Tag: Nigeria

Politics

Of Biafra, IPOB and Diabolic Strategies

Jilomes

“So, Jonah, what do you think about IPOB?” This question, posed by an Igbo friend, would lead to a discussion between myself, the questioner, and a second Igbo friend; none of us fans of IPOB, and has also triggered this article. In case you are uninitiated, IPOB stands for the Indigenous People of Biafra, an organisation that seeks the formation of a new country called Biafra, and that appears to assume that someone like me, a non-Igbo from Rivers State, is automatically and unquestionably a citizen of Biafra.

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Randoms

Of Scams that Seek the Unemployed

Jilomes

I once read a tweet that angrily demanded that the worst spaces in hell be reserved for those who fart in airplanes at high altitudes. If someone could be so disgusted about a natural phenomenon, imagine the anger when you see people prey on persons seeking jobs to earn a living. In a country with high unemployment levels, many persons are desperately seeking employment opportunities. Sadly, many fall prey to crooks whose job is to scam the jobless. The scammed are even the fortunate ones; some applicants are robbed, beaten, raped, or even killed.

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Change, Energy

Download Petroleum Industry Act 2021 (OCR Version)

Jilomes

On Monday, 16 August 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Petroleum Industry Bill into law, potentially setting the stage for significant changes in the Nigerian oil and gas industry. I do not intend to provide any real commentary on the Act. I am merely providing a populace-friendly version of the Act that can be searched electronically.

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Change

When Healthcare Is Not Healthy

Jilomes

Imagine being chased by a pissed-off grizzly bear and you run into a small cabin and shut the doors. You see a cute polar bear chilling in the cabin, and you feel all is well, but as exhaustion sends you sleeping, the polar bear pounces on you and tears you apart with the agility of a hunter; nothing else seeming amiss except for your warm blood splattered across its cute face. Now, that’s a really horrible nightmare to preface this article.

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Change

Thou Shalt Not Undertake Research

Jilomes

As I picked up my laptop to draft this article, a thought crossed my mind whether the Nigerian antipathy to research and development is in obedience to some religious instruction, or if a fatwa had been declared on any government in Nigeria that dares pay any attention to funding and facilitating research efforts. This thought inspired the title as the best excuse I can conjure for what might be intellectual laziness on a national scale.

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Politics

Of a Food Blockade and Common Sense

Jilomes

“Babe, the market is scanty. Many fresh food sellers did not show up, and those around said food supplies are limited.” My wife’s voice on the phone finally made it personal. I had been following reports online of a “food blockade” on Southern Nigeria by Northern Nigeria, but now it had gone beyond mere news reports to something that would make our family spend more on food this month. Fortunately, we could stomach the higher cost of limited supplies at the market, but I wondered about the infamous pyrrhic victory and a seemingly maniacal drive by some persons to cut off their nose to spite their face.

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Person being beat up
Change, Politics

Frustration 601: When Brethren Fight

Jilomes

They say the grasses suffer when two elephants fight, but I wonder what happens to the elephants when the grasses fight over their lowly state. While you may cringe at the impossible metaphor of grasses fighting themselves, I have chosen it to highlight a paradoxical happening in society where one group of oppressed persons would take out their frustrations on another group of oppressed persons, while the oppressors pick out pieces of meat stuck in their fortunate teeth from a continuous meal of oppression.

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Change, Politics

A Litany of Bad Choices

Jilomes

If you had to choose between eating your cake and having it, what would you choose, and how would you make this choice? Would your choice be logical, emotional, a blend of the two, or a clean random pick? Whichever you choose, you would be aware that every choice has a consequence one way or the other. However, looking at the national development angle in Nigeria, it looks like we make weird choices and later wonder why things took a wrong turn. Whereas there are several factors behind our woes in Nigeria, one common denominator for our dysfunctional state is a litany of imprudent choices.

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Change, Politics

INEC and a Chance for Real Elections

Jilomes

Debbi Stabenow, an American politician, is quoted to have stated that “Democracy is about voting and it’s about a majority vote. And it’s time that we started exercising the Democratic process.” If we accept that democracy is a governance system that is truly reflective of the will of the citizenry, then we must begin to wonder why it seems that many elections in Nigeria reflect the will of a certain subset of society rather than the majority of the populace. Today, we discuss a potential approach for the electoral umpire to remedy this malady. However, we would begin with a discussion of some reasons driving low participation of Nigerians in the democratic process.

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Lekki Toll Gate Massacre
Change, Politics

#EndSARS: A Nation in Need of Healing

Jilomes

“It has been said, ‘time heals all wounds.’ I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone”

Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy

On 1 October 2020, Nigeria marked 60 years of independence from British colonial rule. Unknown to merry makers and observers, barely a week later, a sequence of events would lead to young Nigerians demanding independence from a faux democratic elite symbolised by the infamous police unit, the Special Anti- Robbery Squad (SARS). Within two weeks, events have evolved from peaceful protests led by an educated base to unmatched rioting and looting led by the uneducated thugs we love to fear.

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