The Bar Before the Bar, by Stephanie Shaakaa
History is an unforgiving archivist, and it does not record the eloquence of our pleadings when our conduct mocks our prose
To serve and protect
President Muhammadu Buhari announced that his administration is going to recruit 10,000 police officers to boost security and help tackle youth unemployment. He also announced that they will introduce CCTV monitoring system in major cities to check crime (there are no functional CCTV monitoring system in any of the cities in the country, but that is another story).
Tribute to late Ooni of Ife by Attah
The death of the late Ooni of Ife, like those of many great Nigerians, brought the usual avalanche of tributes from far and wide. Based on the time-honoured principle of never speaking ill of the dead, the tributes were generally positive. I would have loved to join the crowd but, to be honest, I met the Royal Father only once in my life – when he called a small group of Yoruba leaders of thought, to the Palace, to form a Non-Government Organisation
Can Kachikwu catch up with NNPC?
As I write this piece on whether President Muhammadu Buhari has made the right choice in Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu to reposition the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), I remember my mentor, the late Major General Mamman Kontagora and his rescue mission at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria.
Should we envy or pity Kachikwu?
The NNPC has another Group Managing Director in the name of Dr Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu who until his appointment, was the Vice-Chairman of Exxon-Mobil for Africa. He is about the fourth GMD for NNPC in half a dozen years. So volatile is this job, so open to abuse, political interference and pressure, that you wonder whether to congratulate the present occupant or commiserate with him. Yet, so important, nay, so vital is his job that it is in our collective interest to wish him the best.
Is marriage getting outmoded?
Recently, I came across a number of write-ups from Europe and America questioning the relevance of the marriage institution. This thinking is mainly borne out of the increasing rate of divorce, and people now living together without being married and having children outside wedlock. In their thinking, if the primary purposes of marriage are companionship and procreation, why go into it when you can cohabit and procreate without being married?
