Nigeria Needs Strong Social Movements Voting, votes and honest election results are not enough to prevent elected officials from misbehaving or misgoverning once they get into office. Constitutional checks and balances are not usually sufficient to check and balance the activities of those in power abuses of power as malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance. Such abuses…
Tag: Boko Haram
Nnamdi Kanu is a Made Man: Made by Buhari
Today, on Nnamdi Kanu’s release he has become “cause celebre” supreme in Nigeria. He visits and is visited by an impressive list of the ‘high and mighty’ in the land. Despite his oppressive bail conditions which prevent him from undertaking any activism or agitation activities, Kanu’s persona is flourishing. Kanu has become an unlikely but…
Bombing the Niger Delta Will Not Deter Bunkering: Part 2
To say that the Government of Nigeria (GON) handles issues of the military of nature with either weak short-term “quick fixes” or opportunities for “melees” is not mere criticism. It is a record of innumerable failures and blunders that should not have happened in the first place. Bombing oil bunkering assets in the Niger Delta…
Another Deadline, Another Dead End: Boko Haram’s Turn
Nigeria has had many deadlines foist upon its public through its chiefs governmental agencies as a show of commitment or as a precursor to a privatisation. Deadlines have been set by successive presidents as a test point for the management and performance, mostly in the electric power and the oil and gas sectors. However, there…
Wole Soyinka and Democratic Forgiveness?
In a very revealing and dramatic recent Guardian interview conducted by correspondent David Smith http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/mar/29/wole-soyinka-interview-nigeria-corruption-goodluck-jonathan, Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka lamented the process of the ongoing Nigerian general elections tainted by desperation, violence and corruption. He even tried to personify Mandela in his forgiveness of Buhari. And yes, it’s Official! Soyinka claims to have forgiven General Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd)…
President Jonathan’s Boko Haram Excuse Is Inadequate
When President Goodluck Jonathan claimed he had “underestimated” the Boko Haram insurgency it was the latest in a long series of things he should not have said, another public relations disaster. Underestimation of the obvious is a major signal of administrative competence. Since Jonathan is not a military person his advisers must be openly held…
President Jonathan, What Are Your Spin Doctors Doing?
Hashtag disaster has hit the Nigerian President and it because someone created the unfortunate and ill-advised #BringBackJonathan2015 hashtag as a campaign device. But it is not the end of the world for President Jonathan by any means. Sometimes the greatest of presidents make or associated with blunders and as long as they handle wisely it…