FORMER Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Dr. Aliyu Modibbo thinks governors have become emperors because state houses of assembly were not strong enough to control them.

THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is about to make the biggest mistake about the 2010 election in Anambra State through its silence in various areas. INEC deserves the support of all to get out of the mire of badly organised elections, but it must be seen seeking that help. Does INEC have the funds […]

BEFORE investigations into the assassination of Chief Funso Williams, a Lagos State governorship aspirant began, three years ago, most Nigerians felt the killers would not be found. The case is rarely mentioned these days.

President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua is reportedly disappointed with Ogbulafor’s mishandling of the primaries. Yar’Adua can do more than being angry.

THE National Economic Council (NEC) must have intended to impress Nigerians with news that former President Olusegun Obasanjo squandered N200 billion of the Ecological Fund. So what is next? If someone is known to have, squandered public funds, no matter what the funds were for, are there no sanctions? Is the law silent on what […]

NOBODY appears interested in electoral reforms. The  dances that pass for moves to make defining changes in the way Nigeria conducts elections cannot produce any meaningful changes because the holders of power cannot make moves that they are not sure would leave powers in their hands. Justice Umaru Abdullahi, out-going President of the Court of […]

THE Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) is not ready to admit its failure in engaging more than 3,248 fake teachers under its scheme that was meant to improve the standard of education in our primary and junior secondary schools.

MINISTER of Aviation, Babatunde Omotoba has the powers to suspend whoever he thinks is performing below the low expectations of his ministry. However, he does not have the right to titillate Nigerians with tales of the improved state of the equipment used in the industry.

PRESIDENT Umaru Yar’Adua has risen up to the complicating consequences of fracturing feuds that are part of his administration. There are no indications of an easy solution to the acrimony that ministers have managed to cultivate in their relations with each other. They, as the President admitted, have hurt the performance of government. He has […]

THE choice of Major-General Godwin Abbe as the latest Minister of Defence, had a lot with the expectations of the President that a former military administrator, who is also an indigene of the Niger Delta, and other indigenes of the area in government, would work for the benefit of the region.

The old system of giving Permanent Secretaries and Directors in the Federal Civil Service unlimited tenure appeared to take the term: “Permanent Secretary” literally. It gave rise to so many abuses that the federal civil service became the engine room of corruption, ethnic domination, sectional cabalism and the nurturing of super-powerful public officers who were […]

THE police has been handed another rare opportunity to prove its seriousness with the promises it has made to tackle kidnapping. The kidnap of Pa Simeon Nwankwo Soludo, father of Professor Chukwuma Soludo, former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, has upped the intrigues in the Anambra State governorship election. Events so far are […]

OUR governments have notoriety for failing in their promises. This character is solely responsible for the vicious attacks on the planned deregulation of the oil industry. There is even the sinister conclusion that what government is aiming at is not deregulation, but price increase.

THE conviction of Chief Olabode George, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and five others, for corruption has deceptively revved hopes that government is serious with the fight against corruption.

WITH the end of the amnesty granted militants on October 4, it is important that the Federal Government does not relapse into its habit of forgetting the region once it is guaranteed unfettered oil exploration.