New Nigeria Vanguard

 It is safe to say that PMB's long awaited war against corruption has suffered a major setback tantamount to a derailment in the face of these two appointments.  The appointment, particularly by the Bill Gates foundation, has basically validated Ms. Iweala, Nigeria's immediate past Minister of Finance and Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy internationally and made her almost untouchable through the silent, but unmistakable soft power of these appointments. It will be a PR nightmare for the Nigerian government to start any case against Iweala who allegedly either stole or looked the other way while others stole billions of dollars after such a high level international validation and especially after the public accusations by self-appointed government corruption spokesmen like Oshimole who leveled accusations against her have been debunked in the court of analyst opinion. Even if the government pushes forward in charging her, the case will have to be airtight and well-grounde...

By Terhemba Osuji | Some of you who have read my posts know that I am a strong supporter of the monarchy and will strengthen them even more if I had the power so the can prevent mass murder and riots, but certainly not for inciting ethnic cleansing.  So I am saddened at the ethnic bigotry surrounding these elections, the incendiary statements of the Oba of lagos and the unrealistic wholesale gloating of tribalists on social media about Ibo's losing out in the power struggle in Nigeria today because the happened to be in the opposition in this particular election. There is no escaping the fact that the voting patterns reflect the tribal, religious and ethnic origins of individual voters. It does not take an oracle to know beforehand that the APC will capture the vote in Oduduwa land as the son of the soil is the the VP candidate.  It also came as no surprise that the middle belt would vote for APC because of shared affiliations from the old northern regional government. But tri...

I really believe that GMB can fix Nigeria in under two years, in fact Nigeria should begin to see the dividends from his leadership in under a year.  The only question is whether GMB has the courage and intestinal fortitude to take some very lethal and drastic actions necessary to reverse our downward economic slide.  These actions will have to be revolutionary in nature and if carried out to the core will alienate him from all the relationships he has nurtured over the years and the support bedrocks that got him into power in the first place and only by keeping his eyes on a prosperous Nigeria would he be able to act dispassionately.  The remaining question and requisite necessity to match the will of GMB is whether Nigerians as individuals can summon up the moral and ethical courage to implement these harsh directives in their spheres of control no matter how painful, individually onerous and without regard to familial, tribal, and religious reconsiderations. It is time...

Nigerians as usual are looking for a scapegoat political appointee to hang for the economic downturn and empty treasury that will be inherited by the incoming administration of GMB for all the wrong reasons in its historical and blind blame game series after the exit of every administration.  Nigerians should not be deceived by the bogus title, Coordinating Minister of the Economy that was foisted on Dr. Okonjo Iweala, instead ask yourself what power does she have to check the excesses of the executive.  For starters, did she ask the National Assembly to allocate and pay itself almost 3% of the yearly federal budget in a third world country like Nigeria, that 3% is even a conservative estimate when you consider the operating expenses of state and local governments officials. Besides advising the executive and using moral suasion what can she really do to check mate a leadership that is unwilling to prune down it’s recurring expenditure albeit painful by trimming down its publi...

By Terhemba Osuji Corruption is not the problem in Nigeria today despite what many people are led to believe.  The biggest problem in Nigeria today is the failure of a few kleptocrats and the nations decision makers to rotate power amongst the 250+ tribes spread over the nations six geo-political zones.  The Nigerian experiment that amalgamated these 250+ tribes in 1914 has been hijacked by an nationally unpatriotic and classist sectional elite who have clung unto and recycled themselves in the corridors of power despite the agitations of minority, majority and other groups who have expressed their views on the subject at the various constitutional conferences held by almost every administration including the present one to no avail. The failure to agree on how to fairly rotate power is the major reason for:  1) the poor cohesion in tackling security issues like Boko Haram and Niger Delta Militancy because of the biased and misapplied security enforcement standards applie...

By Terhemba Osuji It is amazing that so many people are clamoring for their respective candidates without actually knowing or forming a personal impression about these candidates based on personal or direct experiences with these individuals. Most people form an opinion about these candidates based on group think and choreographed sound bites, slogans and press releases from and about each of these candidates. Most of these candidates are often adopted by a small secretive group or a non-democratic caucus who foist these candidates on the party over more qualified politicians to the detriment of the country which ends up with leaders with poor social skills. So it is quite disappointing that the Two presidential candidates and the country in general have not come up with an iron cast formula to have a series of debates, presidential and others as a mainstay in Nigerian politics. The failure of the system to demand such debates is indicative of how the country wants to be led - by myste...