NFF: Need for a new beginning
Nigeria’s absence from the 2026 World Cup is not fate. It is the bill finally arriving for years of reckless housekeeping at the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), and those responsible must be made to pay for it. Our football history shows that Nigeria rarely loses to better teams. It loses to itself. Rabat, en route […]
School vandalism in Akwa Ibom
THERE is an epidemic of vandalism and theft of school furnishings in Akwa Ibom State. It has been going on for quite a while, and the state government appears powerless to stop it. In March 2022, Government Primary School, Aka Offot in Uyo, Akwa Ibom, was serially vandalised and its roofing sheets, wash hand basins, […]
BVAS, IReV, must stand!
WHEN the Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP, raised the alarm a couple of months ago that some fifth columnists are working against the use of proven technology to fight rigging in the 2023 general elections, some accused them of being false alarmists. CUPP had claimed that the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC’s, Voter’s Register was […]
On the new National Language Policy
THE President Muhammadu Buhari administration appears determined to be remembered for one or two things after almost eight years of rudderless leadership. About a fortnight ago, embattled Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, announced restoration of History as a subject in our basic education curriculum after 15 years of its unconscionable exclusion. On Wednesday, November 30, […]
FG’s shift of poverty blame to Governors
THE Muhammadu Buhari government hardly takes responsibility for its failings. It is very well known for making grandiose promises and shifting blames to other parties. Up till date, the regime keeps blaming “previous regimes” even after almost eight years it was given to fix problems that it met. After the Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting […]
DSS warnings on flaunting of wealth
To show they are not only mandated to protect the government and the state alone, the Directorate of State Services, DSS, routinely issues public security advisories to enable the citizenry play their role in their own security and that of society. Apart from advisories on possible terror attacks, the Service also harps on the need […]
Aisha Buhari: An avoidable scandal
THE name of Aisha, wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, is being dragged all over the place due to an indiscretion that more matured handling could have avoided. It all started when Aminu Mohammed, a student of Environmental Management and Toxicology of the Federal University, Dutse in Jigawa State, tweeted two photographs of Aisha which showed […]
Return of History to our basic education
IF for nothing else, the eight-year tenure of renowned journalist, Adamu Adamu as the Minister of Education, will be positively remembered as the era that restored History as subject in the curriculum of the Nigerian educational system. As part of plans to put the scheme in place, the Minister partnered the Nigerian Educational Research and […]
Intellectual rant against Federal Character abuses
THE Federal Character principle enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999), has been reduced to an object of ridicule by the very officials mandated to implement it. Instead of concrete action, we see a carnival of empty words and lip service, most likely intended to mislead the public into believing that […]
North’s oil find controversy
IF Nigeria weren’t a country whose fault lines have been exacerbated, the reported discovery and commencement of drilling of one billion barrel crude oilfield and 500 billion cubic feet of gas reserves in the Kolmani fields, should be cheering news for a country that depends almost exclusively on crude oil exports for its foreign exchange […]
Nigeria’s damning poverty report
THE Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, NBS, is possibly the most credible agency of the Federal Government, alongside the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, NEITI. In recent years, its public rating has been on the rise due to its professional, non-political handling of the job of telling the Nigerian situation as it is in cold metrics. […]
Curbing health sector brain drain
BRAIN drain is beyond the normal migration of people to greener pastures or adventure. It involves the mass movement of a skilled workforce from one place to another. In the 1960s and 1970s, Nigeria was a great destination for skilled foreign workers such as doctors, university lecturers, high school teachers and others from such places […]
Marking World Children’s Day 2022
SUNDAY, November 20, 2022, passed, rather quietly, in Nigeria, though the world out there celebrated the 2022 edition of World Children’s Day. Yes, we do celebrate our own Nigerian Children’s Day on May 27 every year, yet we still need to respond to the universal day because we are part of it. The World Children’s […]
INEC and underage voters
UNDERAGE voters have been part of our electoral system for quite some time. Even the 2015 general elections, which were perceived as “free, fair, and credible,” featured thousands, if not millions, of ineligible kids who freely registered and cast their votes. Child voters are minors who are not up to the voting age of 18 […]
Beyond INEC Chairman’s reassurances
ON Wednesday last week, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, once again reassured Nigerians that the technological template aimed at reducing human interference in our elections in February and March 2023, will be implemented as planned. In particular, he affirmed that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, the electronic […]
Bandits at Lagos’s door
LAGOS is not just a state and the former Federal Capital Territory, it is also the economic melting pot of Nigeria. It is home for all Nigerians as well as foreign nationals. Every part of the country deserves to be secured, no doubt. But the security of Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, is […]
