Political Class: Let NDDC Develop Niger Delta!

 By Tonnie Iredia

The oil-rich Niger Delta Region of Nigeria consists of Nine (9) coastal southern states of the country; namely: Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Imo, Abia, Cross River and Akwa Ibom. The 2006 controversial census recorded for the area some 31 million Nigerians – a figure that would today be about 40 million. What is certain is that the Niger Delta provides over 80 percent of Nigeria’s budgetary revenues and about 95 percent of the nation’s foreign exchange earnings.

Consequently, one would have thought that the area would have on its own merit be at the front burner of Nigeria’s development framework but that has not been so. Instead, the area has been subjected to severe collateral damages caused by the multi-dimensional nature of oil operations thereby completely devastating the environment.

Indeed, This 9th National Assembly Is Irredeemable!

 By Charles Okoh

That the Nigerian National Assembly has charted its own course is well-known. That this otherwise bastion of democracy has opted to attach itself as an appendage to the executive arm of government is also well documented fact, but what is all the more troubling is how low they are prepared to condescend just to be seen to be subservient and yes-men to the executive. 

*Lawan, Buhari, Gbajabiamila 

Last week, the Senate turned down the nomination of the garrulous nominee of President Muhammadu Buhari, Lauretta Onochie, as INEC commissioner to represent Delta State. The lily-livered Senate had been having sleepless nights on how to deliver what was an obvious decision without hurting the president. 

Stakeholders, including Civil Society Organisations, CSOs, and the main opposition party, the PDP, had staged a series of protests at the National Assembly against Onochie’s nomination by the President, arguing that she is a card-carrying member of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

Nigeria: APC And Its Rotten Eggs

By Ike Abonyi

“It is wise to direct your anger towards problems – not people, to focus your energies on answers – not excuses.”
– William Arthur Ward

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is desperately searching for the cause of its inability to raise their governance beyond plinth level. 

There is no doubt that the party has been struggling in its administration of the country in the past 20 months. As they try to cover one hole another opens. The fight against corruption which is their biggest strength has been trapped in the intrinsic contradictions in the regime.

The government has been rolling in and out of series of embarrassing scandals even as it tries to hold on to the acclaimed status of being a cleansing government. As the party strives to find its bearings, it has been groping aimlessly trying to look for whom to blame for its failings. For two years, it can hardly cough without calling on the past government. Even when their people face personal domestic problems they try blaming the past administration.