By Anda Damisa
Nigerians are dying every day with every meal we consume. Are you shocked? I was as shocked as you are right now when I found this out recently. We have a major problem right before us and it seems like no one is talking about it so, here I am, writing about the increasing dangers we face due to the proliferation of Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs) in Nigeria.
By Promise Adiele
A new strand of neurosis seems to pervade Nigeria’s political sphere compelling victims to embrace bipolar conditions with relish. Indeed, political exchanges before and after the recently concluded general elections convey a degree of rational deficiency among some observers, especially those sympathetic to power desperado’s inclination to State Capture.
These developments force one to ask the all-important question reminiscent of Sunny Okosun’s timeless song - Which Way Nigeria? The current election season has exposed many people, hitherto perceived as sensible, in their stark, irreconcilable idiocy which calls to question public perception of individuals. For some Nigerians, the meaning of politics is distilled in shamelessness, dishonour, debauchery, and the subtle inauguration of treacherous culture across the country.
By Ayo Baje
“A labourer is deserving of his wages.” – Deuteronomy 25 vs 4 (The Holy Bible).
Back in June 2015, the piece of news that got millions of Nigerians enraged was that of the unpaid workers’ salaries in 23 out of 36 states! It came against the dark backdrop of the jumbo pay packages of elected and selected politicians and their appointees.
The paradox of payment inequality was worsened subsequently, when the lawmakers, each on allegedly monthly salary scale of over N30 million found it extremely difficult to approve the paltry minimum wage of N30,000 for the beleaguered workers.
By Obi Nwakanma
“If you
do not know where to put your hand, rest it on the knee” – Igbo proverb.
The inauguration of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria into office is a pretty serious constitutional event. It transfers power definitively to an individual who is then expected to embody the moral, philosophical, visionary, and constitutional ideals of the nation, and direct the executive function of state. The Constitution establishes the power of Nigeria in three institutions of state: the National Assembly, the Supreme Court, and the President. The National Assembly makes the laws.
The Supreme Court interprets those laws, including the permanent laws established by the Constitution. The President, as the Head of the executive branch of the three arms, executes the laws. These three powers together make up the Federal Government. They operate separately, and each is granted the power to oversee the other in order to create a balance of power, and prevent the misuse of authority. For instance, the National Assembly, which is actually the most powerful institution of state in a democratic republic, controls the Treasury of Nigeria, by law. Not the President.
By Adeze Ojukwu
Did Buhari really apologize to Nigerians? This is the poser before many citizens. To put the record straight, a few days ago, Muhammadu Buhari, who has barely 32 days to exit as president, asked for pardon from those he might have hurt during his tenure.
The question is: “Did those scant remarks convey genuine regret
or sincere contrition?”
For many nationals, his mien and diction were not only condescending and evasive but also disingenuous. He did not come across as someone who was compunctious. Obviously, he is yet to come to terms with the monumental impact of his divisive and parochial governance on the nation.
By Sunny Awhefeada
Those who run and ruin Nigeria read like rogue characters in a picaresque. Nigeria has turned out to be a sordid adventure and those who dominate our landscape are the picaros. Roguish, arrogant and bravura-like, our rulers prance about and do things that normal people will not do.
By Sonnie Ekwowusi
President Muhammadu Buhari has come to judgment. After exercising presidential power, judgment follows. Pricked by pangs of conscience on the last Sallah Day, Buhari realised that he committed many injustices against numerous Nigerians during his eight-year reign.
Consequently, he apologised to Nigerians and begged for their pardon. “God gave me an incredible opportunity to serve the country. We are all human, and if I have hurt some people along the line of my service to the country, I ask that they pardon me… All those whom I have hurt, I ask that they pardon me,” said a seemingly remorseful Buhari.
By I.D. Nga
What exactly were Nigerians supposed to gain from the privatization of the power sector? What, for instance, made the new power distribution companies (DISCOs) preferable to the much despised and now defunct NEPA or PHCN? Or was the privatization programme just another scheme to put power supply in different (preferred) hands, and nothing more?
A key issue with the new arrangement is that the citizens are still denied the option of choice. In the telecommunications sector, once you lose interest in one service provider, you can simply throw away its SIM card and obtain that of another. But in the case of the power sector, you are perpetually stuck with the particular DISCO under whose fiefdom you fall into by virtue of where your accommodation is located. And so, even if you are not happy with their dismal and excruciating style of operations, you cannot leave them, and you have no one to run to for help.
By Olu Fasan
Babatunde Fashola, SAN, former governor of Lagos State and outgoing Minister of Works and Housing, has a reputation for erudition and a knack for memorable turns of phrase. Recently, Professor Wole Soyinka credited him with what he called “the Fashola Dictum”, based on his saying that elections should be “carnivals and festivals”, not wars. Yet, sometimes, Fashola’s logic is flawed and, sometimes, his views are warped. Take his recent apologia for Bola Tinubu, his former boss and predecessor as Lagos State governor.
In an interview on Channels TV, Fashola was asked about Tinubu’s integrity. He ducked and dived. He was so slippery that pinning him down was like nailing jelly to the wall. Eventually, he delivered an appalling apologia. Allow me to quote the words verbatim.
By Obi Nwakanma
“No one
tells the deaf that there is a stampede in the market” – Igbo proverb
On May 29, a handover
ceremony should take place, with a parade at the Eagles Square, to inaugurate a
new, elected President of Nigeria. That date would end the eight disastrous
years of Mr. Muhammadu Buhari as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
I do emphasize the word “disastrous.” Buhari is a very tragic figure of
Nigerian history.
By Amanze Obi
President Muhammadu Buhari has begun his valediction. He is making all manner of statements that point to his imminent retirement. He is imagining that his attention will be needed by Nigerians when he leaves office.
He was quoted the other day as saying that he would move far away from Abuja in order to avoid the temptation of interfering in the affairs of the new government that is to come. He even added, for effect, that he would leave Daura for Niger Republic, if there is pressure on him in his Katsina home. Before then, the President had made a broad appeal to Nigerians. He asked those whom he may have offended in the course of his presidency to forgive him.
By Hope O’Rukevbe Eghagha
If the title of my essay sounds scandalous it is because we live in frightening and scandalous times, with barriers blurred, lifted or abolished. Sadly, this disrespect for sound values permeates all segments of society. Taboos are, have become old hat, old school. Codes of social engagement regulating societal behaviour have been jettisoned. The judiciary has been both a beneficiary and victim of this disappearance of settled norms and conventions. That’s the reason we find some judges doing ‘show body’ on social media!
My thesis statement is that any society which politicises its judicial system is on a free-fall into the chasm of perdition and total annihilation. It may take decades. But the consequences of politicizing the judicial system are dire. The full consequence may not be totally felt in our life time, though we are witnessing bits of it. The judiciary should not be a haven for small-minded persons and petty thieves who do not have a global view of their assignments and to whom the notion of the common good does not exist.
By Aliko Dangote
World Malaria Day is observed each year on April 25, to underline the need for malaria control and total elimination. Adjunct to this is the galvanization of global efforts towards advocacy and sustained political will and investment all aimed at ending the scourge of the disease in identified communities. Since 2000, global partnerships and investments in the fight against malaria have yielded positive results – preventing some 2 billion malaria cases, saving 11.7 million lives, and putting eradication within reach.
At a historic Global Fund Replenishment meeting in Geneva, Switzerland in 2022, billions of dollars were pledged by donors to boost the fight against HIV, TB and Malaria. However, an unprecedented shortfall of more than 50% in global malaria funding is now holding countries back from maintaining life-saving malaria programmes at current levels, from and reaching everyone currently living with the risk of contracting malaria.
By Sola Ebiseni
From the wisdom-pool of ancient Yoruba philosophy is the eternal word of admonition that “a ò rí irú eléyi ri, a fi nderu ba olórò ni”, which may simply translate that no occurrence no matter how bizarre it may seem or exaggerated to frighten a victim can be deemed as never seen or happened before. In the similar words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun”.
In all occurrences in our land, after a deep introspection rooted in humanity in general and more particularly delineated by the history of our country and its unforgettable heroes, I have, like Balam, chosen to live by and for the truth that I may die the death of the righteous and my end might like his be.
By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu
There are two countries whose well-being and stability reach nearly every part of Africa. One is the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which is nominally in the Central African region but which shares borders with nine countries extending to all of the continent’s four other regions – Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. Unsurprisingly, the DRC is in the regional organisations of every region of Africa except those of North and of West Africa.
The second is Sudan. With a current landmass of 1,886,068 km2 Sudan is nearly double the size of Nigeria and the third largest country in Africa behind only Algeria and the DRC.
By Promise Adiele
For the sake of peace in Nigeria, let us unanimously agree that the Obidient Movement is a fascist group. (Make peace for reign, abi?) But if we must subscribe to that spiteful narrative, let us innovatively, redefine and explicate fascism. Although generally understood as an authoritarian rule that abhors opposition, fascism must acquire a new identity for a better understanding in Nigeria since it is associated with the famous, radical Obidient Movement.
By Chiedu Uche Okoye
Mr. Peter Obi’s quest to become the president of Nigeria is the emblematization of the dreams and yearnings of young Nigerians, who want a better and new Nigeria. It cannot be disputed that millions of young Nigerians have lost hope in the Nigerian project.
Decades of oppressive military regimes and years of decadent political administrations have eroded their hope and trust in the Nigerian political leaders. The End SARS protest, which turned violent, offered them the rare opportunity to express their disgust, frustration, and dissatisfaction with Nigeria’s bad economic and political situation.
By Charles Okoh
It appears that there will be no end in sight to the killings in Kaduna as well as Benue states. The lackadaisical approach of the Federal Government to halting the carnage in both states remains worrisome. If it is argued that the sheer spread of violence and wanton killings across the country have become too much of a burden for the government to handle, will it be out of place to demand from the Federal Government what its plan is towards ending the senseless killings especially in these states?
No fewer than 29 people have been killed in a fresh attack by bandits on Runji Village in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
The attack which occurred at about 10 p.m. penultimate Saturday night came barely three days after bandits killed eight people at the Atak’Njei community also in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area.
The 2023 edition of the Awards ceremony is set to spotlight SMEs, women and gender. A new category has been introduced to recognize efforts towards bolstering financial inclusion of women across the continent.
24 April
2023, London: African Banker magazine has announced today
the shortlist of nominees for this year’s edition of its African Banker Awards.
Since their inception in 2007, the African Banker Awards aim to recognise the
exceptional individuals and organisations driving Africa’s rapidly transforming
financial services sector.
By Etim Etim
It is so difficult to understand why Nigerian authorities are unconcerned about the mass killings of the people of Benue State by terrorists and militia groups in almost a weekly basis.
Children, women and even pregnant moms are slaughtered every now and then in many parts of the state by terrorists and ethnic militias in the plains and troughs of Benue.
