Tinubu and his incredible ministers, by Azu Ishiekwene
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has failed to keep his promise to provide a constant electricity supply. He said at a business lunch in December 2022 that he shouldn’t be voted for a second term if he didn’t fix the electricity supply problem and end estimated billing in his first term. Although he modified that pledge […]
Adventures in advising public officials (1)
In the year 1987, after an exhaustive study, personally funded, I sent a detailed report to Babangida’s Minister of Transport (name withheld for personal reasons) pointing out that in a few years, motorcycles (okada or achaba) would become the major means of urban transport on account of SAP.
A whole New World
A light bulb moment is an experience that can be life challenging. It simply means you get a new perspective or an understanding that puts some fundamental pieces of the puzzle that is life together.
Honours: Let’s look at them again
Unlike the commercialists or the traders or the manufacturers they plied their intangible commodities as best as they possibly could.
Among the commercialists Femi Otedola, Felix Ibru, tower above many. And among those who gave Nigeria the good name in technology was Prof. Bart O. Nnaji Professor Tam David-West (did he receive his award?) And there was Professor Mosobalaje Olaloye Oyawoye. Of course, (Baba Kekere) Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande was among the beacons. He shone in Journalism and in politics.
The case for benevolent dictatorship in Nigeria(1)
As Nigeria moves closer and closer to the 2011 elections, politicians and other stakeholders in the political process have started strategising for the event. Attahiru Jega, a well-known academic who made a name for himself by leading the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) through a successful nationwide strike during the regime of Ibrahim Babangida, is now chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
A governor, clapping with one hand
We grew up in the East as the inheritors of fine examples of robust and dynamic leadership that saw Nnamdi Azikiwe straddling the African imagination like a force of nature, or men like Michael Iheonukara Okpara, whose leadership of the East remains without compare. While the Igbo was riding the crest of development and progress from 1957 to 1967, it felt like the rest of Nigeria could not touch its political helms, what with such colorful and eponymous names among its leaders: Akanu Ibiam, educator and missionary doctor, who approached public service with the instincts of a missionary.
