leadership – Jilomes

How do you solve a problem that appears to be a little more complicated than rocket science? More than ten years after a cerebral Nigerian politician asserted that fixing Nigeria’s electricity supply conundrum “is not rocket science”, with some claims that he said a serious government could fix entrenched sectoral challenges within six months, there is arguably less electricity supply in “most” parts of Nigeria compared to a decade ago, and combined with rising costs, more persons are turning to solar power systems aka “inverter”.

Continue reading →

Politics

A State of Prepared Emergency

March 20, 2025 Jilomes

“If they explain Nigeria to you and you understand, they did not explain it well”
Unknown Sensei

In barely a month, Nigerians have seen an elected senator getting suspended for six months by other senators after making a sexual harassment allegation, and now, an elected governor and an entire set of state legislators getting suspended by an elected president. Is any of these suspensions legal or justifiable? The answer would depend on whether one subscribes to the constitution as an authoritative guide or the necessity of an authoritarian to maintain an asylum.

Continue reading →

Change, Energy

Cutting the Head of the Cobra Effect

November 21, 2024 Jilomes

In economics, the concept of “Perverse Incentive” commonly refers to a situation where an incentive leads to detrimental outcomes for the enablers of such incentive. The most popular example comes from British Colonial India where an attempt to eliminate cobras in Delhi by paying for each killed cobra led to people farming cobras. Due to self-interest, the socially or morally optimal outcome will never occur as humans would rig the system to perpetuate the incentive. This is the rabbit hole that Nigeria needs to escape from.

Continue reading →

Change

Changing Nigeria One Day at A Time

October 8, 2024October 12, 2024 Jilomes

As this blog marks ten years, I checked my files and found this article that was written within the first week of starting the blog, but somehow did not get posted because I felt it was incomplete.

Continue reading →

Politics

When the Rivers Stay Stagnant

March 21, 2023 Jilomes

How do you have so much potential, yet consistently fail to deliver? You go one step forward, then gladly take two steps backwards while smiling and beating your chest proudly. For a state called the Treasure Base of the Nation, and a capital city formerly known as the Garden City, Rivers State has disappointed on almost every developmental metric relative to the resources and potential available. Yet, just as Nigeria happily towers above its fellow underperforming African countries, Rivers State embraces the wrong peers to feel it is doing well.

Continue reading →

Change, Politics

Underachievement Has A Face Draped In Green

October 10, 2022October 10, 2022 Jilomes

Achievements are an extremely subjective sphere of discussion; so nebulous that any attempt to discuss them should first try to define an acceptable framework, yet whatever framework is crafted could still be argued as unfair by some. This applies to almost everything, including countries, though for sovereign confines, we may borrow from businesses to define “national imperative” as the requirement for nations to perpetually seek the betterment of their people to match or exceed other nations with similar endowments and constrictions. It is on this basis that we will judge Nigeria at 62.

Continue reading →

Change, Politics

Nigeria and a Season of Tough Decisions

August 25, 2022 Jilomes

We start today with three strong assertions. First, “Nigeria is in a mess”. Secondly, “There is no Messiah to fix Nigeria”. Thirdly, “Nigeria can be fixed”. We would go further to amend the third to say, “Nigeria can be fixed with good leadership that can make politically-ruinous choices and citizens willing to allow the necessary compromises”. If you understand the import of those twenty words, we can continue the rest of this article.

Continue reading →

Change, Politics

Of Easy Wins and Persistent Troubles

March 13, 2022 Jilomes

Behold an article that has been on my mind for some time, morphing as I consider one scenario after another. A quote by the American Chuck Norris might dare to succinctly capture my thoughts as I type this article.

“I’ve always found that anything worth achieving will always have obstacles in the way and you’ve got to have that drive and determination to overcome those obstacles en route to whatever it is that you want to accomplish.”
Chuck Norris

Continue reading →

Change

Continental Builders Called the African Youth

August 16, 2020October 25, 2020 Jilomes

When I was contacted by an advocacy group, The Reformers, to join an online panel session on International Youth Day 2020 (12 August), I wondered why anyone would want to hear me talk about “The Role of African Youths in Building the Africa We Want”. Accepting their request laid the foundation for today’s article, which draws from my research and thoughts about the issues, blended with insights from other panellists and participants.

Continue reading →