Public Affairs Analyst

2011 started with a lot of promises. Nigerians were hoping and praying for a better year. However, for many, it was an unfulfilled dream. Even though the 2011 budget was presented to the National Assembly in December 2010, controversies trailed the budget passed by the legislature in March 2011 and had to be amended before the President signed it in May 2011. As at December 2011 only about 70 per cent of the budget has been implemented thus the jinx of budget debacle is yet to be broken. The financial sector, particularly the banking and insurance sub-sectors witnessed further reform in 2011. Three banks, Bank PHB, Afribank and Spring Bank were nationalised in August while bridge banks were created to take over from the nationalised banks. It would be recalled that under the new arrangement, MainStreet Bank Limited takes over the assets and liabilities of Afribank; Keystone Bank Limited acquires the assets and liabilities of Bank PHB, while Enterprise Bank Limited takes over that of Sp

Over the years, we have listened to very beautiful and impressive budget speeches eloquently delivered in this chamber. Unfortunately, the implementation has not matched the words as economic policies often lack continuity and projects are needlessly discarded or abandoned. Let this budget be the one that will say let there be light, and there is light; let there be roads and there are roads; let there be water, and there is water; let there be employment and there is employment; let there be Medicare and it is so; and let there be food and there is food." – Nigeria’s Senate President, David Mark (December 13, 2011) On December 13, 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan presented a budget speech of 82 paragraphs spanning 27 pages to the joint session of the National Assembly. The 2012 budget has the theme: "Fiscal consolidation, inclusive growth and job creation", and rests on four main pillars namely, macroeconomic stability; structural reforms; governance and institutions

In a few days time it will be a new year 2012. I look forward to a happy new year and pray that the Almighty will endorse my request. For majority of Nigerians and indeed for the Christendom, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year are traditional greetings at Yuletide. As I watched the horror perpetrated by Islamist Fundamentalist group – Boko Haram on 2011 Christmas Day, I asked myself if the victims and their families will have a merry Christmas and happy new year. With government making the removal of fuel subsidy an irreversible decision for 2012, will majority of Nigerians have a happy new year? With the spate of armed robbery attacks on individuals and institutions (many banks are now closing by 1 pm while in some towns they remain closed for weeks due to fear of attack by men of the underworld) will the victims of these armed robberies experience a happy new year? Will the victims of kidnappers know a happy new year? Can Nigerians enjoy the New Year in pitched darkness that Power Ho

National Honours are not merely decorative; they remind us of an important part of our responsibilities as citizens. We must always endeavour to do our best for our country, even as we realise with deep humility that all human beings are fallible, we must look forward with confidence and hope that our country through each and every one of us can indeed put its God-given endowment to the best possible use - President Goodluck Jonathan It is no longer news that 355 Nigerians and foreigners were recipients at the 2010/2011 National Honours Award ceremony held at the International Conference Centre in Abuja on Monday, 14 November. What have lingered are the many controversies that have trailed the award. Several issues have emerged. They include the rejection of the honour by three of the nominees’ viz. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, Minority Leader in the House of Representatives and Prof. Chinua Achebe, a renowned novelist and Prof. (Mrs) Grace Alele Williams, a former University of Benin Vice

Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission (ENSIEC) is one of the 36 state electoral commissions in Nigeria. The Commission is at present making earnest preparations for the conduct of chairmanship and councillorship elections into the 17 Local Government Areas of the State. ENSIEC recently released the official guidelines for the elections. The 3rd September 211 official gazette titled “E.S.L.N. No. 6 of 2011 – Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission (ENSIEC) Guidelines for Local Government Council Elections Scheduled for the 10th December 2011” has a total of seventeen sections. Of greater relevance to this writer are the sections related to campaign finance in the guidelines. Section 3 (n) of the document states that “each candidate shall pay a non-refundable deposit of two hundred thousand naira (N200, 000) for Chairmanship candidates and fifty thousand naira (N50, 000) for Councillorship candidates.” This same provision was repeated verbatim as a possible ground for disqua

“A corrupt Judge is more harmful to the society than a man who runs amok with a dagger in a crowded street. The latter can be restrained physically. But a corrupt Judge deliberately destroys the moral foundation of society and causes incalculable distress to individuals through abusing his office while still being referred to as ‘honourable.’ – Hon. Justice Samson Uwaifo (Retd) There is no gainsaying that Nigeria’s judiciary, particularly in 2011, have been in the eye of the storm. The institution has been enmeshed in war of attrition that has left it battered, bruised and soiled. At a lecture organised by the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) on 10 November 2011, Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Dahiru Musdapher in a paper titled “The Nigerian Judiciary: Towards Reform of the Bastion of Constitutional Democracy” lamented the delay in the dispensation of justice which he identified as a major challenge in the justice delivery sector. He attributed such delay

Baby Gabriel, born 12am at Gwarinpa General Hospital, Abuja, officially made Nigeria’s population 167 million (82 million females and 85 million males) as the world celebrates Day of Seven Billion People on Monday, October 31, 2011. At that official figure, Nigeria also becomes the sixth largest population in the world after China, India, USA, Indonesia and Brazil according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Nigeria’s latest projected inhabitants represent 2.4 per cent of the world’s new population. According to recent estimates by the UN Population Division, by 2100 Nigeria will be the third most populous country in the world, next to India and China. Immediate past Chairman of National Population Commission (NPC), Samu’ila Danko Makama at his valedictory meeting with the media on October 26, 2011 “urged leaders at the three tiers of government to up the ante on nation-building initiatives, with a view to expanding public infrastructure in proportion to population growth

Two notable Nigerian women would on Monday, 14 November 2011 join 362 others to be conferred with national honours by President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja. Hajia Saudatu Magajiya Mahdi and Barrister (Mrs.) Maryam Uwais (nee Isa Wali) have both been nominated among the 68 recipients for the Member of the Federal Republic (MFR). These women of substance, achievers and change champions have performed incredible feats in development work. Like a colossus, their activities and activisms straddle the area of education, human rights, law reform, legislative advocacy, banking and finance, etcetera. Born on 20 April 1957, Hajia Saudatu Mahdi hails from Katsina State. She studied at Ahmadu Bello University and Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON) from where she obtained her first and post graduate qualifications in 1978 and 1992 respectively. She has certificates in entrepreneurship, Fiscal/Financial management, advocacy and human rights and Institution Building skills. She is a Fel

Public funding of political parties has been very contentious in Nigeria. The 1999 Nigerian Constitution in section 228 (c) and Electoral Act 2006 in section 91 contain provisions that enable the National Assembly to make grant available to the Independent National Electoral Commission for distribution to registered political parties. However, with the coming into effect of the Electoral Act 2010, as amended, the provision for public funding of political parties was removed. It was therefore curious to read in the newspaper that River State Independent Electoral Commission has sustained the tradition of public funding for political parties operating in Rivers State. A news item in Vanguard of October 12 reported that some 45 political parties under the aegis of the Rivers State Association of Frontline Political Parties have called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to investigate the state’s Independent Election Commission, RSIEC, over the N4.7 billion grant by

The presidency and the National Assembly (Senate and House of Representatives) have embarked on a strange move to collapse Nigerian prison system. How do I mean? An executive bill seeking to amend the Transfer of Convicted Offender (Enactment & Enforcement) Act Cap. T16 LSN 2004 (Amendment Bill 2001) is currently being processed at the National Assembly. Once the amendment sails through, the consent of convicted Nigerians serving various jail sentences abroad would no longer be sought before they are repatriated home to continue to serve their respective jail terms. This is because the prisoners’ swap legislation seeks the removal of “consent” and “verification procedure” from the Act. I find this move which is said to be a request from British authorities curious because the situation of Nigeria’s prison system at present is heart-rending. According to a report in Thisday of October 2, 2010 titled ‘Nigerian Prison’s Rising Population’: “The Nigerian Prisons Service derives its ope

I do the best I know how, the very best I can, and I mean to keep on doing it to the end. If the end brings me out all wrong, what is said against me will not amount to anything. – Abraham Lincoln. When Dr. OBC Nwolise of the Department of Political Science, University of Ibadan charged students in the Advanced Level Extra Mural Class at Emmanuel College, Agbowo, Ibadan in 1988 to use media advocacy to demand for better society, many heard but only few heeded his advice. I am one of the few who chose to take up the challenge. However, I couldn’t bring myself to communicate to the public through the media until 1990 because I had low self esteem having failed to get credit pass in ‘O’ Level English and Mathematics to enable me move to tertiary institution. This went on from 1985 – 1990. Secondly, being the era of military rule when freedom of speech was severely curtailed with several media houses proscribed by the ruling junta, it was suicidal expressing anti-government opinion then. A

On September 21, I attended a memorial lecture organised by a coalition of youth groups in honour of 10 National Youth Service Corps members killed in Bauchi State in the wake of the post-elections crisis that greeted the April 16 presidential election. The lecture with the theme ‘Youth and Election Security’ was put together by Youth Action Initiative Africa, Centre for Public Policy and Research, CAFA Foundation, Nigerian Youth Manifesto Project, Network of Civil Society Organisations on Voter & Civic Education, Digital Peers International and Y-Count Campaign. The guest speaker at the event was a renowned Professor of Criminology from the University of Jos, Etennibi Alemika. The ten martyrs of Nigerian democracy were Adewumi Seun (Ekiti); Teidi Olawale Tosin (Kogi); Adowei Elliot (Bayelsa); Okpokiri Obinna (Abia); Gbenjo Ebenezer Ayotunde (Osun); Ukeoma Ikechuwku Chibuzor (Imo); Nkwazema Anslem Chukwuonyerem (Imo); Adeniji Kehinde Jehleel (Osun); Akonyi Ibrahim Sule (Kogi) and t

Nigeria’s general elections were held from April 9 – May 6, 2011. The elections started with the National Assembly (Senatorial and House of Representatives) elections on April 9, followed by the presidential elections on April 16 and gubernatorial elections on April 26. Gubernatorial elections in Bauchi and Kaduna State were postponed and held on April 28 as a result of post election violence that trailed the presidential election in which Human Rights Watch claimed in a May 16, 2011 report that 800 lives were lost and property worth billions of Naira were destroyed. A political logjam ensued in Imo State as the April 26 gubernatorial election in the State was declared inconclusive. A supplementary election was thereafter held in four local governments and one ward on May 6 before the governorship election was concluded. Thereafter, observer groups have taken turns to release their final reports on the polls. The European Union Observation Mission (EU EOM) presented its final repor

October 1 is here again and it is another season of ‘celebration’ of Nigeria’s independence anniversary. There will be speeches, parades, exhibitions, religious services, dinners and all manner of pageantry. Unfortunately, it will be another vacuous celebration with the president, governors and other political as well as religious leaders issuing press statements appreciating God for keeping Nigeria together and enjoining Nigerians to patiently wait for dividends of democracy. The religious leaders will be telling us to continue to pray for our leaders for that is what the Holy Books say. I have been hearing these platitudes since my adolescent years yet we continue to wait for Godot as we dream on for better and higher standard of living. At the country’s golden independence anniversary in 2010, President Jonathan gave a number of sound-bites such as “I prefer to see the silver lining in the dark cloud rather than the dark cloud in the silver lining.” “We may not have overcome our cha

For many years now, geographers, climatologist and meteorologists have been warning about climate change occasioned by ozone layer depletion. We were warned about change in weather pattern and that there will be unusual rise in water levels and flash flooding. Our governments did little or nothing to prepare for the likely consequences of the climate change. Yes, we have National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) but how many states have their Emergency Management Agencies? How well-funded are our disaster management agencies especially the Federal and State Fire Services across the country? As I write this, after over 50 years of oil explorations, gas flaring continue unabated in the Niger Delta, there is growing desertification in the Northern Nigeria causing drought and threat to food security. I do hope we will not wait for Tsunami and Hurricane before taken pre-emptive actions. Ibadan in Oyo State witnessed backlash of climate change on Friday, August 26, 2011. A seven hour torre