Boat mishaps: When will they end?
Nigeria must begin to confront boat mishaps as a national public-safety crisis. The latest tragedy at Gorau village in Goronyo Local Government Area of Sokoto State, where 65 people reportedly died, is too grim a reminder of the price Nigerians pay for regulatory failure and government neglect. The tragedy is particularly disturbing because it was […]
Respite for Ajegunle fire victims
TRADERS all over Nigeria live in daily dread of the possibility that their wares and shops could be destroyed by fire. Just a few weeks ago, the popular Monday Market in Maiduguri, Borno State went up in flames in what was suspected as an arson attack by terrorists. Governor Babagana Zulum immediately promised a N1 […]
Still on the 2023 elections
SAVE for the bye-elections and the pending proceedings at the Election Petition Tribunal, the much-vaunted 2023 general elections have come and gone. Compared to the romantic mind pictures that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had painted prior to it, they were nothing to write home about. When he was appointed in October 2015, Professor […]
Expulsion of pupil Marvelous Barinaadaa
EVEN back in colonial times and down the ages, school children and students were never quite insulated from the political and campaign atmospheres because they are part of the society. Children always knew and sang the praises of political leaders who dominated their environments. It is the expression of their constitutional rights of association. Children […]
Interrogating the 2023 elections
Many Nigerians have continued to raise questions over the 2023 presidential election, with some still bitterly complaining about the way and manner the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, violated the Electoral law and its own guidelines in announcing the winner. The February 25, 2023 election would have been a great improvement on the 2015 elections […]
Please, remain peaceful during voting
WE once again give the leaders of the main opposition parties – Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP; and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigerian People’s Party, NNPP – a pat on the back for controlling their followers to maintain the peace after the announcement of […]
Ajegunle spare parts market fire
THE tragedy of the fire that gutted the Akere Market, Tolu, in Ajegunle, Lagos on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, goes beyond mere loss of lives and the economic livelihood of the traders in the market. An official statement by the Director of the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service, LSFRS, Margret Adeseye, said her outfit […]
On the avoidable Ikeja train accident
ACCIDENTS never happen all by themselves. Humans set the conditions and events that lead to them. The collision between a Bus Rapid Transport, BRT, bus carrying civil servants of the Lagos State Government, LASG, to work in the early hours of Thursday, March 9, 2023 and a mass transit train, was purely as a result […]
Buhari’s unhelpful utterances
NIGERIANS deserve accolades for the general atmosphere of calm that pervades the nation in the aftermath of the Presidential and National Assembly elections which held on February 25, 2023. The initial impulse to embark on street protests were reined in by responsible leaders. Even the march to the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission, […]
Their arms rock our world
WEDNESDAY, March 8, 2023 was celebrated all over the world as the International Women’s Day, IWD. Some romantically refer to the female gender as “the better half” of mankind. This is mere flatter because in practice, most cultures abnegate the position of women in society. From human antiquity, societies grew on the primitive concept of […]
Can we afford this census?
BARELY a month from now, Nigeria is expected to conduct a population and housing enumeration exercise. It will be the sixth in our history as a united entity, and the fifth since Nigeria gained independence from our British colonial masters. Even before the colonies that became Nigeria were amalgamated in 1914, the British imperialists had […]
Buhari, fix this fuel scarcity!
WHEN President Muhammadu Buhari made himself the Minister of Petroleum Resources in 2015, his ardent supporters justified that action. They said that as a former Oil Minister, Buhari had the experience to fix a sector which they accused former President Goodluck Jonathan of plunging into ruin. Eight years later, the only tangible achievements of the […]
Promises INEC chairman did not keep
THE Presidential Election, which took place along with the National Assembly polls on Saturday, February 25, 2023, was the most important of the general elections 2023. This is because a Nigerian president impacts the lives of Nigerians at home and abroad more than any other human factor. At this juncture of our history where the […]
Buhari’s mistakes Tinubu must avoid
With the issuance of his Certificate of Return, CoR, by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, President-elect, Senator Bola Tinubu, has three good months to prepare for work. Barring any unforeseen circumstance, he will be sworn-in on May 29, 2023, along with his Vice President-elect, Senator Kashim Shettima. The […]
Lessons we must learn from our past
AGAINST the backdrop of our past experiences, it is important for us, both as individuals and as a country, to look back, down the road we have travelled and take stocks. As a country, we are bleeding on all fronts. Our history is stained with blood, strewn with the debris of our mistakes and regrets. […]
A call for calm
ELECTION of any sort is an intensely emotive issue. This is rightly so, because elections throw up leaders whose tenures can either improve the quality of lives of many people or lead to their destitution or even death. The huge number of people thrown into multidimensional poverty (130 million) and those who have lost their […]
