Joel Nwokeoma

I am a researcher, journalist, budget and public policy analyst, working with one of the most widely circulated newspapers in Nigeria. A Masters degree holder in Political Science from University, I was the immediate past executive director, Concerned Professionals Ltd/Gte, an NGO based in Lagos. My articles, comments and opinions are widely published in newspapers, online journals, magazines both within and outside Nigeria.

2011 And Dearth Of Issue-Based Politics

The way things are slowly but steadily building up, there is the possibility that Nigeria could, once again, be foisted with a leader in 2011 who never promised the country anything before assuming the presidency...

Can a bloody revolution take place in Nigeria?

If all it takes for violent social change to take place in a society is a surfeit of anger and outrage by the citizens, arising mainly from poverty and inequality, Nigeria would have long witnessed one...

Kidnapping: Tasks Before South East Governors

The governors of the five South-Eastern states, with prominent leaders of thought from the region in tow, cut a pitiable look when they went cap-in-hand to meet with “Big Brother Abuja”, President Goodluck Jonathan recently...

How not to roll-back malaria in Nigeria

While Nigeria was signing up to an international MOU of some sort to “support local production of malaria drugs and products” on the one hand, it is, on another, taking actions that may undermine the same local pharmaceutical firms...

The Judiciary as Temple of Corruption

Nigeria, sadly, has not been particularly fortunate in its drive to evolve a functional democratic governance since 1999, which could deliver the oft-mentioned but elusive dividends to the people, principally because of the unspeakable greed of its political class, and the attendant impunity accentuated by a seemingly compromised and disabled judiciary...

The Great Nigerian Delusion

The Nigerian Project, whose 50th anniversary would be elaborately celebrated soon, never ceases to puzzle. Unfortunately, for so long, Nigerians have not been able to come off this jigsaw, of sorts...

Insecurity: Beyond the Resort to Primitivism

When the US-based Fund for Peace in collaboration with Foreign Policy magazine released the 2009 Failed States Index, last year, the ranking of Nigeria as the 15th most failed nation in the world, out of the 177 countries surveyed, did not, understandably, go down well with the country’s political elite...

Gulf of Mexico oil spill: What lessons for Nigeria?

It is striking that while the US government, knowing “just how precious the Louisiana wetlands are”, have been firing on all cylinders to cause the BP to pay for a one-off incidental spill, the Nigerian state and its institutions have over the years been working in tandem with oil companies to systematically despoil and impoverish the Niger Delta wetlands...

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Osun election: Between hope and fear

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Osun: By this time on August 16

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Osun: When words betray the throne

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