IT is a long time since President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua said a word about Nigeria’s low electricity supply, or even his electoral promise to declare an emergency on electricity within months of being in office. Electricity is central to the existence of the modern society. Decades ago, it was one of the strongest factors that […]

DETIMBIR Chia, a 14-year-old secondary school student, in the inner recesses of Benue State, three years ago, was credited with the spirited and courageous efforts that resulted in the fervent rescue operations which saved the lives of some passengers of the military plane that crashed in his village of Mbakunu, in Sangev Ya. There are […]

WITHOUT prejudice to the provisions of Section 294 subsection (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, an election petition and an appeal arising therefrom under this Act shall be given accelerated hearing and shall have precedence over all other cases or matters before the tribunals or court”. – Section 48 Electoral […]

WHAT difference would it make that 70 people died on a pothole riddled road in Anambra State? Who are these people anyway? Are they not the ordinary people whose high numbers are truly irritating our governments?

NIGERIA’s decline in sports is becoming more embarrassing daily. We used to rule Africa in some spheres of athletics, football, boxing tennis and table tennis. Even on the global stage, our presence was felt in those sports.

A MEMBER of the House of Representatives, Mr. Wale Oke has finally told Nigerians why President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua headed to Saudi Arabia while the world was taking important decisions at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Nigerians who are getting used to their leaders craving irrelevance, and dragging the country down the […]

NIGERIAN politicians are a strange breed. They believe they are the smartest beings in existence. In 10 years of managing Nigeria’s vast resources, they have befuddled the issues. Politics are about power for individual interests that are against the common good. Nothing is more important to politicians than laying their hands on power. They can […]

THE House of Representatives is pushing a bill that would grant legislators immunity like the executive. This backdoor move, if it results in a law, would illegally amend Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution, which currently grants this status to only the President, Vice President, Governors and Deputy Governors.

WHERE there are no laws, everyone becomes a law unto himself. This is the situation in various parts of the country, where local government councils have appropriated powers to themselves, including the power to arrest, detain and put people on trial for “offences”. It must be admitted that some of the issues over which the […]

The contrast in reading culture between Nigerians and nationals of other countries, especially those of Western orientation is so obvious. A typical Nigerian may not buy a newspaper unless he is about to travel, and even at that he reads it if there is nothing else to occupy him. Few Nigerians studiously read books and […]

MANY Nigerians do not know there are laws to punish doctors for negligence. The code of the Medical and Dental Council prescribes punishments for misconduct of its members, though the code is observed mostly in breach. The punishment the Spanish authorities meted out to a doctor who attended to Mrs. Stella Obasanjo trains attention on […]

WITH the amnesty period over yesterday, what does the Federal Government intend to do about the Niger Delta? The answers, if any, would be the strongest indication of the impact of the amnesty in the resolution of the challenges of the Niger Delta. The amnesty was bold. It remains government’s most stated move to combat […]

NOBODY can deny that Nigeria gets the rest of humanity worried over so many issues, among them, its unwillingness to lift itself out of the crippling consequences of national numbness and the remarkable tendency of its leaders for attempting to re-order the international setting to meet its mediocre standards. Many have given up on Nigerians […]

EVEN for a nation inured to scandals, the revelation of the Speaker of the House of Representatives Dimeji Bankole eight months ago that civil servants embezzle N700 billion annually should shock and make Nigerians act against this sort of brazen corruption – if at all it is of that magnitude. It remains an allegation and […]

DEBATES over the supposed law that forbids hospitals from treating patients with bullet wounds without a police report re-surface each time a hospital rejects such patient. Many have lost their lives because they did not have a police report, which is not ordinarily easy to obtain. The police have often denied that such a law […]