ON the internet a few days ago, I came across a news item which proclaimed that stakeholders are kicking as the Federal Government launches the National Policy on Welding.  First, I was pleasantly surprised that the central government, which hitherto had demonstrated crass incompetence in the management of our affairs, could find a profession like welding, populated […]

RELATIVE to the numerical strength of the Nigerian population, not many people know of the existence of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund, PTDF. Fewer people will even know of the mandate of the organisation. With the Federal Government having 943 Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, MDAs, and 541 state-owned corporations, it will be a full time job […]

Dr. Betta Edu should not have issues having Hajiya Umar Farouk walk her through how she was able to perform a feat that even Harry Houdini or our own Professor Peller would find difficult; how did she feed children who were in their parents’ houses during a lock-down?

A few weeks ago, there was palpable apprehension that the presidential election itself might go off-cycle, given the ferocious litigation against the victory of the declared winner, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu

With inflation at almost 28 per cent, it is becoming VERY difficult for the ordinary Nigerian to generate just two meals a day.

Those who said the oil boom that we had is in reality a a curse may be saying the truth.

The more we produce locally, the less we will have to import, and the less we have to import, the stronger our currency gets against the US Dollar.

I AM sure that I number among the millions of Nigerians that were stupefied when a senator justified expenditure of N160 million on one SUV for each of our lawmakers. To put it in street lingo, I was “flabberwhelmed and overgasted” when I read the rationalisation of the immoral act. To put it in proper context, […]

My take is that Organised Labour joined the Federal Government in its myopic approach to the entire issue. How many people, relative to the entire population, does the Federal Government employ?

As I write this, that expressway, leading to the nation’s busiest ports is choked with trucks of two types. There are fuel tankers going to any of the 35 or so fuel depots in the Apapa area to lift fuel. The others are flat-pallet, container-bearing trucks going to the ports.

The serial frustrations are what have created windows of opportunities for “third parties”. These third parties charge from N3,000 to N5,000 to “do NIN” for a willing customer. To modify records, staff at NIMC offices have been known to demand as much as N25,000, while third party operators demand as much as N40,000.

It worries me to no end that despite the repeated raids on these illegal refining sites, they somehow find ways to resume business. That means the business is so lucrative that confrontations with security operatives have become an ineffective deterrent.

THIS column had gone to bed last Thursday before the National Economic Council, NEC, a statutory organ of the Federal Government, released palliatives to cushion the effects of subsidy removal. When I saw the measures, which by now, all fellow Nigerians must have heard, a hundred and one emotions coursed through me all at once, […]

“When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing – When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favours – when you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don’t […]

I was unable to write this column last week owing to an attack of conjunctivitis, which left my eyes swollen, reddened and oozing thick, mucoid discharge. It also gave me fever, and I was unable to read. It was so bad that I couldn’t even read text messages on my phones. People who saw me […]