SAM OHUABUNWA'S PARADIGM

Ordinarily there should be so much going for Nigeria's economy. Production of crude oil at about 2 million barrels per day at a good price of about 70 dollars per barrel is yielding good foreign exchange for the Nation, helping to boost foreign reserves which today stand at about 47.25 Billion dollars. Inflation has continued to decline steadily over several months coming to the current level of 11.4% as the CBN and its MPC retain monetary policy index at a tight stance. Also some great effort is being made at the economic management level to pursue the Nigeria Economic Recovery and Growth  plan( NERGP). Additionally, some improved liquidity has been noticed in terms of funding Nigeria's infrastructure projects, combining oil revenue,tax heist with a large dose of debt from sundry sources. Though the trickle down effect of the budgetary expenditure and policy choices are yet to appropriately reflect on the quality of lives of most Nigerians or on the overall Human development...

I have been in the United States of America attending family events and attempting a vacation. Before I left Nigeria, I was really downcast with the turn of events in Country, especially the show of shame happening in the political circles: rumours of planned decamping, mass decamping and some des-camping; threats of impeachment and attempted impeachments in the midst of worsening insecurity and growing poverty. Nigerian politicians seem to be taking the people for a ride. For me the political environment in the Country was unpleasant especially the high display of impunity and rascality displayed by the security agencies and naturally many people were blaming President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) and his ruling APC Party for fouling the environment.     However, when I arrived the USA and turned on the TV and listened to what people were saying about President Donald Trump (PDT), I realized that the social and political environment in the USA was also agitated and fo...

Those who are familiar with how madness begins to manifest in a person, will tell you that no man becomes mad in just one day. Madness follows a sequence. Of course psychiatrists and those who work in the mental health area can easily notice when a patient goes through the stages or sequence. But for the ordinary folks like us, we also some times notice this sequence  more so when the subject is closely related to us. Signs of mental illness may start with the subject being unusually moody which could represent depression or in some cases the subject may become unusually aggressive and hyperactive called hyperactive disorder.    If the subject is subjected to treatment at these early stages, psychiatrists tell us, the mental health can be corrected but if not, the situation could deteriorate. Soon the subject begins to neglect his personal hygiene and then may begin to speak incoherently similar to what is called psychotic disorder. I am told that even at this stag...

    So very often, we pray for something. And sometimes when the payer is answered, a new problem emerges, that of managing the outcome. The problem is some times exaggerated when God decides to 'embarrass' you and give you more than you asked for or were expecting. There was this story of an Okada driver who had been praying for a child for seven years and eventually his wife became pregnant. Through out the pregnancy he was full of joy, but could not afford to pay for a scan for his wife and so had no idea what was on the way.Because the wife's stomach was very big, he suspected she could be expecting a twin. However on the day his wife was delivered, he was shocked to welcome six tiny children with their tiny fingers in their mouths gaping at him.     He went through contradictory emotional swings. First, he was happy that God had answered his prayers. Then he looked at the tiny girls with their tiny fingers in their mouths and the man burst into tears...

Nigeria has experienced a couple of incomplete military coup d'états. An incomplete coup is one in which the intended objectives are not fully accomplished in one fell swoop. In Nigerian history, we have seen all types of coups-attempted, aborted, failed, phantom, incomplete and complete. They are all different, though they all share a common foundation.     Nigeria's first incomplete coup was the one led  by the majors- notably Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, Emmanuel Ifeajuna, Adewale Ademoyega and their co revolutionaries on the 15th of January 1966. Their critical objective was to overthrow Balewa's government, release Awolowo from prison and enthrone him as the Prime Minister. Due to the poor performance of some of the  team members and the resistance of some officers like Lt-Col Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu in Kano and the counter moves of General Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi in Lagos, the coup became incomplete. Balewa was overthrown but Awolowo was not installed ...

  Last week, Nigeria's killing fields expanded North Westwards. Indeed the entire North seems to have been partitioned by three non state actors into three fiefdoms. On the North East, we have the Boko Haram insurgents bombing and snuffing out lives and occasionally making territorial forays into the Borno, Yobe and Adamawa areas. In the North Central, including parts of Southern Kaduna and Taraba, the Militant Herdsmen hold sway killing the innocent, destroying farms and property and in the Northwest a band of marauders are freely raining terror. For a while, it seemed they were only interested in Zamfara State. But last week, they expanded their theatre of influence to parts of Kebbi & Sokoto States and when they were finished on this first assault, 32 citizens of Nigeria were dead, compounding the increasing statistics of the violently dead in these times.   Naturally the President was distraught with this new development and was actually short of words. He...

In Nigeria there are many prophets, mostly false prophets. But the effervescent dynamics of Nigerian political environment often gives them the opportunity to brag. I asked one of such 'prophets'a few weeks ago, who would win the World Cup and he told me it was going to be either Germany, Spain or Portugal. When these three teams got eliminated early in the tournament, I called this 'prophet' friend of mine to ask 'how come?'and he told me that the Octopus on which he depended disappointed him. But this my friend called me last week and sounded triumphant and announced to me that his prophesy about APC splitting into factions has been fulfilled and requested me to withdraw my earlier classification of him as a false prophet. I ended the discussion by telling him that if predicting that APC would split into two or even self-destruct was an act of prophesy,then, most Nigerian political watchers and analysts like me would also claim to be prophets as well. ...

After my articles titled " Fulani Herdsmen Militancy: International help now indicated " in January this year and "Serious challenges confronting PMB's 3-pointagenda" in February I was not planning to comment any longer on the despicable daily killing of Nigerians in the middle belt of Nigeria and elsewhere. Since it looked Like the Government felt it was doing well in running a country where life has become brutish and short and the citizens seem to have resigned to their fate, I felt it was a waste of my time commenting on the matter. Last October when 20 people were killed in Plateau, the President issued a statement which stated "that this madness has gone too far". From all indications the madness just seems to be forming and may just be getting started on its journey! But try as hard as I could, the humanity in me would not allow, the mind of Christ constrains me.    Last week news broke of how a contingent of  Fulani militia carried out a-se...

Pharm. (Mazi) Sam I. Ohuabunwa OFR, MON, FPSN, FNAPharm, FPCPharm, NPOM  It is my pleasure to send this goodwill message to members of the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) on the occasion of your 37 th A nnual National C onference holding in Benin-City, Edo State. It is my prayer that The Lord will bring you all safely to Benin, grant you a successful conference and lead you back safely to your respective stations. I am also praying that the scheduled elections will be rancor free and that the Association will elect the best candidates for the various offices. Talking about elections, I will like to use this opportunity to confirm that I have accepted the call to offer my self for service as the President of our great Society, PSN come November 2018. Our society is at the precincts of a great rebound, given the wonderful work of our past leaders, especially the current one and my mission is to cause a radical transformation to the practice of th...