Editorial Review

Interrogating The Anti-Graft War

In a bid to deepen the national conversation on the anti-graft war – against the background of the very low rating of Nigeria in the latest Transparency International (TI) Global Corruption Perception Index – the Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy and Development (SCDDD), in collaboration with the Arewa Research and Development Project (ARDP) and the Centre for Democratic Development, Research ...

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Dapchi Schoolgirls: Not Yet Celebration Time 

After one month of a heartrending experience in Boko Haram captivity, which seemed like an eternity to their parents, most of the latest victims of the terror group’s pastime of mass abduction of schoolgirls are back in the warm embrace of their loved ones. In a dramatic turn of events, no fewer than 105 of the 110 schoolgirls stolen from ...

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Halt These Killings, Mr President

It is only three months into the year 2018, and the number of Nigerians murdered in their villages and homes by gunmen masquerading as Fulani herdsmen is approaching the 500 mark. From the New Year Day massacres in Benue State which prompted a mass burial televised live, more fronts of barbaric atrocities have been opened in Taraba, Plateau, Zamfara, Kogi, ...

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Disclosures On National Assembly Emoluments

A great outcry rose in Nigeria since last week when it transpired that members of the National Assembly, the legislative branch of government, were pocketing huge sums of money as emoluments hitherto unknown to Nigerians. Senator Shehu Sani, representing Kaduna Central, had granted an interview to TheNews in which he disclosed that senators receive N13.5 million monthly as “running expenses,” ...

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Cronyism, Lobbying In Judicial Appointments

JUSTICE dispensation in Nigeria is like a shipwreck. And the reasons for this calamity are obvious to the stakeholders. A former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mariam Aloma-Mukhtar, decried in Abuja recently the prevalence of lobbying and favouritism in judicial appointments, instead of being merit-driven. Her observation is a knock-out on the judiciary. These base criteria, she noted, have led to ...

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Herdsmen Terror: Rising Above Ethnicity

  Punch Editorial Board As Nigeria’s steady and seemingly inexorable drift into an abyss of anomie continues, it is difficult not to notice the striking resemblance between the way Boko Haram was propped up in the not-too-distant past, by those in a position to have nipped its incipient danger in the bud, and the way the marauding Fulani herders are ...

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Withdrawing Policemen From Unauthorised Persons

  The Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Mr. Mike Okiro, recently disclosed in Abuja that more than 150,000 of the nation’s policemen are attached to certain highly placed officials and some unauthorised persons in the country. The PSC boss lamented that the commission could not afford to have a half of the policemen in the country in private hands. ...

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A Minister’s Faulty Theory

By Editorial Board The remark made the other day by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, to the effect that the inadequate supply of electricity is not the only reason for economic stagnation may be a valid argument, but it is also patronising. And it seems to obscure the contribution of that energy gap to the dysfunction of ...

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The Influx Of Small Arms, Light Weapons

By Editorial Board Although arms proliferation is a global issue, available data on Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) show that out of the 640 million circulating globally, it is estimated that 100 million are found in Africa, about 30 million in sub-Saharan Africa and eight million in West Africa, alone. The majority of these SALW about 59% are in the ...

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