Tag: leadership

Politics

A State of Prepared Emergency

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.

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Change, Energy

Cutting the Head of the Cobra Effect

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.

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Politics

When the Rivers Stay Stagnant

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.

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Change, Politics

Underachievement Has A Face Draped In Green

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.

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Change, Politics

Nigeria and a Season of Tough Decisions

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.

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Change, Politics

Of Easy Wins and Persistent Troubles

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
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Change

Continental Builders Called the African Youth

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.

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Change

COVIDIOTS, COVID-19 and a Question of Trust

Jilomes

Let me set the stage for this article by juxtaposing quotes from two American politicians.

“The real cost of corruption in government, whether it is local, state, or federal, is a loss of the public trust”

Mike Quigley

“We can only have true public safety with public trust”

Betsy Hodges
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Change, Politics

Shackles of Independence

Jilomes

Two centuries ago, Brigham Young said that “True independence and freedom can only exist in doing what’s right.” Those words are as true as the knowledge that the earth is spherical. Whereas some persons view independence as being free to do whatever they like however they like, such persons have a myopic view that points to immaturity. When one is truly independent is when one comes to appreciate that independence implies a responsibility to do the right thing. It is the Nigerian state’s inability to understand this logic that has kept it in shackles for fifty-six years. Continue reading “Shackles of Independence” →