Nigeria And Her Ravaging Hunger

 By Ejike Anyaduba

Nigeria relishes the moniker - the giant of Africa - which she blazons like an armorial bearing. With enormous resources and a population of about 250 million people (Professor Lumumba, the Kenyan lawyer and activist, thinks she is more than that figure) she can afford to boast about her giant status. 

But that is not enough. Nigeria accounts for one sixth of Africa’s population which stands at about 1.4billion. This population has a chance of growing more if nothing catastrophic happens by way of natural disaster or a split as was the case with Sudan - erstwhile Africa’s largest country until the secession of South Sudan in 2011. 

Rotimi Amaechi Vs. Magnus Abe

By Comfort Obi

If anybody was in doubt of why the civilized world laughs at us, the open letter, written to the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, by Senator Magnus Abe, published in the ThisDay newspaper of Wednesday, September 26, puts a seal on the doubt.

**Magnus Abe and Rotimi Amaechi

I read it three times. And each time, my worries increased, with an exclamation to nobody: ‘Look at what politicians have reduced our country to.’

Both the Minister and the Senator are from Rivers state. The former, an Ikwerre man, and the latter, an Ogoni man. Until politics tore them apart, both were close friends. And belonged to the Dr. Peter Odili Political family – a family so strong, so influential, that every who-is-who in Rivers politics, from when Odili was sworn-in as Governor, owe their current and past “bigmanism” in government to it.

Rivers’ Crisis As Rite Of Passage

By Paul Onomuakpokpo  

What probably was the vestigial remnant of the hope that politicians in these climes would change for the better has been rudely ruptured by their quest for power in Rivers State. They have once again demonstrated their readiness for the ruthless elimination of any obstacle in their way. 

What ought to be a peaceful election to fill some vacant positions in the National and state Assembly has been besmeared with blood and tears. Scores have been killed and maimed. Hundreds have been rendered homeless.  And like the sword of Damocles, a pall of worse violence hangs over the heads of the citizens. But it is not only the residents of the state who have been traumatised by the grisly events.  For in contemplating them, hope has given way to despondency over the possibility of stabilising the nation’s democracy and making it benefit the citizenry.

But for the crisis in Rivers, we would still have held on tenaciously to the hope that we were transiting to a better political era, despite the plethora of the shenanigans of our politicians.  We would have hoped that our politicians would realise soon that the citizens gave them the opportunity to serve them. We would have hoped that our contemporary  politicians, through good governance, would make amends for their godfathers who have been rightly excoriated for frittering away the  opportunities to deliver transformational leadership . We would have thought that they would realise that if they were really keen on serving the citizens, they would not kill them first before bringing them succour.

Now that we have been jarred into reality by the bloodbath, we come to terms with the stark fact that we cannot have the power to solve our problems when we cannot resolve how to choose those who would provide the answers we need. No wonder that over the years, the warped  political system has not been able to throw up those men and women who would fix our decrepit national infrastructure and disentangle electricity, for instance, from its comatose course, and make it fast-track national  development  and improve the citizens’ lot.

Lai Mohammed Lied On Fuel Scarcity

By Reno Omokri

 Dear Honourable Minister Lai Mohammed, Greetings and congratulations on your recent and well deserved appointment as Nigeria's Minister of Information. You may recall that we met on the set of 'Politics Today' in May of 2011 soon after I was interviewed by Deji Bademosi and just before you were interviewed.

*Lai Mohammed 

The purpose of my letter to you today is in response to your statement made on Monday the 21st of December, 2015, in which you accused former President Goodluck Jonathan, whom I served as one of three spokesmen, of being responsible for the current excruciating fuel scarcity now subsisting in Nigeria.

Your exact words were "What I will be telling Nigerians is that what we met on ground is such that we are paying for the sins of the last administration...One of the reasons for the fuel scarcity was the inability of the last government to make adequate provision for fuel subsidy".

My candid take on your message to Nigerians is that it is an abdication of responsibility on your part and does not project you and the government you represent as being responsible. Government, as you very well know, is a continuum. One government takes over from where the other stopped and to say that an action in December of 2015 (six months after ex President Jonathan handed over to the incumbent on May 29th, 2015, ) is the fault of the last President, is to confer super human powers on Jonathan.