By Christian ABURIME Anambra State Governor, Prof Chukwuma Charles Soludo has ordered the immediate shut down of the Onitsha Main Market for one week, following defiance of the market leadership to open, against government directive. Governor Soludo’s order for a one-week shutdown of the sprawling market is more than an administrative penalty. It is the … [Read more…]
When President Bola Tinubu announced the Democracy Day honours list in 2025, many Nigerians, myself included, assumed that evident omissions would be addressed in subsequent rounds of national recognition. That expectation now appears difficult to sustain. The recent conferment of the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) on a businessman whose career … [Read more…]
-By Abdul Mahmud Fresh political whispers drifting through news salons and media columns suggest that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is quietly weighing alternative running mates ahead of the 2027 presidential election. The names most frequently mentioned are not obscure. They are prominent northern Christian figures with national visibility and symbolic weight. Former Speaker of the … [Read more…]
By Benjamin Okorie Ajah, PhD My personal experiences, both within and outside the country, compel me to write this post. Before delving into the meat of my post, I would love to state that I have close and wonderful friends across different ethnic `groups in Nigeria, starting from the Yoruba to the Hausa, from … [Read more…]
-By Abdul Mahmud Dr. Bashir Kurfi, a former scholar in Public Administration at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and a man who refuses to bow to orthodoxy, recently observed that the southern elites should protest against the northern elites for bearing the cost of their irresponsibility. It is a bold assertion, persuasive precisely because it … [Read more…]
-By Abdul Mahmud We are here at last in the decisive year before the 2027 General election; and under a political sky shaped by cooptation, consolidation, realignment and fatigue. The governing order described in the first part of this essay has narrowed the arena of contest and redrawn the boundaries of participation. Power has been … [Read more…]
By Demola Olarewaju The prowess of Atiku Abubakar when it comes to party primaries was not built in a day and his recent successes at that level are built on a foundation of loss, defeat and tears. His entry into politics in 1991 was marked by a bitter gubernatorial ticket rivalry between him and Bala … [Read more…]
Political power is never given. Hardly is it ever offered on a platter. Acquiring political power is hard work, even in a populist contest. In a diverse, multi-religious and multi-ethnic democracy like ours; you earn power. You work for it. You negotiate it. In extreme dubious cases, some will grab, steal or rig themselves into … [Read more…]
-By Abdul Mahmud This new year scarcely requires a seer to reveal its gravity. It stands as a decisive threshold for both Nigeria’s political class and the country itself. As the final full year before the 2027 general election, it unfolds within an atmosphere markedly defined not by open contestation but by cooptation, not by … [Read more…]
By Dr. Samson Abanni The President’s recent directive to the National Assembly, urging the legislative machinery to begin crafting laws for the establishment of State Police, marks a Rubicon crossed. It is a sombre admission that the federal security apparatus—an edifice straining under its own weight—can no longer guarantee the safety of the interior. By … [Read more…]
By Oseloka H. Obaze Nigeria remains under the klieg lights. Regrettably, this is not for all-too-positive reasons. There is a clear correlation between her domestic policy and governance dissonance and her discernible loss of global leverage. Once considered Africa’s bellwether, Nigeria has since fallen on hard times. Relatedly, she has also lost the capacity to … [Read more…]
-By Abdul Mahmud The decision of the Adamawa State Governor, Rt. Hon Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri CON, to grant pardon to Sunday Jackson marks a moment of relief in a country weighed down by grief and exhaustion. The announcement, framed as part of the Christmas and New Year commemorations, carries moral weight far beyond seasonal goodwill. … [Read more…]