I AM bemused by the sense of elation exhibited by some government officials and elites that the United Arab Emirates, UAE, has lifted the entry ban on Nigerians. Immediately the announcement was made this Monday, July 15, some Nigerian officials started falling over themselves to assure the UAE that Nigerians would be of good behaviour and, […]

THE Supreme Court on Thursday, July 11, 2024 made landmark judgements on local government areas, LGAs, in the country. First, it gave the salutary order that they must be run by elected persons. Its second order that LGAs be paid directly by the centre, seeks more or less, to de-link them from the states they are […]

WEST Africans on July 7, 2024, witnessed the tragic split of their region into two opposing blocs. The first time since the 1975 establishment of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS. Eleven regional Heads of State met in Abuja under the ECOWAS umbrella while three of their counterparts: Presidents Assimi Goita of Mali, Ibrahim […]

JUNE 2024. Festivity was in the air. Professors and students, staff and high class visitors were in attendance. The highlight was a first class dinner. Africa’s book factory, Professor Toyin Falola, flew into the country to deliver the farewell lecture. It was all in honour of Professor Abd-Rasheed Na’Allah, out-going Vice Chancellor of the University of […]

THE CNN American Presidential Debate showed humanity is in a catch-22 situation while the European high speed far-right turns on the cliffs, threaten to plunge humankind into an uncertain world. The far-right turns have been taken in countries like Switzerland, Hungary, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Serbia, France and to some extent, Germany. The only light visible […]

GOVERNORS, so to say, are up in arms against a new National Minimum Wage, NMW. Individually and collectively, they have voiced opposition to the evolution of a new wage which may not be less than N60,000 as promised by President Bola Tinubu. While some have called for a confederate wage system, others have vowed not to […]

JULIAN Assange, an innocent man walked out of an American-staged court this Monday, June 24, a free man after spending1901 harrowing days in British captivity. He spent those hellish days in the British Belmarsh maximum security prison in a 2×3 metre cell, isolated 23 hours a day. Not even a dog deserves such inhuman treatment. The […]

IT was a bit of an emotional period for me when names of people who fought for democracy kept popping up in the Democracy Week. It was quite good hearing from the family of Mr Alao Aka-Bashorun, Father of the Nigerian Pro-Democracy Movement. He led many, including lawyers, against the rapacious regimes of Babangida, Shonekan and […]

THE visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to North Korea and the United States yelling against it have diverted world attention this week. It has drawn attention from the immediate needs and steps to save Palestinian lives, especially those of babies and children. How does Putin visiting his North Korean ally, Kim Jong Un, constitute a […]

Nigerians celebrated 25 years of Democracy last Wednesday, June 12. I did not mean to dampen the enthusiasm. I am not a killjoy. But democracy is not a declaration, it is a praxis. It is not what we wish, but what we live. Is this something to voice out in a country that has rolled […]

THE on-going right wing shifts in European parliamentary elections give the impression that there are seismic shifts in the plates of its politics. Please don’t worry yourself. There are no possibilities of earthquakes. These are mere rumblings in the belly of its body politic. It is said that Europe’s far-right gained historic grounds in the elections, […]

IN my visit to the United States from May 22, 2024 to deliver a Lecture, I was determined to meet a man I had never met. I wrote him from Nigeria and we agreed to meet. At the crowded Port Authority train station in New York, we easily picked out ourselves; his image was etched in […]

The loss of majority in parliament by the African National Congress, ANC in the May 29, 2024 South African elections was a sunset for the continent. It means that the unrepentant Pan Africanist organisation with its vow to the mass of the people and unrepentant commitment to humanity as manifested in its unprecedented war against genocide […]

A SINGLE nuclear weapon can wipe out an entire city and its living contents. It can also cause severe blast over an average five-kilometre radius from the epicenter. Its radiation effects can kill more and deform human beings over decades. Nigeria’s 18.3 million out-of-school children, is larger than the combined population of at least 13 African […]

IT is a very serious matter for the United States of America, USA, the most powerful country in the universe, to place a country on the list of states “sponsoring” terrorism. So, when on May 15, 2024 it placed Cuba in this category, it was bound to attract attention. However, this will be for those who […]