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Whether we like it or not, the issue of electricity tariff is a touchy one. In the power sector reform, we are always talking about power generation, transmission and distribution. We are always talking about how many megawatts we are producing or want to produce. We have also regularly discussed the cost of gas and […]
Continue ReadingIn 2006, President Olusegun Obasanjo came up with Vision 20:2020 — an audacious dream to make Nigeria one of the 20 biggest economies in the world by 2020. There were plenty projections that were supposed to combine to make Nigeria attain the goal, but the one that always catches my fancy was that we would […]
Continue ReadingThe National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), the federal agency that regulates — and strangulates — the broadcast industry in Nigeria, always gets away with murder. If you ask me its major contribution to the development of broadcasting in the 21 years of our democracy, I can only remember the frequent imposition of sanctions on broadcast stations […]
Continue ReadingOur paths crossed in 2014. I was about to set up TheCable online newspaper. The biggest challenge was getting a good editor to take charge. Having practised journalism for over two decades, I wanted to take the back seat and concentrate my energies on other businesses. But unable to get a suitable candidate, I began […]
Continue ReadingHow time flies. When Major Abubakar Umar was appointed military governor of Kaduna state by Gen Ibrahim Babangida in 1985, he was just approaching his 36th birthday. He was fresh-faced and handsome, with the trademark well-arranged moustache — the trend at the time. Beyond his looks, Umar came across as a progressive, one who cared […]
Continue ReadingThere are many things that make you sad, even angry, about Nigeria. Recently, the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) asked SMEs to pay N120,000 each for “compulsory fumigation” before they would be allowed to re-open after the COVID-19 lockdown. Look at it again: these businesses had not operated for months, had probably sacked thousands of […]
Continue ReadingIn the 1960s, when Professor Ibrahim Agboola Gambari was an A Level student at the King’s College, Lagos, the Yoruba students always had a good laugh anytime his surname was publicly announced. They could not figure out how anybody on earth could be named “Gambari”. In much of Yorubaland, “Gambari” is a pejorative name for […]
Continue ReadingYour Excellency, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, you would recall that when the coronavirus pandemic began to take its toll on the Nigerian economy, President Muhammadu Buhari set up the Economic Sustainability Committee (ESC) and made you the chairman. Your brief, according to media reports, is to help work out […]
Continue ReadingSometime in 2019, I got a text message from Mallam Abba Kyari, the late chief of staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, who was on a visit to the UK. It was very short: “Simon, I’ll be in London this afternoon. If you have the time, let’s catch up over coffee.” Why not? There were plenty […]
Continue ReadingPerhaps the biggest COVID-19 debate in Nigeria today is: should the lockdown be lifted? Residents of Lagos state and the federal capital territory (FCT) have been under a lockdown since March 30. The aim is to slow the spread of the virus by limiting public interactions. It was also to allow those who had contracted […]
Continue ReadingOn January 18, 2020, when I first read of the new coronavirus on the BBC website, my heart missed a beat because of what China means to the world. The headline was: “New virus in China ‘will have infected hundreds’.” And these were the opening paragraphs: “The number of people already infected by the mystery […]
Continue ReadingIn case you are just tuning in, let me keep you up to speed. They say fifth generation of wireless communication technology, known as 5G, was launched in China in November 2019 to weaken our immune system and infect us with the coronavirus. They say Bill Gates, the Antichrist, will then plant chips in our […]
Continue ReadingThis is one of the most profound statements about the human race you will ever come across: “We were all humans until race disconnected us, religion separated us, politics divided us and wealth classified us.” I don’t know the author (I’ve seen it attributed to Susan Boerner, the American artist) but I know one thing: […]
Continue ReadingThe dethronement of His Highness Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II as the emir of Kano did not catch some of us by surprise: it was long in the making. All you need to do is google his public statements in the last four years, either when he was commenting on President Muhammadu Buhari’s economic policies or […]
Continue ReadingWere you as disgusted as I was on Monday when the Cross River house of assembly voted against confirming Justice Akon Ikpeme as the substantive chief judge of the state for purely ethnic reasons? In the wisdom of the state lawmakers, Ikpeme had to be rejected because — and I am not joking! — she […]
Continue ReadingIn eight weeks — between January and February 2020, to be specific — a disease killed 118 Nigerians. According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), there were 2,633 “suspected” cases, 609 “confirmed” and nine “probable” during the period. The NCDC disclosed that as at February 23, the disease had spread to 27 of […]
Continue ReadingIs it a sign of the times that Nigerians have, generally, appeared not bothered any longer by certain anomalies in the polity, such as President Muhammadu Buhari’s failure to fill vacancies in several agencies? As I write this, many agencies have been in the hands of acting chief executive for years without any sign that […]
Continue ReadingThe Supreme Court has been adding a lot of spice to our politics in recent times, but I did not see the Bayelsa bombshell coming. Less than 24 hours to the swearing-in of APC’s David Lyon as the governor, the court nullified his election because of the credentials of Senator Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo, the deputy governor-elect. […]
Continue ReadingMajekodunmi Fasheke, the Nigerian reggae music legend and firebrand rasta who sang protest songs, spoke against police brutality, fought for the downtrodden, promoted ethnic and religious harmony, and brought down the rain, clocked 58 on February 7, 2020 far away from the public eye. He was recently treated at a London hospital for a life-threatening […]
Continue ReadingMr Festus Keyamo, minister of state for labour and employment, gave one of the most sensible responses to criticism by an official of the Muhammadu Buhari administration on Friday. Reacting to calls for the president to resign over growing insecurity in the country, Keyamo said: “The hullabaloo over the call by the opposition for the […]
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