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Just slightly over a week ago, the political landscape in the United States went 180 degrees with the announcement by President Joe Biden that he was withdrawing from the presidential race. Before then, Biden had been recalcitrant that he would not withdraw from the race. He insisted that he was strong and healthy and was […]
Continue ReadingIn October 2019, I was in Prague, Czech Republic, at the invitation of ‘Forum 2000’ to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1989 ‘Velvet Revolution’ which brought to power then Czechoslovakia’s famous playwright and political dissident, the late Vaclav Havel. ‘Forum 2000’ was founded in 1996 by Havel (who died in December 2011), in collaboration […]
Continue ReadingFrom initially expressing unease about the protests billed to start today, the government changed its stance to advocating “peaceful protests.” It was a smart move. If they had refused people the chance to protest outrightly, they would have fuelled the rage driving them. By asking them to exercise their rights, albeit peacefully, they took the […]
Continue Reading“Ol’Boy.” “Bros. Bro-oo!” “How are you preparing for Thursday?” “What is happening on Thursday?” “What do you mean what is happening on Thursday? The #EndBad Governance protest” “I see. Me, I am not protesting oh. When I wake up on Thursday, if I see that some people are already on the streets, me I go […]
Continue ReadingNigeria is a drama, an entertainment. Listen to the ‘Wahala’ singer, Portable, as he wonders why anyone would want him to join this week’s proposed protests. Yes, he admits that he joined protests in the past. But he says that was when he was poor. “Now I am rich…You want a rich man to protest?” […]
Continue ReadingNigerians have been invited to troop to the streets in their millions from Thursday, August 1, to protest the harsh economic situation following the dramatic rise in the cost of living in the last one year. The protest is slated to last for two weeks. The demands are not very clear yet but the theme […]
Continue ReadingIn his acceptance speech in the early hours of Sunday, when he was declared as the President-elect of the over 200,000 (two hundred thousand) members of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mazi Afam Josiah Osigwe, struck the right cord. He called for “a moderated celebration” and urged his supporters to be “magnanimous in victory.” While appealing […]
Continue ReadingIn light of his planned astronomical hike in petrol prices euphemistically called “subsidy removal” in 2023, which his opponents also promised to implement and caused Nigerians embrace as inevitable and desirable, I foretold the imminent social convulsion that is gathering momentum across Nigeria now. “I can assure Tinubu that if petrol price hikes deepen people’s […]
Continue ReadingJust say it, even if to yourself alone. You want to be a super traffic-pulling blogger or writer. You want your posts and articles to go viral always. You want advertisers milling around you like bees swarming around a honeycomb. You long for the cheques. You love to be on every lip. You want to […]
Continue ReadingWe all know the pathetic profile of leadership in Nigeria. In his famous 1983 pamphlet, “The Trouble With Nigeria,” Chinua Achebe captured it like a camera: “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land […]
Continue ReadingGiven the constitutional history of Nigeria and appreciating that the 1999 constitution is essentially unitary, agitations for devolution of powers, from the national government to the subnational government or the constituent or federating units, will continue without break until devolution is achieved. What many may not appreciate is that there may not be restructuring to […]
Continue ReadingWhat a difference a debate can make! It just made a big difference in the United States in the lead up to that country’s November 5, 2024 general elections. For months, the White House fended off insinuations that President Biden at 81, had become too old for the job, and that the Democrats should look […]
Continue ReadingMy major advice to people in Nigeria right now is to find, nurture and cherish a support system. If your support system comes from family (parents, siblings or a handful of relations), you are most blessed but if not, life is also capable of giving us a family in strangers. Have people you can lean […]
Continue ReadingPeople should be grateful for the little things their friends and family abroad send to them. It is hard to send money to Nigeria from abroad because of the challenges most people face there. If they open up about their struggles, you might raise funds to help them. People often see abroad as a place […]
Continue ReadingAt the end of July 2017, the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) issued a joint report on the public experience of and response to bribery in Nigeria. Among its findings, the report ranked several institutions with reference to public perceptions or experience of demand for bribes from […]
Continue ReadingWhen information minister Mohammed Idris addressed the public on the Daily Trust’s recent controversial report, he took the worn path of adding moral panic to the existing one. Rather than address the matter at stake straightaway, he first went on self-justificatory explanations before whipping out the All Progressives Congress’s favourite allegations of ethnic bias and how everything […]
Continue ReadingGeorge Ogunde, the first child of the late theatre legend, playwright, theatre manager, and musician, Hubert Ogunde, has passed away. His sister, Dayo Ogunde, shared the sad news in a Facebook post on Thursday. Dayo Ogunde wrote: “It’s hard to say goodbye Brother mi, our first child in the Ogunde clan. But we take solace […]
Continue ReadingThe controversy began in April 2004 following the creation of 37 Local Government Areas (LGAs) by then Lagos State Governor, now President Bola Tinubu. Riled by what he considered to be an impudent act, then President Olusegun Obasanjo directed that funds for the LGAs in the state be withheld until Lagos reverted to the 20 […]
Continue Reading“The judiciary has immense power. In the nature of things, judges cannot be democratically accountable for their decisions. It therefore matters very much that their role should be regarded as legitimate by the public at large.” — Jonathan Sumption, Law in a Time of Crisis, 121 (2021) FOR a cumulative period of 17 years between […]
Continue ReadingJustice Ibrahim Kolapo Gambari, JCA became the Emir of Ilorin in August 1995 and decreed the ‘Kolapo’ in his name abolished. He said he should thenceforth be known and called Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari; all former documents remain valid. He gave no reason for his decision but not a few of us thought it was his […]
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