SAM OHUABUNWA'S PARADIGM

After 27 years of military rule, Nigerians are very used to military way of doing things and indeed, without knowing it they have become uncomfortable with civilian way of doing things. They love" with immediate effect" and the drama that accompanies such military actions. Matters have not been helped by the 8 years military style civilian rule of President Obasanjo, who can eat pounded yam with you at lunch and you hear that you have been removed from office at 9 o'clock news on NTA. Oh Nigerians love the tough guy image! That's why they thought that Umaru Musa Yardua was as slow as a snail and they have been so critical of Dr Goodluck Jonathan's speed of action.They have little patience with the long and due process of civilian democracy. They are uncomfortable with the niceties and humane conduct of the president. How can a minister be in position for three years? That does not happen here. The shorter the term, the better, perhaps so that it could get to ...

This Country of ours is very intriguing. And many times I get thoroughly confounded by our double speak. It is becoming clearer to me why things which are simple and straight forward, or should be so end up becoming complex and convoluted in our Nation. Somehow,every issue or matter has to be viewed from narrow ethnic, religious or political prisms and then emerges in different colours. So,some thing which ordinarily looks white may end up being described as grey or colourless,not because of any physiological or pathological malfunctioning of the eyes of the viewers but largely because of their ethnic or political bias. When the Boko Haram group came unto national consciousness with their weekly raiding of worship centres in the North East of Nigeria, some people said nothing, they did not condemn their activities,because the trouble did not affect their own worship centres and those killed came from a different region of the Country. They bombed the UN Plaza and Police HQ in Abuja ...

The report of the Steering Committee for the 2014 National Conference has been largely accepted by the Federal Government. We now know that the conference will happen in the second quarter and will last three months. The number of delegates and how they will be selected or appointed have also been indicated by the federal government. This aspect seems to have attracted a lot of interest and comments. Also the federal government has made a budgetary provision of 7 billion naira ( up from the 1 billion naira provided for the 2005 Political Reform conference). That also has been criticised by many as being wasteful, but that is hoping that the National Assembly would approve the budget in full( unlike the situation in 2005 when the National Assembly refused to appropriate funds, forcing Obasanjo to make extra-budgetary provision). Of a truth, 7 billion is much money especially in Today's Nigeria where our capital expenditure is so paltry at 26% of the entire National budget, wh...

This week, INEC released the time table for Election 2015( including that for Ekiti and Osun States's gubernatorial elections holding this year).Nigerians,especially the Politicians have been expecting this time table to help them structure their own programmes and activities. This effectively signals the 'official' beginning of the campaigns,irrespective of what INEC would want or say. Indeed for some, the campaign started since 2012. When a man announces that he wants to run for any position, that to my mind is the beginning of campaigns. Winning National elections is a long process, involving many steps and many 'mini elections'. A man who wants to run for the office of a state governor for a example,will need a minimum of two years to run his campaign. He will need to convince his family, close friends and associates by telling them why he wants to run. He will then go from one party leader to another in his constituency selling himself and getting suppo...

Since the 1st of January 2014, Nigeria has been celebrating the 100 years of the founding of Nigeria as a Nation. Though the celebrations have been kind of subdued, overshadowed by the political drama of defections and realignments, a series of events have been held as part of the elaborate commemoration of the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates. Indeed the events started since last year with the SGF on the driving seat. It must be acknowledged that the centenary celebrations are in a way different from the usual. The usual fanfare that characterises our National events seems to be subdued in planning and execution. We are told that not much of Government's money is involved in the celebrations, that most of the events are sponsored by the Private sector. Perhaps, the greatest innovation is the idea of a Centenary City. This 21st Century city to be built around Abuja will equal or surpass Dubai and it will be driven by artificial intelligence, offering br...