“Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.” — Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884-1962, US First Lady. Some foreign busybodies have embarked on the attempt to treat Nigeria with the sort of contempt we don’t deserve – unless we allow them. We should firmly resist the attempt.  The issue at stake is the concessioning of four Nigerian […]

By Dele Sobowale “In the days leading up to the inauguration, I read several books…” Barack Obama, former US President in his book ‘A Promised Land’, p239. My gratitude goes to my dear Uncle Apollo of Sapele and Lagos, who graciously gave me a copy of  the book.  There is a lot to learn from it […]

By Dele Sobowale “Are you better off today than in January 2021; or for that matter in January 2015?”  That was a question posed to several Nigerians I met from December 1 to December 31, 2021. The answer was unanimous. “No”. Buhari and his spokesmen, spokeswomen and other apologists can say what they want, but, […]

By Dele Sobowale Promises, like pie-crusts  are  made to be broken.” — Jonathan Swift, 1667-1745, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, p 203. No promise has been made so repeatedly and broken just as often as the one made to Nigerians on power supply since 1999.  Every president until 2015 fell flat on his face on this pledge. […]

By Dele Sobowale “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without press or press without a government, I should not hesitate to prefer the latter.” Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826 VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p 200. Jefferson realised too well the role which a free press plays in protecting the people […]

By Dele Sobowale “Love and business and family and religion and art and patriotism are nothing but shadows of words when a man is starving.” — O’ Henry, 1862-1910, VANGARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ  p 232. Report: “We’ve closed four million MT maize supply gap” – FG If Nigerians think the Federal Government, FG, only releases fake […]

By Dele Sobowale “The point though to keep in mind is that if you put this in historical perspective for Nigeria, the fact remains that real per capita income in Nigeria in 2021 is the same as it was four decades ago in 1981.” Dr Shubham Chaudhuri, Nigeria’s World Bank Country Director, October 2021 on […]

By Dele Sobowale “Otedola: First Banks shares rise 2.45% as SEC investigates.”  –   News Report, Oct. 26, 2021 As a shareholder of the First Bank, I should be happy that the share price, which remained stuck at N7.50 suddenly started climbing for reasons at first unknown until it reached N12.00. But, then I am not an […]

By Dele Sobowale “As for the exchange rate, I think we need to move our rates to be as reflective of the market as possible. This, in my own view, is the only way to improve supply.” – Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo That pronouncement, as well as others we shall mention shortly came as a […]

By Dele Sobowale If you don’t know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.” Nigeria’s economy is currently being managed by a leader who does not have the grasp of what is required to achieve sustainable economic development. Despite all the attempts to deceive Nigerians about phantom great achievements, the results in […]

By Dele Sobowale “The wrong war, at the wrong time and the wrong place.” — US five-star general, Omar Bradley, 1893-1981 When the Kennedy and Johnson administration   got  the USA more deeply involved in the Vietnam  war, General Bradley voiced the minority opinion among the  military establishment. He was ignored. America suffered its first military setback […]

By Dele sobowale “YOU can fool some of the people all the time; you can fool all the people some of the time; but, you can’t fool all the people all the time.”  — Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865, Vanguard Book of Quotations, VBQ, p. 62. When the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, NBS, published the result of the […]

By Dele Sobowale The Value Added Tax, VAT, dispute has taken centre-stage in the nation’s political agenda. Rivers and Lagos  states  have challenged the right of the Federal Internal Revenue Service, FIRS, to collect VAT exclusively. Rivers State  dragged the FIRS to a Federal High Court, FHC, in Port Harcourt and received a favourable decision in […]

By Dele Sobowale Before the reader gets upset, let her/him remember that I also will be paying the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, media tax which this article supports. So, I am  not  promoting a measure from which I will be exempted. To be quite candid, the media tax is long overdue. The surprising thing to […]

By Dele Sobowale “GDP rises 5% YoY; declines 0.80% QoQ” — News Report “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” — Mark Twain, 1835-1910,  Vanguard Book of Quotations (VBQ) p130 On August 26, 2021, the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, served fellow Nigerians its own brand of statistics. It was the truth, deliberately […]