Nigeria in Search of a Golden Age?

Nigeria in Search of a Golden Age?

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu wants to return Nigeria to its Golden Age of former times. We would all love that, except it reminds us of Buhari’s promise to revalue the Naira till it becomes at par with the US Dollar. It happened.

In Nigeria times have changed, the needs, the expectations, the conditions of the people far more so.  You retrofit the present onto the past, not the past onto the future. Best of luck. (more…)

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Peter Obi – Obasanjo’s Hope?

Peter Obi – Obasanjo’s Hope? Or Nigeria’s hope?

One should ask what does the support of former generals, ethnocultural groups, and other political heavyweights in the land mean for Peter Obi’s campaign? Peter Obi has earned phenomenal popularity through fostering Nigeria’s first popular democratic movement since the 1950s. That was for Nigeria’s Independence from colonial rule. This time it is for Nigeria’s independence from auto-colonial misrule. The pro-democracy movement of the 1990s was an army arrangement. Obi appears to have defied the Religious-Ethnic-Money complex (REM) that has left Nigeria, according Prof Eghosa Osaghae, a withered giant impotent in fulfilling its obvious capabilities as a nation. Elections should be about “Hope” since politicians who give the best chances of hope to voters become the People’s choice. (more…)

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Economic Sectors – Not Complementary

Economic Sectors – Not Complementary

No agreement today, no agreement tomorrow – Fela Kuti

Capable societies are those that have enforceable institutions of public value, while incapable societies lack them at national and local levels. Such nations are mainly in the Global North. It is easy to identify nations in the Global South as incapable of such enforcement. Public value can be economic or social. Accordingly, incapable societies cannot create public value by themselves. They can only extract it and thus live on dependency. If they have mineral riches, they become rentier states. Otherwise, they stand as highly indebted nations ever seeking technical help. Surviving on begging bowl economics. (more…)

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Are Vice Chacellors to Blame?
Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois, USA

Are Vice Chancellors to Blame?

The ASUU Strike of 2022 is raising important questions and responses we must not dodge. Market reforms now demand Vice Chancellors should raise tens of billions of naira annually to fund their universities. Otherwise they are not fit for purpose. Really? Are Vice Chancellors to blame for the government’s ancient failures in education policy and practice? Thus, it is a question worth examining.
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The ASUU Strike and the Crapious Revolution 6

The ASUU Strike and the Crapious Revolution 6

The Final Target

Nigeria needs its public research universities and teaching hospitals despite the plans of the government. It’s a non-negotiable necessity.”

How true is it that the private sector can run universities better than the public sector? A classic globalisation policy, only the World Bank and the IMF could successfully impose such a policy on Nigeria. The Government of Nigeria (GON) seeks to abolish public university education in Nigeria completely. That is the tacit intention of the GON, not make-believe reform. Free-markets for education are profit driven and with consequences. Must education be expensive in a country that cannot adequately employ its educated people? Or pay them living wages? It is neither value for money nor does it make economic sense. (more…)

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The ASUU Strike and the Crapious Revolution 5

The ASUU Strike and the Crapious Revolution 5

The Second Target

The neglect of a child is abuse; a nation’s neglect of its youth is wilful filicide.”

The other target of the Government of Nigeria that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is striking over is the fate and future of students in tertiary education. ASUU with vehemence detests and protests a few things. (1) The gross over-population classes they teach in dated small lecture theatres. Venues where students sit in windows, on steps, on the floor or even listen to from outside. (more…)

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