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PDP: Rebranding With Olisa Metuh.
By Muhammad Al-Ghazali It was a startling admission of what millions of
Nigerians already knew, which is that the PDP, in its current form, is
incapable of winning any decent election anywhere in the country outside the
Southeast and the South-South. The party no longer has the same national
appeal it had between 1999 and 2011. Details Social Media Assisted
Governance. By Oseloka H. Obaze Governance
challenges in Nigeria are broad, diverse and at times sudden. When a list
assigning portfolios to President Buhari’s
ministers-designate was posted on the social media on 1 November, 2015, it
seemed authentic. Few questioned its veracity or suspected any ensuing
problem or confusion. The list was hardly considered bogus, until it
was disavowed by the Presidency. That incident wasn’t the first time the
social media would be deployed positively or deceptively as a tool for influencing policies in Buhari’s
six-month old administration. Details By Mr
President’s declaration, the question arises as to whether Nigeria can afford
the current bloated size of the national assembly consisting of 109 senators
and 360 members of the House of Representatives making a total of 469 members
of the national assembly. It goes
without saying that if Nigeria is broke and cannot afford 36 ministers, then the country can also not afford 469 members of the
national assembly. Of course it is understandable that Mr President didn’t
include the national assembly in his statement as a mark of respect for the
principle of separation of powers as enshrined in the constitution. Details So Nigeria Is Finally Broke Eh. By Farouk Martins Aresa Wow!
So Nigeria finally succumbed after all the millions, billions and trillions disfarahan? We have been asked for several
years: how much money is in that Country when so much keeps on disappearing?
We wish we know how much we lost, actually nobody knows for sure. What is
surprising is that the Country is still standing. Right now there is a
consensus between the ruling Party and the Opposition that we are on our way
to the poor house. Lower prices! I doubt it. Details Tasks Before
The New Ministers. By Muhammad
Al-Ghazali If President
Muhammadu Buhari refuses to change the precedence
set since the return of democracy to these shores in 1999; the much
anticipated inauguration of his cabinet should hold tomorrow, being the first
Wednesday since the screening and confirmation of nominees by the Senate.
That has not stopped the rumour mill from going berserk as usual, in the
various permutations on the sharing of ministerial portfolios. In one
particular probable list on the social media for instance, we had the name of
our very own Adamu Adamu
pencilled down as the likely Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. Details If a minister is representing his/her state at the esteemed
federal executive council (FEC) and he/she cannot memorise even half of the
local government areas in that state, then a question arises on the extent to
which he can effectively represent that state. Can a ministerial
nominee who lived almost all their lives in Lagos or Abuja or a combination
of the two cities still be judged as qualified to represent their state where
they know no one and nobody knows them in the state? Details Africa Like Biafra Like South Sudan. By Farouk Martins Aresa Has
anyone envisaged what Biafra would have been if Ojukwu
had succeeded with the Urhobo, Itsekiri,
Ijaw, Ibibio, Okrika and other ethnic groups in
Biafra? Creation of South Sudan is not far from our curious minds. As long as
Africans cultivate ethnic champions within our communities, no African
country will live up to or near its God given natural potential, it is not a
curse. Details Whipping
the Dead! By Abubakar
Atiku Alkali It’s in the news that the IMF is
pressurising Nigeria to further devalue its currency. It’s equally in the
news that former CBN governor and HRH the Emir of Kano has advised the FGN to
withdraw petroleum subsidy, devalue the Naira and raise VAT! With due
reverence to the Emir, I personally find these pills unbearably bitter to
swallow. I defer to the fact that he’s unquestionably sagacious in matters of
finance and economics – I know nothing about either – thus, my arguments may
be impressionistic, but I’m sure I know more than the Emir does, how
agonisingly painful it would be for the ordinary Nigerian when such policies
are implemented. Details Multinationals And Their
Crimes Against Nigeria. By Muhammad Al-Ghazali Not only have Nigerians had to put up with the
intermittent cases of poor service delivery from the company, a mind-blowing
report carried by the online media platform Premium Times yesterday revealed
that MTN Nigeria had deliberately engaged in underhand dealings to avoid the
payment of its fair share of local taxes to the detriment of the nation’s
economy badly in need of improving its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) due
to the virtual collapse of the international price of crude oil. Details We Need To Do Something About
This NTA. By Anthony A. Kila After
a long period of abstinence, I have returned to discover that there is still
an open sore on the airwaves of Nigeria and since about over a decade ago,
thanks to technology, from Nigeria to the airwaves of practically the whole
world. The sore is in the form of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA). It
is an open wound that hurts millions of Nigerians within and beyond the
shores of Nigeria and it needs urgent healing; there is no other way of
saying it, this NTA as it stands today needs to be either thoroughly reformed
or completely disbanded. Details Buhari: Nwabueze’s Troubled Soul. By Muhammad
Al-Ghazali Let me confess from the onset that I am not a fan of
elder citizen Benjamin Nwabueze; a one-time
Minister of Education; a supposed authority on constitutional law and prominent
member of the so-called “patriots” and I doubt very much if I will ever be in
my life time. I have no particular liking for any Nigerian individual, or
politician, whose sole calling card, or platform of appeal, is never
different from the primordial reality of their ethnic identities. Details Whither Nigeria’s History? By Oseloka H. Obaze With
the composition of the Federal Executive Council becoming clearer, it’s time
to set national agenda priorities. There will be competing interests,
but none should supersede education. This piece addresses a flawed
component of our education policy, outside its parlous funding. Details Generational Change in
Nigeria and Youth participation in Politics. By Abubakar Alkali It is relevant to put the records straight that I have never been a fan of my former Governor Attahiru Bafarawa. As a matter of fact, I have always thought that my dear Sokoto state deserves better than his 8 years as governor (1999 – 2007). Howe ver, Bafarawa became a somewhat instant hero to me when during an interview with the BBC Hausa service several months ago said that he cannot stoop so low to go to the Senate where he will have to raise his hands before he is allowed to speak.Details |