The President in his maiden speech on Inauguration Day on May 29, 2010, made electoral reforms a key issue to his Administration. This is to be expected because evidence shows that during the 2003 elections 523 petitions went to the President Federal Court of Appeal, whilst in 2007 this soared to 1,523. And for good reasons, Mr. President appointed a 23-person Committee eminently and competently headed by Hon. Muhammadu Uwais, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Nigeria is a country of over 150 million people and the ruling class constitutes an infinitesimal number. How can a multitude be made so submissive by so few as to accept silence as the answer to our problems. Silence is a lie when a situation is as dire as we are currently experiencing in our nation Nigeria. The Presidency has been intimidated by the actions and comments of the Governors Forum, the PDP national executives, the recent action of the Brigade of Guard and the utterances of the Speaker of the House of Rep. Demeji Bankole about coup plot.
This paper delineates the nature of scientific psychology and spiritual psychology; it says that scientific psychology studies empirical man and how he adapts to this world and that spiritual psychology describes the essence of man and how he can return to that essence. In the context of politics it says that ego based politics, natural man’s efforts to organize his society, must transit to love based, that is, Holy Spirit guided, politics. The later, it says, brings folks closer to unified spirit, aka God, and is characterized by peace, happiness and abundance.
There is no doubt that Yar’Adua’s illness has caused a crisis of no small magnitude in the Nigeria political landscape and in spite of the ingenuity and resilience of Nigerians who are determined not to go again through the mistakes of 1966/67 some mischievous people who are making profit out of this disorderly situation are determined to plunge the nation into the abyss.
The greatest mistake we will make, however, is to let Acting President Jonathan think that he alone can set the agenda for the new political order. Apart from the fact that the satanic forces that rail against him will not let him do anything progressive, we are mindful of the fact the status quo is the culmination of the efforts of gallant Nigerians in the last three months.
The doctrine of necessity is a rarely used political concept or utilitarian idea and is used to define and validate extra-constitutional issues that fall outside the purview of the constitution but are necessary to preserve political stability. The fundamental objective of the doctrine is to satisfy the exigencies which have been created by certain situations outside the contemplation of the constitution or the rule of law; and its significant feature is the deliberate circumvention of the constitution or some aspects of the rule of law in order to get out of the political quagmire.
I was reading the Vanguard newspaper the other night and something got me thinking . What jumped out of the newspaper was: “ Etsako re-run : I,600 policemen , AIG deployed to Edo state” . The policemen according to the report were drafted as a result of complains by the Edo state PDP that both the Edo state police command and the former Resident electoral Commission were not to be trusted .
Debarati Guha Sapir stated that vulnerability to natural disasters is almost a direct function of poverty. In these eternal words lay a very strong message for Nigeria. While the outpouring of emotions and sympathy on the part of Nigerians remain commendable in the event of the Haitian quake, the sad fact is that our dear country is not immune from calamities. In fact, we seem to be on an unavoidable path towards the fate currently befalling Haiti.
Can Jonathan explain to Nigerians why he has not visited the president since November 23, 2009? They say there is honour and respect among thieves, I say not in Nigeria! Yar’Adua’s unceremonious departure from Nigeria and from his duty has further exposed the bankruptcy of Nigeria’s ruling elite.
When you have the chief law officer of the country coming up with this kind of puerile logic, it is easy to understand why the current political logjam cannot be resolved through reason and dialogue.
We the people need to stand up now and fight for our nation, hold politicians, Judiciary, Executive and especially the “money for ground hand for ground press” accountable even if in a revolution, violent if need be. The earlier we sanitize our system, the better we will enjoy of resources, be able to stand upright in the world, enjoy our human capital and natural resources?
It is time for all Nigerians to stand in Unisom to insist that constitution be followed for the established succession strategy even if we do not like Jonathan Goodluck. We are not defending Goodluck but the constitution and our nation. We have been at nation building for more than 49 years, yet we are still crawling. It is only when a nation stands for something that it will achieve something. The constitutional flouting is not North’s problem but that of all Nigerians. It is time to love and to act on behalf of our sovereign nation. A nation gets the leaders it desires.
The deep rottenness of Nigeria's political system threatens all the economic gains this giant country has made. In its position as the largest black African nation on earth and of course the most populous in African continent, Nigeria also ranks high among the comity of nations in terms of both human and natural resources, which, if put to maximum use and well harnessed and processed, the country would have by now, assert its rightful position among the super nations on earth.
I was a guest on Al Jazeera's Inside Story TV programme recently. The topic of discussion centred on Niger Delta; particularly on the amnesty granted to the militants by the Nigerian Federal Government. In my humble contribution I submitted or argued that the so-called amnesty would fail if the Federal Government's intention was to play game with the process. I also reasoned that the only thing that can get us started is by seriously addressing the root cause of the agitation in the region which of course is simple: INJUSTICES AND ABJECT UNDERDEVELOPMENT.
The options before us are simply two. One is a journey we once tried and hopefully will not be foolish to try again. This is the “Yugoslavia Path”. Nigeria experimented with this between 1966 and 1970; the locust years of the fratricidal civil war. It is a path filled with thorns, sorrows and agonies. The other is the “Czechoslovakia Path”. Obviously, this is a more attractive path, the path to peaceful dissolution.
In a nation desperate for heroes, searching for beacons in the struggle for the entrenchment of social order and equitable political arrangement, this story of great significance went unnoticed by the vast majority of Nigerians. In a nation where the norm is to amass wealth at all costs, squander priority funds allocated for various forms of social development, the sacrifices of a single man in ensuring that his dream of a nation comes true went unacknowledged. Professor Banjo had a dream, a dream of confronting a monster who bestrode the landscape at that particular time through the only language which he understood.
Now, enters Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who sees banking in Nigeria as different from the way his predecessor CBN governor saw it. This is the same Lamido Sanusi, who upon being appointed, was quickly portrayed as someone who could not run even a chicken farm effectively-efficiently, and Sanusi was quickly portrayed by some, as incapable and incompetent and quite unlike his predecessor, an acclaimed or vaunted professor of economics! Some created the impression that the banking skies would fall in Nigeria, if someone such as Sanusi is appointed to run the Central Bank of Nigeria!
In a land filled with milk and honey, is it any wonder that Africans are suffering? Is it any wonder that the continent remains underdeveloped? When it matters, our leaders are found wanting. They can afford to sleep when important decisions are made at important international summits.
In Northern Nigeria for example, there is clearly high literacy rate, even noticeably higher than the literacy rate in the Southern parts of Nigeria, the fact that the North did not embrace Western World education or Western European definition of education, simply does not change the fact that most persons in the Northern parts of Nigeria can Read and Write in Arabic, and being able to Read and Write is sufficiently accepted definition of being a literate person
In traditional African societies, honey moon is not expected to last for long. After a while, the bride becomes a wife proper and she will go to the stream to fetch water like other wives. The same thing applies to governance .In the early stage of Nigeria’s nascent democracy , it was okay to blame the military for the decadence that was evident in all aspect of Nigeria, but after ten years , civilian administrations now own the problems and issues in Nigeria ,and it is appropriate to take stock of their stewardship.
This paper explicates what the writer believes is the right political and economic approach to modernizing African countries. He makes a strong case for corporatism. He defines it as borrowing aspects of all extant political and economic ideologies that are known to produce results and applying them in the effort to modernize Africa.
Mr. Siollun’s book must be considered something of a miracle. Unlike prior writers on the topic from that country, the Nigerian-born historian successfully checked at the door the ethnic biases he surely must have, in order to combine the dispassionate objectivity of the outsider with the nuanced knowledge of the insider. The result is a truly insightful book that is highly accessible to the general reader. The book also has enough new information to serve as a starting point for future investigators who wish to tackle some of the issues in greater detail.
When citizens could no more stomach their government's insensitivity, dishonesty, brutality, massive looting and inefficiency; and then took up arms in order to sing emancipation, what should we call them? Criminals? Crusaders? Or both? And should the govt - legal or illegal - folds it arms in discharging its primary duty of protecting lives and properties? The Niger-Delta "war" is an intricate and confusing political situation.
These two incidents have intensified ethnic baiting and ethnic bashing. Debates about Nigerian national issues are too often beclouded and encrusted in ethnic flame-throwing brawls. It makes me think that most Nigerians have managed to internalize the hatred by others, towards Nigeria and Nigerians. It is rather shameful, that these Nigerians are supposed to be very educated in the western sense. Or shall we just say that these Nigerians are well credentialed?
MEND is not known to have engaged in any public good. MEND is not known to have invested its "profits" from hostage taking and kidnapping and ransom demands to any public advantage for anyone in the Niger Delta. MEND appears simply self-interested and self-absorbed political renegades. MEND does not run any schools, hospitals or medical clinics. MEND has no after school programs, or day care. MEND, simply put, is guilty of the same offences of neglect, which MEND accuses the Nigerian government.
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