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	Frisky Larr Radio/Television Journalist/Communication Scientist Author of the book “Nigeria’s Journalistic Militantism” probing into the poor role of Journalism in Nigeria! ISBN: 9781456777906.  Regional Court of Bochum Germany
Frisky Larr	Frisky Larr's Special Column  |  Book Review by Tony Abolo
What do Hobby Bloggers say Today who made Obasanjo their Punching Bag? by Frisky Larr May 06, 2013 When I started taking on hate-filled critics of former President Olusegun Obasanjo during the days of his 8-year tenure, many hurled abuses at me and called me a sellout! Very few recognized my passion for putting facts in their correct perspective no matter how bitter we are. I knew deep in my heart though that I would have been the greatest “Obasanjo-hater” if there were mass praises for the man with an attempt to sweep the negatives beneath the carpet. Fortunately or unfortunately, the reverse was the case. I suffered abuses and denigration by people who believed in the expression of sentiments as a yardstick for measuring objectivity. NigerianNews Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special 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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special   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 Special