Guest Columnists

60 posts

  • Who is Afraid of Direct Primary Elections?

    Our clever-by-half politicians have been all over the place of late. They have been defecting, re-defecting and un-defecting from one party to another. While some of them have tried to explain away the reasons behind dumping the parties that gave them the platform to win elections and be in government, others have ended up coming […]
  • ‘In defence of history’

    I cannot now remember exactly how I first encountered this phrase: “In defence of history”. But I think it was during my days on the Editorial Board of The Guardian newspaper, between mid-1980s and mid-1990s. The specific source must have been Odia Ofeimun, a friend and colleague that I had met and engaged about seven […]
  • Unnecessary Glut Of Parties In Nigeria’s Electoral System.

    Recently, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) registered a fresh batch of political parties. If the number of parties we have in Nigeria at present is not up to a hundred, it is fast inching to that number. I wonder whether this glut of political parties was the intendment of the apostles of free association […]
  • The Fulani Herdsmen/Farmers Conflict: A Wholistic Perspective

    Paper Presentation by: Alh. Ibrahim Shehu Birma 17th May, 2018 Background The 1st Crisis between herdsmen and farmers was recorded was in 1948. The 2nd was in 1951 this led to the migration of Fulanin Bororo to Sudan. In 1955 there was a clash/genocide which led to the Sudanese Government issuing a quit notice to […]
  • APC Ward Congresses: A Crisis Foretold

    The nationwide ward congress of the All Progressives Congress (APC), held on Saturday, May 5 2015 was largely marred by crises, violence and accusations and counter -accusations of attempts to illicitly influence its outcome. Apart from a few states like Katsina where the exercise was relatively peaceful, in several others – Anambra, Imo, Kaduna, Delta, […]
  • OPL 245: The most popular oil block

    The Petroleum Act 1969 (as amended) grants powers to the Ministry of Petroleum, acting through the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to administer the licensing of oil blocks in the country. These include Oil Prospecting Licence (OPL), Oil Mining Licence (OML) and Oil Exploration Licence (OEL), which allow the awardees, local and foreign, to explore […]
  • Udom’s Economic Paradigm

    Listening to the Special Assistant to Governor Udom Emmanuel on Traders’ Matters, Akparawa Idorenyin Raphael on Tuesday on Comfort FM reel out the benefits and incentives the current administration has placed at the doorsteps of traders, I came to terms with why traders in the State are in sizzling courtship with Governor Emmanuel. He has […]
  • Banters In Lagos, Poverty And Disease In The Niger Delta.

    The Eko Convention Centre, Lagos, venue of the meeting was lavishly decorated to impress, and it did impressed. The participants were corporately kitted; men and women alike. All seated in such a manner that could be mistaken for, fresh law graduates being called to the Nigerian Bar or shareholders on Annual General Meeting (AGM). They […]
  • One Statement, Many Ordeals

    In the last six days, I have gone through traumatic experience when I was declared wanted by the Nigeria Police. By the strength of that unprofessional declaration, I was treated like a common criminal and fugitive until I showed up at the Police Headquarters Abuja to physically present myself. After what the Police termed a […]
  • Olisa Metuh: When Justice is in Urgent Need of Surgery

    It was sometime in December 2017. One of those days I decided to visit the courts to watch proceedings as a way of keeping myself inspired while I waited for an appointment in the vicinity. I walked through the doors and since I could leave at any moment for my appointment, I decided to choose […]
  • Sun Tzu vs. Clausewitz: Obasanjo and Babangida compared

    The dust had not properly settled on Obasanjo’s call on Buhari not to seek a second term when Babangida, Nigeria’s only military President, in a statement issued on his behalf by his long-term spokesman Kassim Afegbua, reinforced that message by suggesting that Buhari, as an ‘analogue’ leader, should step aside for younger ‘digital’ leaders to […]