I am sharing this article by my friend Otunba Abiodun Olufowobi (otherwise known as Pabiekun) because it would make a lot of sense if Nigeria was less warped and if President Tinubu was more trustworthy!     While global attention remains fixed on the rising tensions among the United States, Israel and Iran, Nigeria has once again found […]

I’ve just been told that Senator Barinada Mpigi, who represented the Rivers South East senatorial district, has died, aged 64, following a protracted illness. Barry, as many of us called him, was a fellow Ogoni from the Tai Local Government Area segment of our ancestral terrain. He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2011 […]

President Donald Trump regularly insults and     discriminates against black people; and I don’t understand why African heads of state are not giving him much – or any in some cases – serious pushback. When racists closely linked to Trump depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as apes on his social media account, he refused to apologise […]

When President Bola Tinubu returned to Abuja a month ago after a prolonged holiday in Paris and brief stopover at a summit in Abu Dhabi, a newspaper headline sardonically announced that the “Nigerian Ambassador to France pays his first official visit to Nigeria in 2026”. Tinubu, frequently criticised for his frequent sojourns in foreign locations, France […]

Much has been said and is being said about the Federal Government’s controversial tax reforms. They got off to a very bad start when some legislators claimed that the version of the law passed by the National Assembly was not the same as the document President Tinubu signed. Ali Ndume, the former Senate Leader, is one […]

Thanks to a gale of defections from opposition parties (the PDP mostly), 29 out of 36 governors are now fully-fledged members of the APC; and there are rumours that the Kano governor will soon join them. I find this situation immensely depressing. But I guess it shouldn’t surprise me. Nigerians are always complaining about the near-total absence […]

As Nyesom Wike, the FCT Minister, continues his long-standing attempts to wrestle his embattled former protégé (Sim Fubara, the Rivers State Governor) to the ground, I find myself mystified. Why? Most of the Rivers people I know are loudly hailing Fubara for rebelling against Wike, his erstwhile mentor, and “rejecting godfatherism”. When I tell them […]

On a Youtube podcast I posted a few days ago, I briefly discussed conflicts  that destroy or undermine relationships. One such conflict recently occurred in my life and it revolved around religion. In a nutshell, a former friend and I are no longer on speaking terms because she took offence when I politely refused to share […]

So here we are again. Yet another Christmas is around the corner; and as we Christians prepare to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and look forward to enjoying special Yuletide meals, exchanging gifts and having fun with our friends and families, we should not forget about the vast number of people in Nigeria and […]

Earlier on this year, I flew to Freetown to interview President Julius Maada Bio of Sierra Leone, his First Lady, and several members of his cabinet. I was touched by the warm welcome I received and highly impressed by the quality of the conversations I had with all of the above; and I remember thinking that it […]