By Iyobosa Uwugiaren There is a popular old saying that when something smells bad, you do not spray perfume over it; you find the source of the odour. Nigeria’s latest budget controversy surrounding the alleged Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) is producing an unmistakable political disgusting odour. The temptation is to look only toward the … [Read more…]
By Professor Ani Casimir When President Bola Ahmed Tinubu rolled out his Renewed Hope Agenda, critics and allies alike watched closely to see how its ambitious pillars of economic diversification, job creation, and industrial growth would manifest in the federal civil service. Few ministries have captured this transformative shift quite like the Federal Ministry of … [Read more…]
-By Abdul Mahmud The 30 June deadline issued by the Afrophobic marchers in South Africa to African migrants to leave South Africa has now passed into history. History will remember the infamy of those who turned on their fellow Africans, looted their shops, terrorised entire communities, and forced many to flee South Africa with nothing … [Read more…]
By Akinola Morakinyo (Ph.D) Nkechi Okonkwo has been awake since 3:45 in the morning. By the time most of Oshodi is still arguing with its alarm clock, she has soaked beans, queued at the neighbourhood mill, lit her coal pot, and begun producing one of the most economically efficient food products in Nigeria. An akara … [Read more…]
-By SNC Nwagu “Life is sacrosanct. It cannot be regained once lost. Ghana evacuates. Malawi shields. Nigeria reacts — but only after the caskets are counted.” Since 2008, South Africa has recorded repeated waves of anti-foreigner violence known as “xenophobia” or “Afrophobia.” Nigerians have paid the price in blood and business every time. As a … [Read more…]
-By Daniel Ndukwe State police might mean safer neighborhoods. But can Nigeria’s institutions and shared values hold firm against the centrifugal forces a more decentralized model might unleash? Nigeria just took another step towards decentralized policing with the Senate’s passing of a constitutional amendment bill establishing the state police. Most of the discussions surrounding this … [Read more…]
By Sebastine Chukwuebuka Okafor, Ph.D Since its establishment on December 29, 1989, by Decree No. 48 of 1989 (now the NDLEA Act), the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency began full operations in January 1990. Prior to this, Nigeria was experiencing a sharp increase in drug trafficking and substance abuse that threatened to turn the country … [Read more…]
-By Abdul Mahmud Public officials often forget that their words travel further than their offices. A minister, adviser or presidential spokesman may regard an interview as another routine media appearance, but citizens hear something else: an account of how those who govern understand their condition. That is why Bayo Onanuga’s recent remarks during his interview … [Read more…]
Last week, I came across an account on X, formerly known as Twitter, the haunting account by one Elder Oyin Zubair about Owa-Onire, a community once known for its celebrated waterfall but now reduced to silence and abandonment. His telling was not merely reportage; it read like an elegy for a place emptied of itself. … [Read more…]
By Uche Anichukwu July 17, 2021 is forever etched in my heart. It was the day my first son, who is also my second child, graduated from primary school. I was reeling in pains from the burns I suffered during a domestic fire incident. My legs, wrapped in bandage, were hurting badly. The Igbo often … [Read more…]
By Ikechukwu Amaechi When Major General Rabe Abubakar (retd), former army spokesman, died in captivity on Saturday, June 13, all hell broke loose. Understandably! He was not an ordinary citizen. But knowing Nigerians well, all it takes to forget him is another high-profile abduction. And that nearly happened on Monday night when terrorists attacked the National … [Read more…]
By C.V.C Ozoaniamalu I did not feel anger when the white girl at the Adidas shop on Admiralty Way, Lekki Phase 1, had called me “Wonder Woman.” She had said it with that thin smile people wear when they want their cruelty to pass as humour, her eyes lingering too long on my arms, on … [Read more…]