In exercise of his prerogative powers of mercy, Tinubu pardoned a convicted murderer on death row. He also pardoned drug barons. He pardoned a kidnapper. That power was given to him on trust by the people.  In a country ravaged by insecurity, every message from the leader should reflect a ruthless determination to stamp out crime and […]

Atiku says the federal cabinet is an assembly of serial forgers, money launderers, election bandits and identity thieves. While it can’t be described as a total rogues’ gallery, it harbours far too many shady figures, granting too many reprobates access to the pulpits of power. Tinubu, the acclaimed talent hunter, wanted a minister of innovation, science and […]

In 2023, after Obi defeated Tinubu in Lagos, MC Oluomo addressed the state. He warned the Igbo to sit at home on election day if they wouldn’t vote the APC. He wasn’t subtle. In that live broadcast, he framed  non-APC votes as a punishable betrayal. The police invited him for questioning, but the “chat” was more photo-op […]

Lagos is a bustling coastal city, so its vulnerability to floods is natural. But with a culture of indiscriminate refuse disposal, haphazard building developments, and lousy town planning enforcement, Lagos is the cause of much of its own flooding woes. Often, governments come like pirates or parasites — ravenous and impatient, looking for what and where […]

Good building materials are gone.  Everything is now fake—almost everything. The chronic decline took an acute turn after the COVID epidemic.  A  post-COVID nosedive. The naira started to plummet, prices soared. Surging costs of basic food began to drown the poor. People could no longer make it, so  manufacturers started to fake it. Perhaps to stay […]

A few days ago, things fell apart in Nepal. The country had seen political instability and grinding poverty in recent times, but this week it saw  the gates of hell open. The parliament was burnt. The presidential palace was ransacked. The government fled. Ministers were dragged through the streets and chased into rivers. The youths said they […]

Nigeria has a profound leadership crisis.  It isn’t just recycling indolent,  corrupt and manipulative leaders, it’s incubating a defective citizenship.  The necessary sceptical edge to watchdog democracy has been blunted. The citizenry is aggressively normalising political mediocrity.  Failure is excused. Mundanity is celebrated. Stagnation feels peaceful  For the poor, hunger and joblessness have acquired inevitability. […]

One fateful evening, the people of Malumfashi, Katsina, sensed trouble. Vultures circled their community, a grim portent. Alarmed, villagers alerted the military, who came, saw nothing, and left. At dawn, as the people trooped to the mosque to beseech God, bandits struck. They roared in on motorcycles and fired at everything. The mosque took the brunt. By […]

Moshood Adisa Olabisi Ajala, aka Ajala the Traveller, was a Nigerian journalist, actor and travel writer. He was so famous for his travels across the world that he became synonymous with wanderlust. In 1952, aged 18, in a racially segregated America, he cycled 3670 kilometres from Chicago to Los Angeles in 28 days. But he did a […]

When I was growing up, The Madness of Didi was my favorite book title. I carelessly applied it to both the sane and the insane. Every outburst of irrationality was the madness of Didi. In Obi Egbuna’s The Madness of Didi, Didi spends 30 years in England, enduring racism and oppression. After killing six policemen, […]