FOR the third time, the aviation sector regulator has indefinitely suspended the operations of Dana Airlines. The carrier has had the unfortunate record of being accident-prone in recent history. Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, Captain Musa Nuhu, on Wednesday 20, July 2022, issued a statement freezing Dana Air’s Transport Operating Licence, […]

IN a normal circumstance, President Muhammadu Buhari’s ultimatum to the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, to end the five month-old indefinite strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, should come as cheering news to anxious Nigerians. But, after over seven years in the saddle, we have seen the president issuing these ultimatums and […]

ZAMFARA State was back on the front burner for the wrong reasons last weekend. A wanted terrorist warlord, Ado Aleru, was turbaned as “Sarkin Fulani” of Yandoton Daji Emirate in Tsafe Local Government Area by the Emir of Yandoto, Alhaji Garba Marafa. Aleru is a leader of one of the numerous bandit groups which have […]

MOST elections that lead to the defeat of incumbent office holders are usually free, fair and credible. These have been the hallmarks of the recent off-cycle governorship elections in Anambra State,  Ekiti State and now Osun State. These elections were devoid of violence. The use of technology to cut off the local government and state […]

ASIWAJU Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s announcement of Kashim Shettima as his running mate for the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has triggered a massive furore, as expected.  Many have wondered aloud whether a Muslim-Muslim ticket is what Nigeria needs as this point when the APC’s President Muhammadu Buhari’s seven-year rule has undermined Nigeria’s […]

HOW conscious are we of the need to take the safety and security of our young school children seriously? Is there any workable mechanism to keep our children safer in our public and private schools? How can we ensure that our children who leave for school will return in one piece and in peace? These […]

NIGERIA has a lot to learn from its founder and former colonial master, Britain. The series of events that led to the forced resignation of the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, reconfirm that in the UK, the people are the boss. Their power to hire and fire remain inviolable. Firmly keeping elected leaders within their leashes […]

Despite 61 years of independence and counting, Nigeria remains an under-developed democracy. Elections are uncertain because there is no clearly established trajectory of irreversible progress. This is why, after the 2015 elections which were adjudged generally free and acceptable, the immediate next general elections of 2019 took our democracy “back to Egypt”. The military and […]

THE Muhammadu Buhari government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, have turned the five-month stay at home by our public university students to a game of hide and seek. Hope has further dimmed on the possibility of the reopening of our universities for academic activities. After prolonged verbal warnings, ASUU finally embarked on […]

Editorial THE upbeat atmosphere surrounding Nigeria’s democracy has been further enhanced with the announcement by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, that the number of new registrants for the Permanent Voter’s Cards, PVCs, has jumped to 10.4 million. This figure, if optimised and deployed in the 2023 elections, is capable of bringing the change in […]

ABUJA, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, which came into being pursuant to a military decree on February 3, 1976, was originally meant to be a home for all Nigerians. Every resident of the Federal Capital is to feel at home and have a sense of belonging. But over the years, the concept of the “centre […]

WHO is safe in Nigeria? Where are Nigerians safe? With the direct terrorist attacks on President Muhammadu Buhari’s advance security convoy in Dutsinma, Katsina State; and the Kuje Medium Security Prisons, Abuja; perhaps the president may at last admit that the security situation has worsened under his seven-year watch. The only thing that the terrorists, […]

IN June 2013, the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO’s Education for All Global Monitoring Report, EAGMR, announced that Nigeria had become the country with the highest population of out-of-school children in the world with 10.5 million children. Other countries named in the report were: Pakistan 5.1m, Ethiopia 2.4m, India 2.3m, and others. […]

KILLINGS in Nigeria have taken on bewildering dimensions. Massacres of innocent Nigerians in their communities by jihadists, herdsmen and bandit terrorists aside, we are worried about the rising orgy of killings involving the military itself. The military are so cheaply killing and getting killed in the various theatres of conflict in our insecurity-riddled country. In […]

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari’s repeated pledges not to “interfere” in the 2023 elections have been well received, especially if he will keep his word. In advanced democracies such as the USA, UK, India, Pakistan, Israel, Ghana and others, the direct involvement of the government in determining the outcomes of elections in which incumbent leaders are involved […]