Guest Columnists

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” – Benjamin DisraeliThe Nigerian ruling class under the Tinubu administration is intensifying its Goebbel propaganda based on the dictum that “a lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.” Faced with the increasing cost of living, […]

It is no longer news to Nigerians that Nigeria’s challenges are complicated and multidimensional. The decision of President Bola Tinubu to take a well-deserved three-week vacation, therefore, could not have come as a surprise to many. The hydra-headed burdens of this country have devised several strategies for wearing people out, and fast, too. I wish […]

For more than three years, Nigerians have been told to endure the pain of petrol subsidy removal in the hope that tomorrow would be better. Now, tomorrow has been given a date: October 1. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu says Nigerians should begin to feel the benefits of cheaper fuel through lower transport fares from October. […]

Lagos alone is worth more than Botswana, Namibia, Rwanda and Mauritius combined. Let that sink in. With an economy of N41.17tn — about $102bn in 2021 — Lagos State dwarfed the entire gross domestic products of four countries. Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Delta and Bayelsa sit on oil wealth that funds nations. Ogun, Anambra and Imo […]

Nigeria has entered another season when politics acquires the grammar of salvation. Banners multiply, motorcades thicken, slogans become policy substitutes, and every candidate discovers that the country can be repaired overnight. Yet campaigns are not magic shows; they are auctions of priorities. The 2027 electorate should ask: who understands the constraints facing the winner? The […]

Ghosts. Fake, Fraudulent, Dubious Things are not new in Nigeria. The crisis of transparency in Nigeria’s public sector payroll system began, for example, as far back as the 70s, and became even more problematic in the 80s, with the expansion of the public service, and the reliance on cash and paper records for payment of […]

How many fake agencies can the Tinubu Presidency go after at a time? When I posed this question in my column in early August, I intended it as rhetoric. The fake agencies and their operators apparently took it as a challenge. On Friday evening, the ICPC Chairman, Dr Musa Aliyu, SAN, emerged from his second […]

In Nigeria, whenever the word “cabal” is mentioned, it often evokes images of powerful, shadowy figures operating around the seat of power, whether at the national level (Aso Rock Villa, the country’s seat of power) or the subnational level. The concept became popular during the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan presidency, but it has since become a […]

Can you believe that the increased salary that the President and Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria’s Armed Forces promised to pay Nigerian military personnel from September 1, 2026, has already been taken away by the imposition of an astronomical increase in the fees of Nigerian Air Force schools? A case of the left hand taking back what […]

I had initially planned that Long Range would address a troubling scenario in our nation’s beleaguered history, where religion appears to have stolen the leaders’ and the citizens’ brains while we all scheme to glorify ourselves and vainly attempt to scheme against the one we claim to serve. Have you ever wondered why evil continues […]

After months of intense politicking, internal party battles, violence and political manoeuvring, Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State has secured another four years in office. Popularly known as “Imole” and celebrated for his trademark dancing, Adeleke emerged victorious in Saturday’s keenly contested governorship election, defeating the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Asiwaju Bola Oyebamiji, by […]

Osun State has a reputation for controversies bigger than its size. It ranks 26th nationally in terms of voter population and is six out of six in the Southwest. From 2010, when the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Rauf Aregbesola, toppled Olagunsoye Oyinlola of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) through a court ruling, to the […]