Author: Chidi Amuta
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The Rise of Tyrant Governors – By Chidi Amuta
An urgent threat hovers over Nigeria’s democracy. It is not just the spectre of bad elections or the predominance of atrocious politicians. It is instead the rise and increasing numbers of authoritarian governors all over the country. Though enthroned by our often murky democratic process, an increasing number of state governors now carry on more…
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This Time Next Year – By Chidi Amuta
The distance between political campaign promises and their fulfilment is an infinity. Between when these promises are made and the end of the tenure of those who usually promise paradise and deliver hell, people are often too dazed to remember. As it were, empty promises seem to be part of the language of political campaigning.…
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My crowd is bigger than yours – By Chidi Amuta
The crowds of power wear an amorphous but identical face. It does not matter whether they are the Roman plebeians, renegade factions of the Athenian metropole or the rough racist hounds that accompanied Donald Trump to defile the US Capitol on 6th January 2021. They are all roughly the same. Political crowds troop out in…
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Buhari as Change Agent – By Chidi Amuta
The truths of history often reveal themselves to us by a ruse. A president who in 2015 happened on us on a mantra of ‘Change’ is today the object and embodiment of a clamour for decisive urgent change. Call him Mr. Change and pronounce it anyway you like, something is clearly undeniable. Mr. Buhari has…
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Putin: Loneliness of the Tyrant – By Chidi Amuta
Tyrants and mad men suffer a common ailment: they are condemned to a feeling of loneliness and a routine of endless wandering in search of what they alone understand. No other world leader at the present time better illustrates this ancient folk wisdom than Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
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Help, Our Future is Relocating – By Chidi Amuta
Perhaps unconsciously, a new sense of identity has crept in and is becoming dominant among many Nigerians. A curious sense of ‘anywhere is home’ is becoming commonplace among young Nigerians. A compulsive migration to other lands, a sense of “otherness” is beginning to define the aspiration of our youth in terms of where they call…
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The APC on Trial – By Chidi Amuta
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) expects victory in the 2023 election almost as an entitlement. This is for one reason only: it is the incumbent party in national power. President Buhari and core party leaders are carrying on in a manner that suggests that electoral victory is a befitting necklace or medal to be…
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Nonsense in PDP – By Chidi Amuta
The race for the 2023 presidency is looking more like a tripartite sprint among unequal parties. In that race, the PDP’s advantage should ordinarily have been defined by two factors: age and a minus sign. It is the oldest of the three major contenders. Most importantly, It is NOT the incumbent APC which is mired…
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Peter Obi: Man in Black, Politics of ‘No!’ – By Chidi Amuta
Politics as usual has run into trouble. Decades of political bad behavior have birthed a new and subversive urgent counter force, a movement with a momentum of its own. An unusual man in black with a husky voice and a shy mien has mounted the soap box with a message of fearsome urgency and unanimous…
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El Rufai: Letter From the Front Line – By Chidi Amuta
The reign of terrorists is not without its own sardonic humour. Soon after storming Kuje prison in Abuja to free their comrades in arms, ISWAP terrorists indicated an interest in two pricey trophies: President Muhammadu Buhari and, my friend and brother, Nasir El Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State.