Soludo’s Challenge

 By Obi Nwakanma

Charles Chukwuma Soludo is a brilliant economist. He made a Nsukka first in the years when to make a first-class at the University of Nigeria was like a camel passing through the eye of a needle. These days the University of Nsukka is poorly run, and badly situated/oriented, and there is a narrowness to its own self-image that degrades it radically.

One hopes that the rise of its great alums, like Dr Soludo, a former student, and former Professor of Economics at the University of Nigeria might help push a “Nsukka renaissance.” In a sense, Nsukka gave Soludo his first rodeo.

*Soludo

One returns to the fountain of one’s intellectual growth to fetch the waters of life. But though Soludo might have been taught by the likes of Okwudiba Nnoli, I’m a little worried about his centrist, middle of the road politics: Charles Soludo was known among his fellow students in those years of Students Union Politics at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, as something of an “establishment figure,” who ran with the hares as a student member of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in the 1980s as an undergraduate student.

As Electric Bill Is Now More Than The Minimum Wage…

 By Abolade Ademola

The electricity tariff of Laaga residents (in Ikorodu, Lagos) has gone so high that everyone cannot afford it. As a resident of the community, I will like to add my voice to this challenge and bring it to the notice of Ikeja Electric and NERC.

In Laaga community, located around Ewu-Elepe, a suburb of Ikorodu, residents have been made to pay an estimated bill that is more than the minimum wage of the entire country, Nigeria.

The steady rise in the bill is very discomforting in a country where the rate of inflation keeps rising without a commensurate rise in income.

The residents of a community with few pre-paid meters have been suffering in silence for some months now but it has become very unbearable with the bill sent for January 2022 in the last few days, a whopping sum of N23,000 only! It is such an exasperating amount that everyone is lamenting this outrageous amount that was sent.

Nigeria: Government As Purveyors Of Fake News Today

 By Emmanuel Onwubiko

“A few lines of reasoning’s can change the way we see the World.”— Steven E. Landsburg.

I was actually ruminating on a very important theme that traverses all of humanity and indeed already indulged in my compulsive lifestyle of deeply reflecting on my newly acquired books (75% of my annual income go into buying freshly minted, topnotch books, hard copies) and one of the most recent copies occupied my consciousness because of the opening quotation aforementioned.

*Information Minister, Lai Mohammed

Titled Basic Economics: A Common sense Guide To The Economy, this quotation rather led me to think much more about the threats to the Nigerian economy by the widespread use of fake news by all kinds of government officials with dominant reference to Federal Government officials. Lies, misinformation and outright fake news are increasingly being forced down the throats of millions of Nigerians by those who run the government and therefore have seamless access to our humongous commonwealth and patrimony which they misapply as their whims and caprices dictate to them. 

Soludo And The Made-in-Anambra Work Ethic

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

There is palpable fear amongst the serious commentariat in addressing relevant issues because most of the viral news attributed to esteemed personages may have been cooked up by the feeble minds of the fake news industry. Anambra State Governor-elect, Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, has had many words put in his mouth by these fake news manufacturers.

*Soludo

It’s therefore interesting seeing Prof Soludo while interacting with the members of his transition committee laughing off one of the fibs that quoted him as saying that he would not spend more than N20 million for his swearing-in ceremony.

Soludo cleared the matter thusly: “I have made a wish that not even One Kobo of Anambra people’s money will be spent on the swearing-in ceremony. It is a wish, and I mean it. What are we spending money on? Just a few people coming to the inauguration and witnessing it, then I will open office and get down to work immediately. I do not wish any event, dancers or players and all that. I just want to show up for work, like every first workday. Though it is going to be a Friday, which is the weekend, I’m going to work for over eight hours that day. No ceremony, no event, no party, nothing. Not even 10 Kobo will be spent. So the people who are saying N20million has been budgeted should go and tell us where they will get that money. It is going to be work, work, work, and that is what we epitomize.”

Who Is Bola Ahmed Tinubu?

 By Bisi Olawunm

Since he made his debut in politics as an activist in the prodemocracy agitations of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) in the early 1990s, Bola Ahmed Tinubu – latterly Asiwaju, Jagaban – has been in the eye of the storm arising from what is seen as his identity crisis. There have been speculations and claims, as well as innuendoes, about his name, nativity, parenthood and educational records. To many people, the only thing that is real, without contention, about Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the physical person.

*Bola Tinubu 

In the past few weeks, the intensity of the interrogation of who Bola Tinubu is has revved up several notches as it suddenly, as it were, dawned on people that this person may emerge Nigeria’s number one citizen, come 2023. Bola Tinubu is an enigma of sorts, a curio – a subject of phenomenal curiosity and angst. The puzzle is: How could someone be so well known, in terms of public visibility and public office attainment – as a former senator and governor – and yet so unknown, or with contentions, in terms of his antecedents? We have shell companies, usually engaged in shrouded transactions. Is Bola Tinubu a shell persona, an artificial creation to obfuscate transactional reality?

From World Poverty To Corruption Capital

 By Matthew Agboma Ozah

To say the least, President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s fight against corruption has been unrelenting and vigorous. Even though, we hear more poetic statements than seeing actions and convictions. However, one area the government has made a mockery of the corruption fight is not only in what seems like a selective or media trial jamboree.

*Buhari

But the fact that, the country consecutively for years keeps dropping in global corruption ranking. This has shown that moral values are fast diminishing among the people and especially so in the political class and public office holders. As it were, integrity, honesty and dedication to duty have collapsed in the society. At the moment, the menace of corruption in Nigeria, especially in terms of the threat it poses to the country’s development is beyond explanation.

Insecurity In Nigeria: What Exactly Is Govt Getting Right?

 By Ladesope Ladelokun

The President handed Nigerians the marking scheme with which to assess him some five years ago when he told Nigerians at virtually every campaign stop that he would fight insecurity, work hard to revive an economy in a tailspin and declare a total war on the vermin called corruption.

*President Buhari

But it must be said that it is not the best of times for Nigeria at the moment. The most populous black nation is mourning. It is mourning the demise of peace in a country where human life is not worth more than a kobo a dozen and left helplessly bleeding by elephantine corruption.

While it is expected that every rational leader would be worried about Nigeria’s many problems, it cannot be out of place to state that worrying alone cannot liberate the wretched from the chasm of destitution, or lift an economy gasping for breath. But hope gives the strength to trudge on when everything fails. After all, only death terminates hope and only the living can hope. But hope can be shattered.

Toxic Dust On Orlu-Owerri Road

 By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

Recently, I visited Imo State and was on the Orlu-Owerri road. It is heartwarming that the road is being rehabilitated because in August when I used it on my way to a wedding, it was in such a dilapidated state.  

But, sadly, the insensitivity of the firm handling the reconstruction work is turning what is otherwise a laudable project into a traumatic experience for the people. The dust that envelopes that road all day is so thick that even though most vehicles switch on their headlights on bright afternoons, it is still very difficult for drivers to see oncoming vehicles just a few meters away.

*Gov Uzodinma flags off the reconstruction of Orlu-Owerri Road

And because of this thick cloud of dust, the motorists practically “drive blind”. One wonders what it is usually like driving at night when the dust and darkness merge to compound the situation. I shudder to imagine the implications of this.  

But this is not even the really scary part of the story.

Slavery In Mauritania And The Shame Of A Continent

 By Osmund Agbo

In November 2017, the world watched in utter disbelief, some cringed-worthy footage aired by CNN where dozens of men in detention facilities were being auctioned off for as little as $400 each in Libya. If you think that was a fluke, the crew was also told of the existence of similar auctions taking place at nine other locations in the country.

The victims? People that look like me that belong in the melanin-rich subset of Africans. The traffickers were our brothers, a shade or two lighter from the north. But that’s just a tip of the proverbial iceberg. Slavery is alive and thriving in Africa by Africans.

What if I tell you that the last country in the whole wide world to outlaw slavery is a country in the continent of Africa. Yes, that is Mauritania, in 1981. To put it in perspective, that was some 116 years after the US Congress ratified the 13th amendment which stated that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.”

Soludo And The Challenge Of Managing Expectations

 By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

“She said he made love to her like an intellectual. In the political jargon of those days, the word ‘intellectual’ was an insult. It indicated someone who did not understand life and was cut off from the people.” – Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, p. 6 (1978)

*Soludo

Months before assuming office, Governor-Elect of Anambra State, Chukwuma Charles Soludo, has done a world of service to perceptions of south-east Nigeria and traditional ideas of politics in the region.

Regenerative Agenda For The Youth

 By Banji Ojewale

"We must never underestimate the potential of our youths. Throughout history, God has called youths to rise up and change their world through the power of the gospel"

—William Folorunso Kumuyi, General Superintendent of Deeper Christian Life Ministry.

After a timidly truculent tea-cup turmoil triggered to truncate the recent Lagos IMPACT 2022 crusade of Pastor W. F. Kumuyi, leader of Deeper Life Bible Church, the event finally held to unexpected success and wild multimedia acclaim and coverage. The programme was planned to spiritually and psychologically reorient the youngsters of our age for a positive influence on society. 

But on account of those Kumuyi invited as ministering guests, the cleric and his church were pummeled, pilloried and pulled down. Those who launched the war argued that by summoning these personalities, the octogenarian man of God was enfeebling the brand the whole world has come to know for its legendary holiness stand.

A Toast To Willie

 By Chuks Iloegbunam

 Chuks Iloegbunam contends that Chief Obiano has acquitted himself creditably as Governor of Anambra State... 

 

Governor Willie Obiano’s direction of Anambra’s affairs will end on March 17, 2022. But his imprint on the state for eight straight years will endure. Not only endure, but also assume legendary proportions with the passage of time. Historians will wax lyrical on his double tenure and ascribe to him the quotable, poetic words Julius Caesar uttered in celebration of one of his famous war victories: “Veni, vidi, vici.” Willie Obiano came. He saw. He conquered.  

                 *Chief Willie Obiano

The man’s story is the stuff of epic fiction. Born on August 8, 1955 to a catechist father (Philip Obiano), and a fish-seller mother, Christiana Obiano (Mama Willie), he took to banking after earning an honours degree in Accountancy in 1979, and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Lagos. His banking career started at First Bank Plc in 1981. Leaving the bank, he joined Chevron Oil Nigeria Plc as an accountant and rose to become its Chief Internal Auditor. He returned to banking as the Deputy Manager in charge of the Audit Unit of Fidelity Bank in 1991. He rose to become an Executive Director of the bank before he retired, relocating to Houston, Texas, and determined to thoroughly enjoy his well-earned retirement. 

Nigeria: The Dilemma Of The North

 By Sola Ebiseni

In spite of the undeniable clear identity of the Middle Belt and its incomparable gargantuan geographical space, those who still fantasise the old monolithic North would not budge. They keep wallowing in the preservation of the North and would not agree that the empire the British helped them create have long served its useful purpose.

The empire is in a constant state of flux either from the exigencies of statecraft which ensure its fragmentation in state creation or the unchecked influx of tribes of all nations in common brotherhood bound either by religion or cultural occupation which puts the earth and its fullness at the unpartitioned disposal of all. In that situation, it requires no research into history to acquire citizenship.

How Oil-Dependence Truncated Nigeria’s Development

 By Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka

It is the devil’s excrement. We are drowning in the devil’s excrement. —Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso, Founder OPEC.

All in all, I wish we had discovered water. —Sheik Ahmed Yamani, Oil minister, Saudi Arabia

Ordinarily, finding a “treasure” tends to bring joy to the one who found it. Oil discovery has become Nigeria’s developmental Achilles’ Heel: in popular parlance, a Resource Curse. Six decades after independence, Nigeria remains one of the poorest countries in the world. It has evolved into one of the least economically diversified country in the world because of a pathological dependence on oil export earnings. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the dangers of such dependence in ways never experienced in the past. The yoke of Nigeria’s colonial past of being a supplier of raw materials rather than a processor of commodities resulted in a country of a net exporter of crude petroleum and importer of products mired in perennial debate about “fuel subsidy.” 

Will Bangladesh Be A Victim Of Chinese Debt Trap?

 By Hussain Shazzad

Bangladesh, the second highest recipient of China’s investment in South Asia after Pakistan, imports the highest volume of goods from China making it Bangladesh's largest trading partner. This is the beginning of the story where China offers Bangladesh financial assistance and development experience for its ‘big-ticket megaprojects’ to fulfill its vision-2041- a well-crafted dream to be a developed country. The overwhelming funding from China makes the critics pessimistic to ask a question, citing the example of Hambantota in Sri Lanka, “Is China trying to bait Bangladesh with its ‘debt-trap’ diplomacy?”

*Rural community in Bangladesh

‘Debt-Trap Diplomacy’, a widely used narrative against China, is thought to be originated from ‘infrastructure war’ between China and Western Allies. It's an apple of discord if China really has any ‘Machiavellian Strategy’ as Chinese projects in Bangladesh are too fragmented to achieve such cunning strategic objectives. Once ‘The Sleeping Giant’ now the ‘Second Economic Superpower’, China follows ‘socialist ideology’ in political affairs but adopts ‘open market policy’ with the name ‘market socialism’. The historical data demonstrates that China always has strong affiliation with South Asian countries because of the region’s ‘Big Bazar’. The geo-political eminence & commercial noteworthiness of Bangladesh has made China pay special heed to catch this money-making market.

Is Buhari Interested In Electoral Reforms?

 By Ray Ekpu

President Muhammadu Buhari fought for the presidential diadem with the tenacity of a war horse. He went into the field three times, campaigning in various parts of the country to become the president of Nigeria. Three times he failed but didn’t stop there. He took his fate into the hands of the courts as a true warrior. On all three occasions he had his grouses against the electoral system. Then the fourth time he got lucky.

*Buhari
The APC was sewn together from three or four disparate groups to form a formidable platform on which Buhari ran and won. Then, as President, he contested for the second term and won. In all, Buhari tested his popularity five times before the voters. He lost three times and won twice. Contesting for the presidency five times translates to a lot of experience on the electoral processes, the good, the bad and the ugly. No one in Nigeria has that level of election experience at that high level. 

Under Uzodimma, Imo State Has Gone To The Dogs

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Let me be clear from the onset. I am neither a fan of Senator Rochas Okorocha, former governor of Imo, nor his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, who he wanted to impose on the state as his successor. Okorocha knows that for a fact because I told him to his face in Owerri that he was a big disappointment to Ndi-Imo who preferred him to his predecessor, Ikedi Ohakim, in 2011.

Uzodinma and Okorocha 

I told Okorocha that if he didn’t mend his ways and provide the people the quality governance he promised while he was out on the hustings, history will be unkind to him. Of course, he ignored my unsolicited advice and doubled down on the shenanigans that became the hallmark of his administration. He capped the political tomfoolery with the attempted imposition of Nwosu. Uche Nwosu’s political ascendancy was tied to his filial relationship with Okorocha, whose first daughter, Uloma, he wedded on January 5, 2013 while he was serving as the commissioner for lands and survey.

Nigeria: Let’s Fight Insecurity The Same Way We Fought COVID-19 (1)

 By Magnus Onyibe

 In the very popular Bob Marley song: Redemption Song. The lyrics goes thus; “how long shall they kill our prophets while we stand aside and look? “

If you substitute the word ‘prophets’ for ‘masses’ in the music maestro’s scintillatingly and solemnly rendered lamentation song, he might have been singing about Nigeria of today, even though the music was sang and released in June 1980-some forty years ago.

*Buhari receiving Covid 19 vaccines  

And the reason the lyrics of the song would resonate in Nigeria today is owed to the reality of the fact that a similar circumstance of life at its most horrific level- slavery and colonialism that prompted Marley to sing his song of agony is here with us in Nigeria, the land of our birth which has been transformed into a killing field. Unlike white oppression that Marley was wailing about, the misery is not being brought upon us by external forces.

Nigeria: Again, The Triumph Of Selfish Politics

 By Dan Agbese

The discerning knew it would come to these: that the electoral act bill sent to President Muhammadu Buhari for his assent on which he sat for 30 days,  would once more come to grief; that the president who marketed himself to the electorate as the only Nigerian with the capacity to clean up the mess in all areas of our national life, would be persuaded again by his minions to refuse to rise to the critical challenges of democratic leadership and statesmanship and thus blow the chance to be the authentic change agent he promised in his many forays into our national politics. 

The bill raised hopes in all of us because it represented a fair attempt to pull up our nation from the marsh where we march on the same spot. We cannot in truth get our democracy right so long as we fail to get our electoral system right. Sadly, the hopes now lie shattered on the rocks of a half-hearted commitment by our political leaders to a government genuinely instituted by the electorate. Democracy rests on the strong peg of a transparent electoral system guided by laws made for the good governance of the polity and not on the whims and caprices of political leaders. A good law is not one that pleases the president; it is the law that makes for a better country by enhancing good governance; it is the law that strengthens the institutions of democracy; it is the law that treats as sacred the wishes of the people to be governed by the laws made by their representatives in parliament. 

The Niger Bridge Traffic Agony At Christmas

 By Luke Onyekakeyah

As the Christmas and New Year festivities draw near, millions of people will travel home to join their kits and kin to celebrate the occasion. Mass movement of people from the North and South-West to the South-East is a common feature of this season. Heavy vehicular traffic of goods and people is the norm. There is heightened fear and apprehension by millions of travellers to the South-East in particular, who must cross the now infamous Niger Bridge at Onitsha to reach their destination.

Harrowing tales of suffering, pain and anguish by travellers heading eastwards from the West at the bridge are commonplace. As a matter of fact, the Niger Bridge experience is like a nightmare at Christmas. While it may take a traveller about eight hours from Lagos to Asaba, at the height of the chaos, the same traveller may spend between five to eight hours before crossing the Niger Bridge from Asaba to Onitsha and vice versa. Over the passing week, some travellers from Lagos going to the South-East slept over at Onitsha due to the killer traffic jam at the head-bridge.