Towards The Federal Republic Of Illiteracy

 By Owei Lakemfa

Education Minister, Adamu Adamu, after presiding over the N5.6 trillion Education Budget in the last seven years and the N1.3 trillion intervention fund in four years, announced he has failed. It is not that as Education Minister, he has failed to preside over spending about N7 trillion in seven years, but, has failed to deliver on basic programmes and promises.

However, like other smart alecs, he exonerates himself. He, rather, blames the state governors for his manifest failure. Adamu said the main policy of the Buhari education programme was to pull: “children out of the street back to the school, but evidently, the actions of the state governments are pushing the children back to the streets.”

Resource Curse And Niger Delta Unending Discourse

 By Jerome-Mario Utomi

Going by information at the public domain, a Warri Delta State-based newspaper, GbaramatuVoice, in furtherance of its Niger Delta Economic Discourse series, will on Tuesday, November 29, 2022 by 10am, at the BON Hotel, Warri, Delta state, hold a focused group discussion that centers on two separate but related typical and topical issues – the recently extended Presidential Amnesty Programme and the Federal Government proposed but abandoned modular refineries in the region.

The dialogue, which has as a theme, ‘Presidential Amnesty Programme and Modular Refineries: Towards sustainable human capital relations,’ will bring together, to deeply appraise the programmes and come up with useful recommendations, critical stakeholders comprising ex-agitators in the Niger Delta, policymakers from both state and federal levels, agencies and commissions, development professionals, media professionals, traditional rulers from the oil producing communities, representatives of different security agencies and apparatus in the country among others.

What Exactly Is Soludo’s Point?

 By Moses Ochonu 

Soludo has a right to speak his mind on Peter Obi’s candidacy and should not be gagged or subjected to a figurative ethnic lynch mob, but it is also appropriate to interrogate his words, even his motive, if there are plausible grounds to do so.

 *Soludo

So, in that spirit, let’s ask: what exactly is Soludo’s point?

That Peter Obi was wrong to invest or save Anambra state’s money as a rainy day fund as most prudent fiscal managers do? 

That Peter Obi is responsible for the depreciation of that investment, which initially yielded much return but then lost a lot of value as the Buhari economy eroded stock values, killed the stock market, and decimated the private sector? 

Investments, by their nature can go north or south, depending on the vicissitudes of the economy, both local and global. Every investor in stocks, including yours truly, knows this. 

Nigeria: How Security Agencies Sabotage The Fight Against Crime

 By Rotimi Fasan

It has become customary for Nigerian security agents and agencies to pass off what should ordinarily be classified information as routine news release. Each time some of these security units and their operatives engage in this unwholesome breach one is reminded of how far many of them have fallen in their knowledge of what is appropriate information to be shared with the public and what is best kept secret.

Many of them don’t appear to have been trained. And if trained, they do not come off as having learned the right lesson. They look grossly raw and inexperienced but sometimes we are talking about some of the most senior persons in the military and paramilitary agencies.

Nigeria: Let There Be Light!

 By Chris Anyokwu

The man of God, Pastor Humphrey Erumaka, had taken the microphone that beautiful Sunday morning during the worship service and the congregants, as usual, were looking forward with taut anticipation and great expectation to receiving a “Word From God”, on, say, prosperity, healing, salvation, or, total deliverance, a church favourite in the age of feel-good, easy believism. 

Nobody saw it coming and when he announced the topic of the day’s sermon as “Let There Be Light”, you could hear the church exhale a collective sigh of relief.  Thank goodness, the message is familiar; at least, it’s likely to be about the Act of Creation at Genesis.  But that’s where the man of God played a fast one on his congregants, again.  As it had turned out, the message had absolutely nothing to do with the Hebraic myth of creation or the house-keeping fumblings of the Primal Pair, Adam and Eve. 

Soludo Just Signed The Certificate Of His Marriage To Irrelevance

 By Onyemaechi Ogbunwezeh 

Charles Chukwuma Soludo is an intelligent man no doubt. But his most recent write up on Peter Obi, was to all intents and purposes, certifiably stupid. There is no polite way of telling an intelligent man, that he goofed big time. 

*Soludu and Obi

In all his wisdom, he missed the most important fact of this period. He missed the fact that Peter Obi is not the one running for President. He failed to realize that it is the ordinary, dispossessed and oppressed Nigerian youth that is running for the Presidency through Peter Obi. 

He thought that this is about Peter Obi. 

He forgot the fact that this is the first time in the history of this country that Nigerian oppressed youths have risen, financed themselves and set out to wrest their destiny from a thieving, visionless and lazy elite, which has disembowelled their aspirations and left them with a broken country without purpose. 

How Much Crude Oil Is Being Stolen In Nigeria?

 By Nnimmo Bassey 

To say that Nigeria is being stolen is an understatement. It is a sordid situation. Shocking stories from the oil and gas sector continue to hit the news media. Rather than being numbed by the monstrous pillaging of the nation, Nigerians should respond to the wake-up call, especially in an election season. 

By some deft choreography, the blame for the stealing and pollution in the oil field communities of the Niger Delta has been deflected to the poor communities. 

This devious deflection has been so successful that the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), which has the fingerprints of multinational oil companies all over it, criminalizes communities and holds them up as being responsible for interferences that may occur on oil facilities in their territories.

Nigeria: Let’s Address Campaign Violence

 By Ray Ekpu

It is only one month since INEC blew the whistle for the campaigns to begin. And within that one month there have been serious cases of campaign violence and related incidents. The most prominent is perhaps the harassment of the campaign convoy of the former Vice President and presidential candidate of the PDP, Mr Atiku Abubakar. The thugs pelted the Atiku’s convoy while on its way to the Palace of the Shehu of Borno. Several vehicles were said to be vandalised while 70 persons were hospitalised. The Borno State PDP Chairman, Zamna Gaddama alleged that the attack was carried out by some miscreants from the APC.

He said that the attack occurred at three points from the airport to the Shehu of Borno’s palace. On the other hand the Director of Media and Publicity for the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Mr Bayo Onanuga said that the attack could be the result of the infighting in the Borno State chapter of the PDP. He insisted that the APC had no hand in the attack.

Federal Government, Apathy And Flood In Niger Delta

 By Braeyi Ekiye 

Understanding how to use political power constructively makes a difference in leadership. Therefore, political power and the use of it can be broken into the negative and the positive. Such use of positive political power, imbued with the desire to evoke regulatory command in the process of giving leadership, is capable of galvanising a people to achieve set goals.

Furthermore, such use of power has the kinetic energy of firing previously frustrated and helpless people during times of harrowing challenges, such as the recent flood in parts of Nigeria, particularly in the Niger Delta, including the oil and gas rich Bayelsa State. 

I doubt if any Nigerian leader led from the front in this regard as the governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri did when the flood came rushing into the state like a thief, consuming properties, destabilising human traffic, and causing dislocations of unimaginable proportion. Bayelsa State was cut off completely from her neighbouring states to the east and to the west.

Abdullahi Adamu Living In A Fool’s Paradise

 By Charles Okoh

The greatest disservice any man can do to himself is to deliberately deceive himself; thinking he is fooling others. Many years ago, the then chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the late Chief Vincent Ogbulafor, woke up one morning, perhaps filled with an overdose of self-worth and having overrated his party, concluded that the PDP would rule for the next 60 years.

*Adamu and Buhari

Nothing else could have prompted this outburst, other than the fact that he would probably have been too convinced that his behemoth party, the self-styled biggest party on the continent, was doing very well, so much so that it would remain in office for as long as it wished. Well, he and his party members were well alive to realize the tomfoolery in trying to play god or not taking appropriate assessment of the party’s significance, relevance and true worth.

Nigeria: Presidential Debate Dies A Sudden Death

 By Amanze Obi

Nigerians have just come to the sudden realization that the political culture called presidential debate is dead in their country. The death knell for the debate was sounded by Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress. 

*Tinubu

Tinubu had declined to participate in the town hall meeting put together by Arise News for presidential candidates. He had a load of reasons for his decision. His campaign office went further to alert Nigerians and other concerned publics that he would not participate in any presidential debate in whatever guise or form.

The organizers of the Arise town hall may not have envisaged this. Even if they suspected that a Bola Tinubu may not be willing to participate in the debate, they may not have imagined that he would put a stamp of finality on possible future appearances. But the debate went on regardless of that. But what turned out as a rude shock to the organizers was the refusal of the audience to accommodate any presidential candidate represented by his vice. 

Beware Of 'Emilokan' And Promise Of Continuity

 By Dele Sobowale

“Standing on the foundation emplaced by the current [Buhari] administration, we shall build a Nigeria…” – Renewed Hope 2023: Action Plan For A Better Nigeria, p 3.

Buhari and Tinubu

Whenever there is a document promising to make Nigeria a better place, I am ready to get it; read it; analyse it and publish my findings. I now have a copy of what might be regarded as the Tinubu/Shettima/APC Manifesto for the 2023 Presidential Election. The full analysis is almost finished; but, it is too long for this column. So, the reader should not expect the details here. I might add in passing that I also intend to obtain; read and analyse every manifesto published – providing the owners arrange for me to get them. “Men make history; but, not just as they please” – Karl Marx, 1818-1883.

That said; we now turn to the matter on hand. Let me start my stating that Asiwaju Tinubu has my sympathies. Those of us who were intimately involved in the struggle for the actualisation of the late Chief MKO Abiola’s mandate from 1993 till 1998, when the man died, can never forget his contributions. But, for his sagacity and street wisdom, when former President Olusegun Obasanjo deceived the leaders of Afenifere, and the Alliance for Democracy, AD, decided not to field a presidential candidate in 2003, the entire South-West would have been captured by the PDP.

Ending Impunity For Crimes Against Journalists

 By Gbemiga Bamidele

The International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists (IDEI) is a UN recognized international day observed annually on 2nd November. The day was declared to be marked on November 2 in the United Nations General Assembly resolution A/RES/68/163. The resolution calls on all members states to take concrete steps to combat the culture of impunity in their countries.

The day was chosen in commemoration of the assassination of Claude Verlon and Ghislaire Dupont, two French journalists from RFI radio station, who were kidnapped from the town of Kidal in Mali after they had finished interviewing a local political leader on November 2, 2013. According to UNESCO, in the past decade, a journalist has been killed on average every four (4) days. The year 2019 had the lowest death toll recorded by UNESCO in the last decade with 15 deaths.

Questions For Aisha Buhari

 By Promise Adiele

Titubi’s character in Femi Osofisan’s Morountodun attracts different interpretations from many people across the world. The ebullient daughter of the wealthy Alhaja Kabirat, leader of the market women, commits class suicide by repudiating the ideals of her class and identifying with the poor struggling, impoverished farmers. 

*Aisha Buhari 

Cast in the mode of the mythical Moremi of Ile-Ife, the splendour and opulence of Titubi’s bourgeois background do not impair her appreciation of the enervating realities suffered by the helpless, exploited farmers. In all her Spartan disposition, Titubi failed to save the people from the agony of losing Marshal her husband at the end of the play. The unanswered question for Titubi is – why was she unable to stop Marshal from embarking on that fateful journey at the end of the play thereby plunging the people into despair and grief? 

How To Prevent Your Network From Cyberattacks

 By Nicholas Ibenu

A vulnerability assessment is a systematic review of security weaknesses in an information system. It evaluates if the system is susceptible to any known vulnerabilities, assigns severity levels to those vulnerabilities, and recommends remediation or mitigation, if and whenever needed.

According to the 2021 World Economic Forum report on global risks, “Cybersecurity measures in place by businesses, governments and individuals are increasingly being obsolete by the growing sophistication of cybercriminals.” And this is true as businesses continue to keep a blindfold on the importance of security.

2023: Yoruba Elders Are Playing Politics Of Greed, Where’s The ‘Omoluabi’ Ethos?

 By Olu Fasan

Bola Ahmed Tinubu, presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress, APC, always has the extraordinary capacity to split Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba socio-political group. He has the uncanny ability to wrap Afenifere and some of its leaders around his finger and twist them as he wishes to serve his purpose.

*Pa Fasoranti 

Tinubu rode on Afenifere’s coattails to become governor of Lagos State in 1999, but once he acquired political invincibility, fuelled by state resources, he turned ruthlessly on the group. To further his political interests, Tinubu divided Afenifere, pocketed some of its leaders and sponsored a renegade faction called “Afenifere Renewal Group.” 

But the mainstream Afenifere regrouped and acquired national respectability under the energetic and principled leadership of Chief Ayo Adebanjo. Now, however, in pursuit of his “lifelong ambition” to become Nigeria’s president, Tinubu has again ruptured Afenifere. He has set Chief Reuben Fasoranti, the group’s supposedly retired and hitherto reclusive leader, against Chief Adebanjo, Afenifere’s public face, as well as its intellectual and moral force.

Soludo, Where Are The Coins?

 By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye  

As Central Bank Governor (2004 – 2009), Professor Charles Soludo woke up one morning with a big dream. He wanted to mint coins for the use of Nigerians as legal tender. Those with better acquaintance with the psychological and cultural disposition of Nigerians told him pointedly that the policy was dead on arrival. They explained that given the behavioral pattern of Nigerians, the policy would be viewed by the majority as a needless burden.

*Soludo

But Soludo, who often appears and sounds as if every audience before him is a class of freshmen Economics students, dismissed with characteristic arrogance and cocksureness every contrary opinion. 

He went to town marketing the great benefits of the coins, harping on their durability and how billions of naira will be saved from not having to frequently replace well-worn notes any more since the coins would last till almost eternity. Seeking to talk him out of the clearly unrealistic policy was like singing ballad to the deaf!

Corruption: Nemesis Ripens What Our Hands Have Sown

 By Emmanuel Okoroafor

Corruption has woven itself into the tapestry of the Nigeria narrative such that it has become the eternal plague of this most populous African country. For decades, this malady in its various manifestations – embezzling, backhandedness, kickbacks, internet fraud, thievery and all what not – have defined us more than our characters, capabilities and accomplishments. It is so bad that even one United Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister had the cheeks to brand us “fantastically corrupt.”

For a country touted as the giant of Africa, the tragic flaw of corruption has whittled down Nigeria’s goliath stature to that of a Lilliputian. Today, it has become the gangrene eating away our corporate structure, the poison oozing from every pore of our collective body and the bile in our cup of wine. What is worse, even the younger generation has gradually bought into the corruption franchise. It is now fashionable to hear young people say, “If I get there (public position), I go chop (embezzle) my own.” Which means “if you can’t beat them, then join them.”

Why Lagos-Ibadan Should Not Become Abuja-Kaduna

 By Semiu Okanlawon

Imagine yourself having two daughters traveling along a route and you suddenly receive information that the very direction they were headed, a kidnap incident had happened some eight hours before and that vehicles from where the hapless victims were snatched away were still left on the road, with no one knowing the fate of the captives.

That was my situation early morning of Saturday October 28th. To worsen the phobia, a call put through to them to confirm how far they had gone with their journey showed they were just some 5 minutes drive to the very scene of the kidnap the night before.

Nigeria: Terror Alert And Doubting Thomases

 By Ray Ekpu

The United States and United Kingdom embassies in Nigeria have raised the alarm over possible terror attack on facilities in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. Other countries have followed suit. These include Denmark, Bulgaria, Germany, Ireland and Canada. Although these countries are addressing their message to their citizens living in or visiting Nigeria, it is obvious that the message is also for the benefit of Nigerians and the federal government. 

The United States advisory says that the terrorists might target such places as government buildings, places of worship, schools, markets, shopping malls, hotels, bars, restaurants, athletic gatherings and transport terminals, facilities belonging to law enforcement agencies and international organisations. The American embassy therefore directed its non-essential staff and their family members to either leave the FCT or avoid public places. Many of the places mentioned by the embassy have been attacked by terrorists either in Abuja or elsewhere in the country so they are all potentially vulnerable.