NIGERIA is reeling in the throes of age-long tribal politics, now made worse by the provincial instincts of a president who lacks the capacity to see the country beyond the constricted lenses of his small part of our richly diverse society. The last four years of the Muhammadu Buhari presidency has mostly served to sharpen Nigerians’ sense of identity. Rather than coming together in a demonstration of our much touted ‘unity in diversity’, the people of this country have grown more apart than together.

THE much anticipated presidential debate for the 2019 elections has come and gone. But rather than a bang it ended with a whimper for the simple reason that the two men Nigerians considered the main acts of the debate, incumbent president, Muhammadu Buhari and his main rival, a former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, failed to show up. Or rather more precisely, Buhari pretended (especially in the light of the alibi offered by his party, the All Progressives Congress Party, APC)  he had no idea he was slated to debate other presidential hopefuls.

WE must try to put issues in their right perspective and recognise things as they are. What our legislators and others bent on playing politics with the unfortunate death of a man should be asking for is justice for all. They do not love Badeh more or care for the security of Nigerians more than those who demand that the murderers of Badeh should be tracked down and made to face the law while the question of his trial is not linked to some nebulous claims of his being privy to some classified information.

FAMOUS or infamous as the Chibok and Dapchi school girls’ abduction cases have been, the Nigerian government is still in the game of spinning stories about what is going on. The government has not been able to do what it has severally promised: secure freedom for all the girls. Neither have their parents, families and friends been allowed closure after these many years of endless promises and chest-thumping about beating Boko Haram at its own game.

THE images from the scene of attack, what political mourners and others of their ilk have variously described as a ‘dastardly act’ and other words to that effect, are not only graphic but are as gory and disturbing as they could possibly be. This episode harks back to the murder in 1976 of then Head of State, General Murtala Ramat Muhammamed, by renegade soldiers of the Nigerian Army during a botched attempt at a forceful takeover of government.