By Segun Odegbami This is the world of sports.  Nigeria was once described as the ‘Giant of Africa’. The country was ranked 5th on the FIFA table, and the Super Eagles were hailed as the most entertaining national team during the 1994 World Cup.  European and South American countries that previously insisted African football  was […]

War, they say, is a series of surprises. Those who dread death stay away from it, this is enough reason to salute our heroes, including Brig. General Musa Uba ,who go to battle, bent on keeping compatriots safe from invaders and terrorists. Uba, Commanding Officer, 25 Task Force Brigade was lost in an ambush by Islamic State […]

Recently, the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, made a statement, which, as far as I am concerned, is a dirge for indigenous languages in Nigeria. He said that the federal government has cancelled the national policy mandating the use of indigenous languages as the medium of instruction in primary and secondary schools. The reason for the […]

When Senator Orji Uzor Kalu recently paraded himself in an attire emblazoned with “Tinubu 2027” insignia and Governor Hope Uzodimma became a regular sight at the Abuja Airport waving goodbye to President Bola Tinubu or welcoming him back from foreign trips, a certain impression was created. Their public performance of loyalty suggested that the Igbo […]

Back in the day, one of the most pleasurable moments of a friend was the take-off of a plane. He loved the sensation of a plane taxing off at a great speed and then gently lifting itself up into the air. Included in that sensation for him, was the feeling that earth bound burdens and worries […]

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration has elevated propaganda over wholesome administration. It has been committing the greatest sin the late Harvard Professor Barbara Tuchman identified in her book “The March of Folly” (which pointed out the mistakes governments have been making for 3,000 years – from Troy to Vietnam). This terrible mistake is that the leader knows […]

Nigeria is bleeding. Our soldiers fight with courage, but they are spread perilously thin across multiple fronts. Goats are now eating palm fronds on our heads.  From the Sambisa Forest to the Kotangora thickets of Niger and  the vast rangelands of Zamfara and the valleys of Orsu, violence lurks and consumes lives and livelihoods. It is better […]

As the year 2025 rolls to a close, there are citizens of the United States planning, in the new year, to charge their country with genocide against its “Black, Brown and Indigenous Peoples.” The Peoples’ Senate, one of the movements engaged in the “National Mobilisation Against Genocides”, declared that to mark the 250th Commemoration of the […]

“There are no poor countries- only failed systems for managing resources. “ –‘ Avram Noam Chomsky My discourse this week is inspired by the quote above, credited to Avram Noam Chomsky (born 1928), an American intellectual and professor known and celebrated for his work in social critivism, liguistics and political activism. He, according to Wikipedia, describes […]

On Tuesday, on a TV show hosted by Piers Morgan’s, a British journalist, our Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, and a former Canadian lawmaker called Ms Goldie Ghamari, strongly disagreed over allegations that Christians in Nigeria are being persecuted. A couple of people I know feel that Tuggar did well. But most of the people with […]

When I saw the programme for the 2025 Nigerian Guild of Editors annual conference listing Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, as the keynote speaker, I wasn’t sure it was a good idea. Uzodimma has been in the press mainly for the wrong reasons. As one of Nigeria’s leading journalists and public intellectuals, Reuben Abati said on a […]

By nature, many Nigerians are incurable optimists. That is what keeps them going. In the face of severe challenges, they manage to sustain a relentless hope and positive outlook. In a sense, that speaks to their resilience and tenacity, without which life, which to the majority is already hell on earth, is insufferable. Yet, this optimism […]

Nigeria goes by the sobriquet “Giant of Africa”, principally because of its size. But the best metaphorical description of the country is a “sleeping giant”. And being asleep, Nigeria is not fulfilling its potential. The challenges are daunting and if things remain as they are, the omens are not good. Cobbled together by Britain in 1914, […]

There is a kind of language that carries more weight than grammar or eloquence. It is the language of gratitude. It is the language that transforms a donor from a name on a list into a partner in progress. This week, I have been reflecting deeply on how we speak and write to the people who […]

Under the 1963 Constitution the Federal Government was entitled to pay to each region a sum equal to 50 percent of the proceeds of mining rents and royalty in respect of minerals derived from each region. The Federal Government was obliged to credit to the Distributable Proof Account 30 per cent of the proceeds of the […]