Author: JEROME-MARIO UTOMI

If the time-honoured aphorism which considers education as the bedrock of development is anything to go by and if the age-long believe that; with sound educational institutions, a country is as good as made -as the institutions will turn out all rounded manpower to continue with the development of the society driven by well thought out ideas, policies, programmes, and projects remains a valid argument, then, we all have reasons not only to feel worried but collectively work hard to deliver the nation’s public universities from the valleys of the shadow of death. Specifically, the challenge comes in two forms; the first lays…

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It is common knowledge that the Federal Government on August 20th, 2019, ordered the closure of Nigeria’s border with Benin Republic, citing massive smuggling activities taking place on that corridor as the reason(s). Within this space also, Nigerians have listened with rapt attention to the Federal Government reel out how smuggling of rice and other communities from the neighbouring countries threatens the nation’s domestic rice production and frustrates the Central Bank  of Nigeria(CBN)’s Anchor Borrowers Programme.  Expectedly, the decision has elicited various comments from numerous stakeholders. While Pro-border-closure expressed the view that though the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)…

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For a nation to develop rapidly, its citizens must learn the act  of questioning settled political answers and demand answers to unsettled political questions-analyzing both formal and informal communication/proposition from the government. Such an opportunity to question the so-called settled political answers again came the way of Nigerians following a recent report that President Muhammadu Buhari recently in Abuja while declaring open the 25th Nigeria Economic Summit (NES) with the theme: ‘‘Nigeria 2050: Shifting Gears’’ stated that the peaceful conduct of the 2019 general elections was a clear proof that Nigeria`s democracy was maturing. Noting  that the resort to the rule of…

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A peep into the history of attempts seeking regulation of non-profitable organizations (NPOs) in Nigeria will reveal that no bill has ever received the level of knocks like the NGO Bill sponsored by late Honorable Umar Buba Jibril and presented before the outgone 8th Assembly. The reasons for such knocks were built on the fact that if passed, it contains far-reaching, restrictive provisions than its counterparts. Looking at commentary, what made the Bill a very controversial one lies in its quest for a regulatory commission established which shall facilitate and coordinate the work of all national and international civil society…

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It is a time-honoured suggestion that during a period of rapid economic growth, nations as well as corporate organizations must continue investing even though it may not be clear how much investment is appropriate. Over investment is not a serious worry, since the excess is likely to be absorbed by future growth. By contrast, continuing low investment will not only be an error of judgement that development cannot forgive but amplifies the painful consequences of strategic mistakes. Fittingly, the plight of the people of Niger Delta region and orchestrated militancy which has become a painful consequence of prostrated neglect and…

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Tuesday 1st October 2019, a day set aside as public holiday by the Federal Government to celebrate the nations’ 59th Independence anniversary, provided me with yet another opportunity to ponder on the true meaning of independence. And search for answers to why Nigeria, a nation of people with extraordinary intellects, very high energy and vigour and other attributes profoundly important to build a modern nation, remain socioeconomically stunted after two decades of an unbroken democratic experiment and 59 years of independence. On that day, at that time and in that place, in my effort to gain this new awareness of why democracy failed…

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One event in recent history that typifies the nations’ education sector as an area in need of help is the ripple reaction that trailed the enrollment of the six year old child of the Kaduna state Mallam Nasiru, in a public school on Monday 23rd September, 2019. Specifically, not only did the event divert attention from real threat deserving of healthy and appropriate fear, it sowed confusion that glaringly portrayed the country as a nation that leadership has drained its national will, and a people with weakened national character. Expectedly, while condemning the orchestrated media attention drawn by the event which  lacks…

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It is a common knowledge that the Ijaw Youths Council recently issued a release which among other remarks stated that; if the government should reintroduce what they referred to as inimical and controversial water Resources Bill which was formally stepped down  by the 8th Assembly after much public outcry; that Southern Nigeria people will do everything lawful to resist the passage of that inimical Bill which tends to colonise them; adding  that this should not be another petroleum laws that have denied the Niger Delta people from controlling the petroleum resources in our land; And warned that that bill if passed…

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At a function organized by the United Nation Information Centre (UNIC), and the Centre for Peace and Environmental Justice (CEPEJ), on Friday 20th September 2019, in Lagos, to mark this years’ International Day of Peace which had as a theme; Climate Action For Peace, I listened with rapt attention to the keynote speaker, Mr Ronald Kayanja, Director, the United Nation Information Centre (UNIC), Nigeria, of which the content of that speech will form both the plot and focal point of this piece. Kayanja in that presentation used analytical method and properly framed arguments to underline how; current conflict in North-East Nigeria is not unrelated to…

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Oddities they say make the news. This time-honoured saying explains the recent reaction elicited when Rauf Aregbesola, upon assumption of office as the new Minister of Interior Affairs, declared that; he does not really know much about the operation or policies of the ministry apart from stories about the ministry on the pages of the newspapers; that his relationship with the ministry is distant. Essentially, apart from the fact that we are in a nation where one size is expected to fit-all, what particularly characterized the comment as newsy is that the declaration came from a highly placed public officer in a…

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Going by the counter, trans, cross and to some extent intercalary conversations coming from the court of public opinion over the simple decision rendered recently by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja, Nigeria, it appears the judgement will linger on the mental sheets of the future generations.. To the supporters of Mr President, that simple decision has fundamentally provided answers to the thorny electoral questions and permanently lay to rest the controversy surrounding the 2019 presidential general election in the country. But to his opponents, the judgement has but created more question than answers- a state of affairs that…

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As background to this piece, Robert Gabriel Mugabe was born on February 21, 1924, in Kutama, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), in 1963. He founded ZANU, a resistance movement against British colonial rule. Mugabe became prime minister of the new Republic of Zimbabwe after British rule ended in 1980, and he assumed the role of president seven years later. Mugabe retained a strong grip on power, through controversial elections, until he was forced to resign in November 2017, at age 93 and he died recently at a ripe age of 95years. Except for peripheral reason(s), it will be hard not to describe…

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I recall writing on August 2017, on the topic; Nigerian youth; celebrated abroad, despised at home, where I among other remarks stated that; a good number of talented Nigeria youths occupy enviable positions at the global stage; But back at home, these youths of ours are, by no fault of theirs, helplessly relegated to, and made to watch the socioeconomic and political affairs of their nation from the political gallery. Submitting that government’s insensitivity to the plights of Nigerians and lopsided architecture of our political theatre and onslaught against the youths explain why the country is   ‘losing’ her youths-those that will…

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Two separate but similar reports that left me lost in the maze of high voltage confusion in the past few weeks or thereabout are; the FBI’s release of the names of eighty suspects involved in internet fraud-related cases, with 77 of them Nigerians. And from their names, Nigerians have identified 74 out of 77 as Igbos. The second is the recent declaration by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFFC), that more suspects will be uncovered as an investigation into the 80 Nigerians indicted for internet-related crimes by the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) continues. To digress somewhat, from the above…

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Recently, President Muhammadu Buhari demonstrated that for an average Nigerian leader, once a direction is chosen, instead of examining process meticulously and set the right course; one that will allow us to overcome storm and reach safety before we can progress and achieve our goals, many obstinately persist with the execution of such plans regardless of a minor or major shift in circumstance. This habit of tackling challenges with the same thinking used when it was created and, ‘doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result’, has as a consequence made Nigerians to suffer greatly…

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Going by the words of President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, August 19, 2019 at the retreat for the ministers that; ministers will be responsible for the development and implementation of policies, programmes and projects in their various ministries, departments and agencies in line with the government priorities; and  also ensure that agencies under their ministries are effective, efficient and accountable in their responsibilities, then, it will not be wrong  to conclude that  a fundamental change of direction that will usher in a radical improvement and efficiency  among  government ministries, parastatals and agencies, has finally arrived in our political geography. With this in mind, the…

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Asked how he was able to grow fifteen times, independent Singapore with a GDP of $3billion in 1965 to $46billion in 1997, and became the 8th highest per capita GNP in the world in 1997 according to the World Bank ranking?  Lee Kuan Yew, the Prime Minister of Singapore (as he then was) explained thus; a united and a determined group of leaders, backed by practical and hard-working people who trusts them made it possible. The story of Singapore’s progress is a reflection of the advances of the industrial countries-their inventions, technology, enterprise and drive. It is part of the…

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 The truth is that oppressor and slaves are cooperators in ignorance-James Allen (As a Man Thinketh)  It is no longer news that while Nigerians are still waiting for the commencement of governance, the leadership of the National Assembly before embarking on its eight-week recess recently, which ends on September 24, 2019, begun moves to procure operational vehicles for the lawmakers that make up its dual legislative chambers. Indeed, while there is no question that high-offices such as the National Assembly needs operational vehicles to facilitate their responsibilities,  the stunning aspect of this episode going by reports is with the estimated…

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No one is so brave that he is not disturbed by something unexpected- Julius Caesar (100-44BC) An interesting sidelight to this topic was elicited by a conversation with a group of young people during the Sallah public holiday in Lagos. They were humane and well-informed. The discussion which lasted for about an hour focused primarily on the strategic interplays, conflicts and considerable uncertainties of the past weeks. Among other things, it did explicitly expose the underlying ‘civil but cold’ relationship between Nigerians and their leaders at all levels. As well as trumped-up hidden tensions to where they can be seen…

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Vanity asks the question- is it popular? Conscience asks the question-Is it right? -Martin Luther King Jnr. Very recently, I stumbled on a document where Havard Political Professor, Samuel Huntington, in an address at Taipei, on August 1995, contrasted Singapore leadership model with the democratic model in Taiwan. He smartly summed it up this way; ‘the freedom and creativity that President Lee has introduced in Taiwan will survive him but the honesty and efficiency that Senior Minister Lee has brought to Singapore are likely to follow him to his grave. Warning that authoritarianism may do well in the short term, but…

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Some leadership traits that were useful in the past might not be so today, because we are facing a situation that is totally different from the one that prevailed in the late 1990s or even in early 2000s. We must, therefore, find new forms of leadership, because the sophisticated ventures we are considering today requires a higher level of initiative and creativity  — Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirate. The vast majority of Nigerians think the reason(s) fueling the growing insecurity, which leads to the daily loss of lives and property despite huge budgetary…

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Viewed objectively, it will not be a wrong assertion  to conclude that the global object of strategy as used in battlefield, politics and other fields of endeavours, to bring conditions most favourable to one’s own side, judge precisely the right moment to attack or withdraw and access limits correctly was disproportionately exploited recently by Nigeria’s 9th Assembly Senators screening the ministerial nominees to favour their former Senators that made up the ministerial list forwarded by President Muhammadu Buhari to the for screening. For some days, Nigerians have helplessly watched the Senator Lawan led Senate, cleared about half of the nominees telling…

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The challenge of development is arguably one of the greatest problems that have dominated world history. Aside from being difficult to fight a problem you cannot see or measure, what constitutes the greatest impediment in every development process says experts are  leader’s erroneous belief that; the sooner the project is started, the sooner it will be finished. Wearing this frame of mind, government agencies and establishments in their attempt to develop the society, lose sight to the fact that the primary goal of every government should be to improve the life chances of the citizens through the implementation of plans, policies and budgets…

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The Supreme Court is not the highest Court in our land. Our highest court is the court of public opinion which meets every hour.—Seitel (1987). It is a common knowledge that one of the intrinsic privileges participatory democracy and election of leaders confer on us is the enjoyment of access to ‘free flow of information which gives each individual more standing within the society without reference to a class or fortune- to claim a measure of dignity equal to all others and empowers individuals to scrutinize the use of power by those in government’. Considering this fact, I found nothing out-of-ordinary to…

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From the excitement elicited so far, it will not be an overstatement to characterize as historic; the recent statement by Mr Sonny Echono, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Abuja, that the Federal Government has directed all primary and secondary schools across the country to immediately implement the teaching of history as a stand-alone subject from the next academic calendar. The situation is by no means a surprise as the most basic realities and consequences of not having history taught in schools had recently become not only predictable but real. Particularly,…

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‘I believe the more we understand one another, the more we will reduce the chances of war or terrorism and of man’s violence against man’ -Hiebert (1988) Each passing day brings yet more evidence that we are facing a national challenge -such evidence made manifest during a conversation with some Pro-RUGA advocates. The position which I had not only considered a strange logic but left me lost in the maze of high voltage confusion centred on their claim that neither Mr President nor his handlers should be blamed for the dust raised by the national debate construed around the now…

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In a speech delivered  at Project Hope 13th graduation ceremony held recently at Ute Okpu in Ika North East LGA, Delta State,  Otive Igbuzor, PhD, founding executive director, African centre for leadership, strategy and development (Centre LSD), among other things underlined that Nigeria government has great roles to play in planning for and accelerating the development process. Surprisingly, like a prophet that was supernaturally informed of it and supernaturally moved to announce it, few days after that speech, the government is beginning to show seriousness in the great role of planning for, and accelerating the development through skill empowerment of its citizens…

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‘I believe that when the plundering and debilitating hands of the military are removed from governance and the country’s  infrastructure, educational and health system are reconstructed, Nigerians will enjoy a boom of creativity and productivity- Ola Vincent’, Former CBN Gov. Sept. 27, 1998. Democracy, taken objectively signifies the right to choose. What is, however, doubtful of this arrangement is the quality of people making such decisions. As experience has shown that when such number is placed under scrutiny, it often reveals that a greater percentage manifests signs of education but ill-informed while others exude burning desire to bring into play…

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‘Creativity is ‘thinking up new things’, innovation is ‘doing new things’. In any society, there is no shortage of creativity or creative people; what is in short supply are innovators. These scarce people are the ones, who have the know-how, energy, daring and staying, power to implement ideas’—Professor Thomas Riskey Odhiambo Like the Vietnamese attack on Cambodia on the 25th December 1978, and subsequent occupation of same till 1991, threatened Asean solidarity, so was  the corporate existence of our nationhood, in the last few weeks confronted by challenges that had  its origin in the Federal Government proposed but now suspended establishment of…

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I have for a very long time lived with a notion that views drug abuse-related conversations as not just a familiar music hall act but a dangerous fiction erroneously directed to non-drug abusers.  But that belief fizzled out recently  at the Social Centre, St. Agnes Catholic Church, Maryland, Lagos, after my participation in  a symposium on combating drug abuse in Nigeria organised by the Justice Development and Peace Centre (JDPC). On that day, I was welcomed to the venue by an imposing banner conspicuously positioned with screaming but familiar inscriptions such as; say no to drug and illicit trafficking; drugs…

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