SAM OHUABUNWA'S PARADIGM

Last week was soaked in political tension. The dictator Yahya Jammeh that ruled Gambia as a fiefdom in the last 22 years and who lost the last December election first refused to accept the appeal of the ECOWAS leaders to respect the wishes of the Gambian People. The ECOWAS mediation team led by President Muhammadu Buhari visited Jammeh several times but he remained adamant. Rather,he declared a state of emergency all over The Gambia, rebuffed and threatened ECOWAS and the international community. He even got his legislature to grant him a 90-day extension of his term.  In response ECOWAS amassed an intervention military force to go and force him out. Time ticked and there was apprehension everywhere. Some Gambians took flight as they did not want to become collaterals to the imminent forced eviction of the sit-tight rogue leader. Nigerians began to worry about the fate of Nigerians living in The Gambia and pressure was brought upon the government to plan an ordered evacuation...

 I have grown up over a long time in Nigeria to understand that if you say anything that runs counter to popular opinion, attempt to defend any one already judged and condemned either by the media or the mob or say what is regarded as not politically correct you are likely to be attacked by those who do not have the intellectual discipline to accommodate differing opinion or view. But because, I always want to stand up for the underdog and maligned, I must stand up and go against popular opinion on certain recent developments in the Nation. I do this  because I know that there are always two or three sides to a coin and I hate to be among those who shout 'crucify him, crucify him' just to please Pilate, even if the man is innocent as the Pharisees did to Jesus.   Recently, I read the comments of some people who were abusing Bishop Oyedepo of the Winners Chapel because he was said to have said a prayer which was seen as not politically correct. He was reported to have p...

Beyond my new year wish expressed on this page last week that Nigeria will get out of recession in 2017, I am of the firm view that Nigeria will indeed come out of recession this year. The stabilizing oil prices in the international market aided by the willingness of Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran to consider supply management options give hope of higher foreign exchange earnings which may ease the persisting dollar crunch. The bullish 7.3 trillion 2017 budget will build on the ongoing implementation of the 2016 budget and push enhanced economic activities, particularly in the infrastructure area and in social support. If the Government pushes the recommended fiscal measures that will incentivize local production and Agric Business; and if the Legislature makes headway with the PIB options that will reenergize investment in Petroleum Industry, our economy should transit from recession and resume growth.  2016 was definitely a tough year for many businesses. It is therefore critic...

 As we start a new year, it is usual to make new year wishes. Some make new year resolutions. In normal circumstances, wishes and resolutions are not often the same thing. Wishes are usually made without much effort, often without much thinking and some times utopian  or unrealistic, whereas resolutions are more serious decisions for a future implementation, usually reached after much thought, reflection and perhaps debate. But at the start of the year,very often and for many people, what goes as new year resolutions are mere wishes. And that is why many new year resolutions are often un realized. For many,some effort is made to implement the resolutions for a few days, few weeks and in exceptional cases, for a few months and then they return to square one or in my own case way back, I usually returned to square zero. But to be sure my wishes for Nigeria for 2017, though optimistic, are realistic and reflect deep thought.   THAT NIGERIA GETS OUT OF RECESSION  Th...

I was dancing on my seat as I read of the new deal recently entered with the International Oil Companies(IOCs) by the Federal Government that would end the perennially problematic Joint venture (JV) cash calls that have dogged the Nigerian Petroleum industry since I was a Cub-economic advocate. From our days at the Enabling Environment Forum (EEF) to the formation of the Nigerian Economic summit Group (NESG) in 1993 until perhaps last week, the problem caused by the inability of the Federal Government of Nigeria to meet its JV cash call obligations has been a recurring decimal, each time the problems of attracting more investment into the upstream oil sector and indeed to the entire economy was being discussed. If you asked any oil major chief, what was his greatest challenge, he would immediately say it was Nigerian Government's chronic inability or should we say unwillingness to meet its Joint Venture cash calls. I say it could be unwillingness because even in the days of oil bo...