Opinion – Page 3 – Shipping World News Magazine

Dec102017 by Our EditorNo Comments

What Buhari must do to help himself

Opinion

By Dele Sobowale He, who speaks without modesty, will find it difficult to make his words good.” Confucius, 551-479BC, Chinese philosopher. …. He also runs the risk of making a mockery of himself. He was, and self-advertised, as a man who would come into office to fight corruption and deal with anyone found to be corrupt without fear or favour. On that promise, millions of Nigerians campaigned and voted for him. I did in 2011, when Lai Mohammed, his current Minister of Information was still a spokesman for a defunct political party called ACN. In the months leading to the 2011 elections, Lai was the arrowhead of Buhari’s adversaries who told us that the man was “too old” (among other deficiencies they alleged) to lead Nigerians. Four years after, the same Lai, the spokesman of th...

Dec42017 by Asu BeksNo Comments

Onne Port Without INTELS : Is this an omelette without eggs?

Breaking News, Opinion

About twenty years, a handful of colleagues and I went on a visit to a mass of virgin swamp at Onne. We were taken on that visit by Engineer Wali Ahmed who remains in history as the best MD the Nigerian Ports Authority ever had . The visit was a follow up to an MoU the NPA had entered into with NICOTES Nig Ltd on a Build , Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis. It was a mass of very difficult terrain isolated by ponds. We had to park our buses several meters away to enable us access the land by foot. My colleagues and I wondered why any right-thinking businessman would take such a risk in ploughing his hard earned resources in a venture which to many of us did not look realistic. But these officials looked optimistic as they took time to explain the great potential this virgin forest had in...

Dec32017 by Our EditorNo Comments

Ogoni Clean-Up and Rivers Politics

Opinion

-By Senator Magnus Abe A lot of Nigerians have called me to request that I condemn Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike’s charge that the Ogoni clean-up is a political project, and I said no I would not condemn the governor for saying what he said. I will rather thank him. He is doing what the opposition should do in a democracy. The governor is a member of the opposition People’s Democratic Part (PDP). Like I said to the governor when we exchanged pleasantries after his remarks, “if it is a political project then you have fired the first shot”. The ruling All Progressives Congress to which I, and President Muhammadu Buhari, the true facilitator and greatest advocate for the clean up of Ogoniland both belong should fire our own shot and it needs not be in throwing tantrums over the gove...

Nov292017 by Our EditorNo Comments

Clean Sweep Obiano

Opinion

By Sylvanus Ekpo When it comes to politics and politicking, no one does it better than those who are professionals in the game. And the best of them are in the saddle as governors, ministers, commissioners and local government chairmen. They get their tonic from being those who pour water on the hands of their godfathers. They genuflect, cringe and pass off as subservient until they get the ultimate prize. So, the recent governorship election in Anambra is worthy of note because since the hellish days of former governor Chris Ngige, the state has often been enmeshed in one form of ribaldry or another. Then, the politics of godfatherism held sway. The godfather and the godson were supposed to have an understanding to share the resources of the state as soon as the funds were released ...

Nov162017 by Our EditorNo Comments

INTELS: The End of the Road

Breaking News, Business, Law, Maritime, Opinion, Politics

by Sylvania Ekpo The sledgehammer seems to have come down hard on the integrated logistics limited, Intel's and her subsidiaries with the revocation of the residence permits of their expatriate staff by the federal government. According to a statement by the Nigeria immigration service, NIS, the decision was taken after the Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority, OGFZA, withdrew the operational licence. The affected staff are expected to leave Nigeria by November 30, 2017 failing which they might be deported by the ministry of interior. Intels, a company owned by the former vice-president and chieftain of the All Progressive Congress, Atiku Abubakar, was in the news early in October when it was reported that the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) had terminated its pilotage contract in Onne, ...

Oct222017 by Our EditorNo Comments

Buhari and the South

Opinion, Politics

By Dele Sobowale “You know, in my very first meeting with President Buhari, he said he would like us to shift our focus to the northern region of Nigeria and we have done that. Now, it has been very difficult. The work there has been very difficult.” Jim Yong Kim, World Bank President. If any more evidence is needed that President Buhari has deliberately embarked on running Nigeria’s democracy as “Government of the Northern Region, by the Northern Region and for the Northern Region”, the World Bank, WB, President has removed all doubt. The very use of the term “northern region” makes it very clear that the man millions of us in the Southern Region trusted, campaigned for and supported is after all a northern believer. President Mohammadu Buhari As one of those who trusted him su...