Public Affairs Analyst

In the last one week or thereabout, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority has embarked on a media hype aimed at sensitising Nigeria air travellers to what it calls Passengers’ Bill of Rights.  This is a right step in the right direction, it must be stressed. It is actually long overdue.  Truth be told, the country’s aviation industry is undergoing a lot of innovation and face-lift. Many of the nation’s airport terminals such as those in Lagos, Benin, Enugu, and Kano have been remodelled while some are still under reconstruction.  To most observers, the aviation industry is well-regulated. Aside from the Federal Ministry of Aviation, there are six other parastatals or agencies under it. They are the Nigeria Meteorological Agency, Nigeria Airspace Management Agency, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, Accident Investigation Bureau and Nigeria College of Aviation and Technology. There are 16 airports and 16 airlines licensed to operate dom...

Spoiling the ship for a ha’porth of tar is an old wise saying which means destroying something big due to nonchalance or allowing something of great value to decay for lack of timely repair. This truly reflects in many Nigerians’ private and public lives. It would seem maintenance culture is alien to us given the way we go about our lives recklessly. Many of us do not care a hoot about our health or well-being. We hardly go for medical check- up and when sick, indulge in self-medication. Any wonder many now give up the ghost after “a brief illness”. That will mostly happen when we don’t nurture our bodies and fail to seek timely medical assistance from appropriate quarters when indisposed. As with our bodies, so with our personal belongings such as cars and household items. When the car wiper is not working, we ignore it as being insignificant particularly if it’s not during the rainy season. When the rear lights or head lamps are not working, many of us ignore and avoid night driving...

For the umpteenth time, our education sector has been thrown into another avoidable industrial action. The Academic Staff Union of Universities began what it termed a “comprehensive, total and indefinite strike” on July 1, 2013. Their polytechnic counterpart, the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, had downed tools for eight weeks before being joined by ASUU. The grouse of the university teachers are as follows: The inability of the Federal Government to implement some of the issues contained in a 2009 agreement it had with ASUU as well as the violation of the Memorandum of Understanding it entered into with the union in December 2011. According to the ASUU National President, Isa Fagge, “Before now, there has been this issue of the implementation of the key issues contained in the 2009 agreement we entered into with the Federal Government. We have had several meetings and deliberations to let government understand why these issues must be resolved but it is like the more we meet...

The Green Chamber, that is, the House of Representatives on Thursday, July 4, 2013, received the report of its Constitution Review Committee headed by the Deputy Speaker, Emeka Ihedioha. The committee’s counterpart at the Red Chamber, Senate, had submitted a similar report a month ago, precisely on June 5. This piece attempts to compare and contrast the reports of the constitution review committees of the two chambers of the National Assembly. While presenting the committee’s report to the Senate, Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, said its recommendations “were arrived at on the basis of extensive research, study tours, proposals from memoranda submitted to the Senate Committee, strategic collaborations with key partners, consultations with stakeholders and feedback from the National and Zonal Public Hearings on the review of the Constitution.” Same reasons were adduced by the House Committee with the major difference in approach being the conduct of people’s public sessions ac...

June 12, 2013 marked the twentieth anniversary of the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election presumably won by Chief MKO Abiola and which was regarded as the freest, fairest and the most credible presidential election in Nigeria’s political history. It was a day Nigerians set aside their ethnic, religious and other primordial sentiments to elect a new president for the most populous black nation in the world. Unfortunately, the military junta led by former military President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida annulled the poll leading to a political impasse which culminated in the ousting of the military regime and inauguration of an interim government led by Chief Ernest Shonekan on August 27, 1993. The interim government was declared illegal and unconstitutional by a court and late General Sani Abacha took over the reins of government on November 17, 1993. The political debacle which ensued as a result of the annulment of the June 12 election led to death in detention of Bash...

I am not a native of Ogun State but have been privileged to school in the state and was recently there to observe its 2012 Local Government election. I am enthralled by the state’s many unique features and its primacy in the historical calendar of the Yoruba race. Ogun State occupies an exceptional position in the political economy of the South-West geopolitical zone, and indeed Nigeria, as a country. The state is comprised mainly of the Egba, Ijebu, Awori, Egun, Remo and Yewa; all Yoruba speaking but with different dialects. Among the major towns in Ogun are Abeokuta, Sagamu, Ilaro, Ipokia, Ifo, Ota, Ijebu-Ode and Ijebu-Igbo. The uniqueness of Ogun State derives from the role some of its indigenes have played in the politics, economy and even the social life of Nigeria. The tertiary institutions in Ogun State include the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta;  Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye; Babcock University, Ilisan-Remo; Crescent University; Covenant University, Ota...