Nigeria: Using Torchlight In Broad Daylight

 By Owei Lakemfa

There is a country called Nigeria. For three decades, its coffers were daily looted in the guise of fuel subsidy. The looters are known by name and some are known faces. The companies they use in looting are registered and have addresses. Rather than bring the criminals to book, government decided to remove the subsidy.

Thus, the people are forced to pay astronomical prices for fuel, while the subsidy looters keep their loot and are free to forage for other things to loot. This is the truth. There is also the lie; that fuel subsidy has now been removed. The truth is that it is impossible to remove fuel subsidy no matter how much the people are visited with high fuel prices.

Nigeria: The Real Subsidies Are Not For The Poor, But The Rich

By Femi Falana

Globally, subsidies, whether for food, transportation, energy or housing, are part of good governance. So, the issue is not subsidies but who benefit from them. In Nigeria, subsidies are primarily of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. I will highlight a few, how they are being manipulated and how huge sums of money can be recovered not just to subsidise fuel but also provide funds for development.

Police Should Kill Bandits, Not Democracy In Plateau, Nasarawa

 By Emmanuel Aziken

Arguably the best Inspector General of Police since the exit of Solomon Arase, Nigeria’s top police shot, IGP Usman Alkali Baba appears to have now run himself into an unnecessary controversy.

Given the foibles of the ruling political class, he had within reasonable expectations held his dignity in the face of the rascality of political actors here and there during the recent General Election.

The Bulkachuwalisation Of The Judiciary

 By Ugoji Egbujo

It wasn’t a Freudian slip. The man couldn’t be stopped. An 83-year-old senator, seized by valedictory emotions, stood in the hallowed senate chambers and broke omerta. Defying the bulging eyes of bewildered senators, he told a dirty truth to the nation. All attempts by his distinguished colleagues to extinguish the flame of forthrightness were rebuffed by the courageous man.

The man thanked his wife, a former President of the Court of Appeal for allowing him to use her to pervert justice in favour of his colleagues. Gratitude is a virtue. As the cringing distinguished beneficiaries of the rotten judicial porridge pinched their noses like Pharisees and gasped in shock, the man gushed over his caring and generous wife who had helped him cook judicial outcomes.  

Resolving Abuja’s Real Status Is Overdue!

 By Tonnie Iredia

Former Senate President Lawan’s senatorial nomination bid and the earlier Imo State Governorship election are two recent cases whose controversial outcomes have continued to annoy many people including retired and serving judges. A third case that may have such lasting impact is the controversy concerning what a candidate must score in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory as a condition for becoming president.  

According to Section 134 of the Nigerian Constitution 1999, a candidate can only win a presidential election in Nigeria if he scores majority of votes at the election which must in addition not be “less than one quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory Abuja.”

The United States Recurring Memory Loss In Diplomacy

 By Owei Lakemfa

Four archenemies of the United States, US, met variously in its Latin American ‘backyard’ this week. It was the five-day Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s to Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. No, the quartet did not make themselves enemies of the US, it was the latter which at various times had dictated to those countries, that designated them as such.

All four are under the unilateral sanctions of the US which punishes any country that dares befriend them. So only the independent-minded and strong countries maintain trade relations with them.

Special Status Of FCT And The Legitimacy Of National Political Leadership

 By Erasmus Morah 

“To unravel the ‘and FCT’ conundrum, one must know what the Nigerian military general founding fathers of the 1999 Constitution had in mind when they decided in 1976 to build a new capital city on virgin land and set it up as a special federal capital territory.” 

Introduction 

ON Saturday, February 25, 2023, Nigeria conducted nationwide elections for the position of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The electoral process was widely regarded as the most fiercely contested in the nation’s delicate democratic history, setting it apart from previous elections. On March 1, 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared the candidate of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, as the winner of the elections and the President-elect. The official swearing-in of the President-elect took place on May 29, 2023, and Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed office as the 16th President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Nasir El-Rufai’s Dangerous Foolery

 By Charles Okoh

It is not a mere happenstance that the nation has remained bitterly divided along ethnic and religious lines in the past eight years. Perhaps, the event of the past eight years has brought to the fore the urgent need for the nation to begin to think of how best we can begin to address the many schisms that have held us down for so long. 

*El-Rufai 

How do we build that nation of our dreams where justice and fairness will prevail? How do we build that egalitarian society of our dreams where all will be treated as equals irrespective of their ethnic or religious leanings when issues of national concern are on the table?

Living In Post-Subsidy Nigeria

 By Adekunle Adekoya

We were warned that petrol subsidy would not last forever and would have to go someday. It has now gone. President Bola Tinubu chose to extinguish subsidy in his inaugural address on May 29. As we all came to see, the president had barely left the Eagle Square venue of his inauguration when the petrol market responded. That May 29 afternoon, most petrol stations had shut their gates to motorists. Those that did not shut their gates had queues several hundred metres long, and dispensed from only one pump. That development generated instant chaos at the stations. But that was just the beginning.

By the following day, a pricing template indicating how much a litre of petrol could be sold for in each state of the federation emerged in the social media. It turned out to be real as the oil sector regulators confirmed its reality. It became clear the one litre of petrol sold for N488 in Lagos, which was the lowest price nationwide, while the price of N537 was indicated for Borno and Yobe states.

Prof. Tony Afejuku: Teacher Of No Mean Repute

 By Henry Agbebire

The news filtered in on the 5th of June, 2023 that the erudite Professor of English and Literature, Tony Afejuku, has mandatorily disengaged from the University of Benin after over four decades of university lecturing. The following article was published in his honour eight years ago in The Guardian to speak of his exemplary virtues as a worthy teacher. I believe it is still a fitting eulogy for a man who committed his entire vibrant life to scholarship…

*Afejuku

Whenever I ponder the sordid state of our university education in Nigeria today, and the persistent outcry of many employers over the perennial crisis of unproductive university graduates, I remember Tony Afejuku, the distinguished Professor of English and Literature at the University of Benin. Great teachers are rare, but Afejuku stands out as an Icon to me. His style was greatly criticised by different categories of students. Some students felt the standard he required was too high.

‘Democracy Day’: The Deception And Betrayal Of ‘June 12 Activists’

 By Olu Fasan

General Ibrahim Babangida erred tragically and did a great disservice to Nigeria by annulling the presidential election of June 12, 1993. But nothing has deepened the wounds more than the deception and betrayal of the so-called “June 12 activists”, who turned the annulment into a self-serving political lodestar and built their political careers around it, yet bastardised the spirit of the June 12 election by acquiring power through a deeply flawed presidential poll that violated universal rules of credible elections.

*MKO Abiola 

Earlier this week, General Babangida said the “gains” of the June 12, 1993 presidential election were squandered in succeeding elections. He told journalists: “It was adjudged the freest and fairest election in Nigeria, yet politicians have blatantly ignored that beauty: the beauty of credible elections.” How ironic that the man who flagrantly annulled an election now talks, 30 years later, about the “gains” and “beauty” of the same election!

Lagos: Mudashiru Obasa’s War Agenda

 By Ochereome Nnanna

The Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, is on a war footing. He has just been unanimously re-elected for the third time as Speaker. As an inner chamber member of the Bola Tinubu political family, his declared legislative agenda can rightly be read as Tinubu’s new agenda for Lagos after losing the presidential election in the state.

*Obasa

Tinubu’s Lagos is different from what we see in other states. For instance, the governor (whoever he is) does not have freedom of vision. He can only take initiatives within the script already written for him. And so, one would expect Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to seek Tinubu’s support before asking Muhammadu Buhari to send in the Army to quell the Lekki Toll Gate protests on October 20, 2020.

Why Nigeria’s Economy Retrogressed Under Buhari

 By David Adonri

The pursuit of socio-economic welfare of citizens is the cardinal goal of every government. The process of attaining this goal is centered around mobilisation and efficient allocation of resources for production of goods and services. Entrepreneurship has been identified as the catalyst which drives resources or factors of production into generating the desired economic outcomes.

*Buhari 

Nigeria is blessed with abundant resources but continues to lack capable entrepreneurial leadership competent enough to convert resources into modern products. Eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari’s rule demonstrates how an unenterprising and incapable leadership can damage the prospects of a resource-rich developing economy. All macroeconomic indicators deteriorated during the eight years of President Buhari’s disastrous administration.

Nigeria’s Forthcoming Presidential Drama

 By Tony Afejuku

Who are President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s political strategists? Who are President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s democratic strategists? Who are President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s law and legal strategists? Who are President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s capitalist development strategists?

*Tinubu
Who are President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s economic strategists? Who are President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s media strategists? These questions consisting of verbal repetition which emphasizes what President Tinubu and the masses of our people are up against are ones that cannot be swept under the carpet and must not be swept under the carpet.

In Defence Of Nasir El-Rufai

 By Sola Ebiseni

I had no intention to join the discourse on what many considered the recent vituperation of Nasir el-Rufai, immediate past Governor of Kaduna State, on the ethnic and religious politics of his state which he brazenly extended to the Nigerian federation.

*El-Rufai

I changed my mind and decided to take a look at what he had to say that has generated needless furore when I watched this morning (Monday 12th of June) on Arise Television, the encounter between Rufai and my brother, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele on the politics of the leadership of the National Assembly.

Evil: Joe Biden Hijacks AIDS Programme to Back Abortion in Africa

  By Tony Ademiluyi

US President Joe Biden is criminally hijacking a programme meant to tackle AIDS to aggressively promote abortion in Africa.

*Biden 

The United States spends at least $40 billion annually on foreign aid including health programmes to support people around the world, especially in emerging economies and third-world nations. However, the unscrupulous Biden under the cloak of foreign assistance is promoting and exporting the culture of death called abortion in these countries which is causing a furore not only in the US Congress but even in the countries that are the prime targets of his state-sanctioned policy on the murder of the infants.

Success: Many Canadian Students Boycott Schools in Pride Month

 By Tony Ademiluyi

Thousands of Canadian Students boycotted their schools on June 1 in their opposition to the public schools’ participation in pride month – an organized carnival of public sin in my humble opinion.

Conservatives and Pro-Lifers campaigned vigorously for the boycott and I am glad that the students hearkened to the voice of reason in rejecting the destructive woke agenda for eternal common sense.

Safeguarding Integrity Of NYSC And Its Certificate

 By Ikem Okuhu

Those who are finding it convenient to keep quiet over the scandalous National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate scandal involving the now sworn-in Governor of Enugu State, Peter Mbah, do not know how the localisation of the challenge and its perception as the concern of the people of Enugu State has the potential to create a carnivorous national malaise, capable of denuding what arguably is the surviving vestiges of the remaining symbol of Nigeria’s national unity.

At a time when the country should be celebrating the NYSC programme, which marked its 50th anniversary this year, it is most disconcerting that such a historic national landmark has had certificate forgery as its biggest talking point. More worrisome is the fact that some shade of opinion, driven by what looks like selfish political purposes, appears to be bent on allowing this avoidable sore to fester.

Nigeria: Mad And Dangerous Times

 By Sunny Awhefeada

These are mad and dangerous times for Nigeria and I must concede that we never saw this coming. Not even the famed prophets envisioned the ca­lamities now buffeting us as a people. Nobody foresaw or warned us. Those among us who lay claims to clairvoyance are largely charlatans who think about causes and effects of actions and offer surmises which they call predictions. 

That is why they always turn around to tell us they were misquoted, quoted out of context or point at what they claimed they told us, but they never did. Charles Dickens’ Hard Times tells of a time of acute social insecurity and how the people were impoverished and pulver­ized. Like other narratives by Dickens, the nov­el mirrors the grim, dark and dreary side of life in a manner considered to be exaggerated. 

Urgent Action Is Needed On Alcohol Harm In Nigeria

 By Isidore Obot

Alcoholic drinks are all around us. They come in various forms and prices – from expensive foreign wines and liquor to the more affordable palm wine and locally distilled beverages. Drinking at home or in a communal setting is a popular activity among old and young in Nigeria as it is in many parts of the world. 

More than half (53 per cent) of Nigerians aged 15 years and above are alcohol consumers; 47 per cent are abstainers, a category that includes people who have never had any alcoholic drink and those who used to drink but stopped for religious, health or cultural reasons. More females (62 per cent) than males (33 per cent) fall under the category of abstainers. This distribution is similar to what obtains in most low-income countries but different from the situation in western countries where higher proportions of adults are alcohol drinkers.