From last week, continues the narrative of General Yakubu Gowon’s many achievements before his overthrow on July 30, 1975. Of particular reference is the establishment of many companies with significant Federal Government shareholdings. Unfortunately only few of these companies are still operating or existing today.   In the domestic front, there were bodies like the National Bank […]

“You do not call a hyena to discipline a troublesome goat”— African proverb His name is Aliyu. He is better known as Ali Fari due to his light skin. He could be anywhere between 13 and 16. No one is sure. It has never been important. His father died about six years ago in a fight […]

The Nigerian National Assembly, NASS, while earning one of the highest incomes in the world, has one of the lowest qualities of any parliament in the universe.   Lawyers are wont to   submit that he who alleges must prove. So, let me submit my proofs on both claims, and you judge if they are true.     One […]

On 6 December 1977, Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria’s military Head of State, received a group of young men from the east who had come to present him with a trophy won in the field of football contest against the rest of Africa.

“A political party deserves the approbation of the American people only as it represents the ideals, the aspirations and hopes of Americans. If it is anything else, it is merely a conspiracy to seize power” – US President Dwight Eisenhower, 1890-1969. I strongly believe that a Nigerian political party deserves to be called one only if […]

A friend of mine sent me the link of the clip of my old buddy, Dr Reuben Abati, declaring that the civil war in Nigeria has not ended. Therefore the North will not vote for the likely candidacy of Peter Obi, an Igbo from the East. It of course struck me on two levels. Dr. Abati […]

The Bible tells us in Proverbs 22:6 that when parents train up their children in the way they should go, when they are old they will not depart from it. One thing that is very clear is that only the Creator knows the end from the beginning. No parent knows how his kid would end. […]

Retired public servants as distinct from political office holders in Nigeria live in penury. The value of their pensions is not only too little for survival, disbursements are never regular leading to huge arrears of the otherwise meagre entitlements of retirees. At the beginning of a new administration at federal and subnational levels in Nigeria in […]

She stays in the marriage but leaves in spirit. And then, without realizing it, she chooses a new partner. Her son

Most men I know would rather set themselves on fire than forgive a cheating wife. Most women I know have forgiven or are actively forgiving a cheating husband

When a country rewards each Super Falcons player with N150m and house for a 90-minute football, yet sends police and military pensioners who served 35 years home with N2m, no housing, no healthcare, and a pension too small to feed

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, […]

Ever since the Ibrahim Babangida administration established the National Orientation Agency, NOA, in its last days, perhaps to reorient the narrative of its tragic decision to annul the June 12 election of 1993, the agency has gone through various administrations. Perhaps none of the heads of the agency may have succeeded as the present administration, shepherded […]

One Urhobo leader of his town’s union sometimes exclaims when things get heated up with his people, “Urhobo be suoor” (Urhobo people are difficult to lead!). I would burst out into uncontrollable laughter. What do you expect from people who are republican by nature, where virtually everybody, trained and untrained, is a lawyer, where a poor person […]

The ways of our politicians are confounding sometimes. The constitution is the document that binds people of diverse backgrounds and nationalities together and therefore must be seen to be truly representative. Unfortunately, it is not often available. It is also often worded in a legal and technical manner that makes it difficult for an average person to […]