By Lanre Olagunju There is something curious about the Nigerian relationship with the police. We complain about them. We criticise them. We film them. We sometimes mock them. But when the armed robbers arrive, we call the police. When kidnappers invade a community, we call the police. When violence breaks out at night, when a … [Read more…]
By Sebastine Okafor, Ph.D. A few days ago, various media platforms were filled with reports of the withdrawal of one of the gubernatorial aspirants of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Enugu State Chapter, Prof. Enenwannaji, following his alleged truce with one of his fellow aspirants, Sir Chinyeaka Oha. The Prof. is said to have emerged … [Read more…]
–By Abdul Mahmud There are countries that build monuments to their heroes because they understand something that Nigeria appears to have forgotten: a nation does not preserve its memory by allowing history to remain in books, archives and speeches alone, it gives memory a physical address, places the faces of its heroes in the public … [Read more…]
Under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), Nigerians have experienced an abhorrent failure of governance. Eight years of Muhammadu Buhari was a disaster. In its aftermath, and four years of President Tinubu’s presidency, nationalism, governance, unity, peace and security have foundered progressively. Patriotism is all but dead. APC’s leadership -in the three … [Read more…]
By Professor Ani Casimir, KC Osara in Kogi State, Nigeria, has turned into another Jerusalem and a history maker for the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, administration in the critical sub-energy sector. The Honourable Minister of Innovation, Science, and Technology is chalking up huge creditable records that are increasing his validity and positive visibility in … [Read more…]
By S.N.C Nwagu For years, Africa has fought terrorism with soldiers, budgets and foreign partnerships, and for years terrorism has survived them. Armies are deployed, emergency security budgets approved, foreign assistance received, counter-terrorism operations launched in succession. Yet from Nigeria’s northeast to the Sahel, from Somalia to parts of Central and East Africa, terrorist organisations … [Read more…]
By Festus Adedayo In 1969, legendary Yoruba Sakara music lord, Yusuff Olatunji, serenaded and celebrated the sterling qualities of the Seriki of Egbaland, Chief Abdul-Wahab Amódemájá. Amodemaja held an Egba high-ranking military-derived civil title. In his Volume 3 album entitled Amódemájá, using a twin engine of dense metaphor and vivid imagery, Olatunji advocated for the … [Read more…]
August has ended, but it has left behind the peculiar silence that follows the departure of people whose lives had become part of our own the landscape. It was, for me, an August of deaths, arriving not as a single calamity but as a succession of personal encounters with mortality, each death reopening the same … [Read more…]
Ejindu was a young man whose voice had not yet become strong enough to be heard during the meetings and conversations of elders. He had always disliked the behaviour of the King and others who were supposed to be the leaders of the community. And his closeness to his grandfather, Omee-Okachie, gave him deep insights … [Read more…]
By Sebastine Okafor, Ph.D. In the part 1 of this piece, I alluded to how I was able to extract the information of all that transpired as a well-trained columnist, investigative and interpretative journalist. I will proceed with detailing my findings in this part 2. Less than 24 hours after a meeting with the National … [Read more…]
In my earlier writeup, “The Fuel Subsidy Question,” I asked: “If Nigerians have sacrificed through the removal of petrol subsidy, where is the dividend of that sacrifice?” That question remains unanswered, and may not be satisfactorily answered. But there is a bigger question. How much should Nigerians pay for energy in a country blessed with … [Read more…]
Politics, as the saying goes, is often about timing. But in local government administration, timing alone is not enough. The quality of the man who takes over can determine whether the gains of one administration are consolidated or gradually eroded. That is why the coming transition in Nkanu East Local Government Area of Enugu State … [Read more…]