There are moments when a country hears an uncomfortable truth with piercing clarity. This is one of them. In late August, three sober voices—former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, and the Sultan of Sokoto—said aloud what millions whisper: justice in Nigeria is too often negotiated, not delivered. Their warning was not a rhetorical flourish; it […]

  “One who causes others misfortune, teaches them sense”–  African proverb. Last week, an event involving lead ers, organizations and leading Ulama from the North held in Kaduna. The last time clerics and leaders of Muslim communities in the North showed such unity  was during the scramble for reinforcing the Sharia legal system in states […]

I saw Mr. Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang (60), the governor of Plateau State, a lawyer-banker and former Chairman of Mangu Local Government Area of the state, lamenting on television over herdsmen invasion of his state. The governor was almost in tears.  It was the same with Mr. Hyacinth Iormem Alia (59) the governor of Benue State, who […]

The 1990s were the  deadliest for change agents in Nigeria. We lost hundreds. In 1994, some political elites decided to join us. This led to the  establishment of the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO.One day, one of these elites brought a parcel to the leader of the Campaign for Democracy, CD, Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti to be kept. Beko, […]

In September 1887, Harry Johnston, Acting Consul of the Oil Rivers Protectorate (Niger Delta) procured the arrest in the wharfs of the Niger Delta of King Jaja of Opobo on the rather dubious charge of “obstruction of trade”. It accused King Jaja of violating a trade treaty with the British, which did not, however, have any penal […]