The federal government has called on Nigerians to obtain permission before using the national anthem.

According to a statement on Wednesday by the Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, the move was to prevent the anthem’s misinterpretation and ensure proper representation of national symbols.

“As custodians of Nigeria’s national symbols, the NOA is tasked with preventing all forms of misuse. The DG emphasised that permission must be sought from the Agency before using the National Anthem to avoid misrepresentation,” the statement partly read.

Mallam Issa-Onilu did not elaborate on specific contexts where permission would be required. However, he announced that press conferences would be held nationwide to educate the public on this and other new policies of the agency.

The DG also clarified the precise colours of the Nigerian flag, specifying that it is “green, white, and green, with the correct shade of green being Emerald 2.0.”

Issa-Onilu also highlighted several key achievements under his leadership, including the establishment of audio-visual studios, the launch of an upgraded NOA website featuring the CLHEEAN-NOA AI voice and chat assistant, and recent Federal Executive Council (FEC) approvals on institutional policies.

He credited these advancements to the support of President Bola Tinubu.

Reflecting on the past, Issa-Onilu noted that previous administrations focused heavily on infrastructure development, often at the expense of value orientation.

He cited the decline of social institutions such as the Boys’ Scouts, Girls’ Brigade, and the WAI Brigade as evidence of this oversight.

He added that the current administration, however, recognises the importance of value orientation, with President Tinubu backing the National Identity Project and the NOA’s new initiatives.

One of these initiatives, he said, is the Citizen Value Brigade (CVB), designed to instill Nigerian values in children.

“We advise Nigerians not to allow their children to search for heroes elsewhere, especially during their formative years,” Issa-Onilu remarked.

He said the CVB will start with 1,000 children per state and the Federal Capital Territory, aiming to create “homegrown heroes” for future generations.

To counter foreign influences on young Nigerians, Issa-Onilu also emphasised the need for local cartoon content that aligns with Nigerian values.

He urged both leaders and citizens to uphold the principles of equality and Meritocracy, as outlined in the National Values Charter, which he described as central to Nigeria’s progress.

LEADERSHIP recalls that President Tinubu recently signed a bill restoring the old national anthem, “Nigeria, We Hail Thee,” originally written in 1959 by Lillian Jean Williams and composed by Frances Berda.

[Leadership]

The Chairman/CEO of the National Hajj Commission (NAHCON), Prof. Abdullahi Saleh Usman, has said the commission is working hard to ensure reduction in 2025 hajj fare which was projected to hit N10 million.

Although the commission has not announced the fare, it confirmed that the federal government would not subsidise hajj payment for pilgrims in 2025.

Daily Trust had reported how the subsidy removal could hike the hajj fare by almost N10million if the naira maintains its current rate of N1,650 to a dollar.

Speaking to BBC Hausa service on, the NAHCON Chairman said the commission is working round the clock to ensure there is a reduction in the amount intending pilgrims would pay for the 2025 hajj operation.

He said, “Firstly, this is not our hope, and this is not what we want to happen. There has not been any announcement that it will happen. What we are doing, and based on the advice we are giving and getting, we are working to ensure that it (the fare) did not get there, and we are optimistic and hopeful it will not get there, God willing.

“Our hope is to even have a reduction from what was paid last year, and this is what we are working round the clock to achieve. And we are optimistic that we will achieve this with Allah’s help.”

Asked to comment on the suspension of hajj-related operations by the Association for Hajj and Umrah Operators of Nigeria (AHOUN), Prof. Sale said, “Although I was not in office when the suspension was announced, when I came, I invited them for a meeting where we discussed and reached an agreement. We understood their demands and we will do our level best to ensure that we resolve the issues.

“The issue that they are not going to participate in the 2025 hajj exercise – I think I can say – has been resolved. We had a meeting with them which I presided over. We asked them to advise and give us recommendations on what they think should be done to resolve the issues, they did, and we are going to work on that, in sha Allah.”

[DailyTrust]

The Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu has upheld the sack of Hon. Simon Atigwe of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, from the House of Representatives by Election Petition Tribunal.

The court also affirmed the declaration of Hon. Dennis Nnamdi Agbo of the Labour Party, LP, as the winner of the 3rd February, 2024 re-run election for Igbo-Eze North/Udenu Federal Constituency.

The judgement was unanimously delivered by the three members of the panel and read out by the chairman of the panel Justice Ekanem.

One of the Labour Party lawyers, Ifeanyi Ogenyi confirmed this in a post on Wednesday.

“”Congratulations to the people of Igbo Eze North/Udenu Federal constituency.

“The wheel of justice turns slowly, but it grinds.Truth and justice has prevail, no matter the wait. Dennis Agbo has prevailed!,” he wrote.

DAILY POST recalls that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had declared Atigwe the winner of the re-run election.

But Agbo, who had earlier won the February 25th, 2023 election but was sacked by the appellate court proceeded to the tribunal to challenge Atigwe’s declaration and won the case, and too at the Appeal court.

[DailyPost]

Since the return to civil rule in 1999, Rivers State, the acclaimed treasure base of Nigeria, has had five governors namely Peter Odili, Celestine Omehia, Chibuike Amaechi, Nyesom Wike, and now Simnalayi Fubara. The first major political crisis in the state happened in 2006 during the Peoples Democratic Party governorship nomination for the 2007 election. Ameachi had won the primary but ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo said his victory had k-leg–whatever that means–and as such, Ameachi was denied the party nomination, and the ticket was unjustly given to Celestine Omehia who did not participate in the PDP primary election. The Supreme Court nullified Omehia’s election on October 25, 2007, and asked that Amaechi be sworn in as governor.

It was what the lawyers call locus classicus. It was unprecedented for someone who did not campaign to be declared winner of the election and be asked to be sworn in ‘immediately’. The apex court reasoned that when people vote at elections, they are not voting stricto sensu for the candidate but the political party that sponsored them. This same principle of law was upheld by the Supreme Court in September 2016 when it ruled that the votes cast by the Kogi electorate purportedly for Prince Abubakar Audu who died before the conclusion of the November 2015 governorship election were cast for All Progressives Congress, and not for the dead candidate and as such Yahaya Bello who was eventually declared winner of the poll ‘inherited’ the votes.

During the tenure of Amaechi, Wike served as the Chief of Staff to the governor between 2007 – 2011. That was after he served as the Chairman of Obio-Akpor Local Government in Rivers State between 1999 – 2007.  Wike became Minister of State for Education between 14 July 2011 – April 2014. He had a bitter feud with his former principal; Ameachi, during this time, until Ameachi left PDP to join APC on November 26, 2013. Wike with the support of former President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Patience Jonathan won the PDP governorship primary and went on to win the governorship poll in 2015. He later served the mandatory two terms as governor of Rivers State and left office on May 29, 2023. In the lead-up to the 2023 governorship election, Wike pulled all the strings to make his former Accountant-General of Rivers State, Fubara, governor.

It is widely rumoured that Wike bankrolled the elections of most of the elected political officeholders in Rivers State during the 2023 general elections. Little wonder he has the firm control of the Rivers State House of Assembly to date. Wike also nominated a sizeable number of commissioners in Fubara’s cabinet. At least nine of those who resigned their portfolios in May this year headed key ministries in the state such as Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Finance, Education, Housing, Social Welfare, Environment, and Transport.

Governor Fubara only enjoyed about four months of peace after his inauguration as governor on May 29, 2023. The first sign of trouble took place on the night of Sunday, October 29, 2023, when an inferno gutted the assembly complex due to explosives purportedly ignited by unknown arsonists; by the dawn of Monday, October 30, the majority members of the assembly commenced impeachment proceedings against Fubara. They said he committed gross misconduct.

In the course of time, two factions of the House of Assembly emerged, both laying claim to be the authentic faction and having parallel sittings. The judiciary was dragged into the fray with both sides getting ex-parte orders and several court injunctions in their favour in Port Harcourt and Abuja. On Tuesday, December 12, Justice Monina Danagogo of the Rivers State High Court in Port Harcourt ruled that the authentic Speaker is Edison Ehie. The judge also restrained Martin Amaewhule and Dumle Maol from parading themselves as Speaker and Deputy Speaker respectively, or interfering with the activities of Ehie as the Speaker of the Assembly. This emboldened Fubara as he hurriedly presented the state’s N800bn 2024 Appropriation Bill to a four-member Assembly on Wednesday, December 13, and signed same into law the following day.

Fubara ordered the demolition of the House of Assembly. The same day he presented the budget to the minority House, excavators, wheel loaders, and other earth-moving equipment moved to the Rivers State House of Assembly, not to refurbish the torched complex, but to level the structures to the ground. On Monday, December 11, twenty-seven Rivers State lawmakers loyal to Wike defected to the All Progressives Congress citing division within the Peoples Democratic Party as well as the refusal of the state governor to pay their salaries and allowances.

President Tinubu mediated the crisis. The content of the eight-point resolution signed by the mediators and warring parties in the Rivers State crisis on Monday, December 18, 2023, stated as follows: Governor Fubara and his allies will withdraw all court cases related to the crisis. The state House of Assembly will drop impeachment proceedings initiated against Fubara.  The leadership of the House, under Speaker Amaewhule, will be recognised, along with the 27 lawmakers who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party. Governor Fubara will re-present the 2024 budget to the Amaewhule-led Assembly. Others are; Salaries and benefits for all Assembly members and staff will be restored. The assembly will have autonomy to choose its location and conduct business without interference from the executive. The governor will resubmit the names of resigned commissioners for approval and the dissolution of local governments is declared null and void.

While Governor Fubara implemented most of the resolutions, he did not re-present the state budget to the Speaker Amaewhule faction. When the tenure of the 23 Local Government chairpersons and councillors ended in May 2024, the Amaewhule faction of the State House of Assembly extended their tenure by six months. However, in a May 21, 2024   judgment, Justice Daketima Kio declared that the new law was inconsistent with the 1999 Constitution and Section 9 (1) of Rivers State Law No. 5 of 2018, which fixed the tenure of Rivers LG chairmen and councillors at three years. Governor Fubara in June 2024 appointed caretaker committees to oversee the affairs of the 23 LGAs in the state pending the time the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission would conduct proper election into the councils.

However, the Supreme Court judgement of July 11, 2024, which granted financial autonomy to local governments in Nigeria also made it contingent for all local councils in Nigeria to be democratically governed in accordance with section 7(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as altered. This newspaper in its August 13, 2024 edition reported that the federal and state government agreed on a three-month moratorium on the judgment of the Supreme Court. This is what Governor Fubara premised his willy-nilly conduct of October 5, 2024 Rivers State local government elections on. He claimed that if he did not conduct LG elections in the state before October 31, 2024, the Federal Government would seize the state allocation to LGAs.

Meanwhile, in the recently conducted Ward, LGA, and State PDP congresses held in the state, the Rivers State governor’s camp lost to his political godfather, Wike. Fubara therefore urged his supporters to move to Action Peoples Party to contest last Saturday’s election. At the end of the exercise, RSIEC chairman, Justice Adolphus Enebeli declared that APP won chairmanship in 22 of the 23 LGAs and 314 out of the 319 councillorship seats. Action Alliance won the Etche LGA chairmanship position. Ahead of the LG polls, there was a series of litigation and protests from the Wike’s camp to prevent the elections from being held. The newly elected council heads were inaugurated on Sunday, October 6, 2024.

The situation however took the turn for the worse when protests and arson rocked several of the council secretariats. As of last Monday, Ikwerre, Emourha, and Eleme council secretariats were torched by arsonists. A section of the Nigerian media also reported some deaths. This tragic situation is all about a power tussle on who controls the political structure in Rivers State. While president Bola Tinubu has urged calm and has asked the aggrieved party to go to court. If firm actions are not taken to curb the brewing violence in the state, it can sound the death knell of this Fourth Republic.

Recall that a similar operation ‘wetie’ happened during the post-election western region electoral crises in 1964 and 1965. This led to the first military takeover on January 15, 1966. President Tinubu should call his Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Nyesome Wike to order to allow for peace in his home state. It is widely believed that his foot soldiers are behind the ongoing arson in the state given that they have been the ones protesting the conduct of the local government elections before, during, and after the polls. Rivers State produces a significant quantum of Nigeria’s oil and gas; to allow it to be engulfed in political crisis is like cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face.

The management of the University of Medical Sciences, Ondo has begun refusing acceptance fees to admission seekers who are not up to 16.

Some parents have cried out that the institution rejected applicants who are  under-17.

But spokesman for the institution, Mr. Isaac Oluyi, said it was a policy of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

Oluyi explained the affected students were made to know that it was a policy of JAMB and not of the institution.

He said JAMB issued the notice last Thursday after many applicants have paid acceptance fees.

According to him: “We have no policy on age concerning admission. JAMB alongside the Ministry of Education came up with policy that those under 16 should not be admitted.

“Admission letter will come from JAMB and not the university. For us as an institution, we do not want to tarnish our image, if you do not meet up with the  requirement of JAMB and have paid acceptance fees, we are refunding them. 

“We make it clear to them that it is JAMb policy and not our policy. We will admit those who are 17. It is 16 that JAMB is talking about. If you are not up to 16, you can’t be admitted. We are still doing screening and we have to abide by their policy.

“Universities have no power over admission because admission letters will come from JAMB. It is not our policy not to admit students who are under 16. We have to comply. We are doing everything to ensure that everybody qualified is admitted.”

NIGERIA is currently grappling with a rapidly escalating food insecurity crisis, a matter that has unfortunately been overlooked by both federal and state governments. This issue, with its severe implications for national security and economic stability, is not one that can be delayed.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, FAO, as of 2023, approximately 25 million Nigerians are facing moderate to severe food insecurity, a number that prioritises due to inflation, insecurity, and climate change. The nation risks more profound instability and economic decline if government does not act swiftly to prioritise food security.

Several factors contribute to food insecurity in Nigeria, including lack of access to affordable capital for farmers, insecurity in agricultural regions, and rising inflation. The agriculture sector, which employs over 70 per cent of the rural population, struggles under high interest rates, with commercial banks charging between 30-40 per cent, making it nearly impossible for farmers to secure loans for investment in modern techniques. Consequently, agricultural productivity has been declining, with a 15 per cent drop in output reported by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, between 2016 and 2021. Without intervention, this decline will lead to more significant food shortages.

Violence and insecurity are exacerbating the problem. Banditry, farmer-herdsmen conflicts, and kidnappings have forced many farmers from their land, particularly in Northern regions. According to the 2023 Global Terrorism Index, Nigeria ranks sixth globally for terrorism, and Zamfara State, once a major agricultural producer, has seen a 50 per cent drop in output due to these conflicts. The violence not only discourages investment but also forces farmers to abandon their fields, leading to reduced agrarian production and higher food prices.

Inflation exacerbates food insecurity, with Nigeria’s inflation rate reaching over 33 per cent in June 2024. Rising food prices have increased by 26.98 per cent between 2022 and 2023, pushing millions into deeper poverty in a country where over 40 per cent of the population already lives below the poverty line. Energy costs also play a role. The 2023 removal of fuel subsidies led to sharp increases in petrol and diesel prices, making it more expensive to power machinery and transport goods. Transportation costs alone increased by nearly 50 per cent, adding to the burden on farmers.

Nigeria’s poor infrastructure further worsens food insecurity. Bad roads, lack of rail systems, and insufficient storage facilities cause high post-harvest losses, estimated at 40 per cent by the World Bank in 2022. As a result, food becomes scarcer and more expensive, making it harder for Nigerians to afford proper nutrition.

To meet domestic food demand, Nigeria has increasingly turned to food imports. In 2023, the country spent over $5 billion on rice, wheat and maize imports. However, this reliance on foreign food threatens national security by making the country vulnerable to external shocks, such as global supply chain disruptions witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war. These events led to shortages and price hikes, highlighting the fragility of our food supply. Additionally, heavy food imports undermine local agricultural industries, contributing to job losses and stifling rural development.

Nigeria must address these challenges to a sustainable agricultural system. This requires significant investments in mechanisation, infrastructure, and agro-processing. The country has one of the lowest levels of mechanisation in Africa, with tractors per 1,000 hectares of arable land, far below the global average. Increased mechanisation would boost productivity  and make farming more attractive to younger generations. Fertiliser shortages, which contribute to lower yields, also need urgent attention. A 2023 report from the International Fertiliser Development Centre estimated a 40 per cent shortfall in fertiliser supply, further reducing crop yields.

Technology has the potential to revolutionise Nigerian agriculture. Innovations like precision farming, drone-assisted monitoring, and agrotech platforms could revolutionise farming practices. Nigerian startups like Thrive Agric and Farmcrowdy have already begun modernising farming, but more investments and support are needed to scale these efforts nationwide.

Efficient logistics and marketing systems are essential for moving produce from farms to markets. Poor transportation networks, especially in rural areas, impede agricultural trade. Agro-producing industries, which can add value to Nigeria’s agricultural products, hold immense potential for boosting exports and creating jobs. States like Niger, Kwara, Edo, and Enugu have already invested in agricultural development and agro industrialisation.

Addressing food insecurity requires strong leadership and political will. The government must articulate a clear vision with specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, SMART, goals to transform agriculture. While short-term measures like food imports may temporarily ease the crisis, they do not address the underlying causes. Sustainable long-term strategies that improve agricultural productivity and self-reliance are essential to safeguarding Nigeria’s future stability.

In conclusion, Nigeria’s vast arable land and young population provide a strong foundation for agricultural growth, yet food insecurity remains a pressing issue. Food security is integral to national security, and hunger, in many ways, equates to warfare. To avoid a deepening crisis, Nigeria must invest in its agriculture sector, enhance productivity, and ensure efficient distribution and processing of food. The time to act is now before the ticking time bomb of food insecurity explodes, threatening the nation’s stability and prosperity. This is a call to action for all Nigerians, as everyone’s choices and actions can contribute to the solution.

The trouble with Nigeria is leadership

The late literary icon Chinua Achebe popularised this notion in his slim booklet, The Trouble With Nigeria, originally published in 1983 where he declared emphatically that the “trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership”. One of the problems with the ‘failure of leadership’ argument is the neglect of the influence of environmental variables – or what some would call the ‘Nigerian factor’ or political scientists would call ‘system dynamics’.

There is also a wrong belief that the followership is necessarily virtuous. Adherents of this perspective equally fail to explain convincingly how this ‘good leader’ would emerge, especially as it is commonly believed that a country often gets the leader it deserves or that the quality of the leadership is a reflection of the quality of the followership. 

In Nigeria, where the leadership recruitment system is structured in such a way that only those with deep pockets and rough edges have realistic chances of being elected as President or Governor(or in fact for most political positions), how will ‘nice’ fellows with impeccable credentials, manners and moderate views have any chance?  Even if such people win elections, will they be able to retrieve their mandate from the system?

People who believe that the trouble with Nigeria is “squarely” that of leadership will also often  talk about the “transformational” leadership examples of Lee Kuan Yew,  the Singaporean statesman and lawyer who served as the first prime minister of Singapore from 1959 to 1990; Mahathir bin Mohamad, a Malaysian Doctor and politician  who served as the Fourth (1981 to 2003) and Seventh ( 2018 to February 2020) Prime Minister of Malaysia; and Paul Kagame of Rwanda who has been President of the country since 2000).

In fact, before becoming President in 2000, Kagame was considered Rwanda’s de facto leader when he was Vice President and Minister of Defence under President Pasteur Bizimungu from 1994 to 2000 after which the vice-presidential post was abolished. A crucial question here is: would these leaders have succeeded in Nigeria? Lee Kuan Yew ruled for 31 years; Mahathir Mohamad ruled for  a total of  24 years, while  Kagame has been ruling Rwanda effectively for over 30 years. Would Nigerians, in our context where our ethnic and religious identities are  more of ideologies, allow anyone of any ethnic background to dominate the polity for so long without this country being set literally on fire?

The trouble with Nigeria is corruption

It has become almost a mantra for many Nigerians to say that the problem with Nigeria is simply corruption, and some will add that if we do not kill corruption, corruption will kill the country. While I accept that corruption is a serious issue, my personal opinion is that it is merely the symptom of a more fundamental malaise. Corruption is a systemic problem that is exacerbated in climes where the nation-building process has manifestly failed – as in Somalia – or engulfed in deep crisis – as in Nigeria and several other African countries.

The best way (methodologically speaking) to assess the effectiveness of any fight against corruption is to use the ‘before’ and ‘after’ benchmark – that is to pose the question: what was the situation before the beginning of the ‘fight’ against corruption and what happened after the ‘fight’ started and afterwards? Procedural issues like how much money a financial crime buster succeeded in confiscating from people or how it has forced public figures to find other avenues of concealing their loot, are really mere details. If we have been right about corruption and the way to fight it, why has the incidence of corruption appeared to be increasing rather than declining despite the EFCC and ICPC? Why has ‘fighting corruption’ been a cornerstone policy of all the post-independence regimes in the country?  

Africa needs strong institutions, not strong men

In his speech on July 11, 2009 to the Ghanaian Parliament at the Accra International Conference Centre, then President Obama declared that “Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions”. Since Obama’s famous speech, a new song emerged, and for a while dominated the political ecosystem:  “what Africa needs are strong institutions, not strong men”. What is easily discernible when people brandish the new mantra is the tendency to equate ‘institutions’ with structures, organisations or public bodies such as the civil service, the police, the parliament and contraptions that fight corruption like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in Nigeria. This manner of understanding ‘institutions’ is at best only partially correct because institutions are also rules, conventions, ethos that have endured over time. Even individuals, to the extent that they purvey a certain brand, which is consistent over time, can also be called institutions. Since institutions necessarily have to be built by people, and since the environmental variables seriously constrain leaders who will want to encourage such, how will strong institutions then be built in a country like Nigeria?

Insecurity is the major problem of the country

With the wave of kidnappings, terrorism, banditry and armed robberies in the country, several analysts have argued that insecurity is indeed “the trouble with Nigeria”. For people who argue within this framework, insecurity inhibits foreign direct investments and scares away Diaspora Nigerians from returning home to invest in the country.

I will argue that while insecurity is a problem, especially in terms of discouraging farmers in heavily affected areas from going to their farms, it is not the fundamental trouble with Nigeria. In fact, some of the purveyors of the security challenges in the country such as the Boko Haram and separatist agitations, are often responses to other perceived grievances.  Without trying to trivialise the current security challenges, I also believe that it is an overstatement to say that insecurity inhibits foreign direct investment. The truth is that capital smells opportunity for accumulation and often moves into areas where it can reproduce itself – often regardless of the security situation there. Sometimes it moves into highly volatile areas like Iraq with its own security arrangements. This is why we see that in mineral-rich countries investments in those sectors continue despite insecurity – hence the evolution of such terminologies as “conflict diamonds” or “war diamonds”, meaning diamonds mined from war zones.

The fundamental problem of the country is the crisis in the nation-building argument

This has been my pet argument since February 2012 when I was invited by the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria South Africa to develop a theoretical framework for understanding the Boko Haram phenomenon, after the group attached the United Nations Office in Abuja via a suicide bomber on August 26, 2011, killing 23 people and injuring more than 80 others. My argument was that the past efforts and projects at building unity in diversity were unravelling and that the crisis in Nigeria’s nation building feeds into the crisis of underdevelopment to create an existential crisis for many Nigerians. I contended that for many people and groups, a way of resolving the consequent sense of alienation appears to be to delink from the Nigerian state into primordial identities – often with the Nigerian state as the enemy. I called this a “de-Nigerianisation” process. Under the above situation, no leader or institution enjoys legitimacy across the major fault lines because people’s perception filters often coincide with their location in the fault lines. 

I argued that unless the crisis in the country’s nation-building process is resolved, any solution thrown at the country’s myriad problems will quickly become part of the problem. 

I have moderated my views on this:  A crucial question, therefore, is how do we re-start the stalled nation-building process in a highly polarised and low-trust country like ours where the action of every leader is likely to be viewed with deep suspicion? Also how can the nation-building process be re-started when leaders and their in-groups seem to assume that once they are in power, it is their turn and their in-groups – ethnic, religious and friends? Remarkably, the fear that a person who wins or captures state power will use that power to privilege himself or herself and the associated ethnic and religious in-groups and deliberate disadvantage others, is a major reason for the anarchic character of our politics.

*Jideofor Adibe is Professor of Political Science at Nasarawa State University, Keffi.

Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa of Ondo state has dismissed from office the Special Assistant on Forestry (Central Senatorial District), Mr Adeboye Taofiq Ewenla, over allegations of bribery and intimidation.

A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Ebenezer Adeniyan, in Akure, said that the sack was with immediate effect.

Adeniyan said that the governor has ordered a probe into the activities of those managing forest reserves in the State.

The statement reads ” The Governor of Ondo State, Hon Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa, has dismissed from office the Special Assistant on Forestry (Central Senatorial District), Mr. Adeboye Taofiq Ewenla, with immediate effect.

“This followed allegations of bribery and intimidation levelled against Mr Ewenla by some timber merchants in the State.

“Governor Aiyedatiwa also ordered a probe into the activities of those saddled with the responsibility of managing forest reserves in the State.

“A replacement for Mr Ewenla will be announced in due course.

“The Governor urged all political appointees to conduct themselves in line with the provisions of the law and rules guiding their duties.

Ewenla, could not be reached for comment.

[Vanguard]