A Nigerian newspaper and Online version of the Vanguard, a daily publication in Nigeria covering Nigeria news, Niger delta, general national news, politics, business, energy, sports, entertainment, fashion,lifestyle human interest stories, etc
I recently received an email requesting for some information on Tunde Agbabiaka, the man we his friends used to call ‘Afroguard’ after one of his publications.
Read More In just about six months, most of the election noises would have quietened. And the country through INEC alone, would be about 150 billion Naira poorer. The noises would shift to the courts where another undisclosed amount would be expended.
Read More The late Chief Obafemi Awolowo used to intervene in national discourse from time to time. He was not afraid to speak truth to power.
Read More The image of the herdsmen that I grew up with is not the image kids of today have. Today’s herdsmen carry AK47. They kill. They burn down houses. They take over communities. They have heightened religious and ethnic distrust in the country.
Read More The throne of a viable democracy stands on four sturdy legs. They are the Executive, the Judiciary, the Legislature and the Press or the Four Estates of the Realm as they are sometimes called.
Read More Lunch at Ikoyi Club. I had just finished attending the 70th birthday colloquium of Ray Ekpu, an accomplished and consummate journalist and was in an upbeat mood. Ray was Editor of a Sunday paper about the time I was Editor of a Sunday paper.
Read More The last two weeks have been quite busy in the country. We have witnessed political defections; real and simulated. We have witnessed political mergers; real and simulated. We have witnessed court summons; real and simulated.
Read More Whoever celebrates a private birthday at Harbour Point? This was the question that first came through my mind immediately I got the invitation card for Dr Kofo Odusote’s 70th birthday party. Especially when the invitation card made it clear it was not an ‘Owambe’ party.
Read More If you asked many people to mention the person Fayemi contested against in last Saturday’s election, the name that would most likely come up would be Fayose. Many of us would be hard put to remember that the contest was really between Dr Kayode Fayemi and one Professor Olusola Eleka, Fayose’s Deputy Governor. So dominant was Fayose that the real contestant became a mere footage, an addendum. It is one thing to nominate a successor.
Read More A new political force made up of a coalition of 38 ‘political parties’ came into being during the week. It was a coalition that was expected given the absence of a viable political opposition to the ruling party and given the nature of our parties towards political power. It was such a necessary, pragmatic, and utterly predictable move that the question was not if sectional, fragmented political parties will come together for 2019 but when.
Read More The Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, uncharacteristically tongue-lashed the security chiefs in public last week after another spate of killings in Plateau State. He was blistering in his comments about the manifest incompetence of our security chiefs who neither saw the urgency of a looming catastrophe in the country nor felt any need to take personal responsibility. Coming from the nation’s number three man, the outburst raised a few eye brows.
Read More It is a known fact that Nigeria is under-policed. Grossly under-policed. But you wouldn’t know it from the uses to which we put the few we have. Every big man in Nigeria has a policeman as a symbol of his ‘bigmanism.’ These policemen serve as valets, messengers, traffic conductors and enforcers. In short, they serve as ‘Man Friday’ in demeaning, belittling ways. A good percentage of what is left of our Force finds itself on the highways.
Read More An old friend died of prostate complications on Sunday. He died in the US. While every death diminishes humanity, every death abroad diminishes the country and every preventable death points an accusing finger at our health care system. Yomi Ismael’s death to me represented all of these. I have known Yomi for about four decades and he was always so full of life. He always seemed to have a joke for every situation. I am glad I did not see him bed-ridden or tongue tied so I can always keep that bubbly, jovial image of him. His death is raw in its suddenness and it hurts. So raw that you still feel like lashing out at our health system for his lack of timely awareness; his need to go abroad for treatment; the dearth and growing exodus of qualified medical personnel from our country which makes going abroad for surgery almost inevitable.
Read More My recent trip down June 12 memory lane, started with an article Sam Omatseye wrote on Kunle Ajibade. It was on the latter’s 60th birthday. Kunle, a journalist, is one of those who symbolised the struggle to actualise June 12 and any tribute to him that ignores his travails in the hands of the Abacha boys will definitely be incomplete. This article did some justice to that aspect of the life of gentle looking Ajibade whom Omatseye aptly described as a most unlikely candidate for the gulag. His article was closely followed by another beautiful article titled: ‘Class of ‘98’ by Dare Babarinsa. Dare’s article talked about the incarceration of Kunle Ajibade but didn’t end there. It managed, in a few choice words, to capture the June 12 struggle including the role played by some principled and courageous Nigerians. Some of them ended up in jail. Some in exile. Some had their homes and means of livelihood destroyed. Some survived assassination. Some did not and paid the ultimate price. The streets of Benin, Ibadan and Lagos to name but a few, were littered with known and unknown heroes.
Read More Anybody with a heart should be bleeding for what is happening in Benue State in particular and the entire North-Central in general. Hardly a day goes by without reports of someone being killed in a most gruesome manner. Or people being displaced from their ancestral land. Or houses being burnt and farms destroyed in a most wanton manner. Or women being gang raped and slaughtered like cattle. The one thing that a rural community has, the one thing going for it is serenity.
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