Browsing: Column

The Director General of BPE, Alex Okoh, painted the grim picture of how two out of every five privatised companies have failed to members of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Privatisation, when its members, led by Chairman, Ahmed Yerima, visited the privatisation agency.

Karma is a bitch. Poetic justice is a bastard. Both have combined to wrong-foot the incumbent Buhari administration to make it look like a big mistake and an act of misjudgment by the Nigerian electorate

The politicization of his inefficiency, weakness, flaws and frailties have all become targets for shooters to lob gunshots at him

I am a believer in individuals who have invested and deployed their skills in wealth creations than wealth sharing. Public office can also be run as a serious business for stability and profitability in serving the interest of the stakeholders and the public. 

“So he went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the gates of the village, he saw a window gathering sticks, and he asked her, ‘Would you please bring me a cup of water?’ As she was going to get it, he called to her, ‘Bring me a bite of bread too.’ But she said, ‘I swear by the LORD your God that I don’t have a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking oil in the bottom of a jug. I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then my son and I will die.’

I know the organizers have collated the votes and this will lead to the emergence of the official Silverbird man of the year. However, my man of the year are also the gallant men and women of the Nigerian Armed Forces who paid the supreme price to protect us from terrorists and those who desire to divide us.

In more direct language, what I am trying to draw attention to is how in recent times, despite the fact that we are under a democratic dispensation, there has been a seeming militarization of the political space, by the incumbent political administration at the centre

Majority of our youths are badly deformed by material aspirations and good life value video projection of Davido, 9ice, Wizkid, Teckno, Patoranking, Sarkodie, Olamide, Wande Coal and Ade Gold so much that if this nation should swing the political leadership pendulum to them, then we are doomed to a more savage banalisation of the political space never seen in this nation

What a short memory they have got, forgetting that he became president because of President Goodluck Jonathan’s refusal to being an ally to the imminent bloodbath awaiting Nigerians as President Buhari had sworn; “If what happened in 2011 should again happen in 2015, the dogs and the baboons will be soaked in blood.”

From the benefit of hindsight, the Confidence vote was to buy Zuma some time and see if he could turn the fortunes of the country around and in turn rekindle the fast ebbing faith of the people in the party. However, like a hungry lion roused from its slumber, the people of South Africa would know no rest until they found some succour. For them, a hope for succour was in the form of Zuma stepping down from the exalted seat. Like all responsible party in civilised democracies, the ANC did not delude itself as to the consequence of remaining in support of Zuma. They acknowledge the power of the people far above the power of ANC at the polls. They knew that loyalty to Zuma would ultimately spell doom from them during the general elections to elect new National Assembly and new provincial legislatures.

They had a way of making even the most contentious disagreements look like friendly contests, the end of which left little or no bitterness. They had the uncanny ability to tell someone to go to hell, and the person would proceed gladly

In the final analysis, the amendment is a welcome development that is good for our polity. There is nothing unconstitutional in what the federal lawmakers are doing

There’s need for concerted efforts by able-bodied and intellectually-gifted men and women of this nation led by a strong, dependable and reliable leadership to take us out of this self imposed journey into the doldrums, and Atiku Abubakar will do that. He has passed the test of leadership at all given times

Put it this way. It took Kachikwu three weeks after he made his first statement on December 14, promising to end the scarcity within 48 hours, and all the high-level promises that followed, to find out that the system was broken and there was a gap that needed to be fixed

The government has suddenly discovered an art for its cluelessness. PDP ‘misrule’ is to be blamed for paying subsidy on petrol nobody knows the giver nor the receiver, or even the amount. It is to be blamed for our medical personnel to dread going to work because it is a death trap

The Corps has now come of age after going through good times and tides. In its 30 years journey, it recorded for instance, a commendable 62.4 per cent reduction in crash from 40,881 in 1976 to 25,792 within its first operational year alone.

When a Varsity don, security expert and national policy analyst, Dr. Dan Mou, conceptualized the idea of an anti-graft agency for Nigeria in early 2000, it strutted from a nationalistic spirit and dream of a better nation. By its portrait, the EFCC is supposed to be apolitical. Certainly, Dr. Mou may be disappointed with the manner this original concept has been abused in ideology and operations, especially as the name and reputation of individuals are routinely ruined in the media even before any conclusive investigations are carried out.

I have a confession to make. I worked in government until recently but I am frightened by the manner in which wild animals are now all over the place. When public officials talk, they see animals

Until that day, Ekpenyong was the Akwa Ibom State Commissioner of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, a portfolio he is said to have worked to the admiration of his principal and cheers of major stakeholders of the ministry – the royal fathers and local government political and civil administrators.

Here, let me urge all Nigerians to use the relational nature of both the social media and global space to deny Saraki from being made president of Nigeria now, soon or in the future