When Christians cannot hear the voice of God, we become tethered to the bible. We insist God only speaks through the bible.

The nation-wide strike action embarked upon since last Tuesday by the National Association of Resident Doctors has expectedly made its painful impact on Nigerians. The doctors are angered among other things by the failure of government to observe the implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS) agreement reached between government and the doctors. Briefing the media during the week, the President of the Association Dr. Jibril Abdullahi explained that his Association had given government uptil September 30, 2013, to resolve the issues involved but that it failed to do so. He added that the Enugu State Government also failed to implement the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) for his members in the Enugu State University Teaching Hospital.

My father often tells my siblings and I, that “education is not an inheritance, any one can’t take away from you once you have it, “. I agree, but the sad reality is that in Nigeria the young are deliberately and systematically denied the opportunity to have an education. So between the poor leadership, to corrupt officials, Boko Haram insurgency, the abject poverty and the ASUU strike, the young are in dire situation.

In 2008, I wrote two articles titled “WHEN GENIUS FAILS”. The first was about the former Director-General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Dr Ndidi Onyuike warning about the imminent collapse of the Stock Exchange that year. It happened as predicted. The second was related to the crisis in the banking sector even as Professor Soludo was pretending that all was well with the banks. Today, everybody knows better. Where are OCEANIC, INTERCONTINENTAL, BANK PHB etc today? This article also might have been titled “WHEN GENIUS FAILS -3” and it would have been appropriate because the Federal Minister of Finance is no longer the highly respected figure she was in 2003-2005. Her return is shaping out to be some sort of personal disaster for her for many reasons – mostly political.

Balewa’s control of the national government placed the Northern region at an advantage over the other two regions because NPC, the party representing its interests, had power over federal revenue and other important national institutions. Expectedly, the NPC used its dominant influence to determine, in favour of the North, developmental projects to implement, where to site such projects and contractors that would execute them. Northern political leaders wanted power at the centre desperately out of conviction that the NCNC and AG, if allowed to control the federal government, would likely allocate more resources to the Eastern and Western regions at the expense of the underdeveloped Northern region.