The world was, two hundred and fifty years ago, gifted a great country, the United States, US. The date was July 4, 1776; the main event was its Declaration of Independence from Mother Britain. The latter is a small country that went to war with most of humanity, so much that it has been at war […]

Last week, on June 26, Justice Isah Dashen of the Federal High Court, Lokoja, caused a huge judicio-political stir when he set aside his December 10, 2025, judgement ordering the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to register the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, as a political party. The ruling effectively deregisters the party. Having thoroughly read the […]

If I perish, I perish” was the statement of defiance that defined the moment by a woman of uncommon courage – Prof Nnenna Oti, former Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO), at a point when everything was at stake, including her life. To look politicians, who take no prisoners, in the face […]

Were you taught in primary school to use the magic words? Most people think courtesy means saying “please” and “thank you”, holding doors for others, not interrupting when others speak, remembering the social graces your parents taught you, and the etiquette that makes interactions flow smoothly and signals you were raised right. Well, that’s not wrong, […]

“The basis of every civilisation is wealth – wealth to provide the background of leisure, which in turn is the basis of culture in a commercial world,” John Buchan The old and historical Exodus was out of Egypt to the Promised Land. It was the movement of a people away from bondage, uncertainty and oppression towards […]

On Monday this week, the story of another United States military operation in Nigeria trended. Sebastian Lukacs Gorka, United States Senior Counterterrorism Director and President Donald Trump’s confidant, made startling revelations about a counter-terrorism operation in Nigeria that took place three weeks ago at an undisclosed location. According to him, he watched the operation from the […]

I do not know whether to say the eagle has landed for the Digital Switch-Over (DSO) or simply to say that a convoluted process has simply been resolved in the manner of deus ex machina. But whichever will apply, the fact that the DSO was launched on Wednesday June 17, 2026, under the Big Picture Initiative, […]

Immediately the executive arm bill for the establishment of state police sailed through the National Assembly, some Nigerians, including longtime supporters of decentralized policing, started bellyaching. Everyone from news anchors to activists, not to mention opposition politicians, suddenly started trembling at the lips and appeared to be suffering from something akin to buyer’s remorse in their […]

There is a powerful lesson in the political fate of Keir Starmer, but it is not merely a British lesson. It is not about Westminster drama or parliamentary theatre. It is about a deeper democratic principle: leadership improves only when failure has consequences. That is the discipline of public office. Power must never be separated from […]

The decision of the Federal High Court sitting in Lokoja to set aside its earlier judgment directing the registration of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has raised far-reaching legal and political questions that go beyond the fate of a single political party. At the heart of the controversy lies a fundamental question of law: can a […]

This week, we continue the narrative on boycott of elections in Nigeria Sir Abubakar immediately confirmed that he would form “a broadly based government” representing all shades of opinion. He said completion of outstanding elections in the Eastern and Mid-Western Regions, as well as in Lagos, arrangements would be made to bring in new ministers and to […]

By AYODEJI EBO  The Central Bank of Nigeria recently released an exposure draft on the proposed new rules for Financial Holding Companies, commonly called HoldCos. This may sound technical, but it is important because many major banking groups in Nigeria now operate through HoldCo structures. A HoldCo is like a parent company that owns different businesses […]

By Dele Sobowale If it takes a whole minute to produce a fool in America, then Nigeria must be bringing them in at the rate of one a second. Nigerian politicians operate on the Barnum principle. Depending on who is dishing out the false dream, most Nigerians will believe anything. Trust politicians and their creative advisers. Every […]

My Lord, Honourable Justice Isah Dashen of the Federal High Court, Lokoja, was beaten to second place by his colleague in Abuja, Honourable Justice Peter Lifu, in the race for the judge that constitutes the gravest danger to democracy. Justice Lifu was so much in a hurry to claim the title that when the Court of Appeal […]

I was an avid reader of the THISDAY Backpage columnists in the late 1990s to the early 2000s, from Dr Amanze Obi on Mondays to Waziri Adio on Sundays. Somewhere in the middle of the pack was always Simon Kolawole, who would end his columns with “And Four Other Things…”, where he would dispense with four other […]