The recent turn of events in the national polity with calls for restructuring by various groups and Political Leaders brings to the fore, either a deep seated desire and hunger for proper governance and good federal structure. Or a selfish agenda to use it as a cheap route to political notoriety and relevance.
Socio-economy
Montessori Approach to Good Governance in Nigeria
Governance in Nigeria has been acrimonious and caustic as it can get compared to other Federating Nations of the earth.
Its been more of entitlement, appeasement and access to the cookie jar. But for how long can this last? Is there no solution in sight towards it?
Agony of A Nation
The state of the Nigerian Nation is not a state that was inflicted on us by outsiders, rather it’s a self-inflicted condition occasioned by lack of personal responsibility and accountability to people. Continue reading
Thought The Whites Owned South Africa!
In the last couple of weeks especially last week, the social media was awashed with news from South Africa, of white folks in South Africa calling Black folks monkeys and claiming Blacks were let into South Africa and they are trying to take over everywhere or that it was the white folks that owned South Africa.
Am really not surprised by this, going by the events occurring in United States of Blacks been killed extra judicially by people who are meant to protect the people, the Police, and the start of the movement #Black lives Matter.
THE IMMUNITY CLAUSE UNDER THE NIGERIAN 1999 CONSTITUTION: A CURSE OR BLESSING – Conclusion
Continued from Yesterday.
Again, experience has shown in Nigeria that it is not only protected officers that are corrupt. There have been cases of graft against local government chairmen who are not protected by Section 308, Directors of parastatals, ministers and so on. If these people who are not protected are corrupt as the protected ones, then the problem lies somewhere else and probably not with the immunity clause. Continue reading
The Will to Survive 2 – Playing the Ostrich.
In my last post, i opened with what Parents will do to make their children survive and touched on the migrant crisis in Europe. Little did i know that, a far greater evil will take place that will galvanize the world into action.
Aylan was a cute boy full of life and bright mischievous eyes that light up when he smiles. He was a three-year old boy born in the midst of the Syrian civil war. And as it got increasingly unsafe and dangerous, Continue reading
Curing Diabetes or High Blood Pressure!
If you are reading this, its either of three things, 1) you have someone close to you that is/was afflicted. 2) You are afflicted, 3) You don’t want to be afflicted hence looking for a way.
Statistics reveal that the population of Nigeria is divided into this categories;
Diabetes – 6 million
High Blood Pressure – 56 million
Poor – 100 million
I lost my Dad to stroke orchestrated by high blood pressure in 2005, and since then, it has piqued my interest and made me realize, how fickle and nonchalant we can be when it comes to our health.
Continue reading
God Give Us Men! – Part 3
Unlucky the land whose king is a young pup,
And whose princes party all night.
Lucky the land whose king is mature,
Where the princes behave themselves
And don’t drink themselves silly……..Eccc 10:16-17 (MSG)
Poverty has risen in Nigeria, with almost 100 million people living on less than a $1 (£0.63) a day, despite economic growth, statistics have shown. The National Bureau of Statistics said 60.9% of Nigerians in 2010 were living in “absolute poverty” – this figure had risen from 54.7% in 2004. BBC News – Nigerians living in poverty rise to nearly 61%
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, absolute poverty is measured by the number of people who can afford only the bare essentials of shelter, food and clothing. The NBS said that relative poverty was most apparent in the north of the country, with Sokoto state’s poverty rate the highest at 86.4%.
In the north-west and north-east of the country poverty rates were recorded at 77.7% and 76.3% respectively, compared to the south-west at 59.1%.
BBC Africa analyst Richard Hamilton says it is perhaps no surprise that extremist groups, such as Boko Haram, continue to have an appeal in northern parts of the country, where poverty and underdevelopment are at their most severe. The report also revealed that Nigerians consider themselves to be getting poorer. In 2010, 93.9% of respondents felt themselves to be poor compared to 75.5% six years earlier.
And Corruption is on the increase steadily in the nation. Its so entrench in the fabric of our nation that its now a second skin. Its so brazenly done now that it’s the norm, its business as usual. Interestingly, Nigeria is not quite the most corrupt country on earth. But according to Transparency International, which monitors international financial corruption, it is not far off — coming a shameful 172nd worst among the 215 nations surveyed. Legislators earn the highest salaries in the world, with a basic wage of £122,000, nearly double what British MPs earn and many hundreds of times that of the country’s ordinary citizens. (www.dailymail.co.uk).
80 per cent of the country’s substantial oil revenues go to the government, which disburses cash to individual governors and hundreds of their cronies, so effectively these huge sums remain in the hands of a mere 1 per cent of the Nigerian population. And we call ourselves a Nation….
I could go on about the economy but here is not the time to do that analysis. It will be for another time.
God Give Us Men! Part 2
Unlucky the land whose king is a young pup,And whose princes party all night.Lucky the land whose king is mature,Where the princes behave themselvesAnd don’t drink themselves silly……..Eccc 10:16-17 (MSG)
Am sure Josiah Gilbert Holland must have had this scriptures in mind when he penned the poem, God Give Us Men!
In our nation Nigeria, ever since we returned to democracy in 1999, i would say, the last 3 years has been the most miserable, and heart-rending so far. Before you start to take pocket shots, lets sit back and do a reflection, from Obasanjo’s 8 years to Yar’Adua’s 2-3 year sojourn and to Ebele’s current dispensation.
Each time i had the opportunity to sit with my Brother to talk heart to heart, his one major line is this, “It has never been this bad, but it will get better”. His other line, “this country cannot go on like this, otherwise there will be a total catastrophe”. And i won’t agree less… Here is someone who runs his own business and provides jobs for People. But has been forced to tailor down his operations, lay off people and had to set up a satellite office due in an area with “better” electricity than where the main office is.
Let’s look at the economy, yes we re-based our economy this year to make us the biggest economy in Africa, but in terms of naira and kobo to the peasant on the streets, what has this translated to? To the young chap and lady just leaving school, what is the job prospects? To the entrepreneur, where is the market, the financing, the wherewithal to successfully establish and run a business.
According to the Economist, ” Of course, Nigerians are no richer than they were……. The majority of the country’s 170m people live on less than a dollar a day. What the revised GDP figures show is that its economy is far more than just an oil enclave, exporting crude to pay for imported goods from richer countries. The oil industry’s share of GDP is now put at just 14%, compared with 33% according to the old figures. Manufacturing is much larger than previously thought. Services are booming. It is still a tough place in which to do business. – See more at: http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2014/04/economist-explains-2#sthash.WqXrim3L.dpuf”
With Oil accounting for 75% of Budgetted revenue, it is becoming increasingly a stark reality that the country needs to change its source of revenue from predominantly oil to other alternate source. Oil revenues has been on a steady decline in the last couple of years with the resultant effect on government budgeting, weaker oil prices, fall in capital project funding, fall in revenue sharing and all the works.
To be continued….
Travails of a Nation
Its 6:31pm on a wet monday evening. Ideally i should be in class..but don’t have the slightest motivation to attend not with the rain soaked streets of Lagos. but its really the amount of work on my desk that bogged me down.
Even though atimes i wonder, as i am wondering now, why i feel so exhausted after a day’s job of just sitting behind the system..but i guess as i have been told, the white hairs growing on my head at this very young age of mine..speaks volume of what i try to accomplish daily. Interestingly, i have a colleague who gets really worried about it and says several people she knows, who work themselves at their job in terms of mental capacity are growing white hairs….But i ask, why is my boss not growing white hairs…probably because he wears an afro and he maintains it regularly, hence the white hairs remain deep unseen to the public. maybe an expedition will lead us there..lololol
But be it as it may, my heart grieves for an evil that is becoming synonymous with our nation. I wonder, when did we become so inured to the pain of others and carry on with our lives with no sense of compassion at all.
samaderibigbe 