By Steve Osuji There was a very ribald joke in my newsroom days a couple of decades ago. It’s best rendered in Yoruba for full tonal and dramatic effects but let’s try deconstructing it in English. A landlord once went for an hair cut in Agosu the barber’s shop. Agosu happened to be a long-time tenant of Baba Landlord. It was in those virginal days when the tool for cutting the hair was a pair of scissors. Having done Baba Landlord’s hair halfway, Agosu crossed the scissors right under his…
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Belated Supreme Court Judgment On LG Autonomy, Big Loss ToImperial Monopoly Of Funds Due To LGAs By State Governors
By Vitalis Unachukwu For donkey years, crooked and corrupt politicians dictating the affairs of the States, purposely allowed the Local Government System to become comatose and moribund, because of billions and trillions streaming from the Federation Account, which they controlled at will, leaving the system of government that’s closest to the people, to be extinct. What an outrageous evil done to the people of our land, by Governors of States of the Federation! Nigerians are often in the habit of asking: WHO DID US THIS THING? We all know who…
Read MoreBelated Supreme Court Judgment On Local Government Autonomy, Big Loss To Imperial Monopoly Of Funds Due To LGAS By State Governors
By Vitalis Unachukwu For donkey years , crooked and corrupt politicians dictating the affairs of the States , purposely allowed the Local Government System to become comatose and moribund, because of billions and trillions streaming from the Federation Account, which they controlled at will , leaving the system of government that’s closest to the people, to be extinct . What an outrageous evil done to the people of our land , by Governors of States of the Federation ! Nigerians are often in the habit of asking : WHO DID…
Read MoreAkpabio And The Emefiele Jazz Orchestra
By Steve Osuji He’s indeed a happy-go-lucky man. Life for him is a stream of ribald jokes. He seems to wear life like an oversized babanriga which he’s adept at wearing these days. Senator Godswill Akpabio, former state commissioner; former two-term governor of Akwa Ibom State; former senator, former Minister of the Federal Republic and currently President of the Senate and head of Nigeria’s legislature. He’s the number three man in the land today and a ranking member of the bar. From the foregoing, life has imposed gravitas upon him…
Read MoreDANGOTE REFINERY IS A SCAM
By Banji Ogungbemi Below is the perspective of a senior friend of mine on Dangote Refinery story. “That Refinery is a scam.It is a government premature monster baby. It can not survive without the feeding bottle provided by the government. There was no proper feasibility study. Something was put together by his assorted Indian experts. They told us in London that the Refinery was built on the assumption that subsidy would continue into perpetuity. A man with a degree in Arabic & Islamic Studies from a Cairo University killed all…
Read MoreTinubu: Of Cognitive Blockade And Dangote ‘Magic’
By Steve Osuji COGNITIVE BLOCKADE AND CRIPPLING INERTIA: Nigeria continues to slide. All economic indicators are red; some are blipping, indicating danger. Those who know are in deep worry. The populace is in a trance, zombified by a never-seen-before strange situation. But the Presidency, the fulcrum of government continues in its empty braggadocio – they doodle and paper over cracks as the ship of state takes more water and totter. The hard, indeed, harsh truth which nobody wants to speak about or hear, is that the president suffers what this…
Read More36 Years After: How IBB Overthrow Buhari
By AbbasYusuf 36 Years After: See How IBB Overthrow Buhari On August 27, 1985, Nigerians wake up to the rendition of martial music that announced the overthrow of Major-General Muhammadu Buhari from power. , The voice of Brigadier General Joshua Analiyo Dogon Yaro greeted the air of Radio Nigeria before the subsequent announcement by Major General Sani Abacha on why the military intervenes in the nation’s politics and removing their fellow comrade at arms. General Ibrahim Babangida’s coup was called a palace coup because he was a top-ranking member of…
Read MoreNigeria Should Unsign LGBT Agreement
It is nauseating that despite several meetings held with Nigerian officials and several briefs and memoranda sent to them, the Nigerian officials proceeded yesterday to sign the dreaded and devious Samoa Agreement. The Samoa Agreement, named after the Pacific Island, Samoa, where it was signed on November 15, 2023 is a celebration of perversity. Certain Articles of the Agreement especially Articles 2.5 and 29.5 legalize LGBT, transgenderism, abortion, teen sexual abuse, and perversity in African countries. The signing of the Agreement by Nigeria constitutes a threat to the sovereignty of…
Read MoreImo LGA Polls: My Deep Concern: Letter To IMHA Member, Nkwerre State Constituency, Barr. Chisom Ojukwu
…A Call For Equity, Justice, Fairness By Chigozie Nwadike Needless to harp on the importance of giving everyone involved in a stake an equal sense of belonging, because what is sauce for the goose, is also sauce for the gander. I wire to express my opinion which I am very sure is in tandem with the opinions of thousands of indigenes of the affected communities in Nkwerre LGA and many who have a fair view mindset from Nkwerre ancient kingdom. In Nkwerre LGA, we have Ten(10) political wards and these…
Read MoreRestructuring Nigerian Federalism,Strength to Functional Union Part 2
By Nathan Uzorma A perfect example of this is the lopsided nature of the federalism of the First Republic. It has a heavy structural imbalance, in terms of geographical and numeric size of the regions, which electorally and politically favoured the northern region. Ever since then, the shifts to political systems, innumerable economic policies and transition programmes subsequently show that previous institutionalisation patterns, which are adopted, were mere ‘systemic failures.’ This is heightened by the fact that in 1979, Nigeria was imposed another institutional pattern: The American presidential democracy, which…
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