ such money into their pockets when they know that their principals do not have any chance of winning. So, they want to take care of their pockets so they do not lose out completely when the results are eventually announced. Meanwhile, they would have started addressing their principal as ‘Mr President’, ‘His Excellency’ for governor, or ‘My Chair’, depending on the office the principal is seeking. The good news for Atiku from me is that I have the rare gift to sniff out such people and what they had embezzled, and I am hereby offering myself for this noble service. But that is only for a fraction of what he spent on the election! Or, am I not entitled to that?

    Anyway, since Atiku has decided to go to court, I guess it is time for lawyers and probably judges who are yet to get their billions to smile to the bank. God probably wants to bless some of them too. By his decision, Atiku is only exhibiting one of the known traits of our politicians; they are incurable optimists. And who would blame him if the money in his arsenal is crying to be spent? Even the international community that seemed to be on his side has since abandoned him, seeing the futility of his agitation. That is how, one after the other, his backers would continue to thin out till he remains the only man standing for himself. Such is life.

    Finally, I enjoin Atiku and his supporters to go and read the The New York Times editorial after the election. Buhari’s victory was a referendum on honesty. No more, no less. Honesty is one of the few things money cannot buy. It was one of the major determinants of the presidential election. Ordinary Nigerian voters took the bull by the horns and seized their destiny from a tiny minority living on our rentier economy that has held them down for decades. Buhari happens to be the face of these hapless hoi polloi.

     

  • Facebook under pressure as U.S., EU call for probes into data practices

    British privacy regulators are seeking a warrant to search the offices of the political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, following reports that the company may have improperly gained access to data on 50 million Facebook users.

    The move came as U.S. and European lawmakers demanded an explanation of how the consulting firm, which worked on President Donald Trump’s election campaign, gained access to the data.

    In the U.S., members of Congress called on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify about Facebook’s actions.

    Facebook said on Monday it had hired forensic auditors from the firm Stroz Friedberg to investigate and determine whether Cambridge Analytica still had the data.

    “Auditors from Stroz Friedberg were on site at Cambridge Analytica’s London office this evening,” the company said in a statement late Monday.

    “At the request of the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, which has announced it is pursuing a warrant to conduct its own on-site investigation, the Stroz Friedberg auditors stood down.”

    Facebook shares closed down nearly 7.0 per cent on Monday, wiping nearly $40 billion off its market value as investors worried that new legislation could damage the company’s advertising business.

    “The lid is being opened on the black box of Facebook data practices, and the picture is not pretty,” said Frank Pasquale, a University of Maryland law professor who has written about Silicon Valley’s use of data.

    Also on Monday, a source said that Facebook head of security, Alex Stamos, plans to leave the company over disagreements about the company’s policies on misinformation.

    He had been a strong advocate for an aggressive approach to alleged Russian activity on the platform aimed at manipulating elections.

    His departure was first reported by the New York Times. Facebook declined immediate comment.

    In a tweet, Stamos did not deny he was leaving but said: “Despite the rumors, I’m still fully engaged with my work at Facebook. It’s true that my role did change.”

    The criticism of Cambridge Analytica presents a new threat to Facebook’s reputation, which is already under attack over Russia’s alleged use of Facebook tools to sway U.S. voters with divisive and false news posts before and after the 2016 election.

    London-based Cambridge Analytica said it strongly denied the media claims, and that it deleted all Facebook data it obtained from a third-party application in 2014 after learning the information did not adhere to data protection rules.

    However, further allegations about the firm’s tactics were reported late Monday by British broadcaster Channel 4 which said it secretly taped interviews with senior Cambridge Analytica executives in which they boasted of their ability to sway elections in countries around the world with digital manipulation and traditional political trickery.

    Cambridge Analytica rejected the allegations, saying in a statement that the Channel 4 report “is edited and scripted to grossly misrepresent the nature of those conversations and how the company conducts its business.”

    Facebook was already facing calls on Saturday for regulation from the U.S. Congress after the reports in the New York Times and London’s Observer over the weekend.

    Republican Senator John Kennedy called on Zuckerberg to testify before Congress, and Democratic Senator Ron Widen sent a letter to Zuckerberg asking about company policies for sharing user data with third parties.

    Facebook usually sends lawyers to testify to Congress, or allows trade organizations to represent it and other technology companies in front of lawmakers.

    Facebook and other social media companies including Twitter Inc and Alphabet Inc’s YouTube have taken voluntary steps to restrict possible foreign interference and combat false news, but they have not been forced by law or regulation to make changes and legislation on the issue has stalled.

    Late on Monday, the Connecticut Attorney General said the office will initiate an inquiry into Facebook data policies.

    The Senate was expected to move forward on Monday with a bill that would chip away at the internet industry’s legal shield, a decades-old law known as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, with a bill intended to address online sex trafficking.

    The measure has already passed the House and is expected to soon become law.

    Reuters/NAN

  • Reps vow to unravel alleged rape cases in IDP camps

    The House of Representative on Wednesday vowed to unravel alleged rampant cases of raping across Internally Displaced Persons ( IDPs ) camp in the country.

    This followed a motion by Rep. Hassan Saleh (Benue-APC) on the “need to investigate the untoward activities going on in the various IDPs camps in Nigeria.”

    Moving the motion, Saleh said government’s effort concerning the care and protection of the IDPs was not enough, hence the need for government to do more to protect the victims.

    He expressed concern over the publication in one of the nation’s dailies of Dec. 17, 2017 on how the IDPs in Nigeria were poorly managed.

    “There are several IDP camps all over the country due to the continuous invasion by Boko Haram which has led to displacement of many innocent citizens from their communities” he said.

    According to him, there are a lot of stories in National dailies including New York Times of the harrowing Experiences of rape allegedly committed against women and girls by men in the camps, especially those who are supposed to protect them.

    He expressed worry that the stories of rape, sex for food and materials, rampant pregnancy and abandonment of young mothers and their children were the same in all the camps across the country.

    “There are also cases of pilfering of relief materials and extortion ravaging the camps.

    “Human Right watch had reportedly written to various government agencies requesting comments on the various allegations emanating from all the camps but has not received any response.

    “The National Emergency Management ( NEMA ) is mandated by its Act to provide relief materials to victims of natural or other disasters and to assist in their rehabilitation but it unable to do so.

    “NEMA and the Refugee Commission which have expanded mandate for IDPs are unable to cope with the level of displacement,” he said.

    The motion was unanimously adopted by members when it was put to a voice vote by the Speaker, Mr Yakubu Dogara.

    The House, therefore, mandated its Committee on IDPs, Refugees and Initiative on North-East to investigate cases of rape, teenage pregnancy, extortion and stealing of relief materials in IDPs’ camps.

    The committee has eight weeks to carry out the assignment.

    NAN

  • Task ahead not easy, says The New York Times

    Task ahead not easy, says The New York Times

    President-elect Muhammadu Buhari has an arduous task, The New York Times said in an editorial published on-line yesterday.

    In the article entitled: “The giant of Africa votes”, the respected newspaper cited falling oil prices, depletion of the Excess Crude Account (ECA) and corruption as some of the problems the new leader must tackle head on.

    “The price of oil, the resource from which the government draws the bulk of its funding, has fallen sharply, taking Nigeria’s currency and foreign currency reserves with it, and history shows that a culture of corruption is not easily uprooted,” the paper wrote.

    It warned that Nigerians, who voted massively for Buhari, who contested on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) against incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), will not take excuses if he failed to meet their aspirations.

    Specifically, it said the APC government will present its scorecard to the electorate in another four years.

    The article reads: “But the president-elect has made clear that he is aware of the challenges before him. More important, the Nigerian electorate, which gave him and his All Progressives Congress party 55 per cent of its vote across geographic, religious and tribal lines, has made clear that it is thoroughly sick of corruption and Boko Haram.

    “Mr. Buhari promises, this time, to abide by the law. Should he be tempted to slide back into his old authoritarian ways, there is another election just four years down the road.”

    The article pointed out that an elected Buhari will be different from Gen. Buhari, who was military Head of State between December 31, 1983 and August 27, 1985.

    The article: “When Muhammadu Buhari last became head of state in Nigeria, it was via a military coup in 1983, when he launched a nasty campaign against ‘indiscipline’ and corruption in his vast African nation that earned him a reputation for brutality and disdain for human rights. Hundreds of politicians and businessmen were convicted by military courts, and minor offenses — like cheating on exams — were enough to send Nigerians to jail. Mr. Buhari was himself overthrown 20 months later, yet now, at age 72, he has returned to rule Nigeria — and, he vows, to continue the war on corruption. The difference is that he has returned through a democratic election.

    “It’s a huge difference. The general election in Nigeria on March 28 was the most competitive ever held in Africa’s most populous country, and if the defeated president, Goodluck Jonathan, peacefully hands power to Mr. Buhari on May 29, it will be the first handover between civilians of different political parties since independence. Given Mr. Jonathan’s gracious concession after his crushing defeat, there is no reason to doubt that this will happen, and every reason to hope that other African states follow the example of the ‘giant of Africa.’

    “Mr. Buhari’s victory was in part due to selective public memory of his earlier rule. To a majority of Nigerian voters, the trim and austere former general increasingly appeared to be the one leader who could stanch the massive loss of wealth to what the World Bank called a ‘deeply embedded culture of corruption,’ and who could rebuild the army into a force capable of taking on the militant Islamist group Boko Haram, which has spread terror and death for almost six years now through northeastern Nigeria. The outgoing government had claimed some success against Boko Haram, but that was achieved only by hiring South African mercenaries.”

  • Advocating women’s rights through Connections

    Advocating women’s rights through Connections

    Uchay Chima and Jimmy Nwanne are women’s rights advocates. Their ongoing art exhibition focuses on gender equality, girl-child education and security.

    The show of 37 fascinating multi-media artworks, titled Connections, which is still on at Temple Muse in Victory Island, is not just to give an overview of such social issues, but to also advocate for the “voiceless”, especially women who have no medium to state their mind and those who speak, yet, no one listens to them, according to the two artists.

    As the world has become a global village where people are connected  via the internet, the artists are also connecting women and the world through their beautiful works, Connections. They seem to know almost the unspoken words, thoughts, motion and emotions of women and girl-child, and insecurity of all sorts, which they presented in this show.

    “I am interested in social and environmental issues, and my work revolves around these. I have often questioned the issues of social crisis and inequality around the globe and have looked for ways to promote oneness and equality through my work. How could the playing field be leveled so that women as well as people with any kind of gender orientation have equal opportunities to realise their rights and desires? It is my belief that everyone is needed and is equal, regardless of colour, tribe, background, gender or language.

    “In the past, women have not been treated right but with the campaign that is going on around the world, I think there is a good future for women when it comes to gender equality, which is why I did this particular piece: Forgetting the Past. Let us forget how women were treated in the past, let women be treated better in the coming years and we are going to continue the campaign for women with our works,” Chima said.

    “As a person I want to speak to people and my means of doing that is through my art. I try to talk about things that are familiar to us and bring things that are not familiar to us to our attention. Things that we don’t really choose to talk about, like the issue of girl-child education. I have three works in this exhibition to advocate for girl child education. I feel everybody has the right to be educated. Malala, the Pakistani girl’s story triggered me to do these pieces. Even though I am a man, I don’t see any reason why a girl should not be allowed to go to school or drive a car,” Nwanne added.

    In their pursuit to advocate for women and promote girl-child education through works, most of Chima and Nwanne’s pieces in this show consist of female subjects, who are mostly young ladies. Chima have been a fulltime studio artist since 2005. He has 13 solo exhibitions to his credit. He is known for his massive sculptures that focus on environmental and social issues, also into installation, sculpture, video art.

    He studied painting at the Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu State, and has had numerous successful shows and art residencies in Canada, the United States and Europe. His works have been featured at the Museum of African Culture in Maine, USA and many other international auctions, including Bonhams in the United Kingdom (UK).

    You can call Nwanne a new comer because Connections is his first exhibition in Nigeria. He is based in Germany. He studied Fine and Applied Arts at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Anambra State.

    Chima’s major works for this show are connected with strings as Chima chose to draw with strings rather than pencil, even though he titled one of the works: No String Attached. “When I do works that have to do with relationship of human connections, I look for materials that I believe are synonymous with the notions of bonding, togetherness, intimacy, entanglement and oneness. These materials include strings, ropes and thread along with painting materials. I believe that the resonance of my preferred materials infer a need to revaluate and, more importantly, to strengthen our relationship with those around us, in the interest of supporting one another through current global difficulties. We are very much attached to one another with strings regardless of our differences,” Chima explained.

    Many may not know him with this medium, however, Chima decided to revisit this medium (drawing with strings) as some people, according to him, have the notion that he cannot draw.

    While the exhibition curator Sandra Obiago said the works are not on display because of this notion. “Connections presents two artists whose subtle lines and texture, kinetic colours and unique materiality bring the vibrant Lagos art scene closer to the global need to keep connected, lined and inter-dependent for life. It is important for him to bring his delicate strings and artistic style. I think a curator should pick something slightly unusual about an artist and present it to the public. I felt that these works were phenomenonal, they have not been exhibited in Nigeria, may be abroad, but people don’t think about string drawing when they think Chima,” she said.

    His ability to capture feminine beauty, their hair do, the contours, and their body movement with delicate strings is fascinating. The drawings are richly done with colour background in dynamic mood and tone, which are appealing to sight.  You cannot but wonder about his innovation and skillful string drawings. “The ultimate beauty or the ultimate part is the female figure and if we see the female figure as the ultimate art, that means there is something about womanhood that you need to celebrate. Instead of putting women down, I think we should celebrate them,” he said. Most of the works in this category are nude subjects.

    A look at Chima’s A village Was Burnt Down, a mixed media of newspaper, charcoal and paint, one is immediately plunges into the world of torture, cruelty of Boko Haram, Chibok village and the kidnapped Chibok girls; and all the recent bombing in the country, a burning issue in the hearts of many.  “What inspired it was when Boko Haram struck and the newspapers said over a hundred people were burnt in Borno. I used charcoal to depict the houses and the newspaper represents the message.”

    Other works on display are Ashes of Yesterday, Spire, and Allure.

    On his part, Nwanne works are connected in a way. His creativity and craftsmanship are presented in a mature way in this show, even though he is presenting his works for the first time in Nigeria. One astonishing thing about his paintings is that they are accompanied with texts, which are very faint but readable on a closer look. Nwanne’s Liberation is an inspiring work because of the message behind it. His other works are  Fed Up, Tomorrow, Nation Building, Songs of Tomorrow, Step by Step, Giving it a Thought, Obscure and Written in the Skies.

    Connections is supported by Ruinart, which is a proud sponsor of many international art events including Masterpiece London, Art Basel Hong Kong and Miami, MiArt, and PAD Paris and London.

    “We are proud to showcase Chima’s amazing experimental art and host Nwanne’s first exhibition in Nigeria,” said Temple Muse Director, Avinash Wadhwani, whose design and fashion concept store is gaining international recognition with recent coverage in the New York Times and Vogue Magazine.

  • Fighter of corruption in Nigeria considers next steps

    Fighter of corruption in Nigeria considers next steps

    The cash was handed over in large sacks containing $15 million in $100 bills, bags so heavy that the stoop-shouldered civil servant needed help carrying them.

    James Ibori, the governor of an oil-rich state in southern Nigeria, was so desperate to escape prosecution on corruption charges that he tried to pay off the civil servant, Nuhu Ribadu, Nigeria’s anticorruption commissioner. Mr. Ribadu accepted the money, but it was all a ruse.

    A bespectacled former police officer with the no-nonsense style of a G-man, Mr. Ribadu did not keep the money, a remarkable act in a nation where corruption is endemic. Instead he deposited it in a government bank vault, evidence of Mr. Ibori’s many misdeeds, and in 2007 Mr. Ibori was arrested. Ultimately the charges did not stick — the governor was acquitted by a Nigerian court. He was eventually convicted of money laundering and conspiracy to defraud in Britain, where he had stashed a hefty chunk of the hundreds of millions of dollars of oil money he was believed to have embezzled.

    The outcome of the case is in many ways an emblem of Mr. Ribadu’s career as a corruption fighter in Nigeria, a country Colin L. Powell once called a nation of “marvelous scammers”: a string of partial victories against a seemingly unbeatable foe.

    These days, Mr. Ribadu sits at home in a government-issue villa in this prefab 1980s-era capital, ruminating on his next move.

    At 53, he has been celebrated inside Nigeria and beyond for his five-year tenure as chief of the anticorruption unit, beginning in 2003.

    In that time he built the unit, called the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, into Nigeria’s largest anticorruption agency, with over 1,200 employees in six offices across Nigeria. He successfully prosecuted in 2005 Tafa Balogun, an inspector general of police who had resigned. Mr. Balogun pleaded guilty to failing to declare his assets. Mr. Ribadu arrested Mr. Ibori, the former governor of Delta State, in December 2007. He prosecuted 10 prominent national public figures, including nine governors.

    His reputation gained luster only after he was forced from office in 2008 and into exile after what he said were assassination attempts, after he tried to prosecute corrupt politicians. He was appointed a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington and was also a senior fellow at St. Athony’s College, Oxford.

    He returned to Nigeria to run for president in 2011, but came nowhere near victory, and since then has struggled to find a place in Nigerian public life. He continues to investigate graft, but with a less prominent platform. His report pointing out large-scale corruption and waste in the country’s oil industry, which was published last year, was ignored by the government that commissioned it.

    “One of my very big disappointments,” Mr. Ribadu said intently in an interview here.

    Still, he remains a unique figure, prominent in the political opposition and often named as a possible future candidate for office.

    “For the generality of the people, he is a dogged anticorruption crusader,” said Femi Falana, a prominent Nigerian human rights lawyer. “For the corrupt elements that constitute the political class, they fear him.”

    Since Mr. Ribadu’s abrupt ouster as head of the anticorruption agency, “there is a feeling that the war on corruption is a lost battle,” Mr. Falana said.

    The anticorruption fight appears to be on sabbatical in the garden of Mr. Ribadu’s home here.

    “Most people you will have encountered will want to ‘settle’ you,” the soft-spoken Mr. Ribadu said in an interview in the garden, using a Nigerian term for a bribe. “Up to my last day at work, people were trying to bribe me. That is the shocking thing.” Mr. Ribadu began his career as a street police officer in some of Lagos’s rougher neighborhoods, eventually rising to become the chief prosecutor for the Nigerian police. He speaks with a piercing intensity, sometimes clenching a fist to punctuate a point. He grew up deep in Nigeria’s northern hinterland in the town of Yola. It was a devout Muslim household and a “refuge against pain and injustice” that succored persecuted lepers, he wrote in his autobiography.

    •This story was first published in The New York Times on November 22