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In place of awe at the spectacular sight of the rice pyramids stacked in the FCT in preparation for the president to officially unveil them on Tuesday, Nigerians have mostly expressed cynicism. Something about those thousands of bags of rice piled in the open feels both unrealistic and out of touch with reality. First, almost […]
Continue ReadingWe always knew the day would come when former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, would declare his interest in running for president. In a country where politics is about seizing power, his presidential ambition has been especially obsessive. After leaving government in 2007, he has been calculatedly amassing the resources that will land him in […]
Continue ReadingIn probably one of the amusing developments of the season, the police service system in Ghana warned religious leaders against issuing prophecies of doom during the crossover service night. Anyone who transgresses risks five years of imprisonment, they stated. According to the police, those prophets whose spiritual antennae never picks up any other future probabilities […]
Continue ReadingLast week Thursday in Lagos, former Chairman of All Progressives Congress, Chief Bisi Akande, publicly presented his autobiography, My Participations. Excerpts of the book have circulated in the media, and aspects of Akande’s recollections severely contested. While the criticisms have been interesting, this column is unconcerned about the book’s contents. Nigerian politicians’ books tend to be […]
Continue ReadingIn the past week, many Nigerians have been outraged by the death of 12-year-old Sylvester Oromoni, a JSS2 student at Dowen College, apparently an upscale school in Lekki, Lagos. The circumstances of his unfortunate death are unravelling, but from what has been published in the public domain so far, his demise might be connected to […]
Continue ReadingWhat I find highly frustrating in discussions of certain killings in Nigeria is the assumption that the deaths were about “money rituals.” In instances of violent murders where the motive remains unclear, people allege ritual killings. The tendency to immediately conclude that certain instances of homicides are ritual killing could, unfortunately, be providing an alibi […]
Continue ReadingMore than a year after the #EndSARS protest culminated in the infamous Black Tuesday, a Lagos panel of inquiry has officially confirmed what we knew all along. On Monday, the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses and Other Matters (Lagos #EndSARS Panel) reported that what took place at the Lekki tollgate […]
Continue ReadingWhether or not in agreement with the contents of Prof. Farooq Kperogi’s recent article on how Christians in Yorubaland routinely discriminate against their Muslim counterparts, the debate has been, at least, useful. I have always thought that the way Yoruba religious culture is typically framed in almost utopic terms is problematic. Rather than present it […]
Continue ReadingThe Monday collapse of the 21-storey building under construction on Gerard Road, Ikoyi, Lagos State is one too many. With an undetermined number of people still trapped under the rubble, so much is unknown yet. In the coming weeks, some of the truth of the official negligence that led to such a gigantic structure becoming […]
Continue ReadingMonths after the Nigerian digital currency, the eNaira, was announced, they still have not told us what exactly it can achieve that is not already possible. From everything they have said so far, eNaira seems like a duplication of existing efforts in the electronic banking sector. After an initial false start and several technological hitches, […]
Continue ReadingThe most significant defence former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, put up on why his name featured on the Pandora Papers —another round of private financial dealings expose that confirms how the rich and powerful people worldwide take care of themselves— is that the transitional process that brought him to office was a hurried one. […]
Continue ReadingBefore the mania of “rotational presidency” or “power shift” or similar platitudes seizes the air as a prelude to the 2023 elections, let us refute the myth of something called a “northern” or “southern” president in Nigeria. The term is a misnomer, a parody of ownership of power in the country’s rigidly hierarchical political structure. […]
Continue ReadingThe United Bank for Africa recently “named and shamed” three forex defaulters by publishing their names on the bank’s website. The first two people on the list were said to have cancelled their trips but failed to return the Personal Travel Allowance availed them by the bank despite repeated correspondences by the bank agents. The […]
Continue ReadingThe press conference where the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele, castigated abokifx.com was painfully pathetic. For a banker and economist, he was long on allegations and emotionalism and short on actual substance. Even though he stated that the information he had were “preliminary findings,” it was still woefully inchoate. Nothing he alleged translated into a […]
Continue ReadingThe Twitter ban in Nigeria by the Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) regime has stretched for more than 100 days, and the issue still comes up mostly as a matter of economic loss. When we focus on how much money Nigeria has lost due to the ban, we risk overlooking the crucial aspect of the […]
Continue ReadingBarring last-minute considerations, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), will arrive Owerri, the Imo State capital, today. If the officials of the Indigenous People of Biafra have their way with the sit-at-home order they asked the state residents to observe, it is possible that Buhari’s motorcade will drive through mostly emptied streets. Also, the […]
Continue ReadingLast Thursday, the Department of State Services issued a press statement to deny they dispersed doctors attending a recruitment for Nigerian doctors intending to migrate to Saudi Arabia. The denial was typical of the inelegant press releases the DSS churns out -a rambling word salad, full of feigned indignation, and signifying the characteristic ruse of […]
Continue ReadingOn 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 ReadingUntil Tuesday, there were two media-muzzling bills before the National Assembly: one is the Act to amend the Nigerian Press Council Act 1992, and the other is the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission Amendment Bill. Properly speaking, both should have been aptly re-labelled “Decree 4.” Sponsored by one Olusegun Odebunmi representing Surulere/Ogoluwa Federal Constituency of Oyo State, […]
Continue ReadingIn May, Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, was asked to clarify the statement he made nine years ago about the Fulani and their propensity to carry out maniacal violence against others. Rather than show that he had reflected on his injudicious remark and was ready to disclaim it, he doubled down. According to him, “The […]
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