As campaigns begin in August: Can technology deliver credible elections in Nigeria? By Ejiro Ofoye
As political campaigns officially begin this August, Nigerians are once again confronted with the defining question that has shaped every election since the return to democratic rule in 1999: will the votes truly count? While political parties mobilise supporters, unveil manifestos and traverse the country in search of votes, millions of Nigerians remain concerned not only […]
Divine kings, divided courts (1)
IN days of old, before the interlopers descended on Africa and imposed their own version of discipline and decorum, there were kings who claimed divine origin. Because of this, their subjects were not supposed to see them eating. Anyone who did, was promptly dispatched to his ancestors.
We are refugees in our land
WHEN, at the middle of a public presentation, Malcolm X (1925-1965) alluded to when he was in prison, he was surprised that people were surprised.
Who needs a general?
I DON’T know about you. But for me, the speech made by President Goodluck Jonathan at the National Christian Centre, Abuja last Sunday, was the most soulful he has ever made. The President is not known for his biting, piercing or inspiring speeches. Oratory is not one of his special attributes.
Interrogating the roots of Northern crises
THIS week, an emergency meeting of the Northern Traditional Rulers’ Council, held in Kaduna. These are not the best of times for all the institutions of leadership in Northern Nigeria. The traditional rulers historically double as religious and community leaders.
Will there be peace in our time?
THE 21st day of September is celebrated around the world as World’s Peace Day, a day dedicated to the promotion of all that is peaceful in human culture. The world sure needs peace, lots of it in these times that try the souls of even the most complacent.
We brought this woe on ourselves
In recent times, we have been lamenting the dismal results released by the West African Examination Council, WAEC and the National Examination Council, NECO. Members of the House of Representatives considered the matter of grave national importance that it tabled it for debate on the floor of the House.
Boko Haram challenge to the Nigerian Islamic establishment, orthodoxy (2)
IN the first essay on the monograph of the August 2009 Minna meeting of the DA’WAH COORDINATION COUNCIL OF NIGERIA, DCCN, on the “Boko Haram”, I called attention to the fact that initially the DCCN saw the Boko Haram as a Muslim matter and was primarily concerned with how the majority of orthodox Islam in Nigeria was to respond to the Boko Haram group.
One visa denial too many
From September 1-11 2011 in Ravenna Italy, Nigerians sat through a harrowing experience as their decimated beach soccer team, faced a herculean task in the 5th FIFA beach Soccer competition.
The rape of Nasarawa
When I got the invitation to tour Nasarawa State along with four other prominent opinion leaders in the media I was excited. I visited the state as part of a presidential entourage when it was still part of old Plateau in 1992. On that occasion we made whistle stops at Lafia and Keffi where we paid courtesy calls on the traditional rulers and military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, commissioned a couple of projects.
The predictable failure of vision 2020
The Dream Economy envisioned in government’s “‘Vision 20:2020’ seeks to position Nigeria as one of the top 20 economies in the world by the year 2020. In economic terms, this translates to having a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of at least US$900 billion by that date compared to about US$212 billion as at 2008″ – (Source: Nigeria Vision 2020 Economic Transformation Blueprint – pg. 26, work-in-progress as at 5/10/2009).
FG vs Tinubu: Bloody waste of time
“If you are looking for trouble, you’ve come to the right place” Notice on the wall of a tavern in Kansas City in the days of the Wild Wild West in the America c1760.
September 11, 2001 alias 9/11(2)
Two Sundays ago was the anniversary of the devastation that the world would rather forget. It was 10 years ago and the world has not allowed itself to forget.
The Voice of Victory: The miracle power of Divine visitation!
Have you been working night and day by your own power, without any positive result? Have you been depending on your university degree thinking that it is what will give you all you need? Hear this: Just one encounter with God is much more than a lifetime of struggles and efforts. Every day is God’s day; the day you believe is your day. God has more than enough resources to meet all the desires of every living being (Psalm 145:15-16).
Shedding dead skin
Most animals shed skin at regular intervals and we regenerate new ones. In humans the process is rather unceremonious and happens all the time but not so in reptiles. When I was younger I had seen a lizard in the process of shedding skin and had been riveted.
The national question (1)
President Goodluck Jonathan did say he would not preside over a disintegrating nation. This was in an interview granted recently to a national newspaper which had broached the question of the possibility of a dismembered Nigeria.
