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In my earlier years growing up in Nigeria, very many young people in my age category had many dreams. Some of the dreams were lofty; others were lousy. The lofty and lousy dreams were etched in the spine of youthful thinking and immature imaginations and mindsets. We dreamt about building wealth and making ostentatious marks […]
Continue ReadingThe Nigeria Broadcast Commission is currently tongue – tied over a letter written by the Sharia Board in Kano (Hisbah) to Cool FM Radio to stop using the term “Black Friday” in Kano stare. In the rest of Nigeria, only the NBC has the right to regulate the activities of broadcast organisations until the dual […]
Continue ReadingLast week Thursday, while at the fourth quarterly meeting of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council in Abuja, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, delivered a damning verdict on the abject state of insecurity plaguing northern Nigeria. According to media reports, the Sultan specifically stated that the northern region was the worst place to live in […]
Continue ReadingThere is no worse position for a leader than when ardent supporters and implacable opponents sing from the same hymn book. That precisely is where President Muhammadu Buhari is today. On Tuesday, the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) demanded the president’s resignation for his inability to tackle mounting security challenges in the country. “In civilized nations, […]
Continue Reading“I will lead a war against them (Nigeria) like Ojukwu. Am not joking, I know am on air, and I am warning them now. Any attempt to rob us the way they rob our brother (GEJ), the battle will start from Rivers State. We will remain opposition state like Lagos. In fact, we from the […]
Continue ReadingThe response to the last weekend bestial killing of dozens of rice farmers in Zabarmari should go beyond lamentation and making the usual calls on the President to wake up to his duty as the Commander-in-Chief. The government and the people alike should never mistake the clear message embodied in what happened in Jere Local […]
Continue ReadingThe Chinese say blessings rarely come in pairs; misfortunes never come singly. In one single day last week, a lot happened to our country: Nigeria was again named the third most terrorized country in the whole world; Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar said his north is the worst place to live in Nigeria; bandits left villages […]
Continue ReadingOn Saturday, November 28, about 43 farmers who had gone to their farms during the current harvest season were attacked by Boko Haram terrorists. They were tied up; their hands behind their backs, one after the other their throats were slit. The United Nations puts the number of casualties at 110, not 43. Amnesty International […]
Continue ReadingThe last few weeks have seen a curious resurgence of the preposterous conspiracy theory that Muhammadu Buhari has been dead and that it’s his body double that lives in Aso Rock. Readers of my column have invaded my email and social media inboxes with persistent requests for me to illuminate the ambiguities surrounding the existence—or […]
Continue ReadingI have an ancient method of measuring the mood and state of the nation. And it has always worked for me. It is a casual greeting in normal Nigerian street parlance. Simply put, it is just a simple greeting cast in the mould of a universal non- committal question: “How Country?” You throw it around […]
Continue ReadingWith the most recent tragic news of the slaughter of over 40 rice farmers by Boko Haram in Zabarmari, Jere local government of Borno State yesterday, virtually all Nigerians must have arrived at same juncture of opinion, something in the neighbourhood of what lawyers call unanimity of purpose, on how we horribly we fare at […]
Continue ReadingOn November 24, 2019, this column made a debut. How time flies! I want to seize this opportunity to say a big thank you to you, my wonderful and esteemed readers for your support. Thank you for trusting this English language graduate who has a passion for Botany with your medical questions too, even when […]
Continue ReadingIn my previous article, I tried to remind us of what we have always known and talked about: that oil boom flatters to deceive. The world is, meanwhile, desperately looking for alternatives to crude oil — with several advanced countries setting dates, starting from 2025, to phase out vehicles powered by fossil fuels such as […]
Continue ReadingIn 2003, I wrote an essay drawing lessons for Africa from the collapse of ethnic federalism in Yugoslavia and other parts of the former Soviet bloc. The main lesson was simple, Comrade Stalin had imposed a federal structure based on ethnic federalism, and in history such federations last only as long as the “strongest” ethnic […]
Continue ReadingI have known the minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, for a long time, I think. Before I got close, I was first drawn to him when he was chief of staff to former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, even though I had known him earlier at the Nigerian Airports Authority. But […]
Continue ReadingCaveat emptor: No arguments and positions canvassed hereunder should be construed as preference for any other option than the expeditious return to true federalism going forward “The proposition for an Igbo president is likely to be the most consequential subject in the 2023 election year. If it comes about, there will be consequences for Nigeria […]
Continue ReadingMay God bless the soul of the late sir Olaniwun Ajayi, a very deep and learned man. Hardly ever sat with him without something to take away. When he had just 48 hours more to live, he phoned he wanted to see me. I was in Ibadan that day and the urge was to look […]
Continue ReadingOn Monday, British lawmakers debated sanctioning Nigerian government officials involved in the attack on peaceful protesters at Lekki on October 20. The petition against the Nigerian government more than doubled the threshold of 100,000 signatures necessary for the lawmakers to attend to it, and they did speak to the issues. In their presentations, they explored […]
Continue ReadingIn the words of Justin Merkins, a world acclaimed management consultant, there are clear thinkers, muddled thinkers and people that fall in between. Clear thinkers are the ones that can cull everything down into the right points-are very hard to find. But if you get yourself a team of clear thinkers, the possibilities are endless. […]
Continue ReadingI do not know if the government of Muhammadu Buhari has noticed the crying question awaiting its attention: Who are Ogueri Ugochukwu Pascal and Olasehinde Micah? The government’s new Open Treasury Portal shows that late in 2019, it paid to the first man in 306 tranches, an astounding ₦1.6bn, and to the second in 34, ₦1.4bn. The payments are part […]
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