Dr. Adetolu Ademujimi

  Happy Workers’ Day. I congratulate Federal public servants for the approved increase in their salary structures announced by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration yesterday 30 th April, 2024. However, I am inclined to wish that the subnational units of government have similar and respective financial capacities to raise the earnings of State public servants. I’m talking about a sincere & intentional structural review of the constitutional empowerments (or not) of State governments (or not) to earn revenues to meet their obligations to residents. Just before we criticize many States for not paying any minimum wage negotiated by the national office of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its allies with the Federal government, let’s be dispassionate to consider an age-long phrase - Fiscal Federalism , or a synonym of it -  Lucrative Liberalism, which  I coined few years back as I reflected on a better way to communicate this cogent subject in a country wi...

  It is likely to be seen as an April fools’ day message to announce today, the restoration of public power to residents of some Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the Southern senatorial district of Ondo State, who haven’t experienced electrical power from the national grid but their personal generators & solar systems, over the past ten years. Imagine that a ten-year old child born within those LGAs has never seen electrical power from the national grid. Imagine spending the greater part of the past forty-something years of my existence on earth in a perpetually dark and energy-less country. You know for sure that we all grew up chorusing “ Up NEPA ” with my family members whenever the defunct National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) restored power supply. Yet, the hospital, office and my computer – three workspaces that have defined my clinical, public health and writing & innovation careers for about two decades, cannot be deployed for productivity without electricity. ...

  He was an attorney, activist, administrator, advocate of good governance, family man and politician whom God crowned his multi-faceted career with the people’s mandate as Governor of Ondo State when he took the oath of office first on 24 th February, 2017 and for the second time on a similar date in 2021. Notwithstanding his imperfections like you and I, one trait stood him out in the crowd of Nigeria’s political actors; he was exceptionally frank! Truth is an indomitable and immortal antidote to political falsehoods, social half-truths, governance pretences, economic tricks, legal charades, and administrative shams, all of which are despicably synonymous with Nigeria’s recent history. Aketi was unshaken in conveying that truth. Despite his membership of the privileged class of political elite – the Nigeria Governors’ Forum – from 2017 till death, this courageous man often spoke as though he was a part of the dissatisfied and oppressed. Despite his membership of the ruling...

  Nigeria’s overcentralized headquarters, Abuja, may be symbolic of the central seat of power but operationally, it should not continue to deprive majority of Nigerians the opportunity of welfare and security that the closest units of government – States and Local – ought to offer them. I have never hidden my disdain for the perpetual clustering of toothless super structures in Abuja in the name of centralization of authority to the point that bureaucracy becomes an enemy of the intention of these establishments. To have deliberately, mischievously or inadvertently copied from the United States in half-measure, the current Federal system of government that we pretend to run, is a grave injustice to past, present and future generations of Nigerians, with the ineffectual operation of our internal security architecture as one of the profound consequences of that folly. Like several rational Nigerians, I am an ardent proponent of Federalism with the expected resultant constitutional ...

  Recounting the harrowing economic, social and political experiences of 2023, which we all had our share of, is like rubbing salt to injury. For our mental stability, it’s better to look forward to a brighter and more prosperous 2024 with enthusiasm. Feelers from my interactions with friends, co-workers, family members, neighbours and varied acquaintances have it that among other things, Nigerians wish in 2024, for strategic and expeditious interventions in key areas of our national life that would deliver good tidings in the country-wide supply of food, fuel, foreign exchange, healthcare and security. Not forgetting the continental football contest coming up later this month, Nigerians look up to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, the 36 State Governors and the Federal Capital Territory Minister to do all within their powers to usher in positive vibes in the six afore-mentioned spheres that either directly affect their daily well-being or transiently offer some mental respite a...