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I have written on this subject before now: the politics and drama of OPL 245 involving ENI, Royal Dutch Shell, Malabu Oil and Gas and the manner in which President Goodluck Jonathan’s officials were dragged into the matter, particularly Emeritus Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke. The big issue is that there were […]
Continue ReadingIt is most unfortunate that the proposed appointment of new judges for Nigeria’s Court of Appeal has been controversial since the announcement of a shortlist in December 2020. The President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem has now found herself in an uncomfortable situation where she has to defend the integrity of her […]
Continue ReadingThe biggest piece of happy-ending news in Nigeria in the month of February 2021 is the endorsement of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the next Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) by the United States. The South Korean candidate for the position, Yoo Myung-hee whose candidacy had enjoyed the backing of the United States […]
Continue ReadingOn Sunday, February 14, the Nigerian Presidency in a statement signed by spokesman Garba Shehu reportedly affirmed that President Muhammadu Buhari is determined to ensure the protection of all religious and ethnic groups in the country, whether majority or minority, “in line with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria […]
Continue ReadingThe rancor that occurred, Saturday, February 6, at the sitting of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry investigating the shootings and alleged killings at the Lekki Toll gate in Lagos in October 2020, in addition to reported cases of police brutality is most unfortunate and disturbing. It will be recalled that the clampdown on […]
Continue ReadingMany Nigerians were understandably shocked, surprised, if not alarmed last week, when they suddenly heard the news that the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari had finally decided to relieve the service chiefs appointed in 2015 of their appointments. The popular response was couched in such phrases as “oh… at last… finally”, “better late than never” […]
Continue ReadingIn the past week, in the South Western part of Nigeria, we have been treated to stories of conflicts in Ondo and Oyo States between herdsmen, identified as Fulani, and the Yoruba owners of indigenous communities. In Ondo State, the issue at stake is the conversion of the state’s forest reserves into a criminal space […]
Continue ReadingOn November 2, 2016, a week before the US Presidential elections of Nov. 8, 2016, Wole Soyinka, Africa’s first Nobel Laureate in Literature told a group of students at Oxford University’s Eretgun House that if Donald Trump was elected President of the United States, he would leave the United States and cut his green card […]
Continue ReadingNigerians are playing with COVID-19, and in so doing, they are playing with fire and death. Why are we so blest and yet so suicidal? When the index case of the virus was announced on February 27, 2020, and the government proceeded to adopt lockdown measures at both national and sub-national levels, the people were […]
Continue ReadingMy favourite end-of-the-year quote, which I have shared with many others, is the following passage from Chapter 3 of the inimitable Chinua Achebe’s Things Falls Apart, a novel of monumental, evergreen relevance, translated into over 50 languages, a product of pure genius, a milestone in world literature. Achebe wrote: “…The year that Okonkwo took eight […]
Continue Reading“What is going on?” “Where?” “Where else? Nigeria of course.” “What has happened again?” “What has not happened? The other week, we were all lamenting that 43 farmers were slaughtered in Zabarmari, in Borno State, and now the whole world is being told that hundreds of school boys have been kidnapped from their school – […]
Continue ReadingOn Saturday, November 28, about 43 farmers who had gone to their farms during the current harvest season were attacked by Boko Haram terrorists. They were tied up; their hands behind their backs, one after the other their throats were slit. The United Nations puts the number of casualties at 110, not 43. Amnesty International […]
Continue Reading“My brother, how you dey?” “What can we do?” “E ku recession” “Excuse me?” “I said er ku recession…” “Are you Yoruba people alright at all? You people always make a joke out of everything. Does recession look like a joke to you? Second recession in the last five years, the worst in Nigerian history […]
Continue ReadingIf there is anything that the COVID-19 pandemic has proven beyond doubt, it is how humanity depends on science for its survival. Every confounding development that has been thrown up by nature or biology since the days of the pre-historic man has been resolved, and humanity has advanced on the back of scientific discoveries, from […]
Continue ReadingThe most exhilarating part of the US Presidential election 2020 is the fact that President Trump lost the election. It is what many observers thought would happen. They prayed for it. They wished it. In the end, that is what happened on Saturday, November 7, 2020. The major news networks called the election and announced […]
Continue ReadingThe #EndSARS protests which lasted for about two weeks until the crisis in Lagos on October 20, 2020, now known as the Black Tuesday in Nigeria’s contemporary history, may have abated, with the disappearance from Nigerian streets of the horde of protesters, looters, hijackers, and miscreants who together lent a new dimension to the protests. […]
Continue ReadingThings went out of hand very quickly with the emerging Nigerian “revolution” when on Tuesday, October 20, 2020, soldiers stormed the Lekki Toll Gate Plaza in Lagos, and started shooting. We were told they shot in the air. But the reports have been conflicting and troubling. The protesters insist that persons died, and that the […]
Continue ReadingTurning and turning in the widening gyre The Falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity Surely some […]
Continue ReadingThe increase in the pump price of fuel, in 2020, a fall-out of the deregulation of the down stream sector, did not compel the youths of Nigeria to troop out onto the streets. The additional hike in electricity tariffs was not enough to ignite their anger either. The government of the day explained to the […]
Continue ReadingOn Friday, October 2, the news channels were inundated with the Breaking News of US President Donald Trump and the First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump’s COVID-19 infection. Barely three days earlier the US President taking part in the first Presidential debate between him and the candidate of the Democratic Party, Joe Biden […]
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