EARLIER in the week, there were reports of massive protests in Kenya, an East African country. The protests were actually not new, having begun in 2023, in reaction to bids by the government of Kenya to raise taxes. According to the 24-hour English news channel, Al Jazeera, the protests signify a major shift in Kenya, where, previously, […]

WHEN we move forward by a mile, it seems we always do something that will make us take backward steps for 10 miles. And so, it was alarming and distressing to read reports of cholera outbreak in our country again, especially in Lagos, our most sophisticated showpiece of urbanisation. Many have died, and more are hospitalised […]

LAST weekend, their imperial excellencies, the state governors, finally spoke on the minimum wage, an issue that appears to be a huge threat to industrial harmony in the country in the foreseeable future. The Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF, said that the N60,000 minimum wage proposal is not sustainable and cannot fly, saying that if they try it, […]

ORGANISED Labour, comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trades Unions Congress, TUC, and their affiliates made good their threat to go on strike by end of May if the Federal Government failed to conclude negotiations on a new minimum wage. The Minimum Wage Act, signed into law by former president, Muhammadu Buhari, expired in April. […]

WHEN it became public knowledge that the National Assembly was working on a bill that will make us revert to the old national anthem, what came to my mind was that it was not possible, forgetting that in my country, anything is possible, especially when a lot of magicians are in high places. Is it not in […]

TIME flies. Does time really fly? Whichever, next Wednesday will mark the first anniversary of the Tinubu presidency. May 29, 2023, was a day many Nigerians will not forget in a hurry. It was on that day that flimsy fabrics holding economic strands together was brutally rent asunder by a proclamation that we are all now familiar […]

THERE are many issues begging for attention from  commentators like me. The issues are just too many. In our country, it is “one day, one trouble.” You can even say one hour or minute, one trouble. As I write, I can almost swear that another issue of critical importance has been incubated and is already […]

PENULTIMATE Wednesday, the Lagos State Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, on Wednesday, said the state government he works for has discovered dwellings under the Dolphin Estate Bridge, Ikoyi, where tenants pay N250,000 annual rent. According to the commissioner, the under-bridge dwellings, which he called apartments in his post on the matter on […]

WHEN queues started growing at petrol stations some two weeks ago, one initially thought  it was because of the nature of the market. Since subsidy removal was announced last May 29, the cheapest price at which petrol could be bought was N568, at NNPC-owned filling stations. Other marketers sold above that, and in the Lagos area, often […]

AS a people, we ought to be ashamed of ourselves when it comes to electricity.  Since 1972 when the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria, ECN, was merged with the Niger Dams Authority to create the National Electric Power Authority, NEPA, millions of Nigerians have been born and have died with their dreams of living in a country with […]

IT is no longer news that electricity tariff has been hiked, ostensibly for users in what many now know as Band A areas, though in reality the tariff was hiked across all bands. I can support this assertion with readings from the bill sent to me by Ikeja DISCO, or IKEDC. I live in a part of […]

The issue at stake here is that the President Bola Tinubu-led APC government is more anxious to pander to the dictates of the World Bank and IMF, rather than do what is needed to make life easier for Nigerians.

SOMETIME in 1989, we experienced a power surge at our home in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State. The voltage was so high and it came so suddenly that it caught all of us in the neighbourhood unawares. Light bulbs were going off like Yuletide firecrackers, what we called bangers. Someone in our house had the good sense to […]

IT is no longer news that 17 soldiers, including a lieutenant-colonel, two majors, one captain and other ranks were ambushed by a gang of militants in Okuama village in Delta State. In fact, the slain soldiers were buried with full military honours at a military cemetery in Abuja on Wednesday. While the nation was grappling with that, […]

INITIALLY, it sounded unbelievable, just as it was when Odi happened, and later, Zaki-Biam. When the news hit the airwaves that 17 soldiers, including a lieutenat-colonel, two majors, one captain and other ranks were ambushed and killed in the riverine community of Okuama in Delta State, one could only feel benumbed with one question popping […]