No Way Out Of Misery For Nigerians?

 By Adekunle Adekoya

“There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the higher.”  — Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

As an individual, I ponder my situation and that of fellow country men and women and I simply shudder at what we have to endure on a daily basis as we claim to be citizens of Nigeria, under an elected president, legislature, and at the state level, governors.

On the micro-blogging platform, Twitter, yesterday were conversations ignited by a user who narrated his experience following an attack by traffic robbers in the Mile 2 area of Lagos. The thread of responses to his experience was long; I couldn’t read all, but I share in his travails and the trauma that attended his experience because I had fallen victim several times. As I write, I don’t know whether I will fall victim today, alongside my colleagues, because the nature of our duties dictates that we close late.

Shehu Mahdi Is Spreading Poisonous Nonsense – Peter Obi Support Network

"Mahdi should tell us what he has contributed to improve the lives of fellow northerners both Christian and Moslem; Hausa, Fulani or Tangale"

Press Statement

20 September 2022 

The Peter Obi Support Network (POSN) views with shock and disappointment a video of Mahdi Shehu resorting to ethnic and religious dog whistle campaign for his preferred candidate.  

Mahdi Shehu is an elder statesman, and so someone of his repute should be careful with his messaging so as not to heat up the polity.  

The statements from Mahdi Shehu are dangerous for a country like Nigeria looking to reap the dividends of democracy. He is resurrecting an old style of divisive politicking that does more harm than good. Every Nigerian including Northern Christians have full rights in every part of the country including the South and they have always been welcomed with full arms open. He needs to be called to order as the statements are unbecoming of an elder statesman. 

Just How Cheap Is The Nigerian Life?

 By Passy Amaraegbu

“If you tyruly believe in the value of life, you care about all of the weakest and most vulnerable members of the society”— Joni Eareckson

A casual and cursory look at some of our national daily Newspapers of today confirm that the value of human life in Nigeria is next to nothing. This worrisome trend of events negates the idea of fake news. We are living in dangerous and extremely difficult times. The death of Nigerian citizens through diverse means is common place today.

Besides the general global afflictions and atrocities of this season, there exist some peculiar variants, vagaries and vicissitudes in our nation. There are questions that demand honest answers. What is the true worth of a Nigerian life? Is it appreciating or depreciating? What are the channels of wastage of human life? What is the motive for this unbridled carnage? What can be done within the ambit of the rule of law, to promote and preserve the life of the Nigerian citizen?

2023 Elections And The Fake Registrants In Imo

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi 

Last Sunday, Professor Chidi Odinkalu, human rights activist, lawyer and guest columnist with TheNiche newspaper, raised a poser: Can Nigeria’s INEC Organise A Credible National Election?

*Uzodinma and Buhari 

Odinkalu asked the question against the backdrop of the mind-boggling revelation by the spokesman of the Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP, Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, that the 2023 elections may have been rigged even before the first ballot is cast.

Ugochinyere alleged on September 14, at a press conference, that voters register has been grievously compromised, having been padded with fictitious names. He further alleged that there was a plot to sack the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, in the event that he refuses to play ball; and also alerted of a secret suit at an Owerri High Court to stop the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BIVAS, in the 2023 elections.

Climate Justice And Accountability To African Children

 By Joe Okei Odumakin

Africa is sitting on a climate time-bomb. Across the continent, children and young people – including those not yet born – will suffer the financial, social and environmental costs of the climate crisis for decades, if not centuries to come.

One of the paradoxes of the climate crisis is that those who are primarily responsible for climate change are relatively better insulated from the impact, while those who have made the least contribution to the crisis suffering the most. Africa features at the top of the regions most affected by climate change, but it accounts for less than seven percent of total greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and its emissions per capita are less than half the global average. Yet, Africa’s children bear the brunt.

University Teachers' Strike: Why Nigerian Govt Is Not Perturbed

 By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

Now, let’s face it: there can only be one reason why the industrial action embarked upon by the teachers of Nigeria’s public universities since February 14 has been allowed to waste a whole seven months of the academic pursuit of many youths, and, indeed, their very lives. Truth is, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to find the children of key members of the General Muhammadu Buhari regime in any Nigerian public university.

*Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye 

If the reverse was the case, every effort would certainly have been deftly deployed to avert the strike, or, at least, drastically shorten its duration.

And because the children of the ruling elite are far removed from the avoidable lingering crisis distorting and mortgaging the future of hapless Nigerian youths, the Neros at Nigeria’s seat of power are merely looking at the problem with cold, callous detachment.

2023: Shettima Unfit To Be Nigeria’s Vice-President

 By Olu Fasan 

If Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, becomes president next year, it is not only his exclusionist Muslim-Muslin presidency that would unsettle Nigeria, but also his would-be deputy, Alhaji Kashim Shettima. With Shettima’s inherent tetchiness and truculence, he would be gratuitously provocative. And with his uncouthness and indiscretion, he would be utterly divisive and toxifying. Truth is, a Vice-President Shettima would be unlike any civilian vice-president in Nigeria’s history. 

*Tinubu and Shettima 

But that proposition stands on another critical one that we must discuss first, namely: no previous presidential candidate in Nigeria did what Tinubu has done. I’m not referring to the devilry of his Muslim-Muslim ticket. Rather, I’m talking about his deliberate decision to pick a long-standing political ally and close associate as his running-mate. None of the past leading presidential candidates behaved in that manner. 

Can INEC Organise A Credible National Election?

 By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

The electoral landslide of President Shehu Shagari’s National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in 1983 unfolded in instalments over different sites of improbable magic across Nigeria. This did not occur in one day. It involved the manipulation of the entire value chain of election administration over the cycle of four years from 1979 to 1983. It was both willful and methodical.

After squeaking through a very tight field in 1979 with a mere 36% of the votes and not a small helping hand from the judicial arithmetic of the Supreme Court, the NPN in power set about ensuring that they were not left in 1983 to the mercies of any judges. For the party, this meant they had to find a way to wrestle some significant territory off of the hands of Obafemi Awolowo and the UPN in south-west Nigeria. If they did not have living voters, then they had to invent voters by some means.

Once Upon A Fight Between Obasanjo And Babangida

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

The two generals are seen as the best of friends across the political spectrum of the Nigerian nation. In many informed circles, General Matthew Okikiola Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo and General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida are seen as belonging to the rarefied class known as “Owners of Nigeria”.

*Obasanjo and Babangida

Only the uninformed does not know that when there was the transition to civil rule back in 1999 it was Babangida who arranged that Obasanjo should be brought out of General Sani Abacha’s prison to be made the president of Nigeria.

This act made Obasanjo to create the record of a two-time leader of Nigeria after having been a military Head of State in his first missionary journey.

How Lies Have Underdeveloped Nigeria!

 By Sunny Ikhioya 

It is said that no matter how far you have journeyed on the wrong route, it is never too late to turn back, otherwise you will not get to your desired destination. The story of our foundation is one based on faulty lines, that of lies and if we do not get it right, it will continue to haunt us until thy kingdom comes. What is a lie? It is simply untruth. If you like, you can say it’s the absence of truth. When it is not true, it means that it is not real and therefore, in the realm of fallacies. If it is not real, then it is nothing. 

If our foundation is based on lies, it means that we have been building on nothing, a quicksand that will in a short time disappear. When your foundation is based on lies, sooner or later, you will be exposed and the whole world will see your true self. Some have argued that lies are necessary in certain circumstances, especially as it concerns international diplomacy and war; anyway you look at it: a lie is a lie, there is no small or big lie. If you win today because you have lied, you are only postponing the evil day because your counterpart or adversary will know that you cannot be trusted and see you as such. That is why, today, the whole world cannot work in unison, because some groups have proven themselves not to be reliable. 

A Case For Women’s Participation In Governance, Decision-Making

 By Moruff Adenekan

Globally, women are under-represented in leadership and decision-making within political, public and corporate spaces. According to UN Women, gender disparity, low participation in elective and appointive positions and gender-based violence are major setbacks for women worldwide, especially in developing countries. In Africa, patriarchy and societal norms overtly and covertly subjugate women and girls and contribute to inequality and exclusion.

*Pauline Tallen, Women Affairs Minister 

Nigeria, currently without comprehensive legislation that protects or advances women’s rights, exemplifies this inequality. These inequalities manifest in the poor numbers for girl-child education, low numbers of women in leadership, and abysmal representation in public life. The manifestation continues in the high numbers of maternal and child mortality, high numbers of exclusion, widening pay gap between men and women, and alarming numbers of sexual and gender-based violence.

Nigeria: The Tragic Truth Hidden In Plain Sight

 By Kanu Obioha

As of 2014 Nigeria was classified as Africa’s largest economy after it rebased its gross domestic product, GDP; Africa’s most populous country, Africa’s largest democracy, and a major exporter of oil and gas. But Nigeria is currently facing development challenges, which it must overcome to fulfil its significant potentials. The statistics are however not very encouraging and it has become imperative that the people in control of the government and economy be told the truth.

Today at least 33 per cent of Nigerians live in extreme poverty. Between 2018 and March 2022 Nigeria led the rest of the world, surpassing China and India with much higher populations, as the country with the highest number of people living in extreme poverty. Already, Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children and those Nigerian children who do attend school have learning outcomes that are among the worst in the world (ten and a half million Nigerian youngsters, mostly girls, are not in school; 98 percent of those out of school are in Nigeria’s poorer North region).

You Have Stayed Long Enough On This Mountain

 By Sola Ebiseni  

True as Solomon said: “The race of men under the sun is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong…but time and chance happen to them all.” Yet that was conventional wisdom before the days of John the Baptist from whence and until now, even the kingdom of heaven and greater so for the earth, suffers violence and only men of violence take it by force -a declaration by He who is unquestionable. 

Whether by chance, as preached by Solomon who had everything, fighting no war like David his father, but nevertheless got a blank cheque from God after sacrificing his assets which today would make him a billionaire, or by Christ whose sacrifice is his precious life, no glory comes without taking a step. 

New Presidential Economic Team: What Agenda?

 By Marcel Okeke

Recently, to the chagrin and perhaps, bewilderment of most Nigerians, the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government inaugurated a ‘Presidential Committee on the National Economy’—just about 35 weeks to the end of the eight-year (two terms) tenure of the Administration. Truly, not a few Nigerians were stupefied by this ‘eleventh hour’ or ‘injury time’ move of the Government at the Centre—justifiably for numerous reasons. 

More surprisingly, for the first time in the over seven-year-long life of the Administration, Mr. President himself assumed headship of the economic team—and presided over its inaugural meeting on Friday, September 9, 2022. About the same time, the National Economic Council (NEC), putatively headed by the Vice President, was reportedly ‘rushing out’ a National Social Protection Policy (NSPP)—to be ratified and approved ‘soon’ by the Federal Executive Council.

*Buhari and Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed

At the inauguration of the new Presidential Economic Team, President Buhari said: “this Committee will provide our nation an opportunity to be bold, more proactive, and innovative in tackling persistent challenges”, adding that “the work with which I have tasked the assembled team will enable us respond more swiftly and efficiently.” 

ASUU: Dealing With A Blackmailing Government

 By Andrew A. Erakhrumen

As it stands today, except new reality emerges, the renegotiation of 2009 agreement between Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) has been stalled by FGN. As a quick background: this agreement was originally due for renegotiation in 2012 but delayed, through FGN’s antics, till 2017 when Wale Babalakin-led FGN-empanelled renegotiation committee came on board to continue government’s antics through a ‘phantom’ renegotiation with ASUU’s team in order to waste everybody’s time.

This premeditated “wild goose chase”, on the part of Babalakin and his co-travellers, continued until he (Babalakin) was forced to resign as chairman of the Governing Council of University of Lagos on the 15th of September, 2020. As FGN was left in a lurch owing to this sudden resignation that nearly poked holes in their fakery, it has no choice other than to constitute Munzali Jibril-led renegotiation committee. This committee submitted a renegotiated draft agreement in May, 2021.

The President And The Silent Trumpets

 By Dan Agbese

The late premier of the Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna Sokoto, was once quoted to have said that it was his duty to blow his own trumpet because other people were busy blowing theirs and would not bother to blow his own for him. There appears to be some unquestionable wisdom in that. President Muhammadu Buhari appears to have missed it. He has relied on his appointees to blow his trumpet, but they have failed him.

*Buhari 

On his working visit to Imo State this week, the president opened up on his frustration with the men and women in his administration for failing to trumpet his achievements in the past seven years as president. He has done titanic things worthy of being loudly trumpeted within and beyond our shores. Still, the trumpet is silent. He has waited this long and these many years for the president’s men and women to loudly blow his trumpet. All he keeps hearing is the rich sound of silence. He said: “Those who should be speaking about my government are not doing so.”

That is criminal. Why will the trumpeters padlock their lips as if they were mere observers in the administration whose achievements rub off on its appointees? One could offer one of two possible reasons for this. It is either that (a) his appointees are busy blowing their own trumpets they forget that blowing their principal’s trumpet is a duty incumbent on them or (b) they see nothing worth trumpeting in the sterling performances of the administration. If the president knows what he has achieved and his aides do not, there is a serious problem, I tell you.

Shettima’s Freudian Slip…

 By Bello Maigari

Senator Kashim Shettima has again amused serious-minded Nigerians, this time, opening up on how his principal in the All Progressives Congress, APC presidential ticket, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu would combine the hospitality of General Sani Abacha and the competence of Muhammadu Buhari as president.

*Shettima and Tinubu 

Speaking last Thursday at the 96th-anniversary celebration of the Yoruba Tennis Club in Ikoyi, Lagos state, the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN quoted him as saying Nigeria needs the “hospitality” of Abacha. For Nigerians unfamiliar with Abacha, a slight recall of some of the worst abuses in human rights are easy to recall.

The extra-judicial killings of Mrs Kudirat Abiola, Alfred Rewane and many others recorded and unrecorded are living testimonies of the hospitality that Shettima wants Nigerians to remember. Shettima’s principal, Tinubu was driven to exile like many other Nigerians who kicked against the military regime’s decision to usurp the mandate given to Chief MKO Abiola.

Nigeria: The Dangers Of Massive Brain Drain

 By Ayo Oyoze Baje

According to Professor Innocent Ujah, the President of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) Nigeria lost over 9,000 medical doctors to the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States of America between 2016 and 2018. In fact, no fewer than 727 medical doctors trained in Nigeria relocated to the United Kingdom alone between December 2021 and May 2022.

He made this shocking statement during the Maiden NMA Annual Lecture Series earlier in the year. The event was held in Abuja. The theme of this year’s lecture is ‘Brain Drain and Medical Tourism: The Twin evil in Nigeria’s Health System.’

Are you alarmed by this saddening situation that has the best brains in the medical field jetting out to greener pastures far beyond our shores? You should be and that is because the loss left Nigeria with only 4.7 per cent of its specialists to service the healthcare needs of over 200 million people!

Do We Still Value Education In Nigeria?

 By Adekunle Adekoya 

Last Wednesday, the United Nations, UN, Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mr. Matthias Schmale, said that our dear country, Nigeria, is not on track to meet many SDGs (Strategic Development Goals) by the year 2030. Schmale said this in a speech at the opening ceremony of a three-day capacity building workshop for the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC’s educators on the UN Strategic Development Cooperation Framework, UNSDCF. 

Let me quote Schmale: “As it stands, Nigeria is not on track to reach many of its SDGs by 2030, a situation compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing war in Ukraine. With women and youths hit, especially hard by growing unemployment, spiraling inflation, and insufficient access to quality education and health services, we must take a fresh look at how best to support the most vulnerable in society.”

One sector where we clearly will miss the SDG target date is education, prompting the question: Do we still value education in Nigeria? 

Reflections On ASUU And The Constrictors

 By Tony Afejuku

Once again, necessity is compelling me to dwell on the FGN-ASUU imbroglio – which is becoming or has become bigger than an imbroglio. Perhaps we should call what the FGN is doing to and against ASUU a game of imbroglio? All positive hopes that our public universities on lock-down will re-open sooner than later are shrinking un-steadily second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day and month by month.

*ASUU, Federal Govt negotiating team 

Several persons have spoken and written and several more are still speaking and writing about this important issue that is now in the critical hurly-burly of our tertiary education. And after my last appearance here, I promised myself to keep quiet for sometime in the cherished hope that the constrictors who are gripping tightly the neck-muscle of our universities would withdraw their sphincters because they were more or less in touch with reality at last – especially after the Professor Nimi Briggs Committee honourably did their duty with unblemished integrity that the de-humanized constrictors in power never bargained for.