Let National Service Begin With Dignity, Not Suffering

 By Lanre Ogundipe

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) remains one of Nigeria’s most enduring nation-building institutions. For over five decades, it has fostered national integration, promoted cultural understanding and encouraged young Nigerians to contribute meaningfully to the country’s development.

Millions of graduates have proudly passed through the scheme, making it a symbol of unity and shared national purpose.

However, preserving the legacy of the NYSC requires more than celebrating its achievements. It demands a willingness to confront its shortcomings and reform areas that no longer serve the realities of contemporary Nigeria.

Insecurity: Managing Our Clear And Present Danger

 By Adekunle Adekoya

There can be no further doubt in the minds of the average Nigerian that our dear country faces a clear and present danger on many fronts. The immediate one is the unrelenting wave of terror attacks, exemplified by repeated attacks on communities in Kwara State, which was preceded by abduction of Kebbi school girls, now said to have regained freedom.

Another problem the nation faces is with regard to the procurement, sale and use of narcotics and other psychotropic substances. The NDLEA, under General Mohammed Marwa has been doing a good job on that front, but he needs support. More on that another day.

Nigeria: The Road To Hunger Land

 By Adekunle Adekoya

There is a point you get to talking about the problems facing our dear nation that you just get tired. This is because the problems seem endless — from insecurity to unending rise in the prices of goods and services, especially food items, to the parlous state of our infrastructure, especially roads and electricity. In the midst of unreliable power supply, government is bidding to remove subsidy on electricity, which, from where I stand, amounts to making the people pay more for a service that they get just a whiff of.

Right now, methinks the greatest problem that we have to deal with is the growing issue of food insecurity; more able-bodied men are finding it herculean to put food on the table as the prices of staples — rice, garri, yams, beans, potatoes, others are becoming more unaffordable every day. That is in addition to sky-high prices of bread, fish, meat, pepper, tomato, onions and other groceries. But, with regards to food, it was clear, albeit a long time ago, that we will get to this point someday. Just that those in charge of our affairs continued to deceive us and themselves that all is well.

Why Senate Should Not Endorse Use Of Firearms By FRSC

 By Joseph Ikpea Igiagbe 

I write as a true Nigerian to make an appeal to our collective sense of national responsibility towards getting rid of official and illegal small weapons and light ammunition in our society. I particularly want to appeal to all the Distinguished Senators of the Federal Republic to treat this matter with the urgency that it deserves. 

I will like to state that there is no contesting the fact that the amount of ammunition and weapons in the hands of legal and legitimate security agencies as well as private individuals, let alone the ones in the hands of non-state actors, is a soft threat to our national security and it is becoming very worrisome, thus demanding a concerted effort at retrieving same as well as demilitarising our society. 

Federal Universities And Hike In Fees

 By Jerome-Mario Utomi

It is pedestrian information that while Nigerians were waiting for the commencement of governance, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the day of inauguration, precisely on Monday May 29, 2023, announced the removal of fuel subsidy without putting palliatives in place to assist ameliorate the harsh impact of such policy reversal. 

Also newsy is that before the dust raised by such a decision could settle, another was up, as the Federal Government again implemented a coordinated but thoughtless hike in fees paid by students of most of the tertiary institutions of higher learning in the country.  What is however different is that such harrowing decisions have left varying degrees of unpalatable impacts on Nigerians. 

ASUU: Dealing With A Blackmailing Government

 By Andrew A. Erakhrumen

As it stands today, except new reality emerges, the renegotiation of 2009 agreement between Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) has been stalled by FGN. As a quick background: this agreement was originally due for renegotiation in 2012 but delayed, through FGN’s antics, till 2017 when Wale Babalakin-led FGN-empanelled renegotiation committee came on board to continue government’s antics through a ‘phantom’ renegotiation with ASUU’s team in order to waste everybody’s time.

This premeditated “wild goose chase”, on the part of Babalakin and his co-travellers, continued until he (Babalakin) was forced to resign as chairman of the Governing Council of University of Lagos on the 15th of September, 2020. As FGN was left in a lurch owing to this sudden resignation that nearly poked holes in their fakery, it has no choice other than to constitute Munzali Jibril-led renegotiation committee. This committee submitted a renegotiated draft agreement in May, 2021.