Tuesday, 8 July 2014


Why Nigeria is the best country in the whole wide world

   /   in Femi Aribisala 12:01 am   /   Comments
A Nigerian supporter attends the 2014 African Nations Championship (CHAN) qualifying football match between Ivory Coast and Nigeria on July 27, 2013 at the Robert-Champroux Stadium in Abidjan. Ivory Coast defeated Nigeria 2 - 0.  AFP PHOTO
Two weeks ago, I paid a visit to Dubai for the very first time. Dubai is everything Lagos is not. Dubai works: Lagos does not.
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Are the Nigeria Police thief-catchers or are they thieves themselves?

   /   in Femi Aribisala 12:57 am   /   Comments
One of the officers arrested for gross indiscipline
IF you asked the man in the street what the Nigeria police do, he is not likely to tell you their job is to protect and serve the public. In Nigeria, the police are known for one primary assignment: harassment of the public for the purposes of extorting money.
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Money-laundering Nigeria’s future

   /   in Femi Aribisala 12:48 am   /   Comments
The recovered stolen money.
IN 1987, at a reception in honour of President Ibrahim Babangida at the Waldorf Astoria, New York during his visit to the United States, I had an interesting conversation with Alhaji Abubakar Alhaji, then Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance.
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Who says Nigeria will not win the World Cup in 2014?

   /   in Femi Aribisala 12:35 am   /   Comments
Keshi
MY good friend, Jide Akintunde, Managing-Director of Financial Nigeria Limited, is what is known as a football aficionado.
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Kingsley Moghalu’s Emerging Africa

   /   in Femi Aribisala 12:01 am   /   Comments
Kingsley Moghalu
THE title of Kingsley Moghalu’s new book, “Emerging Africa,” is puzzling. Rather than being an affirmation of its title, Moghalu’s book begs the question: “Is Africa really emerging?”
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The ‘Goodluck’ called Nigeria

   /   in Femi Aribisala 12:54 am   /   Comments
INDEPENDENCE—President Goodluck Jonathan (6th right) flanked by Vice-President Namadi Sambo (7th right); former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon (5th right); Senate President David Mark (9th right); former Head of Interim National Government, Chief Ernest Shonekan (8th right) and service chiefs, cutting the 53rd Independence Anniversary Cake at the Presidential Villa, Abuja
AS Nigerians, we are all acutely aware of what is wrong with Nigeria, especially since we are all part and parcel of the Nigerian affliction.
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Issues before the sovereign national confab

   /   in Femi Aribisala 12:50 am   /   Comments
A cross section of members of the Presidential Advisory Committee on the National Conference during the inauguration of the Committee at the State House, Abuja. Photo: Abayomi Adeshida.
INAUGURATING the organizing committee for the proposed Sovereign National Conference, President Goodluck Jonathan said: “I will, therefore, like to allay the fears of those who think the Conference will call the integrity of Nigeria into question.
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Planning for a Nigerian future without oil

   /   in Femi Aribisala 12:47 am   /   Comments
*Oil Vandals
IN the nineteenth century, Napoleon Bonaparte of France described Britain as “a nation of shopkeepers.” Such characterisation might also be applicable to Nigeria today. In every street-corner of our major cities are people selling all kinds of goods. Some display these in the middle of the streets.
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Bigmanism in Nigeria

   /   in Femi Aribisala 12:47 am   /   Comments
Alhaji-Dikko-Abdulahi, C G, Customs
Several years ago, at a conference on Coastal Piracy in Nigeria’s Territorial Waters, I admonished a senior member of the Nigeria Customs and Immigrations Department that the Customs was the most corrupt sector of the Nigerian public service.
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Why Goodluck Jonathan must run for a second-term

   /   in Femi Aribisala 12:26 am   /   Comments
President Goodluck Jonathan
There is a lot of irritating noise coming especially from the North-West concerning the need for the presidency to return to the North in 2015. This should be discarded as sound and fury signifying nothing.
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WARNING: Poor people are not wanted in Lagos megacity

   /   in Femi Aribisala 7:12 am   /   Comments
Lagos2
HIP, hip, hip; Hooray!
Lagos is now going to be a megacity. Under the able leadership of Governor Babatunde Fashola, the apostle of good governance, Lagos is undergoing a major makeover. The Atlantic Ocean will be banished, to be replaced by Eko Atlantic; a shimmering new 3.5- mile island built literally on the water behind a “great wall of Lagos.” Greenery has suddenly appeared in Lagos, displacing the concrete jungle. There are now parks with manicured lawns. There are now tree-lined roads. Pot-holes are now being tarred. Sidewalks are now provided for pedestrians.
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When will the Americans learn that a Super-power is no longer Super-powerful?

   /   in Femi Aribisala 12:04 am   /   Comments
*Obama
THE United States still has not got the memo: we are no longer in the “American century.” The United States is no longer what it was, if indeed it ever was what it was supposed to be: the colossus of the international system. There are now small-state actors that exercise significant regional power without reference to American hegemonic pretensions. There is also a new pretender to the American throne in the form of the Peoples Republic of China, a country with 3.4 trillion American dollars in its reserves.
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How to become an overnight billionaire in Nigeria

   /   in Femi Aribisala 8:10 am   /   Comments
Naira notes
WITH only some 50 years of independent national existence, Nigeria is a country reeking with “new money.” The overwhelming proportion of the millionaires and billionaires in the country are “nouveau-riche;” they became rich literally “overnight.” We are talking of people whose wealth does not go beyond a generation.
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The revolution is crime

   /   in Femi Aribisala 12:04 am   /   Comments
Labour leaders  and workers protesting fuel price increases
In January 1987, as a member of “Vice-President” Augustus Aikhomu’s delegation to the meeting of the Africa Fund Committee of the Non-aligned Countries, held in New Delhi, India, I engaged the “Vice-President” in a discussion on Nigerian politics.
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