The inspiration for this article came from a contribution that I posted on Facebook last month, February 2017. Noting that President Muhammadu Buhari had heeded the popular call for the resubmission of Ibrahim Magu’s name to the Senate, I weighed in with a recommendation, to wit, that Senators facing corruption allegations recuse themselves when the matter of Magu’s candidature for the chairmanship of the EFCC comes up for deliberation. Apparently, a few of my readers thought I was on to … [Read more...]

(Text of an address delivered by Professor M J Balogun at #OccupyNASS Event, Abuja, 26 April 2016) Let me begin by thanking God Almighty for giving each and every one of us here present an opportunity to be part of history in the making. Were it not for the Almighty’s unparalleled wisdom and loving kindness, we would not have been inspired to leave whatever we were doing or planning to do to come here and participate in the struggle for our country’s emancipation. I must also express my … [Read more...]

When I started reading Remi Oyeyemi’s rejoinder to Tunde Fagbenle's earlier article in SaharaReporters, I eagerly looked forward to a critical but objective assessment of the challenges facing Nigeria since the attainment of independence. Alas, and if truth be told, his piece in the 13th March edition of SaharaReporters did not measure up to my expectation. Instead of taking a holistic or systemic view of the Nigerian state construction quandary, Mr Oyeyemi heaped the blame for all the country’s … [Read more...]

In April 2015, the Nigerian electorate took a bold and unprecedented decision: it sent a ruling party packing. The voters ended the Peoples Democratic Party’s/PDP’s sixteen-year reign, and cast their lot with an untested and cash-strapped opposition known as the All Progressives Congress/APC. Though comprising individuals with divergent interests and worldviews, the APC had promised the electorate what the later craved most—change. Change, in this sense, meant combatting corruption and impunity, … [Read more...]

Introduction If reports filtering out of Abuja are anything to go by, no less than 600 top-level posts would fall vacant in the coming weeks. This is not surprising. A new party is in power. A change of guard comes with the territory. As has been the practice over the years, and considering the role that technical 'know-who" plays in the selection process relative to technical "know-how", those interested in the soon to be vacant jobs have started to line up the support of powerful individuals … [Read more...]

“Time has gone when some people were above the law. This time around nobody, not even me, will be above the law." President Muhammadu Buhari Abstract The inspiration for this article came gradually—specifically, in the course of several visits to Lagos, Nigeria. In ordinary circumstances, making it through any urban jungle’s traffic unperturbed is no mean achievement. Extricating oneself from Lagos’s perpetual gridlock is a spectacular, albeit, … [Read more...]

By the way, what is the outcome of the EFCC investigation into the fuel subsidy scam? Were we not led to believe that those implicated in the scam (mostly sons/daughters of PDP chieftains) would soon face the music? Forgive me for asking if the music has stopped playing or the dancers have been granted permission to disperse. Corruption cases to have a habit of getting cold in Nigeria. They get cold because the public is either easily distracted or too forgetful. I have no doubt in my mind … [Read more...]

How can a government be sure that the goods and services produced by the career public service are the same as those promised the electorate? The honest answer is it can’t. Were all the beans to be counted and duly accounted for, the government would still not be able to say with confidence that the bureaucratic agents’ delivery matches the people’s or their elected representatives’ expectations. If statutory mandates are not ‘rewritten’ along the way by the prevailing rules regime and sundry … [Read more...]

In a previous article, I argued that the time spent wondering how to rebrand or restructure Nigeria ought to be devoted to transforming the state from the lord and master that it currently is to the service provider that the citizen expects it to be. This is a major paradigm shift. It is an enormous task that calls not only for a new mindset but also and more especially for the active involvement of all the stakeholders. However, the fact that the task is beyond the capacity of an individual … [Read more...]

My esteemed readers deserve an explanation for my long silence. It isn't as if my pen ran short of ink, or that there aren't topics worth writing about. I had to take a 'sabbatical' to meet an urgent publishing deadline, and at the same time, participate in online debate on the 2015 elections. With the publishing project out of the way, I can now focus on issues of national concern. At least two 'medicines' have, at one time or the other, been prescribed as cures for our country's maladies. … [Read more...]