Hoha! (Pointblank)

""It is no hyperbole that Anambra will provide the litmus test for democracy, and the existence of Nigeria as a single entity. We witnessed how Anambra was handed over as a private fiefdom of political godfathers by a former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. We saw how a President connived...and personally managed the stealing of a governorship mandate."

-------Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka on the fate of the nation as the upcoming off-year election in Anambra State draws closer.


"Things fall Apart was the balm, keeping us alive in the face of tremendous suffering in prison” – Nelson Mandela to the BBC after release from jail. When an art transcends time, and touches the people from Japan to Iceland, Kenya to Chile, then that art or literature is an enduring treasure. Those are the creations of gifted artists. Achebe is one of the few world geniuses and certainly and unquestionably, one of the the best ever novelists. His ‘Things Fall Apart’ was extraordinary in the ’50’s and fifty years later, quite as profound as ever."

Ruth J. Simmons, President, Brown University on the Chinua Achebe Colloquium held at Brown University.


"Despite the multi-billion dollar or multi- trillion naira budgets, Nigeria, with a population of over 140 million, is still grappling with 103 public and private universities, in addition to dozens of polytechnics and colleges of education, while the USA, with a population of about 300 million is having over 5,700 universities and Japan with a population of about 127 million, has over 1,200 universities. Out of over one million candidates that sat for the universities entrance examinations yearly in recent times, only about 300,000 were offered admission yearly by the universities and about 50 per cent of this figure graduate on annual basis with poverty/unemployment passports issued to them. Our health sector is also nothing to write home about. Tens of millions of Nigerians are still drinking acidic water from unprotected sources. Our agriculture is steadily drifting towards pre-subsistence level. The Malaysians and Indonesians, who came to us in the 1960s and 1970s, so as to be taught the secrets of palm tree cultivation, weeding and harvesting, have not only mastered them, but also they have mechanised the palm industry, which now earns them billions of dollars annually and feeds millions of their skilled and unskilled nationals."

-------Emeka Umeagbasi, Chairman, Board of Trustees, International Society for civil liberties and the Rule of Law on why Nigeria needs a 'radical' revolution speaking to journalists on the state of the troubled nation.


"Most, if not all of the indices of failed states, declare Nigeria well on its way to joining that disreputable club. Nigeria boasts a government unable to deliver basic social services. It is plagued by corruption so endemic and monumental it is hard to separate it from state policy. It lacks the capability or discipline to prevent threats to public safety and national integrity and is assailed by active challenges to its legitimacy. The latest disaster of a re-run election in Ekiti state, meant to correct the errors of the first, proved an even greater show of shame."

-------Ogaga Ifowodo, Poet, Lawyer and PhD candidate, Cornell University on a "yea" and "nay" debate on whether Nigeria is a failed state published by BBC News.


"It is obvious, all the signs of a state heading for failure - where a constitutional authority increasingly shows an inability to provide basic services like guaranteeing security to life and property, maintenance of economic and social services, infrastructure and food security - are not evident. On the contrary, for the first time in the country's history, Nigeria is attempting to address its economic and social infrastructure inadequacies. The economy has never been more open to new investors and the government recognises the imperative for private-sector investments in critical infrastructure such as power, transportation and energy."

-------Waziri Haruna Ahmadu, former Health and Agriculture Secretary, and adviser to the ailing President Umaru Yar'adua on why he thinks Nigeria is not a failed state.