Public Affairs Analyst

Year 2009 will be off in few hours, it’s probably 2010 already in Australia. To you all my fans who have been encouraging me through your constructive and largely positive feedback, I say a big thank you. In 2009, I have many reasons to thank the Lord. In April, I clocked 40 and in October, it dawned on me that it’s been 19 years since my first piece was published in Daily Sketch. Today, the little acorn has grown to a large oak. In 2009, I spread my tentacles wider and added four more platforms to publishing my articles. They are The Nation, Daily Sun, Daily Independent and Next. Two Magazines/Newsletters, Women Advocate and Voters News also sought my permission to publish some of my published articles in their media. On the whole, to date, I have been published by 17 national newspapers and 11 magazines and newsletters. In July 2009, with the influence and inspiration from a friend, Sola Adetunji, I established my own blog from where those who love my writings can now read my views o...

Nigeria’s 2010 appropriation bill of N4.079 trillion was tagged ‘Budget of Fiscal Stimulus.’ What a misnomer! Since the budget was presented to National Assembly on November 24, 2009 the media has kept faith analysing and reporting the budget defence sessions of the Senate and House of Representatives committees with various Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs). I have followed these analyses keenly and I should say Nigeria is doomed with the current political leadership of the country. Over the years, budget in trillions of Naira have been passed without much to show in terms of human capital or infrastructural development. In a country with more than 70 per cent of the populace living below poverty line, we have a government that has voted N7.066 billion to build an earthly paradise for her Vice President. In the news report on the Federal Executive Council meeting of December 23, 2009, Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Senator Adamu Aliero justified the need to have ...

After the November 19 impasse between the Senate and the House of Representatives over the venue for the presentation of the Nigeria’s 2010 budget, Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Mohammed Abba -Aji presented the appropriation bill to the two chambers of the National Assembly on Tuesday, 24 November 2009. The N4.079 trillion budget is the highest in the history of Nigeria; the first that was not read and laid personally by the president and also the first to be presented without fanfare but in accordance with constitutional procedure. The financial statement was also presented same day as the Senate approved additional supplementary budget of N353.6 billion as part of total expenditure for the 2009 fiscal year. This is apart from the initial N3. 049 trillion that was approved by the National Assembly last April for the 2009 fiscal year. In spite of these huge budget proposals, there has been perennial challenge of implementation.In analysing the 2...

Congratulations to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), National Sports Commission (NSC), Presidential Task Force (PTF) Super Eagles players and Nigerians on our recent qualification for the first Football World Cup to be hosted by an African country. The November 14, 2009 qualification was a divine favour coming at a time when the majority of Nigerians had given up on the senior national football team due to its lacklustre performance in the run up to the qualification matches. Also deserving kudos is the Coach John Obuh who tutored U-17 football team that came second in the just concluded cadet championship hosted by Nigeria. The Nigerian lads lost 1-0 to debutant Switzerland at the final played on November 15, 2009. The raging controversy between the NSC and the NFF over the issue of whether to appoint a foreign coach or technical adviser for the Super Eagles is a needless distraction. In my own opinion, the NFF did right by sticking with Coach Shuaibu Amodu as the head of Super E...

Disaster strikes every day. In Nigeria, managing calamities when they occur has been very challenging. There have been plane crashes, road accidents, boat mishaps, building collapse and fire outbreaks that exposed our poor state of preparedness for disaster prevention, control and management. The Nigeria Fire Service is one of the several agencies responsible for disaster management. According to the charter of the Federal Fire Service, its statutory responsibilities cut across: Ensuring safety of lives and property and giving impulse to capacity building of the nation’s fire services through the establishment and monitoring of standards in fire prevention, fire education and training; national fire statistics and promotion of legislative instruments for a fire safe nation as well as promotion of capacity building in the State Fire Services through manpower development, appropriate fire stations and equipment and effective community based fire safety outfits. Among the roles the Ni...

Sorrow can take care of itself, but to get the true benefit of joy, you must share it - Mark Twain Nigeria mass media is in a celebration mood and justifiably so. It is 150 years since Iwe Iroyin fun awon ara Egba ati Yoruba; the first newspaper in Nigeria was published in Abeokuta by late Reverend Henry Townsend. It debuted in 1859. Many newspapers have hit the news-stand thereafter. They include the Lagos Weekly Record, Lagos Standard, Lagos Daily News and West African Pilot. Others include Daily Times, National Concord, Third Eye, Post Express, The Diet, The Comet, Weekend Classique, A.M News and Daily Sketch to mention but a few. What all the aforementioned dailies have in common is that they are defunct. The high mortality rate of Nigeria’s print media made the diamond anniversary of Nigerian Tribune worth celebrating with pomp and pageantry. It is to the eternal glory of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo that Nigerian Tribune was established on November 16, 1949. That Tri...

It is heart-warming to know that the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities has on Friday, October 23, 2009 decided to suspend indefinitely the 4 months old industrial action embarked upon by the union. It would be recalled that government owned universities, made up of 27 federal universities and 35 State universities, had been on strike since June 22, 2009 leaving out the 41 private universities (this is inclusive of the 7 newly licensed). The 2009 ASUU-FG agreement had taken eight years and no fewer than four strikes to conclude and kudos must be given to Comrade Governor Adams Oshiomole of Edo State for his sagacity in brokering the deal after it was initially deadlocked. It is hoped that government did not sign the October 21 agreement just to avoid the embarrassment of proposed ASUU and other varsity unions’ street protests during the on-going FIFA U-17 World Football tournament. The gist of the signed agreement include the approval of about 50% salary increase for the uni...

HIV/AIDS, cancer, diabetes and heart failure rank among the world killer diseases, however, none of these deadly diseases take as many lives in a year as road accidents. All the world known diseases give their victims a fighting chance of survival through adequate care and management of the sickness; not so with road accident. It often claims its victims with a speed of light while others suffer prolong or permanent disability. The recent statistics released by the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) about the spate of road accidents in Nigeria is mind-boggling. According to FRSC, the number of reported cases of road accidents on the country's highways between January and first week of October is put at 8,553. In the incidences, about 4,120 persons lost their lives while 20,975 others were seriously injured in the fatal accidents that involved 11,031 vehicles across the nations. From the statistics, it was clear that the accident rate for this year was on the verge of surpass...

Periodic elections are an integral part of representative democracy. Elections offer citizens the choice to decide who should be their leader. It also offers voters the opportunity to remove non-performing representatives from power. A common voter education slogan is, ‘your vote is your power; use it wisely’ Elections represent the voter’s right to take part in forming a democratic government. Every election comes with a cost; unfortunately, many of us focus more on the economic cost of holding elections, while leaving out the social and political costs. Even when economic cost is analyzed, all aspects of the cost are rarely captured. For a start, who are the people and institutions who make and spend money during elections? There are three categories: the election management bodies, that is, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and State Independent Electoral Commission (SIECs); political parties; and candidates. This is exclusive of the support from non-state actors li...

No human is immune from vicissitude of life. Professor Chinua Achebe was hale and hearty until a fateful day he got involved in a near fatal road accident which has now confined the literary giant to the wheel chair. Yinka Ayefele, a gospel musician, was also involved in a motor accident. Today, though on wheelchair, he is a household name among Nigerian gospel music lovers. Mohammed Ali was an all time great pugilist; he flew like a butterfly and punches like the sting of a bee. Today, the world boxing heavyweight champion is down with an incurable Parkinson disease. There is a growing community of physically challenged persons, particularly in Nigeria. Reasons being the high incidence of road, industrial and domestic accidents; ethno-religious conflicts; diseases; afflictions; environmental hazards etc. Everyone is a potential member of community of persons with disability. The issue here is how do we treat those who are already members of this over 19 million estimated persons...

Before President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua declared amnesty for all Niger Delta militants on June 25, 2009, Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) and other disparate groups had made the Nigeria’s oil producing region near ungovernable due to the fierce armed struggle the militants engaged in against the Nigerian state. Not even the bombardment of Gbaramatu Kingdom in May 2009 in which about 53 communities were allegedly destroyed deterred the militants from avenging the attack on their communities. MEND on the night of July 12 struck with military precision on the Atlas Cove Jetty in Lagos killing about five security men on duty and reducing the jetty to rubbles. Before the attack in Lagos, oil pipelines had became a toy in the hands of the militants as they vandalise it at will while also taking oil workers hostage and institutionalising the culture of ransom kidnapping which has now spread to other parts of the country. Unrest in the oil-producing Niger Delta had reduced N...

Nigeria is one of the 189 countries that endorsed the Millennium Declaration in September 2000 in United States of America. The Declaration sets out eight goals to be reached by 2015. They are: Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty; Achieve universal primary education; Promote gender equality and empower women; Reduce child mortality; Improve maternal health; Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; Ensure environmental sustainability and, Develop a global partnership for development. These are to be fully achieved or met by half between 1990 and 2015. Is Nigeria any near achieving these goals in less than 6 years time? Minister of Youth Development, Senator Akinlabi Olasunkanmi on July 15, 2008 said 64 of the 80 million youths in Nigeria are unemployed. He stated further at a 2-day stakeholders meeting on youth employment in Abuja that 1.6 million of the employed youths are underemployed and went on to inform that data made available by the National Manpower Board and Federal B...

This is not the best of time for Nigerian sports and their lovers. The sector that brought Nigeria and its sportsmen and women fame and fortune is in the doldrums. Our love song has turned to dirge. Things have fallen apart and the centre can no longer hold. Who shall restore us to our once glorious and illustrious path? Boxing used to be Nigeria’s king of sports before football. Boxing produced world and continental champions like Hogan ‘Kid’ Bassey, Dick Tiger, Nojeem Mayegun, Obisia Nwapa, Peter Koyenwachie, Bash Ali and most recently Samuel Peters. After the flash-in-the-pan success of Samuel Peters, Nigerian boxing went into a coma. While the popularity of boxing was waning, that of football and athletics assumed meteoric rise. Nigeria, for close to two decades, dominated Africa in track and field events like Long Jump, Sprints, Hurdles and Relays as well as Table-Tennis while football became the undisputed king of our sports. Football is the toast of Nigerians irrespective of tr...

The National Youth Service Corps was established in 1973 by General Yakubu Gowon (Rtd.) administration with the aim of fostering unity among Nigerian young educated elite. The Scheme is in its 36 years of existence amidst heated debate on whether or not the NYSC has outlived its usefulness. In fact, the incumbent Vice Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, Prof. Attahiru Jega has suggested that the scheme should be converted into a military service and should be made voluntary. Others, including some serving corps members themselves have suggested that the scheme should be abolished. There is no gainsaying that NYSC is in need of reform but to call for the scrapping of the scheme will be counter-productive. Available statistics shows that over 1.5 million has participated in the scheme in the last 36 years of its establishment. At inception, the scheme enrolled 2,364 but in 2008 alone, 250,000 graduates were mobilized for the mandatory one year service. What can be inferred from the ...