LAURETTA ONOCHIE

I am a bit perturbed that the topic I am about to discuss, is ironically centered around the inclusion of Nigerian youths in politics, and this might be deflected to a meaningless direction if not given a proper consideration which is of utmost necessity. The idea to pose my keen awareness and observation of political history regarding the marginalization of youths from politics and the overall resentful mood the youths have deeply sunk into cannot be concealed any longer. The silent cries/flaming worries for many years of youth dehumanization are the alarming issues we must address with expedient. We have for years craved for youth inclusion in governance, this has been worryingly ignored. Instead we see evidence of youth displacement and misdirection on the increase. Paradoxically, the current participation of youths in the political life of the country is meager, as relatively compared on the weighing scale of the early 70s and 80s when youths were in government as ministers,...

In the last two weeks, it has been a harvest of killings in some Nigerian higher institutions; first in the University of Maiduguri on September 29, followed by Federal Polytechnic, Mubi and lastly University of Port Harcourt. All the scenarios surrounding the killings are gruesomely disturbing. While those of Mubi and Port Harcourt have been receiving media and security attention, that of the University of Maiduguri seems to have passed unnoticed and almost unreported. Three bona fide Nigerian citizens were involved in that of Maiduguri namely; Abdulmalik Ahmed, a 400 level student of Mechanical Engineering, Halima Damchida, a 500 level student of Law, and one other young man simply identified as Yakubu also of the University. Halima, according to close family sources, is the only child of her mother, while Abdulmalik Ahmed Hassan is the elder of two sons of Master Warrant Officer Hassan Ahmed Isah of the Nigeria Army Archives, Ikeja Lagos.  ...

So, who do we blame, and really is it a blame game or the scary realisation that we are just a nation run on auto-pilot, one for which after 52 years, we are still plagued largely by the same problems? We are 52, part of the country is in water. We are deep in flood, and equally flooded on all fronts by corruption, mismanagement, maladministration and poor governance structure coupled with a citizenry with a vague picture of what patriotism is or should be. Two months ago when parts of the Shendam/Mikang axis and the Southern part of Plateau were cut off from the North, it was just one of those rare occurrences. The city centre was next with scores of death; parts of Bauchi were not spared. But like all floods, all issues that have plagued us, with a wave of hand, are confined to the bin of history. While we mark our 52nd 'dependence', we do so with the news that over a million Nigerians are likely to die with the imminent collapse of Lake Nyos Dam in Cameroon. Many...

Lauretta Onochie Nigerians who are lucky to be alive have something to celebrate today. And that’s about all they have to celebrate, yes being alive, some barely. But that’s where the celebration ends. Except of course on Facebook where many Nigerians celebrated the good old days of Awolowo, Azikiwe and Balewa. Since the military incursion in our national polity, it has been a story of one woe after another. The military were high-handed and it is generally believed that corruption was made solid in our nation by the men in uniform. Nigerians suffered human rights abuses, and lived with the effects of corruption in the hands of these men in uniform. Civil rights groups around the nation, began to agitate for a speedy return to democracy. Who would forget Nigerians like Wole Soyinka, Gani Fawehinmi, Balarabe Musa, Chuba Okadigbo, Beko Ransome Kuti and his brother, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, who used the Afro beat musical genre to hold the military to account. The military succu...