This piece stemmed from the content of conversations held, and recommendations made during the recently celebrated International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, or World Drug Day, marked on 26 June every year to among other aims strengthen action and cooperation in achieving a world free of drug...
OPINION
Last week, thousands marched in the streets of London to protest the soaring cost of living in Britain and demand the government do more. The story was the same in Italy, in Israel, in Australia, in Germany – where workers are on strike, demanding the government ‘Stop the Inflation...
ENGAGEMENTS BY Chidi Amuta The recent presidential nomination primaries of the two big parties and the just concluded Ekiti state governorship elections are united by a paradox. In both, Nigerian democracy recorded some dubious progress. An orderly and fairly credible electoral processes seems to have finally evolved. Correspondingly, however, the monetization...
Recently, MS Keiso Matashane-Marite, the Chief Section, Gender Equality, UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), says Africa is making progress on issues around gender equality and youth empowerment. Matashane-Marite, going by media reports, said this when a team from UNECA paid a courtesy visit to the National Population Commission...
There is something unfamiliar that has been happening in Nigeria for some time now. And that thing is that, Nigerians seem to have in unison resolved to forget their religious differences, political disparities and their ethnic backgrounds to liberate themselves from political deceits in the hands of political deities...
Electioneering period is without doubt an interesting season. It offers the masses/electorates golden opportunity to elect leaders that will pilot their affairs for a specified period of time. To the fifth column in the fourth estate, it presents an opening for fierce political and ideological warfare; wars that negate...
Ekiti State governorship election has been adjudged by stakeholders as one of the best elections in Nigeria in recent times. The election which was generally peaceful, also witnessed some improvements in terms of organisation and logistics by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Some civil society organisations (CSOs), that...
Introduction Between 23rd and 24th May 2022, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) met and one of the key decisions taken by the MPC was to retain the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 13.0%. The MPR is the rate at which the CBN lends to...
Not a few analysts would have sworn that having defied all the odds to defeat all his opponents at the very transparent national convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the matter of choosing who will run with him on the APC ticket would be a mere walk...
Roland Barthes, the famous French literary theorist, in ‘The Death of the Author’ argued against the conventional interpretative practice of relying on the intentions of an author to explain the “ultimate meaning” of a text.” Barthes emphasized the importance of individual reader’s interpretation of a text, rather than limiting...
ENGAGEMENTS by Chidi Amuta The outcome of our presidential nominations season has produced a new landscape of mixed blessings. The two major parties have produced rival contestants straight from the dark recesses of Africa’s political past. Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu are in many ways a throwback to the...
“Not that I love Caesar less, but that I love Rome more.” – Cassius. In these perditious times for millions of my beloved Benue people, these lines from a famous character in the all-time Shakespearean classic, Julius Caesar, readily come to mind for their direct relevance to our contemporary...
The electioneering season in Nigeria is never in short supply of intrigues and drama. Events leading to the announcement of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s running mate were no exception. The anxiety was palpable as many Nigerians waited in bated breath to know who his choice as PDP vice-presidential candidate will...
In 2015, the campaign slogan of APC’s presidential candidate, Mohammadu Buhari, was ‘APC SAK’. By this, Buhari was urging the electorate, especially of Northern Nigeria, to vote APC all through from top to bottom. In return, he promised that the ensuing APC government he would head will solve the...
The clock is ticking loudly and counting down towards a new dawn for Nigeria as we head into the 2023 General election. As political drama continues to unfold ahead of the election, some concerned Nigerians are focusing on Nigerian voters for a purposeful use of the power of the...
I have become very familiar with Nigerian politics to the point that nothing, in this era of a divided Nigeria, excites me anymore. But the emergence of Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the APC’s primary last week excites me with perfunctory relish. My excitement resonated from two dialectically opposing standpoints....
By Law Mefor It was Mallam Nasir El Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, who once observed that the real problem with Nigeria is impunity, not corruption. Of course, he was right that the brazen corruption and primitive accumulation rocking the nation today and warranting psychiatric evaluation, is borne out...
When Lord Aton, the British historian, stated that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely he had some leaders like Governor Dave Umahi in mind. The governor of Ebonyi State reminds one a lot about the Lord of the Manor, the English lord who enjoyed manorial rights (the rights...
First, let me congratulate all Nigerians on this Democracy Day. We must also congratulate ourselves that Nigeria has endured uninterrupted representative democracy since 1999. I have used the word “endure” deliberately, because much more has happened in the last 23 years that could have forced undemocratic interventions in the...
History does matter. ‘It has a way of repeating itself’, and has shown clearly that ordinary calculation can be upturned by extra-ordinary personalities. In the case of Senator (Dr) Ifeanyi Okowa, the Executive Governor of Delta state, the ancient argument whether circumstance or personality shapes events are settled in...