Opinions

Given the myriad of socio-economic and political challenges that bedeviled the nation in the past year. Nigerians said goodbye to 2016, wishing and hoping that nothing like it comes back again. With the economy having progressively transitioned from recession to depression, perhaps the Buhari-led APC government will acknowledge the loud and persistent calls for urgent […]

For those who say Nigeria is a country where wonders shall never end, a new example was the wild jubilation and celebrations in Delta State following the release of disgraced former governor James Ibori from jail in London, where he was serving a 13-year sentence, after pleading guilty to money laundering, and corruption charges. In […]

“How was your Christmas Day?” “Comme ci, comme ca” “What’s that?” “I am speaking French. You mean you don’t even understand elementary French?” “No, I don’t. Speak English. How was Christmas?” “Low-key. Like this, like that”. “For me, it was a dead-end Christmas” “God forbid. May we never have a dead-end Christmas. I reject it […]

The birth of Jesus Christ, which will be celebrated next Sunday, December 25, is the portentous event of the Incarnation, from which Christianity draws its essence. Christians the world over, will mark the birth of the Son of God and the Savior of mankind, whose spectacular life of virtue, revolutionary teaching and sacrificial death on […]

The social media is agog with a picture purportedly showing Senator Bala Mohammed, Dr. Reuben Abati, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, and Messrs. Femi Fani-Kayode and Bashir Ishaq Bashir. An accompanying note noted that they were “pictured together at the EFCC underground cell in Abuja while they were in detention in November 2016.” I cannot vouch for […]

Nigeria’s renascent democracy has been threatened by electoral irregularities and sundry abuses, but these absurdities have assumed melodramatic proportions with the violence that has marred recent elections in some states; the latest being the December 10, rerun election in Rivers State. The dust is yet to settle on the Rivers elections, as the Inspector General […]

The row over bonuses that has become the bane of Nigerian football reared its ugly head again after the reigning African Women football champions, the Super Falcons took to the streets in the nation’s capital Abuja to protest the non-payment of their bonuses, having defied the odds to retain their crown at the just ended […]

When President Yahya Jammeh of The Gambia conceded defeat after the December 1, Presidential elections in that West African country of 1.9 million people, the gesture was widely hailed and described as an indication of great hope for democracy in Africa and particularly for The Gambia, which Jammeh had ruled with an iron fist for […]

The depressing report the other day, that as many as 2,000 Nigerians, some of them on death row are languishing in Chinese jails, is certainly no complimentary news. Even more heart-rending is the fact that the prisoners, who are serving time in the notorious Dong-guan prison, are being tortured and subjected to dehumanizing treatment, including […]

“We will write this for all to read. Anyone, soldier or not, that kills the Fulani takes a loan repayable one day no matter how long it takes” – Mallam Nasir El Rufai, 2012. I will never forget these words. How I wish that my friend and brother, Governor Nasir El Rufai, expressed the same […]

It was a promise made, and indeed a promise kept, as the Super Falcons of Nigeria, last Saturday, retained their crown as Africa Women Cup of Nation (AWCON) champions, defeating host nation Cameroon 1-0, before a capacity 40,000-crowd at the Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium in Yaoundé. An 84th-minute goal by Desire Okparanozie was all the Falcons […]

“Political aspirants make too much of the people before election, and, if successful, too much of themselves after it. They use the people when they want to rise, as we treat a spirited horse when we want to mount him;–for a time we pat the animal upon the neck, and speak him softly; but once […]