National Assembly Sovereignty: Joke Taken Too Far

 By Owei Lakemfa

As an undergraduate in Great Ife, the Obafemi Awolowo University, I was a member of the Students Representative Council, the parliament. Whenever we met, the generality of the student body surrounded the venue to observe. The idea was that the parliament represented the students, so they have a right not only to observe, but also influence it. In a far limited sense, that is what is called the gallery; except that while the gallery can be cleared, same does not apply to the parliament.

The idea that parliamentarians are autonomous and should not be influenced either in picking their officers or legislating, was ridiculous.

Nigeria: Population Boom In Economic Doom

By Jerry Uwah

Nigeria is sitting on a ticking population time-bomb. President Muhammadu Buhari passively acknowledged the danger ahead in his incoherent and inchoate broadcast on Democracy Day when he listed “galloping population growth rate” as one of the reasons why government could not provide jobs for Nigeria’s army of restless youth now being recruited into armed robberies, kidnappings, banditries and bare-faced terrorism. 

Ironically, the president was curiously silent on how to tackle the dangerous population growth that is now partially responsible for the breakdown of law and order in the land. The population time-bomb has started exploding. It is partially responsible for the obdurate security crisis that has placed Nigeria on civil war footing. 

Nigeria probably has the highest number of children of school age out of classrooms because of the population boom in economic doom that makes it impossible for government to provide enough classrooms for the millions of children qualifying for seats in primary and secondary schools. 

Osinbajo’s Fantasy Of Presidential Infallibility

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

Weighed down by a lack of direction and adherence to constitutionality that is a high point of fidelity to democratic norms, the President Muhammadu Buhari government keeps on spawning despair in the land, with massive economic collapse leading to rampant suicide.

*Osinabjo

Amid this, Buhari’s deputy Professor Yemi Osinbajo appears to represent an illustrious exemplar of sanity in this government. Although decades of serial disappointments by political leaders have made the citizens to cease trusting them, there has been the hope that Osinbajo could be a different kind of political leader who is only actuated by a desire to serve the people and improve their lot.

But at first, Osinbajo proved not to be different from other politicians. The citizens wondered why some illegalities like the government disobeying court rulings and sacking university vice chancellors before the end of their tenures could take place while he is the vice president. He has been silenced by the perks of public office, so the citizens thought.