Today, September 28, 2022, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, will formally blow the whistle for the commencement of the campaigns towards the 2023 general elections. Political parties and their candidates will be free to come out openly and solicit for votes. What we need is an atmosphere of free canvassing, safe meetings and soap-boxing. […]

THE Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has responded adequately and reassuringly to the “expose” by the Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP, which, in a media briefing a fortnight ago, alleged that the Commission, the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, planned to rig the 2023 elections through voter register […]

The confirmation of Justice Olukayode Ariwoola as the new Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, by the Senate without intrigues or hitches is a sign that the Muhammadu Buhari government might be ready for the Judiciary to regain its autonomous footing. We recall the wars of nerves that the executive branch waged in ensuring the ouster […]

Aisha, wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, returned to the public glare after a prolonged time off, to engage in what many Nigerians see as an obscene show-off with a tweet she published on her verified handle on Tuesday, September 20, 2022. She was pictured celebrating the graduation of Zahra, her son’s wife, from a United […]

Many motorists in Lagos State will do well to familiarise themselves with the Lagos State Transport Sector Reform Law, 2018, which, in an effort to enforce sanity on Lagos roads, contains some draconian provisions. For instance, driving against the traffic (One-Way) is treated like a criminal offence, which it should not be. Anyone found culpable […]

After an expanded National Security Council, NSC, meeting, the Federal Government on Thursday, September 15, 2022, at the State House in Abuja, “urged” the promoters of the so-called NATFORCE (National Task Force on the Prohibition of Illegal Importation/Smuggling of Arms, Ammunition, Light Weapons, Chemical Weapons and Pipeline Vandalism) to disband itself or be dismantled by […]

On Tuesday, September 13, 2022, air travellers met a brick wall at our airports, as aviation union workers carried placards in protest against clauses in a new legislative Bill which could muzzle their Labour rights. The protesting workers are of the National Union of Air Transport Employees, NUATE; Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of […]

Watchers of Nigeria’s political history would be somewhat amused at the recent call by the 19 Northern governors for the “immediate” establishment of state police. They made this call at their recent meeting with traditional rulers in Abuja. Over the past 50 years or so, leaders, politicians and activists from the Southern parts of the […]

In about three weeks, Nigeria will mark her 62nd Independence Anniversary. There is little in our political system that suggests we are ready to practise democracy the right way. The same parliamentary system we abandoned in 1979 for the presidential system remains rock-steady in the United Kingdom. Between 2016 and now, the UK has produced […]

Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, was mandated by President Muhammadu Buhari to “solve” the Academic Staff of Nigerian Universities, ASUU, crisis within two weeks. When the period expired, Adamu denied being given an ultimatum, and asked university students to “sue” their lecturers over the seven month-old strike. Adamu’s suggestion, which had sounded comical then, has […]

WE are pleasantly surprised that our military and security agencies have woken up, and are moving in the right direction towards reining in the forces behind our insecurity. The continued onslaughts against the Boko Haram Terrorists, BHTs, and their Islamic State in West Africa Province, ISWAP, allies, scorching of Ansaru bases in Kaduna forests and […]

On Monday, September 5, 2022, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, told a joint media briefing in Abuja that the worst of our insecurity  woes were over. He made the declaration in the presence of other senior Federal Government functionaries, such as the Minister of Defence, Bashir Magashi; Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola; Minister […]

Within 10 days, the world has lost two iconic architects of the 20th Century. Former leader of the defunct the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR, the man who brought down the Iron Curtain and ended the Cold War, Mikhail Gorbachev, died on August 30, 2022. On Thursday, September 8, 2022, the Queen of England, […]

WARRING neighbours, Russia and Ukraine, signed a pact to allow stockpiled grains to be exported through the blockaded Black Sea ports over penultimate weekend. The pact was brokered by Turkey under the watchful eyes of the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres. Under the pact, Ukraine is allowed to export grain through its […]

At independence in 1960, Nigeria was classified as a developing new nation. But 61 years later, we are among the most underdeveloped and backward countries in the world. All our economic, social, political and human development indices are among the worst while the deficits are among the highest. The revelation that there are 56,000 abandoned […]