Kabiru Danladi Lawanti

There are many reasons to worry about the recent happenings in the country and especially the restiveness that engulf a larger part of Northern Nigeria. Once upon a time, Northern Nigeria was a peaceful, vibrant and promising region with a large ethnic group living side by side with its minority ethnic groups harmoniously. The region had a vibrant economy with a boosting agricultural industry and hardworking people. The region was blessed with selfless leaders that have the respect of their subjects but who earned it, and were always willing to sacrifice for the well-being of their people. However, immediately after the unfortunate incidence of 1966 and the civil war that followed things started changing and the oil boom in the 70s completed the story. Compared to its southern counterpart, the north was lagging behind in western education in the post-independence era, having initially rejected all forms of western education. The independence leaders aware of this challenge, delibe...

The Pension Reform Act 2014 (the Act) was signed by the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces into law on 1 July 2014. With that, the act now repeals the Pension Reform Act No.2 of 2004 and would continue to govern and regulate the administration of the uniform Contributory Pension Scheme for both the Public and Private sectors in Nigeria. Since the signing of the saw over a year ago, workers, especially in the public sector have been complaining of non-remittance of their pension contribution into their Pension Retirement Savings Account. I joined the services of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 2011 and up to September, 2015 a kobo was not remitted to my PRSA, despite deductions every month from my salary. I am not alone in this, in fact, most staff employed even before this time, their accounts were not credited. Initially, we thought it was normal, but after 4 years in active public service and with what we saw happened to retirees in recent past, we are fo...

Economic growth and prosperity are central to long-term poverty alleviation for social and environmental sustainability. The vegetable oil industry represents one of the most effective avenues for poverty alleviation, job creation and economic stability in Nigeria. The industry has the prospects of providing employment for millions of skilled and semi-skilled people. As demonstrated in other economies, with proper focus on production of commodities of large scale commercial values, improvement in the production of vegetable oil can effectively mitigate the poverty level in Nigeria and especially in northern Nigeria, which available statistics indicated is the poorest compared to other regions. In 2006, there was an attempt by the National Assembly to look into the vegetable oil industry with a view to lift the nation forward in the area of economic reforms in agriculture. Although the proposed Bill initially was formulated as “Palm Oil Development Fund”, stakeholders in the industry,...

Many political analysts are of the view that it is too early to start permutations for the 2019 elections. People with this view reasoned that political leaders should be given at least two and half years to fulfill their campaign promises and prove themselves as worthy of the votes they received in the previous elections. However, most people are of the opinion that we need to start talking about 2019. First, how ready is INEC to conduct elections? What changed in the way we do politics from the country’s historic 2015 general elections? What lessons did political parties and politicians learned from the defeat of People’s Democratic Party (PDP)? Already, with the way things are going in some states, there already exists public apathy and cynicisms in the way their Governors are running the affairs of the states. Their fears are confirmed with recent happenings within the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) and the opposition PDP; the leadership crisis in both parties and the pri...

Many political analysts are of the view that it is too early to start permutations for the 2019 elections. People with this view reasoned that political leaders should be given at least two and half years to fulfill their campaign promises and prove themselves as worthy of the votes they received in the previous elections. However, most people are of the opinion that we need to start talking about 2019. First, how ready is INEC to conduct elections? What changed in the way we do politics from the country’s historic 2015 general elections? What lessons did political parties and politicians learned from the defeat of People’s Democratic Party (PDP)? Already, with the way things are going in some states, there already exists public apathy and cynicisms in the way their Governors are running the affairs of the states. Their fears are confirmed with recent happenings within the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) and the opposition PDP; the leadership crisis in both parties and the pri...