Public Affairs Analyst

Nigeria’s economy was declared as the biggest in Africa in 2014. However, the vulnerability of the economy nay the country has been exposed by the perennial energy crises the country has had to contend with. By energy crisis I mean the challenges being faced by the citizenry in getting affordable and steady supply of petroleum products and electricity. Barely two weeks of strikes by oil marketers and unions the country’s economy has suddenly become comatose. As at Monday, May 25, 2015, petroleum products had become so scarce and prices astronomic to the extent that many public and private businesses either commenced skeletal operations or shut down completely. Banks began to close by 1pm instead of 4pm. Some electronic media outfits drastically reduced their broadcast time from 24 hours to barely 8 hours per day. Telecommunication companies informed customers of their intention to embark on degraded services while many flights were cancelled by airline operators. Even the secur...

For some time now, especially since the beginning of 2015, Premium Motor Spirit popularly known as petrol has been very scarce in Abuja and many other cities across the country. I live and work in Abuja and can count the number of times I have got fuel at the official rate of N87 per litre since the year began. Of course, for those who do not attach much value to time, they do not mind queuing for hours on end at the few filling stations that are selling at the official rate. For some of us, we have embraced buying at the black market even if we have to pay twice or thrice the official price. I have tried to conduct a preliminary study as to the root causes of the perennial scarcity of petrol in Nigeria. What I found out is mind-boggling. The problem came to being largely as a result of the non-maintenance of our oil refineries. Nigeria currently has five of them. Two in Port Harcourt; the old refinery inaugurated in 1965 with the current nameplate capacity of 60,000 barrels per str...

“ A politician in government has a choice between doing what is right and doing what is popular ” – Ibrahim Shehu Shema, outgoing Governor of Katsina State, May 9, 2015.   I thoroughly enjoyed the live interview held last Saturday on Channels Television by Ms Modele Sarafa Yusuf and three others with the outgoing Governor of Katsina State, Ibrahim Shehu Shema. It was a commemorative interview to honour the governor who won the maiden The Sun Outstanding Performance Exit Award. The award was instituted by The Sun publishing company to promote commitment to quality governance. It is exclusively for a governor who is finishing two terms in office, and has been widely adjudged to have made sterling impacts on the lives of his people across various sectors. Katsina State, for those who did not know, was carved out of Kaduna State in 1987 and can be safely regarded as a power state given the political heavyweights who hail from the state. The state is home to the President e...

Jide Ojo “Quality journalism enables citizens to make informed decisions about their society’s development. It also works to expose injustice, corruption, and the abuse of power…Freedom of expression and press freedom are not luxury attributes that can wait until sustainable development has been achieved – it is an enabler for the enjoyment of all human rights and, therefore, vital to good governance and the rule of law.” - Part of a joint statement for the 2015 World Press Freedom Day issued by the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein. ADVERTISEMENT On May 3, 2015, the world celebrated another Press Freedom Day under the theme, “Let Journalism Thrive: Towards better reporting, gender equality and media safety in the digital age.” It has been an annual ritual laced with symposia and awards. This year’s theme is very fitting given the escalating danger of media ...