In recent times, precisely in the last one year, many events birthed in response to the various challenges plaguing the people of the Niger Delta region, and aimed at ensuring that the people of the region benefit maximally from their wealth, through promoting infrastructural developments, environmental remediation and local content development has taken place. Take as an illustration, the Petroleum Industry Bill or PIB which had been under review in the National Assembly for nearly two decades, beset by disagreements, including over how much revenue should go to local communities in oil-producing regions was finally in 2021, passed and signed…
Author: JEROME-MARIO UTOMI
I believe that when plundering and debilitating hands of the military are removed from governance and the country’s infrastructure, educational and health systems are reconstructed, Nigeria will enjoy a boom of creativity and productivity -Mr. Ola Vincent, Former CBN Governor, . Prior to May 1999, when democracy re-emerged on the political surface called Nigeria, there existed so many reasons why Nigerians yearned for, and preferred democratic system of government to the military regime. First, .many believed that in democratic governments, political leaders will be elected as against military regimes where members of the administration are not elected. To others, in…
Even though previous opinion articles, commentaries and interventions by this author favored/supported policies and decisions of the Delta state Government, it will however, for reasons, be considered very logical, rational and practical to say that the same state government will definitely feel hesitant as to why they should read this present piece. Or accept the content of solution it proffers as beneficial and helpful to the real development in the state education sector as the piece stoutly opposes the state government’s inconsiderate decision, and describes as ill-timed, the recent hikes in students’ fees in virtually all the state owned institutions…
The Nigerian’s version of democracy shares common features with the human brain and immune system. The two in my views had something important in common. First, medical professionals believe that neither the brain nor immune system is fully formed at birth, but continues to develop rapidly during infancy. Humans have the longest extended period of infancy of any creature in nature- with profound implication/ tendency for absorbing vast amounts of culture, tradition and belief into the operating system of our brains. Likewise, democracy in Nigeria has recorded over two decades of unbroken practice, yet, like the brain and human immune…
Ika nation, going by information available at Wikipedia, world information engine, is a recognized tribe that is found in both Delta State and Edo State- and share similarities between the Igbo and the Benin but are a recognized tribe on their own. While the above is validly true and important, it is however, important to underline that the historical account of the Ika Land is not the objective of this piece. This piece was inspired by two separate but related events that recently offered a roadmap for restoring the educational and cultural health and vitality of Ndi- Ika and proposed…
Aside from the painful fact that public offices in Nigeria erroneously view their positions as an opportunity for private gain/personal enrichment instead of an avenue for public good, there exist in my view, two other constraints that explain why Nigeria’s democratic experience remained nascent, socioeconomically stunted and devoid of democracy dividends after over two decades of unbroken practice. The first and very fundamental has to do with the fact that public office seekers/holders are usually laced with set vision/agendas which are at odds with the general inspirations and motivations of the citizens. And even when such visions are in consonance…
If there is any comment in recent times that reminds Nigerians that they are still victims of broken promises and blasted hope, as well as points how off-track the Federal Government’s poor electricity/power roadmap has taken Nigerians, it is the declaration by Olorogun David Edevbie, a frontline aspirant for the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party ahead of the 2023 Delta State Governorship election, that the nation Nigeria still operate old-schooled and out-fashioned electricity regime/system we inherited from the colonial masters. Speaking at the Delta NUJ Council Television platform, Meeting Point, Edevbie going by media reports pointed out that without…
There are two recent exciting events in the country that provided side light to this particular piece. Fortunately also, both are education sector-specific. First, the recent in Abuja while receiving members of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) led by the Co-Chairs, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, and the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Revd. (Dr.) Samson Olasupo Ayokunle.In that meeting,Mr President Muhammadu Buhari among other things stated that that the Federal Government remains committed to honouring promises made to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to prevent disruptive strikes, engender uninterrupted academic programmes and…
At the run-up to the general elections in March 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari campaigned on the platform of addressing the challenges of security, the economy, power, and infrastructure and fighting corruption, Nigerians on their part, concluded but hastily that the coming of President Buhari would sincerely announce the arrival of a brand new great nation where peace, love security and development shall reign supreme. Nigerians were particularly happy when Mr. President underlined that, removing the cancer of corruption from the system is the key not only to restoring the moral health of the nation, but also to freeing our enormous…
I read with much relief two expositions on the electricity crisis in Nigeria. And I must confess that any interested observer of the critical appraisal of the issue will agree that those submissions were factual and patriotically expressed. While the first came from a reader who reacted to my initial intervention ‘Still on Nigeria’s Electricity Crisis’, the other and very revealing submission came from the government quarters-the Delta State Commissioner for Energy, Engr. Jonathan Ukodhiko. Beginning with the first, it reads; the manifest failure of the poorly executed power sector privatization by the discredited Jonathan administration is a pointer to…
Similar to History which according to historians, is an unending dialogue between the present and the past through a continuous process of interaction between the historian and his facts to assist the anxious enquirer improve the present and future based on a clearer understanding of the mistakes and achievements of the past, the conversion on electricity power supply challenge in the country has like history, become neither unending nor abating. Essentially, the first half of this recurring circle was captured recently in my piece titled FG’s Assurance on Generation of 25,000MW Electricity, as it explains why Nigerians are no longer…
History does matter and has shown clearly that ordinary calculation can be upturned by extraordinary personalities. Working under this assumption, it will not be considered an overstatement to conclude that the People Democratic Party (PDP), is set to upturn the present political calculation in Nigeria. For the sake of clarity, it is important to underline that the above assertion is not anchored on, or a function of the below average performance of the current Federal Government which daily manifests in areas such as; ‘continued state of insecurity in the country, the persistent and ceaseless flow of Nigerians blood on a…
The debate on the interrelatedness of equity, justice; peace and development is among the most presently discussed topics on the surface of the earth. The reason for this unending debate stems from the time-honored belief that without equity and justice, there will be no peace. And without peace, no society, group or nation should contemplate development. For Nigeria to achieve the above feat there exists the need to think over the marriage of two unwilling brides who had no say in their forced and ill-fated union- amalgamation of the northern and the southern protectorates on the 14th February 1914, by…
It was Orji Uzor Kalu, former Governor of Abia state and presently, Chief Whip of the Nigerian Senate, that at a time stated thus; a good businessman sees where others don’t see. What I see, you may not see. You cannot see because that is the secret of the business… the entire world is a big market waiting for anybody who knows the rules of the game. The above thought came flooding recently not necessarily because Nigeria and Nigerians are at present witnessing politicians queue behind each other to declare/express interest in the nation’s 2023 presidency. Rather, it stemmed from…
It is a common knowledge that President Muhammadu Buhari during an exclusive interview with Channels Television, reportedly made the following remarks; that state police is not an option for the nation. “Find out the relationship between local government and the Governors. Are the third tiers of government getting what they are supposed to get constitutionally? Are they getting it? Let the people in the local government tell you the truth, the fight between local governments and the Governor.” The role of traditional rulers must not be undermined, because in their areas they know who is who, even by families, not…
Understandably, the major factor, says a report, that daily abbreviates the seriousness with which communication from public officials/offices are taken by the people is that generality of such information often makes the grade of ‘self-undermining’. They are recurrently reputed for encouraging complacency as constituents perceive issues raised by the government as already being handled or the priority often always not in conformity with the will/opinion of the people on the action later taken. As expected, similar feelings greeted the recent reassurance by The Minister of Power, Mr Mua’azu Sambo, that the federal government is ready to generate 25,000 megawatts of…
The bitter truth is that presently, no nation best typifies a country in dire need of peace and social cohesion among her various sociopolitical groups than Nigeria. Over the years, myriads of sociopolitical contradictions have conspired directly and indirectly to give the unenviable tag of a country in constant search of social harmony, justice, equity, equality, and peace. In view of this fact, particularly as it is said that once the boundaries of the brain is adjusted by new knowledge, it will never regain its original shape, as we begin the year 2022, there are important actions/steps that the nation…
For Nigerians that have their thinking divided between the present and the future, with part of it dedicated to finding solution to current nagging challenges in the country, and the other, concerned with what becomes the future of the country, if the present administration fails to get its leadership priorities right, President Muhammadu Buhari’s Christmas and New year messages to Nigerians were received with mixed feelings. Essentially, there is no doubt that the country recently made some political and socioeconomic progress. But looking at the Federal Government performance in the out-gone 2021, it becomes evident in my view, that Mr.…
There are clear thinkers, muddled thinkers and people that fall in between. Clear thinkers – the ones that can cull everything down into the right points-are very hard to find. But if you get yourself a team of clear thinkers, the possibilities are endless. These are men who see tomorrow, trailblazers and high level executives, but most often misunderstood by some fellow countrymen still stuck in the old normal of yesterday. Without any shadow of the doubt, Samuel Loraer Ortom, the incumbent Executive Governor of Benue state, and the only PDP Governor in the North Central Geopolitical Zone of the…
Torrent of criticism/knocks from good spirited Nigerians has trailed the bogus budget proposition of N305 billion for the 2023 general elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recently submitted to the National Assembly. It is equally not surprising to see some supporters of the government argue that in a democracy, government agencies and commissions such as INEC are at liberty to take or discard advice and public opinion as public opinion does not always provide clear-cut policy guidance. It is also not impossible to see in the coming days, Nigerians who will advocate that even in situations where public…
There exist some points that highlight as impressive the recent launch at the State House, Abuja, of the National Development Plan (NDP) 2021-2025, a successor plan to both the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP 2017-2020) and the Vision 20:2020, by the President Muhammadu Buhari led Federal Government. The plan according to Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, sets the tone for Nigeria’s next economic destination and would prioritize robust infrastructure, economic stability, improved social indicators and living conditions of Nigerians. First, infrastructural provisions enable development and also provide the services that underpin the ability of people to…
Each passing day brings to mind the fact that Nigeria is still visibly afflicted with perennial ‘leadership haemorrhage’. But the most serious aspect of this all-out assault is the believe by Nigerians that the nation’s leadership crisis was aggregated by successive deficiency in leadership vision and in some cases made worse by public official’s understanding and interpretation of problems with clarity but lacking in political will to see or implement solutions. Out of many of such comments, this piece will talk about two that are relevant to the present intervention. The first and very basic came from a former Speaker…
It qualifies as exemplary and a right step taken in the right direction, the recent report by the Director-General of the Fund, Mr Joseph Ari, that the federal government is partnering with the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) to inject N381 trillion into the economy to cushion the growing rate of poverty, job losses and economic degradation in Nigeria. Mr. Joseph Ari, during a media interaction with the Correspondent Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in Jos, stated at the Plateau state capital that the federal government came up with a 5-year National Development Plan tied around the sum of…
Nigerians could argue that the entire problem (both real and probable) currently confronting the nation are caused by the inability of the present administration to effectively secure the nation and manage the nation’s resources. From that point, the story is well known. Such an argument cannot be viewed as lacking in merit particularly as the Muhammadu Buhari led administration has no excuse for not engineering prosperity lavishly promised in 2015. The situation becomes a crisis of the sort when one remembers that across the world; well known leaders in the past had upon assumption of office faced a more precarious…
As a nation, Nigeria and most of her Federating states are currently faced with serious socio-economic issues/survival dilemmas. Although this in my view has been on overtime as a nation that plays politics with everything, we have been living in denial. But as it currently stands, it has gotten to the brim and the nation/states are faced with either confess or collapse options. According to media reports dated September 16, 2021, the nation’s public debt stock stood at N35.465 trillion as of June 30, Director-General of the Debt Management Office, DMO, Ms. Patience Oniha, disclosed. Total Public Debt is composed…
The central interest of this piece is not to spot leadership faults in Nigeria, or proffer solutions to what the present administration is not doing well to salvage the socioeconomic well being of the poor masses. Rather, the present piece is out to perform two separate but related functions. First, as the nation races towards 2023 general elections, the piece x-rays the volume/strength with which foreign observers have in the past two decades raised strong voices against uncivil antics particularly the thorny transparency-challenge that characterized concluded elections in Nigeria and the organized resentment it brought to the nation at the global…
It is a common knowledge that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) recently rejected the Federal Government proposed N5, 000 for 40 million poor Nigerians when the subsidy on Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS) is removed. While describing it as ‘nonsensical’ the argument that the complete surrender of the price of petrol to market forces would normalize the curve of demand and supply as it is being wrongly attributed to the current market realities with cooking gas, diesel and kerosene is very obtuse, the Congress according to media reports warned that the bait by government to pay 40 million Nigerians N5, 000…
There is no gainsaying that Nigeria is plagued with development challenges such as widespread poverty, insecurity, corruption, gross injustice and ethnic politics. Also, evidence abounds that the nation is in dire need of attention/support from, interventionist’s organizations (private and civil society organization), to help unleash economic development, promotes growth and structural change, with some measures of distributive equity, modernization in social and cultural attitudes, a degree of political transformation and stability, an improvement in health and education so that population growth stabilizes, and an increase in urban living and employment. What is yet to be uncovered is/are the principal…
This piece stemmed from an unusual occurrence/event which glaringly did more than anything else to support the claim by well-meaning Nigerians that healthcare professionals do not feel bound to seriously observe basic standards of care or are generally unwilling to accept responsibility for their failure to deliver expected quality services. It was an extract of a mental account on Saturday November 6, 2021, at Ketu Lagos, where/when my son Pascal Onyinyechukukwu Utomi (now late) suffered a health crisis. To assist the innocent boy arrest the troubling reality, we (myself, the mother/my wife and a very good neighbor), went to one of…
It was at a recent gathering organized by one of the catholic churches in Lagos aimed at creating new awareness to assist parishioners keep abreast with fueling factors and possible steps that will cushion the socioeconomic impact of nagging insecurity in the country. The gathering had as a theme; Heightening Insecurity in the Country: Exploring Ways to Mitigate Hardship, with Achike Chudi, a public affairs commentator and Vice President Joint Action Front (JAF) as the Keynote Speaker. On that day, at that time and in that place, while Achike examined the multiple layers of formal and informal political leadership in post-colonial Africa, the primary holders,…
