TheNiche Lecture: Why Does Nigeria Stride And Slide?

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

On Thursday, October 26, the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, NIIA, Nigeria’s foremost think-tank on foreign affairs, will host the 2023 edition of TheNiche Annual Lecture spearheaded by the TheNiche Foundation for Development Journalism.

The lecture series, TheNiche’s annual corporate social responsibility initiative, is aimed at fostering the much-needed but ever-elusive national renaissance. Nigeria is at a crossroads, no doubt, teetering on the brink, facing the abyss. And this is not about being a prophet of doom. All the indices of human development, without any exception, are not only pointing south but are getting worse by the day. 

The Truth About Fuel Subsidy: Government Simply Fails Nigerians

 By Olu Fasan

Subsidy is gone. Subsidy is back. Oh no, it isn’t. Oh yes, it is. Such is the confusion that now dogs the fuel subsidy. On May 29, Bola Tinubu veered from his inauguration speech and blurted out: “Subsidy is gone”. With that diktat, market forces would dictate petrol price. Soon after, the price tripled from N197/litre to N620/litre, fuelling a surge in food and transport costs. However, surreptitiously, some subsidy seems to have returned to stop the soaring price of fuel. But the Tinubu administration denies any intervention.

Yet, market operators are adamant. In a recent interview, Festus Osifo, National President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, said “the government is still paying subsidies on petroleum”. Mele Kyari, Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum company limited, NNPCL, issued a rebuttal: “There’s no subsidy whatsoever.” But John Kekeocha, National Secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, said the government “is still spending billions to subsidise fuel,” adding: “I don’t know why they keep peddling lies.”

Dele Giwa: 37 Years After The Gruesome Murder Of This Celebrated Journalist

 By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye 

“Death is…the absence of presence…the endless time of never coming back…a gap you can’t see, and when the wind blows through it, it makes no sound” – Tom Stopard    

In the morning of Monday, October 20, 1986, I was preparing to go to work when a major item on the Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS) 6.30 news bulletin hit me like a hard object. Mr. Dele Giwa, the founding editor-in-chief of  ‘Newswatch’ magazine, had the previous day been killed and shattered by a letter bomb in his Lagos home. My scream was so loud that my colleague barged into my room to inquire what it was that could have made me to let out such an ear-splitting bellow. 

*Dele Giwa 

We were three young men who had a couple of months earlier been posted from Enugu to Abakaliki to work in the old Anambra State public service, and we had hired a flat in a newly erected two-storey building at the end of Water Works Road, which we shared. My flat-mate, clearly, was not familiar with Giwa’s name and work, and so had wondered why his death could elicit such a reaction from me. 

The Terrible Injustice Of Mob Justice

 By Kenechukwu Obiezu

Nigeria’s seemingly unstoppable guillotine of mob justice has claimed yet another victim  with the brutal killing of Mr. Fwinbe Thomas Gofwan by a mob in Jos for stealing a car he owned, by all accounts. In Nigeria, the mob that has shown itself lurking and lethal in Sokoto State, the Federal Capital Territory, as well as Delta State usually moves with such lightning ferocity whenever there is a sacrifice to be made.

In May 2022, Deborah Samuel, a student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, had life brutally snuffed out of her by a mob in the state over a WhatsApp audio message. More than a year later, the police is yet to bring the culprits to book. History was to repeat itself in Sokoto State in June 2023 when Usman Buda, a butcher, was lynched by a mob over allegations of blasphemy, to further present Sokoto as the state where people are freely killed by feral mobs.

Food Crisis And Nigeria’s Multi-Dimensional Poverty

 By Jerome-Mario Utomi

If there is any fresh fact that supports the claim by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, in November 2022, that Multidimensional Poverty Index, MPI, is higher in rural areas than in urban areas, it is my experience during a short visit to Agbor, a community which, according to Wikipedia, is the most populous among the Ika people, located in, and functions as the headquarters of Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State, in South-South geo-political zone of Nigeria.

Among many other observations, the referenced report puts the MPI in rural areas at 72% and that of urban areas 42%, thereby confirming that a much higher proportion of people living in rural areas, compared to those living in urban areas, are multidimensionally poor. The report further noted that 63% (133 million people) – that is about six out of every 10 Nigerians– are multidimensionally poor, with 65% [86 million] and 35% [47 million] of the poor living in the North and South of Nigeria respectively. The implication is that location matters with respect to poverty and unemployment, the report concluded.

Nigeria’s Girl-Child Is A Resident Of Hell

 By Ray Ekpu

Recently, the world marked the International Day of the Girl-Child. Who is the girl-child and why is she singled out for attention throughout the world? That is what we plan to deal with here today. A girl-child is a biological female child who is any age from zero to 18 years. She is not only different from a boy-child but her needs are also different; her level of vulnerability is higher and many families and communities tend to treat her differently from, and in a manner that is inferior to, the way they treat the boychild.

Nigeria is regarded as a country of the young. About 46 per cent of Nigeria’s population are under age 15 and about 51 per cent of that population are said to be girls. Nigeria accounts for more than one in five out-of-school children anywhere in the world and more than 50 per cent of that number are girls. Even though primary school education is largely free and compulsory in Nigeria’s public schools about 33 per cent of eligible children are out of primary school.

Insecurity And The Plight Of Kidnap Victims

 By Abiodun Komolafe

Temitope Oladipo Fayehun must be passing through hard times. A native of Ilesa in Osun State, Fayehun’s ordeal started on March 2, 2021, when he, alongside others in his vehicle, fell into the hands of some Fulani kidnappers along Osogbo-Ibokun-Ilesa Road in the state.

*Leah Sharibu: Famous kidnap victim yet to be rescued 

While some of the passengers were killed and had their corpses dumped in the forest, others were immediately hauled into a thick forest. Fayehun fell into the latter group. But then, that marked the beginning of a journey that eventually lasted 16 days in the kidnappers’ den; as expected, under hellish conditions.

The British Broadcasting Confusion (BBC)

 By Obi Nwakanma

I still do remember growing up, my father waking, and shaving with the BBC. Against a background of the bleep-bleep-bleep signal of the British Broadcasting Corporation’s World Service, he would do his private chores, and prepare for work. The BBC Foreign Service having fortified his appetite for “real news,” he would then switch to the Local Radio for Morning News.

This was unwavering ritual. For that generation, there was some naïve sense that the BBC carried real news and was committed to pietist truth. I did too for many years. Until I began to see the underbelly of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The small chinks in its armour which became in large part, wide cracks that left me both puzzled and annoyed. 

South-East Summit: When Ndigbo Met And Talked

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Many “experts” on Igbo affairs who claim to know everything about the people than Ndigbo know about themselves abound in Nigeria. And one of the ridiculous tales they bandy about when it suits them is that Ndigbo have neither the capacity to come together, nor agree on anything. “They can never speak with one voice,” they pontificate in their desperation to ridicule an entire race even as they also accuse the same people of being clannish, apparently oblivious of the oxymoron.

*Aba, commercial city of Abia State 

But there is absolutely no basis for such a claptrap. Yes, Ndigbo may be republican in their worldview but enlightened collective-interest comes in to aggregate those differences in opinion in situations of existential crisis such as they are facing now. That was exactly what happened in Owerri, Imo State capital, on September 28 and 29 when they gathered for the consequential South-East summit on security and economy.

Would You Like To Be A Teacher?

 By Daniel Ighakpe

“Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher.” – Japanese Proverb.

In many parts of the world, October 5, of every year is observed as World Teachers’ Day. Also known as International Teachers’ Day, it is a day that celebrates the incredible role that teachers all over the world play and their important contribution to society. This year marks the 29th anniversary of World Teachers’ Day, and the theme for this year is: “The teachers we need for the education we want: The global imperative to reverse the teacher shortage.”

On October 5, 1966, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) signed a recommendation concerning the “Status of Teachers.” This guidance hoped to target and investigate the status and situation of teachers across the world. From their working conditions, recruitment, rights, and responsibilities, this historic recommendation set a high standard of practice in the workplace.

Arise TV, Sue NBC; Do It Now!

 By Ochereome Nnanna

Something terrible is happening to Nigerians. It is not that they are being beaten that bothers me so much. It is that they no longer react, no matter how they are pummelled. Shockingly, the media appears to have become a victim of this.

There is an ongoing certificate and identity scandal which has been described in a foreign court as a “Nigerian thing”. Do you blame them? Our president’s name is on it. When misguided teenager, Mmesoma’s JAMB result forgery was confirmed, the same yellow bellies who were all over her and even dragged her ethnic group into the scandal are now either mute or trying to twist a clear-cut court deposition out of shape.

The Bola Tinubu Papers

 By Ugo Onuoha

Alhaji Bola Ahmed [or Adekunle] Tinubu’s plot to become Nigeria’s president was not incubated only over the last 24 years as appears to be the refrain in recent years. It has been a lifelong ambition and he said so himself in the presidential villa in Abuja in January.

A man who had no sinister plot will not willfully erase and expunge and diligently hide his beginning and his early childhood as Tinubu has done successfully or so it seems, until now. Even if he was born in the Dark Age, there was no way his first twenty-something years on earth would have disappeared to the extent that they have almost become irrecoverable.

Migrate To UK, Go To Jail In Rwanda

 By Owei Lakemfa

The United Kingdom, UK, and Rwanda who conspired to have hapless migrants flown from London to open prison in Kigali, are trying hard to keep their unholy alliance on track. Ironically, the main driver of this criminal anti-immigration conspiracy, 43-year-old British Attorney General Suella Braverman, is of Indian origin whose parents, Uma and Christie Fernandes, migrated from Mauritius and Kenya.

Her boss, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s grandparents were Indians born in Pakistan, while his parents migrated from East Africa. The amiable King Charles III is a descendant of William the Conqueror who migrated from Normandy in France and whose forebears were Scandinavian Vikings. On the other hand, the Rwandan President Paul Kagame, knows what it is to be a migrant as his parents fled the country when he was two, and he was raised in refugee camps in Uganda.

Care For The Poor In Nigeria: Fuel Subsidy Test

 By John Adeoti

Who really cares for the poor? Nigerians are among the best in the world in many professions and human endeavours. However, Nigeria continues to stink with endemic poverty, not because it cannot be tackled, but because we have remained unable to organise and deploy the necessary resources required to effectively confront it. Addressing the poverty challenge has been done at personal and family levels by many. Today, many affluent and accomplished persons have stories of stark and abject poverty behind them.

Likewise, many contemporary rich nations have history of being very poor in the past. Examples of rich nations with history of deep poverty in not too distant past include China, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. One of the critical common factors to these countries is care for the poor by the civil and military leaders.

Nigeria: A Captured Temple Of Justice

 By Chidi Odinkalu

In July 2023, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, presided over a meeting of the National Judicial Council, NJC, to appoint his own son a judge of the Federal High Court. On October 4, as his father presided over the swearing in of his own son, it fell to the Old Students Association of Ikolaba Grammar School, which the new judge attended for his secondary education, to defend his appointment with the cringe-inducing statement that “contrary to claims in some quarters, Ariwoola Jr.’s appointment as a judge was not on the influence of his father, who is the CJN”. They lacked the standing to say this, of course, because they could not possibly know how he was appointed.

 In June 2023, the NJC convened to approve the elevation of the President of the Court of Appeal’s son-in-law. This individual has previously been appointed as a judge of the National Industrial Court of Nigerian, NICN, a mere six years earlier in 2017. 

Negative Impacts Of Child Wasting To Nigeria’s Economy

 By Carl Umegboro

The National Stadium, now Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja has a 60,000-sitting capacity. Whenever the facility is filled to full capacity by people, it is not only easily noticed but referred to or tagged ‘ocean of humanity’ which is just a one-off fill.

Now, imagine how it will look like where the filled stadium is reproduced to 50 in number to accommodate three million people. It means that a large expanse of land in Abuja will have to go, to adequately contain the number. This scenario, I believe will assist greatly to humanely feel the estimated three million children in Nigeria according to statistics facing acute wasting.

How To Enter Sapele And Warri From Benin Now

 By Tony Afejuku

Sapele and Warri are two significantly important Nigerian cities that need no introduction, special or un-special, from the historic, realistic and imaginative imagination of this creative creator whose impression of things is often – if not always – determined by features which fit the descriptions that convey meaningfully what must be conveyed – meaningfully.

Sapele and Warri, as very many people know, are two unique cities, two uniquely nifty cities, from whichever dominant or un-dominant impressions or perspectives open to us to define the cities. Of course, the cities’ dense and denizenly denizens and brought-ups where-ever they are always have something, something beautifully beautiful, to say about them in the same way that those of Benin, the antique city, allow their imaginations and conceptions to beautify it.

Stunted at 63: Nigeria Needs A Political And Constitutional Settlement

 By Olu Fasan

Perfunctorily, Nigeria’s 63rd independence anniversary was marked earlier this week. Perfunctory, because it wasn’t a celebration of Nigeria’s success as a nation, but of its mere existence. Yet, the mere existence of a country is not a sufficient reason for celebration, but its strength, stability and progress, as well as the prosperity and well-being of its citizens.

Sadly, at 63, Nigeria is stunted politically, economically and socially. Even worse, as currently constituted, with its deeply flawed political and governance structures, Nigeria cannot escape from the rot. Yet, Nigeria’s political leaders are in denial, playing Russian roulette!

World Teachers’ Day: Salute To African Teachers

 By Segun Ogunsanya

There is no gainsaying the fact that teachers are crucial to the process of education. In appraising the nexus between teaching and learning, teachers rank highest in importance because they organically facilitate the most critical part of education.

Strictly speaking, the ecosystem, which comprises children, parents, teachers, government, writers, publishers, and now technology innovators,  is brought to life by teachers. They not only facilitate learning, but also provide guidance and inspire learners. Some teachers have been known to exert greater influence on children’s development than some parents.

Bola Tinubu’s Chicago Blues And Nigeria’s Shame

 By Ugo Onuoha

Three significant things happened in Nigeria and about Nigeria in the last 10 days. And many more happened in the past several weeks, all of them speaking to the state of Nigeria. But the most significant, perhaps, was the story that broke on Sunday to the effect that a United States court in Chicago had rejected Nigeria’s President, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s urgent and desperate plea that a district court should strike down a ruling by a magistrate court that his academic records be released by Chicago State University [CSU].

*Tinubu 

A brief on the processes that led to the court’s ruling on Saturday will be needful. About two weeks ago, Nigeria’s former Vice President, who was a contestant during the February presidential election in Nigeria, had approached a Chicago Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Gilbert for the release on oath of Tinubu’s CSU records.