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The situation was no different in Nigeria as the required constitutionally age for being elected as president or vice president was 40 years until the relentless efforts of the Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki-led senate to change these laws by passing the ‘not too young to run bill’.

In 2011, Buhari was defeated by former President Jonathan by 10 million votes. That was a trouncing.
The fact remains that in 2015, Muhammadu Buhari only won because strong elements of the PDP like Atiku Abubakar helped him secure his mandate. On his own, he would have suffered another massive loss. The key difference between 2015 and 2003, 2007 and 2011 was the input of Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu

Nigeria must put the insurance industry on the driver’s seat for genuine sustainable growth through diversification because the industry impacts on every facet of the lives of the citizenry

Our President should not be turned into a tourist attraction and the Abuja House in London should not become a museum

Recognising the adverse implications of Nigeria’s expulsion from the Egmont group, the question that arises is whether the Senate’s legislated panacea is indeed the way to go

Wherever you see accomplished Nigerian women professionals, there is always a prideful presumption that they are better and well educated than the men with lower jobs. This irrational assumption is causing so much heartache among Nigerian men in the UK.

But on August 2, the Edo State Government released a press statement, signed by the Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Hon. Paul Ohonbamu, announcing the immediate ban of the use of public school premises, roads and other public places for social events. The rationale for the ban, the government said, was that the act is detrimental to the advancement of learning and the overall development of children who are forced to cope with the adverse after effect of this practice.

Our actions are primarily triggered by our thought process. The way we look at the world is determined by the way our mind has been conditioned through parental guidance, by our teachers, by our friends and colleagues at school and in the neighbourhood, by peer pressure and in some cases by what we are fed with in our religious institutions. What we hear on radio what we see on television and on screens generally also affect our thought process and our mind set.

I hope this will help to erase the wrong statement credited to you at  your party, the Peoples Democratic Party Convention at the Eagle Square last weekend that you handed to President Buhari a robustly healthy economy.

Therefore, at the point terrorists seized swathes of territories in Nigeria’s northeast, the insurgents declared them their “Caliphate,” and administered them with some strange Islamic doctrines opposed to anything sane to Islam. Insurgents deposed or killed the incumbent religious leaders and replaced them with those appointed by them.   

It is certainly not the first time that the allure of the revenue accruable from crude oil exploitation has been at the root of acts of terror. In Nigeria’s Niger-Delta, violent activities were once hidden behind agitation for better attitude towards the environment before it later degenerated into kidnapping to make demands and later full-blown acts of terror perpetrated by diverse militant groups in the region. Eventually the militants betrayed the impetus for their acts of terror: it was never about the environment but about them bunkering the crude oil – a process that did more damage to the environment than the legal commercial exploration while none of the accruing revenue trickled down to the impoverished population contrary to the funding claims. Even more perplexing is the trend of these militants bunkering oil with and for other nations. 

I have deliberately quoted the above verse from the Quran, the Holy Book of Islam, since the majority of Borno State people are Muslims, without ignoring the fact that there are other communities and towns within the state that are predominantly non-Muslims.

2. Let me start by acknowledging the widespread internal security challenges that have permeated almost all the geo-political zones of the Nigerian nation. Need I recall the fact that we had barely overcome issues of militancy in the Niger Delta and threat to our critical national infrastructure before the Boko Haram terrorism and insurgency reared its ugly head in 2009.  As if these were not enough drain on our national and economic resources, the agitation for secession by the MASSOB/IPOB in the South East also became a challenge to the Nation’s security. Other security challenges that the country has to contend with in recent times included kidnapping, armed robbery as well as cyber related crimes, which directly affected investment and economic development in Nigeria.

It is important that we all understand what we are talking about and the high stakes involved. There are too many mushroom organizations and seeming self determination groups that are all shouting on top of their voices talking about RESTRUCTURING.

GOCOP has grown in leaps, and so has been its influence. At our inaugural meeting on October 9, 2013, we had only nine members in attendance. Last night when we had our congress and elected new leaders, the room overflowed with members. We now have at least 55 members, with many more members queuing up to join, indicating a dramatic ballooning of the nation’s online media space.

Yet, I cannot proceed with my short commentary without due and specific commendation of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) who had considered me worthy of being accorded a space, as Guest Speaker, on the occasion of its first Annual Conference which also coincide with the occasion for the election of new executives’ to speak on critical national issues, especially as they relate to online publishing and the social media.

The Minister asked me to tender his unreserved apology for his inability to grace this occasion. As I speak now, he is with the Acting President, other ministers and CEOs of government agencies on a retreat to review the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (2017-2020) officially launched by President Muhammadu Buhari in April.

God will deal decisively, deadly blows to your enemies this time around. They have been tolerated long enough and they now mistake this divine patience to mean weakness. Like the Pharaoh of Egypt, they deal terribly with us and also ask, “Who is that God that can save us from their hands?”

However, being a president is the reason why we all knew that Mr. Buhari has a health challenge.

But Anambra State Governor, Willie Obiano, appears to know Aloysius a bit. It was the governor who shared the narrative about drugs, dodgy businesses and imported gang warfare