Tinubonomic And 8000 Litres Of Poverty

 By Gbenro Olajuyigbe

In intervention during emergencies, there is what is called Appropriate Response. Impact of inappropriate response is worse than no response. Responding to the ‘needs’ of 12 million households’ out of 43 million households in a severely polarized country is bad enough. 

*Bola Tinubu 

Aside from the existing inequality between the poor and the rich, it further bifurcates the tribe of the poor, potentially with implications for uneven patriotism and implosive crisis.  Giving the selected beneficiary (270 Naira/ 35 Cents per day) in situation where those who earn 1.9 dollar per day are regarded as living in extreme poverty amounts to glorification of poverty. 5000 Naira per poor household under Buhari, which had more intrinsic value than the touted Tinubu’s 8000 Naira, threw 133 million people into nadir of poverty.

Presidential leadership In A Nigeria Without Oil

 By Stanley Ekpa

When the International Monetary Fund, IMF, categorises resource-rich countries, it classifies the countries according to their export baskets. At least 20 African countries, including Nigeria, Angola, Ghana, and Tanzania, are classified as resource-rich, with their export bases comprising a bulk of unprocessed crude oil, minerals and agricultural commodities.

The classification of countries in other continents, such as Japan, Malaysia, and Indonesia, is based on the diversity of their export bases and value-added products. Since 1973, the year of the first oil boom, crude oil has constituted more than 90% of Nigeria’s export earnings, making Nigeria a global classic case of a monocultural economy. Though a monocultural economy has the advantage of product specialisation, it runs contrary to the spirit of Section 16 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) in building a balanced and resilient economy.

University Teachers' Strike: Why Nigerian Govt Is Not Perturbed

 By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

Now, let’s face it: there can only be one reason why the industrial action embarked upon by the teachers of Nigeria’s public universities since February 14 has been allowed to waste a whole seven months of the academic pursuit of many youths, and, indeed, their very lives. Truth is, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to find the children of key members of the General Muhammadu Buhari regime in any Nigerian public university.

*Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye 

If the reverse was the case, every effort would certainly have been deftly deployed to avert the strike, or, at least, drastically shorten its duration.

And because the children of the ruling elite are far removed from the avoidable lingering crisis distorting and mortgaging the future of hapless Nigerian youths, the Neros at Nigeria’s seat of power are merely looking at the problem with cold, callous detachment.

Nigeria: The Unreported Impact Of The Lingering ASUU Strike

 By Rasheedat Shuaib 

Nothing can be more shocking than learning that the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has embarked on not less than 16 industrial actions between 1999 and 2022.

For those who may not know, a major factor prompting our university lecturers to be laying down their tools intermittently is the failure of government to fulfill an agreement it once entered with the academic union.

*Buhari receiving an honorary doctorate degree from the Kaduna State University 

Another factor is the failure of the lecturers to reinvent themselves and face current realities, and find fresh ways of resolving their incessant disputes with the government.

Each time the ASUU strike rears its ugly head, one is forced to conclude that both the government and our lecturers lack empathy for us the students. Better put: they don’t have our interest at heart.

The recurrence of ASUU strike has numerous negative impacts on us, something the government and ASUU don’t consider when they fail to come to an agreement. We lost a whole session to this same madness two years ago. The same thing is already happening now, with the ongoing strike.

How Greed Diminishes A People!

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

 To a people addicted to the tragic luxury of self-delusion, truth hurts so badly. But then, truth always refuses to go away. It lingers around to perpetually taunt and haunt those that loathe and despise its face.

And the truth we can no longer afford to deny today is that anybody, in fact, any animal can rule Nigeria. I mean, even a bird or baboon can become Nigeria’s president or governor. It is that simple! All it will take, after all, is for the person to get a Prof Mahmood Yakubu and his band of magicians at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to announce his “victory,” and that would be all. But if, for whatever reason, they fail, the Supreme Court can be relied upon any day to perfectly deliver the mandate!  

*Senate President Lawan, President Buhari, Speaker Gbajabiamila  

When Africa Began To Slumber

By Joseph Atchulo

When Africa began to slumber her gold was stolen from Ghana, when Africa began to slumber her oil was stolen from Nigeria, when Africa began to slumber her gas was stolen from Angola, when Africa began to slumber her Diamond was stolen from Serra Leone and Liberia, when Africa began to slumber her diamond was stolen from the DR Congo, Tanzania, Botswana and Namibia, when Africa began to slumber her Iron Ore was stolen from Sudan and all her natural resources where stolen by the West. Awaken oh mother Africa because in your state of slumber your youth, the young and vibrant, the energetic young people of this Continent no longer see any pride in you.

Africa today has become in the words of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair ‘a scar on the conscience of humanity’. Africa today has become a tragedy of gigantic proportion, how did it happen that even today the youth in Africa have no pride in Africa, in Africa's state of slumber her youth are stolen.

Nigeria: The Grim Reality

By Charles Anekwe

We have the worst quality of life in the world – by a wide margin.
If you have any idea of how people really live in Ghana, Cameroon, Libya, Botswana, and other parts of the Third World, you’d be rioting in the streets calling for a better life. In fact, the average South African, Zimbabwean or Libyan taxi driver has a much better standard of living than the typical Nigerian graduate white-collar worker. 

I know this because I am a Nigerian, and I want to escape from this huge prison you call home. Already, we are silently protesting against cynical politics, spiraling corruption, economic stagnation and breathtaking levels of crime. We are disunited than ever although we have more immediate survival issues than unity.

Nigeria: A Culture Of Substandard Living

By Passy Amaraegbu

“All good is hard. All evil is easy. Dying, (suicide) losing, cheating, and mediocrity are easy. Stay away from ease.”

 – Scott Alexander

One major way to measure the degree of development in any society is the value she placed on human life. Even animals operate with the instinct that human life is sacred. This is the reason they initially exhibit fear and flight when they encounter human beings.

Consequently, every progressive human society focuses on the double task of preserving and improving the lives of mortals. Some European and even Asian nations have perfected in this crucial task to a high degree that the elderly cohort (65 and above) form a significant part of their population. In other words, the life expectancy of such nations is high. For instance, the UN 2015 world life expectancy of Nigerian is 52.29 years, UK is 80.45, and Japan is 83.74. The main reason for this divergent disparity in the life expectancy of nations is based on the different values these nations place on the lives of their citizens. 

President Buhari And The Irresistible Allures Of Lagos!

By Olugbenga David

On Thursday, after commissioning a bus stop - Ghana will in May, commission their new and futuristic Kotoka International Airport - in paralysed Lagos, President Buhari went to the main event that brought him to Lagos, the Bola Tinubu Day, which has now been surreptitiously made into a national holiday.

 

*President Buhari, Bola Tinubu, Oluremi
Tinubu, during Buhari's visit to Lagos

And while Mr. President was attending events to mark this birthday, the Army was burying 11 soldiers in a very lowkey funeral in Kaduna. The soldiers were killed at Birnin Gwari, Kaduna State, several days earlier, reportedly by late Buharin Daji’s murderous bandit group.

This was the same day also, that dozens were killed, for the umpteenth time, in Zamfara, said to be by the same Buharin Daji’s murderous group. But the President did not care to even ask for a minute’s silence in honour of the murdered soldiers. Nor silence in honour of the poor peasants killed. He only had time and words of praise for the Jagaban Borgu, whose electoral value is suddenly attractive, valuable and desirable to the President. After all, 2019 elections are here, and John Odigie-Oyegun has no electoral value in the new turn of events and scheme of things. So the Jagaban must be vigorously courted, and be properly romanced.

Libya: The Slave-Trading Capital Of Africa

By Israel Ebije

Activities of slave merchants trading off migrants stuck in Libya have earned the country a reputation once an exclusive preserve of countries like Italy, France, Portugal, Britain and Spain, which shipped Blacks from Africa in 1492 to work in farms as slaves. While it was marginally understandable for the Whites to subject Blacks to slavery based on the repugnant concept of racial superiority, the Libya notoriety is abysmal, condemnable and bereft of explanations. Their victims are sold for as low as $400 to a lifetime of hard labor. 

Libya has an estimated one million migrants locked up in various dungeons across the country. They are funded and equipped by European Union and Italy, to stop the migrants from crossing the precarious Atlantic ocean where an estimated 5,000 refugees have died in recent years. The administrative willpower of the Libyan government is put to question amidst accusations of complicity in the heinous slave-trading. The quest to get free labor to make extra money from migrants has made the slave market lucrative, with cartels expanding in the bestial trade on daily bases.

Nigeria: Very Rich, But Very Poorly Managed

 By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

A few years ago, we had a very important and urgent need to be in Kumasi very early the next day. It was already midnight (Nigerian Time, but 11pm in Ghana), and we were still in Accra, surrounded by its brilliant lights and soothing serenity (there was not the faintest hint of any generator sound anywhere), wondering what to do.

Obasanjo and Buhari

But a Ghanaian who was with us did not seem to share our worries. He simply told us to hit the road, that in the next three hours, we should be in Kumasi.

I looked at him with surprise and disbelief. Who was sure nobody had hired him to lure the three of us into a well-laid ambush by violent robbers? When I expressed my concern about armed robbers, his answer was sharp: “There are no armed robbers!”

When later I repeated the concern, he said something he quickly realised he should not have said, but which Nigerians need to continue hearing no matter how painful we find it: “I have told you… no armed robbers! This is not Nige…!” He cut himself short. It suddenly occurred to him that he had gone too far in his bid to emphasize that point.

When I called a Nigerian friend in Ghana and he reassured me that the long journey from Accra to Kumasi was safe, we hit the road. At the one or two places where very friendly policemen stopped us, they merely looked at the vehicle and waved us on with their torches, without the slightest hint that they wanted a bribe.

Is WAEC In A Comatose State?

(pix:punch)

By Issah Sulemana
Everybody’s attention has been drawn to the current leaked WASSCE examination papers and the connotative damage it has inflicted on the national psyche in terms of the calibre of students and for that matter the labour force in the country. One would have expected WAEC to as it were, act swiftly and decisively to extinguish the flame that has been kindled by ‘who knows who’ did what, when and how? that has left the nation in a bottomless abyss of confusion. Needless to say, immorally triumphanting in the hopeless light of fraud cannot be accepted in any part of the world not even within the inhabitants of utopia.

My heart weeps for the country when I see students voraciously devouring the so called leaked questions on whatsapp, neglecting their books in the process while they browse the stuff on smart phones. With a display of open glee the numbskulls are seen scampering around as late as two a.m to either receive a whatsapp message or copy the stuff on pieces of paper.

Leaking examination papers seems to be a norm in the West African sub-region and students now think it is their inalienable right to receive such information and go a step further to wonder why authorities are bent on thwarting their brazen importunity. Talking about the calibre of students churned out by this system is akin to kicking against the pricks since there is nothing good to write home about the current crop of students.

In essence, I am one of those who anathematize the use of pidgin english to cover up for the deficiencies of our own iniquities kindred to the British High Commissioner his Excellency Jon Benjamen, who had to lash out on the news caster, Nana Aba Anamoah for a tweet the latter made in pidgin english.

Of course she ought to have known that her carrier as a journalist projected her in a light that attracted people of all walks of life to emulate her way of speaking and writing and therefore she must show a pesdesstrian example and not to wallow in antiquated, incongrous enlish language. Those who think that the high commissioner’s response to the news caster’s epic fallibility was condescending badinage are making an egregious mistake.