PeeCeeJay By Jideofor Adibe

2019: On your marks...

[GAMJI WRITER]

It is unheard of for African leaders to turn down the chance of a second term. In fact the common trend these days is that ‘constitutional coup making’ (where elected leaders change the constitutions of their countries in order to ‘elongate’ their tenures beyond the constitutionally allowed term limits) has replaced military coup making. To the best of my knowledge, no African leader has ever turned down the opportunity of exercising his/her right to a second term tenure – even if such a leader is gravely ill. Therefore if Buhari turns down his right to seek for a second term, he will be making an African history. But will he? Details

PeeCeeJay By Jideofor Adibe Separatist agitations in Nigeria: Causes and trajectories

Agitations around Biafra have drowned out other separatist agitations, giving the wrong impression that Biafra is the only separatist threat in the country. The truth is that there is separatist agitation in virtually every area in the country—underlying the fact that the foundation for Nigeria’s nationhood remains on shaky ground. Among  the Yoruba, for instance, echoes of separatism come in different forms—from a direct call for Oduduwa Republic to those championing a Sovereign National Conference to decide if the federating units of the country still want to continue to live together, and, if so, under what arrangements. Details

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PeeCeeJay By Jideofor Adibe Impeachment Axe against Osinbajo: Has Senate Lost It?

The background to this is that in April 2017 Professor Osinbajo reportedly faulted the insistence of the Senate that Ibrahim Magu should cease from parading himself as Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). After the Senate rejected Magu’s candidacy for the second time, Osinjabo was quoted as saying: “I’m fully in support of Magu as the EFCC chairman, just as the president is. It is up to the Senate to make their judgement.Details

A Day In Life Of A Child Beggar. By Najib Kazaure

Often denigrated and referred to as "Ticking Timebombs" , "Society's Blight" , or  " The Problem of the North" , a child beggar "Almajiri" as they are often called in Northern Nigeria, is society's most neglected pariah. At the lowest level of the social hierarchy, the Almajiri begs for food and works menial tasks to make ends meet. Bowl in hand and hunger in their eyes, door to door they go, singing their tune until they get lucky for some crumbs or leftovers. Details

African Oil Producers Cannot Think Beyond Crude Oil. By Farouk Martins Aresa

Why do Africans wait until it is too late for our rescue? Right now most African oil producing countries are still fighting about which regions produce more oil. Areas that are not producing oil are exploring other regions for oil. Many of us lost our thinking faculties in hedonism, greed and are spread all over the world beyond value to Africa. So, Not Thinking Beyond Crude Oil. Details

On the Kannywood/Nollywood Dichotomy and Related Issues. By Muhsin Ibrahim

In a nutshell, my lecture on this dichotomy exposed to me the fact that Nollywood is amazingly popular in Africa and beyond, while Kannywood still, shockingly, however, lingers in obscurity. I am aware that some select films have been shown in the US and Europe, but the glory of Nollywood is matchless to Kannywood’s. A number of factors are responsible for this, but the chief ones include language (English vs. Hausa); the northerners standoffish, closed attitude towards Kannywood films, and lack of collaboration between our academes and the filmmakers. As I write this, only a single university in the whole Northern Nigeria offers Film Studies as a course. Academics that show interest to study film or a related discipline are still discouraged or denied any chance to do so. Details

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Osinbajo Is Wrong; Private Sector Cannot Develop The Nigerian Economy. By Chinedu Bosah

The only thing the power companies are legendary for is issuance of outrageous bills despite supplying darkness. Worrisome is the fact that the Distribution Electricity Companies have become notorious for rejecting part of the electricity generated in order to make huge profit, an act that has further thrown the communities into more darkness. Details

Nigeria Needs A New Constitution. By Ibrahim M. Attahir

It is, therefore, misleading and mischievous to state that the 1999 Constitution was made by the military. In fact, the making of 1979 Constitution is far more democratic than the GEJ National Conference of 2014 which was wholly constituted by the government with no single elected member. When the 1979 Constitution was made, the country was under a military government. Details

Federal Character Suffocated Infrastructure. By Farouk Martins Aresa

Nigeria is about the size of California. While the whole of United States has 100 senators Nigeria has 109. The reason is to make sure every area has a voice in the senate even if we have to pay more senators than United States. Nigeria has a population of about 180 million compare to U.S 300 million. There is no need to compare incomes with the richest country, the United States; but the emoluments of our politicians in Nigeria surpass that of any country in the world. Details

Neither Restructuring nor Unity… but Good Governance can save Nigeria. By Okachikwu Dibia

The Nigerian commoners who argue for restructuring cite examples of some factors which have caused imbalances and tensions in the polity by querying some critical issues about the country. They ask the following questions which bear their source of rage against the so-called united Nigeria. Why should the South-East geo-political zone (out of the six zones) have five states while the rest zones have six states each? Why is it that the former Northern region would always have more population census figures than the Western, Eastern and Mid-Western regions combined? Details

Inclusivity In Policy Formulation And Budgeting. By Otive Igbuzor, PhD

Meanwhile, the richest Nigerian man will take 42 years to spend all his wealth at one million per day (page 4). The report notes that the amount of money that the richest Nigerian man can earn annually from his wealth is sufficient to lift 2 million people out of poverty for one year. Similarly, Nigerian lawmakers are one of the best paid in the world: the average annual salary is $118,000 equivalent to 63 times the country’s per capita (in 2013)(page 5).  So, we have “the world’s highest paid lawmakers preside over some of its poorest people.” (page 9). Details

Rail Lines to Daura and Jibia: Why I am Confused. By Prof. Abdussamad Umar Jibia

Buhari is incorruptible and he did as much as he could as a military leader to force all Nigerians to be like him through his WAI programme, his many decrees and imprisonment of corrupt politicians. But that is where he got it wrong, I have always told them.  It is impossible for all Nigerians, nay majority of Nigerians to become Buharis. Details

Got The Country You Wanted In Pieces. By Farouk Martins Aresa

Nigeria must separate one way or the other before we realize that the evil that plague us is more within and less from outside. When those that champion our hatred for one another are the same people that benefit from it, we have to separate and get a breathing space to realize reality. It has got to that stage where Nigeria can no longer hold, anyone in the way of a moving train would be consumed. The fury and speed of a moving train can’t be controlled or stopped. Details

FGN-ASUU Face-off: Matters Arising. By Leonard Karshima Shilgba and Etumudon Ndidi Asien

It is a well-known fact that the Federal and State governments in Nigeria have been having running battles with Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).  The running battles have led to incessant strikes and closure of public universities in Nigeria.  It is also well-known that the problem has almost defied logic and reason, remaining intractable even as there are always “pending agreements” between ASUU and the Federal Government, which ASUU claims are broken by the latter. Details

The Nigeria’s Diaspora Bond And Community in a Complex Economic Environment. By Jones O. Edobor, Ph.D

This paper shall not discuss the technicalities or the procedures of the development of a bond; such as documentation, roles of rating agencies, registration and application with relevant Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), and choosing agents, marketers and brokers, as well as wealth managers, etc.,  who may be considered best suited to reach targeted objectives and investors/lenders. Details

Amendment Of The 1999 Nigerian Constitution And The Concerns Of Civil Society. By Dr. Otive Igbuzor

The political elite has opted for a piecemeal approach to amending the constitution. Recently, the Senate and House of Representatives started a process to amend 33 areas in the 1999 constitution. Some of the proposed amendments such as institution of local government autonomy is commendable and civil society organisations are committed to continuing advocacy to ensure that the Houses of Assembly endorse those sections. Details

Exploiting Mass Action During A Democratic Anti-Corruption Campaign. By Abel B.S. Gaiya

In summary, we are faced with a dual problem. The first is that the president is unable to incite mass action to propel him through the political obstacles currently faced. The second is that the key anti-corruption agencies meant to spearhead enforcement also do not have satisfactory public credibility and public support to also overcome these same political obstacles. Details

Observations On Biafra And Predictions For The Near Future. By Abel B.S. Gaiya

If, on the other hand, an Igbo presidency is not secured in 2019, this reinforces the pro-Biafran narrative of Igbo marginalization and gives impetus for greater Igbo subscription to Biafranism. Therefore, no matter the outcome, I predict that the pro-Biafran agitation would likely accelerate dramatically after the 2019 presidential elections. Details

IPOB Arewa & Odua Must Trade In World’s Largest Mumu Market. By Farouk Martins Aresa

Arewa, IPOB and Odua are used to distract us from wrestling market from foreigners! Years ago one would think that Nigeria would be unknown in St. Louis Missouri as world’s biggest market until one guy found out this African. Surprised that some indigenes would leave that market: he saw Nigeria as a great place to make money as long as you could hold your nose. The corruption stunk to high heavens but too good to quit while making stupendous profit: except as Nigerian. Details

In  Defence  Of  The  Rule  Of  Law. By Bashir Abba Sharif

However, due to weakling institutions, impunity, by and among the political elite, dominates, in large proportion, the conduct of public officers in our governments. Rule of law, for instance, that other countries take seriously, is daily abused to the detriment of development without appropriate or at best selective sanction. Consequently, endemic corruption and nepotism find the opportunity to gradually erode whatever consensus the nation was built on. Details

Marginalization: Who Is Actually Marginalized? By Musa Ghude

The cry of marginalization is all over the place and the propensity is on the high rise with no consideration to the other side of the fact. To my understanding, the real concept of clamoring for marginalization is location specific. While in some quarters, the cry of marginalization is skewed towards religious differences, some is narrowed in aligned to tribal base and others are regional divide. Details

My Thoughts on Restructuring. By Bashir Abba Sharif

Captioned as above, the advertorial, laced with unpardonable distortions, contradictions and fallacies, that appeared in the Daily Trust issue of 6^th July, 2017 and posted on the social media by Attahiru Baffarawa was, for many reasons, a sad reading to the extent that one would not have bothered to pen this piece but for the necessity to forestall any tendency to derail our democracy by systematically corrupting and subverting the faith and aspirations of the vulnerable in particular, who admire, trust and wholeheartedly support President Muhammadu Buhari proudly. Details

Polygamy and High Divorce Rates in Northern Nigeria. By Dr. Bala Mohammed Liman

The current situation in Nigeria is that many Muslim marriages are not registered and there are no marriage contracts. Also, the man does not have to get his wife’s permission nor have to inform the authorities of his desire to take a second wife, which differs in many other Muslim majority countries where there are certain requirements before a man can get married or take another wife. Details

Port Harcourt: From Cultism to Flood. By Okachikwu Dibia

Just yesterday six of my close friends living in PH, the capital city of Rivers State, called me and told me that our dear and only PH has been submerged in flood and that they are busy pumping water out of their houses. I was sober. How can development take place in an environment sacked by cultism and now flooded and washed away by the rains? Details