Ethnic Profiling In An Imperiled Republic

 By Hope O’Rukevbe Eghagha

Nigeria is currently plagued by a myriad of debilitating problems – insecurity, hunger and poverty, rights of minorities, economic mismanagement and exploitation, corruption, myopic leadership, and a weak governance structure. Some of these directly threaten the corporate existence of Nigeria.

There are too many unsettled issues about the conditions for mutual coexistence of the different ethnic groups in the country. There is a perception that the basis for national unity has not been negotiated and accepted. A master-servant relationship between a parasitic majority and the minorities is troubling the new generation of Nigerians.

Nigeria: Our Disappearing Progressives

 By Sunny Ikhioya

Judging from its trajectory, the 2023 election was expected to be different from previous ones, and it did go that way. What we never imagined was the betrayal of the so-called Progressives, who claim to be the conscience of the nation, and are more patriotic than the rest; the lodestar of the nation’s compass. Before the 2015 elections they were everywhere: in the academia, labour, civil societies, NGOs, media and others. 

They were preaching freedom, equity, fundamental human rights, free and fair elections, infrastructure and welfare to uplift the common man and many more. It has been eight long years. Many things have happened in the country within this period: the citizens have been battered black and blue; those who couldn’t stand it have taken the Japa route.

Protecting The New Coup From Heaven

 By Pat Utomi

The current travails of our country are legion, from pain beyond what is reasonable to expect at petrol stations to physical fight at ATMs; the fuel scarcity and currency change processes are eroding our humanity. Add to these the gripping poverty which has been weaponized by the traditional political parties for vote buying, voter suppression and ‘incentives’ to vote for parties and candidates so undeserving of a seat at the table of public life, the season of discontent in Nigeria seems so grim and dark.

*Utomi

Add to this corruption that cries to high heavens for the wrath of God, insecurity so threatening and inflation that literarily wipes out income of those who desperately need it because they are so deep in water, that, as Tawney’s metaphor points out, even a ripple can disown them, and for the need for a citizen crystalizes as the imperative of the moment.