In the subtlety of everyday conversation, we rarely pause to consider the weight our introductory phrases carry. Three expressions in particular—”I think,” “I believe,” and “in my opinion”—slip from our lips with such frequency that they’ve become nearly invisible to us. Yet these seemingly interchangeable phrases colour our statements in distinctly different hues, revealing volumes about […]

Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, could not have been wrong when he said that the Nigerian Bar Association was hypocritical in its opposition to the declaration of emergency rule in Rivers State. He attributed this to the loss of the monetary support the NBA was to get as sponsorship of its 2025 […]

“For what is foreign policy? It is the adjustment of your relationship with other states in such a way as to ensure the prosperity of your state in peace and its safety in war”- Douglas Reed The enunciation of policies around development, democracy, demographics and diaspora, that form the “4Ds”, is a clear appreciation by the […]

The Nigerian Army recently sent a task force to the South-East to hunt for recruits. The team led by Brigadier-General Chima Ekeator was in Enugu State where he lamented that out of the 200 slots given to the state, not up to 100 youths applied. He contrasted it with Kaduna State from which over 3,000 applications […]

By Afe Babalola Comments by readers and my response continues:  Professor Yemi Akinseye-George, SAN Dear Aare Afe Babalola, I found your article on the above subject to be highly informative, characteristically articulate, and thoughtfully presented. Your insights into the current structure of legal education in Nigeria are both timely and compelling. I fully concur with your […]

The first head of government that declared a state of emergency in Nigeria was the then Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (December 1912 – January 15, 1966) and that was in May 1962. I was a student then at Olofin Anglican Grammar School in Idanre in Ondo State, along with Folu Olamiti, Prince Wale Olateru-Olagbegi, […]

Rivers State is currently facing a pressing and time-sensitive threat. The oil-rich state has come under intense political scrutiny following President Bola Tinubu’s state of emergency proclamation on March 18, 2025. Despite official assurances that this step was necessary to tackle a supposed breakdown of law and order, many observers argue that the constitutional criteria for […]

Professor Humphrey Nwosu’s legacy: Domesticating the electoral process As a political scientist, Professor Nwosu understood that the character of electoral competition in Nigeria is such that the outcome of any election will almost always be contested. This is because in societies like ours, political power is the major means of production, distribution and exchange and for […]

Forty-seven years ago, Nigerian students took a stand against military dictatorship. They insisted that every child should have a right and access to education. They, therefore, rejected increases in school and feeding fees, insisting that education should not be commercialised. An enraged military regime sent out soldiers against the students. What followed was a massacre. The […]

​2025 has not been easy on Nigerians. The economy has looked far from bright; the weather has been suffocating; and cost of living has been stubbornly oppressive. With rising massacres in the Middle Belt, and Borno State in the north-east apparently losing ground to the nihilism of Boko Haram terror, violence remains unremitting. In the […]

“If you shut up truth and bury it underground; it will but grow and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it burst through, it will blow up everything in its way” – Emile Zola, 1840-1902. I never thought President Tinubu would ever sack Mele Kyari. A few days before the announcement, a friend […]

The name‘Labour Party’is usually adoptedby political parties across the globe, that are linked more to democratic socialism. Such parties are traditionally allied with trade unions, labour movements or progressive alliances. Labour Parties are quite popular in strong democracies such as the UK where it has produced outstanding government leaders like Harold Wilson, James Callaghan,Tony Blair, Gordon […]

The Bible in Isaiah 43:19 tells us that God is the ul- timate Game Changer because He tells us that He is the game changer in our life. “For I am about to do something new”.. Apart from Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, the Bible also mentioned certain biblical figures, who God used significantly […]

It is difficult to pinpoint when the political gusts turned against the one time political impresario of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Delta State, Senator Victor Omo-Agege. The contradiction in the circumstances facing Omo-Agege is the fact that he is being subjected to a social media trial in the hands of those he not too long […]

The last time I wrote about this tragedy which I now call Tinubu’s Terrible Tribalism, I had asked: Is Tinubu settling scores? Because the president’s naked embrace of Yorubacentricism after a lifetime of railing with his kinsmen against Hausa-Fulani hegemony could only have been inspired by vengeance.  But such undisguised and unbridled vengeance in his first term […]