The Armed Forces of any nation represents its strength, courage and sovereignty. It is also a symbol of unity. It defends and maintains nations’ territorial integrity, national symbols and cohesion in their countries. The Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) was established 159 years ago and has evolved through different stages. With a force of no fewer than 223,000 active personnel today, the Nigerian military is one of the largest uniformed combat services in Africa. According to the latest Global Firepower index, the Nigerian armed forces are the fourth most powerful military in Africa, and ranked 35th globally. The history of…
Author: Editor
I address you today, with a deep sense of gratitude to God and a high level of appreciation to all Nigerians whose tremendous goodwill gave me the opportunity to provide leadership for our great country at one of the trying times in her history. 2. Conscious that today’s address would be my last on an Independence Day as your President; I speak to the millions of Nigerians, who believed in me, propelled and stood by me in my quest to bequeath a country where all citizens have equal opportunities to achieve their lives desires in a peaceful atmosphere. 3. I am honoured…
Burkinabes woke up Friday to heavy military presence on the streets of Ouagadougou with gunfire ringing out early in the capital, sparking coup fears. The whereabouts of the country’s leader, Col. Damiba, is still unknown but a statement from the presidency’s social media cited a “crisis within the army”. According to local journalist Simon Gongo, soldiers from the elite corps rebelled. Simon Gongo, local journalist: “Soldiers from the Cobra unit are the ones who mutinied to demand better living and working conditions. There is talk of unpaid bonuses that are being claimed. But if we look closely at the events…
Over the years, women have clamoured for political space because men dominate both elective and appointed positions in Nigeria. This has been from the pre-independence era, Nigerian women have played active part in politics. The action of Aba women in resisting colonial taxation is a familiar story; so also the political activism of late Mrs Margret Ekpo and Funmilayo Ransom-Kuti. Against this background, women influence in Nigeria’s political space was expected to grow with Independence from British colonial rulers in 1960. However, long years of military and civil war limited the influence of women in Nigeria’s politics as they were…
As the Fourth Republic rolled on, Nigerians have become increasingly concerned with the abusive relationship they have had with their elected leaders. According to the fake saying: “people get the leaders they deserve”. For the most part, Nigerians are democrats and have repeatedly elected leaders they believe will play by the democracy handbook, that is provide the services they promised to those who voted them into power. Repeatedly, Nigerians have discovered that it is a deceitful and abusive relationship in which the people are denied the outcome they had hoped to get from their civic engagement – the dividends of…
Our politicians and political leaders (some of them offspring of our First Republic politicians) are on the march again. They know the story of how the First Republic fell to the Federal Republic of the Nigerian Army in 1966. They are ignoring the warnings of legends such as Bernard Shaw about the implications of ignoring classic lessons of history. They have seen the implications of the Republic of the ‘Soldiers of Fortune.’ They saw how the Second Republic came to harm through their godfathers. They have read Adewale Ademoyega’s ‘Why We Struck,’ yet they have ignored the lessons and impacts…
On Thursday last week, the Nigeria International Economic Partnership Forum was held in Manhattan, New York in the middle of the most important international event of the year: the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). The Forum was enormously popular, attracting some 500 guests and delegates – almost double the expected number. While this resulted in a somewhat chaotic atmosphere at times, the Forum was a resounding success: a clear indication of investor confidence in Nigeria. Nigeria is the biggest economy in Africa and seeks to raise GDP to $965 billion-almost a trillion by 2027. Under President Muhammadu Buhari, the nation…
There must be something that does not sit well between Adamu Maina Waziri, a former minister of the federal republic, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and one of Atiku Abubakar’s right-hand men, and Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, governor of Rivers State and runner-up in the presidential primary election of the PDP. Wike lost the primary election to Atiku by 237 votes to 371. Without a doubt, that loss, which he never expected, hit him hard. A few weeks later, he lost the chance to be Atiku’s running mate. That completely unhinged him and, frustrated, he has been in…
This week, the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies organised a high-level forum on political communication and issue-based politics in the run up to the 2023 elections. In his speech at the event, Speaker Gbajabiamila made the point that politicians in a democracy should run on the basis of their record but in our context in which so many of them have no records to show, they change the agenda by attacking personalities and engaging in divisive politics. The problem is that it works. By evoking emotions and castigating perceived political enemies with hate and dangerous speech, the generate…
With the knowledge of cosmos science and technology, Mission to Mars was made successfully. In the last six decades, twenty-five missions were launched, went to Mars, and came back to the earth with all the expected outputs successfully. These successful missions were achieved from 2011 to date. However, before achieving those successes, there were twenty-four failed missions to Mars from 1960 to 2011 according to NASA’s historical log. This means that for 60 consecutive years, scientists have been working tirelessly to send spacecraft to Mars and the series of encountered failures did not discourage them rather learned lessons from such…