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The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) General Manager for Strategic Communications, Ms. Onyi Sunday, insisted I speak at a capacity-building session for members of the media/PR team. So, I was at their headquarters in Abuja last Thursday where a few managers from other departments joined in. During the interactions that followed my presentation, […]
Continue ReadingThe National Security Strategy of the United States 2025, representing President Donald Trump’s view of the world and his administration’s foreign policy direction was released last week. Erik Solheim, a Norwegian diplomat who served as Minister for International Development and also Environment in his country as well as Under Secretary General of the United Nations and […]
Continue ReadingIt 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 […]
Continue ReadingOn 8th April 2012, Boko Haram suicide bombers drove explosive-laden vehicles into two popular churches in Kaduna, killing at least 38 people. They also left dozens of others injured in a terror attack that shook the nation. Exactly 18 days later, another suicide bomber drove into THISDAY premises in Abuja in a deadly attack that I was only lucky to […]
Continue ReadingI have been out of the country since last week Monday. And for the past ten days, almost every Nigerian I have encountered has sought my view about the alleged coup attempt that led to the arrest and detention of a number of military officers. Of course, we know that in recent days, President Donald […]
Continue ReadingFollowing the adoption of ‘a motion of urgent public importance’ moved by Hon Amobi Ogah, the House of Representatives resolved last week to investigate the ‘$460 million’ Chinese loan secured by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration to procure and install Closed-Circuit Televisions (ICCTV) cameras in strategic locations within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. This […]
Continue ReadingWhen in February 2013 the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced the registration of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the then Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur was rather dismissive of the opposition coalition. “If you go for a (football) contest, you have the striker – you know Lionel Messi? PDP is […]
Continue ReadingPresenting fake credentials to get elected for executive/legislative offices or secure appointments for which they are not qualified is not new in Nigeria. And the last 26 years of civil rule has only exacerbated it. Aided by the absence of a reliable database in a society where people make claims that are hardly checked, it has long been established that […]
Continue ReadingWhen Nigeria marked its 60th independence anniversary five years ago, I recalled how 1960 was deemed ‘The Year of Africa’. Because 16 of the 17 countries that gained independence that year were from the continent. I then x-rayed the state of those other 15 African countries that secured their independence same year with Nigeria: Niger […]
Continue ReadingI recount this story because of the impact it had on me and its significance to our society. Besides, it happened to be the only opportunity I ever had to engage veteran actor, Mr Olu Jacobs, whom I have always admired from a distance. In 2003, I had been invited by Cadbury Nigeria Plc to the ‘Bournvita Award for Teachers’ ceremony in Lagos to read […]
Continue ReadingThe past two weeks have been tough for me health wise, but I appreciate all those who have either called or sent messages. I also thank God for His mercies. I am getting better. I couldn’t write this column last week and I had neither the motivation nor the presence of mind to do so […]
Continue ReadingThe copyright to the above title belongs to Khaleed Yazeed, a young journalist. He has written several reports about the way bandit kingpins are being enabled with a policy of appeasement that has only escalated their violence on innocent people, especially in Zamfara and Katsina States. This is what provoked Yazeed’s latest headline: “The chairman of Safana […]
Continue ReadingMr. Peter Obi, former Anambra State Governor and LP (Labour Party) presidential candidate in the 2023 election, recently pledged he would serve only one term if elected president in 2027. Essentially to reassure political leaders from a section of the country of his commitment to the zoning arrangement. “Longevity in office is not a mark of success; rather, […]
Continue ReadingIn the age in which we live, parents are able to choose their child’s country of birth. Assuming they have the financial means to do so. In most cases, it could also be a path to the acquisition of citizenship of those countries. But no matter how rich parents are, the ancestry of these children […]
Continue ReadingA few days to the end of their administration in May 2007, then Lagos State Deputy Governor, Mr. Olufemi Pedro, resigned his appointment. But Governor Bola Tinubu refused to accept the letter. Tinubu’s goal was to ensure that the impeachment proceedings commenced against Pedro by the State House of Assembly ran its full course. Pedro’s […]
Continue ReadingRichard Lederer, an Octogenarian linguist dubbed as ‘the wizard of wisdom’, once wrote about how George Orwell (19th century English writer renowned for such novels as ‘Animal Farm’ and ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’) “warned us that dishonest language is a drug that can put conscience to sleep.” We see a lot of that today in Nigeria, especially within the […]
Continue ReadingAs we mark another ‘Democracy Day’, it is important for those in authority at all levels to address the existential challenges faced by most Nigerians, the clear and present dangers to the communal faith in our country and the security threats posed by sundry cartels of criminals. But on a day such as this, it is also important to […]
Continue ReadingOn 30th May 2018, then Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha added a new word to the vocabulary of politics in Nigeria. Explaining the nature of the democracy being practiced in our country on a Channels Television programme, Okorocha told his interviewer, Ladi Akeredolu-Ale, “If you come to my state and I have collected N500 billion, yet I […]
Continue ReadingIn a landmark judgement that could deal with those who lend themselves to electoral malpractices in Nigeria, the Court of Appeal in Calabar last week upheld the conviction of Peter Ogban. The professor of soil science at the University of Calabar was the returning officer in the 2019 Akwa Ibom North West senatorial election, which he attempted […]
Continue ReadingLong before the late Sergei Mavrodi arrived on the Nigerian financial scene in November 2015 with his MMM pyramid scheme, his reputation as an international fraudster preceded him. As far back as 2007, Mavrodi had been convicted in Russia for defrauding 10,000 investors. But somehow, he survived brushes with the law over sharp practices to go global with […]
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