Joshua King's Free Press

Occupy Nigeria started trending again this morning on social network Twitter. The reason for this is partly because there are suspicions the present administration plots to increase the pump price of PMS in a few weeks. The response and reaction from hundreds of thousands of Nigerians on the social network has been astounding. It felt like January 1 2012 all over again. Yours truly had to quickly leave the office to ask a fuel station attendant the current pump price of fuel. After being reassured by the attendant that it was still N97, there was no need to panic. The argument that will be offered for a new increase in the pump price of PMS is not new, it is a stale argument that has been waged over and over again with many people who oppose such a hike. While there might not be any formal announcement by the regime to confirm the speculation or any statement made thus far by the president’s spokesman who is also on the social network to douse the already rising feeling of ang...

Are the days gone when Nigerians countdown to sporting events? What happened to the most unifying factor in the country? Where has all the talent gone? Sports in Nigeria has suddenly become another failing sector, just what is wrong with Nigerian sports? The Olympic Games will begin in a few days, yet there is no feeling of excitement or anticipation. There are far greater concerns that even a distraction as thrilling as football cannot draw attention. The Olympic Games will be watched with indifference and perhaps a gold medal might re-inspire but does Nigeria have a gold medal hopeful? The answer is difficult to reach. In the not distant past, Nigeria used to be a name revered by many others in the round leather game of football. On the African scene, the Super Eagles were accorded more respect than even more successful countries at the African cup of Nations. All that has changed. It is not the cycle theory as some might suggest because certain elements that are needed to ...

Yesterday there was a tanker a explosion that gutted many with severe burns and left 87 others dead. There were other more serious issues in Nigeria that craved attention yet it was the news that Dame Patience Jonathan, first lady and wife of President Goodluck Jonathan had become Permanent Secretary to the Bayelsa state government that became the talk everywhere. She will serve in absentia said the spokesman of the first lady Mr. Osinlu. She will also not get paid for the position. Before now, Dame Patience Jonathan had been civil servant with Bayelsa State ministry of education. Her elevation to deputy first lady as wife of the deputy governor prevented her from continuing in the service. Somehow, the Bayelsa governor found it wise to appoint her a permanent secretary. Only a few weeks ago, her husband’s spokesman Dr. Abati had insisted the president can run the country from anywhere. He argued that with advances in technology, that it was possible for the president to rule...

Mr. Donald Aigbe walked into his Access bank Ikotun branch yesterday to withdraw the sum of N25,000 to pay his son's school fees. He was told of a challenge with the server. He waited hours on end for the server to return from its trek to a meeting of servers somewhere till late in the afternoon. He and many others were unable to get their cash withdrawals. Several other customers had similar challenges in branches of the bank since their acquisition of Intercontinental Bank Plc. At some time during the day, Access bank ATMs began functioning but were uncharacteristically slow at paying customers of both banks. The ordeal is worse for customers of Oceanic and Ecobanks since the acquisition by the later. At the weekend, most branches of the banks were shut to customers making withdrawals and in some branches, not opened at all. The challenge is caused by the need to integrate and merge two different databases into one. IT experts believe it is a daunting task considering th...

Dissatisfaction, that is the word that describes how ordinary Nigerians feel about this present administration. Not only is the administration under-delivering on nearly all facets, it is unable to do anything by itself except make the proclamation: “I want to reassure all Nigerians.” Those assurances are now taken for a pinch of dust. Nigerians were dissatisfied when the administration led by His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan through his media aide Dr. Reuben Abati announced a new committee to reconcile and rectify subsidy payments to importers, a role Nigerians believe the government can accomplish without a committee. They got even more dissatisfied when news broke out that Ice Energy Limited had one Aig-Imoukhuede as a director and coincidentally the chairman of the new committee. Ice Energy was fingered by the Farouk Lawan ad-hoc committee for receiving subsidy payments and not having any verified PMS delivered. Dissatisfaction no longer captures or truly portrays th...

The final whistle had sounded, Spain had humiliated Italy at the final of the European Championship. It was an emphatic victory that led many to compare Spain’s national team La Furja Roja to Brazil’s Selecao of the late sixties and early seventies. Such was the convincing manner of the victory that the comparison was necessary. This piece is however not a review of that final where yours truly with a deep understanding of the Calcio (Italian football) had been disappointed. This piece is about the lessons learnt from that competition and the expectation that football administrators, coaches and indeed fans are learning that football is beyond its present standard in Nigeria, a realisation that should call for thinking and action. Administration has been one of our failures as a football country but then, that will be talk for another day. Where this piece will dwell on is the manager and his players. Nigeria’s national teams for the past ten years have struggled to make sign...

The newest currency folks. I hope you do not put in your caps.

The President Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has constituted a committee to review and reconcile subsidy payments. The subsidy regime under the watch of the present administration has been one of the most controversial issues that has affected Nigerians. The appropriated sum for subsidy stood at N245billion for year 2011, somehow, the figure managed to scale the fence and settled at N2.6trillion. With the government insisting on the need to withdraw subsidy following the unsustainable pattern of paying more than the budgeted sums in the name of subsidy, Nigerians began protesting the move not because they were in support of paying sums higher than budgeted but because the burden of paying more for fuel in a depressing economy like Nigeria was too cumbersome. Rather than empathise with hapless Nigerians, the regime chose otherwise. Farouk Lawan’s ad hoc committee revealed among other things that the subsidy regime was fraught with sleaze and intent by the government to mislead the popu...