Opinion Corner

By Jim Garamone – DoD News WASHINGTON, July 23, 2017 — While Russia remains the greatest nation-state threat, the United States doesn’t have the luxury of singling out one challenge, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said at the Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colorado on Saturday night. NBC’s chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell asked Marine Corps …

Nigerians are frustrated by the collapse of all institutions both in public and private life to provide a modicum of functional civil society. The kleptocracy of those in government at all levels from national, states to local government; the endemic corruption of the judiciary and law enforcement agencies has exacerbated the helplessness and hopelessness of Nigerians. The National assembly has …

It is on record that successive Nigerian governments have amassed about N100 trillion from 58 years of oil exploration. Since the discovery of oil in the 1950s, price of petrol in the country has continued to go up from one administration to the other, starting from 1972 to this present administration. In the past 44 years successive Nigerian government has …

And the news came! Brother Wahab is dead! First, it was like a dream before it became a reality. For those of us who knew you as a loving, lovable, sincere, steadfast and wonderful man, it was not only a rude shock, but something that was hard to come to terms with. We have been crying. We have been mourning …

The city Centre, popularly known as King’s Square was used as a test case. The otherwise known as Oba Ovoranmwen Square, which used to be characterized by chaos, disorder and filth, was rid of all that. Sanity has been restored. No more trading on walkways or roads, no indiscriminate parking of vehicles, no littering or hawking around the city Centre, …

Benjamin Franklin is reputed to have said, “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” Every time I read this quote, I wonder if anyone could actually describe themselves as ‘unaffected.’ Clearly, we are all in one boat, if there are holes on my side of the boat, sooner than later, …

Out of the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria, the Igbo have by far the worst politicians. Among the different ethnic groups in Nigeria, the Igbo are without a doubt, one of the most remarkable. So remarkable, indeed, that some have even traced their ancestry to biblical Israel, as the far-flung descendants of Jacob, the Jewish patriarch. Gad, Jacob’s seventh …

There are allegations that the anti-cultism unit of the police was the instrument with which certain persons in the police were extorting from Edo people. At first this was hard to accept. In Fredrick Forsyth’s The Odesa File, it is said that a people and institutions are not bad but the individuals who inhabit a people and institutions are the …

The ruling All Progressives Congress’ ‘change’ mantra, no doubt, made a solid impression on many Nigerians during the 2015 General Election. The people’s expectations were so high that we thought the Muhammadu Buhari administration would turn around the ailing economy and restore dignity to our weak democratic institutions. But, two years down the line, it appears that the prevailing economic …

The speedy passage of the key anti-graft bills such as Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA), Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters (MA), Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and Whistle Blowers Policy Bill (WBPB) into law can institutionalise Nigeria’s fight against corruption, rather than making it seem like a one -man- show. Recommendation 29 of the Financial Action Task Force mandates countries …