Author: nationalpoint

There is a propaganda making the rounds that there is no need to demand for a better Nigeria. Rather it says we should be talking about “manufacturing” better Nigerians. We must reject this Propaganda. Let’s get politicians who have imposed themselves as our rulers and masters, to face the truth about themselves. Their lawlessness is due to a Feudal System that has kept the country in constant tension by creating a small group that functions as a “favoured predatory elite” in every administration since 1999. They have succeeded in bringing our local governments, (LGAs), states and our nation, to their…

Last Saturday’s reading of The Riddle of the Oil Thief authored by King Bubaraye Dakolo, the Ibenanaowei of Ekpetiama Kingdom in Bayelsa State, was both timely and topical. Nigerian authorities have been very troubled of recent about the dwindling returns from the production of crude oil in the Niger Delta and have attributed the downturn to the activities of crude oil thieves in the region. One version said more than 300,000 barrels of the product are stolen everyday and shipped out of the country. Coming at a time when Nigeria should be making fortunes out of crude oil sales because…

Hyprep’s Shekwolo dismissed the criticism, saying the $50 million plan emerged after additional sampling and mapping were carried out to reduce the quantity of soil to be cleaned proposed by UNEP. Bid-document alterations recommended by UNEP, he said, were “fundamentally flawed.” He also said that Hyprep’s accounts are being audited and “will be made public by the appropriate authorities at the appropriate time.” Generations of Ogoni, sitting at the heart of Africa’s biggest petroleum industry, have waited decades and had hoped Hyprep would spur the region’s revival. But its record so far is cause for concern for locals. The body…

In the more than a quarter century since Shell Plc left Ogoniland in southern Nigeria, oil has continued to ooze from dormant wellheads and active pipelines, leaving the 386-square mile kingdom’s wetlands shimmering with a greasy rainbow sheen, its once-lush mangroves coated in crude, well-water smelling of benzene and farmlands charred and barren. So when the $1 billion Ogoniland cleanup began in 2019, backed by Shell’s funding pledge and support from the United Nations, it was heralded as the most ambitious initiative of its kind anywhere in the world. But now, UN Environmental Programme documents seen by Bloomberg and reported…

Five (5) students of Dowen College, Lagos accused of killing Sylvester Oromoni jnr., viz; Michael Kashamu, Ansel Temile, Kenneth Inyang, Benjamin Favour & Edward Begue continue to tell Hon.Kadiri Mikhail of the Ikeja Magistrate Court about their involvement or otherwise in the dastardly act. Monday August 15, 2022 was another hearing date. At a previous sitting an eye witness and fellow student Wilson Tarila testified that the above mentioned students btutalized Oromoni jnr and forced him to drink a black substance. It was also revealed that the notorious activities of the boys were known to the school authorities which once…

“ Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have…

There is tremendous hunger in Rivers State for an end to the bellicose and toxic politics. Media headlines about the state are frequently about political assassinations, beheadings and inconclusive elections due to widespread violence. As Nigeria’s oil and gas metropolis, Rivers State suffers unique consequences when our social and political spaces are dominated by swaggering thugs and other merchants of violence baying for blood in the streets. As a former Commissioner for Information in the State, I know, I have heard business leaders silently agonize about how to conduct business in a once-peaceful state now trapped in a circle of…

In the 1970s & 1980s, a politician, a military officer, a police officer, a pastor, a cleric, a school teacher, a university lecturer, a school administrator, a civil servant, a company worker, a corporate executive, a businessman, a trader, an artisan, a professional – doctor, lawyer, engineer, accountant, etc, a parent, a student, a child won’t and never dreamt of the kind of material acquisitions his counterpart has today nor got involved in the kind of destructive inordinate greed of today and never lived above their means. Nigeria has not failed. We Nigerians are the ones who have failed Nigeria…

Where did the sobriquet or title “godfather” come from? I have a lot of godchildren and I love the movie. That is my number one movie in the world. I believe the greatest movie ever made- ‘the godfather’. I watch it the way you read news and the way you read a newspaper. For me, it is like a duty. There is a combination of that somewhere along the line. I have a lot of godchildren. And the last I counted, it was 32. My first godchild is in the UK now. She’s doing her PhD in Engineering and the…

With its unique position as a major food producing community, one would expect Uwheru kingdom in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State to have certain facilities to support its business of feeding millions in the state and beyond. A survey of the community, however clearly shows a picture of neglect and abandonment, with very little development when compared with the important role the place plays in feeding the teeming populace in the region and elsewhere. Founded centuries ago at about 1102 AD, Uwheru kingdom is made up of different communities and villages which include Orhoro, Erovie, Agadama, Urede,…