Dr. Obadiah Mailafia

In a strange sort of way, I like Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. He is a patriotic Russian and a highly intelligent man. He is not exactly what you would call a democrat. No Russian statesman ever has been. They have all been autocrats, be it Catherine the Great, Tsar Alexander I, Ivan the Terrible, V. I. Lenin, Yuri Andropov or Boris Yeltsin. The nearest that came to that ideal was the hapless Mikhail Gorbachev. Perhaps for that very reason he was disgraced out of power and the entire Soviet Empire collapsed under him. Vladimir Putin was recently quoted as saying that Africa is nothing but a vast cemetery: “When an African becomes rich, his bank accounts are in Switzerland. He travels to France for medical treatment. He invests in Germany. He buys from Dubai. He consumes Chinese. He prays in Rome or Mecca. His children study in Europe. He travels to Canada, USA, Europe for tourism. If he dies, he will be buried in his country of Africa. Africa is just a cemetery for Afric...

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On the afternoon of Monday 26 November the Atiku Campaign Organisation invited the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate Dr Obadiah Mailafia to an inter-party forum discussion on Religious Dialogue as we prepare for the 2019 elections. In his own contributions Dr Mailafia urged all political party candidates to eschew bitterness and to avoid ethno-religious bigotry in the upcoming elections. He emphasised that Muslims and Christians are brothers and that we must work together to build a New Nigeria. He pointed out that the ADC will embrace all Nigerians and will work to fight the common ills that we face: poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and disease. He said that as a Christian, his duty is to love all people and to fight for all oppressed Nigerians who suffer injustice and marginalisation. Let it be on record that Dr Mailafia honoured an invitation to discuss the issue of religious co-existence with particular reference to the issues affecting Christ...

Tuesday 20th November witnessed one of the largest gatherings of the movers and shakers of Nigerian politics. Former Heads of State within and outside Nigeria, captains of industry and members of the diplomatic corps gathered at the ornate Congress Hall of the five-star Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja. The occasion was the book presentation by former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Titled, "My Transition Hours" , the book records his detour from being a science lecturer  into being an accidental politician, detailing a remarkable career that saw him to the summits of power. The author also seeks to answer the big question as to why he surrendered so quickly to Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 even before INEC had finalised the electoral count. He had famously responded that he did not think his personal ambition was worth the blood of any Nigerian. That singular act made him a great statesman and established him as one of the architects of modern Nigerian democracy. Dr....

This is to wish all our Muslim friends and fellow compatriots the very best of Eid-el-Maulud. We say Eid Mubarak  to you all on this joyful day of religious celebration. It is our earnest prayer that the Muslim Ummah and every religious community in our beloved country will enjoy the fruits of peace, harmony and perfect abundance. As the Presidential flag-bearer of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), let me reaffirm our commitment to inter-religious dialogue and understanding as the foundations of a just and lasting peace among all our people. Where there is misunderstanding, we shall bring the knowledge that casteth away all fear; where there is hatred, we shall preach love; and where there is bitterness, we shall bring good tidings of joy and gladness. Please let us all join hands to build the New Nigeria of our dreams. 

African Democratic Congress (ADC) Presidential candidate Dr. Obadiah Mailafia receiving African Democratic Congress (ADC) Governorship candidate for Benue state Dr. Simon Tyohemba in his residence in Abuja on thursday 15th November, 2018.

Quintessential civil servant and technocrat Allison Ayida passed away quietly in a Lagos hospital on Friday 12 October, age 88. One of the privileges one had as a young researcher at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, in the eighties was that it availed one opportunity to meet some of the greatest Nigerians across different walks of life. Allison Ayida was one of them. A brilliant mind and highly accomplished civil servant, he was often invited to the National Institute to give a lecture or to participate in one policy workshop or the other. He was an oracle of economics and a walking encyclopaedia of development policy management. What I remember about him the most was his gentle and soft-spoken mien. He spoke in measured tones as if words should be carefully counted like money. Allison Akene Ayida was born on 16 June 1930 in Gbelebu-Siliko in present-day Edo State, although both parents hailed from Ugbege in Delta State. He was the first and...

Presidential Blueprint of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) Candidate, Dr. Obadiah Mailafia Introduction Our country today stands at the crossroads of history. Never before have the Nigerian people become as divided as they are today, with possible exception of the crises of the First Republic and the war years 1966-1970. Nigerians have become deeply divided along ethnic, religious and regional fault lines. The Boko Haram insurgency crisis and armed rural militias have exacerbated our deepest national divisions. Thousands have been killed and well over 3 million defenceless people and families are concentrated in rag-tag internally displaced persons (IDP) camps within and outside our borders. Insecurity has undermined food security across the country. It has driven out investors and has destroyed the prospects of long-term development. Our country has become a vicious vortex of poverty and despair rather than virtuous haven of peace, solidarity and p...