WHEN it was announced, two days ago, that Mrs Opunimi (or Nimi) Akinkugbe was the Governor of Ondo State’s ambassadorial nominee, some Ondo indigenes got miffed and decided to kick up a huge fuss.

I DON’T know Mrs. Aisha Buhari, but I’ve always had a soft spot for her feisty, say-it-like-it-is personality, which doesn’t quite rhyme with her chubby-sweet baby face. And when she went public with bitter complaints about some of the people who surrounded her husband in 2016, I defended her on a BBC Television programme. And I’ve continued to adopt an indulgent attitude towards her occasional outbursts because I am also one for straight-talking. In fact, I am far worse than Mrs. B because I sometimes utter expletives for emphasis when something or someone has upset me.

MONICA, a Nigerian lady who doesn’t provide her surname and simply describes herself as “a concerned citizen”, has made a video that someone sent me via WhatsApp. I hope it goes viral on the internet.

MATTHEW Hassan Kukah, the always forthright and sometimes controversial Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, recently expressed the view, during an Arise TV interview, that Northern Nigerian political thieves are even worse than their Southern counterparts.

By Duno Kogbara LAST week, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo (“EK”) Clark, the famous Niger Deltan activist and patriarch, celebrated his 93rd year on this earth. A documentary honouring him was aired on the main TV channels; and a dazzling array of distinguished household names – including Chief’s illustrious siblings, Professor JP Clark and Ambassador BA Clark […]

So much has been said and written about Mallam Abba Kyari, the most high-profile Nigerian COVID-19 casualty so far.  
He was controversial, to put it mildly.

MELINDA, the wife of Bill Gates – Microsoft co-founder, tycoon and philanthropist – has said she fears that the bodies of people who have been killed by the coronavirus will litter the streets of Africa.

I THINK it is fair to say that the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has never before had a CEO who is more perfectly suited to the circumstances that prevail on his turf.

I THINK it is fair to say that the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has never before had a CEO who is more perfectly suited to the circumstances that prevail on his turf.

“Coronavirus” is a word that strikes terror into the hearts of millions of human inhabitants of an increasingly besieged planet earth. And I find it helpful, psychologically, to minimise the power and impact of the word by almost jokily abbreviating it to “coro”.

LIKE everyone else, I was caught unawares by the global coronavirus crisis. One minute, we were being told about a deadly new zoonotic disease that had originated in the wild animal kingdom and was terrorising human inhabitants of the Chinese city of Wuhan.

LAST week, I mentioned the numerous challenges faced by the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, an intervention agency that has never served its constituents adequately and is famed for mismanaging the vast sums of money it has at its disposal. 

THE Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has been a hotbed of controversy and friction for as far back as I can remember. Senior NDDC executives and their political godfathers in various states and Abuja often have major disagreements with each other; and these Establishment tiffs sometimes erupt into open warfare.

By Donu Kogbara I WAS minding my business in my Abuja residence yesterday – and feeling depressed about the state of the nation – when my phone rang. It was an All Progressives Congress, APC, chieftain friend. “The Supreme Court has just returned Bayelsa to PDP (Peoples Democratic Party)!” he told me. “It’s a lie!” I […]

By Donu Kogbara Maryam Sanda is the  most notorious and controversial woman in Nigeria at the moment. Until November 2017, she was just one of many well-connected young women who uneventfully populate the Federal Capital Territory. The daughter of Maimuna Alliyu, a onetime Aso Savings CEO, she had married Bilyaminu Haliru-Bello, an equally well-connected young […]