Public Affairs Analyst

“It is embarrassing that it is only in Nigeria that crude oil is stolen. We will be decisive in putting an end to this malaise. Our charge to all relevant agencies and departments of government is to work cooperatively with the required urgency this challenge deserves.” —President Goodluck Jonathan at the presidential maritime security retreat held in Abuja, on July 23, 2012 There are several problems bedevilling Nigeria’s maritime and petroleum sectors. According to President Goodluck Jonathan, the sectors are under threats of poaching, piracy, vandalising of pipeline, coastal insecurity, crude oil theft, illegal bunkering, non-payment of statutory levies and charges. Others include illegal entry of ships into our territorial waters, illegal importation of arms and hard drugs, amongst other sundry crimes. I intend to dwell on vandalising of pipeline and oil theft among the various threats. Recently, I watched with rapt attention the interview the Managing Director of Petroleum ...

The screaming headline in Daily Trust of Friday, February 15, 2013 reads: “1,300 Kaduna teachers fail primary school test”. The rider says, “Head teachers, education secretaries unqualified”. The unsavoury news was broken by the Kaduna State Commissioner for Education, Alhaji Usman Mohammed. He made the dreadful disclosure at an education summit tagged, “Education for all is responsibility of all”, held at the Hassan Usman Katsina House on February 14. The report quoted the commissioner thus: “A total of 1,599 teachers selected from across the state were given primary four tests in Mathematics and Basic literacy. Only one of them scored 75 per cent, 250 scored between 50 and 75 per cent and 1,300 scored below 25 per cent”. According to him, the same examination was conducted for 1,800 primary school pupils but a larger per cent of them failed woefully. The commissioner said many of the head teachers of the primary schools are not competent, and also that a majority of the Education S...

Hearty congratulations to our football heroes, the Super Eagles, who did us proud at the Africa Cup of Nations 2013 held in South Africa. I salute the gallantry and sterling performance of our soccer ambassadors and the coaching crew led by Stephen Keshi, and other technical and support group. On Sunday, February 10, Nigeria won the AFCON for the third time (the previous times being 1980 and 1994) and after several failed attempts spanning 19 years. It was a sweet victory for the underdog Super Eagles who though did not lose any of their six matches in the tournament, were not favourites to win the cup given their slow and lacklustre performances during the group stage. Their matches against Burkina Faso and Zambia at that stage were average while their 2-0 victory over Ethiopia saw them qualify from the group stage as the second best from Group C. It was not until the Super Eagles defeated the more fancied and experienced Elephants of Cote D’Ivore in the quarter-Final and walloped ...

The January 28 sentencing of the Assistant Director in the Police Pension Office, Mr. John Yakubu Yusuf, to two years imprisonment or N750, 000 fine, has again brought to the fore the propriety or otherwise of the mechanism of plea bargain in Nigeria’s criminal justice system. Many commentators were alarmed at the inconsequential punishment meted out to the culprit. Not even the fact that the assistant director is forfeiting 32 houses in the Federal Capital Territory and Gombe State as well as N325m cash is considered enough atonement for his sins. Left to many Nigerians, the man should ‘rot in jail’ or be made to face capital punishment. There have been many legal opinions on how the plea bargain mechanism is alien to our jurisprudence. Many argued that it is not in our constitution or any of our statutes. In fact, at the Alternative Dispute Resolution Summit organised by the Negotiation and Conflict Management Group and the National Judicial Institute on November 15, 2012, a for...

A news item in The Punch newspaper of January 1, 2013 caught my attention and sent me thinking of the ingenious ways many politicians use philanthropy as political investments. The referenced report has it that “ A political group, the Omo-Ilu Foundation, has commenced the distribution of 500 vehicles, 1,000 motorcycles and 1,800 bags of rice worth N800m to members of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun State. The Foundation also said plans had been concluded for the installation of 33,000-litre kerosene tanks in various locations to dispense the product at N50 per litre to the people in the 236 wards in the 20 local government areas of the state.” The leader of the Omo-Ilu Foundation and PDP financier in the state, Mr. Buruji Kashamu was quoted as having said that the gesture was aimed at empowering members of the party to enable many of them to start their own private businesses. He commented further that since inception in 2009, the Foundation has given out over 700 vehic...