Author: Martins Oloja

IT is quite clear that indeed power has changed from the hand of the lanky, foxy and taciturn one to the hand of a very artful dodger who actually prepared for a strategic state capture. Yes, it is no longer in doubt that our country’s architecture of governance has been disrupted for another long walk to freedom. I can see that a great deal of feckless arm-twisting is going on in our national capital. Besides, it is getting ‘curiouser and curiouser’ that the governors we want to be the brand ambassadors of federalism, the paradise we often claim we lost…

HOLD your breath, I have to return to my organic beat, Abuja today because there is a great deal of politicking and even petty revisionism going on there and many residents aren’t taking note. Even the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal’s (PEPT) judicial pronouncement on Abuja without reference to earlier judicial precedents on the same issue by Supreme Court has raised more questions than answers. Meanwhile before the Supreme Court’s judicial pronouncement on the FCT (Abuja) 25% conundrum, let me appeal to all agitated stakeholders that the Supreme Court of Nigeria has pronounced on the subject before. We can only wait…

I HAVE been deeply saddened by some comments and inquiries by some younger elements who never experienced the consequences of military rule in Nigeria and so are being carried away by the current wave of military coup detat in Africa because of perceived failure of democracy and irresponsibility of some African leaders who continue to demonise democratic governance on the continent. It is therefore expedient for some of us who are older and have experienced the grave consequences of even long years of military in Nigeria to sensitise the younger ones to manage their enthusiasm about prospects of return of…

WHEN a leader encourages the culture of impunity, the society is lost and it makes the work harder for the rest of us (Wole Soyinka) The powerful feed ideology to the masses like fast food while they dine on that most rarefied delicacy: impunity (Naomi Klein) Nothing’s as dangerous as power with impunity (Isabel Allende) But if the laws are to be so trampled upon with impunity, and a minority is to dictate to the majority, there is an end put at one stroke to republican government, and nothing but anarchy and confusion is to be expected thereafter (George Washington)…

DESPITE the complexity of managing expectations and priorities these days, another time has again come to reflect on this thing called federal character in the context of urgency of nation building. As I have noted here several times, the urgent task before us is how to rebuild this country’s broken walls. I also once wrote here that, ‘we need a Nehemiah,’ that classic example of how to rebuild a nation with only one weapon: passion. The last administration wasn’t listening to agenda setting, construction and deconstruction even in the media. So many editorials and commentaries were written and spoken on…

‘Still on remarkable lessons from Singapore’ AS I was saying on beyond the contextual reporting of the strategy for Singapore’s success through education quality, it should be noted that Singapore’s education system was not designed de novo by the iconic Lee Kuan Yew and his colleagues. Rather, it was built on the very solid foundations inherited from Singapore’s British colonial past. Just like Nigeria. In contrast to many of his contemporaries among post-colonial leaders, Mr. Yew was not afraid of embracing whatever elements from that past that would prove useful to the enterprise of nation building. Nowhere has this  approach…

IN order that the current euphoria over the reintroduction of students’ loan scheme may not be another post-inauguration gimmick that is just full of sound and fury signifying nothing, the new administration that is beginning to gain attention from some actions so far, should pay significant attention to fixing education beyond the student loan meretricious distraction. The reasons are not too far to seek. First, if the President can look beyond his political party, mobilise all the governors to make the issue of fixing the education broken walls a priority, the world will begin to pay attention to Africa’s most…

THERE will be an election for our bi-cameral National Assembly leadership on Tuesday June 13, 2023. The two critical positions that seek to alter the balance of power in Nigeria are number three and four positions according to the National Order of Precedence – the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The President of the Senate is number three citizen because he will lawfully be the Chairman of the Joint Session of the National Assembly while the Speaker, number four citizen, will be the Deputy Chairman of the Joint Session of the National Assembly.…

THIS is a fitting tribute to a significant lawyer, an original inhabitant of Abuja who fought and conquered even President Muhammadu Buhari in Court and got justice for his people on human rights. He joined his ancestors at 54 last week after battling that evil deposit called sickle cell anemia. I am sure when Musa Baba-Panya gets to his Creator, he will report Buhari to Him and his bitter complaint will be: My Father, my Father, what are you going to do to that man, our leader, Buhari who has since January 15, 2018 failed to abide by a Court…

AS we await results of the gubernatorial and state assembly elections results despite disruptions and eruptions triggered by political desperados at the weekend, there two equally weightier matters of governance and the law we should reflect upon in the context of nation building and national development we urgently need. I think the two current issues: president’s assent to 16 items of the constitution amendment bill and a promise by the president-elect that he would like raise the bar of governance from stereotypical ‘government of national unity’ to the ‘government of national competence’ should be examined. But for the controversies that…

THERE is an urgent need for the president’s men, officers and officials of the federal government to remind our President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces that he still has a responsibility to lead Nigeria till the early hours of May 29, 2023. These big men who are paid to assist the president should tell him first that the people of Nigeria are suffering and not smiling this time because they still cannot access their monies in the banks. Last Wednesday, a major bank in Nigeria called on customers to come to any of the branches nearest to them to…