On Dangote Refinery: Sandwiched Between Plenty and  Want  *Dr Kehinde Abiola THE article of Aare Afe Babalola in his LAW &YOU  column on the above subject in the Vanguard Newspapers on August 7, 2024 and Tribune newspaper of August 8, 2024, kindly refer. I have taken keen interest on the brouhaha between Dangote Refinery and […]

Nigeria’s external debt is the largest amongst all sub-Saharan African nations, despite the fact that it received debt waivers from the Paris Club, London Club or from Independent Creditors. The arrears of this debt have accumulated inexorably, putting Nigeria in the bad books of international financial communities.  Also, Nigeria’s huge debt profile has negatively affected its […]

Background My last publication on this topic identified three questions (issues) that need to be answered on the NNPC limited vs Dangote Refinery rift. These are whether the NNPC Ltd has the power to: 1. Supply crude oil to local refineries? 2. Determine the price of petroleum products? 3. Act as the sole purchaser and distributor […]

The Dangote Petroleum Refinery was expected by many Nigerians to be the end to petroleum importation and petroleum product scarcity in Nigeria. Sadly, the actualisation of this expectation has been an up-hill and almost an insurmountable task. This is because of the position of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPC Ltd., on the refining and […]

This policy will forcefully halt academic momentum leading to an irretrievable loss of valuable time. It will certainly affect the psychology of the students negatively leading to loss of interest in education.

Chingiz Aitmatov wrote an anecdote in his book titled, The Day lasts more than a Hundred Years, thus:  Stalin called together his closest comrades-in-arms. “I understand you’re wondering how I govern the people so that every last one of them … thinks of me as a living god. Now I’ll teach you the right attitude toward […]

I REMEMBER very vividly the “Old Primary School Right of Passage”. For a child to be admitted into primary school when I was young, such a child must pass the hand over the head to ear rule. The child must be able to touch the tip of the opposite ear with either raised hand passing over […]

THERE are two names that have become popular in discussions across the globe since Saturday July 12, 2024. These are “Donald Trump” and “Thomas Matthew Crooks”. While at a rally in Pennsylvania, Crook, a 20-year-old student, shot at Trump with his father’s AR-15-styl rifle from an adjacent rooftop just 145 feet away. Whereas Trump survived the […]

NIGERIA has produced 236 million barrels of crude this year, yet it is unable to supply the 650,000 barrels per day needed by Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals company to run at full capacity.  Consequently, Dangote had to source for crude oil elsewhere, thereby increasing the cost of production.  Some of the factors responsible for these as […]

Nigeria’s Oil Wealth  NIGERIA is a hydrocarbon-rich nation. It is ranked by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, as the top crude oil producer in Africa as at May 2023, producing up to 1.4 million barrels of crude oil daily (this has reduced to below 1.2 million barrels per day as at May 2024). Nigeria […]

THERE is no way democracy can be divorced from elections. In fact, elections are the handmaid of democracy. In advanced democracies of the world, they have attained a level whereby their electoral system is transparent, peaceful, orderly and generally acceptable. Situations whereby electoral officials collude and or connive with discredited politicians to subvert the peoples’ will […]

WITH the recent happenings in the country especially agitation for a new constitution, should it be concluded that democracy is under threat?  I do not think so at all. First, democracy, like a seed, when planted must be allowed to germinate.  For it to blossom to maturity and produce bountiful fruits, it must be nurtured, watered, […]

OF all the impeachments carried out, that of Chief Joshua Chibi Dariye, the erstwhile Governor of Plateau State proved intractable and became the most discussed, perhaps as a result of certain peculiarities and features. Long before DSP Alamieyeseigha of Bayelsa State was arrested and arraigned at a London Court, Joshua Chibi Dariye had been investigated […]

 One day, in 1987, I wrote a letter to the Editor – Mr Toye Akiyode – to lodge a complaint that the paper was not publishing anything of interest for sales and marketing managers. Unexpectedly, a reply came in less than two weeks; asking for four articles covering half page of the paper

State of emergency THE provision for declaration of emergency in the 1999 Constitution is not by accident. It is a product of necessity essentially to safeguard the protection of life and property and prevent a resort to anarchy in appropriate cases. This explains why then President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic […]