SINCE that accursed day of 12 May 2012, when Olaitan Oyerinde, former student activist, trade unionist and principal private secretary to Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, was murdered in his living room, death has been a deliriously happy visitor in the camp of Nigeria’s radical humanists. So much so that hardly are the bereaved done wiping away tears of the last funeral than news of another untimely death arrives to set them wailing afresh.

By Uche Onyebadi No one could have imagined that the ghost of “apartheid” would resurrect and become a factor in discussions about Dylann Roof, the young man who last week picked up his gun and, driven by bone-deep hatred for black people, murdered nine of them in the house of God in Charleston, South Carolina. […]

The story went on to reveal that what started as an N8 billion scam had escalated to N12 billion scandal. Most probably, that might not even be the end of the story. Most likely other discoveries or revelations will increase the amount and how long the economic sabotage had been going on within the banking system – with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, as the epicenter of this financial war against Nigeria by a few ndividuals in the banking sector.

So, where will Buhari get the additional funds to bail out the States and also remediate those critical infrastructural deficits that urgently cry out for attention on the federal level, particularly in the areas of Education, Health and Transportation. Regrettably, rather than deploy the modest proceeds of the Excess Crude Account directly to critical infrastructure, these funds were stashed away as idle deposits and then gradually, simply whittled down, as recurrent consumption expenditure.

NIGERIAN Students were in disarray in 1981. After their heroic but deadly battle against military dictatorship three years earlier, they were now in factions. The Obasanjo regime had in 1978, sought to smash the Student Movement by banning the National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS). Students had responded by establishing a bigger umbrella, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) which incorporated students from all tertiary institutions.

A LOT of Nigerians who believed General Muhammadu Buhari was a befitting replacement for former President Goodluck Jonathan are now being given reason to have second thoughts. The irony of it is that Pa Muhammadu Buhari, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is the one deflating their balloons of enthusiasm.

Jide Akintunde told me a story about an exemplary Christian in his former church who was unemployed. Everyone in the church was impressed with his piety and devotion to God. Therefore, the prayer squad took it upon themselves to fast and pray for him to get a job.

The Seventh National Assembly, NASS, ended on a disgraceful note when it passed forty six(46) bills, on which they have been seating, in ten minutes. Some of the jesters, called Senators even tried to add insult upon injury by defending the absolutely indefensible. The former Senators probably never heard that “it is better to keep quiet and be considered a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.” If the 7th Assembly ended in disaster, the 8th had started in chaos which might have doomed it from the start. Yet, these possibilities were pointed out in 2013 – when the APC first got started. In August 2013, the following columns were published on these pages.

In July 2010, renowned law Professor, Itse Sagay, raised an alarm that Nigerian lawmakers were the highest paid in the globe. Sagay found that a Nigerian Senator earns N240 million ($1.7 million) in salaries and allowances while his counterpart in the House of Representatives earns about N204 million ($1.45 million) per annum. Realizing that an American senator earns $174, 000 while a UK parliamentarian earns about $64, 000 per annum, Sagay condemned the Nigerian situation as “a breach of public trust”.

The issue of non-payment of salaries to workers in some states of Nigeria has been kept on the news front pages for two weeks running now. This is a good development that has brought more publicity to the sufferings of Nigerian workers. Not that there was not adequate awareness of this fact before, but we all pretended it was not an issue of concern except to those affected.