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Supreme Court of injustice. By Godwin Onyeacholem President Muhammadu Buhari deserves the sympathy of the multitude of Nigerians and foreign friends who want him to succeed, the multitude yearning for the change he earnestly promised, that change the country can’t wait to see and which his administration has consistently insisted would be faithfully delivered. And he alone, no one else, would determine the destiny of this grand promise. But given his well-known passion for rectitude, and the inherent honesty in his desire to right the wrongs of decades of terrible governance (the worst being 1999-2015), Buhari leaves the perception of a genuine leader who would not want to see the promise of change blown away in the long run, let alone just as swiftly as it was made. Details
Much ado about Nigerians and their image abroad. By M. T. Usman Talk, they say, is cheap. As Nigerians, our penchant for talk is legendary. Every Tom, Dick and Harry has an opinion (however warped) on every subject matter and we are never shy to express it at any opportunity. At conferences, meetings and, even on international flights (wherever they may be headed), I doubt whether there is any group of people that can command as much attention as Nigerians in our loud, almost argumentative expression of views. We call it gist, perhaps to connote substance, the rest of the world calls it noise. Details
Naira Vs Dollar: Have We Missed The Point? By Eleanya K. Nduka A friend asked me to analyze the state of the Nigerian economy as an economist. Initially I told him off because I'm only a spectator. However, after much contemplation, I decided to write an impromptu essay. From the look of things, it seems the economy is headed towards that of Greece. But what is the problem? Details
Nigerians are Contented with Little. By Owei Lakemfa After many years of having faith in private schools and paying exorbitant fees, what persuaded parents to become such proselytes? First in a number of schools, the El-Rufai administration took back school lands and restored their environmental sanity. Then it began the renovation of schools, bought new furniture and embarked on the recruitment of teachers irrespective of their state of origin. Finally, it sealed the fate of many private schools by introducing free feeding in public schools. Details
The first criticism is that the Budget does not reflect the “Change” mantra or slogan of the Buhari’s administration. Although it is tagged “The Budget of Change” many analysts contend that there is very little manifestation of “change” in the Budget. They say that it is almost déjà vu all over, i.e. business as usual. For instance, there is inadequate attention given to the anticorruption campaign in the President’s speech Details
Love To Spend Dollar & Pounds But Hate Buru Job. By Farouk Martins Aresa Well, nobody forced Africans to change tastes to conform to foreign food and goods enabling Bureau De Change. They are proving to the whole world that they are “civilized”. In the same way, only a greedy fool would fall for a scam that that millions of dollars is waiting for him in some poverty stricken country or even relatively potentially resource rich country in Africa. Details
Bishop Kukah: One Letter Too Many. By Adamu Tilde As I earlier mentioned, there’s more to this animosity. It is historical and has always been the rallying-point of appeal to the sentiment of ‘the psychology of minority’ (my apologies, Semiu). I have no problem with what Bishop Kukah believes to be History. I am worried because of Bishop’s deliberate distortion of historical facts or evading them, as the case may be, or being economical with the truth, casting aspersions here and there, all of which smack of snobbery, mischief and utter malice. Details
Tribute To The Nigerian Military. By Max Gbanite The Nigerian Military has participated in several if not all peace-support efforts in troubled parts of the world under the auspices of the United Nations; and is the backbone of the Economic Community of West African States force, code named ECOMOG. It acted as the main trajectory force supported by other West African forces in ending the hostilities in Liberia and Sierra Leone (1985-1999). The Nigerian Military is one of the best ranked (in terms of structural and tactical discipline) armed forces in the world. On the international scene, they have performed creditably. Details
Divided Biafra Cannot Stand. By Farouk Martins Aresa It must be started that Igbo are not the only ones that want to leave Nigeria, there is a general agreement that most Nigerians are tired and do not care if the Igbo leave. The Hausa were lured into Nigeria with conditions and the Yoruba are just sick of labels for making Nigeria work. Even more important are the various ethnic groups that may not be as big as the three behemoths but whose interests are just as important as each of the ethnic groups. Details
Grasping Our Incredulous State Budgets. By Oseloka H. Obaze It’s hardly rhetorical to ask if there’s something egregiously faulty in the way we fashion our budgets. The broader fault line lies in our overall policymaking methods. Though we prefer envelope budgets over revenue-driven, project-driven and zero-based budgets, our nature of governance and politics continue to compel short-term thinking and planning.Details
Lagos and the ‘Lagoon’ Challenge: Confronting the Native/Settler discourse. By Raheem Oluwafunminiyi Following their return, the Igbo, wounded, deprived and feeling battered, abandoned all forms of political alignments and pursued economic power instead. In actual fact, politics in Lagos for the Igbo was consigned to holding political posts in towns and market unions or associations. Lagos politics from this period was left for the Yoruba elements in the state not until the return of democracy in Nigeria. By this time, the Igbo population in Lagos had soared and was made up of about 30 per cent of the state’s population. The influence of the Igbo in Lagos economically was widening such that the Lagos state governor at the time, appreciating this number and influence, picked an Igbo commissioner in his cabinet who it was said became one of the most powerful men in that government. Details
Do We Really Need the Senate? By Muhammad Al-Ghazali We must not condone the situation where members of NASS Committees feast on the MDAs like locusts thereby compromising their integrity and the quality of their oversight function. Our economy can no longer sustain legislators who are among the highest paid in the world. Why must a developing economy such as ours retain a wasteful bicameral legislature with overlapping functions in any instances? Clearly it is a luxury our current predicament has already called into question. Details
Cash And Carry Bureaucrats Guzzled Foreign Income Dry. By Farouk Martins Aresa Indeed, our foreign exchange allocation is abused by a few powerful people with unrestrained access, most of whom do round tripping. If you have ever wondered where those Bureau Du Change traders got so much local currency no matter how much hard currency you give, they are supplied by the mighty oppressors that got it as entitlements and fake contracts. They then turn around and buy dollars and pounds in naira at Central Bank rate. Easy way to profit, err! Details
What are the major problems facing our country? How do we know the ways defining the problem, identifying the problem, and generalizing possible solutions? As years go by, steadily, it becomes a challenge to empathize and integrate faced experiences of the country into our repertoire of what we thought we already knew about the nation. Details
Managing the Modulation of Petroleum Product Prices in Nigeria. By Dr. Emmanuel Ojameruaye So long as the price of crude oil and import prices of petroleum products remain low (at less than about N65 per litre) and the naira exchange rate remains stable at about N200 to 1US$, the modulated price of PMS can remain at N86.5 per litre and there will be no subsidy! Details
Deconstructing Nigeria’s Power Distribution. By Oseloka H. Obaze Nigerian DISCOS are collectively behaving dissolutely. Major equity owners in the DISCOS represent the special interests. These same special interests for long orchestrated policies that emasculated the power sector; shunned development of eco-friendly solar power, stimulated the use of generating sets and pushed the price of diesel to high heavens. They too, advocated fuel subsidies, ostensibly to assuage the incidental high-cost to the masses, only to turn around and reap the benefits of the fuel subsidies. Details
Good News From The Port Harcourt Refinery. By Muhammad Al-Ghazali To millions of Nigerians who have had to endure the excruciating pains brought about by the scarcity of petroleum products across the country in the past two weeks, the news, the report carried by this newspaper yesterday to the effect that the Port Harcourt refineries twin facilities was set to resume full production today, after undergoing intensive repairs and rehabilitation must have caused many to embark on exuberant celebrations. But to me, the greater cause for celebration, was not so much in the knowledge that the facilities will resume production at all. Details
How The Biafrans Lost Me. By Dr. Abdussamad Umar Jibia The Biafran agitators have not been consistent. The intensity of their struggle depends on the Government in power. If the person in charge is one of their own, there is no Biafra; when they lose out, the struggle for independence begins. This is not the trait of a sincere people struggling for freedom. In fact, the direct opposite is supposed to be the case. For example, since the end of the Nigerian civil war the Igbos had never had it politically rosy like they did during the last PDP administration. Details Biafra on My Mind. By Chido Onumah There is enough from history to tell us that we need to address the Biafra agitation constructively and quickly too. The government can’t adopt the approach of, “the leaves are dying then cut off the branches.” Yes, we have the problem of corruption, of building our educational and health sectors and providing basic social services for our blighted country and impoverished citizens. But we have a bigger and fundamental question, that of national cohesion. Details
Re: Biafra: Is It Time To Let Go? By Muhammad Al-Ghazali The Nigerian army recently threatened to deal decisively with the pro-Biafra agitators. As they go about preparing to do this, they should ask themselves how many more Igbos they are willing to kill to keep Nigeria one. Are the over 50,000 killed by the Hausa/Fulani before the War plus the more than 3 million destroyed by the army in the cause of that war not enough? Details
In Dasukigate Stealing is Not Corruption. By Anthony A. Kila In all this, my favorite ‘victim’ is the chap that testified/confessed in a written statement that he did not get a single kobo from the Dasukigate Father Christmas bounty. He simply did as he was told. The man is not alone. It appears the CBN Governor and those that acted for him simply did as they were told. I am very worried for those that simply ‘did as they were told’ because the law is very clear about doing what you are told when you know it is illegal. You cannot say ‘I didn’t know it wasn’t illegal’ since ignorance is not an excuse. Details
The $2.2 Billion Armsgate and Metamorphosis of Boko haram. By Abubakar Alkali It is mindboggling that such earth shaking scandal involving the alleged misappropriation and deliberate diversion of $2.2 billion and N643.8 billion could have come at a time of pervasive poverty in Nigeria when the average Nigerian is struggling to make ends meet. To make matters worse, this monumental scandal was perpetrated under the guise of fighting Boko haram which has sent tens of thousands of innocent lives to their early graves in their on-going relentless albeit senseless wave of killings which to the understanding of Boko haram, is necessary for them to establish an Islamic state. Details
Chinese are Raping You, Indians are Molesting You, and Your Mama Seems to Care Less. By Ahmed Garba Now that Buhari's administration is emphasizing the need to fund and promote agriculture, watch and see how the Indians and the Chinese will jump on this opportunity and saturate us with all sorts of crappy products, a litany of gimmickry gadgetries, some of which we haven't even fathomed yet. We may begin to see tools/equipment claiming to make it possible to farm yams from plastic bags draped over your balcony, or a machinery that can farm, harvest and produce dried okra in a blink of an eye. Details
Trump was Right. By Oladele Oluwasogo A couple of weeks ago, US presidential candidate Donald Trump in a blunt and accurate manner, lampooned the black race. He fearlessly tongue lashed people from our part of the world. While his statement has been severely condemned by people all over the world especially those of the black race, with Africans, especially Nigerians clamoring for him not to be adopted as the Republican candidate. He was swiftly replied by Nigerians and other Africa brothers and sisters –though I doubt if any will get to him. However, I dare to say that Trump was right. His analysis of the continent was critical, thorough and absolutely correct. Details
Hijab In NYSC Orientation Camps. By Dr. Abdussamad Umar Jibia Over the past several days there have been active discussions in social media on the use of hijab in NYSC orientation camps. The discussions followed an incidence that occurred in one of the camps. A Muslim youth corper wore a ‘long’ hijab and was consequently beaten by an Army officer. The NYSC authorities did not deny it and immediately redeployed the officer and according to the Director-General of the NYSC, more punishment will follow. How far that is true remains to be seen. My intention here is to look at the issue from a Muslim observer’s point of view. Details
Dasuki And His Notion Of National Security. By Muhammad Al-Ghazali With Boko Haram, Niger Delta militants and kidnappers threatening the nation’s socioeconomic well-being, Dasuki could have written his name in gold by bequeathing an intimidating security infrastructure for the country as his legacy. The enormous sums that accrued to his office clearly proved that was possible. But he apparently chose the famished path and in the process exposed himself to disgrace and ignominy his noble background hardly deserved. Details
Africans Cannot But Our Land Grabbers Can Feed The World. By Farouk Martins Aresa It is not unusual for the Americans and Europeans to call world attention to Chinese exploitation in Africa! They claim the Chinese are buying up Africa like them and like them, Chinese are only interested in Africa’s natural resources. Some of the studies indicated that the Chinese get more involved with corrupt leaders of Africa. Details
Of Bishop Kukah And Northern Muslims: A Response. By Faruq Hussain In a crass display of ignorance of the genesis of terrorism which is not limited to Boko Haram, Father Kukah attributed the senseless agitation of Boko Haram to the “promise made by northern leaders to ensure the total implementation of Sharia law”, forgetting that from time immemorial, terrorism in its real sense has never been about adherence to Islamic faith but a radioactive desire by blood-thirsty extremists to take control of territories and impose their demented belief on the larger populace, as evident in the hoisting of flags by Boko Haram during the last administration and the established hegemony of ISIS in the middle-east. Details
The Military, ‘Zaria Massacre’ and a Defective Federation. By Chido Onumah In a country where truth is a scarce commodity and where impunity (whether by state or non-state actors) is the norm, it will be difficult to know exactly what happened in Zaria on December 12, 2015. Since nobody takes responsibility for anything in Nigeria, that egregious crime – committed by both parties – will go unpunished. Of course, there will be an enquiry, perhaps a white paper, and that will be the end of the story; well, until the next crisis. Details
The Economics of Petroleum Products Prices Modulation in Nigeria: Part 1. By Dr. Emmanuel Ojameruaye After over 30 years of subsidizing petroleum products by the federal government, most economists and many other professionals now agree that the policy has been a dismal failure. The subsidy regime or policy has been ineffective and inefficient, and has been characterized by frequent shortages and hoarding of petroleum products, selling of products at prices that are far higher than the official pump prices, corruption and sharp practices such as smuggling, round-tripping and adulteration of products. Details
Biafra: The Voyage of Memory vs. Custodians of Stolen Legacy. By Emmanuel Franklyne Ogbunwezeh Today, the active struggle against the bonds of oppression as made manifest in MASSOB (The movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra); OPC (Odua People’s Congress); MOSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, and other ethnic movements lend concrete credence to our submission. Nigeria is not a nation: It is a construct of federated grievances that needs urgent geopolitical surgery with the scalpels of justice and right, if we are not to go to the battle fields once more. Details |