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Boko Haram and the Lord's Resistance Army: Brothers of Destruction. By Max Siollun The religion may be different but the violent tactics and kidnapping are similar. The LRA is Boko Haram’s Christian cousin from northern Uganda. The similarities between the two organisations are remarkable. Boko Haram’s kidnap of schoolgirls is not without precedent. Eighteen years ago the LRA kidnapped 139 schoolgirls from St. Mary's College in Northern Uganda (an Italian nun named Sister Rachele Fassera followed the girls and the LRA fighters into the bush and negotiated the release of all but 30 of the girls). Details
Hypocrisy: Blaming Boko Haram On The Army & Jonathan. By Farouk Martins Aresa It was not too long ago we had arrogant soldiers claiming only members of the Armed Forces can rule effectively in African countries; bloody civilians could not effectively curb dangerous criminals and religious extremists. When anyone could get arms in the world markets, the same bloody civilians and armed robbers got trained but military alone could not curb them. Indeed, military leaders confessed that it could not be solved just by military means. Details
Youth Unemployment in a Rebased Economy. By Chido Onumah The minister of finance and co-ordinating minister of the economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, is upbeat about the new economic indices. According to her, available data show that of the average 1.8 million people that enter the job market every year, the economy was able to absorb 1.6 million people in 2013. But the reality on the ground does not support the fanciful figures by Dr. Okonjo-Iweala. Beyond the rhetoric, it would be nice to see a sectoral breakdown of these new jobs and the beneficiaries. Details
Another Nyanya Bomb Blast! Traffic Hold-Ups and Politically Cursed Residents. By Obinna Akukwe Since the unfortunate Nyanya Bus Park bomb blast which Boko Haram have claimed responsibility, residents have complained about the unnecessary hours spent on traffic occasioned by military checkpoint which gave the impression that they are an unwanted politically cursed appendage of Federal Capital Territory. The military checkpoints have reduced the normal four-lane traffic on Abuja-Keffi Road to a one-lane affair and recently due to adjustments by the Defence Headquarters, a slow moving two-lane gridlock is still being experienced. Details
Putting The War On Terror Back On Track. By Nosa James-Igbinadolor The failure of intelligence can be seen in the fact that five years after Boko Haram began its ultra-violent revolt against the authority and integrity of the Nigerian state, not one Operations Commander or even field officer of the group has been captured or killed outside the country whether by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) or by the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), the two agencies responsible for foreign covert action operations. Details
Rebasing The GDP. By Onike Rahaman Beyond the dubious growth statistics is the inherent failures in Nigeria’s leadership. It is a simile contradiction, for supposedly biggest economy in Africa to be classified by world bank few days before the rebased GDP ranking as one of the extreme poor nations in the world. With this, the claim sounds to have mind-blowing effect on the true reality of the nation’s economy. Of course, whoever that is solicitous about Nigeria is bound to reflect on the far-reaching implications of Nigeria’s sudden emergence as the biggest economy in Africa. Details
Nyako’s Memo, Patience’s Haughtiness & Jonathan’s Lethargy. By Babayola M. Toungo The north is under siege – I have said this several times and I still believe the region is under siege by forces, which the government may know about or not. If the government is aware of those bent on destroying the region but choose to be inactive, then the government is complicit by its inaction. On the other hand if they are not aware of those perpetrating the massacres and destructions, then they are equally complicit by their failure to uphold the oath of office they took to protect the lives and properties of Nigerians wherever they may be. Details
Housing The Nigerian Worker In Abuja. By Okachikwu Dibia While I agree that it is a good policy intervention on the part of the FGN especially now that election is around the corner, I seriously contemplate its success at reaching the target. The first and most crucial issue is how a normal public servant can make the required down payment given his/her meager salary. Using myself as an example, as a Deputy Director with about ten years to retirement, it is near impossible for me to raise either N11.4m for the down payment of a house costing N38m or N10.2m for the N34m house because my entire annual salary which includes rent is less than either of these down payments. Details
More Home Grown Terrorists Waiting To Metastasize. By Farouk Martins Aresa How low can we go? When militia started kidnapping children and old folks to meet their cause, only those naïve folks thought it would stop there. Some governors rose up to the task and put home grown enemies in check. Well, some people claimed there was no difference between the terrorists and the governors. At least we got a temporary relief. It has been pointed out that because the relief is unsustainable, it would not last. You cannot go on paying them forever. Details
Chibok Girls: Where Were Our Generals, Admirals, And Marshals? By Nwike (S) Ojukwu I do not object to having foreign assistance to help resolve the current embarrassment and bring our girls home. Every reasonable human being knows it is the right thing to do and I pray that the girls come home safe to their families and loved ones. Nevertheless, from an intellectual perspective, I would think that we need an explanation from the Nigerian Armed Forces for their irresponsible and inexcusable dereliction of responsibility. IF I may ask, how can they justify our continuing investment in them if we cannot trust them to protect the little town of Chibok, not to mention defending the nation? Details
Boko Haram and the West’s Intervention. By Kola Ibrahim While Mrs. Jonathan was performing her own theater somewhere, the President, at a media chat, was busy asking journalists to help him find the missing girls, because they (the journalists) know more about security and defence of the country than the Commander-in-Chief does! The same president that budgeted close to a trillion naira for defence last year was asking journalists to guide him on national security! Details
Why The North’s Dependence On Oil Revenue Is Festering Terrorism. By Theophilus Ilevbare Beyond the question of which state gets what, it will be interesting to know how judiciously the billions of naira the states collect as monthly allocation from the federal government are being spent. Federal allocation is more or less the governors monthly pay cheque. And your guess is as good as mine where the large sums they collect as security vote ends. Details
Nigeria's Imperial Family. By Babayola M. Toungo Nigeria is in trouble. Big trouble. We are in a ship in turbulent waters with a big, ugly iceberg ahead of us and our captain is claiming not to see it. Worse still, his crewmen are telling him that the road onward is clear. That the next port of call, 2015, can be reached even if all those who paid (with their votes) for a smooth cruise will die or fall in the water before the destination is reached. Details
Boko Haram: What We Must Do. By Dibo Edet Asuquo Extrajudicial executions should cease and all captured combatants should not be kept in barracks etc. Instead Government should consider shipping them to a friendly African island …not too far off our coast where further debriefing and perhaps rehabilitation can take place at a more secure and sedentary pace. Details
The Bitter Truth: The Lye Called Nigeria And Other Observations. By Hamza Katsina Therefore despite the obstacles before us I have hope in Nigeria, and that one day I will find a place in Nigeria where I can be myself without any fear. We will overcome, if not our generation than certainly the next, for things can’t continue as they are for much longer. Details
Starve Religions of State-Fund Workplace and School Uniformity. By Farouk Martins Aresa Starve the beast not the poor! The source of funding for religious massacre, ostentatious living and social abuse of victims must be suffocated by regulations, levies or outright phasing out at inception unless verified for charity. Money is the root of all evils; billions going to religions buy influence, political clout and recruits talikawa for dubious activity not charity. Funding religions creates vicious circles. Impose security fees on conspicuous spending even from private “gift”. Details
Fiscal Federalism, Tiv Interest And Ethnicity. By Leonard Karshima Shilgba, PhD With regard to the recent intractable clashes between cattle herdsmen and the Tiv farmers and people, would the Tiv people oppose resource control? The most sensible answer is that Tiv people, being fiercely conscious of their interests and autonomy, stand behind resource control. The Tiv forebears had established an agenda—to get sizeable land for their offspring to carry out their farming activities on. Details
Diezani Alison-Madueke: Goodluck Jonathan Vs the Nigerian people, By Dr. Olusegun Fakoya In a country that has been rated one of the poorest in the world (never mind the cooked up statistics declaring our economy as the biggest in Africa), it is pertinent to take a second and closer look at the state of unbridled luxury being lived by our elected representatives. As a writer has suggested, it will be good for the system if we as a people can determine how many of our public office holders, especially governors, buy or charter aircrafts at the expense of tax payers.Details
The most populous black nation on earth, the “largest economy in Africa”, and perhaps one of the richest countries in the world has lost its “birthright.” Its citizens are targets of harassment and impertinence everywhere in the world. I walked into a FedEx office in Ontario, California, to send a package to Nigeria and the cashier advised me that neither my credit card nor my check would be acceptable for payment purposes. Details
On Rationalization of Retrogression. By Adamu Tilde On Almajiranci, it is a settled and established fact that begging for no justifiable reason is not only forbidden by authentic prophetic teachings but is also embarrassing to Hausa-Fulani and Kanem-Bornu community (which I am one) and Nigeria at large. Details
Death at the Stadia: Enough is Enough. By Tochukwu Ezukanma In essence, that avoidable tragedy resulted from ineptitude, corruption and scornful nonchalance to the welfare of the job-seekers. A job-seeker that participated in the exercise characterized the treatment they received as “inhuman” But then, Abba Moro, in his ineptness, corruption and disdain for ordinary Nigerians is not an aberration in the government of President Goodluck Jonathan; he typifies it. Details
The Nigerian Jobseeker Pays for Every Job Application. By Ikechukwu A. Ogu I join other right-thinking Nigerians in calling for the sack of Abba Moro. He lacks a pricking conscience and sense of morality that would prompt a person in his shoes to resign. The revelations so far show that he went solo as regards the recruitment exercise. He it was who condemned and cancelled the 2012 recruitment exercise carried out by the immediate past Comptroller-General of NIS, Mrs. Rose Uzoma, and engineered her removal from office. Details
Akwa Ibom Must Produce The Next President or Else. By Farouk Martins Aresa Since Akwa Ibom State is now the highest oil producing area, it is only fair that they should be in the fore front agitating for the highest office in the land. Details
If Biafra Had Won the War. By Max Siollun With oil wealth and a vibrant citizenry, Biafra could have become Africa’s first world superpower. With citizens of the caliber of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Sir Louis Mbafeno, Matthew Mbu, Chike Obi, Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, Christopher Okigbo, and Michael Okpara, it had men of foresight, intellect, and vision to rival any nation in Africa. Academics, civil servants, diplomats, doctors, judges, mathematicians, professors, scientists, soldiers…Biafra had them all. When Biafra seceded, it took not only a portion of Nigerian territory with it, but also a massive part of Nigeria’s brainpower, army officers corps, and wealth. Details (revised) What does the “North” – or better still, those who claim to represent and speak for the “North” – want? Political power? A return to pre-independence Nigeria? A return to pre-amalgamation Nigeria? A separate country from the rest of Nigeria? I pose these questions based on certain developments and statements in the last few weeks by individuals and groups that claim to represent the “North”. Of course, these questions can also apply to the “East”, the “West”, the “Niger Delta”, etc. Details
Nigeria's National Confab and the Issue at Stake. By Isa Muhammad Inuwa One of the prominent conferees, Malam Kabiru Yusuf, has rightly spoken the mind of most Nigerians about the nature of the conference, when he described it as a process "whose purpose is shrouded in mystery, its process unclear and outcome uncertain." Details
Nigeria’s Socio-economic Isolationism: Between the Cabal and Masses. By Dr. Edwin Ndukwe In spite of the somewhat economic thesis above and the vast hydrocarbon deposit in the Delta region which is now gradually being depleted, only one per cent of the oil revenue actually trickles down to the populace while 80 per cent goes to the government (and by default into the hands of a few cabal or clique), with 16 per cent going towards cost for operations and four per cent to investors. To make matters worse, oil exports to America has fallen sharply in the last few years due to the discovery of vast shale deposits. Beyond the oil sector, Nigeria’s economy is fractured and frankly inefficient. Details
Tiv People Oppose Grazing Land For Fulani Herdsmen On Homeland. By Leonard Karshima Shilgba It makes no sense to think that a purely immigration problem can be solved by an internal creation of grazing reserves. In comparative narrative, I see no rational nexus between stopping smuggling in of cocaine and creation of internal cocaine colonies across the country. Don’t you think establishment of such cocaine colonies would rather instigate more smuggling of the substance? Details
Nigeria We Failed Thee, Our Own Dear Native Land… By Nwike (S) Ojukwu The elites use tribe and religion as political tools to rise to national prominence, and thereafter isolate themselves from the rest of us. They allocate our resources to themselves and their cronies as compensations for doing nothing, and steal the rest as kickbacks for contracts that are never executed. While we fight with one another... Details
Still on the Centennial Awards. By Tochukwu Ezukanma First, what are the criteria for bestowing these national awards? Ordinarily, national honors are given to a distinguished few that exceptionally excelled in different areas of human endeavor. But in the vast scene of confusion and intractable anomaly that is our beloved country, who knows what the criteria for these national honors will be. Details
Unemployment in Nigeria as a Ticking Time Bomb. By Ogwu Paul Okwuchukwu The recent immigration tragedy doesn’t even tell the true situation. This is because some of the people that went for the job are either employed or under-employed but looking for a federal job. In addition, we should also realise that a sizable percentage of those looking for job may not have been invited for the screening exercise as a result of age, qualification and lack of information about the exercises. Details
A Response to Fulani Aggression in Tiv Land. By Leonard Karshima Shilgba Recently, the Sultan of Sokoto made a highly inflammatory comment that the Fulanis have been “grazing on their traditional grazing land” in Tiv land. The Tiv people have never ever been conquered by any ethnic group in Africa. Even in the days of the Sardauna Ahmadu Bello, the Tiv people led a revolt against oppression of minorities in the then Northern Region. We have championed the cause of minorities in the Middle Belt. The Tiv people do not share any contiguous borders with the Fulanis. When and how did the Tiv land become a “traditional grazing land” for the Fulani nomadic cattle breeders? Details
Perpetuation of Roguish and Erratic Electricity Services in Nigeria. By Ikechukwu A. Ogu With the introduction of prepaid meters, Nigerians heaved sighs of relief, hoping that NEPA/PHCN would supply reliable electricity to consumers. The hope was anchored on the belief that by a prepaid meter (pay-as-you-go system), the billing system will truly reflect the quantum of electricity consumed. Indeed, power supply improved tremendously in the early days of prepaid meters to the extent of almost 24 hours electricity supply, leaving Nigerians surprised. Perhaps, as one NEPA/PHCN official said, this was meant to ensure the quick exhaustion of the amounts standing to the credit of consumers so that they recharge their meters often! Details
Will Nigeria Disintegrate? By Chido Onumah Make no mistake, this conference is not the cure-all for our problems; just as a Sovereign National Conference is not a silver bullet. Of course, nobody (not even the organisers) can say for certain how this conference is going to end. Nobody goes into a conference of this nature – with a surfeit of tension, anger and bitterness – knowing for certain how it is going to turn out. It may well signal the beginning of the end of what is today known as Nigeria. Details
I guess that we are used to leaderships that perceive that its citizens are expendable and that they (the leadership) possess superiority of skills and knowledge that has not been tested since the world began. I disagree! The names of some people on this list represent the same predatory class of Nigerians that would be consigned to the dustbin of history in civilized societies because of their various nefarious roles in our current narratives; but for some inexplicable reasons they are held as heroes by a section of the polity. Details
Needed To Lead Africans To Dignity Land. By Farouk Martins Aresa If the youths at home remain oppressed or complacent to the point of no action, there will be a war or intellect, ideologies and political power between them and the youths born outside the Continent of Africa. It may not be different to what happened in the Jewish State of Israel but let us hope it will be different to that of Liberia. Nigeria, Ghana, Congo and now S. Africa caved. Details
The Nation’s Mindset. By Babayola M. Toungo The fact that the north constitutes 72% of the landmass of the country cannot be wished away but have to be accepted as a matter of fact. We have seen how first, Festus Odemegwu, the dismissed National Population Commission (NPC) Chairman, and then Tony Nyiam, a dismissed Colonel, have been trying their best to discredit the population of the north. They might have succeeded in convincing some of their naive listeners, but certainly this cannot change the facts of the matter. Details
National Dialogue: Whose Agendas? By Abubakar Mohammed Sambo Will they put on the agenda the diversion, theft, and misappropriation of national resources and earnings? Will the issue of the sovereign wealth fund be discussed? Will the collapse of the public service, the public institutions; the universities, the civil society and the armed forces and the accompanying destruction of Energy and or electricity also on the itenary? The insecurity and wanton killings of innocent citizenry by different ethnic and religious militias from all the nooks and crannies of the Nigerian state going to constitute part of the issues to be deliberated upon? Will the issue of the ill-equipped Nigeria police force be discussed or the will adoption of the state police be an alternative to the problems encountered by the police force? Details
World Prices With Nigerian Salary Exempt Politicians. By Farouk Martins Aresa We have to remember that many developing countries were lured into Structural Adjustment by World Bank, not only Nigeria. But many African countries despite that and inflation retained local prices considerably lower than Nigeria. Conspiracy of structural Adjustment devastated African countries to make sure raw materials and services were sold cheaply or almost for nothing while finished products imported into these countries are paid for through the nose. Details
One Week, One Tragedy. By Chido Onumah We all know that you can’t get a job in Nigeria, whether in the public or private sector, without a letter or a note on a business card from a governor, first lady, minister, senator, retired general, local government chairman, traditional ruler or a staunch fixer that goes by the generic label of “godfather”. And where you don’t have a “godfather” or “godmother” who is adept at writing recommendation letters, you have to be ready to pay the hundreds of thousands demanded by employers, without any guarantee of getting the job. Details
In conclusion, there can be no solution to the intractable strife between pastoralists and agriculturalists so long as the problems of rangeland use are not addressed. The role of the government in this onerous task is to attempt at striking a delicate balance among competing land users, without destroying the precarious equilibrium in nomadic pastoral enterprise. The key is enforcing land reform and protecting the demarcated grazing reserves for the intended users. It should also be within the government scope to ensure better stoking rates through improved herd quality. The Fulani should be made to appreciate the value of improved stock rather than keeping large number of herds for the sake of it. Above all, the traditional cattle breeders should be made to partake in collective land conservation as a sound range management practice, to avoid what scholars term the tragedy of the commons. Finally, the Fulani pastoralists must be seen to participate in policy formulation and implementation rather subjects to be studied and to be at the receiving end of government decision making.) Details
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