Merit, taken
objectively, is ‘something earned, something owed to a person. Taken
subjectively, merit is the right of a person to his earning and is of two
types- condign and congruous merits. While condign merit deals with strict
justice to a reward, congruous merit is not so much a right as a claim but
rests upon what is suitable or fitting in a situation’.
With this words of
Paul Glenn in mind, each time I am asked my opinion on the nation’s media
industry in relation to free speech/freedom of expression, I usually pause to
honestly look at its virtues and attributes both objectively and subjectively,
and in all, one thing often stands out; the Nigerian media industry in the
writer’s views neither merits nor deserves the inequitable treatments so far
mated to it by the successive administrations. Friday, August 31, 2018
Why Nigeria Needs To Be Re-Structured
By Atiku Abubakar
In a recent
interaction in the United
States , Vice President Yemi Osinbajo
asserted that the “problem with our country is not a matter of
restructuring…and we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into the argument
that our problems stem from some geographic re-structuring”.
*Atiku |
It is a surprise that the Vice President would
take such a position and, in particular, fail to appreciate the connection
between Nigeria ’s
defective structure and its underperformance.
Nigeria: Beware The Ides Of March
By Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie
“Beware the Ides of
March,” said the soothsayer to Julius Caesar in William Shakespeare’s famous
play Julius Caesar. In those words, Caesar was given an alert about
his imminent assassination in the hands of Roman politicians, among whom was
his friend Brutus. Approaching another year of elections, this admonition
has become frightfully pertinent.
For what is being witnessed looks like a
reenactment of the Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. In this reenactment,
Julius Caesar would represent Nigeria ,
the Roman politicians who plotted his assassination would represent the average
Nigerian politician, with Brutus, the politician pretending to be Caesar’s
friend, representing politicians who, in their diabolically deadly intrigues,
pretend to love Nigeria ,
but are actually plotting her descent into bloody disintegration.
*Cardinal Okogie |
Shame! Ghana Lawyers And Judges Are Trained To Become Incompetent And Corrupt!
By Rockson Adofo
Honestly, Ghana-trained lawyers and judges are no match for
their White contemporaries and those Ghanaians born, schooled and trained in
law in the civilized Whiteman’s land. I will prove this assertive claim in a
minute. The law lecturers in Ghana
tutoring students to become lawyers are to bow down their heads in shame for
helping churn out corrupt and incompetent lawyers and judges.
In
any country that their judiciary is conspicuously corrupt and incompetent as it
is prevalent in Ghana, lawlessness, creation of human monsters, economic
stagnation or retrogression, become the tormenting order of the day to cost the
citizenry the opportunity of availing themselves of justice, human rights and
decent standard of living.Thursday, August 30, 2018
President Buhari And His Lifeless Presidency
By Adebayo Raphael
Since
the beginning of Nigeria 's
fourth republic in 1999, the present administration of the All Progressives
Congress (APC) led by President Muhammadu Buhari is unarguably the worst. The
failure of the incumbent administration to live up to expectations, within and
outside Nigeria ,
relegates every measure of the towering hope that welcomed it.
The
current president of Nigeria
has consistently proved to the world that he is undeserving of leading this magnificent
country of 180 million extraordinary people imbued with unimaginable potential.
The Nigeria
that our current president projects in the world, is a backward, ignorant,
antiquated, unalluring, visionless, confused, unimaginative rudderless country.
At different times when president Buhari has had the opportunity to
blisteringly fly the flags of Nigeria
before the world, he unabashedly sullied it instead.
*President Buhari |
Defection: Waiting For Minister Aisha Alhassan
By Comfort Obi
I will start with a story. A cousin of mine, too nervous to be on the
wheels of her car, has a rather funny and weird driver. He is good-looking. Deceptively shy. Full of surprises. Sometimes, erratic, at other
times, as cool as cucumber, and when he feels like, he plays deaf. But he
is serviceable when he wishes to.
He feels free with his boss. So ever so often, he crosses the
red line. Once, he whatsapped his photograph, dressed
to the hilt to his boss. On a couple of times, he had looked his boss in the
face and told her: “I have a job interview.” And then, he
would come back to say: “I was not hired.” One day, he
told his boss he got a job where he would earn double what he is being paid.
But he wouldn’t leave: Why: It is a difficult job. I don’t want to drive
(inter-state) in the night.
*Mrs Alhassan |
Is Africa Ready For Nuclear Energy?
By Laura Gil
Years back, nuclear energy was a fancy option limited to the
industrialized world. In due course, nuclear could be an energy source for much
of Africa, where only South
Africa currently has a nuclear power plant.Governments
across the continent are devising development policies to become middle-income
countries in the medium term. Socioeconomic growth comes with a rise in energy
demand—and a need for a reliable and sustainable energy supply.
For
industrializing countries in need of a clean, reliable and cost-effective
source of energy, nuclear is an attractive option.
“Africa is hungry for energy, and nuclear power could be
part of the answer for an increasing number of countries,” says Mikhail
Chudakov, deputy director general and head of the Department of Nuclear Energy
at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an international organisation
that promotes the peaceful use of nuclear technology.
Wednesday, August 29, 2018
Why Nigeria’s Economic Recovery Is Slowing Down
By Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa
Ordinarily there
should be so much going for Nigeria ’s
economy. Production of crude oil at about 2 million barrels per day at a good
price of about 70 dollars per barrel is yielding good foreign exchange for the
Nation, helping to boost foreign reserves which today stand at about 47.25
Billion dollars. Inflation has continued to decline steadily over several
months coming to the current level of 11.4% as the CBN and its MPC retain monetary
policy index at a tight stance.
*President Buhari and Finance Minister Adeosun |
Nigeria: The Wretched Of The Earth
By Yakubu Mohammed
Something, neither divine nor spectacularly prophetic, must have decided her parents to christen her Miracle, thisEdo State
current wonder. Miracle Johnson is currently in the news. But not for any
divine reason or some earth shaking accomplishments.
Her birth may not have
been miraculous. At least not as miraculous as the birth of Jesus Christ, the
story of which event is both elegantly and breathtakingly narrated in the
Qur’an and the Bible.
Something, neither divine nor spectacularly prophetic, must have decided her parents to christen her Miracle, this
Nigeria: Presidential Assault On Human Rights
By Emmanuel Onwubiko
Did we just read that president Muhammadu Buhari told lawyers
that if you put national security side by side with the rule of law, that
national security comes first?
*Buhari |
This is
an unmitigated assault on constitutional democracy which must not be allowed to
be swept under the carpets because it is manifestly erroneous and obscenely
illegal. His resort to holding on to a so called supreme court’s decision which
he refused to disclose the particulars makes the entire claims puerile,
spurious, unbelievably shallow and therefore a nullity to the extent of its
inconsistency. Shamefully, the lawyers sat down as the head of the executive
arm of government embarked on this one man show of intellectual shame. The
President has wounded the truth and must be corrected with all the speed that
can be mustered. We will first determine the essence of constitutionalism which
is the be all and end all of the form of government in practice in Nigeria without
which there would be formlessness.
A Distress Call From Ghana
By Reuben Abati
I got a frantic call from Ghana the
other day. It was from Lillian. The Ghanaian authorities were shutting down
shops belonging to Nigerian traders at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra .
The Inter-Governmental Task Force set up by the Government of Ghana to regulate
retail trade had arrested about 50 Nigerians. Many of them were detained.
This is not a new matter. Across
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Rule Of Law: President Buhari Got It Wrong
By Reuben Abati
It is unfortunate that the most important statement made so
far at the on-going Annual Conference of the Nigeria Bar Association, an
outright derogation of the supremacy of the rule of law, has not yet generated
any coherent response from either the Bar or the Bench.
President Muhammadu Buhari was guest of honour on Sunday at
the NBA Conference and he had the additional responsibility of declaring the
Conference open. In his address, he told the gathering of eminent lawyers and
judges that his administration will prioritise national security over and above
the rule of law.
*Buhari |
Kofi Anan: Farewell To An African Peacemaker
By Adekeye Adebajo
Ghana ’s Kofi Annan, whose
death at the age of 80 was announced on Saturday, was the first black African
to serve as Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), between 1997 and
2006. He shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the UN in 2001, though his most
noteworthy mediation was in brokering a settlement in violence-stricken Kenya in 2008, failing in Syria four
years later.
During his ten-year tenure as Secretary-General, the Ghanaian
diplomat courageously, but perhaps naïvely, championed the cause of
“humanitarian intervention.” After a steep decline in the mid-1990s,
peacekeeping increased again by 2005 to around 80,000 troops. African countries
like Sudan , the Congo , Liberia ,
Ethiopia/Eritrea, and Côte
d’Ivoire were the main beneficiaries.
*Kofi Anan |
Monday, August 27, 2018
Between Rotimi Amaechi and Godswill Akpabio
By Abraham Ogbodo
My task today is to
compare and contrast two illustrious sons of the Niger Delta Region. They are
Rotimi Amaechi and Godswill Akpabio. Maybe I shouldn’t have added
‘’illustrious’’ because they have illustrated very little outside
self-aggrandizement.
Amaechi literally came
from nowhere to become so rich and powerful. Before 1999, his entire life and
livelihood had been defined by Dr. Peter Odili, who was Rivers
State governor between 1999 and 2007
and owns Pamo Hospital where Amaechi had worked as a
public relations officer before his astronomic rise to Speakership of the
Rivers State House of Assembly.
*Amaechi and Akpabio |
Akpabio may be a little deeper, but I shall
return to him presently.
Slave Trade And Its Abolition – Emergency Call To End Modern-Day Slavery
By Kpedator Elorm
Island of Saint Domingue
now Haiti
where the uprising which set forth events leading to the eventual abolition of
the Transatlantic Slave Trade began. Each year, the United Nations invites
people all over the world, including educators, students and artists to
organize events that centre on the theme of informing people about the
historical events associated with the slave trade, the consequences and to
promote tolerance and human rights.
Over 6 centuries ago, slavery and human trafficking caused despair
and little or no regard for human dignity in the world. More than 150 years
after the abomination has been condemned to the ruins of history, there are
numerous indications that slavery is not yet a thing of the past, but rather a
dark secret in present day society and its name face-lifted to modern-day
slavery.
23rd
August is International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its
Abolition. The day was instituted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on the 23rd of August 1998. Although the day was
commemorated in many countries around the globe, the focus was on the Sunday, August 26, 2018
Nigeria: Cattle Breeders' Audacity And The Rest Of Us!
By Ifeanyi Izeze
Nigeria ? Is it not curious that
this group seems to be reiterating the Saraki “must be removed by force”
earlier vows by Adams Oshiomole and Omo-Agege? How long can we continue like
this as a nation?
A strange thing is going on in our land while we all watch
helplessly. How come Nigeria
within a very short time has turned into a nation of absurdities? Can you
imagine the level of steps Nigeria
has taken aback? Miyetti Allah Cattle herders warning the President of one of
the arms of government to resign or they will force him to resign. What
impunity! What gut! My heart bleeds with tears for this country. Where is this
country heading to?
Is
Miyetti Allah now a registered political party in Tuesday, August 21, 2018
The Menace Of Summer Schools
By Hope Eghagha
Summer school within
the context of this essay refers to academic or semi-academic sessions which
most private schools in Nigeria
organise for crèche, primary school pupils and secondary school students during
the long vacation. Outside its contextual reference are the JAMB preparatory
schools or institutes organised for special topics during the long holidays
between July and September every year when the new session starts.
My query is on the
abuse of the concept by some school proprietors to the detriment of the health
of kids, the overall well-being of teachers and the abdication of parental
responsibilities. There is a great deal of economic exploitation, ignorance,
vanity and outright irresponsibility. It further promotes the poor bonding
between parents and their kids in their growing up years. As a parent I have
never sent any of my kids to the so-called summer coaching. And by God’s
providence they have all gone through university! Roadblocks Against Women
By Ray Ekpu
Since Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka became the first elected
leader, women have come to the realisation that it is possible for them to
break the male dominance in the high leadership sector.
*Former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf |
Women such as Golda Meir of Israel, Margaret
Thatcher and Theresa May of Britain, Angela Merkel of Germany, Ameenah
Guib-Fakini of Mauritius and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, to mention but a
few have risen to the pinnacle of political power in their countries. The
number still remains negligible because women have had formidable roadblocks
placed on their path to the top by men and society generally.
Monday, August 20, 2018
Checking The Menace Of Expired Drugs
By Kayode Ojewale
Nasarawa State . Just last month, NCS and NAFDAC
destroyed N100 million worth of expired medicaments and other items at Seme
command of NSC. Some N80 million worth of expired goods were destroyed also in Abuja last month by
NAFDAC. It was revealed that some of the products were voluntarily submitted by
companies and individuals while others were seized through enforcement.
Lately, Nigeria
has witnessed increased cases of some heartless human beings with dead
conscience relabelling and revalidating dates of expired foods and drugs. The
arrests of the perpetrators and confiscations of relabelled expired drugs were
carried out by the officials of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) and National
Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
The news media has
thus been awash with stories of seized expired foods and drugs. It was recently
reported that N15 million worth of fake expired products was confiscated in Before Buhari Tampers With Press Freedom Again
By Martins Oloja
Even if we encourage ourselves by wishing for peaceful coverage of
the 2019 election processes, as journalists, there are warning signals for us
to prepare for war with this administration. Reason: most of us are beginning to discern
that despite their assurances since May 2015, they are set to tinker ruthlessly
with press freedom for their ‘Project 2019’ .
On March 16, 2015, the then candidate
Muhammadu Buhari told the newspapers’ proprietors and editors: “I won’t tamper
with press freedom…”
*President Buhari and his adviser on media, Femi Adesina |
Buhari, who then said a change revolution was imminent in the country without
firing a shot also assured the influential members of the
Newspapers’ Proprietors Association of Nigeria( NPAN) and the Nigerian
Guild of Editors ( NGE) at an interaction in Abuja:
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