The removal from office, the week before, of Hafiz Ringim as Inspector General of Police (IGP) was no doubt overdue. Soothsayers and prayer warriors saw it coming. We suspect that Ringim himself may have seen it because it appears that even the blind were able to see it.
The pattern of public communication in Nigeria has over the years been poor. Public policy is hardly ever well publicized. The people are always in the dark about a policy especially the roles they are to play to ensure its success.
2012 would be a great year for Nigeria if, as it begins today, every citizen, on the basis of his professed competence and expertise resolves to contribute his quota to national development by offering professional advice to the nation in this first month of the year. An aggregation of the pieces of advice so obtained would surely impact positively on the nation.
When this column recently supported the introduction of Islamic Banking to Nigeria, some non-muslims were visibly angry with our standpoint. One critic dismissed our article as ‘sponsored’, and ‘a magnitude of lies’.
At last, government has arranged for “security” to take the lion share of our nation’s budget for next year. According to President Jonathan who delivered the budget speech last Tuesday, government would spend ?921billion to ensure the security of lives and property.
Serving under President Olusegun Obasanjo was for me an eventful experience. To start with, I got called by him on the phone many times as late or better put as early as 2am and the first question was usually about my whereabouts- where else could I have been at that time? Immediately following my reply, ‘in bed sir’ would be why? What could I say?
