Public Affairs Analyst

In commemoration of his 20 years of media advocacy, Jide Ojo, a development consultant, essayist and public affairs analyst on Thursday, 25 November, 2010 at Denis Hotel, Abuja launched a book titled: Nigeria, My Nigeria: Perspectives from 1990 – 2010. The 315 page digest contains 11 chapters dwelling on different aspects of Nigeria’s national life. These includes commentaries on governance, economy, legislature and judiciary, education, health, politics and elections, media, global affairs, security, electoral reform, labour, sports, religion and society. As part of the event, a public lecture entitled: Elections, Power and Morality was also held. The Guest Speaker was Prof. Okey Ibeanu, chief technical adviser to the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The Chair of the occasion was Prof. Suleiman Bogoro The event had in attendance dignitaries such as Ed Morgan, a development consultant, Prof. Sam Egwu, Governance Team Leader, UNDP, Hajia Amina Salihu, P...

Congratulations are in order for our Super Falcons. In further celebration of Nigeria’s golden jubilee independence anniversary, the senior female national football team on November 14 2010, at Sinaba Stadium in South Africa reclaimed the African Women’s Championship with a 4-2 victory over Nzalang Nacional of Equatorial Guinea. The win makes it a record 6th time the Super Falcons will win the trophy out of the 7 editions of the soccer competition. By this feat, the Super Falcons alongside their Guinean counterpart have booked tickets to the next FIFA Women’s World Cup coming up in Germany in 2011. The Nigerian female soccer team is said to be the only one in the championship whose head coach is a woman. The coach, Eucharia Uche, is herself a former Falcon player. It did not end there. It was as if the tournament was organised to honour Nigeria as our ladies, apart from winning the trophy and gold medal as the champions of the soccer fiesta also won the Fair Play Award. Perpetua Nkwoch...

It was not my first time observing elections. I have been similarly engaged both in Nigeria and Ghana. However, getting invited as one of the global assemblage of people to observe the November 2, 2010 US mid-term election was quite exciting for me. In the one week that I was in America for the exercise, I tried to soak in as much information as I could on one of the world’s oldest democracies. It‘s true that America has over two hundred years of history of electoral democracy. Yet, I believe Nigeria does not need two centuries to overcome her challenge of credible elections. It took Ghana just about a decade to become the toast of the rest of the world on how to conduct acceptable and transparent polls. My American trip was an eye-opener. If we must catch up with the rest of the world, we must learn the positive lessons from other climes. With Nigeria in the process of conducting her fourth successive elections, it is widely believed that the forthcoming polls will be far better than ...

Cross River State is arguably Nigeria’s home of tourism. The State hosts the famous Obudu Ranch Resort, Old Residency Museum, Marina Beach Resort, Agbokim Waterfalls , Ikom Monoliths, Mary Slessor’s Tomb, Tinapa Business and Leisure Resort, Cross Rivers National Park and Carnival Calabar (a month long cultural festival held every December). Recently, I was in Calabar on official assignment and lodged at Amber Tinapa, the 243 room hotel situated right inside the Tinapa environ. This should be my third time visiting the business resort, the last time being in 2007. Tinapa is an architectural masterpiece, the first integrated business and leisure resort in Nigeria. It was conceived to be a free trade zone in the mould of Dubai. It comprises four emporiums of 10,000m2 each and about fifty four line shops that range between 150m2 to 200m2 in size. The edifice was commissioned in December 2008. However, two years down the line, I am very unimpressed with the lacklustre way the multi-mill...