Now That Retired Col. Dangiwa Has Woken Up. By Ibrahim M. Attahir, Esq.

I am not in a position to know whether retired Col Dangiwa was in Nigeria when Obj had no single Yoruba Muslim in his cabinet. A similar scenario was repeated during the presidency of GEJ. I can give many similar examples of lopsided appointments by the former Presidents. I cannot recall Col Dangiwa writing or otherwise calling for correction of such anomalies. Was it a design or coincidence? Details

Twenty-One Years Of Return To Civil Rule In Nigeria: Need To Go Back To The Fundamentals. By Otive Igbuzor, PhD

This is why I think that as we reflect over the past twenty-one years, we must go back to the fundamentals. The first thing to look at is leadership at all levels. You cannot expect the best from any society that puts forward its worst to lead. Merit must be returned to all spheres of life. Details

Foundational Restructuring of the Nigerian State. By Anthony Akinola

Nigerians are quite an intelligent and hard working people who can hold their own anywhere in a competitive world. Their nation, more than most in the world, is endowed with the attributes of greatness. The drawback to the greatness and unity of Nigeria, if one must be brutally honest, has been the historical imbalance between the North and the South. This social and economic imbalance was brought about by the dual approach to education in the former British colony. The advancement of education in the South can be credited to the  Christian missionaries who established various schools, while their activities were proscribed in the North for understandable religious and opportunistic reasons. Details

Of Deregulation, Public Value and National Interest. By Abdulwarees Solanke

Similarly, some public goods provision is therefore best left in the hands of the Private Sector Providers if they are not of very strategic significance, if the citizenry must be economically empowered or if the unnecessary bottlenecks must be removed. Details

Almajiri: Moving Forward. By Prof Abdussamad Umar Jibia

But is movement of almajirai from one state to another not against the teaching of this Hadith? Why are the scholars silent? Where is the NSCIA which quoted 1001 reasons from Quran and Sunnah to convince us to comply with social distancing and lockdown? Have we been compromised or are we afraid of some failed politicians? Details

The Sorry State of Nigeria’s Judiciary Among Others Makes Sowore’s Battle Cry for Revolution Inevitable. By Francis Adewale

It is as if the cancer has completely swallowed up the entire fabric of the nation. Cases involving the poor dragged on for years while those who can afford senior advocate can get quick justice. Many warned that this will sound the death knell of democracy in Nigeria. Every attempt to even build on free and fair election has been truncated by the judiciary. Details

China Dept--Trap: African Nations Must Plan Escape. By Monima Daminabo

Hence, even as the Nigerian government has severally given assurances of operating within safe limits in taking Chinese loans, not many Nigerians are convinced. So dependent on China’s money is Nigeria that this column ‘Penpoint’ had once asked if this most populous African country, had become a new satellite province of the Asian giant. Details

Restating  Rotimi On Regionalism And Military Rule. By  Anthony Akinola

On this note, Brigadier-General Rotimi deserves our respect, his views on national politics, even when we may not agree totally with them, also deserve our attention. They would be deemed to have come from the honest mind that he is. Details

Richard Akinjide In National Politics. By Anthony Akinola

When Chief Akinjide became Federal Minister of Education in 1965, quite a substantial number of students from his ethnic group benefited from federal scholarship for university studies. As would be explained later, this is not to say he was tribal or nepotistic . The point one is trying to make here is that it was a departure from previous years when members of that ethnic group were discriminated against in the distribution of federal advantages. Details

Mandatory Mass Vaccination Not Acceptable As Requirement For Post-Coronavirus Normalcy In Nigeria.  By The Livingscience Foundation Ile-Ife, And The Christian Initiative For Nation Building, Osogbo

Compulsory mass vaccination is now being seriously touted as the only way to close the COVID-19 season. As we shall be explaining shortly, we consider this not only unwarranted, but extremely dangerous both to public health and civil liberties; and even beyond. Based on previous precedents and current signals, it is evident that proponents of this idea would want to commence implementation in Nigeria and use their expected in route here to push the unpopular policy through in other nations where more serious resistance is envisaged. Details

Reflections on the dethronement of Muhammad Sunusi II. By  Adamu Tilde

This essay will attempt to discuss the rather short stint— but dramatic — days of the latter, and unburden the perplexed minds on some bewildering questions repeatedly asked: was MS-II misunderstood? Was MS-II a victim of what Chris Ngwodo called "the tyranny of tradition" Details

Crucial Role Of Big Data Analytics In The Nigerian Government. By Malik Kabir Mustapha

With a population of about 200 million people and a country in desperate need of economic and social development. Nigeria needs to integrate big data into running the government. With the popularity of cloud computing and IoT (internet of things), implementation and management will not be as difficult as it would have 10 years ago. Details

Crude Oil Price Crash and the Diversification of the Economy. By Jide Ayobolu

President Muhammadu Buhari has already diversified the Nigerian economy, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has claimed. He pointed to Nigeria’s exiting of recession as proof that some other critical sectors like agriculture and mining were now contributing significantly to the economic base of the nation. Details

My Recollection of the Late Mallam Abba Kyari. By Abdullahi Usman

And, unless he went on to learn how to drive after leaving UBA in June 2001, Mallam Abba might very well have spent his entire 67 years sojourn on this planet without learning how to drive a car. Details

COVID-19 Pandemic and the Days that Follow! By Abiodun Komolafe

I have argued elsewhere that the palliative gesture of governments in Nigeria has shown that they have no idea at all how hungry the people are; how many people are indeed poor and the peculiarity of each of the federating states. Details

COVID-19 In Nigeria: Palliatives Without Relief. By Comrade Chinedu Bosah

The adage that ‘one cannot learn how to dance at old age’, best fits the Nigerian ruling elite who failed in normal period and will fail the more in an emergency situation. The relief materials being distributed to a very tiny part of the population cannot provide relief. Details

Nigeria’s National Interest Cannot Be At The Peril Of The Wellbeing Of The People Of Rivers State. By Lloyd F. Ukwu and Bruce DelValle

The Minister [Aviation] needs to understand that for obvious reasons, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has less inherent authority to respond to pandemics than governors. In order words, the Governor of a state and his people are closer to each other and are at the receiving end of the pandemics. Details

COVID-19 Aftermath: The Brewing Crisis. By Nathaniel Dortie

Is there life after Covid-19 for Nigerians? Please fasten your belt because the ride will be rough. Our leaders must, as a matter of necessity, quickly go to the drawing table, to prepare the economic palliatives necessary to keep the economy afloat. Cognisance must be given to the substantive role of the informal sector because it is this base that employs majority of Nigerians. Details

E-Learning is Key to Post COVID-19 Reconstruction in Nigeria's Education. By Muttaqa Yusha’u Abdulra’uf

The ontology of access to education has changed from access to the physical structure of learning in the schools and extends to access to modern instruments of teaching and learning. Hence, demands for access to quality education been a key component of sustainable development goal SDG 4 should equally include the provision of digital infrastructures for online learning in our schools. Details

Frontlines of a Pandemic Coordination and Communication among COVID-19 Stakeholders. By Abdulwarees Solanke

In an era of information explosion, driven by the tools and technologies of the social media, so many experts have crowded the public space to the extent of muffling official views and authoritative positions. Details

Reducing the Cost Of Governance. By Anthony Akinola

Agitation or call for reduction in the cost of governance has been rather perennial. I wrote on this very topic sometime in the 1980s for the London-based West Africa magazine. I had then called for a reduction in the number of senatorial seats per state, which then was five. I had also called for a reduction in the number of ministers and advisers – all these in the Nigerian Second Republic. Details

Revisiting a National Political Debate. By Edwin Madunagu

I declare that the Nigerian Left, struggling within and outside the Political Bureau, played a critical role both in the debate and in the process leading to the report whose highest point was the recommendation of socialism as successor social system for Nigeria. I also declare that, in particular, the Nigerian Left recorded a clear victory not only on the issue of traditional rulers and traditional rulership, but also on state and religion, state creation, the role of Labour, the role of Women, and state support for the Weak and Vulnerable, etc. Details

The Imperatives of a Post-Coronaviruse Nigeria. By Anthony Akinola

However, in Nigeria, the global crisis has merely provided our politicians with an opportunity to want to score cheap political points at the expense of the other, and time for those who had grouses with their government to want to embark on a crippling strike action. Details

“Corona” Unlike Ebola-a Call for Caution and Way Forward in Nigeria. By Dr. Bukar Abba Zarami

Nigeria has an estimated population of 200 million people, 5.4 million is elderly (greater than 65 years), a reported doctor to patient ratio of 1;2500, but in reality, it is around 1;5000 due to brain drain. This means a single doctor caters to a population of 5000 people against the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation of one doctor to 1000 people. We also have low availability of oxygen equipment and mechanical ventilators in our hospitals. The average Nigerian State has less than 15 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds (ICU is a place where critically ill patients are managed). Approximately about 50% of ICU beds have mechanical ventilators. I doubt if the whole country has up to 500 mechanical ventilators. Details

Justice for Sambo Abdullahi, victory for whistleblowers in Nigeria. By Chido Onumah & Godwin Onyeacholem

Abdullahi has been denied his salary and other allowances since December 2017, threatened, blacklisted, arrested and sued. All of this for acting professionally and responding patriotically to the call of the Nigerian government asking citizens to join the fight against corruption by blowing the whistle on corrupt practices and other forms of wrongdoing in the country. Details

The Ugly Spectacle of Street Begging. By Anthony Akinola

On the contrary, in Nigeria, government at the local, state and federal levels lacks the moral justification to reproach begging in the streets. There are very many vulnerable Nigerians, including the physically challenged and extremely poor, who are abandoned to fend for themselves. Details

What is in Pronunciation? By Professor Abdussamad Umar Jibia

This is how we have been tolerating southerners in our country. Once you are a Northerner, you have no right to speak English. The only sin of Dr. M. T. Liman, Abatcha’s minister of Education, for example, was speaking with Northern accent. Of course he said many unsavory things about Lecturers but his predecessor Prof. Nwabueze did worse. At the end of the day M. T. Liman was nicknamed, “empty–lay-man” by some Southerners and some Northerners foolishly echoed. Details