“Georgia On My Mind” ―Dazed Republican States Strive to Adopt Autocracy

ColumnsDon OkoloOpinion“Georgia On My Mind” ―Dazed Republican States Strive to Adopt Autocracy

PilotnewsApril 1, 2021

“…if you were lucky and you cast that vote they dreaded, and it turned out they hated the outcome, they would simply declare the republican loser, the victor.” ―Don Okolo In truth, if you were searching for America’s most evil City or State, you’d have three, maybe four southern States to run through the mill of ignominy, to see which one stands with her head held high…proud she had beaten out the other three. The...

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OPINION: Concern Grows About Jihadi Activity in Ivory Coast

National SecurityOpinionWest AfricaOPINION: Concern Grows About Jihadi Activity in Ivory Coast

PilotnewsApril 1, 2021

By John Campbell, Guest Columnist & Blogger _____ In the early hours of March 29, an estimated sixty gunmen attacked two small military installations in Kafolo and Kolobougou, both located in Ivory Coast on the border with Burkina Faso. The assailants killed at least three soldiers and wounded others. While no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, the media is speculating credibly that the perpetrators were jihadis based in nearby Burkina Faso, where Islamist groups have been...

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OPINION: Nigerian Lawmakers Consider a Petroleum Investment Bill

EconomyOil & GasOpinionOPINION: Nigerian Lawmakers Consider a Petroleum Investment Bill

PilotnewsMarch 24, 2021

By John Campbell Nigerian lawmakers are seeking passage of a Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) that would reorganize the oil industry. Since the establishment of civilian government in 1999 after a generation of military rule, repeated attempts at passing a PIB have been made. But the government, the political class, and the industry’s leaders (foreign and domestic) have never reached a consensus that would make the reordering possible of such a crucial industry. The technical issues are exceedingly complex. Uncertainty around...

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Nigerian Labour Organizations Must Grow Beyond Strike Actions

ColumnsNewsNigeriaOpinionNigerian Labour Organizations Must Grow Beyond Strike Actions

PilotnewsMarch 21, 2021

“Right now, the biggest question labour leaders should be asking is how they can maintain the relevance of their organization in the coming years,” ―Ebuka Onyekwelu Labour unions in Nigeria have attained a near-seamless integration with strike action, such that the only thing they are known for is industrial action. Aside from their frequent fights with the government over price regulation, salary increment, payments of benefits, as well as other demands for better working conditions,...

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OPINION: Niger’s Mahamadou Issoufou Awarded Mo Ibrahim Prize for Excellence in African Leadership

AfricaNational DevelopmentNewsOpinionOPINION: Niger’s Mahamadou Issoufou Awarded Mo Ibrahim Prize for Excellence in African Leadership

PilotnewsMarch 21, 2021

By John Campbell Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou, set to step down after two terms in office, was last week awarded the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership. The chair of the Mo Ibrahim Prize Committee, Festus Mogae, a former president of Botswana and himself a recipient of the prize, said that Issoufou had “led his people on a path of progress.” The committee noted that Issoufou had faced “severe political and economic issues.” Niger in the best of times...

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OPINION: The Nigerian Military’s Missing Link: A Joint Special Operations Command

Crime & SecurityNigeriaOpinionOPINION: The Nigerian Military’s Missing Link: A Joint Special Operations Command

PilotnewsMarch 18, 2021

By Fola Aina Nigeria’s northern regions continue to struggle with insecurity, claiming the lives of tens of thousands and displacing millions due to armed banditry and Boko Haram. Significant battlefield defeats led the military to resort to a strategy of establishing super camps to prevent terrorists and armed bandits from overrunning areas of relative peace. However, as that approach has largely failed, President Muhammadu Buhari decided to heed months of repeated calls for change among the military’s top brass when he appointed new service chiefs in late...

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OPINION: John Magufuli, Tanzania’s COVID-Denying President, Dies

AfricaOpinionPoliticsOPINION: John Magufuli, Tanzania’s COVID-Denying President, Dies

PilotnewsMarch 18, 2021

By Nolan Quinn ____ President John Magufuli’s death at sixty-one years of age followed a familiar pattern among Africa’s putative strongmen: denials that he was sick followed by secrecy as to the circumstances of his dying and where it happened. Magufuli, like other African heads of state, apparently sought treatment outside his own country, rumor had it either in Kenya or India—perhaps both. Vice President Samia Suluhu, announcing the president’s death yesterday, said the president died from a heart...

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OPINION: Nigeria Needs to Better Protect its Schoolchildren

ColumnsCrime & SecurityOpinionOPINION: Nigeria Needs to Better Protect its Schoolchildren

PilotnewsMarch 16, 2021

By Nkasi Wodu In early March, over three hundred schoolgirls abducted by armed groups from a secondary school in Zamfara State in northern Nigeria were released by their abductors. Unfortunately, the global outrage this incident stoked has not deterred the armed groups operating in the north. Just last week, another set of students was kidnapped from a college in Kaduna State—the third mass kidnapping of students in Nigeria in 2021. An ugly video released by the kidnappers in Kaduna showed the students being...

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Anambra State: Weighing Governor Obiano’s Seventh Year Stewardship by his Agenda

ColumnsNewsNigeriaOpinionAnambra State: Weighing Governor Obiano’s Seventh Year Stewardship by his Agenda

PilotnewsMarch 12, 2021

The administration is now seven years old and with only one year to go; it’s therefore, fair that the administration is evaluated on the basis of what it set out to do during the celebration of its one hundred days in office ―Ebuka Onyekwelu Nigerian governors, steeped in a culture of fanfare both for good or bad, for little or big accomplishment, has now established celebrating their one hundred days in office, as a mark...

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OPINION: Ransom Payment in the Gulf of Guinea

ColumnsCrime & SecurityOpinionOPINION: Ransom Payment in the Gulf of Guinea

PilotnewsMarch 9, 2021

According to the Nigerian army, a ransom of $300,000 was paid to pirates in the Gulf of Guinea to secure the release of the crew of a Chinese fishing boat. The party that paid the ransom is not reported. The most likely possibility is that it was the Chinese company that operated the fishing boat. The episode sheds some light of the murky operation of kidnapping and ransom payment in the Gulf of Guinea. The Chinese fishing boat...

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