Nigeria’s journey to the current economic situation has been long and in some ways curious. It is largely self-inflicted
Author: Akpandem James
Other sectors that could do better to fundamentally drive the country’s gross domestic product to higher levels are distressed.
Akanimo Edet’s death came to me as a surprise, a bolt from the blue. I never heard about his indisposition.
I had known him for as long as I had known any prominent Nigerian who was not already in the history books read in schools.
Nigeria’s petroleum products terminals have become one veritable minefield where corporate fortune seekers and mercantile wayfarers have decided to stubbornly pitch their tents. The number of agencies involved in activities at the terminals is just mindboggling; and they operate with impunity, defying lawful directives forbidding them.
I had just returned from my sojourn in Abuja as one of the principal officers of the 2014 National Conference.
The Catholic pontiff talked about the pride-filled clergy, which has become like a pandemic across creeds. He warned that pride and self-interest are harmful to the spiritual lives of church leaders and consequently corrupts the church’s purpose. He was worried that this unbecoming attitude is capable of tainting the church. Even as the warning is being delivered, the deed has already been done.
The event also had on the head table two past senators, including the secretary of the Caretaker/Extra-ordinary National Convention Planning Committee, and a former member of the House of Representatives of the ruling party.
Attempts have been made from inception to satisfy the areas of attention. For now, Abuja still remains the most deliberately planned city in Nigeria.
The reason the Niger Delta region has remained underdeveloped till today in spite of the huge resources pumped into the area by the various governments, intervention agencies, international oil corporations, oil services companies, development partners, global foundations, other corporate entities, wealthy individuals and community development efforts etc., is simply because the people are more inclined towards defending selfish and parochial indulgences than insisting on fundamental growth and development.
There are bandits everywhere in the country. And they all operate mindlessly. It has been so for a very long time. While some decided from the word go to be outright criminals, others graduated from some related self-serving enterprise.
Chief Uko Akpan died on February 3, 2020. Abak Local Government has formally announced that his remains will be buried at his home town, Ikot Obong, Afaha Obong on February 19, 2021
Last year however, it came with some inexplicable vehemence. It came with a list of some of the most illustrious sons of the state, cutting them down in its haste and fury. It was such haste that left the people wondering if it was in a hurry to catch up with the receding year; a year that would be remembered as one which counted the most deaths in contemporary history, across the globe.