USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Restructuring Nigeria Needs

The Restructuring Nigeria Needs

By Arthur Agwuncaha Nwankwo

It is indeed interesting to see so many Nigerians today talking about restructuring the Nigerian state. This is heart warning on account of the fact that today we have come to appreciate restructuring as a necessity for Nigeria's continued existence. This is a crusade I began almost two decades ago; a crusade that has taken me to prison and back.

 

In the course of this crusade, I have had my younger brother brutally murdered in cold blood by agents of the state; I have had my residence turned inside-out by security agents brooding over my massive library like maggots rummaging the remains of decaying carcass. I have been cursed and discussed; scandalized and analysed. The leeches of the Nigerian state are mad; and I am happy. The struggle rages on and that's just the way I love it. My happiness is that my crusade has put Nigeria on notice and today we are all talking about it.

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http://ugowrite.blogspot.com.ng/2016/07/the-restructuring-nigeria-needs.html

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The Avengers As Nemesis Of A Nation's Hubris

By Alade Rotimi-John  

These are testy times for the Nigerian nation state. She is variously buffeted on all sides by the scourge of insurgency in her North-East geo-political zone, the murderous ogre of Fulani herdsmen in the north–central axis and in the southern states of Enugu, Ekiti, Oyo and Delta, the brimming militancy in the South-South exemplifying itself in incessant bombings of oil and gas pipelines in the Niger Delta, the revamped agitation for self-determination by restive youths in the South-East, an all-time low crude oil price, the irritable upsurge in price level, the plummeting exchange value of the national currency, unbridled unemployment and the abysmal failure or non-functioning of public infrastructure e.g. electricity, etc.

 

Of all Nigeria's contemporary difficulties, however, the Boko Haram attempt to take control of the country by force to foist on her its own brand of rabid or unconventional Islamism and the Niger Delta militancy directed at the nation's economic jugular have understandably taken the centre stage. Both militant agitations must be understood as natural human responses to a perceived unfair or unjust political or social order even as they are a stark reflection of how remiss successive administrations have been regarding the requirement to resolve the contradictions inherent in the Nigerian pastiche. Only half-hearted attempts have been made to interrogate the Nigerian national question.

The socio-economic injustice in the Niger Delta finds unrefreshing or disturbing parallel in the criminal neglect of the fortunes of children and young persons in many parts of Northern Nigeria. Generally, the Nigerian state manifests smug indifference to the plight of her people even as the people are consequently provoked to question the legitimacy or appropriateness of those who have been put in authority over them to resolve the crisis of the status of their stake-holding.

CLICK ON THIS LINK TO READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE

http://ugowrite.blogspot.com.ng/2016/07/the-avengers-as-nemesis-of-nations.html

 

 

 

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