Kabiru Danladi Lawanti

In response to the crises that engulf some parts of northern Nigeria in the immediate aftermath of the 2011 Presidential elections, the Arewa Consultative Forum felt the need to bring all people from various communities that made up the region, to sit down and table their grievances with a view to curtail recurrence of such an ugly incidence. However, the way we see it, the approach of the northern elders is rather doomed for failure from its inception. From the theme of the conference of “giving minorities the opportunity to put their social and political grievances”, the conference has from inception taken the usual cover-ups, characteristic of such conferences that were initiated by other groups in the past, which did not yield any tangible or positive result. Apart from that, from what the media reported, the conference is trying to portray a picture of a minority groups being oppressed by a majority ethnic group, which makes it look like what some public analyst see as the mi...

One of the main themes of Jonathan inaugural speech on May 29 this year was his promise to transform the nation’s economy and fight for the improvement of life of all Nigerians. For some of us who took Jonathan serious, we thought this was the beginning of the long awaited campaign promises he made of changing the way things are done in Nigeria. His campaign promises were catching and Jonathan was talking as if he has done his needs assessment and has mapped out strategies of tackling Nigeria’s myriad of problems. Here him ‘I do not make empty promises in my campaign because whatever I promise to do, I had already carried out adequate study to make sure I can accomplish it in the next four years’. But hundred days into his Presidency little can be said to have been put in place to ensure Nigeria reached the promises he made in the next 4 years. Although nothing much has changed since he came in after the death of Umaru Musa Yar’adua, the impression he gave Nigerians, after he wa...

With a population of about 150 million and more than one-fifth of Africa’s total population, Nigeria represent the sad story of the failure of most developing countries to meet the MDGs by the stipulated time of 2015. Although there are indications in some quarters, especially in Asia and Latin America, that the MDGs are achievable, available statistics in Nigeria indicate otherwise. In September, 2000, 189 world leaders gathered in New York for the Millennium Summit and pledged to meet certain goals by 2015. These goals are what is referred to as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The goals include a 50% reduction in poverty and hunger, universal primary education, reduction of child mortality by two-thirds, cutbacks in maternal mortality by three-quarters, promotion of gender equality, and reversal of the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. In September, 2005 the summit met again to review progress towards the goals and set the development agenda for the next dec...

What started as a one man problem has now metamorphosed into a national catastrophe. Few saw it this way. The Boko Haram crises started as a minor problem of a state Governor, who used them to achieve his political objectives, when he was through with them he tried to discard them. Ali Modu Sherrif should be held responsible for the boko haram crises in Borno State. He started it and therefore he should come and partake in solving the problem. In Nigeria we are fond of cover-ups. One singular incidence that led to the escalation of the Boko Haram violence in Maiduguri and now to other places in Nigeria was the extra-judicial killing of its leader, Mallam Muhammadu Yusuf last year. Confirming this killing, the spokesperson of the Police, Isa Azare proudly told news men in Maiduguri, sometimes in July 2009 “He has been killed”. He was even inviting reporters to follow him and see the police ‘heroic’ job. “You can come and see his body at the state police command headquart...

Like a script copied from a Hollywood movie, Moshe Ram, the Israel Ambassador to Nigeria tried to play with our collective intelligence in a piece titled ‘Daily Trust, Israel and the Gaza flotilla problem’(Daily Trust, July 6, 2010 pg 25) which was a respond to an earlier editorial of Daily Trust (June 11, 2010) in which he accused the management of the paper of bias by that editorial and two op-eds that appeared on the 10th and 11th of the same month, that condemned Israeli violation of International Laws by attacking the Gaza flotilla on international waters carrying aid and other humanitarian items to the already wretched Palestinians caged in the Gaza enclave for over 4 years, no thanks to Israel. The arguments advanced by the ambassador was that, Daily Trust has either ignorantly or deliberately choose to ignore all the atrocities committed by Palestinians, Hezbollah and other ‘terrorist’ organisations against his people. One thing is very clear from the Mr. Ram’s pi...

One of the criticisms levelled against the press in Nigeria is their irresponsible, reckless, and sensational nature of reports. However one fundamental issue that cannot be denied is the role the press played in Nigeria’s political history and process. Since early 1920s through to early 1940s the media in Nigeria acquired the status of being a mouthpiece of the anti-colonial struggle and also a forefront in the struggle for enthronement of democracy and the return to civil rule in the 1980s and 1990s. That is why it becomes extremely difficult if not impossible for anyone to discuss Nigeria’s transformation and ignore the role media play in the sustenance of the nation as indivisible nation. Despite these outstanding credentials, the media again has found itself in a dilemma at this difficult moment of our nation’s history. It has performed beyond expectation in its role of an arbiter of the various ethnic nationalities that made up the nation. No time has the nation f...

The Nigerian government was a signatory to the Jomtien Conference, 20 years ago, where from March 5 to 9, 1990 participants from all over the world met to come with solutions to provide quality education to over 100 million children, including at least 60 million girls, who have no access to primary schooling. Education for All (EFA) programme by 2015 was born. Governments made commitments to be part of the programme. In Nigeria, policies were put in place to achieve the stated goal which includes the Universal Basic Education (UBE) scheme, in order to check the problem of dwindling enrolment in primary and secondary schooling and educational deterioration generally in the country. Earlier, the UPE scheme was instituted by the military government in 1976 to develop the educational capacity of illiterate Nigerians. The scheme was not as effective as expected though more people were able go to school, read and write their names and become better informed as a result of the scheme. The Un...

As unconstitutional as the zoning formula arrangement adopted by the PDP is, the idea was floated because every part of the country felt that it is eligible to produce the presidency of this country. The presidency, being the most powerful office, (since 90 per cent of the nation's revenue comes from the centre), certain parts of the country, especially the South-West, which boasts of having the highest number of Western-type- education elite, felt it was time for the region to produce the president for Nigeria, especially in the aftermath of the June 12 elections. So much noise and tumult were raised, especially in the Lagos/Ibadan axis's press for power-shift until it culminated into making the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) adopting a zoning arrangement whereby, General Olusegun Obasanjo emerged as the PDP candidate. while the then APP went for Chief Olu Falae. That ushered in the introduction of the zoning formula, which is a kind of unconstitutional rotational agreement wh...

There is a lot of paradox about the People’s Democratic Party, a party that claimed to be the largest in the continent. Prior to 1999 the party had earned the respect and admiration of Nigerians from all walks of life due to the calibre of its founding fathers. But barely a decade, the party has become the most hated political party in Nigeria due to its anti-people policies. The government in the centre, which the PDP controls, has grossly disappointed Nigerians in the way it managed the affairs of the country in the last decade. What Nigerians witnessed under the PDP in the last 10-11 years is total debasement of the values of governance as reflected in the rising index of poverty, widespread corruption, and political crisis ranging from election rigging, violence and total disregard for the rule of law, which is the foundation of democratic governance. Under the PDP, the country also witnessed gross human rights violations, insecurity with the rise in the spate of kidnappings in the...

A Najeriya, an sha gudanar da zabuka amma a kowanne lokaci ba a rasa zargin magudi daga wadanda suka sha kaye. Hatta masu sa-ido a kan harkokin zabe kan yi irin wannan zargi na tafka magudi, kuma kusan dukkan jam'iyyun siyasar kasar ne ake zargin cewa duk wadda ta samu wuri takan yi magudi. Malam Kabiru Danladi Lawanti, wani jami’i a kungiyar kare dimokuradiyya ta Good Governance Group , wanda kuma ya dade yana sa-ido a kan zabuka a Najeriya, ya bayyana cewa kwadayi ne babban dalilin da ya sa ake aikata magudi. A cewarsa, “Idan [mutum] ya san cewa [sama da fadi da dukiyar al’umma] ba zai yiwu ba, to ba wanda ma zai yi sha’awar dole sai ya yi magudi ya ci zabe”. Hanyoyin magance magudi Ya kuma kara da cewa hanyoyin magudi suna da yawa, musamman ma a kauyuka inda ’yan jarida da masu sa-ido ba sa shiga. Dangane da hanyoyin magance magudi kuwa, mai fafutukar kare dimokuradiyyar cewa ya yi: “Matsalar magudi a Najeriya za ta gushe ne kawai idan aka fara siyasa ta manufa—cewa duk wan...

S o much noise and furor has been raised in the media last week on a Bill for an Act to Provide for the repeal of the Nigerian Press Council Act, 1992 and establish in its place the Nigerian Press and Practice of Journalism Council. The Bill, which was sponsored by a veteran broadcaster, who spent 15 years of her life as a broadcaster and anchored the weekly NTA Newsline programme, Honourable Abike Dabri Erewa, according to lawmakers is to enhance the practice of journalism in Nigeria. As a veteran journalist, Hon. Dabri is not a stranger to the Nigerian media industry and the condition of service of journalist in Nigeria. May be that was why she felt compelled to make her contributions in ensuring that the profession has received the much needed attention it deserved in our society. However, as soon as the Bill was read on the floor of the National Assembly, it started receiving bashing from all quarters, especially the Nigerian Guild of Editors, who described the Bill as totally unn...

S o much noise and furor has been raised in the media last week on a Bill for an Act to Provide for the repeal of the Nigerian Press Council Act, 1992 and establish in its place the Nigerian Press and Practice of Journalism Council. The Bill, which was sponsored by a veteran broadcaster, who spent 15 years of her life as a broadcaster and anchored the weekly NTA Newsline programme, Honourable Abike Dabri Erewa, according to lawmakers is to enhance the practice of journalism in Nigeria. As a veteran journalist, Hon. Dabri is not a stranger to the Nigerian media industry and the condition of service of journalist in Nigeria. May be that was why she felt compelled to make her contributions in ensuring that the profession has received the much needed attention it deserved in our society. However, as soon as the Bill was read on the floor of the National Assembly, it started receiving bashing from all quarters, especially the Nigerian Guild of Editors, who described the Bill as totally unn...

Nothing is more disturbing or is it disgusting? in Nigeria than one to take upon himself the responsibility of speaking for the oppressed. Yourself a victim, but since you are more privileged than the rest of Nigerians, you took it upon yourself to serve as a middle man between the government and the governed. You do this with a strong conviction that one day, this country - our great country, will be great and indeed a country where our leaders will be incorruptible, credible and honest, the countrymen organised, orderly who respect one another and live peacefully. Sometimes in July I wrote a letter to this forum discussing the issue of Post-UME, not only the way student are squeezed, extorted and exploited by universities, through the payment of money to sit for the exams, but the dangers these aspiring university students fall into during this exercise, especially to ladies. I sighted an example of how most of these innocent girls were raped by undesirable elements within the univ...

After a period of relative optimism for the nation’s 11 years old democracy and the prospects with which it comes with, since its return, political observers have raised concerns that Nigeria’s democratic institutions are being rolled back by the very people who are entrusted with the responsibility of nurturing them. There is in fact little to show how far we have come to realize our dreams 11 years after our quest for having a truly democratic country, in which the citizens live happily and enjoy the dividends that come with the system. Democracy is a system which sought for the establishment of responsive and responsible political institutions that can guide the citizens in promoting good governance, guarantee security of life and property, ensure accountability, prevent corruption, respect human and civil rights, and ensure popular sovereignty. While democracy gives the citizens the power to choose their leaders, it will not be effective without improved ‘governance’ that shapes ...

A popular adage, the statement above is the subject of our discussion. Our children are our future if we give them a solid foundation from which to build a better society. We owe our future to our children and as long as we want our society to be better, then, it is the responsibility of each and every one of us to make sure that they are given good care. All over the world and in every society in history, education is regarded as the basis upon which future generation is built. And for any society to develop there has to be a connection between its present and its future; children serve as a bridge or a transition through which this is accomplished. However, in our country this fundamental issue is neglected and relegated to the background. Sometimes we are made to wonder as to what direction we are really heading to. Nigeria has a population of over 140million and 60% of this population are youth or children, however, there is no concrete policy or programme to my knowledge geared ...

No election, even in advanced democracies of western Europe and the US is devoid of flaws. however, there is a way an election can be conducted where all actors in the political process can feel that they are satisfied with the outcome despite losing, or not having what they wanted. Elections in Africa are a 'do or die affair', the resultant consequences is what we saw in Kenya after the 2007 presidential election or Ivory Coast or Algeria which eventually led to civil war. The December 7, 2008 election that took place in Ghana is a pointer to the fact that even African countries can get it right in terms of organising and conducting free and fair elections. Ghana's history is one of sadness and of unnecessary tragedy. It is the first country to achieve independence from the British on March 6, 1957. Like Nigeria, the country witnessed its first military coup in 1966, just a week after the bloody coup in Nigeria. A National Liberation Council was formed and was headed by L...

 In a report, recently published by some national dailies, there are greater concerns by opposition parties in so many states of the federation on how campaigns by their candidates and parties receive little or no attention from the states owned media  houses. Some even mentioned that even where they receive attention it was too negative or meant to ridicule them. State owned media outfits in virtually all the states of the federation, view the state broadcasting stations (TV or radio), as extension of the propaganda arm of the ruling party in the state and therefore, use the stations to advance partisan or personal interests of state governors while preventing access to these media by other political parties. The ruling parties in many states of the federation do interfere in the way the media perform its duty in their domain. This attitude is even manifesting at the federal level. The federal government controlled media - the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and the Feder...