Tag: Nigeria

Politics, Travelling

For the Love of Bans

Jilomes

In January 2020, the Lagos State Government announced a state-wide ban on commercial motorcycles for a range of offences, including causing many road users to lose limbs and other body parts. Whereas the ban was on all motorcycles, it was perceived as a move against Gokada, Max, and similar startups, especially as conventional bikes were soon back on the roads complying with the daily extortionary and ultra-official cash fees paid to enforcers (“agberos”) on the roads. Effective 1st September 2022, there is now another ban covering many parts of the state, which extends an earlier ban that had fewer areas included.

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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, Energy

Saudi Aramco Made $48 Billion in Three Months, So What?

Jilomes

You see a link to the same article in different unrelated WhatsApp groups and start wondering what the fuss is all about. In one group, it is infographics used to encode the same message, then in another group, someone drops a link to the article and asks what can be done for the Nigerian version to deliver massive petrodollars like its Arab egbon. As views begin to pour in, you decide to find time to craft a fluffy treatise for what is clearly a big deal.

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Randoms

To Japa or Not to Japa

Jilomes

Life is a potpourri of numerous choices we make, of which some decisions are key because of their overreaching impact on how our lives shape up from that point. In today’s Nigeria, especially among people who fit certain criteria, one such decision is whether to leave Naija (“to japa”) or stay back within its territory. As social media continues to be regaled with a nouveau popular meme announcing a glassy welcome to a new dispensation, we may draw some wisdom from an adaptation of author Julie Kagawa’s writing that “there are no good choices …only those you can live with, and those you can work to change”.

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Change, Politics

A Nation in Need of Redemption

Jilomes

In November 2018, over 100 Nigerian soldiers were gruesomely slaughtered at a town called Metele by a contingent of Boko Haram terrorists. That sad event influenced an article in which I argued that losing that many soldiers in one sitting should mark a turning point in existing attempts to exterminate the murderous gang. But Metele was brushed aside and almost four years later, Nigeria continues to face existential threats to its continued existence and a loss of faith by citizens that the people who should know, know what they should know.

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Change, Politics

#EndSARS: 365 Days from October the Twentieth

Jilomes

French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr declared in 1849 that “the more things change, the more they stay the same”. From a literal interpretation, if things that are changing end up being like the former state, how much more when no attempt is made at creating a change, or when such change, though promised, takes up residence in a large void filled with disclaimed promises. One year after the popular protests tagged #EndSARS, has anything really changed with Nigerian policing?

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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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