[FILES] IPOB Members. PHOTO: TWITTERIn what seems a diversionary move from the nation-wide insecurity, the tottering Buhari administration took a swipe at the British government for considering the asylum applications of the hounded Indigenous People of Biafra partisans. The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed had said the plan by the British government to grant asylum for IPOB members was disrespectful and amounted to a sabotage of the Federal Government’s fight against terrorism in the country. Besides, the minister also alleged that the British refused Nigerian government’s request to the effect that Radio Biafra, which broadcast from London should be shut.
U.N. Ambassador Bob Rae weighs in on world affairs with Ryerson’s Democracy Forum Reading Time: 3 minutes
Content Warning: This story discusses the persecution and genocide of Muslims in China.
Bob Rae, Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, shared his views on a number of controversial international affairs with
Toronto Star columnist Martin Regg Cohn and members of the Ryerson community at Ryerson’s Democracy Forum on Jan. 28.
Rae is no stranger to the political landscape. From 1990 to 1995, he served as Ontario’s premier with the Ontario New Democratic Party. After a few years away from politics, he served as the interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada in 2012. Rae was then appointed as Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations in 2020.
Restructuring In Nigeria: Why? How? When?, By Attahiru M. Jega 13 min read
Effort and energies need to be devoted to generating an elite, if not a national, consensus on the necessity of restructuring, defined as the redistribution of power and resources from the federal to the state governments, to be embarked upon before 2023. The embedded imbalance, inequities and perceived injustices in the current federal system in Nigeria have to be addressed as soon as possible to enable Nigeria and Nigerians to acquire the requisite stability and peaceful coexistence…
Introduction
Federalism is the principle, some would say a conceptual or institutional framework, which defines “the division of authority among national and subnational governments” in a given country (Rozell and Wilcox 2019). Such a country is referred to as a federation, or as operating a federal system. Regardless of whether the subnational governments were priorly independent and came voluntarily
A former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega, who was one of the Guest Speaker’s at the occasion said there was an urgent need to restructure Nigeria to proactively block what he referred to as “irredentist tendencies” and facilitate stable socioeconomic development in the country.
Jega, a Professor of Political Science at the Bayero University, Kano (BUK), argued that it was necessary to find practical ways of restructuring Nigeria before the 2023 general election, saying that the country operates one of the worst models of a federal system of government in the world today.
He said: “Technically and substantively, Nigeria is a federation and operates a federal system with states as the federating units.