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By Dele Momodu Fellow Nigerians, please allow me to set the records straight before I go into the main meat of this letter. On a personal note, I have no problem with President Goodluck Jonathan seeking a second term in office. It is his legitimate Constitutional right. It does not matter if he truly reached an unwritten gentleman’s agreement with some members of his political party, openly or clandestinely. When did it become a criminal offence for Nigerian politicians to renege on their promises? At the very worst, he would have committed a moral offence of being a reprobaterather than a gentleman who keepsto his words. Finito! But that is an act of indecorum which is not punishable under any of our Acts or Statutes. My take is simple and straight-forward: let Jonathan run, if he wants to. It is cowardly to stylishly force him out of the race. The essence of democracy is to give every aspirant a chance except we can establish legal reasons to deba...

Flakes of Mica © 2002 K.F. “Kevin” Corbin     We sat at a roadside pullout high in the mountains of British Columbia . We had stopped for breakfast about a half hour before and here on the mountaintop seemed to be the perfect place to do our morning devotions.   Kathy grabbed a chair and her Bible and went off in one direction and I grabbed a chair, my Bible and the dog and went a little way off. Genni settled in at my feet as I read of mountains in the Old Testament, seated looking across the valley at more rocky mountaintops.   The setting was ideal and a great place to commune with God. When I was done, I set my Bible down and took the dog for a short stroll.   As we walked, we came across a rock pile that some road crew had cleaned off the road from a small rockslide. The pile glistened in the bright morning sunlight as the sun reflected off the large flakes of mica on the rocks.   Fascinated, I picked up a large p...

By Chukwuma Charles Soludo Nigeria operates a peculiar kind of federation (unitary federalism) with overwhelming concentration of powers on the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN). Its fiscal federalism is also peculiar, with about 50% of the Federation Account shared among the 36 states and 774 local governments, and each armed with constitutional powers to spend without supervision by, or accountability to the federal government. Yes, the FGN has control over monetary, financial and exchange rate policies, taxation, external trade and finance, wage policy, and a monopoly of internal and external security. But the size, composition and quality of public sector spending still exert the greatest impacts on the economy and the welfare of citizens. Thus, given the enormous spending powers of the other tiers of government, it means that if they do not “perform”, efforts at the federal level to improve the welfare of citizens could amount to ...

The last one week has been busy. Like it always is for me. But the past three days have been interesting. On Monday we learnt that the first British female Prime Minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher took her finaly bow. On Tuesday I had to successfully brave an onslaught of engineering gurus who took my design considerations for using historical Synthetic Aperture Radar data to explore for Oil Sands apart. Some how God had me prevail and today I dwell on Governor Rotimi Amaechi's sterling remarks on recieving the Vanguard Man of the year. It is customary to honour the dead so I begin with Mrs Thatcher. I grew up in London while she held sway as UK's Prime Minister. I was too little to understand the Miners Strike or her relentless privatisation drive. Nor can I recall when she abolished the General London Assembly or the Falklands War. What made this woman my mentor was her rags to riches tale. A grocers daughter that earned her place in the World stage becoming Englands first an...

Who will bell the cat? Who will bring salvation to the nation and succour to the people? Who really cares? The rate of inequality is widening still. But today we present Mr Eddy Adivwri who is screaming shrill. President Goodluck Jonathan By Eddy Adivwri Many a times I would exercise some hope, believing that Nigeria will indeed get better. Not so much that I believe in the so-called Transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan, but i just hope things will improve someday, perhaps not in my life time. But the more I see how things run, the more my hope level drops. The ethnic faults are deepening and even widening. And I wonder if anything will ever really change in Nigeria. I have watched the verbiages that have attended the controversial state pardon granted former Bayelsa State governor, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, by President Jonathan, purportedly on the advice of the Council of States. While many have noted that the President has the right to grant suc...

Good question. Is there ever a right time to invest? Good call. Is now the right time to invest in Africa? Today we take Katrina Manson who thinks investment in Africa is an idea who's time has come. And also Sanusi Lamido who suggests that Africans should see China as a competitor. Harsh deal climate in sub-Saharan Africa By Katrina Manson in Nairobi ©Alamy The Kenyan capital Nairobi is an economic powerhouse in sub-Saharan Africa Miles Morland, a pioneering Africa investor, has spent more than two decades looking for deals in places where you can’t drink the tap water. If his experience is anything to go by, finding successful private equity opportunities has more to do with sharing a glass of the stronger stuff in African bars. “In Africa there are hundreds of deals but you have to go and look for them. In the west, investment bankers bring you deals . . .[but], in Africa , investment bankers are way down the food chain. You need to go and hang ...

What is the Nigerian Dream? How will we bring it about? Over the next few months we will feature different perceptions of the Nigerian dream and how people propose for the dream to be achieved. Mr Udoh suggests that the post 1978- change in China is due mainly the influx of well educated Chinese from the diaspora and a willingness of Deng to embrace the economic liberation necessary to free the creativity of the Chinese entrepreneur. In essence a contradistinction between the central communist governing philosophy and acceptance of capitalist liberal ideology. This unique but pragmatic solution reminds me of me! Whenever people ask me what American political party I support my answer is usually, "I am a Republican in principle but a Democrat in practise". The Chinese are conservative in ideology but ensure enough economic liberality to create wealth. Well played if you ask me. The question still remains what is the Nigerian Dream? And how can this be achieved? Lets hear fr...