Economic mismanagement, corruption in the highest places all put together fouled the Nigerian spirit. Nigeria’s independence brought with it promises of everything that a nation of hope could possibly provide for her people. The expectations and hopes that were associated with freedom from many years of colonial rule were quite high.

IN a seeming attempt to divert attention from false claims of achievements, the profligacy of his administration and lack of regard for due process in contract awards, the Ohakim administration in Imo State has introduced his fanciful idea of creating 10,000 new jobs for unemployed youths in the state.

RECENTLY, there has been a sustained campaign in Edo State, south-south of Nigeria, for every vote to count championed by Governor Adams Oshiomhole. The slogan that is fast becoming a cliché is called ‘One-Man-One-Vote’. With this campaign, the Oshiomhole government hopes to eradicate election rigging in Edo State and by extension in Nigeria. I support any campaign, slogans, agitation aimed at defeating election rigging.

The process of policymaking and management of public expenditure remain clothed in relative secrecy in spite of the enacting of a fiscal responsibility law. Some government agencies continue to transact outside the fiscal responsibility and public procurement laws. The oversight institutions are still weak and largely uninterested in effectively overseeing public expenditure by executive agencies.

A major feature of the Ribadu era was arrests and detention before investigations are carried out. This has continued even till today. The Farida Waziri era has also been characterized by the same arbitrary arrests and unlawful interrogation processes to hound people. Section 34(1) of the Nigerian constitution provides that “Every individual is entitled to respect for the dignity of his person and accordingly no person shall be subject to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment”.

I ONCE read a story of how a thief went into a person’s farm and was harvesting crops he did not sow and all of a sudden, the farm owner visited the farm at that moment and was shocked at what he saw.

THE ongoing socio-economic crisis of Southern Africa is the crisis of truth approached sideways, like the crab would. Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma are no better alternatives to each other in the objective solution of the problems of South Africa and Southern Africa.

IT’S 23 years since Africa’s statesman and man of the Century, Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo, the Asiwaju of Ijebu Remo, the Losi of Ikenne, the Apesin of Oshogbo and the Isikalu of Ado-Ekiti passed on.

News of the sudden demise of a dear friend often makes one feel as if left stranded with an intimate conversation that would now never get to be had, a story long crafted waiting to be told at the earliest opportunity that might never be, a message that would never be conveyed, a deep emotion placed in layaway waiting for the right time to be shared but that could now only be expressed in silent soliloquy except perhaps some day in a memoir.

IT is a known fact that political dummies who crave for attention or are in desperate need of party support and patronage use every opportunity to embark on T. A. bashing.