Olaniran News Network ONN

  Akin Adesina President of the African Development Bank, Professor Akin Adesina has proposed a new name for Nigeria to be called ‘The United States of Nigeria’. Making this call in a statement released on Saturday by his Special Adviser on Industrialization, Professor Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, Adesina in a speech titled “Making A New Nigeria: Welfarist Policies And People-Centered Development” says the new name as suggested will foster relationship between the regions (state governments) and the centre (the Federal) for economically viable entities. Adesina in his word says, “We must be audacious! Instead of the Federal Government of Nigeria, we could think of the United States of Nigeria. The old would give way to the new.” “We would change the relational mindset between the states and Abuja: the fulcrum would be the states, while the centre would support them, not lord over them.” “With good governance, better accountability systems, and zero tolerance for corruption, more econom...

  A lack of quality, people-oriented leadership has been the single most identified challenge to development in Nigeria. Over the years, since its independence from Britain in 1960, the quest for good (dedicated) leadership has seen Nigeria(ns) suffer through a series of upheavals — including several (sometimes brutal) military coups, a civil war, and decades of political suppression — and other developmental setbacks. Consequently, when, in 1999, the country was returned to democratic rule, which was celebrated as an ideal government model capable of delivering public goods to the masses, many were optimistic for a new dawn. True to the hopes and aspirations of Nigerians, the first few years following the country’s return to democratic rule rekindled belief in the citizenry that leadership had, indeed, taken a turn for the better. Beyond the upward review of the national minimum wage, there were also substantial debt pardons and other economic indices, which signaled a positive st...

  Wasiu Ayinde In the face of economic hardship plaguing the country, Nigeria’s Fuji maestro popularly known as K1 De Ultimate has urged his fans to look beyond his birthday celebration this year and be more sensitive to the plight of their suffering neighbors. In an Instagram message released by Wasiu, he cancels this year’s birthday celebration and calls for a sober reflection with the tense economic hardship that Nigerians are facing in their daily lives. Here’s Wasiu’s full statement from his instagram account; “This is a special public announcement. To the glory of God Almighty, I shall be turning 67 years on this planet earth on 3rd of March 2024. "A joyous day for me, that many of my friends and associates across the globe usually join me and my family to celebrate.My fans home and abroad always make the best out of that day in History. "Now that the day is near , but inside of me there is nothing much happening in our country Nigeria to warrant me celebrating at this ...

  Bola Tinubu  On January 11, 2012, Bola Ahmed Tinubu published a sober, thoughtful, deeply insightful, and penetratingly foresightful article titled “Removal of Oil Subsidy: President Jonathan Breaks Social Contract With the People” that uncannily prefigured the untoward consequences of petrol subsidy removal that Nigerians are currently grappling with. The article has trended on social media in the last couple of weeks, but I had never taken the trouble to read it until multiple people who I regard highly sent it to me in what seemed like a coordinated torrent of forwards. But after reading the 4,000-plus-word article and finding out that it predicted the current petrol-subsidy-removal mass excruciation Nigeria is suffering with almost mathematical exactitude, I became suspicious of its authenticity. It was too good to be true. My incredulity compelled me to make inquiries, which led me to realize that the Nigerian Tribune had actually fact-checked the genuineness of the art...

  Prof Kperogi  The searing torment that everyday folks are going through in Nigeria right now is so dire, so unbearably extreme, and so unexampled in its rawness that even diasporan Nigerians like me who live tens of thousands of miles away from home can feel it not just vicariously but also experientially. The unending streams of requests for help to meet the most basic obligations of life that we get from previously proud, resourceful, and self-sufficient family members, friends, acquaintances, and even strangers are the conduits through which we have experiential encounters with the ongoing cost-of-living turmoil in the country. The lower classes are sinking deeper into soul-depressing depths of poverty, despair, and hopelessness, and the middle class is so hobbled by the economic crunch that it is disappearing faster than soap bubbles. The lower and the middle classes are now united by a common sensation of emptiness, agony, and anxiety for the future. Every day is worse,...

  Seun/Tinubu  Amidst the palpable tension in the land, from insecurity to economic hardship, the Channels TV presenter, Seun Okinbaloye pours his heart out to Bola Tinubu, the regime leader in Nigeria. Watch the video here:

Festus Adedayo    Big calamities seldom knock before opening the door. Calamities’ sneaky essence is articulated in one song by grand old Odolaye Aremu, Ilorin, Kwara State-born Dadakuada song minstrel. While philosophizing the concept of calamity, which Yoruba call “eemo”, Odolaye sang that surprise and swiftness are primary features of calamities, holding tight to them like leaches. So he sang, “Peki laa k’eemo,” (calamity is met suddenly). The singer points at horses used in races and in ancient wars meeting their own end unprepared during races. It is the same with soldiers who mount horses and ride them to death. Odolaye sang that, as sudden death pounces upon warhorses, so also do buffalos meet their end in the treacherous thickets of the savannah. Last week, though not racing on horses nor does it have anything in similarity with buffalos, calamity swiftly walked into the capital of Oyo State and like Odolaye aptly dissected it, it was sudden. It came with its handmaide...