IT is said that those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat its lessons. Nigeria has, once again, proved it is incapable of learning from its past mistakes. Repetition of past vices appears to have been elevated to a “made in Nigeria” tradition. 

THE Islamic State in West Africa, ISWA, the international affiliate of the Boko Haram terror outfit, continued its audacious assaults in the North-East on Tuesday,  February 12, 2019, when it ambushed Governor Kashim Shettima’s convoy between Dikwa and Gamboru-Ngala highway, Borno State, near the border with Cameroon.

The INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has repeatedly told Nigerians and other concerned international stakeholders that the electoral umpire is ready to conduct a general election that will be adjudged free, fair, credible and acceptable. Professor Yakubu has always reiterated this since he was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari on October 21, 2015, though some of the elections conducted under him, particularly the Osun State governorship poll, did not, in the estimation of some people, live up to expectation.

NIGERIANS woke up recently to see giant broom monuments being erected on the hallowed grounds of the Abuja City-gate and the Abuja Unity Fountain by yet-to-be-identified individuals.

OVER the years, the failure of the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, to fulfill its primary objective of providing the required health insurance coverage for all Nigerians has compounded the fortunes of those at the lowest rung of the economic ladder.

IN many ways, there are close relationships between road networks and the blood vessels in the human body. As the veins and arteries help supply life-giving blood to all parts of the body, we carry our goods and services through roads to all parts of the country.

It mandates them to provide consumers with meters within 30 days of extending their services to them, failing which fines of between N500,000 to one million naira are prescribed, or a six-month jail term or both. It also protects the consumers from arbitrary disconnection.

The main opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, has also mounted intense pressures on the Federal Government and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and drawn the attention of the international community to what it described as ploys to “rig” the elections.

IT is hardly surprising that the Borno State Government has resorted to enlisting the services of local hunters to assist in the war against the Boko Haram Islamist insurgents. The recent trip of a delegation of Borno leaders to the Presidential Villa to cry for urgent help to contain the resurgence of terrorism showed a need for extra measures by all stakeholders.

NIGERIANS have been watching with utter bewilderment the increasing, unabashed involvement of Niger Republic in our affairs since 2015.

ON Tuesday, January 29, 2019, Transparency International (TI), which annually monitors corruption in 180 countries around the world, released the result of the Corruption Perception Index of 2018. It showed that Nigeria had “moved up” from its 148th position in the index of 2017 to 144th least corrupt country in 2018.

Traditionally, the government sets the oil price benchmark at about 15 per cent below the ruling market price at the point of budget preparation. It is also important to note that because of our oil-dependency, any significant shift in the oil price benchmark would mess up the budget.

As recently as  January  24, 2019, the US and UK threatened not to issue visas to those identified for abetting election-rigging. The US warned: “We and other democratic nations will be paying close attention to actions of individuals who interfere in the democratic process or instigate violence against the civilian population before, during and after the elections.”

IN May 2017, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, the Most Reverend Matthew Hassan Kukah, offered to train the estimated over ten million street urchins in the Muslim North, popularly known as Almajiris, in skill acquisitions of their choice.

THE purported suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Hon Justice Walter Onnoghen by President Muhammadu Buhari may have put our hard-won democracy in great danger. It was an assault against the Judiciary, the third arm of our presidential democracy; a cynical violation of the principle of separation of powers.