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Celebration of the Jubilee year of political independence is in the air for many African countries. Benin has celebrated hers and Nigeria’s is in the horizon as it celebrates her independence from Britain this October. Let us remind ourselves that these countries were created by the colonial powers without due consideration of the implications of the demarcation exercise. In the case of Benin and Nigeria, as in many others too, culturally related people were separated by artificial boundaries. The motives behind the Balkanization was captured in R. Muir’s publication on Political Geography, 1983, that ‘in establishing political territories, each colonial power attempted to maximize its sphere of control that would serve as barriers to the continuous expansion of rival colonial territories and secondly, to control river basins which provided highways for trade, to established coastal footholds and for further inland penetration…’ The Jubilee Year of political independence provides a bas...

One of the issues I think that keep awake all night the leadership of the Federal Government of Nigeria and those looking to replace it is that of improving the lots of Nigerians. Theoretically Yes! It is only five years to 2015, the much talked about year in which Nigeria, as many other countries in the world are expected to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals. Also, the home grown Vision 2020 whereby Nigeria hopes to join the community of the twenty biggest economies in the world is just ten years away. The governments at all levels should be unsettling! According to the Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan while inaugurating the state steering committee on Vision 2020, he said inter-alia ‘in a fast-paced, globalised, post-industrial world, the challenge to catch-up is very daunting. We are confronted by gigantic undertaking of how to surmount our basic infrastructure gap, of poverty crisis, the human capital deficit and value reorientation. But the job must be done. F...

The shouting headline in many world news media including Nigeria's 234next, August 17, 2010 is this: China has reached another landmark by edging ahead of Japan as the world's second-biggest economy after overtaking Germany as the largest exporter. The change came in the second quarter with the Japanese Cabinet Office conceding China's economy is now bigger, with gross domestic product in the period of $1.337 trillion (£851bn) compared with Japan's $1.288 trillion. Many people saw this coming. As a matter of fact, Economists agree China will become the world's biggest economy, the only difference is over timing. PricewaterhouseCoopers expects it to take the top spot from the US in 2020, while Jim O'Neill, Goldman Sachs chief economist, has plumped for 2027 quoted the British Newspapers, The Telegraph. We have noted and reported in this blog on the bullish attitude of the Chinese in taking new business territories (and protecting it). Despite criticisms of Chines...

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We wish to congratulate the government and people of Benin Republic as they mark their 50th independence anniversary. To give the citizens reasons to celebrate, the government has to do more of the following: a. create an improved enabling environment to attract more foreign investment, b. place more emphasis on tourism, c. quickly facilitate the development of new food processing systems and agricultural products, d. rapidly encourage new information and communication technology, and e. deepen regional trade and cooperation. Congratulations! You have our support. Ndudi Osakwe Infoplus/IBG Nigeria