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On Monday, security agents not only crippled the #RevolutionNow protests against government ineptitude by deploying all the armed forces to the venue, in Lagos, but also declared such repressive behaviour a “democratic victory”. The irony of that assertion hits one hard. No thanks to alternative facts such as this one, Nigeria these days sometimes feels […]
Continue ReadingYears ago, I read about a man who worked as a night soil man. When he found that his son was ashamed of his lowly occupation, he had to explain to the kid that there was dignity in labour. Besides, someone has to clean up after the city and its occupants. The fact that he […]
Continue ReadingOn Sunday in Abuja, I attended the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly church and ended up with some sensation. My quest was a purely academic one. I study Pentecostalism and Pentecostal culture, and I traverse different churches everywhere to see if the observations that I make about trends and practices are generalisable across the spectrum. So, […]
Continue ReadingA weekly columnist with Punch newspaper, Abimbola Adelakun, is allegedly being held at the Abuja branch of the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly, COZA. According to her friends, Abimbola Adelakun went to the church on Sunday morning to carry out further investigations on COZA’s senior pastor, Biodun Fatoyinbo who is currently enmeshed in an alleged rape […]
Continue ReadingOn Saturday, Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, spoke at the Northern Youth Summit organised to deliberate on developing northern Nigeria. He painted a picture of Nigeria’s defective growth and development. El-Rufai said two countries presently inhabit the womb of Nigeria and while northern Nigeria ranks the same as war-torn Afghanistan, southern Nigeria is “developing.” His […]
Continue ReadingAt a town hall meeting with Nigerians in New York on Sunday evening, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was asked about the security situation in Nigeria. He responded that although there were actual incidents, the stories of violence and insecurity have been wildly exaggerated. He blamed the social media for its propensity to galvanise e-troops who […]
Continue ReadingLast week Tuesday, the Federal Government’s Twitter handle shared photos of the new Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, kneeling to greet President Muhammadu Buhari during the visit of the recently elected leaders of the ninth National Assembly to Aso Rock. Given the spate of events that led to the emergence of the ninth Assembly, […]
Continue ReadingTwo days ago, the Ninth National Assembly elected its leadership. The elation of the crowd on television should have been tempered by the knowledge that a whopping N4.8bn will be expended on this newly inaugurated club of spendthrifts as “Welcome Package.” Despite these new National Assembly members hawking the usual platitudes about democracy, growth, and […]
Continue ReadingLast week, some 29 governors were inaugurated throughout Nigeria. As expected, most made policy announcements that I believe foretell the direction their governments will take. From the populist to the controversial, one could tell from those decisions which of the governors has the right grasp on issues and which one is still fiddling with the […]
Continue ReadingSome 48 hours to his second term inauguration, the Nigerian Television Authority aired an interview with President Muhammadu Buhari. After almost serving out an entire term ignoring the local media, the President finally granted a token interview where they not only set him up in a congenial atmosphere with the state-run media, the interviewer too, […]
Continue ReadingLast week, at a private event in Lagos, the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, ruffled elitist feathers when he laid out the blueprint for the possible defeat of Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s political hegemony over Lagos State. The response might seem unrehearsed but knowing politicians and the extent to which they overreach when they play […]
Continue ReadingOne of the cheering news that came from the Nigeria Police Force last week was the redeployment of its head of the Complaint Response Unit, Assistant Commissioner of Police Abayomi Shogunle, to a rural region of the country. With any luck, Shogunle finding himself without a Twitter soapbox will restrain him from doing further harm […]
Continue ReadingSince he became the Chief of Army Staff, a pattern of narcissism has followed the pronouncements and actions of Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai. Even the military under him comes up with funny ideas such as setting up zoos and parks in barracks, establishing cattle ranches, and producing military vehicles. Buratai’s latest offering is the […]
Continue ReadingThe Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Prof. Idowu Olayinka, responded to the issue of the suspension of student union activities in the institution and his article turned out to be more revealing of him and his style of administration than he probably intended. The piece was supposed to be his side of the story, […]
Continue ReadingThere is a growing category of Nigerian writing that is quite illuminating of contemporary ethical character. The writings are largely the works of elite Nigerians who ventured into the political terrain, got burned by the unpleasant realities of Nigerian electoral processes and returned to share their experiences. These writers are relatively new entrants into the […]
Continue ReadingOn Friday, the Christian Association of Nigeria visited President Muhammadu Buhari to congratulate him on his re-election. During their visit, they urged the President to observe religious balance in the composition of his cabinet in his second term. They also requested that, for the 9th National Assembly, either the Senate President or Speaker of the […]
Continue ReadingSuccess Adegor is the latest face of Nigeria’s poverty-porn, a tale that excites as much as it outrages. Success became a sensation, the Nigerian Malala Yousafzai who wanted to risk flogging so that she does not miss a Mathematics examination. Her story – and that of other viral Nigerians – is relevant for evaluating the […]
Continue ReadingIn recent political commentaries, there is a tendency to dismiss the need for integrity from our leaders. Now and then, someone analyses the Nigerian social situation and concludes that what we need is not a leader with integrity, but competence, as if the two are mutually exclusive. I can sympathise if Nigerians are already cynical […]
Continue ReadingShortly after President Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in in 2015, I visited an elderly man, and we got talking about the country. Readers will recall that the first three months after Buhari became President, there was such stable power supply in many parts of Nigeria that it spawned the myth that it was indeed the […]
Continue ReadingShortly after the first set of results in the presidential election emerged and it turned out that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had received a shellacking at his polling unit at the Victoria Garden City, a prime neigbourhood in Lagos, I saw a rash of messages circulated on social media that quickly attributed his loss to […]
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