One inherent ‘sorrow’ associated with public leadership across the globe is that once a citizen is elevated to such a position, either through election or appointment, he loses his/her right to private living. Closely associated with this challenge is that such public offices particularly in Nigeria have lately become targets for fierce political and ideological warfare in ways that negates our rationality as human beings. And each time such ‘wars’ occur, great amounts of innocent human character are spilled, wars of words waged, countless souls and ambition persecuted and martyred. Making it a reality to worry about is the new…
Author: JEROME-MARIO UTOMI
Even when it remains a difficult task to compress the achievements of Senator (Dr) Ifeanyi Okowa’s administration in the past seven years into a few worded pieces, one things stands out; Governor Okowa made good his promise as the Executive Governor of Delta state, to unlock – and unleash–youth entrepreneurship through technical/vocational education, brought about integrated infrastructural development in the state while ensuring that primary, secondary and tertiary education in the state received priority attention. In the past seven years, the present administration as subsequent paragraphs will exemplify, devoted substantial resources, time and energy to build a knowledge-based economy and…
At a time like this, there is a compelling need to evaluate our politics and governance via a broader view of the people’s paramount concerns and legitimate expectations in order to unravel its values of fiscal discipline, prudent management, robust and continuous community engagement, effective and efficient public communication, and excellent public service delivery for the benefit of this generation and the next. Despite this logical, rational and practical belief, one is bound to face confusion in doing this as there is no codified word or structured documentation adequate enough to evaluate a public office holder. This fact notwithstanding, there…
Recently, precisely on Wednesday May 25, the world joined Africa continent to celebrate the annual Africa Day, a day set aside to mark the anniversary of the signing of the OAU (Organization of African Unity) agreements which evolved into the present day African Union (AU). And had its origin in May 25 1963, when leaders of 30 of the 32 independent African states signed the founding charter of the organization in Addis Ababa. Since then, it was reported that the commemoration of the historic day by Africans and Africans in the diaspora has served as an opportunity for each country…
It is evident that robust unity which grows out of historical experience can no longer be found or trusted in the present day Nigeria. It can equally not be considered an over statement if one concludes that in today’s Nigeria, there is no more sense of oneness that emerges from a people trying to control their destiny, environment and that of their unborn generation. Making these observations a reality to worry about is the current circumstances on ground which daily and clearly demonstrate that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration and some state governors has woefully failed to achieve security and…
The recent decision by Governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, to provide financial aid to 40 schools it returned to religious missions in 2011, again underscores the time-honoured belief that leaders must learn the art of management, an art of engineering and a skill to absorb and mater success in their mission. As there is no hard and fast rule but involves a lot of practical wisdom and prudence in one’s functioning style and performance. Speaking at the thanksgiving service to mark the end of the 16th Synod of Asaba Diocese, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), held at the Cathedral Church…
Across the sphere, citizens of every nation whether democratic or otherwise hunger for ‘public sphere where the issues of the public interests are appreciated as central, and openly considered, discussed or debated. On their part, the politicians and public office holders also have a great interest in how the media covers their behavior. They depend on the media to provide the information they need about the people and the society. The media professionals, in turn, depend much on the authorities (public office holders) for their information. Increasingly, by choice or by accident, a number of issues (strained relationship) daily emanate…
After about seven years of unfulfilled change, coupled with the prevailing harsh economic situation in the country, a state of depression (or is it a recession) and heightened insecurity, If there is any account that perfectly captures the Nigerian situation under the present administration, it is no other than, a Biblical account recorded in the book of 1 Samuel 5; verses 1 to 12. It reads; after the Philistines had captured in ‘victory’ the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then they carried the ark into Dagon’s temple and set it beside Dagon. When the people…
Any economy that has gone down anywhere in the world was revived by lawyers. So, if you want to wake up the country, you hand it over to a lawyer. Buhari was sick for about one hundred and ten days, and he handed over this country to Osinbajo to run, oil production rose astronomically in that period, all the banditry and Boko Haram went on holiday for that period until Buhari came back. Continuing, Barr.Egede, the SuperSaver Boss stressed that if you put a lawyer in charge of the nation, you find peace, you find prosperity. Why? Society is a…
A path-breaking study has shown that globally, governments are resource and bandwidth-constrained… And hence needs to prioritize productivity-enhancing policies. To do so requires information on the nature and magnitude of market failures on the one hand, and government capacity to redress them successfully on the other hands. This piece however believes that the second responsibility (capacity to redress market failures) remains the greatest challenge in the country’s leadership discourse, as it abbreviates development and breeds policy decisions that perpetuate poverty and consolidate powerlessness. Despite this observed leadership shortfalls which daily distorts social justice and economic empowerments, my recent conversation with…
If there is any conversation in recent times that must not be allowed to go with political winds, as it supports the argument that Nigeria’s present political and socioeconomic challenges were created by Nigerians, accelerated by Nigerians and can only be resolved by Nigerians, it is the recent lesson/awareness by Barrister Egede, former Director, Obasanjo Farms, and presently Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Supersavers Stores Limited, during a recent interview held at his Magodo, Lagos office , as part of events lined up to mark his 60th birthday. While he described himself as a village groomed boy that lives within the confines…
It is a common knowledge that this year’s World Press Freedom Day themed “Journalism under digital siege,” organized annually since 1993, was held on 2-5 May, 2022. Separate from spotlighting the multiple ways in which journalism is endangered by surveillance and digitally-mediated attacks on journalists, and the consequences of all this on public trust in digital communications, this year’s Global Conference co-hosted by UNESCO and the Republic of Uruguay , among other things provided an opportunity to journalists, civil society representatives, national authorities, academics and the broader public to discuss emerging challenges to press freedom and journalists’ safety, and to…
In the words of Jimmy Carter, former President of the United States Of America (USA), the experience of democracy is like the experience of life itself—always changing, infinite in its variety, sometimes turbulent and all the more valuable for having been tested in adversity.” In like manner, evidence abound, if only sought for, that in every democratic setting, there are clear thinkers, muddled thinkers and people that fall in between. Clear thinkers are the ones that can cull everything down into the right points-are very hard to find. But if you get yourself a team of clear thinkers, the possibilities…
Even when it is a known fact that right from 1967, the nation Nigeria suffered acute leadership challenge; yet, each passing day brings to mind reasons as to why the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration should apologize to Nigerians. This present assertion is predicated on the fact that if what happened in the years preceding the current administration was a challenge to Nigeria and Nigerians, what is happening currently under the present administration is a crisis. Aside from the fact that the administration has glaringly failed to implement pro-poor initiatives, this piece will site three recent concerns/examples. First and very…
On Friday April 22, 2022, the world celebrated the Earth Day, an annual event by the United Nations, to among other things; demonstrate support for environmental protection, remind humanity that the Earth and its ecosystems provide us with life and sustenance, that the healthier our ecosystems are, the healthier the planet – and its people. And most importantly, reminds all that restoring our damaged ecosystems will help to end poverty, combat climate change and prevent mass extinction, but we will only succeed if everyone plays a part. The official theme for 2022 is Invest In Our Planet. First held on…
Recently, this author has seen people (deltans and non deltans alike) argue that the success of Senator (Dr) Ifeanyi Okowa’s led administration particularly in the infrastructural development and promotion of technical education in the state dwarfed that of his predecessors. These efforts on the part of the Governor contributed appreciably to why Delta State was ranked the Best State in Human Capital Development in the 2017 States Peer Review by the National Competitiveness Council of Nigeria, and also in 2020. It is also responsible to why Delta as a state was adjudged to be the Second Least Poor State, coming…
Justice is central in all human issues, and it has a link with common good. To Thomas Aquinas, Justice is more of external action than interior emotion or passion; it is rendering to each person what is properly his or hers; what is equal, fair and balance in any relationship. Justice it added is either commutative or distributive. While commutative justice is that which governs the relationship between two individuals in matters such as contracts, distributive justice is that which governs the relationship between an individual and the society (a part to the whole) in issues such as economic justice…
Similar to a February 16 2022 media report where Economic experts urged the Federal Government to seek a debt moratorium and reduce the cost of governance to reduce funds expended on debt servicing, as it stands as the best available option because it will enable the government to suspend payment for now and re-strategies-particularly the government cannot continue to service its rising debt profile at the expense of meeting the competing needs of the people, a similar expert warning was recently handed by Economic analysts that the Federal Government’s soaring borrowings could eventually suffocate the country if not mitigated. Speaking in Akure, Ondo…
Even though it qualifies as a national tragedy that deserves every attention, it is important to underline that the present piece is not a direct reaction to the recent reported bombing by ‘terrorist’ of a moving train along Abuja-Kaduna rail track- an incident that resulted in the death of some innocent Nigerians and kidnap of many with others sustaining varying degrees of injury. However, in applied sense, the ugly incident also rings a bell to the fact that when the present Federal Government emerged, precisely on the 29th of May, 2015, my generation and of course Nigerians with critical minds…
By; Jerome-Mario Chijioke Utomi At the same time as Delta state has in the past six to seven years recorded what analysts refer to as ‘flashes of infrastructural developments’ mostly centered on urban and rural road constructions, reconstructions and upgrade, there exists also an accompanying fear in some quarters that right now, the state is in a period of great vulnerability. This veiled challenge is predicated on a tripod of realities: For some, the state’s Legislative arm, contrary to the provisions and dictates of the principle of separation of power, have ‘notoriously’ become toothless bull dogs that neither challenge…
It is no longer news that lately, publicity secretaries and spokespersons in government offices have made the innocent/well intentioned position become platforms for fierce political and ideological warfare in ways that negates our rationality as human beings. It is equally regrettable that through this process, a great amount of innocent human character has been spilled, wars of words waged, countless souls/ambition persecuted and martyred. Spokespersons have in recent times failed to communicate noble ideas and ideals. This consequence of their failures is responsible for why communication from public officials/offices are ‘self-undermining and often always reputed for encouraging complacency among citizens…
The latest media report that the Nigerian Senate passed a bill that would empower an association of real estate companies to not only regulate its members but also regulate its competitors and others in the industry naturally reminds Nigerians with critical minds of an existing research report carried out by Sydney Finkelstein, a Steven Roth Professor of management at the Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College, United States of America. The research in question was carried out to unravel why leaders make bad decisions. It among other things noted, that the presence of inappropriate self-interest, distorting attachments and the presence…
Among so many bills recently passed or still working on by the nation’s Senate in the ongoing constitution amendment, this piece is particularly struck by the passage of the Local Government financial, administrative autonomy bill which among other provisions seeks that each local government council to creates and maintain its own special account to be called Local Government Allocation Account into which all the allocations will be paid. Aside from seeking to grant full financial and administrative autonomy to local governments, the bills seek to amend the Constitution to repeal the state joint local government account and provide for a…
As the Global community on Tuesday March 22, 2023, celebrate the World Water Day with the theme; ‘Groundwater: Making The Invisible Visible’, the world has a again come to agreement that one of the essential elements of earth, water is the prime necessity of life; that all living animals and plants cease to exist without it. Hence, the proverb says, “Water is life”. However, while the world celebrates, it is by no means a pleasant story/narrative that after months of calls by residents, good spirited Nigerians, development professionals and media professionals, on Lagos state government to address the protracted water…
Regardless of recent onslaughts recorded against the rights of Nigerian women in Nigeria, with the most painful example being the lawmakers in both Senate and House of Representatives rejection of bills which sought to grant special seats for women in the legislature and 35 percent party leadership during the voting on 68 amendments, recommended in the report recently submitted by the Special Ad Hoc Committees on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, Senator (Dr) Ifeanyi Okowa, the Executive Governor of Delta state has however, shown that there exist ray of political and socioeconomic hope for Nigerian women particularly widows in…
For so many centuries, war was considered a lawful violence so far it meets with these three conditions; ‘waged by the lawful public authority in defense of the common good, waged for a just cause, and waged with the right intention, not vengefully nor to inflict harm’. Today, the argument does not hold water and faces a number of embarrassing facts. In fact, emphasis is shifting. Strategic insights from religious and global communities have brought about structural changes in such concept and gradual displacements of this long held view about war. While those with religious inclinations argue that war fare…
Going by Newtonian mechanics, centripetal force is the inward force required to keep an object moving with a constant speed in a circular part. it is a force that makes a body follow a curved path and a direction that is always orthogonal to the motion of the body and towards the fixed point of the instantaneous center of curvature of the path. Centrifugal force on its part is a direct opposite. It is an inertial force that appears to act on all objects when viewed in a rotating frame of reference and directs its way from an axis which…
It is no longer in doubt that the President Muhammadu Buhari led Federal Government has become reputed for clarifying problems without proffering solution, What is however worrying is that their (FG) persistent inabilities to promptly respond to the socioeconomic need of Nigerians has adversely turned public affair commentators, development professional and public policy watchers’ to a bunch that keep repeating one topic. This fact recently played out at a lecture in Lagos delivered by the President of African Development Bank, AfDB, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, Speaking on the lecture, titled, “Nigeria – A Country of Many Nations: A Quest for National…
Back in the days, as an undergraduate interested in nation-building and enthronement of true political leadership in Nigeria; I cherished two leadership recruitment quotes. The first is from the United States of America born Jim Collins, a very strong human resource development expert and the other, from Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, an Italian diplomat, author, philosopher and historian who lived during the Renaissance and best known for his political treatise, “The Prince”, written in about 1513 but not published until 1532. While Jim Collins believes that the first responsibility of a great leader is to find the right people…
Among many other comments in the recent past, I heard some say that across the globe, funding education now comes with a crushing weight that government alone can no longer bear. To this group, it calls for private public-private partnership and support from good spirited individuals to the rescue. Within this span, I have equally read an argument that our educational system is faulty just like every educational system is faulty. The United State Educational system they added is faulty, if there is no fault in any system, then, there is no improvement. They concluded that what we call fault…
