When will Nigerian elections be believable? By Tonnie Iredia
From history, it is easy to find reports on early Nigerian elections which reflected some high degree of crudity which were enough to convince everyone that even those declared as winners were themselves not persuaded that they went through what looked like an election. In those days, politicians won elections by pouring acid into the ballot […]
OPINION: Searching for the Nigerian hero
At the end of an international seminar on African heroes held in Lagos,9 months ago, the consensus was that only two leaders, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana (1909-1972) and Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) could be described as heroes of their respective countries with minimum dissent.
Matawalle: Political opposition and the Rule of Law
By Tonnie Iredia It is no longer news that Governor Bello Mattawalle of Zamfara state is now a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) having defected a few days ago, from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)under whose platform he was elected governor. To those who have followed political developments in the nation, the […]
Social Media and Guerilla Legislation in Nigeria
By Tonnie Iredia The insurgency which began in the Northeast some years back has had a major impact on social life in the country. Several negative happenings; banditry, kidnapping etc. are largely seen as the impact of insurgency. If nothing else, it has pushed the term ‘security’ far above all other sectors of the nation. […]
Constitution without history or culture
By Tonnie Iredia I confess I couldn’t attend any of the sessions on the review of the Nigerian constitution organized by the National Assembly at several locations in the country last week. This also means I was able to avoid acting in vain because for quite a long time I have not been able to decipher […]
Much Ado about INEC nominations
By Tonnie Iredia This column- Nigeria Today, opened this month with a call on government to speedily fill all vacant statutory positions in our electoral body to stop her from continuing to operate with half engine, asshe had done in the last 7 months. A few days after the call, a list of nominees which […]
Dangers of silencing the media
By Tonnie Iredia In times of crisis, all groups in society are encouraged to come up with what they understand to be the contentious issues at stake. The expectation is that an aggregation of all suchtouchy issues raised by different groups might help to set an agenda for dialogue which is always the best strategy […]
Foreign envoys can be more supportive of Nigeria
It is certainly not a coincidence that communities which have been unable to recognize the centrality of communication in the process of human development are those that are yet to develop. The United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO, saw this long ago when she declared the 1970s as the ‘Communication Decade.’ It did not […]
INEC: Avoidable disaster ahead
By Tonnie Iredia The level of violence in Nigeria today is no doubt mind boggling. How they happen intermittently but seamlessly have become puzzling. While some analysts have used the insurgency in the North-East to explain the level of violence in that region, the continuing destruction of public facilities especially in the South-East has not […]
Governor Ayade’s theory of political nomadism
By Tonnie Iredia To a lay person, the term ‘theory’ sounds technical but in reality it simply refers to the idea of giving a title or name to an observable phenomenon for the purpose of explaining the relationships between concepts. More pointedly, theory allows people to explain what they see and to figure out how […]
Legislators’ oversight visit to Sambisa is overdue
By Tonnie Iredia Last Thursday, I was slightly amused listening to Senate President, Ahmed Lawan pouring encomiums on the service chiefs of Nigeria’s military. When the report by the broadcast media on the event started playing, I had thought it was a valedictory session where some war veterans were taking a well-deserved bow. But when […]
Nigeria’s Insecurity: The Driver/Passenger Parable
By Tonnie Iredia Daily reports from different parts of Nigeria painting vivid pictures of killings, kidnappings and arson collectively imply that insecurity in the country is biting harder by the day. More Nigerians from different political divides including legislators are becoming less tolerable of what they now see as feeble efforts by federal authorities to […]
Nigeria’s unending Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
By Tonnie Iredia Any person visiting Nigeria in the last couple of months would likely form two unquestionable impressions. The first is that the nation is under siege from criminal elements while the second is that she is facing an overwhelming number of strikes by public workers. None of the two can be said to […]
Is Minister Isa Pantami Nigeria’s problem?
By Tonnie Iredia Anarrative which dominated the Nigerian media last week was the argument that Dr. Isa Pantami,Minister of Communication and Digital Economy was not a fit and proper person to hold the position of Minister of the Federal Republic because he was once a supporter of international terrorist groups. Although political opponents and leaders […]
Nigeria’s Economy: What is the truth?
By Tonnie Iredia The immediate implication of a chasm which public information management in Nigeria has successfully created between the government and the people is that the country now has two major debating groups. The first group is made up of those who adversely criticize whatever President Muhammadu Buhari does or fails to do, while […]
Code of Conduct in the Market-place
By Tonnie Iredia The Chairman of Nigeria’s Code of Conduct Tribunal CCT, Danladi Umar was for wrong reasons in the news for much of last week. Interestingly, the issue at stake had nothing to do with his assignment of determining the level of adherence of public officers to the official code of conduct required of […]
