Mr Sam Amuka Pemu, Chairman and Founder of Vanguard Newspapers – he has been Uncle Sam to me for the better part of five decades – celebrates another birthday today. His 91st year on this mother earth. The day I gather, would be just another day – that is if he doesn’t get his way to leave […]

ONE long week of horror. That is how I think I can best describe the working week ending today. Just imagine! The week opened with news of terrorists killing three officers of the Federal Road Safety Commission in Kebbi State. Down in Delta State, soldiers and policemen clashed with youths in Emede community in Isoko […]

Stories like that of David and Goliath teach moral lessons especially about victory not necessarily going to the mighty and powerful. The  freedom battles between a sitting United States President  and, a slave girl he owned, are no less intriguing. Such a true life story is usually tucked away as they tell of the humiliation and […]

Last year, on this very same date, I pointed out that there was nothing happy or authentic about Naija style democracy; and I’m still searching for evidence that we are enjoying government of the people, for the people and by the people…on some important levels at least. Sadly, such evidence continues to elude me and […]

President Bola Tinubu marked his third year in office recently, on May 29. The presidency rolled out the drums, placing a front-page advert in all the national newspapers to celebrate the president’s “achievements”. The advert was audaciously titled “Promises Delivered” and listed eight “promises” that President Tinubu supposedly “delivered”. Perversely, by proclaiming “promises delivered”, the Tinubu […]

•When academic brilliance sounds like a funeral Most academics pitch research the way they’d explain a methodology in a conference paper. It’s technically accurate. It’s also boring. When your research sounds procedural instead of urgent, funders don’t fund it, journals reject it, and audiences zone out. Why? Because you sound like you’re reporting facts, not like […]

During World War II, a Norwegian military officer and politician, Vidkun Quisling, helped facilitate the Nazi invasion of his own country and led a domestic collaborationist regime loyal to Führer Adolf Hitler. For his infamous role, he was executed for treason in 1945, and his surname became synonymous with ultimate betrayal. The Norwegian traitor’s perfidy reminds […]

“The power of Rome was attended with some beneficial consequences to mankind; and the same freedom of intercourse which extended the vices, diffused likewise the improvements of social life,” Edward Gibbon Let me begin by stating that for the last forty years or so I have kept close to me the stupendous work of the great […]

Under the 1999 Constitution, the President of Nigeria is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. As the Chief Executive of the Federation, the Nigerian President is also often regarded as potentially one of the most powerful persons in the world. He can make or break anyone. Yet, we notice that not all Nigerian presidents are able […]

There is a way a little sense of history tries to educate and equip us with the capacity to withstand the present and shape the future. History tells us a little bit of who we are and the things that shape our being. History is stubborn. It paints the bad leader with deserved odious colours and […]