Public Affairs Analyst

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 ...

By 2010 , Nigeria shall hit the golden age of 50; however it is doubtful if she would have resolved her challenge of nationhood by then. Forty-nine years after Independence, government policies are still being viewed with ethnic lens. If there is a section of the 1999 Constitution the Nigerian elite do not joke with, it is section 14 (3), which makes application of federal character in the composition of government and its agencies mandatory. Every appointment the President makes is subjected to clinical scrutiny of ethnic balancing: from the appointment of cabinet ministers, armed forces service chiefs to board appointments, etc. Until President Umaru Yar ' Adua appointed Ogbonna Onovo as the Inspector General of Police (IGP), the Igbo had been lamenting that it was only Ndigbo that had not produced IGP for Nigeria. When the incumbent Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, was appointed, some people accused the President of appointing his economic team f...

There are a few telecommunication companies operating in Nigeria. These include GLO, MTN, Zain, Multilinks/Telcom, Starcomm, Visafone, ZOOM and the latest entrant, Etisalat. All these companies are in business to make profit, no doubt; however, I find the corporate social responsibility of a couple of them commendable. They are MTN and Zain. These two communication giants support many noble causes. Two of such are: Who deserves to be a Millionaire? and Zain African Challenge: Battle of Brains. My bias and admiration for these two programmes are because they are quiz competitions which serve to enlighten, sensitize and educate the viewing public. The programmes were reminiscent of the popular quiz “Fastest and Best” sponsored by British Caledonian Airways on NTV Ibadan in the 70s and 80s. The third edition of Zain African Challenge International Inter University Battle of Brains anchored by veteran John Sibi-Okumu has just ended. It was won by the trio of young lads from the Universi...