jihonvbere on October 8th, 2009

Good Governance and Economic Bliss

By

Professor Julius O. Ihonvbere, OON
National Chairman, Board of Trustees
Institute of Corporate and Business Affairs Management
Lagos, Nigeria

Text of a Lecture Delivered at the Church of God Mission, October 1, 2009.
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Protocol
I thank God for this day and thank the leadership of the Church of God Mission for this invitation.  I congratulate our mother Bishop Margaret Idahosa for continuing the great legacies of our departed Papa Archbishop Benson Idahosa.  May his good soul rest in very perfect peace.
It is indeed a pleasure to be amongst you today.  Under normal circumstances, the tone and content of this lecture would be different.  But I have a lot of respect for the house of God. A man that cannot differentiate between his father’s house and the market place is a fool.
Let me not waste your time with intellectual gymnastics, definitions and unnecessary grammar. The issue before us is economic bliss and good governance.  I have changed it to good governance and economic bliss because it is good governance that makes economic bliss possible.    Contrary to the thinking of many intellectuals and policy makers, just as we all know the difference between good health and illness, ordinary people know the difference between development and underdevelopment.  Today, some nations like to make themselves feel good by saying they are developing nations: we shall not argue with that. Read the rest of this entry »

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jihonvbere on July 6th, 2009

By

Prof. Julius O. Ihonvbere, OGI, OON

Text of Lecture delivered to mark the Inauguration of the Edo State Chapter of the Yar’Adua/Jonathan Solidarity Forum, at the Oba Akenzua Cultural Centre,

Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria, June 27, 2009.

PROTOCOL

I thank the organizers for inviting me to deliver this lecture. I heartily congratulate all those being inaugurated today.  I do pray and hope that they will lead by example and lay credible foundations for the future.   Because it is an inauguration ceremony, this lecture will be brief and direct.  In any case, the PDP in Edo state is at a stage today where it cannot afford to engage in trivialities, double-talk and grandstanding.  We have been bruised, battered, humiliated, and almost caged. But thank God, we remain fully on ground, with able and capable leaders, so there is absolutely no shaking.  However, the way out of the present challenges facing the party is to sit down, reflect, be honest with ourselves, reorganize, re-strategize, refocus, reposition, and work collectively for the emergence of a true and even more powerful party in Edo State.  We must abandon our old habits if we are to succeed as a party. Read the rest of this entry »

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jihonvbere on July 6th, 2009

In an attempt to tackle the crisis in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, the government set up a technical committee with the following terms of reference:

  • To collate, review and distill the various reports, suggestions and recommendations on the Niger Delta from the Willinks Commission Report (1958) to the present, and give a summary of the recommendations  necessary  for government action.
  • To appraise the summary recommendations and present a detailed short, medium and long term suggestion to the challenges in the Niger Delta.
  • To make and present to Government any other recommendations that will help the Federal Government achieve sustainable development, peace, human and environmental security in the Niger Delta region.

The committee was inaugurated by the Vice President of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan on September 8th, 2008 with the following speech: Read the rest of this entry »

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Julius Ihonvbere on March 12th, 2009

Professor Julius O. Ihonvbere, OON, OGI, FICA
National Chairman, Board of Trustees
Institute of Corporate and Business Affairs Management
Lagos, Nigeria

Text of a Lecture Delivered at the Founders Day Celebration, Lead University, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria, March 12, 2009
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Allow me to begin by thanking the Management and students of this great citadel of learning for inviting me to deliver this lecture.  I have followed the activities of this institution fairly closely since its inception.  I am convinced that it is steadily emerging as an intellectual crucible that will not just fill a strategic place in our nation’s quest for growth, development and progress, but would also sufficiently empower its products to effectively meet the challenges of globalisation.
Our topic for discussion today is very direct and clear.  We are interested in interrogating the place of leadership in the future of Nigeria.  This does not mean that we are not interested in followership.  In fact, it is the combination of leadership and followership that often determines the future of a nation.  However, since leaders control and dominate the commanding heights of the economy, exercise legal monopoly over the means of coercion, dominate the structures and institutions of politics and economy, and shape the ideological or philosophical direction of society, we shall focus on leaders and the future. Read the rest of this entry »

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Julius Ihonvbere on September 24th, 2008

POLITICAL OBLIGATION AND DEMOCRATIZATION

Professor Julius O. Ihonvbere, OON

Text of Lecture Delivered at the Workshop on Political Obligations/Social Contract for Local Government Political Officers in Cross River State, Calabar, April 21st, 2008

It is indeed a pleasure to be amongst you here today. Let me congratulate you all on your election as chairmen of your respective local governments. I know what it means to win the ticket, go into elections, win and retain the victory in our dear nation. My prayer is that you will all keep your covenant with your people so that your names would be written in gold in the history books and minds of our people.

My brief remarks will be focused on “Political Obligation and Democratization.” Our goal will be to highlight the linkage between political obligation and the deepening, widening and sustenance of democratic practice, thus making democratization part of our political discourse and practice. First, what is political obligation? Read the rest of this entry »

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Julius Ihonvbere on September 24th, 2008

Ethnic Reconciliation

by

Professor Julius O. Ihonvbere, OON

Paper delivered at the Policy and Programme Retreat 2007, Organised by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Delta State Chapter, Grand Hotel, Asaba, Delta State, February 2007.

I thank the Delta State Chapter of our great Party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for inviting me to deliver this paper on “Ethnic Reconciliation” at this very important retreat. Ethnic issues and ethnic politics have become critical variables in our political and other calculations in the last five decades or more. All over the world, unbelievable actions are being taken within and amongst ethnic constituencies. In some cases, genocides and unprecedented massacres have taken place in the name of ethnic conflict and ethnic politics. The mismanagement of culture, identity and difference has become an excuse for promoting criminal politics, intolerance, disregard for constitutional provisions and the rights and liberties of others, especially minorities. Read the rest of this entry »

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Julius Ihonvbere on September 23rd, 2008

Constitutionalism and the National Question in Nigeria

Julius O. Ihonvbere

The number one political contradiction or challenge in Africa today is how to deal with the national question.  The continent’s history and the contradictions and engagements of the post-colonial era have precipitated deep political fault lines and congealed interests on both side of the political divide.  Put simply: on the one hand are those that are benefiting from the current status quo and see no reason for change.  To this group, the “problems” of politics, economy and society would resolve themselves or be resolved with time.  On the other hand are those that feel that the African past had been squandered, the present mortgaged and the future so uncertain that politics could no longer be taken for granted.  Consequently, they have demanded a re-negotiation and recompacting of relations between the power elite and the people.  This time, they are demanding to be fully involved in the process of remaking the constitution in order to ensure that those issues that affect them and their communities are not trivialized or relegated to the dustbin of political decision making. Read the rest of this entry »

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Julius Ihonvbere on September 17th, 2008

The Nigerian State as Obstacle to Federalism: Towards a New Constitutional Compact for Democratic Politics

“Under a true federal constitution, each group, however small, is entitled to the same treatment as any other group, however large.  Opportunity must be afforded to each to evolve its own peculiar political institution.  The present structure reinforces indigenous colonialism- a crude, harsh, unscientific and illogical system”. – Obafemi Awolowo.

“If we continue to operate a very defective system, this country would face very serious danger of survival because this constitution cannot sustain this country”. -Lateef Adegbite. Read the rest of this entry »

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Julius Ihonvbere on September 17th, 2008

Imperialism and the Encapsulation of the Democratization Process in Africa

It is rather interesting to note the way in which debates on the current democratization projects in Africa have been domesticated, encapsulated, and redirected by Western scholarship, media, and institutions. It is no wonder that the initial enthusiasm which accompanied the so-called “opening up” processes has ebbed as the pro-democracy movements, the much maligned and beleaguered African state, scholars and activists struggle to meet the interpretations and demands of imperialism, lenders, donors, and western governments. On the one hand, such processes of ideological containment and depolitcization of grassroots movements have generated new conflicts, diversions, and weakened the people, their communities and constituencies. Read the rest of this entry »

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Julius Ihonvbere on September 16th, 2008

Political Violence in a fledgling democracy

Professor Julius O. Ihonvbere

Text of public lecture delivered under the auspices of THE BREEZE MAGAZINE, Airport Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos March 14, 2003

Mr. Chairman, it is not my intention to speak for too long today. I would prefer to be brief and to leave enough time for discussions and questions. Let me also confess that I hurriedly put this lecture together in the last two hours or so. I think it does contain enough to generate some conversation. I have left out details of violence. I chose to focus on the conceptual aspects of the problem though I would use examples as necessary. I thank you for honoring me with your invitation. I commend you for your courage, vision and commitment to the truth in a society that is as decayed as ours.

Thirty seven years ago, a young, charismatic and courageous military officer declared in a coup broadcast:

Our enemies are the political profiteers, swindlers, the men in high and low places who seek bribes and demand ten percent, those that seek to keep the country divided permanently so that they can remain in office as ministers and VIPs of waste, the tribalists, the nepotists…(Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, January 1966 Coup Broadcast.) Read the rest of this entry »

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