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(GAMJI) With or without the Chinese involvement however, government needs to step up considerably, the process of hydro ad meteorological data collection at the dam sites which had stopped since early 80s when feasibility studies were carried out for the preliminary designs. Indeed, the regimes of the rivers have now changed thus, necessitating a change in the design parameters. Details
(GAMJI) In this piece, I intend to look at the term ‘philosophy’, or to be more precise, what has come to be known as ‘Islamic Philosophy’, and the centuries old conflict between the Muslims and the philosophers, and show that Islam, as a complete way of life, does not need philosophy Details
(GAMJI) It is obvious, this administration will be faced with many challenges more than any other, the fact being that people claimed to be part and parcel in bringing the government in to power, it is this believe that made people to confuse being a step to power to that ultimate giver of the power. Details
Obasanjo: Leading Africa to Security Councils. By Nduka Uzuakpundu (GAMJI) Between now and then, Obasanjo may have to ponder over the chances of Nigeria making the shortlist of two African countries at the Security Council. Yes, no countries have been tipped for the historical assignment, but assume for now, Nigeria and South Africa. Besides, Obasanjo's position, as the Chairman of the African Union, his intriguingly opaque and calculatingly cold mien would almost make the Nigerian choice a fait accompli. Details
Behold, Goje State! By Kyallu M. Ashafa (GAMJI) How I wish a fraction of the media search light beamed on Obasanjo will come to Gombe state! The president’s sin regarding the library would be dwarfed compared to the recent wedding ceremony of Governor Danjuma Goje’s two daughters. It was an opprobrious squander of public funds on a purely personal project, an event that literally brought the business of governance to a complete halt for several days. It was, to use Soyinka’s words, an executive extortion of the first order. Details
The UN has given the Government of Khartoum the Warranty to Kill. By Elie Smith (GAMJI) The in action of most African governments has made the government of Khartoum more confident in carrying out its killing spree on the people it was supposed to protect, as it is the normal prerogative of any responsible government on earth. Details
Does Obasanjo Really Mean Well For Nigeria Or Is He Just An Obtrusion? By Chidi P Eze (GAMJI) If few Nigerian men and women less than 20 in number or simply put it this way, members of Nigerian Contract Inflation Inc, NCI for short, could put together more than 4 billion naira in less than 4 hours for Obasanjo’s private shrine, which civilized society will ever take Obasanjo seriously with cap in hands, kneels on ground begging for debt forgiveness? Details
Liberia: Beyond Charles Taylor. By Garba A. Isa (GAMJI) Nigeria should insist on the International community deciding the fate of all other factional leaders of the Liberian civil war not a selective action to appease a particular nation. Pray, this is the same America, which refuses to recognize the culpability of its soldiers before the war crime Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, intimidating someone to oblige. Details
Legislators and their Qualifications. By Anthony Akinola (GAMJI) There is a lot of premium on age in the Nigerian society. The "I am older than you" attitude knows no ethnic or religious boundary. It was therefore not surprising that when our constitutionalists copied the American Constitution the imperative of age qualification was one the photocopying machine could not have blotted out without a public outcry! Details
Impeachment Threat: As Blackmail And Ruse. By Paul I. Adujie (GAMJI) Watching the antics of some members of Nigeria’s National Assembly can be frustratingly unnerving! Too many of them, too frequently, waste valuable time indulging in the most useless of our national pastime, grandstanding for no national purpose at all! Details
Before Writing Off The Us Intelligence Report. By Madaki O. Ameh (GAMJI) Coming from a Western country like the US, with their penchant for putting the African continent down whenever they have the opportunity, such umbrage may not be altogether unjustified. However, before an outright condemnation of the report, it is important to read it carefully, and come to an informed conclusion on whether or not, it is as damning as being widely reported. Details
(GAMJI) Through the false predictions and the egregious act of taking the predictions public, America has shown that it is not deserving of the friendship of the people and government of Nigeria! First because the prediction is false and second, even if the predictions were somehow true, what benefit of America or Nigeria is it, to make the predictions public? Details
A Scandal Comes Up Short. By Mahmud Jega (GAMJI) For two weeks, the air was rife with the smell of another national scandal. Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee SENATOR BODE OLOWOPOROKU alleged that Minister of Agriculture MALAM ADAMU BELLO unilaterally awarded fertilizer contracts worth N14 billion and ripped-off the nation of N3.5 billion. Details
Rocking the Cradle: Political Geometry of Mantu and Dariye on the Plateau. By Prince Charles Dickson (GAMJI) The Political drumbeat on the Plateau has in last five years produced several dance steps, while this is not only applicable to Plateau State alone but the thirty-six States of the Nation. Plateau State’s case has necessitated this as a result of the drama it has produced. I make safe to say that apart from Anambra and the others one would pick Plateau State as one of the most controversial crisis ridden State. Details
Tony Ogiamien: Lurking in Omo Omoruyi’s Shadows. By Okechukwu E. Asia (GAMJI) If Omoruyi was looking for someone to defend him and help to polish his image he hired a wrong man for the job. Tony Ogiamien has his own image problems; it is no surprise that Ogiamien and Omoruyi are blood relatives. Details
By J.E. Iyobhebhe (GAMJI) We were told the likely outcome for Nigeria in 15 years time but what would be interesting to know is what the US is planning to do if all hell breaks loose in Nigeria in 15 years time as they predict. Will they support the successful reunification of the Nigerian State or will they encourage our balkanisation? Details
60th Anniversary of World War II The Forgotten Africa’s Greatest Generation By Peter Opara (GAMJI) In 1984, it was reported in a Nigerian journal that the government of Nigeria, dispatched 10 Million Pounds Sterling to Britain to pay the pension of retired British colonial administrators. Details
The Obasanjo Presidential Library PLC. By Ahmed Borodo (GAMJI) Whatever the case maybe, the promoters of the library project now have some 6 billion stashed somewhere, generating cool interest rates. Nigerians will like to know at which banks the money was lodged, and if the banks made a donation in order to get a large chunk of deposit. This should determine their culpability and can be a case study or test for the CBN in its effort to instill transparency in the affairs of Nigerian Banks! Details
(GAMJI) I am pretty sure that Tafa Balogun the former I.G now has every reason to smile. He may, already, have been pronounced guilty in the court of public opinion, but deep down in his heart, he would have realized, he and the President that wants him made a scapegoat in the War against Corruption, are really not too far apart in their ultimate goal, after all. Details
The Fury Of First Ladies. By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye (GAMJI) We are almost forgetting that the Constitution has no provisions for the so-called office of the First Lady. I am not bothered, for instance, if President Obasanjo’s wife has a battery of special assistants, senior special advisers, and even press secretaries attached to her “office”, so long as their salaries and allowances are paid from the millions his spokesman, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, had told the world the president realizes monthly from his “newly improved” and now lucrative, multi-billion naira farm at Ota. Details
Technophobia: An Imminent Virus In Nation Building. By Igbokwe A. Peter (GAMJI) “Like father like son”. The Problem facing us is unwillingness of our leaders to appreciate something that is not money at a glance. The spirit of my “cut” (my own cake) has engulfed most of our leaders, making them to see only material /paper called “money” which the fail to focus on what can generate money and fame in the nearest future. Details
(GAMJI) It is observed that secularism , which has de-Islamised the Muslims in the south-western part of Nigeria for instance, does not attract such study, but the very recent development of implementation of the shari‘ah is so disturbing to the West that many [projects and] conferences have to be funded apparently to nip it in the bud.While we are not contesting why the University of Jos is the main co-host of the project, but it is apt to ask why other critical universities located at the heart of the shari‘ah projects are not selected. Details
PDP Hidden Agenda. By Alhaji Muhammed Ighile (GAMJI) Even the inept and corrupt Edo State House of Representatives, which I personally have described as an extension of the PDP exectutive in the state, have for the first time openly criticised the national dialogue. The Speaker, Chief David Iyoha, needed to distance himself from the "ridiculous... political tricks" which proved the suspicion that the presidency was playing its own underground game. Details
Between Sunusi Lamido and the Zealots. By Kabiru B. Saleh (GAMJI) One can now see the lack of tolerance prevalent among the wahabbis. They have now unleashed their dogs of war against Sunusi. Somebody calls him a banker with dose of shiism in his closet the other branded him as mediocre. A banker sure he is one as for shi'i, following the foot steps of Imam Shafi'i, he once declared, 'if loving the family of Muhammad is what is considered as shiism, then let it be announced to the men and jinn I am one'. Details
EFCC, Presidential Library And Corruption Crusade In Nigeria. By Abdu Isa Kofarmata (GAMJI) The recent fund raising for the presidential library in Ogun state the home state of Obasanjo, has not only raised suspicion to the president claim of fighting corruption but made Nigeria and the EFCC a laughing stock; A vengeance commission if you wish. Recently, the president under the cover and collaboration of some foreign crooks lunched a presidential library appeal fund. Among the crooks were Mr. Karl Masters and Andrew Young. Other local business crooks and corrupt corporate bodies included, Mr. Adenuga, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, and Julius Berger etc. For the benefit of those Nigerians who do not know Karl Masters, he is the president and CEO of Good works International located in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. His group has over the years been on the payroll of the Federal government of Nigeria. This group has since 1999 been paid millions of dollar to promote the image of Nigeria in USA and also serves as a lobby group on behalf of Nigerian government. This American crook who is connected with many international cult groups was the co-chairman of the N7 billion fund raising ceremonies. Details
(GAMJI) Let us state it clear, we are Yorubas to the core, but we are more Muslims that being tribalistic. Since the 1960s=, NONE of the Pan-Yoruba interest or pressure groups really addresses our Islamic religious faith in their polity. In the five Yoruba geo-political States, the Muslims are so much in population. The sky is too obvious for the shortest dwarf to see. We are now asking why did the 1994 drafted Yoruba agenda endorsed by the so called Leaders of thoughts does not have the consideration provision or the involvement of Islamic religious leaders? DETAILS
"Now, Senator, I gave my heart and soul to oppose the policy that you promoted. I gave my political life’s blood to try to stop the mass killing of Iraqis by the sanctions on Iraq which killed one million Iraqis, most of them children, most of them died before they even knew that they were Iraqis, but they died for no other reason other than that they were Iraqis with the misfortune to be born at that time....Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies. If the world had listened to Kofi Annan, whose dismissal you demanded, if the world had listened to President Chirac who you want to paint as some kind of corrupt traitor, if the world had listened to me and the anti-war movement in Britain, we would not be in the disaster that we are in today. Senator, this is the mother of all smokescreens. You are trying to divert attention from the crimes that you supported, from the theft of billions of dollars of Iraq’s wealth (Galloway). Details
NIGERIA: We the People and Our impediments. By Habu Dauda Fika (GAMJI) We must stop this constant adolescent fight to identify ourselves as the South, the North, the South-south, the Middle belt, the West, and/or any such other regional dividers. We are Nigerians first! The fact that Nigeria has different faiths and we have been touted as the most religious nation on earth cannot be lost on any of us who cares about our spiritual health. Details
(GAMJI)
The situation in
Much Ado About Nothing: President Obasanjo’s Library. By Paul I. Adujie (GAMJI) I hope that President Obasanjo will not be the first, the last and only Nigerian president with the vision and foresight to preserve the doings and goings-on in the highest echelon of political power in Nigeria, by this, I am emphatically answering the question raised in my second paragraph, yes, presidential libraries are desirable! Those who do not learn from history, it is often said, are doomed to repeat history’s sordid pasts. Details
(GAMJI) The North and South are one, whether we wish it or not The forces of history have made it so. We have a common destiny; so, too, have the East and the West Any attempt from any source to create dissension and make the North feel that it is different from the South and the West from the East, or to make any particular nationality or tribe in Nigeria feel it is different from the others should be deprecated. Details
A Letter to the British High Commissioner By Lanre Banjo (GAMJI) It is your country, and you have every right to ban all Nigerians, including the globe-trotting president, who are fleeing from their problems into the settled environment that your ancestors struggled and died for. Further, you do not deserve to be harassed by kleptomanias and dim-witted chattels that occupy various ruling positions in Nigeria. No, you don’t deserve it. Details
Is Gen. Obasanjo An Extortioner? By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye (GAMJI) Again, no one contests the fact that the Obasanjo presidency has seen the nation suddenly degenerate from massive rigging of elections to no elections at all. It is in this same era that we are being made to know that people can abduct a sitting governor, forcefully sack a dully constituted government, and get away with it. Details
Values Education and National Development. By Victor E. Dike (GAMJI) And the President has again misused his office to “extort” about N6billions? from Nigerians (as Prof. Wole Soyinka rightly noted of the library project), with the pretence of setting up a presidential library. Reports show that civil servants and state governors (and some persons of questionable character) contributed to the phony library project. Yet, the schools in the society have been without functional libraries for years and the President is not bothered. Details
Public Exams, The Education System And The Nigerian Child. By Francis Kizito (GAMJI) I have tried times without number to reconcile the level of questions set by JAMB with the intellectual capacity of the students answering them and I find it hard to understand how JAMB expects the average child to pull it off. The average question is set at a first –year university curriculum. Where in any Nigerian secondary school kids are taught university syllabus beats me! Details
Togo: Another View. By Ikrama I. Hassan (GAMJI) Nigeria is fast acquiring for herself and her citizens envy, mistrust, hatred and hostility the US had gotten through her actions in foreign lands. But while US has almost all her citizens except diplomats and solders domesticated thus, immuned to reactive molestation, unbearable economic situation has smoked out uncountable Nigerians and laid them bare in even less endowed countries like Togo. There, they are helpless and prone to attack and harassment at the slightest provocation. Details
Yet Another Impeachment Threat (Joke) by the National Assembly. By Anyanwu, I.C. (GAMJI) I do not say this because, I think the National Assembly does not have the constitutional authority to impeach the President, if the grounds exist for such action, nor do I think that, this administration, and in its very recent tenure, has not been liable of impeachable offenses. Rather, I say it because, from what Nigerians and other observers have known of the Nigerian National Assembly, it is a toothless bull dog -all bark, and no bite, Details
In Defence of Nigeria. By Kevin Etta Jr. (GAMJI) Evidently, an organization called The Coalition for International Justice recently presented a report to the U.N. that made damning reading. It alleged that Nigerian security officials guarding Charles Taylor are on his payroll and that as a matter of course Taylor routinely offers bribes to Nigerian state and local officials, i.e. to officials of the Nigerian government. Each member of Taylor’s Nigerian security detail is paid $200 per month as against their official salary of $80 per month or less. Details
Charles Taylor: Nigeria and Obasanjo’s Credibility is at Stake. By Sabella Ogbobode Abidde (GAMJI) So, why now does the United States want Charles Taylor arrested and brought to trial? Why and why now? Whatever the reasons behind this dirty and duplicitous move, it must be rejected by Nigeria and the African Union. The president of a sovereign nation, acting in good faith and within the constitution of his country and international conventions, has the right to grant safe passage and political asylum to a person or persons he deem fit...Nigeria and Obasanjo credibility is at stake here. Mbeki and South Africa’s credibility is at stake here. If they succumb to US’ blackmail, both men will lose face and credibility in international affairs. Details
Corruption and National Responsibility. By Samuel Uwhejevwe-Togbolo (GAMJI) Policing the school environment will make student to learn at ease, the government should design way of curbing campus restiveness by planting security officials in our campus on identified to the student; with this cult activities will be brought under check. For example, during the tenure of Prof U.A. Igu of Delta State University Abraka as Vice Chancellor, spies was planted among the student as informant, he was able to achieve his objectives of curbing cultism with this method. Details
Nigeria is in the
Wilderness. The Way Out (GAMJI)
Our beloved nation
The Challenges Before Shekarau. By Garba A. Isa (GAMJI) There were a number of Shari’a relevant decisions taken by the Kano State Government which are worth noting; the closure of the notorious “Sports Club”, the constructing of several Mosques both for Fridays and Five daily prayers (this is also massively undertaken by the Local Governments), the prosecuting of erring home video producers among others. Details
Prince Adewole Adesida (1829-2005): The Deji Of Akure We Never Had. By Dr. Wunmi Akintide (GAMJI) If there is any Akure Prince dead or alive who has consistently stood up for Asodeboyede as the only Ruling House in Akure, it was Prince Adewole Adesida. His position which I have always shared in all of my writings on the Deji, and which happens to be the truth, is that the selection exercise must be thrown wide open to all descendants of all the 44 Dejis without exception, Details
Debts: As External Aggression, Against Nigeria. By Paul I. Adujie (GAMJI) Asia was bailed out of its economic dire straits in 1997, Russia was bailed out of its economic crisis in 1998, Mexico was bailed out in 1994 and Argentina was bailed out in 2002 as well, and in each case, billions and billions of dollars were involved; Similarly, foreign aid to the tune of $5 billion a year goes to Israel, a country with a population, only a little over five million people, Israel also received loan guarantees of more than $10 billion dollars at once, in the 1990s, without the "usual IMF and World Bank strictures/controls, Israel was not required to cede its sovereignty! There is nothing peculiarly unique about bailing out Nigeria! Let us free Nigeria, cancel these debts! Details
(GAMJI) Nigeria with 67 universities (Federal, state and private), would seem to have too many. The situation however, is that, this number is still far short of the requirements of our youths qualified for university education. Indeed, if Nigeria is to attain a respectable level of technological development, and perform significant role in the rapidly emerging information and knowledge age, it must either double the present number of universities or increase significantly, the students’ enrolment. Details
Mariam Mukhtar And The End Of The All-Boys Club. By Solomon Ukhuegbe (GAMJI) This year concludes the first half-century of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, and up till now it has been a men-only club. On Tuesday 10 May, the Senate of the National Assembly took the historic decision confirming the appointment of a woman to the Court. What remains to be seen is whether this development is simply a crowning personal career achievement for Justice Aloma Mariam Mukhtar or something more – a definite recognition of gender equity in Supreme Court recruitment. Details
The Urgent Need for a World Conference on Nigeria. By Tope Fasua (GAMJI) I HAVE A DREAM! That this country could emerge from the throes of backwardness in a very short while! …That when that day comes, holding a green Nigerian passport will no longer be a thing of shame, but of pride. I have a dream that one day soon a Nigerian will walk to any embassy of his choice and travel just about anywhere without stress. Details
Who Killed Adaka Boro. By Hosiah Emmanuel (GAMJI) Isaac Jasper Boro was born to a Kaiama family in present day Bayelsa State of Nigeria, in 1938 and died in mysterious circumstances on May 16, 1968 while fighting to unite Nigeria. Boro was he who shortly after the Jan. 1966 coup declared the first Republic within Nigeria called the Niger Delta Republic that lasted for 12 days. It was an attempt to liberate the Niger Delta people from the socio-economic oppression by the then eastern regional government. Details
Governor Sheriff: Opponents Vs Proponents. By Mustapha Shet Shehu (GAMJI) I doubt if Governor Ali Sherriff, now popularly called GAS, likes blowing his trumpet. It appears so, because it seems Borno State where the governor is Chief Executive is amongst the least reported states in the country. His opponents may feel there is no trumpet to blow after all, as the governor has nothing to show for his two-year stewardship. Details
The Phenomenon Known As Jerry Gana. By Babayola Toungo (GAMJI) I do not have any quarrel with Jerry Gana’s survivalist tendencies but this should not be at the expense of long suffering Nigerians. My beef with the man has to do with his lack of conscience. Jerry Gana goes everywhere with a Bible, but will find nothing ridiculous in looking you straight in the eye and lying with a straight face. Details
(GAMJI) The central thesis addressed in this essay is that the practical application of the concepts of ‘indigene’ and ‘place of origin’, concepts enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic o f Nigeria, 1999, create a dichotomous citizenship. It is argued that the central idea of a democratic nation-state, which Nigeria legitimately claims to be, connotes a single citizenship. In the case of Nigeria, that citizenship is the Nigerian citizenship. Details
Great Test for the Caliphate. By Mohammed Sani (GAMJI) Sultan Muhammadu Bello may not have built roads, but he established a terrain so plain for the exercise of Justice, a feat enviously acknowledged by Mr. Huge Clapperton on a visit to Hausa land, that, a woman could carry a basket of Gold from Sokoto to Adamawa, without being molested. Details
Let Us Think About This Tax Thing. By Dr. Chizobam Ani (GAMJI) I swear to you that if three quarters of the country paid taxes, the leadership will certainly be held accountable for the use of the funds thereof. I would take more than a good whipping or bulala to stop me from getting answers when I am bled. Details
(GAMJI) In Nigeria, the careful observation and analysis indicate that the average period to commence and complete litigation is in the order of six years. As this figure is only an average, there are many instances where some litigation last longer than this period. There are instances where litigants died in the process of seeking but without getting judicial justice. Details
Still on Nigeria... By Ameena Indimi (GAMJI) Its been five years into the new Millennium, and so far nothing to show for it. Power is still a scarce resource, the price of petroleum products still climbing, and jobs scarce. To say that this is the product of misplaced priorities and absence of real leadership would seem to me the biggest understatement of the decade. Most our leaders are out of touch with the realities of the every day Nigerian. Details
Impeaching the President, Again? By J.E. Iyobhebhe (GAMJI) Is it the crime of saying that FG should not be running businesses that the private sector can perform more efficiently and effectively? Is it the crime of no more lame ducks and waste of funds in the public sector? Or is it the crime of fighting for debt relief and a seat on the UNSC? Maybe it is the biggest crime of all: that we must put an end to corruption in public life and hunt down any public official helping himself to state funds. It is now becoming a great farce. The NA should understand its proper role under the constitution. It is essentially a Legislative and an Oversight function. It is not to threaten impeachment at the drop of a hat. Details
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