Opinion
Opinion

Patriotism As Building Block Of National Development – Full Speech By Dakuku Peterside During Virtual Meeting By Global Patriotic Newspapers

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By Dakuku Peterside It is a known fact that no nation can make progress without the people being at its centre. They are the driving force of every development. From pre-industrial times to the different phases of the industrial revolution, progress or growth involves the people, as individuals and as a group. Several people must strive together to achieve collective goals. These individuals are often motivated by the desire to accomplish a collective good. The quest for common good and shared responsibility is the foundation for organized society. These perceived gains from the collective good give members of the society the impetus to sacrifice some of their comfort and freedom for the majority’s good. This is the basis for the social contract between the state (or king) and her citizens advocated by John Lockes and Thomas Hobbes . The people surrender part of their rights and freedom to the State (King), and in exchange, the state (or the king) guarantees them freedom, protection from external aggression and protection from the state (king) itself. This is also a fundamental foundation of …

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Opinion

Fani-Kayode Reacts To Dumping PDP, Says ‘I Am The Lion That Cannot Be Caged’

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Over the last one week millions of Nigerians have expressed concern about which direction I am going politically and much has been said. Some have gone out of their way to reach out to me and offered their counsel out of genuine love and concern. Others have not reached out to me and have written or spoken out of ignorance, hate and malice imputing the worst motivations for actions which they claim I have purportedly taken. This contribution is an attempt to provide answers to just a few of the oftentimes asinine and absurd assertions and observations that the latter group have made. Some say they warned me and that I have fallen into a trap whilst others say my voice has been silenced, I am a spy and that this signals the end of my political career. My response to them and others who have conjured up even stranger motivations and conspiracy theories when it comes to FFK is as follows. To whom it may concern: spare me your crocodile tears and be rest assured that I am too …

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Opinion

THE PUBLIC SPHERE: With Chido Nwakanma •Will New Service Chiefs Stop Lopsided Security Interventions And Restore Peace?

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President Muhammadu Buhari finally summoned the prudence during the past week to end the inglorious tenure of the military service chiefs under whom Nigeria regressed in security. The new heads of the Army, Navy and Airforce, and defence coordination come two years to the end of the PMB era with a full basket of tasks. Nigeria is impatient to see them strike a blow for positivity. In-office is Gen Leo Irabor as the new Chief of Defence staff, Gen. I. Attahiru as the Chief of Army Staff and Air Vice-Marshal Lawal Shittu Amao as Chief of Air Staff, while Rear Admiral A.Z. Gambo heads our seamen as the Chief of Naval Staff.The appointments have come at a most appropriate time, given the increasing insecurity in almost all parts of Nigeria. The service chiefs have a clear mandate: eliminate the sources of insecurity in Nigeria and restore peace in the land. The evidence is that it is a tall task. Human resource experts speak of past performance as a predictor of potential. By that reckoning, the scale weighs heavily against the …

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Opinion

Where is Magu? Used, dumped and forgotten?

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By Fredrick Nwabufo You cannot tango with hyenas and not get devoured. Hyenas are vicious; blundering yet pernicious, and jocular yet devious. Hyenas do not live by the rules of the wild; they subsist on the punitive canon of their clans. In fact, infanticide is common among hyenas. They eat their young. They eat their own. So, that you waltz with the hyenas does not mean you will not end up in the bowels of the beast. This appears to be the fate of Ibrahim Magu, suspended acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. I had chanced on Magu at media briefings and anti-corruption programmes. He was bubbling with passion for his job. You cannot fault him on dedication to duty, but you can spread him out on the slab of exuberance, naivety, and sycophancy for some lashing. Where is Magu now and what happened to the much vaunted war against corruption? It appears the Buhari administration has cast aside all pretences to fighting corruption. The government came with so much noise of how it is fighting corruption …

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Opinion

Nigerian Youth And A Future On Keg Of Gun Power

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BY Retson Tedheke The youth of any society are the engine of social transformation. But there is a caveat: When the youth are constructively engaged. However, when they face a bleak future, they could become dynamites that could bring to peril, a prevailing social order. Like other parts of Nigeria, the Niger Delta is naturally endowed with creative, energetic and socially mobile youths. Alas, disconnections arising from long term government misapplications, misallocations, misappropriation and outright theft of state resources and absence of proper planning have reduced the supposed enterprising and energetic youth of the Niger Delta to miscreants, such as I witnessed penultimate week. I was in Warri, Delta State last week, what I saw convinced me that the violent future of the Niger Delta and Nigeria is right before our faces. To avoid this uncertain future from befalling us, every state should begin to correct the insanity of yesterday and the wastefulness of today. The Niger Delta reality is heart-breaking. It is worrisome to explain to any sane mind that governments of a region that have enjoyed 13 percent …

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Opinion

Lawan: A messenger of harmony @62

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ByOLA AWONIYI High political office is surrounded on all sides by distractions. Experience best teaches this. It is not enough to take into the office a vision and a mission, you will find once there, enough to take you off track, to test your character and agenda. Many failed not because they were not prepared or well-meaning. They did because they no longer saw the goalpost once they found themselves on the playing field.Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan is apparently conscious of that reality. He believes a political leader must stand for something, to guide and focus their time and energy. A leader who does not stand for something falls for anything. And such is easily distracted. Because Lawan stands for something, he has resolutely focused on what took him from the ivory tower into politics and on all that he believes in as a public servant.Since his emergence as the 14th President of the Nigerian Senate in June 2019, Senator Lawan’s stand on any issue is an open book. His candour means that he takes a firm position even on controversial …

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Opinion

The Corporate Governance And Crisis Communication Web At FCMB

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By Chido Nwakanma Two matters stand out in the FCMB saga. One is the issue of ethics and corporate governance. The other is the collateral damage to the bank’s corporate reputation and image.Memes and videos are mocking the institution. Others have spoofs of their pay-off, turning it from “FCMB, My Bank and I”, to “FCMB, Your Wife and I.”There is also the matter of the integrity of the trending narrative. What happened really? Persons claiming affinity to the parties involved say the blow out happened five years ago. At issue now is the power of the internet and social media in constructing narratives.Someone or a group of persons used the unfortunate demise of Mr Thomas as the peg for spinning a salacious web that ropes in the bank through its primus inter pares. It is a deft and calculated sting filled from poisonous darts.Mr Adam Nuru and his friends finally stepped out to debunk aspects of the story. They stated that Nuru is not the father of Moyo’s two children; Nuru was friends with the late Thomas; the story is …

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Opinion

The Guest, Coro, Didn’t Come To Play, By Azu Ishiekwene

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I was a fool for months making all sorts of patriotic/nationalistic arguments that led nowhere. Until the shocking and devastating deaths of a few close friends and my son’s close shave reminded me that in a dangerous and uncertain world, self-care is the highest expression of love for others: Use your face mask, avoid crowds, wash your hands with soap and running water, use multivitamins as prescribed, and observe social distancing. Be safe. It’s true that coronavirus is not among the top five most deadly diseases in Africa today. But it’s also correct that at this time, we know far less about the COVID-19 pandemic than we know about malaria, diarrhoeal diseases, Ischaemic heart diseases, meningitis, tuberculosis, or HIV/AIDS. Yet, we’re fooling around with COVID-19 and making convenient excuses, as if ignorance or malicious defiance is a remedy. I’ve been a fool, too. When the virus was first announced in 2020, I thumped my nose at it. I argued that anyone who can survive the multitude of diseases in this country – from malaria to Lassa fever and typhoid and …

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Opinion

Here It Is, Dads: Your 2021 New Year’s Resolution

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By Kara Alaimo (CNN)Dads, I have a New Year’s resolution for you. It’s no secret that the pandemic has left many moms feeling stressed, besieged and utterly on their own. In surveys, moms say this is because they’ve been left to handle most of the burden and logistics of caring for and educating out-of-school kids — even when working full time themselves. Dads, next year, you should do your fair share of the child care, domestic work and emotional labor in your homes. The pandemic has certainly made things much harder for working moms like me, but this is hardly a new problem. When American women who have male partners work outside the home, they also do 65% of the child care, while men take on 35% — and these numbers haven’t changed in 20 years, clinical psychologist Darcy Lockman notes in her 2019 book “All the Rage: Mothers, Fathers and the Myth of Equal Partnership. “Women also tend to take on the largely invisible burden of what freelance journalist Gemma Hartley calls the “emotional labor” in our homes in …

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Opinion

From 1st to 3rd World: The USA Trump Would Bequeath to Biden

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By Magnus Onyibe,  When Donald J Trump’s tumultuous presidency ends on January 20, 2021, he would be handing over to president-elect, Joseph R Biden, a United States of America (USA), that has degenerated from first to third world. That is remarkable because the trend has always been for a country to move from third to first world as reflected by the case of Singapore, the island country, which leaped from first to the third world as documented in a book titled “ From Third To First World: The Story of Singapore, written by Lee Kuan Yew, that country’s most famous leader under whose watch the country experienced the phenomenal leap forward. There is a legion of reasons that the USA which Trump will be handing over to Biden would be a third world. And it is simply because after about four (4) years of Trump’s presidency, the USA that was the acclaimed leader of the democratic world; and the foremost defender of political and social liberalism; the most advanced society economically, which is a prime position that it has proudly …

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Opinion

The Trap Buhari Created

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By Simon Abah This president refuses to be a champion, needed to enhance the change mantra of his party. He missed a golden chance to speak to Nigerians on the state of the nation when he was given the opportunity by the Federal Parliament (House of Representatives). This president behaved like the proverbial blind leading the blind and denying that they are blind. And if they are blind, people must be responsible for their loss of sight. This president doesn’t believe in consensus building, if he did he would have walked on the golden highway to educate Nigerians and showcase his achievements at the National Assembly. The gods gifted him a golden opportunity but just like the ancient cavemen he fled (no disrespect intended). This president neither talks nor acts, he delegates responsibility and, accountability to his aides. Survivalism for these aides has taken the place of heroism and loyalty to the president is better than to the country. The polity is a boiling cauldron, sixteen Kano bound travellers were killed by bandits on the now notorious Kaduna – Abuja …

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Opinion

Purposeful Leadership: Why Nasarawa’ll Continue to Grow From Strength to Strength

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By Ali Abare Since the creation of the state on October 1, 1996, various administrations have played their parts with the singular objective of bringing development to Nasarawa State, which was carved out of the old Plateau State, by the military regime of the late General.Sani Abacha. Indeed, beginning from the first civilian administration in the state in 1999, under the leadership of Distiguished Senator Abdullahi Adamu, who ruled the state for eight years, before handing over the mantle of leadership to his successor, the late Alhaji Aliyu Akwe Doma of blessed memory, who remained at the helm of affairs for a period of four years, from 2007 to 2011, successive administrations have each built on the foundation laid before it, thus expanding further the frontiers of development. Development, according to sociologists, is the result of society’s capacity to organize resources to meet challenges and opportunities, adding that society passes through well-defined stages in the course of its development. In Nasarawa State, in as much the sociologists defination of development is concerned, each successive administration, utilized effectively resources at it …

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Opinion

Long road to corruption-free judiciary

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In his role as Convener, Fight Against Corruption in the Judiciary (FIACIJ), Mr Bayo Akinlade is familiar with the judiciary’s corruption problem. In a November 9 article, “Corruption and delays at the Federal High Court, Lagos” Akinlade laid most of the blame at the feet of his constituency: lawyers. The former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Ikorodu Branch Chairman chronicled one aspect of the problem with the story of his recent visit to the Federal High Court in Lagos. He said: “I spent more than five hours just to process a CTC (Certified True Copy) and still did not conclude the process on the same day. Moving from one section to another, there were more than five endorsements on my application letter as I took it from one stage to the other. “In filing a motion, another five plus hours spent from endorsements to paying to making copies to oaths etc. I was even laughing when someone had to wait more than an hour just to pay N20….what a joke….” Like many other stakeholders have noted, Akinlade pointed out that all …

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Opinion

Buhari Makes a Hero of Jonathan – Sonala Olumhense

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On March 31, 2015, Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan conceded his re-election contest by telephone. The man who took that call and received the happy news, General Muhammadu Buhari, was stunned but overjoyed: there would be no period of massive anxiety or turmoil, as is the case in most Nigerian elections. Mr. Jonathan had run an awful administration, which boosted the Buhari campaign and energised his supporters. For Buhari, it was the end of a long journey. His basic message: to conquer insecurity and corruption in Nigeria had resonated widely. Jonathan was expected to slink quietly into the shadows while the former army general showed the world how to reinvent Nigeria. And he was going to eat corruption—and the corrupt—alive. After all, he had boasted for many years that he was the only Nigerian who could do it. Jonathan was expected to be consumed by the Buhari conflagration along with his party, the Peoples Democratic Party. I was one of Jonathan’s biggest critics, particularly after the 2011 election for which I had compiled his campaign playbook. But Buhari’s political outlook tallied …

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Opinion

Guerrilla Journalism: Book By Sunday Dare, Nigeria’s Sports & Youth Dev. Minister

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By Razaq Ivori Guerrilla Journalism is a compelling personal narrative of how Sunday Dare and his colleagues frontally defied anti-media military laws in Nigeria by adopting hitherto unknown tactics to continue to report political events. From the vantage position of a first person, Dare provides terrific insights into how it all came together and why in the face of grave danger, a group of journalists embraced underground tactics to continue to expose the military junta. Indeed, Sunday Dare’s life as a journalist is pretty much a walk in a minefield. From his days as a reporter through his years as an editor and eventually manager of media resources, Dare has weathered storms and come face-to-face with the most potent hazards. But in all these, Dare’s quest for balance and fairness has always been unequivocal. Dare is one of the few journalists who uphold fiery reporting and fair representation as sacrosanct principles of journalism. At a time when most Nigerian journalists wallowed in resentment for the military, Sunday Dare remained a potent professional hand. This may have led to his posting …

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Opinion

Buhari’s unholy romance with Niger Republic

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President Muhammadu Buhari’s romance with Niger Republic has become an affront to the national interest of Nigeria. When he was sworn-in as an elected president in 2015 he went to Mamadou Issoufou’s presidential palace in Niamey, Niger Republic, to celebrate. They gave him the reception of a conquering Fulani warlord: a white horse and sword. I found that curious. How can a Nigerian leader celebrate his electoral victory in a foreign country and not Daura, his supposed hometown in Nigeria? The answer has since been provided through Buhari’s policy actions in the past five plus years. We have since learnt that Buhari is a first-generation Nigerian whose father, Ardo Adamu Buhari, a duck seller, had migrated from Niger, settled in Nigeria and married a Nigerian woman, Zulaihat. The borders defined by the European colonial masters mean nothing to typical Northerners. When you hear that Nigerian borders are porous, what it really means is that there is no intention in the minds of Northern Nigerians and their elite to create an effective barrier between them and their kith and kin in …

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