“China and Nigeria are born brothers. Our joy is shared and happiness doubled on the occasion on October 1st celebration every year. The brotherly South-South cooperation between China and Nigeria is equal-footed and mutually beneficial” – Chinese ambassador to Nigeria.

IN the past few days, I have been involved in a running debate with some of my Warri brothers in the Alder’s league forum; very lovely, exciting and intellectually stimulating group. The debate has been on leadership: should the initiative come from our leaders or the people? Let me rephrase the question: who takes responsibility for the outcome of governance, the people or our leaders in government? Some have postulated that a society gets the type of leadership that it deserves. If the leadership is autocratic or dictatorial, it is what the people deserve and if it is a real democracy, it is the people’s wish. Therefore, people should stop apportioning blames to those in government. This position appears utopian to some of us, but in real life situations, in developed countries in the United Kingdom, the European Union and other places like Singapore, it is a reality; you do not take the people’s wish for granted. This is so because everything that can impugn the integrity of the selection process has been properly taken care of by established institutions; and this has weathered the storm over decades and centuries. There are differences and divisions naturally, as you will expect from any society, but you will never hear that the head of state has taken certain decisions because he belongs to certain religious or ethnic group. In fact, under such situations, every interest group must have been figured out and summed up into the whole; so you will find little cause for agitations. We must also not forget the fact that this level of people-induced leadership did not just emerge, it was built over decades and centuries, and in most cases with bloodshed. From traditional authorities to religious authorities, then to dictatorships of the strong over the weak, and then the rebellion of the people. So, the establishment of people leadership did not take place without a fight; in most cases, there were rebellions like that by Martin Luther; there were revolutions, as in the case of the Soviet Union. People have fought, people have died and people have made sacrifices in the quest  for a people’s democracy that we see today in Europe and other advanced countries.

The role of the United Nations is to set the mental clocks of the world leaders from past problems to the present opportunities, and from local power mindset to global welfare mindset  – Amit Ray

On January 30, 2019, Nigeria joined the ranks of nations with an all-encompassing Competition Law upon the enactment of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA). This development which was long overdue received several accolades both locally and internationally, as Nigeria being Africa’s biggest economy lagged behind in this important law needed to ensure fair play in the market as well as regulate abuse of dominant and monopoly power by big firms.

While Nigerians are still reeling from the shock of a so-called foreign investor called P&ID deploying the law as an instrument of fraud in a foreign court with the sole aim of dispossessing us of a humongous chunk of our national wealth, it would appear that yet another “foreign investor” has most atrociously short changed Nigerian workers vide a series of highly suspicious tax deductions.