Lessons From Osun 2026 and the road to 2027: Parties, personalities and the coming contest (2), by Usman Sarki

Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up for our newsletter, and be the first to get the latest news on Vanguard.
Subscribe
Messing Up Things
WE excel in different areas. Crises excite us, we seem not to be able to do without them. Unlike in other places where crises lead to some peace when they are resolved, here, we make all the noise, get attention, relapse to inexplicable placidity only to wait for doom.
Legends: dropping Gani for Dora
They were General Yakubu Gowon, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Professor Wole Soyinka, Professor Chinua Achebe and Chief Gani Oyesola Fawehinmi. My reason for embracing the project was to give honour to whom it was due and encourage others to live the life of heroes who will inspire the young and old of this nation to great endeavours.
Readers’ reactions
It is very painful to accept it, but everything Lord Lugard said in 1922 is still true today. He was prophetic. Today, Ikedi Ohakim, the Imo State Governor, confirms that “Nigeria has become the black sheep of the world oil producing community for her lack of accountability and unproductive use of the oil revenue.†If you think Lugard was harsh, read Ikedi Ohakim’s “The Courage To Challengeâ€.
When two Elephants fight (2)
She doesn’t know that I have spies in her shop who give me full details of what she does there. She has a new boyfriend who has entered her system, so she can’t reason properly anymore. I was told by my spies that they were discussing my affairs at the boutique over a bottle of Stout. Can you imagine? Maybe she was drunk then, because I still find it difficult to believe.
The new IGR rage
The taxman must, if he would survive, pay people to come up with more and more ways his people can be taxed without them feeling as though they are overtaxed; or he dies. Lagos has done this and continues to do so most admirably, putting more emphasis on identifying the better-to-do and taxing them accordingly.
His soul goes marching on
Although a White man, Brown became the patron saint of the Black people, and the American government under President Abraham Lincoln had to invoke his name to mobilise Black people to join the American army. One of the leading Americans of his day, Henry David Thoreau said on the day of Brown’s hanging: “I plead not for his life, but for his character- his immortal life …some eighteen hundred years ago Christ was sacrificed; this morning, per chance, Captain Brown was hung.
Fani Kayode:Tales his father told him (2)
THERE are basis to conclude that Femi Fani-Kayode’s memory is either fading or he is not acquainted with the readily available literature of the 1966 coup. This can be gleaned from his claims about where his father was taken to in Lagos. He claimed: “They (the coupists) decided to take him to Bonny Camp in Lagos which happened to be still within the control of the loyalist federal forcesâ€.
Somehow, we get by
THAT’S the truth of our present condition- we get by. Somehow: In the apparent stagnancy of our existence as a country, a people, we manage to move on- somehow. We are now in December, the last month of the year which several months ago we were promised would put an end to our life in the dark.
The Law, Gospel views on Christian marriage, divorce (6)
Condemnation is not a matter of conduct, says Jesus, but matter of disposition. How is a sinner then to keep the Law?
“It has been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery†(Mathew 5:31-32).
On Maryam Babangida, Gani and Anambra
Very interesting narrative. Showed an intimate knowledge of the First Lady and an insight in the corridors of power. Having gained such an insight what should we as Nigerians do to uplift our country. For those near the corridors of power, the last paragraph is very significant.
When two Elephants fight
Hi, Ever imagined what the ground would look like should two Elephants fight as a saying goes? Not very pretty I think. Then, take this other scenario. Imagine what would happen when things fall apart between two very close women who once did almost everything together. Worse than the joint efforts of two elephants I […]
Task Force on 2010 Tariff and Fiscal Incentives beware!
President Yar’Adua, on Tuesday 24/11/2009, by proxy, laid before the Legislature the 2010 National appropriation Bill. In view of the results and products of our national budgetS over the years, it has become patently obvious to even a blind man that in spite of abundant resources at government’s disposal, the annual budget rituals of the three tiers of government have had little or no positive impact on the welfare of majority of our people.
Envoy Arrundell is a Nigerian patriot
MONDAY, November 21, 2009 is a day our Information and Communications Minister, Prof Dora Akunyili is unlikely to forget in a hurry.
There goes the president, again to Saudi Arabia
I SHOULD first register my best wishes to the president, Umar Yar’Adua, in his search for more robust health. I wish him well in his struggles with ill-health and extend my sympathies for his private pains.
Open letter to Mrs Turai Yar’Adua
BREAKING News Commentary: Justas I was about to send this Sunday’s column to the Sunday Editor, news reached us that our dear President Yar’Adua had once again been admitted into a hospital in Saudi. He was on admission in January this year, which occasioned the column below – written in January 2009.

Subscribe to our E-EDITIONS
Subscribe to our digital e-editions here, and enjoy access to the exact replica of Vanguard Newspapers publications.
Subscribe