Yet again, Nigeria is being highlighted in international media outlets for negative reasons. While we were struggling to cope with the humiliating global coverage of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s attempted suicide bombing in America and endless embarrassing news items about President Yar’Adua’s prolonged absence in Saudi Arabia, religious riots erupted in Jos and are further damaging the country’s image.

Africans and Nigerians all over the world watched proudly as Barack Obama took over the mantle of leadership as the president of the United States .

By Owei Lakemfa THE constitutional “crisis” in the county today is contrived.  The fault is not on our Constitution.  The Constitution envisaged that the President or the Vice President can fall sick and be unable to carry out the functions of their office.  To that extent, there is  nothing wrong with the Constitution. What however […]

When you cut off the head of a snake, the rest of the languid body of the snake will flip and flop, wobble and jolt, convulse and squirm in protest until it no longer has the strength to continue its protest of, perhaps, an unjust act! Such seizure-like state of a beheaded snake is where I see Nigeria today, without a president to direct its daily affairs. For nearly two months now, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has been away from Nigeria, attending to his illness inSaudi Arabia, and throughout this period Nigeria has been without a leader.

THERE is clearly a great divide in the reading of Ambassador Lyman’s evaluation of Nigeria’s current relevance in the world. Of the many comments two are particularly personal. Olusegun Lawal’s my former student says “I’m disappointed”.

THINKING about the corner into which those who rule in the name of the people have painted themselves and the rest of us, I’m forced to ask if this is how we intend to carry on, which is the literal translation of the title of today’s discourse, rendered in pidgin.

The incumbent Central Bank Governor, Lamido Sanusi, has stubbornly decided to continue the destructive and suicidal monetary and foreign exchange market policies of his predecessor. In this event, this article, which was first published in 2006, with progressive supplementary comments in this column on 23/3/2009, is today 18/1/2010 reproduced for objective public evaluation!

HAPPY New Year, folks! Sorry I did not sign off formally when I proceeded on my annual vacation which, by the way, is still on-going. You know how things can get sometimes. I just had to pop in and say my mind on a couple of issues. The first is the phenomenon whereby Nigeria produced her first international terrorist.

Jonah was a prophet with a mission from God; it was not a mission he particularly relished. Having served God for many years he was at his wit’s end at the merciful nature of God. God’s mercy made him a liar before the people; Jonah wanted to be feared, revered and respected.

Nigeria is the irritant. An irritant may not accept that it is one. But the tag is supplied by those who look at you, watch what you are doing and smile if you vibrate on the same wavelength as they; or you make them want to throw up by what you do.