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On Tuesday, the foremost military school, the Nigerian Defence Academy in Kaduna, was attacked by supposed bandits. The media reported that those attackers killed two officers, abducted one, demanded a ransom of N200m for his release. Officially, he is still considered missing. Other details are still sketchy for now, but it seems that the attack […]
Continue ReadingDespite the five-hour time difference between Boston and Warri, I followed last Saturday’s coronation of Ogiame Atuwatse III, the 21st Olu of Warri. That a blindfolded monarch picked that title (from the 20 ceremonial swords bearing the names of his predecessors) could not have been a coincidence. It is a testament to the courage of […]
Continue ReadingThe new breed of femme fatales is young, pretty – and they can kill you! The on-going case of Chidinma Ojukwu has gripped – and shocked – the nation and the one question everybody is asking is why did a young lady like her kill a grown man. The answer is simply – Money! If […]
Continue ReadingThe following is the first chapter of my new book, True Christianity, scheduled for release in January 2022. Just as you have organised crime, you also have organised religion. And both of them are cartels that promote an agenda that only those at the very top of their pyramid are fully aware of, while those […]
Continue ReadingSome years ago, an editor-friend told me that he was slapped from behind by someone during his first pilgrimage to Mecca. His offence was that he pointed at ‘something’ with his shoes in his hands. The person who slapped him was not an Arab. The man who slapped him was a Nigerian pilgrim from our […]
Continue ReadingGreetings from Port Harcourt Greetings from the metropolitan garden city of Port Harcourt – well at the time of writing this piece anyway. I came to attend the 4th Memorial Emmanuel Chinwenwo Aguma, SAN, KSC Lecture/Public Discussion (he is the immediate past Attorney-General of Rivers State, who joined the saints triumphant on August 10, 2018 […]
Continue ReadingFrom what we have seen and heard so far, it seems most likely that the race for the 2023 Presidential position would end up as the fiercest, most contested, and perhaps the most controversial since Nigeria’s return to civilian rule in 1999. We all must keep an eye on 2023. In 1999, President Olusegun Obasanjo […]
Continue ReadingBefore dealing with the substance of our discussion today, a useful preliminary would be to explicate the meanings of ‘hypocrisy’ and ‘hypocrite.’ According to Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary, hypocrisy is the act of “feigning to be better than one is, or to be what one is not: concealment of real character or belief (not necessarily conscious): an […]
Continue ReadingHave you heard the news? The Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) signed by President Muhammadu Buhari is the most anti-Niger Delta legislation in history, conceived and designed to further exploit the oil-producing region in favour of the north. How can PIA allocate a mere 3% to host communities while giving a whopping 30% of the profit […]
Continue ReadingFrom Europe to Asia and the Middle East, the international news networks have painted torrid scenes for days, about the aftermath of the withdrawal of United States troops from Afghanistan. The issue for Nigeria is how to interpret what has happened, in view of our local war on terrorism, banditry and the herdsmen menace. The insurgents […]
Continue ReadingSomething happened in Nigeria in 1999 that, perhaps, not many people would remember. In October of that year, the then Governor of Zamfara, Alhaji Ahmed Sani announced the adoption of Shari’a, the Muslim penal system, in his State, with effect from January 2000. Soon after, eleven other States in northern Nigeria followed suit. However, an […]
Continue Reading“He came and he said, ‘I just annulled June 12.’ We both looked at each other and we looked at him, and said: why would you do that? And he said ‘you are too young to understand the intrigues of governance.’ And we said, but it is about you and your administration. And he said, […]
Continue ReadingThere are different accounts of how ‘Afghanistanism’ became an English word. But the most popular is the one that traces its origin to the 1947 American Society of Newspaper Editors Convention in Washington DC. In their column, ‘Behind the Front Page’, Robert H. Stopher and James Jackson wrote that it was coined by Jenkin Lloyd […]
Continue ReadingNot quite long ago, Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, quietly withdrew his son, Abubakar Al-Siddique, from Capital School, Malali. This was after scoring a cheap political point by enrolling him in a public school in 2019. Al-Siddique’s enrolment was characterised by both political and media stunts, with photo ops of him and his father dominating the […]
Continue ReadingThere was this conversation between President Muhammadu Buhari and Al Jazeera television held in Quatar in March, 2016. That interview explains the imperialness, the Kabiyesi-ness in Buhari and his feudal reasoning which often clashes with the constitutional requirements of his office as president of Nigeria. It also rubbishes Nigerians’ hoopla against the president’s oft recourse to medical exile in […]
Continue ReadingIntroduction Broadly defined, Nigeria’s civil society landscape is one of the most expansive in the world, encompassing religious bodies, ethnic and subethnic associations, village cooperatives, occupation-based groups, student and alumni entities, charities and foundations, as well as a broad range of advocacy and development-focused NGOs, both international and domestic.1 Even during long periods of military rule, […]
Continue ReadingOne of the first things I picked up very early in this business of public affairs analysis is something senior colleagues referred to as Afghanistanism. If you were told a column, story or essay, you had submitted for publication reeked of Afghanistanism, it was clearly a subtle kind of condemnation. It meant dabbling into a […]
Continue ReadingPresident Muhammadu Buhari signed the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) into law. In the bill which is now a law, Niger Delta communities producing the oil and suffering the attendant environmental degradation will get a partly 3 percent of oil money while a whopping 30 percent will go to the Frontiers Basins (areas where they are […]
Continue ReadingBoth time and moments are separate but distinct realities. They are both real but, at a point, one ceases from the realm of conscious reality. Whereas time is a reoccurring phenomenon, moments are recorded in time. Still, it lives on in the inner recesses of our minds. The important thing to note here is that […]
Continue ReadingIbrahim Badamosi Babangida, retired general and former military Head of State will turn 80 tomorrow, Tuesday, August 17. I congratulate him primarily because I also pray to grow old. But I do not pray that in my old age my children will organise gatherings where people will try to whitewash my deeds. One of such […]
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