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 ...