Columnist

The Python does not dance

Ihesiulo Grace 20 September 2017 0

Operation code-names have been an important part of military operations since the Germans first applied them in World War 1 but it may be said that the recent (or ongoing?) controversial military exercise in the South Eastern part of Nigeria code-named Operation Python Dance II is the first

Columnist

Alhassan and the game of long knives

Ihesiulo Grace 15 September 2017 0

Those who thought that Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council meeting would be the political funeral for Minister of Women Affairs Aisha Alhassan may have exaggerated her dilemma after all. She may well have had her letter of resignation in her bag, but in the end President Muhammadu Buhari didn’t push her over the edge – yet. […]

Columnist

Nigeria will not develop until we fix country’s problems

Ihesiulo Grace 11 September 2017 0

Development means that Nigeria will rise to meet the West and other developed countries as an economic equal. Like China has recently done. This is also what development means for other former colonies of the West that are now politically independent. Why has Nigeria not developed? The single cause of underdevelopment in Nigeria is the […]

Columnist

Private letter to Kenyatta

Ihesiulo Grace 8 September 2017 0

Mr. President, I can imagine your disappointment last week after the ruling of the Supreme Court declaring your election null and void. Four out of six justices nullified an election in which 10.6 million or 54 percent voted for you as their choice, each Justice assuming the equivalent or more of 2.6 million Kenyan votes. […]

Columnist

JAMB cut-off mark and failure of Northern leaders

Ihesiulo Grace 5 September 2017 0

“Young man, the Standard of Education is not falling, it is the Quality of Education that is falling”. This was the response of a certain professor in the Education faculty to the question I had posed to him as the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the UNAD Press Corps back in the University of Ado-Ekiti during an […]

Columnist

The stuff that speeches are made

Ihesiulo Grace 2 September 2017 0

Virtually all who have issues with Buhari’s recent state broadcast after his last return from medical vacation, say that it either lacked ‘depth’ or it lacked ‘length’ -or both. Many of those may have hoped that if only Buhari had spoken a little ‘deeper’ or maybe a little ‘longer’, he just might have said that […]

Columnist

Dirty secrets in the cut-off war

Ihesiulo Grace 1 September 2017 0

Anyone reading the papers last week will be forgiven to think that the worst demons from hell have descended on the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). I have never liked JAMB, not because I ever attempted to take its exam or failed it. I guess I’m like most direct entry students who think JAMB […]

Columnist

Will The Cartel Win Again In Kenya?

Ihesiulo Grace 4 August 2017 0

My first encounter with Tuesday’s general election in Kenya happened one month ago. On July 5, Premium Times shared a video of a debate by four contestants for the Nairobi governorship election hosted by KTN and Daystar University. It was not a debate. It was a bareknuckle encounter, a verbal brawl between independent candidate, Miguna […]

Columnist

‘O si na Chi’

Ihesiulo Grace 2 November 2016 0

It has been a week since the death of Afusat’s husband. Everything happened so fast that she still thinks she’s in a dream. One minute he was with her and the next he was gone. Never to be seen again. She doesn’t know where to start or continue from.  She had been married to a […]

Columnist Features

NLNG: ITS TIME TO CHANGE STRATEGY

Ihesiulo Grace 5 October 2016 0

I recently ran into a group of foreign investors who have been trying all they could to break into Nigeria’s energy market without success so far. Their story is as pathetic as it is shameful for a country that has now grounded itself only to start contemplating selling off its national assets in order to […]

Columnist Features

The columnist as a salesman

Ihesiulo Grace 5 October 2016 0

By now the reader may have heard of the Council of State’s approval about four weeks ago of my nomination, along with five others, by President Muhammadu Buhari to serve as INEC national commissioners. This was to complete the commission’s full compliment of 13 national commissioners, including the chairman, as opposed to the current seven. […]

Columnist Features

IS THERE HOPE @ 56?

Ihesiulo Grace 30 September 2016 0

It is another birthday anniversary for dear country. And for nations, as for individuals, birthdays are joyous occasions with boisterous galas, concerts, balloons, fireworks, exciting rendering of the national anthem and display of national colours. For us, however, on this birthday, as others before it in the last twenty- something years, we have been forced to […]

Columnist Features

Ondo’s unfinished business

Ihesiulo Grace 29 September 2016 0

The Ondos and Ekitis are two of a kind.  Impetuous, riotous and quick-tempered on issue of injustice with added reputation for violence against hawkish politicians. In the first republic when late Chief Remi Fani-Kayode said he and Akintola would win the election whether the people voted or not, they ensured those who sowed the wind […]

Columnist Features

IS THE WORST YET COME?

Ihesiulo Grace 29 September 2016 0

Recently, the Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, had to admit what had long been known to both local and foreign analysts that Nigeria was technically in a recession. For an economy that was growing at over 5 per cent only two years ago, the recession, an encircling gloom, is much worse than expected. It was courageous […]

Columnist Features

NIGERIA’S GREATEST CHALLENGE AT 56

Ihesiulo Grace 29 September 2016 0

THIS WEEK, Nigeria turns 56. By midnight of Saturday, fireworks will go off in celebration of the landmark event. It will be like October 1, 1960 all over again when we got our independence from the British colonial masters. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. We went through a bitter […]

Columnist Features

THE DREAM OF NIGERIANS

Ihesiulo Grace 29 September 2016 0

IT has all the ingredients of a damn good movie. A box office hit. Suspense, cash, power and passion as well as incredibly salacious details. But, no thanks to the vicissitudes of these recessionary times, the story and the little debate it inspired have been elbowed to the background by other contending issues – budget […]

Columnist Features

THE DREAM OF NIGERIAN

Ihesiulo Grace 29 September 2016 0

IT has all the ingredients of a damn good movie. A box office hit. Suspense, cash, power and passion as well as incredibly salacious details. But, no thanks to the vicissitudes of these recessionary times, the story and the little debate it inspired have been elbowed to the background by other contending issues – budget […]

Columnist

BUHARI CHANGE THIS CHANGE!

Ihesiulo Grace 28 September 2016 0

Dear President Muhamadu Buhari: One reason the joys of electing you as president abruptly stopped is because there’s now blood on the dance floor. You alone have to decide if to call off the party or mop the dance floor; but either way, you’ll need spatial awareness of why bleeding occurred to spoil the party. […]

Columnist

From frying pan to fire

Ihesiulo Grace 21 September 2016 0

Nigeria is a film house where various scripts are being played right before the public. Entry into this cinema is ‘pro bono’. Spectators are treated to various scripts some of which the viewers can predict the end because there is a ‘deja vu’. Some of these films are short and action packed. But some, as […]

Columnist

No to Local Government autonomy

Ihesiulo Grace 19 September 2016 0

At a time when there is widespread clamour for restoration of proper federal structure in Nigeria came a rude shock that President Muhammadu Buhari is encouraging the trade union at the grasrrots – the chairmen of Local Governments to form and present a bill to further destroy the last vestiges of our federalism. The president […]