Violence and the ’emilokan’ presidency, By Obi Nwakanma

It is no longer news that the current APC administration – the ‘Emilokan’ presidency of Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu – has no answers to the problems facing Nigeria. Bola Tinubu is in fact, out of his depths. He has not the actual training, the intellectual capacity, the visionary or rhetorical ability to move Nigeria forward. […]

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Ambassador list: Who is the new INEC chair working for?, By Abimbola Adelakun

Now that the names of ambassadorial appointment nominees include the immediate past Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, it has become pertinent to ask the newly appointed successor, Prof. Joash Amupitan, where his loyalties lie. Does he take his appointment as an opportunity to entrench Nigeria’s democracy, or is he working […]

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The Danger of ‘Ceremonial’ Coups, By Olusegun Adeniyi

It is becoming increasingly clear that what unfolded in Guinea-Bissau last week Wednesday was a brazen drama staged by a desperate presidential incumbent who could read the writing on the wall but was not ready for the people’s verdict. With the election concluded three days earlier and the result being awaited, President Umaro Sissoco Embalo […]

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Habits that disgrace us are not Trump-made, By Azu Ishiekwene

There’s no need to obsess over what US President Donald Trump said about Nigeria being disgraced or his threat to attack fast, viciously, and sweetly with blazing guns. He has perfected the art of blowing hot and cold, perhaps more hot than cold. Yet, his unstable nature is rarely foolish; he’s a controlled bully, driven […]

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Guns will not save Nigerians from bandits and terrorists, By Abimbola Adelakun

Whether Nigerians should be given the right to bear firearms or not is an argument that recurs each time there is an uptick in security issues. It is a solution that has been proffered by ex-Generals like Theophilus Danjuma; politicians such as former House of Representatives majority leader Alhassan Ado-Doguwa and Senator Kabir Marafa, during […]

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Idiocracy, senators and children of food, By Lasisi Olagunju

For ten clean years (November 2015 to 7 October, 2025), Mahmood Yakubu was the chairman of Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). On 29 November, 2025, fifty-three days after he left that impartial office, he became a beneficiary of the election he refereed; he was made an ambassador by the president. Yakubu is not a […]

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Can democratic socialism work in a country like Nigeria?, By Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu

Recently, the American political landscape shifted when Zohran Mamdani, the outspoken democratic socialist representing Queens, New York, secured a high-profile victory. His win sparked conversations nationwide about the growing influence of people-centered, justice-driven politics in the United States. Then, the political ground shook again, this time on the West Coast, as Katie Wilson in Seattle, […]

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Mr President, Police May Not Obey You!, By Olusegun Adeniyi

Maintaining public order and safety, detecting and preventing criminal activities and enforcing the law are among the primary responsibilities of the Police. But, as I have consistently argued, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) cannot effectively carry out these duties if most of their personnel are running errands, including for people without any visible means of livelihood. It therefore came […]

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Is Former INEC Chair Yakubu Now an Ambassador?, By Farooq A. Kperogi

Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga said in his press statement today that former INEC chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has been appointed an ambassador by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. But the list of newly appointed ambassadors circulating on social media names a “Mahmud Yakubu” from Ekiti State. If that list is accurate, two issues stand out. First, […]

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Nigeria’s Return To The 2014 Nightmare, By Farooq A. Kperogi

The events and atmospherics of the past few days in Nigeria feel eerily and frighteningly familiar. They are redolent of the disabling instability and helplessness (and more) of 2014 and 2015 when Goodluck Jonathan was president. Three crises are unfolding in near synchrony. One, there’s a resurgence of Boko Haram activities. Two, there’s an alarming […]

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On whose mandate do judges stand?, By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

Atanda Fatayi Williams, the fourth Chief Justice of post-colonial Nigeria (CJN), has not always received the kind of credit that he probably should for a judicial career of impact. Few judicial careers in Nigerian history can compete with that of this grand-son of an Ijebu merchant in terms of both legacy and luminosity. Sworn in […]

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The terrorists are winning, By Lasisi Olagunju

“There were many famous warriors in the village during the pillaging by the Fulani and yet the village was swept off almost completely by the invading warriors. This was not because they (the enemies) were stronger but due to their trickery, the people of Eruku became susceptible (vulnerable). When the invaders came, they would besiege […]

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Insecurity and the Cost of Politics, By Simon Kolawole

In the words of an anonymous author, “I love politics. It’s politicians I can’t stand.” Alas, there can’t be politics without politicians. I have watched, in horror, the conduct of Nigerian politicians in the last 26 years and I have been thoroughly appalled at the way they play dirty politics with everything under the sun. […]

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Wike’s Weak, Wild, Wicked Week, By Farooq A. Kperogi

In Nigeria, elite oppression and callousness are often mostly abstract. Most people at the lower end of the social scale think and feel that many people in positions of power, comfortably ensconced in their sinecures, are haughty, self-impressed, and possessed of ice-cold disdain for them. But it is FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, more than anyone […]

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45 Days that Changed Elections in Africa?, By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

An unlikely coincidence of elections in over a period of 45 days period from the middle of September to the end of October 2025 has cast a new light on the state of democratic governance in Africa and now threatens to unscramble the ritual hollowness that has become the fate of elections on the continent […]

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Between Badenoch, Trump and Buhari, By Akin Osuntokun

Unlike Professor Wole Soyinka’s Idi Amin caricature, my image of President Donald Trump is very much like Robert Holt’s portrayal of Henry V111, “who started with everything and squandered it all, who had the physical and mental fortitude to endure a lifetime of gratified greed. We recognise in him an archetype, one of the champions […]

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How They Buy the Judges — And Break the Country, By Babafemi Ojudu

A lot happens in Nigeria that, if you did not witness it yourself, you would swear it was impossible. Some events are so bizarre, so grotesque in their violation of common sense and morality, that even D.O. Fágúnwà’s magical adventures in Ìrìnkèrindò Nínú Igbo Elegbeje pale beside them. Yet these are not tales from another […]

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