Some Nigerian female athletes recently brought continental honour home to us in two different sports in consecutive weeks almost. In doing so, they gave Nigerians some respite from the gloomy pall which now seems to hang permanently in the air like a dark cloud that is pregnant with rain. It was a joy seeing Nigerians at viewing […]

Last Tuesday was International Youth Day. The 12th of August every year is a special day to draw attention to issues concerning youths worldwide, but I want to focus on Nigeria. The Nigerian youth faces clear and present dangers. Some of these dangers are societal while others are self-inflicted.  Let us start from the society, which must […]

Moshood Adisa Olabisi Ajala, aka Ajala the Traveller, was a Nigerian journalist, actor and travel writer. He was so famous for his travels across the world that he became synonymous with wanderlust. In 1952, aged 18, in a racially segregated America, he cycled 3670 kilometres from Chicago to Los Angeles in 28 days. But he did a […]

People of the South -East must rise now to rid the streets of loose, unemployed youth terrorising everyone, from Enugu to Ebonyi down to Anambra, Imo and Abia. I love what Dr. Richard Onyeani (Roco) and Michael Chukwudi Amaefula are doing. Sports, especially football, is one huge industry that will not only empower many, it will also […]

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, is an animal that eats its curator for lunch. To survive it, either do not get close or prepare to feed this beast with an endless supply of oil deals, the country’s lifeblood. When former Governor Nasir el-Rufai accused NNPC of being a parallel government and added that if […]

Anas Jamal al-Sharif cried on air as he reported the on-going starvation of Gaza, a city of 2.1 million people. In so doing, he signed his death warrant. The regime in Israel said he was trying to mobilise the world against it by such sentiments. When the Israelis began to mount propaganda against Anas, it was […]

A little over a year ago, specifically on July 19, 2024, this column had cause to join issues with the High Command of the Nigeria Police Force over the issue of CMR, or Central Motor Registry, which the Police decreed all motorists must obtain a permit from.  I recall a statement issued by Force spokeman, ACP Muyiwa […]

Sometimes, columnists fly a kite to test an idea or to provoke public discourse on an issue. Twice in recent months, I did so rather successfully. First, on July 3, I wrote a piece titled “2027: The theoretical case for Jonathan’s return to power” (Vanguard, July 3, 2025). I was probably the first columnist to float […]

Last week, I received an email that made me cringe. The grammar was perfect, the punctuation flawless, but the tone was so harsh it could have frozen coffee. The sender—a department head—had technically followed every rule we’d discussed in previous columns, yet the message landed like a slap across the face. This got me thinking: we’ve […]

One of the absurdities of Nigeria’s pseudo-democracy is the fact that those clamouring for President Bola Tinubu’s second term are not flaunting his achievements. Instead, the battle cry is the need for him to complete his “constitutionally guaranteed” two terms of eight years, not minding that there is no such guarantee in the 1999 Constitution, amended […]