Hausa Film: Compatible or Incompatible with Islam and the Hausa Culture? By Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim

The issue, nonetheless, is not whether these films are made by the ‘true ethnic Hausa’ or by the “acculturated Hausanized Muslim and non-Muslim non-ethnic Hausa,” as far as the nomenclature of the films is Hausa. The issues rather are to find out what led to the said dissonance. Do these films represent or misrepresent the people and the culture they are an offshoot of? Are the grievances shown by those collective bodies towards the Hausa films well-founded? Details

 

National Conference: Matters Arising. By Chido Onumah

During his Independence Day broadcast on October 1, President Goodluck Jonathan announced to a somewhat surprised nation his intention to facilitate a “national dialogue” on the future of Nigeria. To this end, he set up a 13-member Advisory Committee which was inaugurated a few days ago. It is understandable if Nigerians have mixed feeling about the national conference announced by President Jonathan considering his opposition to such conference in the past. I shall return to this. Details

 

PDP: Whither G-7 Governors? By Ado Umar Mohammed

Suffice it to say that if the party’s leaders allow it to be toyed with by vengeful and inexperienced politicians they may be failing in their bounden duty to save Nigeria from a cabal of economic leeches that have been ruining the country. The order by the party for APC governors to woo the G-7 governors during meetings of Governor Amaechi’s faction of the Nigerian Governors Forum is therefore uncalled for as it is counterproductive. Details

 

Why We Must Fight And Win This War Against The Zealots. By Nosa James-Igbinadolor

It has been suggested within intelligence circles both in Nigeria and outside that the clear and present danger we face in the name of Boko Haram insurgency has its roots outside the country. There is ample evidence as consistently stated by the leadership of the United States Africa Command and supported by intelligence reports by our country’s different intelligence services, that Boko Haram has over time received training, funding and logistic support from Islamist elements Mauritania, Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) as well as from the Somalia based Al-Shabaab responsible for the recent deadly terrorist attack at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya. Details

 

Fashola Must Apologize To Southwest Southsouth & The North. By Farouk Martins Aresa

Did Fashola apologize to the Southeast or not? If he did, those of us from other parts of Nigeria cannot wait for our own apologies. It was Baba Suwe in Lanrilod or so that said if you have been in Lagos for donkey years and you cannot tell which side is up, it is time to move back home. Little did we know that he was one of the special advisers of the Governor of Lagos State. Details

 

Job Creation in Nigeria: lessons from Bangladesh, Cuba, Switzerland and India. By Princewill Ojong Odidi

The trouble with Nigeria, title of late Chinua Achebe’s book, gives a fitting and explicit description of the state of the nation. “Nigeria is not a great country. It is one of the most disorderly nations in the world. It is one of the most corrupt, insensitive, inefficient places under the sun. It is one of the most expensive countries and one of those that give least value for money. Details

 

Nigeria @ 53: Tottering on the Edge of Disaster! By Theophilus Ilevbare

In Nigeria today, unemployment is primarily a function of failed government policies, an underfunded failed educational system that produces unskilled and unemployable graduates, and a failed political  class whose vision of Nigeria has been blurred by ethnicity, tribalism, parochialism, institutionalized corruption and a replacement of merit with sycophancy and mediocrity in all levels of government. Details

 

Of Kwankwaso’s Mass Weddings: Between Mass Hysteria and the Real Needs of Women. By Aliyu Bala Aliyu

Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso will surely go down in history as one of Kano’s finest leaders. I prefer to call him a radical; not a revolutionary- not just yet. There’s no point expending time and energy comparing him with Abubakar Rimi and Audu Bako - all three lived in different times and answered different calls. But whatever the spectra of opinions of today’s analysts, or the verdict posterity will confer on him, Kwankwaso’s place is assured in Kano’s Hall of Fame Details

 

Goodbye Nigeria. By Chido Onumah

Nothing proves the assertion that the edifice called Nigeria has effectively collapsed and is in need of an urgent and fundamental renovation than the recent laments of our rulers, past and present. These laments would have been laughable if not that they are tragic. Unfortunately, the laments also show that we can’t rely on these rulers in any attempt to reclaim Nigeria. Details

 

Before the PDP self-destruct. By Theophilus Ilevbare

As Nigeria’s politics continue to take shape ahead of the 2015 elections, the leadership deficit of the PDP came to the fore once again with a festering crisis tearing the party apart. Spirited attempts by former heads of states, and the incumbent President, to reconcile the warring factions has so far fell on deaf ears. The ruling party is like a time bomb, doomed for implosion! The sad reality of plunging the nation into avoidable political crisis stare us in the face as the party’s predilection to press the self-destruct button is rather habitual. Details

 

2015 Election Versus The Call For National Conference. By Godwin Onyeacholem

Indeed, 2015 will make or unmake Nigeria as it has the greatest potential ever to tear the country to pieces depending on the road taken. At worst, it’s a chilling scenario. It is for this reason that a national conference is a necessity before the election to resolve some fundamental issues in a re-designed superstructure (constitution). That is the only way to save Nigeria and avoid a looming catastrophe. Details

 

The Right To Contest: GEJ & The Constitution. By Babayola M. Toungo

If it is alright for those in Jonathan’s corner to be sending barbs in the direction of those who opposed his style of administration and the undisguised ambition of contesting in 2015, why is it a gargantuan security issue when any opponent of the presidency voice his disagreement to Jonathan? Case of different strokes for different folks? Details

 

Why FG Wants ASUU Strike to Continue. By Theophilus Ilevbare

It is ridiculous that government officials were quoted as saying ASUU’s N1.3 trillion demand is capable of shutting down the country. No. Their insatiable and rapacious greed will. The private jets in the presidential fleet can fly, centenary celebrations is a priority to government, there’s enough money to pay humongous salaries and allowances to federal legislators and other political office holders, enough to forfeit to oil subsidy thieves, enough to pay militants bogus amnesty cheques and phantom contracts while they continue to bunker our crude oil like never before, there’s enough money to beg Boko Haram to accept amnesty but there is no money for law abiding Nigerian students who want to eke out a living using university education as a stepping stone. Details

 

Jonathan, Don’t Miss This Golden Opportunity! By Godwin Onyeacholem

The power game currently going on in Nigeria is nothing but an embarrassment.  If the contest as being carried out were truly driven by selflessness and an honest desire to serve the people as the jostlers often claim, the atmosphere would be reassuring. But this is not so. And they know it. The unbroken boisterous shout from one side to the effect that Jonathan must not go for a second term, and the sometimes over-the-top counteractive defiance from the other, is down to only one thing: elite self-interest. Details

 

Health Versus Wealth: The Triumph Of Greed. By Babayola M. Toungo

Seeing the unnecessary tension that gripped the nation during the twilight days of the ‘Yar Adua’a administration and the manner his wife and her co-conspirators handled the issue and the resultant bad blood it generated, one should be forgiven to think that Suntai’s praetorians will spare the struggling state of Taraba and her poor people the traumatic experience the country was forced to go through then.  By taking the case to the court, these conscienceless individuals are trying to drag the judiciary into their habitat – the pigsty. Details

 

That 36 Billion Naira Lagos Parties. By Raheem Oluwafunminiyi

There is no denying the fact that we are a sociable race. Apart from the fact that we are the most religious people on earth, giving our all to religious institutions which today have become the temple of financial gratification feigned by wealth and prosperity seeking men of God, our attitude and penchant for the good things of life especially in the form of partying, gallivanting and wasteful spending is second to none. Details

 

Nigeria’s “Owambe” Culture. By Fredrick Nwabufo

Again, Nigerians always have good and ridiculous reasons for throwing parties. They throw parties when they buy new cars, they throw parties when they build new houses, they throw parties on their birthdays, they throw parties to name their babies, they throw parties to celebrate getting visas to travel abroad, they throw parties to celebrate buying new designer shoes, phones, clothes, power generating sets, and even flat screen television sets. It is laughable, but it is true. Details

 

A Moratorium on 2015 Election. By Chido Onumah

There are many things wrong with Mr. Mark’s position. First, the military decree which passes as the 1999 constitution – a constitution which had no input from Nigerians, one which Mr. Mark and his colleagues didn’t see prior to taking over from the military in May 1999 – is not worth the paper it’s printed on. As a mark (no pun intended) of its worthlessness, it ought to be publicly shredded. Second, sovereignty lies with the people. Mr. Mark would do well to dispense with the delusion that the chair-throwing, do-nothing National Assembly should be vested with the powers to define the “new Nigeria” we envisage. It would be tragic to say the least. Details

 

United Nigeria: To Be or Not? By Ado Umar Mohammed

One of the clear symptoms indicating that Nigeria is a failed state is that most of us, especially the elites, no longer have nationalistic feelings for it; everybody is more concerned about his/her ethnic or sectional enclaves, or about issues of the stomach for ordinary citizens due to the festering economic crunch which is, in itself, symptomatic of leadership failure. Details

 

In The Nation of Yes-Maniac Bootlickers… By Mahfuz Mundadu

The prominent armed insurgents from the Niger-delta region of the country are all the familiar faces in the corridors of power under the present administration, yet Darwit sees nothing wrong and threatening about that. The sitting President has confessed that his government is infested with Boko-Haram elements, yet it is becoming a herculean task for same Commander-in-Chief to muster the needed courage and spill the beans. Details

 

Arik Stowaway Boy: The Big Picture. By Theophilus Ilevbare

Nigerians woke up on Sunday 25 August, 2013 to learn of a stowaway teenage boy, Daniel Ohikhena, who flew with Arik’s flight W3 544 from Benin to Lagos, thinking the plane was US-bound! Daniel, probably, had fantasised of life in far away America Details

 

PDP, Jega and His Conscience. By Ado Umar Mohammed

Even though it is still within the realm of speculation, the news report that the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, may have courted the wrath of the powers-that-be is not altogether doubtful. Indeed, there may be some people within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who may want him crucified for some of his perceived ‘sins.’ Details

 

Tahrir Nigeriana: A Special Convention! By Shafi’i Muhammad Abdulhamid

It actually did not come as a surprise to me when the news broke from the Tahrir Nigeriana that some governors including the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar walked out of the ruling party’s special convention on Saturday. Amongst them was the legitimate NGF Chairman Governor of Rivers state Rotimi Amaechi and the so-called G-5 northern governors that have been parading themselves around the country claiming that they want to salvage the party from self-destruction. All these people are wounded lions, some of them are actually the founding members of the ruling party and they are as well politicians that really understood the Nigerian game. I sincerely think PDP has to be very careful with them, because most of them had been gored by the party at one point or the other. Details

 

Politics, Neglect, and the Heaviest Penalty. By Mohammed Dahiru Aminu

Starting from 1999, when Nigeria transitioned to democratic rule, the most troubling start for the country at that period seemed to be that the bunch of the politicians that launched the democratic system—or the republic—as a representative form of government, were, to put it sympathetically, inept. It won’t be too tasking to reckon that at the time, most people that signed up to politics and contested elections were hardly tied up to an auspicious career. Details

 

Nigerian Universities and the Desecration of Academic Procedures. By Obinna Akukwe

Academic processes and procedures have been desecrated by many universities in Nigeria. I mentioned in the preceding piece ‘Nigerian Universities and the Bastardization of Admission Processes’ that the decay in the admission processes  started from the early nineties. The same period witnessed so much strike that academic activities were flippantly suspended. Details

 

Standardizing Nigerian Tertiary Education And The Need To Establish Board Of Graduate Examinations.  By Prof. S.K Odaibo

Standardizing and formatting graduates from all universities and polytechnics is a necessity in order to ensure that the basic standard of requirements have been met by them and are said to be sufficiently equipped with knowledge and skill to meet the requirement of the society. Failing which, the country will continue to produce large numbers of unemployable graduates and universities responsible for producing such graduates ,would be required to upgrade their curriculum,  facilities, reduce student in-take and employ  qualified academic staffs. Details

 

FG VS ASUU: What Manner Of (Re)-Negotiation? By Raheem Oluwafuminiyi

Since the beginning of yet another strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities ASUU last month, which not surprisingly has entered its second month, one wonders when we as a nation would remove ourselves form this wanton mortification of making the education a laughing stock among comity of nations. The question all stakeholders enmeshed in this opprobrium should be asking is whether something fundamental is not wrong with our collective consciousness, else, how come that in every two to three years, the news of ASUU demanding that its overlords in Abuja implements an agreement both entered into and which in turn leads to a painful strike, reverberates the whole nation? Details

 

A Rejoinder to: IBB’s Two Party Solution. By Max Gbanite

The truth is that IBB is a lover of Democracy; and with his colleagues played a crucial role in the emergence of Obasanjo; IBB boys, planned the coup that overthrew Gen. Buhari, and installed IBB as the President of Nigeria from August 1985, to August, 1993; IBB also served as Chief of Staff when Buhari was the Head of State; therefore there is nothing to deconstruct. Lies cannot replace truth. Details

 

Lagos Deportation: On the Side of Common Sense. By  Theophilus Ilevbare

However, the wave of internal deportations that the incident sparked is despicable and must be condemned in strongest terms. But then, it was needless to politicise and sensationalise the reintegration - as Fashola puts it - in the manner Anambra State governor, Peter Obi, did. Advertently, he stirred up the hornet’s nest, triggering a debate that will linger with us for a long time to come. Emotions ran high as sentiments were weeped up. Details