Tag: Dakuku Peterside
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Resolving Nigeria’s electricity conundrum – Dakuku Peterside
Every Nigerian knows that we have an electricity problem. It has been a recurrent sound bite in development discourse in Nigeria post- independence. This challenge is generational and has defied all attempts in the past to solve it. And Nigerians are gleefully looking to the incoming administration to end the search for the solution to…
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Time for reset: Education reforms as a priority in Nigeria – By Dakuku Peterside
Education is a critical priority for Nigeria, as it is for any nation serious about growth and development. Unfortunately, in the past ten years, we have not seen any focus on or dramatic improvement in education. Our best efforts at addressing education have put us steps behind our peer nations in all key development indicators.
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When democracies fumble and tumble – By Pat Utomi
Dakuku Peterside’s piece: “How Democracy Crumbles – the Nigerian case,” is a very valuable piece of column writing. It strives to capture and root in Nigerian context a growing tradition of scholarship and Public Commentary given seminal attention by two books of similar titles : “How Democracy Ends,” by Cambridge university Professor David Runciman, and…
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Time for reset – By Dakuku Peterside
Nigeria’s nascent democratic journey has lasted for 24 uninterrupted years, the first time in its history. Previous democratic interregnums did not last long enough due to incessant military incursions into governance to give us enough time and data to evaluate its impact on society. The debate on the success or failure of our democracy is…
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How democracy crumbles: The Nigerian case – By Dakuku Peterside
Democracy, by its design, nature, and practice, is not a light toggle switch that is turned on and off. It is not a wall that crumbles in one fell swoop. Democracy is always a process, both in its growth and demise. History is replete with how democracies collapsed in other climes. Disregarding the rule of…
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Security vote and transition stories – By Dakuku Peterside
In 2021, State governors and local government chairmen in the 36 states of the Federation collected over N375 billion from public coffers in the name of security vote, an act not provided for in the Nigerian constitution or any known law in the country. This amount excludes those the president and other top government officials…
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Democracy and Dividends of Diversity – By Dakuku Peterside
Multiculturalism in England, Ireland and Scotland has produced new leaders of Asian origins. This ideal is celebrated worldwide as progress and a symbol of a more fantastic future where the emphasis will be placed more on unity in diversity than discrimination of the old era. The power of this new development is not lost on…
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Dodgy elections, democracy and divorce – By Dakuku Peterside
Nigerian elections and Nigerian marriages have a lot in common. Both should be sacrosanct. They are conducted with pomp and fanfare, and promises are made but kept in breach. Professions of loyalty and honesty are like a singsong. Like a marriage cements the relationship between two consenting adults supposedly in love, elections cement and clarify…
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Governors: Right versus wrong people – By Dakuku Peterside
The Gubernatorial and state houses of assembly elections have come and gone in most states. Unfortunately in some states it was characterised by drama, unnecessary tension, flawed process, violence, and broad day light electoral robbery. The victors are celebrating, and the losers must be feeling bad. We all hope that this election, flawed as it…
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Youth and “Obidients” afterwards – By Dakuku Peterside
A critical element of the 2023 general election is the intensity and electricity of the Nigerian youths’ participation in the electoral process. Statistics may not fully capture or contextualise youth involvement in the 2023 national electoral process