NIGERIA is a richly-endowed country, but the frivolity, corruption, primordial instincts and lack of vision among its leaders have kept the country poor and destitute. Two recent reports bespeak of our missed opportunities because our leadership failed to do the right thing. President Muhammadu Buhari disclosed that Nigeria lost $50bn worth of investments in the […]

THE continued rejection of Nigeria’s food exports in foreign countries shows that Nigerian government workers are simply not doing their work. Those who are supposed to supervise governance and ensure that government policies are efficiently implemented are also not doing their work. Way back in October 2017, former Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, had publicly […]

THE Federal Government has taken the long-mooted decision to reintroduce toll plazas on our federal highways. Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, last week announced approval by the Federal Executive Council of the Federal Roads and Bridges Tolling Policy and Regulations which will guide tolling operations. The policy appears to have defined the framework […]

THE Lagos State House of Assembly and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu should agree to abolish the highly unpopular life pension for ex-governors and their deputies contained in the Public Office Holder (Payment of Pension) Law, of Lagos State signed by former governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2007. According to that legislation, governors and their deputies who […]

WE have always advocated for the “stick and carrot” strategy to ensure a decisive, just and lasting end to the Boko Haram jihadist insurgency that has bedevilled our country in the past 12 years. Anything to the contrary – such as the adoption of the so-called Operation Safe Corridor, OSC, tactics – is a mere […]

INDEED, the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA, recently signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari is still an unfinished business, as the dissenting views continues to trail the enactment. Though it is said that “law is law” and must be complied with, a just and fair society always strives to carry the interests of all critical […]

THE call by Governor of Katsina State, Aminu Bello Masari, for residents of the state to take up arms and fight back against the rampaging “bandits” is not new. Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom and that of Taraba State, Darius Ishaku, had earlier made the same call after federal-controlled armed forces, police and other […]

THAT General Ibrahim Babangida is a Nigerian living legend is beyond debate. Legends are not necessarily saints. They are people who leave footmarks that are the stuff of legends. Twenty-eight years after he left power, Babangida remains a relevant figure in Nigeria’s contemporary politics. He plotted for power and quit after exactly eight years (August […]

IN the more advanced democracies, you only see electioneering activities just a few months to elections. The American presidential system is a little more elaborate, with its system of state-by-state primaries. Yet it does not fully wake up till about six months to the Election Day in November. Political leaders know the importance of spending […]

THE Muhammadu Buhari administration, and of course the people of Nigeria, are very fortunate that our traditional strategic partners (Britain and the USA) are now ready to assist us in tackling our multifrontal insecurity challenges. Seven years ago, when the Goodluck Jonathan government sought help to tackle our insecurity which was only active in the […]

THE elaborate dramas that took place in the two chambers of the National Assembly a fortnight ago were subplots of a complex conspiracy to ensure that the people’s vote does not count in the 2023 general elections. The two chambers of the National Assembly have passed two different versions of Clause 52(2) of the Electoral […]

THE security situation in Imo State is getting grimmer and if care is not taken, the state can turn into a major flashpoint. On Tuesday, June 15, 2021, vigilant operatives of the 72 Special Forces Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Makurdi, made a timely catch for which they deserve our commendation. They intercepted five trucks […]

ON Thursday, July 1, 2021, the Soka, Ibadan home of Chief Sunday Adeniyi Adeyemo (also known as Sunday Igboho) was attacked for the second time in six months. The first was on January 26, 2021 when hoodlums burnt the same house in what was seen as a retaliation by suspected Fulani assailants. Three weeks earlier, […]

COASTAL lands are huge assets to the countries and the peoples to which they belong. But lands located near the oceans, or surrounded by it, also have their downsides. The story of Atlantis which supposedly sank beneath the waters of the Atlantic Ocean is regarded as a myth. Today, however, archaeologists have discovered there are […]

EXTORTION, which is rampant among bad law officers and hoodlums who are allowed to operate freely in states like Lagos, is a major form of corruption in Nigeria. Bad eggs in the law enforcement agencies engage in it as a means of earning extra remuneration or outright corrupt self-enrichment.  Unfortunately, it is generally condoned by […]