After nearly sixty-two years of Independence, amidst enormous wealth, poverty is still endemic in Nigeria. The country has even been designated as the poverty capital of the world. As a result of the endemic poverty, Nigerians have been reduced to the behest of politicians that tie them to gridlock of ‘stomach infrastructure.’ ‘Stomach infrastructure’ quietly crept into our political lexicon following the 2014 election in Ekiti state when PDP’s candidate Ayodele Fayosi mobilized voters with food items and defeated the thenincumbent APC’s governor Kayode Fayemi. ‘Stomach infrastructure’ is a reality projected by the Nigerian politicians on the vulnerable electorate who…
Author: Ezinwanne Onwuka
It was Claude Ake (1996), the late Political Science icon, who posited that “by all indications, political conditions in Africa are the greatest impediment to development.” This statement when critically examined, narrows down to one fundamental issue – the issue and essence of leadership in Africa generally and Nigeria particularly. Leadership is, no doubt, a key factor in the whole gamut of public administration and the management of societal affairs. In the light of this, Nigeria’s lack of capacity in terms of the attainment of effective governance that addresses the issues of corruption, human rights abuse and mobilization of human…
A major straw that broke the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) 16-year rule in Nigeria was pervasive corruption. Consequently, Nigerians voiced their frustrations by voting in the All Progressive Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, during the 2015 general election. Fighting corruption was one of the three planks on which Muhammadu Buhari hinged his campaign for the presidency in 2015, the other two being curbing terrorism and fixing the economy. During his inaugural speech, President Buhari reiterated his commitment to combat corruption in Nigeria no matter whose ox is gored when he said, “I belong to everybody and I belong to…
In Nigeria today, there are complaints and lamentations of past and present administrations on how they have failed the nation and the citizens. Many complain and blame the government of the day for the deplorable state of affairs in virtually every sector of our national life. Well, though we might have been unlucky to always get a crop of leaders that are lethargic to the needs of the people, it is important for us to realize that, while we criticize and put the blame on the government for the mess we are into, we also contribute to this in our…
Politics is a fierce game in Nigeria because it is one of the surest means to power, wealth, and fame. Consequently, as 2023 gets closer, the political atmosphere in Nigeria is being heated up as the race for Nigeria’s presidential election has started in earnest. #EndSARS Sadly, the present reality of politics in Nigeria indubitably portrays a system that is under siege by the actions, inactions and reactions of the ageing political drivers of this country in policymaking and implementation. Youths constitute the most significant subcategory of growth in the Nigerian demography. They are powerful and can influence policy formulation…
Precisely seven years ago, the APC came into power amid pomp, pageantry and great expectations. Nigerians believed that at last, we have gotten a crop of leaders that would take us to the next level. Many jubilated in the firm belief that the ‘change’ which Buhari and his party, the APC promised Nigerians was certainly going to transform the country. Nigerians had every cause to dare hope that their teething challenges would be contained with dispatch – after all, had the APC not promised a new dawn? Expectations were huge after Buhari’s inauguration, which followed a hard-fought election victory over…
The impact of Nollywood on Nigerian youths has been a thing of concern and uneasiness to me, especially with the recent news of a 23-year- old young man arrested for abducting a six-year-old boy, claiming that he was influenced by Zubby Michael’s movie roles to venture into kidnapping. As a consequence, much fear looms in the area of traditional values and culture of the Nigerian society; even though most people might be quick to dismiss such with reason that the movies are merely for entertainment and as such does and should not raise any pertinent moral questions. However, the fact…
The West African Examination Council (WAEC) (2003) defined examination malpractice as any irregular behaviour or act exhibited by candidates or anybody charged with the responsibility of conducting examination in or outside the examination hall, before, during or after such examination with the aim of taking undue advantage. Examination malpractice refers to cheating, dishonesty, and fraud of any kind during an examination. People who are engaged in such dishonesty adopt measures such as: impersonation, bribery, smuggling of extraneous materials into the examination hall, external assistance among others. Undoubtedly, examination malpractice has been a social problem for decades, but the rate and…
Prof. C.B Okolo (1994) powerfully argues that the enduring problem in Nigeria is consumerism – meaning consumer consciousness or squandermania mentality. He defined squandermania as a disposition to conceive and judge things mostly in terms of their consumable value. The consequence being that the society becomes one dominated largely by acquisitive rather than productive instincts. In his words, “consumerism or squandermania mentality thus narrows down people’s horizon by defining and determining progress, social importance, social values, power, authority etc. almost exclusively in terms of material success and achievements.” Characteristics of consumer society, like Nigeria, include unproductive spending or wealth exhibitionism,…
If you are to ask the average Nigerian today about their plans in the next five years or thereabout, it is almost certain that many, if not all of them, would intimate you about their decision and plan to “japa”, which literally means to emigrate or travel out. Migration is not wrong. It has been part of humanity over centuries. People migrate due to various reasons, such as economic, political, educational and in search of greener pastures. In Nigeria, however, one of the major factors that cause people to migrate is the search of economic opportunities. This type of migration…
Vocational and technical education holds the key to Nigeria becoming technologically developed, internationally relevant and competitive in the world market. It is known that technology is the most effective means of empowering the citizenry to stimulate and sustain national development, enhance employment, improve the quality of life, eradicate poverty, and limit the incidence of social vices factored by joblessness. Yet vocational and technical education has not gained its prominence in the country, due to some enormous challenges. In advanced societies those with technical degrees are highly regarded. In fact, the value system in those countries depend on the person’s skills…
The political structure of many societies is now, more than ever, moving towards democracy – a system of government that has been popularly described as the government of the people, by the people and for the people. However, for democracy to be fully actualized, the role of the media cannot be made light of as the mass media serves as the link between the government and the governed. It serves as a bridge of information from the government to the common citizen. Almost everyone gets his or her information about world, national, and local affairs from the mass media. This…
The purpose of education in Nigeria has long been identified by the Federal Government of Nigeria (2004) in her National Policy on Education as the process that helps the whole man develop and change physically, mentally, morally and technologically. This is to enable him/her function effectively in any environment that he/she may find himself/herself so as to become more productive, self-fulfilling and attain self-actualization. It is believed that quality education is the key variable for the survival of Nigeria in the competitive economy. Hence, the key to transform the nation’s economy is to improve the quality of education, with more…
It would be needless to stress that the continent of Africa is blessed with many natural resources. The vast oil deposits in Nigeria, Sudan, and Angola; the diamonds and cobalt in Democratic Republic of Congo; the rich goldmines in Ghana and Democratic Republic of Congo as well as the timber of Cote d’Ivoire are some of the places that attest to the rich store of natural resources the continent possesses. However, despite the richness in the deposits of natural resources, most people in Africa live in abject poverty amidst underdeveloped infrastructures. The leadership crisis that has been a feature of…
It was on September 23, 2021 that I logged in to my Facebook account only to be welcomed by news headlines and video clips of a female military officer assaulting a corps member publicly in Calabar, Cross River State capital. In the viral video, the soldier was seen pouring muddy water and smashing the kneeling, fully kitted, corps member repeatedly with a bowl. The sleeping dog was let to lie until a video clip of yet another harassment by the military hit the social media on October 7, 2021. This time around, it was the Nollywood actor, Chinwetalu Agụ that…
Crime has become more rampant than ever in Nigeria. The heightened rate of crime in Nigeria in recent times is worrisome and disturbing. This is evident in daily news report of various crimes such as robbery, murder, terrorism, kidnapping, internet scam and other social media crimes. In most cases, perpetrators of these crimes are youths. The problem of crime in Nigeria has been exacerbated by the high rate of unemployment and economic hardship which has pushed many jobless youths, some of whom are graduates, into various deadly crimes. The youth unemployment crisis is not new, what is new is…
It is said that a people who have no knowledge of their past and how their past influences their present and could be a guide to their future are a people in the dark about their total environment of being. Knowledge of our past helps to remind us of where we started and how far down the road we have travelled in our search for a better tomorrow for all of us. It also helps us in the present to chart the path of our future and determine the probable destination for our people. The past is, therefore, more than…
That there are problems in Africa for several decades even after many countries in the continent went through transitions from colonialism to independence, is not a deniable fact. In combination to such factors as unequal development, poverty, disease, violence and the manipulative tendencies of the local elite, political and economic stability in Africa is constantly under threat. Many scholars have accounted for the continent’s underdevelopment, despite sitting on massive natural resources, as basically a consequence of its leadership problem. In this context, Africa has seen its freedom heroes turn into dictators, while plunder of natural resources, politics of exclusion…
It was a roll call of Nigeria’s most powerful political elites during the wedding of Yusuf Buhari, son of Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, to the daughter of the Emir of Bichi, Zahra Ado Bayero in Kano State, in a lavish ceremony on Friday, August 20. The wedding was a punctuation of colour, glamour and grandeur. Indeed, it could not have been otherwise considering the calibre of people involved in the superlative celebration of love – the only son of the first citizen of Nigeria and and the niece of the Emir of Kano, one of Nigeria’s most prominent…
The Igbo ethnic group in Nigeria is known for success in business and entrepreneurship. Their enterprising skills made them migrate in droves away from their cultural enclave in South-Eastern Nigeria, to other parts of Nigeria and beyond, where they have created and established different lines of business enterprises. In Lagos, which is the Nigerian economic capital, Igbo businesses account for the 74% of all investments according to Maliga (2013).Also, down in the South-Eastern Nigeria which is the Igbo home land and some part of Niger Delta region where Igbo people inhabit, the story remains an overwhelming entrepreneurial advancement and economic…
In the distant past, there was a kingdom. A kingdom with abundant natural resources, which co-existed peacefully with neighboring kingdoms, known for the relative peace and security in the land. This kingdom was known as Osimiri and the king, Igwe did everything possible to ameliorate suffering, poverty and hardship from the land. He was popularly called, “the man of the people.” Things were going well in the kingdom under King Igwe until some top officials in his cabinet, led by Ichie Eze became power-hungry. They met secretly to discuss how to usurp the king’s authority. The first plan was to…
Nigeria’s march to becoming a country can be attributed to British colonial constitutional engineering, which sought to establish it’s own extractive structures and institutions to drive it’s economic interests. Modern Nigeria came into existence on January 1, 1914, when the British imperialist, Lord Lugard effected the union of both the Northern and the Southern parts of country under the name, ‘Nigeria.’ Over the years, several scholars and statesmen have expressed serious misgivings about the amalgamation, describing it as a “mistake.” In 1948, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa said, “Since 1914, the British Government has been trying to make Nigeria into one…
Nigeria is a hostile place for Lesbians, Gays, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) persons. The consensus is that being gay (used in this context to refer to members of the LGBT community) is not acceptable for religious and cultural reasons. Consequently, laws in numerous African countries – as is the case in Nigeria – reflect this by criminalizing same-sex sexual activities and same-sex marriage. The Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act (SSMPA) signed into law by former president Goodluck Jonathan in 2014, introduced into a legal context that already criminalized consensual adult same-sex conduct, makes the existence of LGBT persons illegal. The…
Cannabis legalization is fast gaining momentum – about 30 countries have legalized medical marijuana in some capacity over the last few years, as well as a small handful of others that allow medical weed use within very strict guidelines, such as in the form of cannabis-derived pharmaceuticals. The good news is that our country, Nigeria has joined the growing number of countries waving the green flag on medical cannabis, as attitudes towards the drug slowly change and investments in its medical benefits grow. Cannabis, known as marijuana, weed or ‘igbo’, among others has been one of the most contentious issues…
The future looks bleak for Nigeria. I am not a soothsayer and need not be one to be able to foresee and predict a bleak future for Nigeria. Most people would want to be optimistic and urge others to remain hopeful of a better Nigeria. I was once in that train until it recently dawned on me that hoping for a better Nigeria is a delusion. Who wouldn’t agree that Nigeria has become a laughing stock in the comity of nations? Recent events in the country clearly reveal that the country is in the throes of death. Strife here, discord…
Prisons are public institutions established by government for the rehabilitation and reformation of individuals who are at breach of the law. It is any institution that holds a captive in custody. Prisons have been in existence since ancient times. They didn’t serve as a form of punishment back then but rather were just used to hold individuals until they receive their punishment which included beheading, death penalty and public shaming. Ancient punishments were cruel and harsh but today, punishment is aimed at making lawbreakers or criminals’ law-abiding citizens including prisoners. Punishment has become very essential for law that’s broken. People…
Insecurity has become rife in Nigeria. From the north to the south, life has become nasty, brutish, and short. Lately, Nigeria has been enmeshed in a firebox of insecurity leading to scores of deaths and/or abductions of innocent civilians, members of the security personnel, elected officials and many government workers. The insecurity challenge has assumed a formidable dimension, forcing the country’s political and economic managers and, indeed the entire nation, to rue the loss of their loved ones, investments and absence of safety in most parts of the country. The number of violent crimes such as kidnappings, ritual killings, religious…
Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy. Since the late 1960s, it has been based primarily on the petroleum industry; relying heavily on oil as its main source of foreign exchange earnings and government revenues. The capital-intensive oil sector provides 95 percent of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings and about 65 percent of its budgetary revenues. The basis of the Nigerian economy is the oil industry. The country is the 1st in Africa and the world’s 11th oil producer. At present, the oil industry is the foundation of the economy. Nigeria’s economy is a middle-income, mixed economy and emerging market, with expanding manufacturing,…
The saying that “knowledge is power” is indeed an eloquent and forceful idea. Lately, I started to juxtapose the meaning of this adage with the pitiable African situation. If “knowledge is power”, why is Africa investing more on frivolous things than on information and more on the military than on education? If the pen is mightier than the sword, why does a politician in Africa earn more than teachers, lecturers and professors? If knowledge is, indeed, power, then Africa should curtail its brain drain and promote the African Renaissance which will lead to the rebirth of the continent. To speak…
