Rivers State: Caveat Emptor For Wike

 By Ochereome Nanna

Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, must be feeling on top of the world right now. He has successfully retrieved the structure of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Rivers State from Governor Siminalayi Fubara.

*Fubara and Wike 
With the endorsement of the National Working Committee, NWC, of the party and the fact that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, witnessed and certified the recent congress of the Rivers State chapter of the party, all eyes are on the Governor to respond in the battle for his own political survival.

'Oil Curse’: Nigeria Has No viable Future As A Petrostate

 By Olu Fasan

The latest foreign trade data show that Nigeria recorded a trade balance of N6.52 trillion in the first quarter of this year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS. Expectedly, President Bola Tinubu seized on the figure as evidence that his economic reform is working. Given that the positive trade balance significantly reversed the negative balance of minus N1.4 trillion recorded in the fourth quarter of last year, one should cut Tinubu a slack. After all, a trade surplus, any trade surplus, is better than a trade deficit! 

However, dig deeper, there’s little to gloat about: for nothing has changed in the structure of Nigeria’s export trade. Crude oil exports, at N15.5 trillion, account for 80.8 per cent of the total exports. If you add other petroleum oil products, including natural gas, at N1.9 trillion or 9.92 per cent, oil and gas represent 91 per cent of Nigeria’s total exports. Thus, non-oil exports, at N1.8 trillion, account for a minuscule nine per cent of Nigeria’s total exports. Surely, then, Tinubu’s economic reform has done nothing to change the structure of Nigeria’s export trade, which remains almost totally dominated by crude oil and natural gas. 

Celebrating Omalicha Radio, 91.1 FM: A Voice For Development

 By Tony Onyima  

On Friday, September 20, 2024, Omalicha Radio 91.1 FM, Owerri, a beacon of independent development broadcasting, will celebrate its first anniversary. Founded by the seasoned journalist and editor, Ms. Angela Agoawike, the station has become a critical platform for community empowerment and sustainable development, especially in the heart of Owerri and beyond. 

*Agoawike 

As we mark this milestone, it is fitting to reflect on the significance of the station's achievements and the role it continues to play in the landscape of communication, community development, and the bridging of critical divides. 

Edo Governorship Poll: Only Justice Will Guarantee Peace

 
By Ikechukwu Amaechi

On Saturday, September 21, Edo electorate will elect a new governor who will superintend over the affairs of the state in the next four years. In other climes, that is a simple task. Agreed, contestation for power is a serious business not meant for chicken hearted fellas, but the heavy lifting is done out on the hustings, talking to people. On Election Day, the will of the majority expressed through the ballot box prevails.

Dangote Refinery Is Here; Why Are We Unhappy?

 By Dele Sobowale

“I am beginning to wonder how many fools it takes to make the term ‘My Fellow Citizens’” -Honore de Balzac, 1799-1850, in LOST ILLUSIONS

You were probably one of those who eagerly awaited the completion of the Dangote Refinery while labouring under the illusion that it will crash the price of fuel nationwide. Welcome to the unpleasant reality. Underlying that self-deception was the un-stated but implied assumption that Alhaji Dangote was embarking on a venture designed to free Nigeria from fuel importation. Well, “when you assume, you make an ass of you and me.”

Gullible Nigerians, especially many media commentators, had committed the blunder of forgetting that Dangote is a businessman caught in a global race for position among the world’s richest people. He went into refinery primarily to make as much money as he can; and stopping fuel importation is a distant second objective – except that securing a monopoly of the domestic fuel supply would help achieve the ambition.

The Oppressors Who Love The Oppressed

 By Owei Lakemfa

It is bizarre. The International Monetary Fund, IMF, calling on the government to protect the poor from the impact of the fuel price hikes it engineers! To add to its criminal thought process against the Nigerian people, the same IMF is telling the Tinubu administration that fuel prices in Nigeria are too low and need to be increased because it is allegedly selling below market price. What market?

To understand this, we need to know that the Western Europe-owned IMF and its Siamese American twin, the World Bank, have since 1981 told every successive Nigerian government that our petroleum product prices are too cheap and must be increased.

A Nation Without Roads

 By Sunny Awhefeada

The road constitutes a met­aphor of life’s journey for Africans. It is central to the configuration and under­standing of the metaphysical nexus between the abode of the dead and that of the living that we call life. The metaphoric and metaphysical essence of the road also mediates life’s journey and its uncertain twists and turns.

The road is benign as it connects people and places. The road is also a cruel phenomenon as it has thrown people and places into mourning. The road consumes hu­manity. It engenders loss. African literature in its depiction of the African predicament whether it is physical or existential has remained the most fertile site for the plural manifestations of the essence of the road.

Adams Oshiomhole Is Irredeemable

 By Charles Okoh

They have always told us that politics is dirty but nobody informed us that there are also mad men in politics and that in politics indiscretion and sloppiness are virtues. It is sad that perhaps, be­cause of the stupendous wealth and power politicians wield, there is something that makes some of them absolute nut cases, insensi­tive and unreasonable.

*Oshiomhole

Former Edo governor and one time NLC president, Adams Os­hiomhole, has consistently prov­en that wisdom indeed does not come with age. A man can be 100 years old and yet lacks wisdom. Oshiomhole has shown that the older he gets the more reckless, irrational and indiscreet he has become. How can somebody as old as this consistently speak without wisdom, discretion and self-restraint?

Ahmed Bako: Intellectual Masturbation As Inaugural Lecture

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

What caught my attention when the flyer of the 50th inaugural lecture of the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto surfaced in the social media late August was the theme: “The Igbo factor in the history of intergroup relations and commerce in Kano: Opportunities and challenges revisited.”

The lecture, to be delivered by Ahmed Bako, a Kano-born professor of African and Nigerian history, triggered a sense of foreboding instantly because I guessed it would be a voyage in dog whistling, a pastime of ethnic irredentists across the country when dealing with their bête noire – Ndigbo. He proved me right.

PhotoNews: Igbo Road By Main Market, Kano

 

Governing Nigeria: Does The Economy Trump Politics? No, It Doesn’t!

 By Olu Fasan

It is the age-old chicken and egg question. Which comes first: the economy or politics? That’s the question at the heart of this intervention, and it was triggered by two recent events. The first was President Bola Tinubu’s response to the call for a new Constitution. The second was Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s speech at this year’s Annual Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, in which she called for a social contract for Nigeria. Everyone knew about those events, but few detected their logical fallacies. So, first, let’s recall the events.

Recently, in August, the highly venerated elder statesman Chief Emeka Anyaoku led a group of eminent Nigerians under the aegis of The Patriots to meet Tinubu at the State House and asked him to convene a constituent assembly to produce a draft people’s constitution for Nigeria.

Kumuyi’s Bold Initiative To Change Society

By Banji Ojewale

Buried somewhere in the voluminous video vault of the Africa Independent Television, AIT, Lagos, Nigeria, is the recording of a rare live interview with Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi, General Superintendent of Deeper Christian Life Ministry, DCLM. Hosted in the late 1990s by the popular Kaakaki early dawn programme, Kumuyi responded to a bouquet of questions that led to even more answers and views about his ministry, the Deeper Life Bible Church God used him to found, his outlook on life, and the controversy over genuine Christians watching the Television among other vexatious narratives of the day.

*Kumuyi

Deep into the interactive session, the unexpected poser came from a caller: "Sir, I have observed that you’ve not at all quoted from the Scriptures as you addressed some of the questions. I can’t also see that you have the Holy Bible with you. Now, Sir, that seems somehow strange for a great man of God, who is expected to tackle every issue by reaching into the Word of God and turning page after page. But you’re not doing all that. Doesn’t add up, Pastor!’’ (Please note that I’ve taken a literary license to paraphrase and expand the question.)

AfriSummit 2024: Uniting For A Healthier Africa

 Uniting masterminds and industry leaders to shape the future of regulatory landscape in pharmaceutical sector of the African continent

AfriSummit 2024, an initiative by PRA Consultancy, organized by Hubplus Events in collaboration with Pioneers, will take place from November 3-6, 2024, at the Grand Nile Tower in Cairo, Egypt. This significant event brings together stakeholders from the pharmaceutical industry and medical device sector, regulatory bodies, and leading solution providers from across Africa and globally. It aims to drive the unity of healthcare regulations, enhancing access to safe, effective, and high-quality medicines.

Bola Tinubu And Sani Abacha’s Ghost

 By Ugoji Egbujo

Recently, many have seen the ghost of Sani Abacha. And they have cried aloud.

After the annulment of the June 12 elections, chaos ensued. Gen Babangida stepped aside. As Shonekan’s Interim Government (ING) wobbled under the June 12 pressure, Abacha dispatched emissaries to Abiola who had dashed into exile.  Abacha promised to restore hope. Nobody should have believed him, but being credulous from hopelessness, they said he was a man of his word. They hoped Abacha would renew Hope.  Hope 93 was Abiola’s slogan.

No Food, No Fuel, No Power, No Forex, No Hope

 By Dele Sobowale

“An army marches on its stomach.” 

— Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769-1821; Vanguard Book of Quotations, p. 14, available online

Right now several millions of Nigerians’ stomachs are empty; and movement has virtually stopped. Unfortunately, it is not only the scarcity of food and high prices which are slowing us down, scarcity of all the things which make life worth living in the new millennium imperil us.

Fuel is scarce; and will remain so indefinitely. The Minister of Power is powerless and can seldom supply beyond 4,000MW per day. The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, after the initial attempt to force down exchange rate, is now tired and bewildered.

Nigeria’s GDP ‘Growth’ Is Anaemic; It’s Nothing To Celebrate!

 By Olu Fasan

Trust Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s self-assured yet bumbling president. He will claw at any piece of seemingly good news. Recently, when the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, reported that Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP, grew to 3.19 per cent in the second quarter of this year, from 2.51 per cent at the same period last year, Tinubu was overly exultant.

*Tinubu

His newspaper, The Nation, screamed on its front page: “Tinubu hails GDP surge, assures of stronger economic performance.” Surely, describing the anaemic and shallow GDP growth rate as a “surge” shows how Tinubu grasps at straws, denying reality. Interestingly, while Tinubu gloated about the GDP figure, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s two-time Finance Minister and current Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, WTO, lamented Nigeria’s perennially sluggish GDP growth rate at this year’s annual conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA. So, who is right?