Corruption

Peter Obi - Obasanjo’s Hope?

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

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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Does National Security Expire?

Does National Security Expire?

Does National Security Expire?

The Anarchy

The anarchy brewing in Nigeria is near complete. Noting the security problem in Nigeria is dire is not news. It has become a daily and worsening fact. Wear is Nigeria’s national security? No one is safe from violence in the country any longer. Not even the military academies and barracks, high security prisons, nor police stations. And not the Presidential Guard or the President himself. What does the President, Buhari care? Moreover, the Government of Nigeria (GON) has no effective response to the failing state of security in the country. None. None from above and none from below. Video clips of bandits, terrorists, and criminals hold one key reason for this sorry state in plain sight.

Accordingly, the fabric of Nigerian society and culture is today determined by the insecurity. Both rural and urban areas are just as unsafe as each other. The roads are now highways to hell. It is that bad. (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 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 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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The ASUU Strike and the Crapious Revolution 4

The ASUU Strike and the Crapious Revolution 4

The ASUU Strike and the Crapious Revolution 4

The First Target

The continuing romance of the Government of Nigeria (GON) with globalisation is ever demanding of the immiseration of the country. Globalisation has done nothing good for Nigeria and Nigerians, other than in strange abstract terms. One-size-fits-all globalisation policies always end up favouring the few and failing everyone else. The Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) is a one-size-fits-all policy instrument and does not fit with university systems. Rather, it targets university staff. (more…)

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