Author: Martins Oloja

AS I promised while rounding off last week, we would have to continue with the discussion points here on how to ensure that we borrow some brilliance from some Nordic countries, especially Finland where they dignify and reward teachers more than their judicial officers and other civil servants. Talking about significant Reward Package for Teachers may have been a very stale and laughable subject in our country at the moment I would like to remind our leaders and the ruling class that it is one of the issues that should ordinarily dominate even parliamentary debates in the context of nation…

IT is another time to freeze our fixation on to many political stories and focus on some consequential governance issues that make or mar the future of Africa’s most populous nation that the black race too has been waiting for as a source of pride and confidence. Thankfully, we no longer wonder that why the leadership of the Senate would continue to deceive the people that employed them about their remuneration package. The truth they all attempted to use the media to hide in a grave could not stay there. At least one them has confirmed what they all tried…

AS we await manifestation of a litany of promises of renewed and deferred hope, we can also begin to reflect on where the rain that has been beating us since 1999 actually began. I reflected on the rainmakers on an unusual beat the other day in Lagos. On Saturday August 3, 2024, there was a significant memorial service in Oregun, Ikeja Lagos, which brought together two of our prominent and significant citizens. It was a memorial service in honour of the late Dr. David Olayinka Oloruntoba (June 14, 1961 – February 14, 2024. The orthopedic surgeon who had set up…

AS I was saying, let’s continue with our concentration on a promised serial on the limitless opportunities that the Livestock Subsector offers all of us instead of the bugbear of consequences of the planned #August 1-10 Peaceful Protest on Hardship” that some politically exposed people are disparaging instead of managing through some strategic public relations mechanism. And here is the thing, instead of blaming phantom foreign interests and enemies, some of the president’s men and women should engage in critical thinking such as studying afresh what some experts and public intellectuals have suggested on how to promote Agriculture value chain…

THE age-long challenge of ‘information overload’ is beginning to affect us in this part of the world and our leaders at all levels are exploiting it to prevent people from deepening understanding of the multifarious challenges they daily ignore in the context of their primary responsibility – security and welfare of the people. Yes, ‘information overload’, that blight, which can be seen as the excess information available to a person aiming to complete a task or make decision. This new challenge to mankind, which now impedes the decision-making process, daily results in poor (or even no) decision being made –…

AS Editor of “The Guardian” in 2014 when he clocked 80, I did a 16-page special edition, a wrap-around on Wole Soyinka, the legend. I wanted to write a Special “Inside Stuff” Tribute on the Nobel laureate as he clocks 90 today. But when I found the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature Presentation Speech on W.S by Professor Lars Gyllensten, of the Swedish Academy, a writer’s block overwhelmed me. So, I am presenting to you a greater ‘outside stuff’, a classic on Professor Soyinka, I mean what you may not have read or have forgotten about the proudly Nigerian literary…

ALIKO Dangote doesn’t need any introduction to Nigerians and indeed Africans. He is generally believed to be the richest man in Africa and his wealth is from entrepreneurship and investment that can be fact-checked. He isn’t one of those the iconic Mahatma Ghandhi once classified as “sinners” who become “wealthy without work”. He has become a global citizen of Nigerian extraction. But today isn’t a day to talk about Dangote’s profile. I am quite curious and concerned about what he has been lamenting about. I think it is important for us as informed citizens to do some contextual reporting about…

LET us pray that our leaders who are quite resourceful at causing distractions would not exploit the CNN presidential debate tragedy in the United States where they have a tale of two strange candidates from both dominant parties to take some steam out of the current significant lessons from Nairobi, Kenya, Africa. Yes, our leaders’ cyber soldiers are everywhere, blasting social commentators who don’t praise their under-performing principals. Let’s hope that the loud echoes from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda will arrest their attention this time. Let’s believe that they will realise now that it is a small world of transparency…

IT is expected that our people, notably our leaders and the elite who attended the inauguration of President Cyril Ramaphosa for a second term last week are following political developments in South Africa where institutions of governance and democracy are deepening democracy for development at the moment. I hope our big men in Abuja who watched the inauguration live on global networks have taken their time to study the South Africa’s 2024 election as a process, not just the simple but short and impressive inauguration at the Union Buildings in Pretoria. I would like to continue with the deconstruction of…

AFTER watching all the shenanigans, peccadillos, frills and thrills of the strange Democracy Day June 12, 2024 last week, I had wanted to write on the inconclusive list of ‘Heroes of Democracy” President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s historians drew up and made public on May 29, 2024. I wanted to deconstruct the list, which markedly diminished the democratic landmark as an event rather than a process. I intended to reveal from my June 12 “diary of a debacle” as Professor Olatunji Dare’s book on the subject calls it, and list more significant “Heroes of June 12 Debacle” that the Tinubu Government…

WHILE still basking in the glory of realising a lifetime ambition in March 2023 as president-elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu had then assured Nigerians that his administration would not only be a government of national unity but also of national competence. Specifically, there was a statement to that effect on March 16, 2023. In that remarkable message, there was a glimmer of “hope of a better tomorrow” Ngugi says, “is the only comfort you can give to a weeping child”. As I was saying here, in what looks like Buhari’s “I-Belong-to-no-body” famous speech on inauguration day on May 29, 2015,…

I HAD planned to continue with the conclusions of my reflections on the chaotic presidency of our current leader especially when the presidential communications office touched off more chaos last week on the eve of their first year in office and 25 years of unbroken democratic dispensation. Most of my valued readers including some respected scholars had earlier advised me to continue to suggest to the chief executive of the federation on how to fix the chaos his leadership style has triggered. I had a draft until two related issues arising from the chaos in the presidency led to fresh…

THE Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration that will clock one on Wednesday this week has been both historic and chaotic. And so for the love of our country, as some will be praying for the administration, others will be speaking in tongues about management of expectations and strategies, some of us on the beat of public affairs commentary should do what the chief executive of the federation needs most at this time: writing on truthsome of the reputation managers would like to hide in a grave. The trouble with hiding truth in a grave is that it won’t stay there (grave)…

I HAD wanted to write on some of our so many and-so-what matters arising from our national greed that has refused to collapse. I had planned to ask questions on why it is getting curiouser and curiouser as in Alice in Wonderland that Dangote has been exporting crude oil from a far country, the United States while Nigeria exports same product. I had also wanted to ask some questions on the whereabouts of the famous Lagos-centric competence of the candidate BAT that was advertised to Nigerians before the 2023 elections. For this week, I had also considered writing on the…

AS WE (the people) reflect on the implications of the 300 per cent increase in electricity tariff for us and the social and human development sector, notably (education and health), let’s again reflect on how Germany has continued to be a tower of strength to even North America on their unique vocational-technical education construct. As I was saying last week here, In Germany, the state, too, benefits from the dual system through easing the burden on public budgets by participation of the enterprises and by keeping the workforce up-to-date. The German dual system has proved its success over a long…

AS the first year anniversary of President Bola Tinubu’s government is loading, it is the right time to remind the administration on the expediency of freezing politics of #Project 2027 so that they can manage priorities and expectations at this time. Here is the reason for this early warning: the Tinubu administration needs to be more organised. The presidential bureaucracy comprising the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, (SGF), the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HOCSF), the Office of the Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) and complementary role of the…

THE strong objection of the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egebtokun to the state police legislation in the works at the National Assembly should not be dismissed ordinarily. And here is why: The IGP who was a chief security officer (CSO) to Governor Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu now President Tinubu is remarkably educated. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from the University of Lagos. Besides, he is a holder of an M.Sc degree in Engineering Analysis and a PGD in Petroleum Economics from the Delta State University and an MBA from the Lagos State University. It is…

AS I was saying, ‘Even in South Korea, rated as No.5 in the world, in terms of budgeting and funding for research and development, the brand maker of Samsung, there is a separate Ministry of Knowledge Development apart from the Ministry of Education – all in a bid to use quality in education of their citizens and public servants weapon of country and global competitiveness. What is more, the United States that often boasts of its exceptionalism in the world order, has been recorded as having subscribed to a scientific way of producing unknown geniuses for both public and private…

AS I was saying before the electricity jumbo bill and other related bills came to compound our expenditure woes: ‘…It is just unfortunate for us here that we in the media hardly cover the public service in Abuja. Only very few journalists now navigate the labyrinthine state of public affairs in Abuja and even in the 36 states of the federation. Besides, the public service arm of the national and state assemblies are hardly covered by our digital journalists these days. Remarkably, that is where the unusual happen. That is also where the documents of the system are generated. No…

THE third part of this reflection on public service as perceived by an outsider is an executive summary of the way we are and that is what our leaders should focus on through public policy formulation Our public schools are not attracting students whose parents have the resources to pay fees in the developing world. Our healthcare system is out of control. Our courts and prisons are so overcrowded that convicted felons are always breaking loose. And many of our proudest cities and states are virtually bankrupt. They can’t maintain public institutions and can’t pay for electricity. Confidence in government…