By Charles Okoh
Nigeria was 64 last Tuesday. On that day in 1960, expectations were high and the country’s founding fathers had lofty dreams about a nation that was destined for the top with all the resources, both natural and human. However, 64 years later, it has been a dashed dream thus far.
In 64 years, leadership has completely failed the nation. Myopia and greed have left us in the middle of nowhere like a ship in the sea with incompetent crew and no compass.
By Owei Lakemfa
As a young man, I quite often heard the Latin phrase: “Vox populi, vox dei”, meaning: “The voice of the people is the voice of God”. Democracy, whatever the brand, is supposed to uphold this.
But the Nigerian people might be too busy to speak; too hungry to talk. Under such circumstances, they need to remain silent. But who better to speak for the people than the National Assembly? That is why parliamentarians are assembled: to speak for their otherwise preoccupied constituents.
By Emmanuel Onwubiko
The English philosopher and psychologist, Herbert Spencer, coined the phrase “survival of the fittest” (1820-1903). He is famous for his doctrine of social Darwinism, which asserts that the principles of evolution, including natural selection, apply to human societies, social classes, and individuals as well as to biological species developing over geologic time.
In Spencer’s days, social Darwinism was invoked to justify laissez-faire economics and the minimal state, which were thought to best promote unfettered competition between individuals and the gradual improvement of society through the “survival of the fittest.”
By Robert Obioha
The 10th National Assembly (NASS) is always in the news for the wrong reasons since its inauguration some months ago. Although such hiccups are not unexpected with the newly elected leadership, but when they became so frequent without any sign of abating soon, there is indeed something to worry about the present crop of legislators. This is also not actually the best of times for the turbulent NASS. Some members are still grieving over how the current leadership of the NASS emerged and the sharing of perks of office. It is time to bury the hatchet and move on.
When the members are not protesting over the sharing of committee jobs, they are complaining over the sharing of some perks of office or what Senate President Godswill Obot Akpabio humorously described as prayer points sent to their bank accounts, sorry, mailboxes, or both, for want of better expression. Nigerians were not deceived over what actually transpired with the prayer point episode. Recently, the Chief Whip, Senator Ali Ndume, from the North-East, walked out of the Red Chamber over minor issues as point of order or point of correction over how Akpabio handles issues. The Senate President promptly overruled Ndume.
By Emeka Alex Duru
No matter how one tries not to bother at the certificate issue involving President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Chicago State University (CSU), the institution he claimed to have attended for a degree, the matter keeps popping up. Like the mythical incubus, the bad dream which hardly dies, it keeps coming and does not let go. In a way, it has become a sore on the thumb, which only Tinubu can cure.
In our days in the rested The Post Express newspapers, a hardworking colleague was about being made the daily editor, when, overnight, his rival contemporaries connived with corrupt minds in the administration department and all his academic records were removed from his file, leaving only the West African School Certificate. The smart Aleks had their way and rumours were injected into the organisation that he was not adequately educated for the position.
By Sunny Ikhioya
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu became the governor of Lagos State in May 1999, he was boisterous and full of enthusiasm, portraying him in the image of a super man. But it was not long before he was confronted by the reality on ground. This reality encapsulated among others things happening in the streets. Lagos was growing increasingly filthy with wastes and becoming unsafe for people. That was after the exit of his predecessor, the famous Brigadier-General Buba Marwa, whom everyone deemed had performed well.
General Marwa’s success was attributed to two clear strategies: keeping the city safe through the introduction of ‘Operation Sweep'(which later transformed to Rapid Response Squad, RRS, under Tinubu) and clearing Lagos of filth.
By Rotimi Fasan
At the end of July this year, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said in a nationwide broadcast that Nigeria had been able to save well over a trillion naira following the removal of subsidy on petrol. This was money that would, otherwise, have gone into the dark hole into which the fuel subsidy went. I think it’s fair to say, in the wake of the unbearable suffering Nigerians have been passing through since the end of May that some kind of support (read subsidy) was being enjoyed by Nigerians.
It was just that the effect of it was very minimal compared to the amount we are told went into sustaining the oil subsidy bogey. The best part of the subsidy money went into the pockets and bank accounts of shadowy players in the oil sector, including oil marketers that are too quick to make Nigerians groan by their Shylock-like ways.
By Owei Lakemfa
Two different but related cries ring in my head. “Let the Poor breathe” and “I don’t want to die.” The first is the cry across the country as the masses are being suffocated by inflation and over 90 million poor get hungrier.
The second is the plaintive cry of young medical doctor, Vwaere Diaso, whose calling is to save lives. However, when her life was in danger with her limbs broken by an heartless system, her blood flowing from various parts and she knew her life was ebbing and she desperately needed help, her dying cry to her colleagues was: “I don’t want to die.”
By Farooq A. Kperogi
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu a few days ago wrote to the Senate to inform it of an impending “Military build up and deployment of personnel for military intervention to enforce compliance of the military junta in Niger should they remain recalcitrant.” This is a dangerous, ill-advised, potentially self-destructive gamble Tinubu would do well to give up because it has the potential to consume not just him but also Nigeria.
I detest military regimes because I am repulsed by any system that imposes unequal, predetermined structural limits on the aspirational compass to leadership. It is for the same reason that I despise the unearned, inherited authority that monarchies represent. Everyone should, at least in theory if not in practice, have the latitude to aspire to the highest level of leadership in the land. Military rule limits leadership to professional people, as monarchies limit leadership to bloodline.
By Ochereome Nnanna
When the immediate former President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, came to power in January 2017, he took stock of the situation the country was in. Over the decades, warlike America had become war-torn though the fighting was always on foreign land. It spends an average of $1 trillion on defence and wars annually. Its troops were mired all over the Middle East and Asia, especially in such countries as Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.
Trump, who campaigned on a mantra of Making America Great Again, MAGA, decided to de-escalate belligerence. The troops must come home. America must make peace with its traditional foes – Russia, China, North Korea and others. America must suspend its “big brother” role to the European Union and let them shift for themselves, at least for the time being. America must rebuild the coal-fired energy sector and revamp abandoned towns. America must rebuild its broken philosophical and cultural foundations and become America once again.
By Hope O’Rukevbe Eghagha
There is hunger in the land. Real hunger. There is food and food everywhere. But majority of our citizens cannot afford to feed three times daily. Inflation is eroding the purchasing power of the naira. Transportation costs have gone up. The costs of medications have gone up. Incomes have not gone up. It is cheap to die; it is also expensive to die.
A paradox. A little emergency could take one’s life. Organ failure, expensive to treat, can take one’s life too. People are starving. I do not refer to quality of feeding. I am concerned that there are too many people who are now compelled to go through days without meals.
By Onyemaechi Eze
The removal of fuel subsidy by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the first day of assumption of office was ill-timed, out-rightly ill-advised and uncalled for. The president with his team was in a better position to understand that without an enabling environment, a team on ground to drive policies, decisions made without right thoughts are always counter-productive. Nigeria is unfortunately a nation where government does not function as expected even when a team is in place, let alone when there is none.
The decision had upon announcement immediately jolted the foundation of market forces and sent shock waves through the fabrics of the general economy. Consequently, the people were exposed to unimaginable hardships. Everyone is sad, pained and disenchanted as cost of goods and services increased exponentially and still increasing. The exchange rate along with inflationary trend leaves everyone dazed. Even the rich and politicians are crying!
By Luke Onyekakeyah
Ordinarily, the removal of subsidy on energy sources – petrol, kerosene, diesel and electricity would free up billions of naira for government to plow into other social and economic needs such as infrastructural development, give incentive for domestic refineries to produce more petroleum products, reduce the country’s over dependence on imported fuel, boost the economy and create jobs. Some of these are very contentious in the Nigerian context.
This line of thinking may be possible for stable economies and not one that is deep in crisis like Nigeria. Truth is that the removal of subsidy is an ill wind that could collapse the beleaguered and fragile economy of Nigeria.
By Tony Afejuku
Who are President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s political strategists? Who are President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s democratic strategists? Who are President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s law and legal strategists? Who are President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s capitalist development strategists?
