NIGERIANS were full of hope that the Professor Mahmood Yakubu-led Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, would conduct a general election in 2023 which would surpass the highly-applauded exercise handled by Prof. Attahiru Jega’s regime in 2015 in acceptability. But the fiasco of the presidential election on February 25, 2023 has continued to beget weird offspring […]

APRIL 14, 2023 marked nine years of the Chibok School Girls abduction which shook the whole world. That historic incident was Nigeria’s own equivalent of America’s “9/11”, when Islamic terrorists, Boko Haram, invaded the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in southern Borno State, abducting 276 girls at night. It is still a big mystery how […]

WHAT is becoming of our universities? Universities are called such fanciful names as “citadel of learning”, “ivory towers” and others because they are supposed to produced people steeped in learning and refined in character. But they are are now competing with the jungle culture of the motor parks and market places. The rising cases of […]

EXPECTEDLY, ranking members-elect of the All Progressives Congress, APC, the party which secured the majority of seats in the Senate and House of Representatives during the recently-held general elections, are soliciting for support for leadership of the National Assembly. Also in the race for Speaker of the House of Representatives is a coalition of opposition […]

THE recent Lagos train accident involving a BRT bus calls attention to the need for routine drug and alcohol tests on commercial drivers. The accident resulted in the loss of eight lives. As of March 16, 2023, 66 out of the 102 crash victims had been discharged while 28 were still hospitalised Reports say traces […]

AFTER the most rancorous election since 1999, the Judiciary is already grappling with the humongous challenge of adjudicating election petitions dumped on its table by aggrieved political parties and their candidates. In Nigeria as in most democracies, the three arms of government play respective roles in packaging and administering elections which produce leadership at all […]

WE join other well-meaning Nigerians in condemning the last-minute spending sprees embarked upon by the Federal Government and some state governments which have just seven weeks more to vacate the seats of power. In Benue State, outgoing Governor Samuel Ortom wants to build an airport and employ 2,000 teachers despite reportedly owing workers. In Kano, […]

A BILL ostensibly aimed at curtailing the exodus of young Nigerian doctors to foreign countries for greener pastures has passed the second reading at the House of Representatives. Sponsored by Ganiyu John (APC Alimosho, Lagos), the Bill is for an Act to amend the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act 2004.  According to the sponsor, the […]

FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo’s remark that the 2023 general elections have left Nigerians more divided than ever before cannot be faulted. He made the observation at a seminar in Abuja on Thursday, April 6, 2023. The 2023 elections would have passed as just another contestation among candidates and their political parties where virtually everyone involved […]

EASTER is a three-day event but which in Nigeria stretches to the fourth day because of the national holidays attached to it. It is the direct opposite of Christmas which marks the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ on December 25. Easter is a very important event in the lives of Christians because it is […]

THE situation in the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, has gone beyond “reforms”. We need a brand-new Police establishment. What we have now is a mere laughingstock, if what we experienced during the recently-concluded general elections are anything to go by. The Police are supposed to be the primary law enforcement agency to maintain day-to-day law […]

WHOEVER gets sworn in as the President of Nigeria on May 29, 2023, must see to the speedy completion of the Ajaokuta Steel Complex Limited, ASCL, as one of our topmost, urgent national priorities. This gargantuan project has been described as a symbol of Nigeria’s inability to handle really big things; a symbol of irredeemable […]

FOR the first time since 2014, Nigeria is enjoying a bit of cheering news that its terrorism challenges have been on a steady decline. The Global Terrorism Index, GTI, now ranks Nigeria eighth, an improvement on our sixth ranking in 2021.  Also, the Institute for Economic and Peace, IEP, in its Terrorism Index published in […]

ON Wednesday, March 29, 2023, the Directorate of State Services, DSS, issued a statement, alerting Nigerians that it had identified “some key players” involved in an alleged plot for an interim government in Nigeria. According to the statement issued by the Service’s spokesman, Dr. Peter Afunanya, the alleged plotters plan to sponsor a series of […]

RAMADAN is here again. It is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and the most propagated month in the Islamic sphere, when Muslims fast for 29 or 30 days. Last Wednesday, the moon was sighted as declared by the President-General, the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, and the Sultan of Sokoto, signaling the commencement […]