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The Dangers of
President Jonathan’s Desperation
by Frisky Larr
April 29, 2013
The body language of President Jonathan these days betrays everything
but ease. It betrays defiance. Not often do we see the lips of this
rather innocent and calm looking middle-aged man drawn tightly
together and pointed, the wrinkles around the eyes drawn loosely
upwards with the forehead pointedly squeezed to produce the
unbefitting stern looks of a defiant rebel. These are the pictures
that meet the eyes these days. The early days of striding effortlessly
through the media aisles enjoying the expectant gaze of the audience
from all directions now seem gone. Perhaps, forever too! Events
unfolding in recent times also seem to give the President enough
reasons to be ill at ease. The focus is on 2015.
NigerianNews
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Is Boko Haram just a
Label? What Game is playing out here?
by Frisky Larr
March 04, 2013
Nigerian readers will need
no recap to understand what Boko Haram stands for. It is a phenomenon
that trails the daily lives of individuals like a psychological shadow
stretching over the entire country from Maiduguri. Yet for the sake of
non-Nigerians it will suffice to explain that Boko Haram is a northern
Nigerian group of jihadist militants whose violent campaign with heavy
assault weapons came to public attention on July 26, 2009 with a
raging attack on a police station in Bauchi, northern Nigeria. The
violence which spread one day later, to other northern cities namely
Maiduguri, Potiskum and Wudil with attacks on police stations and
destruction of public properties culminated in the arrest of the
group’s leader. He was eventually killed in police custody under
extremely questionable extra-judicial circumstances resulting in the
interim reinstatement of law and order. It all happened in 2009.
NigerianNews
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President Jonathan: Why it is all looking so
messy!
by Frisky Larr
February 04, 2013
For us in the communication
and media business, the nuts and bolts of success in positions of
public exposure are basically the ability to communicate and connect
with target audiences. In today’s world of modern communication media,
hardly any public office survives the demands of public scrutiny and
hunger for information without the ability to communicate programs,
intentions and achievements to the target audience. The American
President Barack Obama shares this inalienable gift of eloquence with
some of his predecessors namely Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.
NigerianNews
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Fallout with Obasanjo: Is our President
desperate about 2015?
by Frisky Larr
December 04, 2012
No sooner had the lights
dimmed out on the presidential media chat on November 18, 2012 than
tweets began to run in on the popular social networking site,
dissecting the central issues addressed by the President. In tweet
after tweets, people ridiculed and mocked the President for his
position on several salient issues. Not quite surprising. Nigeria is
after all, a country that has become known for the tradition of
crucifying Presidents on the media cross. Former President Obasanjo
knows this too well.
NigerianNews
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Drama in Edo State:
Latest on Oshiomole’s Certificate saga!
by Frisky Larr
October 15, 2012
Since the end of the
Governorship election that was held on July 14, 2012, calm is yet to
return to the ancient city of the old Bini Kingdom. It will be
recalled that an overtly destructive electoral campaign that bore all
the hallmarks of an electoral war of attrition, saw the re-emergence
of Governor Oshiomole in Government house in a landslide victory. The
center-stage of acrimony was occupied by the feud between the action
and voluble showman Governor and the aging but ever-agile cunning
figure of the PDP Tony Anennih.
NigerianNews
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Countdown in Edo State: Will Oshiomole cruise
to victory?
by Frisky Larr
July 13, 2012
The paradox in Edo state: The very first Governor since the days of
retired General Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia of the defunct Bendel
State, who has given Edo State a bunch of visible, quantifiable and
palpable uplift, is now faced with the grim reality of possibly losing
his bid for re-election. Governor Adams Oshiomole came into office on
the heels of people’s expectations and had to tread the thorny path of
armchair brigandry, stolen mandate, tribunals, godfatherism etc.
before being finally manipulated into his rightful position. His
facilitators and collaborators then were no other than those who
fought running battles in the camp of his opponent, to assert their
supremacy.
NigerianNews
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Is Oshiomole getting
too desperate in Edo State?
by Frisky Larr
June 11, 2012
Within the past two months, Nigerians have witnessed not less than ten
media headlines reporting the alarm raised by Governor Adams Oshiomole
over impending electoral manipulations in Edo state. Each time, he is
accusing the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of planning to
rig the forthcoming gubernatorial election in that state coming up in
July 2012. He raised the alarm the loudest, when he narrowly escaped
death from a traffic mishap, in which a tractor reportedly ran into a
vehicle in his convoy traveling to Benin en route from a political
event.
NigerianNews
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Can a Northerner ever be de-tribalized in
Nigeria?
by Frisky Larr
May 09, 2012
Let’s face it. In the present dispensation, northern Nigeria has
produced three brilliant Nigerians of the younger generation, on which
Nigerians may build their hope for a better tomorrow. You may have
guessed right if your mindset works like mine. To be precise though,
my mind is set on Nuhu Ribadu, Nasir El-Rufai and Sanusi Lamido
Sanusi. Many may disagree instinctively, but my point will be better
understood when this submission is read to the end. As opposed to
these three individuals, southern Nigeria currently has just Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala to boast of. In terms of focus and outstanding
performance however, we will mention Babatunde Fashola. Unfortunately
though, Fashola is not the radical crusader that is created to fight
evil. On the contrary, he is more the invisible crusader serving his
people quietly and working for the good of his constituency.
NigerianNews
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Subsidy Removal: Whose Interest was the President protecting?
by Frisky Larr
May 03, 2012
The rude awakening on New Year’s Day is yet to be forgotten. The
wounds have hardly healed and the scars are all too visible. Yet more
insults are added to injuries thanks to questions that never get
answered. Every passing day in the Presidency of Goodluck Jonathan is
increasingly characterized by questions piling upon one another. They
never get answered.
NigerianNews
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Who is Misleading America on Boko Haram?
by Frisky Larr
April 24, 2012
Recent unconfirmed media reports claim that the United States of
America is leaning towards an official policy position on the wave of
terror attacks perpetrated on Northern Nigeria by the Boko Haram
group. There seems to be a movement against the listing of Boko Haram
as a terrorist organization. A group that has unleashed a reign of
street terror on Nigeria never before experienced in the history of
the country.
NigerianNews
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Who doesn’t wish Obasanjo back as President?
by Frisky Larr
February 06, 2012
Putting all jokes aside, I can assure whoever takes time to read this
essay that the number of people who quietly wish to have Olusegun
Obasanjo back as President may be growing by the day if a frank and
earnest statistic is taken. I will come back to this issue later.
NigerianNews
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Fresh Momentum Against Corruption but who
will Bell the Cat?
by Frisky Larr
January 23, 2012
If there is any lesson to be learnt from President Jonathan’s latest
Harakiri policy implementation on New Year’s Day, it’s just one. The
government attempted to construct a long, windy by-pass road away from
the fight against corruption in the oil sector. It sought to travel
the easier way to solve a lingering problem hanging on the
government’s neck like a consuming albatross. It sought to make the
ordinary people bear the brunt of turning the nation’s economy around
while the blood-sucking vampires were guaranteed their loot. The folks
said no. Emphatically and massively too! They saw the policy as a
manifestation of sheer wickedness, which the President should have
foreseen and planned to curtail. He did not.
NigerianNews
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Jonathan’s Nigeria: Teetering on the Brink and
hanging on the Precipice
by Frisky Larr
January 19, 2012
The situation is still fresh in our minds. Then President Umaru Musa
Yar’Adua stated while hosting Oby Ezekwesili that his predecessor
wasted close to $10 billion in the power sector with nothing to show
for it. His then Special Assistant, Engineer Foluseke Shomolu sent the
President a memo to correct the figures. He told the President that
less than $6 billion was committed and $3 billion actually paid out by
the President’s predecessor. This singular act earned Engineer Shomolu
an immediate dismissal from his post. And today we are told by the
then Presidential Spokesman Segun Adeniyi, that the reason for the
dismissal was that the Engineer made the President sound like a liar.
NigerianNews
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Governments Never Lie to their Citizens except in Nigeria
by Frisky Larr
January 09, 2012
Recent happenings in Nigeria spontaneously reminded me of lessons in
Political Science as a Freshman in a Turkish University. A Beginner so
to speak! The subject was “The Philosophies and History of Politics”.
My Professor repeated in several different words to us as Beginners of
University studies that one constant and non-negotiable element of
governance is the reliability of government. Of course, as a Muslim
country that Turkey is, we could not miss out on the equally attendant
emphasis on the element of “Honor”. In other words, Honor and
Reliability are two invariable cornerstones of the morals of
governance.
NigerianNews
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The Political Missteps of 2011
by Frisky Larr
January 02, 2012
On January 01, 2011, we entered a new year amid the uncertainty of the
Doctrine of Necessity. It is a phrase that was coined to seal the fate
of the unsolicited but desperate fight put up by the now defeated
Yar’Adua mafia. They had fought to hold the country to ransom in a
ploy to save the Northern dominance of political power against the
medical logic of an ailing President. It didn’t matter that the fight
was doomed to premature failure and the expiry date was near. Their
fate was sealed by the Doctrine of Necessity invoked by the country’s
upper legislative house. It was yet in the early days of the year
2010, but the echoes reverberated long into 2011.
NigerianNews
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Oshiomole Confesses to Yar’Adua’s Anti-Party
Activities
by Frisky Larr
December 16, 2011
Now that Oshiomole has opened the corner-side of the
lid on the murky politics that compounded his ascension to the
Governorship throne in Edo State, I am free to heave a huge sigh of
relief. Relief in a grand feeling of semi-justification! I now feel
halfway justified in the relief that the facts used in my book
“Nigeria’s Journalistic Militantism” while analyzing the politics of
treachery in Edo State was not made up out of thin air.
NigerianNews
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The Self-Created Problems of President
Jonathan
by Frisky Larr
December 13, 2011
Since his ascension to the number one slot in
Nigeria’s political leadership, President Goodluck Jonathan seems to
have perfected some expertise in moving from one political restiveness
to another. Rather than clarity of purpose, most major actions of the
President often leave more questions than answers.
NigerianNews
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Extreme caution recommended as fuel subsidy
debate heats up!
by Frisky Larr
October 31, 2011
The heated debate on the recently announced plan to
remove government subsidy on the downstream sector of fuel supply for
domestic consumption is pulling out all the stops. Opinions have been
running passionately high since the announcement of the move with each
view on the political divide being strongly defended by proponents of
and subscribers to such views.
NigerianNews
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The Endless Saga on Fuel Subsidy: What the
President Must Know
by Frisky Larr
October 11, 2011
I feel sad having to criticize the President of my
country each time I have something to write about him. I feel sad not
because my criticisms are not real or because they are not authentic.
I feel sad because I detest being a critic all the way. I hold some
die-hard optimism that no government is a complete failure. I
therefore hold on to the dictates of old-school journalism of seeking
the best possible proximity to fairness. The fairness of naming
successes alongside failures! With President Jonathan these days, no
matter how I try, it is very difficult to identify the positives and I
hate being the propagator of pure negatives.
NigerianNews
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Goodluck Jonathan’s Government: The Truth
about the Two Sides!
by Frisky Larr
October 4, 2011
There are two faces to the Government of President
Goodluck Jonathan. One is the face that is slowly but steadily growing
entrenched in public perception. The other is the face at the
background that is hardly noticed for its less popular appeal. They
are faces constituting the strength and weaknesses of the government
of President Goodluck Jonathan. They are faces also showcasing the
very essence of the public perception of actions on the theatrical
stage of political realities. The face of Nigerian politics and its
perception by a target audience with a moderate level of political
sophistication!
NigerianNews
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The Presidential Library that I saw in
Nigeria: What A Goddamn Project!
by Frisky Larr
October 3, 2011
I
have always heard about the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in
media reports. My mind has always gone straight to a library facility
for archiving books and academic materials. Like everyone else
following information in the news media, the only memory that I
readily associate with the project of Obasanjo Library has always been
huge spending. A huge sum of money disbursed by individuals donating
money for the lavish project! People who reportedly fell over each
other trying to outdo themselves in volumes of donation, to gain the
favor of then President Olusegun Obasanjo!
NigerianNews
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Leadership Style: President Jonathan must be
Joking!!
by Frisky Larr
September 29, 2011
Hearing recent series of comments credited to President Goodluck
Jonathan on the heels of Nigeria’s 51st Independence
anniversary, consternation has been the least word to describe my
spontaneous reaction. For months unending, speculations have been
making the round that the President is much too aloof and unassertive
for the seriousness required of the office of President.
NigerianNews
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Olusegun Obasanjo: A Stubborn Thorn in the
Flesh of his Enemies!
by Frisky Larr
September 26, 2011
Wole Soyinka’s comments on
Olusegun Obasanjo's recent private "Boko Haram Diplomacy"
clearly symbolizes a never-ending state of personal anger felt by
enemies of the former President at his failure to disappear from the
stage of nationwide and global relevance. It is symbolic of the
everlasting instinctive aggression displayed by a cat upon the
sighting of a mouse. What makes the case of President Obasanjo and his
enemies more intriguing however, is the simple fact that the cat has
caught the mouse on several occasions and even inflicted injuries and
bruises on the mouse. The mouse has fallen down oftentimes with
fractures and bruises but managed to slip away and re-announce its
presence on an even broader platform of gold.
NigerianNews
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Why is Babangida so angry?
by Frisky Larr
August 23, 2011
The verbal attack
seems to have taken former President Olusegun Obasanjo unaware.
Accordingly, his reaction was typical. It reminds me of such reactions
in his presidential days, which I have always referred to as a product
of poor Public Relations Strategy. As we now know through revelations
from aides, the verbal attack from former General (self-styled
President) Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida that came on the heels of a
media interview was pre-meditated. It was a continuation of the
treacherous journey started by Nasir El-Rufai at the halls of the
National Assembly.
NigerianNews
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The BPE Probe & Obasanjo: Its Bashing Time
again!
by Frisky Larr
August 18, 2011
Let us face it squarely. Nothing short of a breakthrough in the power
sector, major achievements in water supply and road construction can
rescue the government of President Goodluck Jonathan from being an
insignificant page in the history book of Nigeria. So numerous are the
chains of mistake that he has made so far at this nascent stage of his
judicially contested Presidency.
NigerianNews
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Where the hell is President Jonathan?
by Frisky Larr
July 11, 2011
The chain of bad news trailing the election and swearing-in of
President Jonathan since April and May is mounting by the day and
taking an alarming dimension. So is the feeling of helplessness too.
In the face of chaos occasioned by disappointment by losers and
sidelined individuals, President Jonathan is displaying some stoic
calm in powerlessness and obvious vulnerability.
NigerianNews
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Time to Wield the Ax: Arrest and Try Buhari
Now!
by Frisky Larr
April 25, 2011
It remains a mystery to the discerning mind from where and how
Muhammadu Buhari sternly believed that he would have garnered all the
necessary votes to make him the civilian President of Nigeria in the
April 16th Presidential election. Every sane, objective and
intelligent analyst saw through the not-too densely darkened haze of
the April 09th election into the National Assembly which
way the tendency pointed.
NigerianNews
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Now That the Die is Cast!
by Frisky Larr
March 28, 2011
Now
that the rumble is ending and we are counting the costs in material
and human losses, sober reflection is begging to crave in when the die
is cast in a matter of days. It has been a hectic few weeks of
campaigning and soliciting voters’ attention and patronage.
.NigerianNews
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Crucial Questions on the Power Sector Dilemma
by Frisky Larr
January 04, 2011
Today, the power sector probe by the House of Representative’s
committee headed by Legislator Godwin Elumelu sometimes in 2008 is
history. It was shortly after the inception of the government of
late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua that this committee was
catapulted to the forefront of sensational revelations on projects
in the power sector that were paid for by the government of
ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo but were subsequently abandoned by
contractors after cashing in on payment.
.NigerianNews
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The Zoning Poison and the Risk of
Balkanizing Nigeria
by Frisky Larr
August 02, 2010
Never in the history of Nigeria has a clause in the constitution
of a single political party become such a lethal and volatile
minefield that is strongly seeking to explode on the corporate
existence of the already fragile union. Never in history has
Nigeria been so exposed to the project of a desperate stranglehold
on the nerves of its roots by a determined geographical mafia
fighting for a sustained power status. Never too, has the identity
of this desperate mafia and its desperate godfathers has been so
hopelessly laid bare than it is today in the wake of the national
debate on the zoning poison.NigerianNews
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Farida Waziri: Bitterness Against
Ribadu?
by Frisky Larr
April 19 2010
A lot has happened since the removal of Nuhu Ribadu from the
Chairmanship of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC).
His demotion in rank and subsequent dismissal from the Police
Force not by President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua or by Perry Osayande or
Michael Okiro but by the one and only James Ibori who openly
boasted about the sequential order of the predicament that was to
befall Nuhu Ribadu, are now history. A lot has happened indeed.
NigerianNews
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The Fuss and Fight over Turai: Is
she the real Problem?
by Frisky Larr
March 04 2010
Abuja is in the grip of fear. The naked fear of a military coup!
So reminiscent it is of the comedy of the Philippines in the late
1980s that I am forced to sing déjà vu! It is a perfect
duplication of history. The history of pre-announced military coup
d’etat that keeps a nation in suspense and awe! NigerianNews
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The Yar’Adua Mafia: One last
desperate move!
by Frisky Larr
February 26 2010
In one last albeit giant stride to salvage what is left of hope
for presidential powers, the Yar’Adua mafia unleashed Wednesday,
an unconstitutional coup de main to underscore the hint of
the possible man-in-charge. For the avoidance of doubt, a
coup de main is nothing but an attack without warning. A
warning shot of sort that seeks to destabilize the camp of the
opponent that will initially seek to identify the direction from
which the shot was fired.NigerianNews
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Is Aondoakaa a decorated
illiterate?
by Frisky Larr
February 15 2010
It requires the knowledge of a language to decipher the message
encoded in a collection of individual words. Some languages are
simple in structure and some are more complex. The Chinese, Greek
and Russian languages are in their order, regarded as the most
complex in the world. The English language on the other hand, is
not the simplest language on earth. It also doesn’t count among
the most complex. Linguists with the gift of the multiple
knowledge of diverse tongues across geographical divide will
surely attest to this simple reality.
NigerianNews
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Yar’Adua: Do they know it’s Christmas
Time?
by Frisky Larr
January 19 2010
Christmas time is Yar’Adua’s time. Yar’Adua is
not Jesus though. Yar’Adua is no sanctity. He even has no divine
calling. But Christmas time highlights his being if Nigerians know what
Christmas means. The hand of the clock repeatedly runs a circumference
of twelve hours.
NigerianNews
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The Terror Watchlist: Will Nigerians
ever learn?
by Frisky Larr
January 11 2010
How sad it is to be a Nigerian in this reality of our modern
day exacerbated by Yar’Adua’s own version of the Rule of
Law. How sad it is to live in one’s own country and be a
victim of systematic exploitation powered by high-level
corruption and collapsing infrastructure. Feeding from hand
to mouth and ever waiting for handouts to trickle down the
lips of ever swallowing governmental gluttons.
NigerianNews
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Yar’Adua’s Condition worsens,
Succession battle heats up!
by Frisky Larr
December 02 2009
Information coming
out of sources close to Aso Rock is painting a dismal and grim picture
of President Yar’Adua’s condition on his Saudi hospital bed. This could
not have come at a worse time for loyalists and members of the
President’s kitchen cabinet jostling for a quick return of the President
to the seat of power at all cost.
NigerianNews
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