ETHNICITY, nationalism and regional allegiance are socio-cultural ideologies. In Nigeria, as in most other parts of Africa ethno-cultural ideologies are much stronger than ethno-economic ones.” Furthermore, according to Mazrui, his favourite Nigerian example was “Obafemi Awolowo’s effort to move Nigeria a little to the left. When he looked to see who was following him, it was not the dispossessed of all ethnic groups in Nigeria who followed; it was his fellow Yoruba of all social classes and levels of income.”

TWICE in recent times, I have heard people say: “If Abacha were alive today, he would have been a hero.”
Not long ago, Gen. Sani Abacha was mentioned in respect of what would have been his response to the shenanigans from pro-homosexual countries of Europe, United States and Canada who have been threatening to withdraw their development support for Nigeria because President Good luck Jonathan signed into law the same sex prohibition Act 2013.

THE future of any nation is decided largely by the premium it places on the quality and life of its youths. The youths are the major part of the Nigerian population as shown by statistics and records, which conforms to the globally accepted view that the youths of today are the nation of tomorrow.

CHIEF David Oluwafemi Adewunmi Abdulateef Fani-Kayode (Femi Fani-Kayode, for short), former Special Assistant (Public Affairs) to former President Olusegun Obasanjo; former Minister of Culture and Tourism, and former Minister of Aviation, is truly a remarkable fellow. Whenever he speaks or writes, he poses an intellectual challenge as to where to draw the line between normality and abnormality. The instances are numerous, but his last outing: “The gutless eunuch and the lion king”, published in The Nation of Friday, January 17, 2014, raised critical issues which the psychiatric community must tackle in the interest of the nation.

ROTIMI AMAECHI, the governor of Rivers state is intelligent and brave. He is also charismatic, an attribute, he has used to manifest his net working skills across the country. He was, at a time, the Chairman of all Speakers of states assembly, in the country and presently, Chairman of the governors forum. These are no mean feats.

By Perry Brimah “For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.”― Elie Wiesel Beyrer C et al; “The increase in global HIV epidemics in MSM,” November 13th 2013 published in the AIDS journal, explains that HIV can be transmitted through large MSM networks at great speed and that molecular epidemiologic data showed marked […]

When the literary giant, William Shakespeare opined that some people are born great, others achieve greatness, while others have greatness thrust upon them, he had the likes of the Bayelsa State Governor, Hon. Henry Seriake Dickson at heart. The governor’s odyssey in life since his birth shows that he is a naturally born great man. This is not to say there were no vicissitudes at the period of his birth and boyhood which worked to no avail to deny humanity this rare gift.

WHEN former President Olusegun Obasanjo wrote that there was a political watch-list, many thought the grand old man of Nigerian politics was hallucinating. But thanks to the former Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, we now know that there is indeed a list.

LET us start by acknowledging, the fact that; good and credible elections can only take place, under an atmosphere of peace. The way the opposition, APC is going about wresting power from Jonathan’s PDP, will only alienate them from the people and win sympathisers to the side of Jonathan. Because they want power, they are intent on desecrating the institution of the presidency, the symbol of the country’s unity and sovereignty.

THE failure of our rulers cannot be measured only by the visible decay of infrastructure and the dwindling quality of our lives but also by the way they prefer to die. While ordinary citizens live their miserable lives which literarily expire unsung in the country, our leaders, or rather, rulers on whose shoulders rest the responsibility of taking us beyond the 47 years pegged as our life span live theirs in foreign lands and/or die there. Yet, they daily savour the splendour and all that the high public offices they occupied or occupy but fail to provide the rest of us facilities in the quality measure they enjoy them in the foreign lands they govern us from.

THE gale of defections from the Peoples Democratic Party,PDP, to the All Progressive Congress, APC has been received by many commentators with mixed feelings. While some brazenly wave the defectors aside with uncouth commentaries, others have seen it as the desired light at the end of the tunnel for Nigeria’s chequered history. The PDP has suffered very serious depletion lately and the gale has not ended. Many more are warming up to dump the party that has prided itself for too long as the largest political party in Africa. Some of its members had boasted to citizens that the party will rule Nigeria for sixty unbroken years.

WHEN in 1999 an apparently diabolical team swarmed into government in Delta State, little did we expected that their vicious and dreadful siege on our treasury would last for 16 years. Two to three years into their messing up the hard-earned democracy, creating and confronting us with instant Augean stable and completely rubbishing our sensibilities, some of us counted it obligatory then to stand out and fight. We knew we were out to confront a monstrous system, but that was not to matter to us.

AS we draw one year to a close and begin a fresh new one, there is much excitement in the air. People plan or even write down resolutions for the new year. For some, the resolutions must be strictly pursued and achieved, while, for others, it is just a normal ritual, that is discarded, early in the first month. We have personal expectations, that fall within our purview. We also have expectations from those that, we have given responsibility to govern our common interest. Our leaders also, begin with promises; some of them, they keep and some, they discard as soon as the first month of the year begins. What is our expectation from Jonathan? Is he going to fulfil them, or disregard them, as the normal practice of the Nigerian politician. Let us take them, one by one.

ASUU has resumed duties, after six good months of lost mann hours, in productivity and other collateral damages, in the form of accidents and deaths. The losses cannot be quantified, for example; counterparts of final year students, in the private universities, are months into their National Youth Service programme.

PRIOR to his predicted ouster last Thursday, erstwhile national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, was seen–rightly or wrongly – as the clog in the wheel of the party’s progress. The all-powerful governors within the party never hid their distaste for his style of leadership and they never refrained from saying that it was anything but democratic. The plot for his ouster could have been as old as his tenure as national chairman, a position he assumed in March 2012. With time, the subtle sabotage turned into open threats to his leadership; with five of them eventually making good that threat by quitting to join the opposition All Progressives Congress.