Addressing the Spate of Bombings in Nigeria: The President’s Role

By Msonter Anzaa

Recently, it has become common to hear of bomb blasts in Nigeria. Between October last year and now – a period less than a year – there have been four major high-profile bombings that have left scores of people dead. The thing is for the government of Nigeria to promise to “bring the culprits to book” and the Nigeria Police to “investigate” ad infinitum. What role can the President of Nigeria play in arresting this evil and maintaining security in his country?

Matters Arising as Universities Conduct Post-UME

By Msonter Anzaa

The tertiary sub-sector of the Nigerian educational system has come alive again with lots of activities. This is so because the most expected and yet most anxious moment in its perennial cycle of offering admissions, processing undergraduates and dismissing them has commenced. It is obvious that universities are still grossly undercapacitated and under-funded. This piece does not concern itself with those who would be admitted and how they would fare in school. It concerns itself with the plight of the voiceless and marginalized UME or UTME candidates who would not gain admission and the ordeals they would go through in the unending ritual of admission seeking.

Vision 20:2020 and Education in Nigeria

By Msonter Anzaa

Nigeria's Vision 20:2020 has nine years left to be achieved. It aims at making the national economy one of the twenty biggest in the world. As the count down continues, this article aims at establishing a relationship between economic growth and the educational system, and submits that no tangible development is possible without qualitative and functional education.

Economists agree that certain conditions must exist for the economy to grow. One of these is adequate power generation and supply. It will reduce the cost of doing business and motivate the siting of small-scale enterprises like barbing or hair-dressing salons and thus reduce unemployment. Another is security. Cases of armed robbery, kidnapping and vandalization must be minimum so that investors can feel safe doing business. The role of a viable education in all this can not be overemphasized. It is from researches in schools that ideas are discovered, developed and injected into the economy.