Apologies are in order, for a start. The office of Femi Adesina, veteran journalist and newly appointed spokesman for President Muhamadu Buhari, was merged with that of Akinwumi Adesina, newly elected President of the African Development Bank, on this page last week. The error is regretted.

Apologies are in order, for a start. The office of Femi Adesina, veteran journalist and newly appointed spokesman for President Muhamadu Buhari, was merged with that of Akinwumi Adesina, newly elected President of the African Development Bank, on this page last week. The error is regretted.

It has become customary with different countries, or even communities, to remark on the first few days of newly elected or appointed citizens in office.

It is their time to jeer and mock. However, they shall be here and see Boko Haram defeated; normal power established; corruption deflated; the economy renewed; our educational structures strengthened; and a sense of purpose among the people of this country solidified. They have seen the cruel dawn. They shall live to see the glorious days.

By Bisi Lawrence And so it has all come to this at last. We are one step from breasting the tape. The elections have come at last, though not entirely gone actually. For one thing, we shall now have to endure the prolonged cases involving the rejection of the results by the losers, on the […]

The wild joy over the double triumph of General Muhammadu’s election victory and President Goodluck Jonathan’s superlative gesture of statesmanship portends violent-free polls across the board. However, there appears to be a hiccup that may not be entirely ignored. It had been feared that Lagos, Rivers and Akwa-Ibom States were among the areas where violence could flare up during these elections, and the general calm that saw the end of the presidential election had not entirely dismissed those fears.

And when all is said and done, what we all want is change. It is an organic element of the cosmos charting out the essential route of benign development, or otherwise, as humanity chooses. “Forward, forward let us range,” cries the poet, “let the great world spin forever, round the grooves of change.”

There was a time when Nigerians actually enjoyed politics. The rules were clear, though some of them were still being developed to keep up with the fast pace of our development as a nation. But it was a level playing ground on the pitch and the game was conducted with a finesse matched by a high sense of decorum. The players were mature men who knew the worth of material wealth as against the value of humanity. They made their choices and each left his mark.

This is a period of rarities. They occur in their original forms or in the variations of even familiar events. The desire to convince, the urge to prevail is so overpowering those normal limits of behaviour are ignored or forsaken. The results are sometimes bewildering. They emerge in outlandish statements from highly respectable sources and totally unexpected directions. A very unusually season.

By Bisi Lawrence The phrase, “Leaders of Thought” has been frequently used these days with little regard for the function of context. Any collection of middle-aged opinionated citizens, especially if they had once represented a shade of political effort, feels entitled to retain hold on to some semblance of relevance by declaring themselves as leaders […]

By Bisi Lawrence We have been put through a harrowing period of political moves and countermoves featuring the defection of hordes of members of one party to another; fiery and undignified statements from several directions; political declaration of peaceful campaigns upon every lip amidst fearsome encounters whilst the security officers repeat what sums up to […]

By Bisi Lawrence Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has left the Peoples Democratic Party. Absolutely. Officially. At last. On record, it was the former Head of State who dramatically terminated his membership of the party by publicly causing his membership card to be torn, two or three hours before the party then announced his expulsion. What took […]

And so, we are now at cross purposes; it took us a while to arrive where we now find ourselves. It has been a journey of discontent, aided by promises broken, directed by false faith, driven by the zeal of obsession.

By Bisi Lawrence It is a brand new year, and all its problems—which we fondly refer to as challenges—lie in wait for us. Each year has its own brand, but not often are the forebodings of a year so brightly etched on the distant horizon as we can appreciate in the beginning of the year […]

Very seldom have I encountered such hate, backed by ill-applied quotations from the Holy Writ. In this season of goodwill to all, very rarely has such venomous abhorrence been let loose on the head of an opponent even in times of war.