OWOLOWO

Postponing The Inevitable By M.B.O Owolowo The postponement of elections as announced by Prof. Athairu Jega on February 7 th 2015 is a test for our nation's democracy. It is a critical test for our democratic values and social institutions. An assessment of the actual independence of our electoral commission, judiciary and legislative bodies. It is a thorough examination of the working relationship between other institutions, including the executive and armed forces. The next coming weeks will ascertain if we are truly practising democracy and running a democratic government or we are retrogressing back to the anti-democratic era where the defenders of democracy will have to re-emerge to fight against tyranny. The INEC (Independent Electoral Commission), cited security issues raised by the security chiefs as the primary reason for postponing the election. Particularly, the Boko Haram insurgency affecting North-Eastern Nigeria. Nigeria currently has 774 local governments...

Buhari The Consistent Democrat By M.B.O Owolowo General Muhammadu Buhari means different things to different people and is probably the most popular and incidentally popularized politician in our recent history. Often when Buhari's regime is reminisced about, some Nigerians focus on the popular War Against Indiscipline initiative, and the prosecution, conviction and incarceration of certain people, including politicians, drug traffickers and financial criminals found to have embezzled public funds. However, there are other achievements during Buhari's regime worth mentioning, particularly on the economy. Despite inheriting a fragile economy from the improvident Shagari administration, Buhari's regime implemented a strict fiscal policy, and reduced Nigeria's inflation rate from 23% in 1983 to 5% in 1985. Buhari understood the economic dynamics, and was particularly conversant with the inner-workings of the petroleum sector, considering he was Minister of Petroleum (Feder...