NAFDAC’s Blanket Approval For Supermarket
Imports.
By
Les Leba
Investigations by some of the local sectoral
associations of manufacturers have revealed that NAFDAC appears to have
been arm-twisted by ‘powerful’ Nigerians and government agencies
including the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) to grant
potential so-called foreign investors who wish to establish supermarkets
or shopping malls with a blanket approval for the products they needed
to import to stock up their shelves! In other words, while the small
and humble Nigerian manufacturer is kept under the rigid gaze of NAFDAC,
with regular inspections and the payment of annual fees for product
revalidation, and changes in labeling or packaging sizes and strict
compliance with good manufacturing practices, the supermarket investor
only needs a single general approval without NAFDAC’s physical
inspection or validation of product content, and no additional payment
of fees for modifications to size or packaging at any time.
Details
Politically Motivated Kidnappings And Hostage-Takings: The New
Challenge Before Mike Okiro And His Men. By
Emeka Oraetoka Having
successfully checked Organized Bank Robberies and achieved appreciable
level of success in reduction of criminal activities in Nigeria , Mike
Okiro led police, is being confronted by a new wave of politically
motivated kidnapping and hostage taking, with serious threat of making
nonsense of 2011 general elections? This scenario generally demands
that Okiro-led police must go to the drawing board, with their
thinking cap on, to fashion out an all embracing intellectual approach
to tackling the threatening monster between now and next year, to
avoid Hobbnisian state in 2011
Details
Garba Gadi,
Please Resign Now.
By
Dr. Aliyu Tilde
The Yuguda camp is
orchestrating the impeachment based on the logic that a spare-tyre
is useful only when it accompanies its parent vehicle and the two
belongs to the same brand. This rule is true to politics as it is to
physics. Though Yuguda and I are poles apart in our conception of
politics and governance, I can hardly fault him here. Instead, much
of the fault lies with his Deputy, with whom I share some political
space, for choosing docility in place of valour. One can even accuse
him of complacency because of his failure to give the House the
leadership it needed to impeach the Governor for jeopardizing the
political future of all ANPP members in the government. It is
difficult to see how he comes out a winner or a hero out of the mess
at the end of the day.
Details
Branding, Re-branding, Teleprompting and
Managing Nigeria’s Image or Reputation. By Paul I. Adujie
As for those Nigerians
who have and still argue against branding and re-branding in the midst of
poverty and competing needs, they must be told that branding and
re-branding is a wise investment, especially in the long term. New York
City knows this, and it is why she spends billions of dollars annually on
advertising New York City as the greatest city in the world! And billions
more to market the term, I Love New York in songs and T-shirts etc.
Details
OPEC and Oil Price: Stabilization Good for African Economies.
By Emeka Chiakwelu
Most
of these African nations planned their budgets and tied their budgets to
the price of oil. With the sharp increase of oil price, they enjoyed
bountiful spending and relied less on the donor nations and the reverse
is the case with the nosedived of oil price. The major problem with
these African nations are their total dependency on oil for their total
revenue and foreign exchange. They mostly operate a mono-commodity
economy and without economic diversification they become vulnerable,
unsecured and weak in the globalized market economy.
Details
Yar’Adua Vs. Militants.
By
Garba
Deen Muhammad
... in his handling of the Niger Delta
crisis the President is dead right this time. Along with poor
infrastructure and corruption, the Niger Delta problem is one of
Nigeria’s three biggest National problems. (The problem of endemic
poverty, rising illiteracy, child abuse and street begging are
regional problems for which the governors of the northern region where
these problems are pervasive are solely responsible).
Details
How to Wrap Roasted Yam
.
By
Salisu Suleiman
Many Nigerian professionals, experts and businesses, both at home and in
the Diaspora send hundreds, even thousands of proposals to government
ministries and public sector agencies every year. These proposals cover a
wide range of products and services which they might have seen elsewhere
and thought of introducing back home. Somehow, most of these usually well
intentioned and well packaged proposals simply disappear in the labyrinth
of government. What happens to them?
Details
Stone Pen Or Armed Robbers To Death.
By Farouk Martins Aresa
Too often we blame our leaders for everything for ignoring available
solutions to our misery but at the same time we adore and defend their
personal aggrandizement. They have obliged with a sucker of all time -
the rule of law. If your arm is infected with cancer, you cut it off.
Why not do the same to those known as chronic looters since the first
Republic, as drug peddlers, as 419 masters and as gun runners turned
politicians. So we expect them to alter their hot chase for loot. Stones
and sand thrown into our gari must come back, like agaracha,
to hunt these Barawo.
Details
Attempt On
Formation Of Mega Political Parties In Nigeria – The Rivers State
Example. By
Eze Chukwuemeka Eze
The history of mergers
and alliances in Nigeria reveals an idea that is always conceived with
prospects, but devoid of strategic drive to achieve its objective. In
the Second Republic for instance, despite several moves amongst the
defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP), Great
Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP) and Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) to fuse
into a political body with the view of wresting power from the then
ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN), the mission proved to be an
exercise in futility at the end. Although the parties succeeded in
evolving into a platform, the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA),
protagonists of the idea, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe of NPP and Chief Obafemi
Awolowo of UPN, failed to reach a compromise on who should lead the
alliance.
Details
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi: Who He Is. By Abbas A. Dikko
Barely three weeks ago,
newly confirmed CBN governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, stepped-in to
replace Chukwuma Soludo for a five year term period, many Nigerians,
might have expected as usual, writers/columnists to throw-light on who
Sanusi is, a one time Executive Director, UBA Plc and until his
appointment, immediate past Managing Director, FBN Plc, not good enough.
Negligibly or otherwise, that was never given any serious thought,
reason why I took the challenge with my little knowledge of the
personality in question to acquaint interested Nigerians about who he is
and what would likely be the out-come of his stewardship.
Details
Between
Nigeria
And
Nigerians. By Yusuf Gamawa
From all that we have learned about Nigeria, sometimes many us are made
to believe in the works of many colonial and post colonial Historians on
certain aspects of our History, especially when they try to argue that
Nigeria is a creation of the British, a position that is still lingering
on the minds of many of us and has thus created doubts as to the
viability of the Nigerian project, it is indeed a position that has
created a negative attitude in our people and is generally derailing our
progress as a people.
Details
Why You are a
Nigerian. By
Olusegun Claudius-Adeniyi
Just some random
musing. What determines where a person is born, the type of parents one
has and the country where one is born to? Is there any possible rational
explanation for the nationality one comes from? Is there any reasoning
to the selection of people in a country or even continent? Why was one
man born an American and another a Nigerian? These were the kind of
thoughts racing through my mind this afternoon. I refuse to believe that
these occurrences could have a random origin nor accept the dismissive,
simplistic (and sometimes daft explanation of the “work of God”
phenomenon). The world is too organised for it to be a product of
randomness. From the microscopic organism to the gigantic species on
earth, the interwoven relationship of the cosmogony removes any doubt
about a superior order.
Details
Pervasive Kidnapping
in Nigeria: Symptom of A Failing State? By
Jideofor Adibe
The common tendency is to blame the
pervasive wave of kidnapping outside the Niger Delta exclusively on the
unacceptable rate of unemployment in the country, an inefficient and
corrupt police force that is ill-equipped to fight crime, and collusion
between kidnappers and politicians. These factors however appear to be
mere symptoms of a larger malaise, namely that pervasive kidnapping, is
one of the major symptoms of both ‘failed’ and ‘failing’ states. Most of
the countries where kidnapping have been pervasive have been either
failed or failing states – Baghdad after the 2003 invasion of Iraq,
Columbia from the 1970s until about 2001, and Mexico between 2003 and
2007.
Details
Nigeria In Quest Of A Saviour.
By Isa Muhammad Inuwa
Reflecting backwards
from the time Nigeria gained independence from the British Colonial
leaders in year 1960 to date, it is quite enough for any serious country
endowed with abundant resources and opportunities to rise to the zenith
of recognition. Experiments have shown that some Asian Countries and
some form the Latin America had started certain aspects of economic
development at the same time with Nigeria, in some cases, Nigeria was
even the pioneer in such aspects in those years, however, the story is
totally the reverse today, whereby those countries have gone far ahead,
leaving Nigeria to linger and heavily rely on importation of
sub-standard products from those countries, while its hitherto sound
industrial base is decaying by the day.
Details
The
Dilemma Of Being A Vet In Nigeria. By
Sylva Nze Ifedigbo
I am done complaining. This is my signing
out piece. The FCT minister had on my passing out from service announced
an automatic employment for me and ten others who won the Honours award.
I thought I had escaped the dilemma. Four months on and its now obvious
the word “automatic” doesn’t have the same meaning in the dictionary of
the FCT administration as is found in the English dictionary. Not the
money, not the job has showed up. I am done waiting for them. At a
proper time I will launch my attack against them. For now I am looking
for other options. I am looking up.
Details
Federal Character And Quota System in
Nigeria - A Good Public Policy.
By Paul I. Adujie
It is quite interesting that time have recruited some Nigerians to become
advocates and supporters of federal character in appointments to federal
appointments. Disparate groups have joined this worthy discourse!
All Nigerians should in good faith advocate
that appointments and how we do business reflect our essential composite
make-up as Nigerians, from local government to state and federal levels.
All hands should be on deck. All engines for Nigeria’s development should
be firing at full-throttle, from our diversities!
Details
140
Million Liabilities.
By Salisu Suleiman
We
take pleasure in complaining about our condition - no light, no water,
bad roads, poor hospitals, declining education, corruption etc. But what
have we, individually and collectively done about it? Have we not, in
our own small ways, contributed to this sad state? From the filling
station attendant who tinkers with dispensing machines; the messengers
and clerks in public offices who hide files; the stockbroker who
manipulates the markets; the banker who round trips; the judge who
fiddles with justice; the lawyer who sells out his clients; the teacher
who solicits favours from students; the farmer who hides rotten
foodstuff under fresh ones; to the hawker in traffic who runs away with
your change - do we really deserve any better?
Details
President Yar’adua “ New Wave Of Radical
Progressive Governance “. By Benjamin Ogbebulu
It could be said that the initial public
perception about the electoral process that ushered in Yar’Adua –Jonathan
Goodluck administration was flawed but events so far in terms of policy
reversals and policy making have now water down these feelings and the
seven-point agenda of the government is being pursued tenaciously as these
have formed the road map for the government.
Details
Democracy and the Failed Nation of
Nigeria.
By Ibrahim Mohammed
A truly
democratic society must separate its political power away from its
economic power. Individuals must be seen to clearly control political
power and other individuals should control economic power. This way a
symbiotic relationship is created. The political power holders know they
have to deliver peace and stability and functioning infrastructure if
they must be supported by the economic power holders who guarantee the
existence of the political class through financing of public
administration through internal economic activities that provide taxes
to the government.
Details
Hon. Chinua Achebe and Nobel Prize Committee: The Brewing and
Unending Cold War. By Emeka Chiakwelu
Whenever you
have time to visit Nobel Prize website, do click to page for Nobel prize
winners for literature. You come to notice that of all the important
literature of 20th century and emerging 21st
century winners of the prize; that the greatest literature of all time
that elucidated and clarified the position of Africans on meeting of the
West and Africa is missing. The book is Chinua Achebe's Things
fall Apart which is based on the crash of civilizations.
To say that Things Fall Apart is just a literature is a
sophomoric understatement.
Details
Comments on Sanusi Lamido's
Suitability. By Abbas Liman
I have been prompted to make a few
comments following the one made by one George who is also a member of
our great forum (trustwriters forum). His comment was on Sanusi Lamido
Sanusi as Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’adua’s nominee then for the
replacement of Prof Charles Soludo as Governor, Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN). He opined that a former Deputy Governor of the Bank, Dr
Obadiah Mailafiya is more suitable.
Details
The Appointment of a Vice Chancellor for Ahmadu Bello
University Subverted. By Usman, Sule Machika
The tenure of Prof Shehu Usman
Abdullahi ended on the May 23rd, 2009. It is in the practice of the Ivory
Towers to ensure that a substantive Vice Chancellor is appointed for
university in good stead to avoid a leadership vacuum. At its 131st
special meeting held on Monday 18th May, 2009, the Governing Council’s
effort to appoint a substantive VC was subverted. Many of us were taking
aback, yet not surprised.
Details
Nigeria: Ten Years Of
“Democracy”. By Leonard Karshima
Shilgba, Ph.D.
The Nigerian people are
not being empowered. How can they celebrate democracy when they lack the
basic infrastructure that will empower them? They have suffered economic
exclusion. They pay for electricity they don’t consume. Nigerians are
being ripped off by telecommunication companies and destroyed by oil
companies (contrary to section 17 (2) (d)).
Details
Bad News for Nigerians.
By Buhari Bello
The Nigerian nation is fast derailing
from the part of morality and development. Every day the news coming
out as a result of action and inaction of its leaders is not
encouraging at all. It’s always like one step forward and twenty steps
backward. What is really happening to this country? Has God forsaken
us or we have forsaken ourselves as people and a nation. On Wednesday
March 12-2009 the whole nation wake us with the bad news that some
social miscreants, who called themselves gays, had demonstrating
at the venue of joint public hearing organized by the House
Representative committee on Human Right, Women Affair and Justice in
National Assembly against a bill that will be presented before the
house outlawing same sex marriage.
Details
