Editorial

Social media censorship: A threat to free speech

Ihesiulo Grace 26 November 2020 0

Nigeria’s democracy is facing unanticipated threats from its political class who had sworn to uphold the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria. That Constitution guarantees various freedoms including freedom of association and freedom of expression. Promoters of the recent youth protest against police

Editorial

Editorial: Out-of-School Children in Nigeria

Ihesiulo Grace 25 November 2020 0

UNICEF estimates that 10.5 million of Nige ria’s children aged 5-14 years are not in school. In December of 2018, the UN declared the population of out-of school childre n in Nige ria to be over 13 million. In August of this year, former P reside nt O lusegun O basanjo placed the figure at […]

Editorial

EDITORIAL: Averting future protests

Ihesiulo Grace 24 November 2020 0

Not long ago, six eminent men who have managed the affairs of this nation in the past met with President Muhammadu Buhari in the heat of the EndSARS protests. The roll call: General Yakubu Gowon, General Olusegun Obasanjo, General Ibrahim Babangida, Chief Ernest Shonekan, General Abdulsalami Abubukar and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. Their gathering for the […]

Editorial

EDITORIAL: States’ non-remittance of contributions to PENCOM

Ihesiulo Grace 23 November 2020 0

Recent reports indicate that 25 states of the federation are yet to remit the pension contributions of their respective workers under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS). Sadly, most of them are now battling to pay a backlog of pension arrears amounting to four hundred billion naira (N400 billion). The reports also reveal that while seventeen […]

Editorial

EDITORIAL: Dousing tension through restructuring

Ihesiulo Grace 20 November 2020 0

Editorial, Nigerians will not forget the EndSARS Movement that rocked the nation in October in a hurry. What began in 2017 as a campaign against police brutality blossomed into a nationwide movement in 2020. The protest left in its wake arson, looting and fatalities. It generated serious tension in the land. It also caught world […]

Editorial

EDITORIAL: Is NBC out to muzzle the media?

Ihesiulo Grace 19 November 2020 0

It seems the issue has arisen yet again. A few weeks ago, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), an agency of the federal government, fined Channels Television, AIT and Arise TV three million naira each (N3 million) over their “unprofessional coverage” of the #EndSARS protests and the crisis that followed it. This sanction has engendered outrage […]

Editorial

Editorial: Looting spree nationwide

Ihesiulo Grace 18 November 2020 0

Looting, What started as a peaceful protest against the brutality of the now proscribed police department, Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), unfortunately, spiralled out of control across the country. After days of peaceful protests starting from Lagos and Abuja, two cities considered as hotspots, thugs, hoodlums and other criminal elements, suspected to have been

Editorial

OPINION: Air Pollution: What Nigeria Must Do to Fight the Importation of Used Vehicles

Ihesiulo Grace 17 November 2020 0

By Olamide Francis The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) raised the alarm over the effects of environmental effects of importation of used vehicles into Nigeria. In the report published on 26 October 2020, it said millions of used vehicles exported from Europe, the US, and Japan to developing nations are significant contributors to air pollution. […]

Editorial

EDITORIAL: Okonjo-Iweala’s candidacy at WTO

Ihesiulo Grace 17 November 2020 0

The race for the top job at the World Trade Organisation ( WTO) had eight candidates in its second round of the selection process. They were Mohammad Maziad AlTuwaijri (Saudi Arabia), Liam Fox (United Kingdom), Jesus Seade Kuri (Mexico), AbdelHamid Mamdouh (Egypt), Amina C. Mohamed (Kenya), Yoo Myung-hee (Republic of Korea), Ngozi OkonjoIweala (Nigeria) and […]

Editorial

EDITORIAL: Social media censorship, a threat to free speech

Ihesiulo Grace 16 November 2020 0

(Social media) Nigeria’s democracy is facing unanticipated threats from its political class who had sworn to uphold the country’s 1999 Constitution which guarantees various freedoms. Theseinclude the freedom of association and expression. Promoters of the recent youth protest against police brutality have had their bank accounts blocked on the orders of a court. One of

Editorial

EDITORIAL: Out-of-school children in Nigeria

Ihesiulo Grace 13 November 2020 0

UNICEF estimates that 10.5 million of Nigeria’s children aged 5-14 years are not in school. In December of 2018, the United Nations (UN) declared the population of out-of-school children in Nigeria to be over 13 million. In August of this year, former President Olusegun Obasanjo placed the figure at 14 million. Out of every five […]

Editorial

EDITORIAL: Our universities and e-learning

Ihesiulo Grace 12 November 2020 0

The National Universities Commission (NUC) has said that Nigeria cannot efficiently operate e-learning programmes in its universities due to lack of infrastructure, electricity supply and internet access. These shortcomings will require some time to address. Sadly, lack of infrastructure and electricity supply has been the bane of our existence in Nigeria for many decades,

Editorial

Editorial: Decline in states’ internally generated revenue

Ihesiulo Grace 11 November 2020 0

The fiscal condition of states in the federation has been highly deplorable for a very long time. It appears to have worsened in the past two decades. This has been caused by the increasing size of the bureaucracy and several other associated issues of the fledgling democratic dispensation that have pushed the expenditure of these […]

Editorial

EDITORIAL: Havoc of inflationary pressure

Ihesiulo Grace 9 November 2020 0

People are groaning because of the devastating inflationary pressure that is making it impossible for many to consume the minimum calories required for a healthy living. Nigeria’s macroeconomic environment has become very harsh in its diminutive impact on the purchasing power of the citizenry. Many cannot also conveniently afford to transport themselves to their workplace

Editorial

EDITORIAL: President Buhari’s #EndSARS broadcast

Ihesiulo Grace 6 November 2020 0

Nigerians listened to President Muhammadu Buhari’s much-awaited national address broadcast on October 22nd, 2020 with surprise. The address came two weeks after the #EndSARS protest began, two days after the Lagos State Lekki tollgate shootings and a day after widespread vandalism, looting and killings had escalated in various states in the country. The President said […]

Editorial

EDITORIAL: Maltreatment of maids in Nigeria

Ihesiulo Grace 5 November 2020 0

There is an alarming increase in child maltreatment in Nigeria. A few instances will suffice. There was the case of Peace, a young girl rescued by the police on December 25, 2019 in Enugu State after a video of her being dragged out of a vehicle, thrown up and slammed on the bare floor went […]

Editorial

Editorial: The President’s aide as INEC Commissioner?

Ihesiulo Grace 4 November 2020 0

President Muhammadu Buhari recently nominated his Senior Special Assistant on Social Media, Lauretta Onochie, as an Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Commissioner presumably representing Delta State. In the letter which he sent to Senate President Ahmed Lawan, there were three other nominees namely: Professor Mohammed Sani (Katsina), Professor Kunle Ajayi

Editorial

EDITORIAL: Path to a true nation: The Nigerian Youth (2)

Ihesiulo Grace 3 November 2020 0

Recent demographics put the Nigerian youth population at about 130 million, averaging about 70 per cent of the total number of people in the country. Whether in the north or in the south, in the east or in the west, Nigerian youths are exposed to the same sort of deprivations, the same sort of inclemency […]

Editorial

EDITORIAL: Path to a true nation: The Nigerian Youth (1)

Ihesiulo Grace 2 November 2020 0

In the light of the recent national upheaval in the form of #ENDSARS protest spearheaded by the youths of this country, it is apposite for us as a people to interrogate their function and place in our quest for true nationhood. A young, active population has the potential to unleash energies which are crucial to […]

Covid-19 Editorial

EDITORIAL: COVID-19 Protocols in Nigeria

Ihesiulo Grace 30 October 2020 0

Against all expectations, Nigeria and indeed the rest of Africa have fared better than expected during the COVID-19 pandemic which was expected to ravage the continent with hundreds of deaths. The statistics are telling. In Nigeria, there have been 60, 430 infections and 1, 115 deaths. The recent update is that a total of 1,942 […]