Odds Against N500bn Palliatives By Government

 By Onyemaechi Eze

The removal of fuel subsidy by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the first day of assumption of office was ill-timed, out-rightly ill-advised and uncalled for. The president with his team was in a better position to understand that without an enabling environment, a team on ground to drive policies, decisions made without right thoughts are always counter-productive. Nigeria is unfortunately a nation where government does not function as expected even when a team is in place, let alone when there is none.

The decision had upon announcement immediately jolted the foundation of market forces and sent shock waves through the fabrics of the general economy. Consequently, the people were exposed to unimaginable hardships. Everyone is sad, pained and disenchanted as cost of goods and services increased exponentially and still increasing. The exchange rate along with inflationary trend leaves everyone dazed. Even the rich and politicians are crying!

Tinubonomic And 8000 Litres Of Poverty

 By Gbenro Olajuyigbe

In intervention during emergencies, there is what is called Appropriate Response. Impact of inappropriate response is worse than no response. Responding to the ‘needs’ of 12 million households’ out of 43 million households in a severely polarized country is bad enough. 

*Bola Tinubu 

Aside from the existing inequality between the poor and the rich, it further bifurcates the tribe of the poor, potentially with implications for uneven patriotism and implosive crisis.  Giving the selected beneficiary (270 Naira/ 35 Cents per day) in situation where those who earn 1.9 dollar per day are regarded as living in extreme poverty amounts to glorification of poverty. 5000 Naira per poor household under Buhari, which had more intrinsic value than the touted Tinubu’s 8000 Naira, threw 133 million people into nadir of poverty.

Peter Obi And Endless Possibilities

 By Valentine Obienyem

Nigeria is crying for liberation. A lot of things have gone wrong in the country. Anambra was once like that but underwent a profound transformation from 2006 to 2014. In those years, the state witnessed an interregnum of peace and progress. At the end, the state was left with over N75 billion and other surpluses amidst recording the highest development among all the states. 

*Peter Obi 

Unfortunately, his successor ended up destroying everything that he built; proving that from civilization to barbarism only take years provided a barbarian lurking around the gate is offered a little inroad. To whom, more than any other one man, do we owe that precious and epochal liberation? Mr. Peter Obi.

Nigeria: How Subsidy Removal May Collapse The Economy

 By Luke Onyekakeyah

Ordinarily, the removal of subsidy on energy sources – petrol, kerosene, diesel and electricity would free up billions of naira for government to plow into other social and economic needs such as infrastructural development, give incentive for domestic refineries to produce more petroleum products, reduce the country’s over dependence on imported fuel, boost the economy and create jobs. Some of these are very contentious in the Nigerian context.

This line of thinking may be possible for stable economies and not one that is deep in crisis like Nigeria. Truth is that the removal of subsidy is an ill wind that could collapse the beleaguered and fragile economy of Nigeria.

Peter Obi Is Not A god

 By Chuks Iloegbunam 

(Chuks Iloegbunam uses the birthday of the Labour Party’s presidential candidate to celebrate him and the Obidient Movement) 

*Peter Obi

Yes! There’s nothing they haven’t said of Peter Obi. They have charged that he is not a god. They have said he is no more than a political opportunist. They have ridiculed his promise to change Nigeria from consumer to producer. They pooh-poohed as unfounded the statistics the man churned out on successes abroad that could be replicated back home. But the traducers wouldn’t reckon with reality. The subject of their insistent lambasting never ascribed divinity to himself. He did not circle his head with sanctity’s hallo. In the league of politicians, he didn’t claim to be more human. He only asked for the chance to lift a comatose country. 

The Governor of Enugu State

 By Chuks Iloegbunam 

There is this social media skit on democracy that is forever entertaining. In it, a teacher tells his students that, despite Abraham Lincoln’s classic definition, democracy was actually “the government of some people by some people and for some people.” Government, stressed the teacher, was for those with “bastard money.” 

*Peter Mbah

He soon proved the point, for the principal decrees the class must have a prefect. Two students vie for the position. The female student gets a majority of the votes. His male opponent receives a single vote. But he had boasted that his father was stupendously rich and had demonstrated it by giving the teacher a backhander. The teacher announces the briber, the class prefect. To the class’s protestations, he asks them to go to court and storms out. 

Self-Employment: The Path To Freedom

 By Timi Olubiyi

The number of small businesses in the formal and informal sectors of the Nigerian economy continues to increase due to the vital role that small businesses play as a driving force of any economy and the pillar of major developed economies worldwide. Despite Nigeria’s reliance on oil and revenues derived from it, the country’s economy is primarily supported by small businesses, including nano, kiosk, micro, and small businesses in particular.

A visible reference within this space includes the vulcanizers, corner shop owners, single retail marketers, repairers, painters, business centre operators, restaurants, market women, and men in the various open markets, among others. And the formal operations such as law firms, accounting firms, consulting, fintech, and real estate companies, and so on in the country.

The Game of Thrones at First Bank Nigeria

 By Ijeoma Nwogwugwu

Billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola, must be excreting bricks. In recent weeks, the often-ebullient businessman has told anyone who cares to listen that he is about to emerge Chairman of FBN Holdings Plc (FBN Holdco) – one of Africa’s largest diversified financial services groups and parent of First Bank of Nigeria Limited, the country’s oldest lender. Otedola, from all indications, was recently nominated a Non-executive Director of FBN Holdco, subject to the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), as is always the case with all financial institutions regulated by the banking system regulator.

His hope was that after his nomination is approved by the CBN, at the next annual general meeting of FBN Holdco slated for August 15, 2023, other shareholders/directors of the group will elect him chairman. It remains uncertain how Otedola intends to be elected chairman, given that the current holdco chairman, Adamu Abdullahi, is an appointee of the central bank, albeit on an interim basis. 

Peter Obi As Democracy Role Model

 By Dan Onwukwe

Every election campaign has its cadence and rhythm, style and sparkle that sets it apart from previous ones. Similarly, it throws up unique individuals that have strength of character and conviction that the rest of us look up, especially in turbulent times. In all sincerity, looking back at the February  25 Presidential election, Mr Peter Obi, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, is an exemplar, a role model for anyone still searching for a solid philosophy that should guide and drive his ambition in life. It’s even more so for our new generation of politicians, the youth, in particular.

       *Peter Obi  

It’s not for nothing that when Obi declared his ambition to contest for the presidency, the country was aglitter. The  youths who have been yearning for  new ways of doing things, became very excited. Peter Obi, it seems, woke them up from slumber.  

Nigeria Should Avoid The Era Of Technical Hitches

 By Tonnie Iredia

In the life of a nation, especially in the third world, some strange occurrences occasionally take the centre stage to the anxiety of the people. No one is usually able to dissuade everyone from superstition during such periods especially because the occurrences are felt across board in the relevant community.

From history, we know for example, that a short period after the annulment of the famous June 12, 1993 presidential elections in Nigeria, two major leaders associated with the development died suddenly. The two leaders, General Sani Abacha who was then Head of State and Chief Moshood Abiola from whom the electoral victory was snatched reportedly died within the space of one-month in 1998. Their dissimilar deaths were attributed to what was called cardiac arrest. 

Gas Flaring Means Cash Burning

 By Ray Ekpu

Most literate Nigerians have heard or read about gas flaring but it may not mean much to them. Some of them may know that gas flaring is done in the oil producing states of the country but they may not know what it means to Nigeria or Nigerians who live in those areas.

Even though it is a very important subject in economic terms it is not a subject that most people talk or write about. But it is a subject that has featured in the lives of some Nigerians since oil was discovered in 1956 in Nigeria. That is because gas flaring brings a lot of misery to those who live where the gas is flared. We will come to this later.

In Senegal, The People Have Foiled A Constitutional Coup

 By Chidi Odinkalu

On July 3, 2023, Senegal’s president, Macky Sall, in power since 2012, publicly renounced his aspiration for a constitutionally prohibited third term, sparking asynchronised outbreak of ostentatious back-slapping. Nigeria’s former president, Goodluck Jonathan, convener of the impressively-named, West African Elders Forum, WAEF, fired off a letter describing Macky Sall as a paragon of “sacrificial leadership”. Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, Moussa Faki Mahamat, was full of “admiration for statesmanship which privileged Senegal’s interests.”

Describing President Sall’s announcement as an act of “courage, humility, and deep faith in Senegalese democracy”, Executive Director of UNAIDS, Winnie Byanyima, claimed that he had told her in confidence two years ago that “he was not going to run for a third term but that he would announce this towards the end of his term.”

Federal Universities And Hike In Fees

 By Jerome-Mario Utomi

It is pedestrian information that while Nigerians were waiting for the commencement of governance, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the day of inauguration, precisely on Monday May 29, 2023, announced the removal of fuel subsidy without putting palliatives in place to assist ameliorate the harsh impact of such policy reversal. 

Also newsy is that before the dust raised by such a decision could settle, another was up, as the Federal Government again implemented a coordinated but thoughtless hike in fees paid by students of most of the tertiary institutions of higher learning in the country.  What is however different is that such harrowing decisions have left varying degrees of unpalatable impacts on Nigerians. 

As Nigerians Grapple With Escalating Poverty

 By Adeze Ojukwu  

The excruciating pain and penury arising from soaring food and fuel prices have left many Nigerians seething with anger and rage. 

Since independence, the country has had a history of bad governance, characterized by graft, tribalism and unrest, due to political, cultural and religious vulnerabilities. But never in its chequered history has the society been embroiled in such massive levels of imbroglio, which peaked during the eight-year devastating hegemony of the immediate past administration. 

We’re Beasts Not Humans: Italy’s New Law Of The Sea

 By Owei Lakemfa

Italy, the beautiful south-central European country that juts into the Mediterranean Sea and embraces the Alps, giving mountainous hugs to Switzerland and France, is one of the earliest human civilizations. So civilized that its animals are protected in the country’s constitution and have fundamental rights such as the right of a dog to be walked out in the streets, at least thrice weekly. Animals kept for farming purposes have the right to food, water, satisfactory environmental conditions and right to free movement.

If animals can be so well regarded how much more humans? However, that is the basic issue. While the Italian state treats its citizens with dignity, it has laws on migrants headed for its shores that states clearly that their lives are not only worth less than that of a dog or rabbit, but that they do not even have a right to life.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu

 

*President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria working!

PETER OBI: P. O. Box 2023, Freetown

 By Emeka Obasi

There must be something about Labour Party anchorman, Peter Obi, that continues to confound those who stand in his way. What they pretend not see is just what makes him a celebrity within and without. Sierra Leone is trending.

*Peter Obi

While Obi was busy at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja, his name was all Sierra Leoneans heard as they prepared for their own elections. Chairman of that country’s Political Parties Regulation Committee (PPRC) Abdulahi Bangura implored presidential candidates to adopt the Obi Formula.

A Half Century Of Banditry In Nigeria

 By Chidi Odinkalu

Since well before Nigeria’s return to elective governance in 1999, the country has been overtaken by a progressive escalation of what Hannah Arendt in her classic On Violence called “a massive intrusion of criminal violence into politics”. In contemporary Nigerianism, the word for this is “banditry”. 

“Bandits” is a conveniently capacious bogeyman for insecurity in Nigeria that precludes necessary questions as to the provenance of the descent into lawlessness. It captures diverse elements that may include terrorists, cultists, herdsmen, kidnappers, criminal gangs, and militants. 

Crisis Of Insecurity As Challenge Of Development

 By Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa

Security of lives and property has been accorded priority attention by governments of different countries of the world, be it democratic or military administration. This is so because an atmosphere devoid of fear, anxiety, threat, harm, etc to citizens’ lives and property will only bring about socio-economic development.

In other words, development cannot thrive in the atmosphere of conflicts, violence, anxiety, fear and wanton destruction of lives and property, as it is currently the case in many parts of Nigeria. Therefore, it follows that there is a strong link between security and development in any social setting.

INEC Chairman Must Go!

 By Casmir Igbokwe

As The he saying goes, when a man on top of a palm tree pollutes the air, the flies get confused. No doubt, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) polluted the air of our 2023 general election. Now that many confused Nigerians are wondering what happened, the chairman of the electoral umpire, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has remained taciturn. 

*Yakubu 

Ordinarily, Yakubu expresses his views frequently. But since he surreptitiously announced the result of the infamous February 25 presidential election in the ungodly hours of March 1, 2023, he has left the arena for some other stakeholders and observers.

I watched INEC’s spokesman, Mr. Festus Okoye, trying labouriously to explain the so-called “technical glitches” in the last presidential election in a recent interview on Channels Television. He acknowledged that the results of the National Assembly elections were uploaded seamlessly to the INEC portal.