ON April 1, 2021, Governor Dapo Abiodun decorated Professor Wole Soyinka as the Super Marshall of Operation Amotekun, the Ogun State chapter of Western Nigeria Security Network. By accepting that investiture, the Nobel Laureate endorsed the growing need for civilians to acquire martial skills for self-defence. Coming at a time that the federal agencies constitutionally […]

SIX years into the “Change” mantra of the present administration, the World Bank has returned a damning report that Nigeria now ranks bottom – 171 out of 190 surveyed countries – in the access of its citizens to public power supply. Government, as usual, might issue a rebuttal of such reports by authoritative international bodies, […]

NIGERIANS should be worried at the escalating number of armed confrontations between the Nigerian Army and the Nigeria Police Force on the one hand, and non-state actors on the other. On Tuesday, April 6, 2021, there were reports of a massive military attack on Konshisha, a remote village in northern Benue State. The Nigerian Army […]

IN March 2017, the Federal Government announced that Nigeria had attained self-sufficiency in cement production. Leading a team of officials to the Ibese, Ogun State plant of Dangote Cement, the immediate former Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Kayode Fayemi, had commended Dangote for spearheading the feat. According to Fayemi (now Governor of Ekiti State): […]

SHOCK and an outpouring of grief were the immediate responses by many Nigerians to the death of Comrade Peter Oluyinka Odumakin, a democracy advocate, civil society activist and spokesman for the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere. His wife, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, said he died on the morning of Saturday, April 3, 2021 at the Intensive Care […]

YESTERDAY, March 22, 2021, was World Water Day, a universal annual celebration created to focus attention on the importance of one of the most precious resources on earth. Water makes the earth a liveable planet. Without it life would be impossible. Apart from water’s use for drinking, cooking, cleaning and generally sustaining the lives of […]

AT last, the 20th edition of the National Sports Festival, NSF, tagged Edo 2020 is coasting home. It is a biennial multi-sports event organised by the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development. Athletes from the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory are attending what is commonly referred to as the […]

ON May 22, 2019, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, arrested a young proprietor of an alleged internet fraud training school located at 14, Animashaun Street, Progressive Estate, Ojodu Berger, Lagos alongside eight students, while receiving “lectures”. Again, in June, 2020, the media reported the arrest by Interpol and FBI of a Nigerian Dubai-based […]

EXPERTS and other concerned Nigerians have been raising their voices of advice to the Federal Government to immediately take steps to save on the emerging boom in crude oil sales. This call is well placed because for some time now, there has been a steady rise in the price of crude above our budget benchmark. […]

GOING by indications, it would seem that the Federal Government has finally risen to its patriotic obligation to root out the people funnelling illicit funds to the various terror networks undermining the security of Nigerians. This is the 12th year since Boko Haram spun out of control in Borno State after its leader, Mohammed Yusuf, […]

THE recent announcement by Jack Dorsey, the CEO of tech giant Twitter, that it will hire its first crop of staff on the African continent in Ghana has, expectedly, set the social media and concerned Nigerians abuzz and melancholic. We have lost yet another opportunity to show that our country still matters in the considerations […]

IN February 2018, the incumbent Minister of State for Labour, Festus Keyamo, as an Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, prosecutor, had filed a bribery and judicial racketeering case against Justice Danladi Umar, Chairman, Code of Conduct Tribunal. He was accused of receiving N1.8 million out of alleged N10 million he demanded from one Rasheed […]

WEDNESDAY, April 14, 2021 marked the seventh year since the first school abductions by violent extremists, Boko Haram, took place in a girls secondary school in Chibok, Borno State. In all, 276 girls were swept off to captivity. But after some of them escaped while some were successfully freed through negotiations and alleged ransom payments, […]

AGENCY Banking – using Point of Sale, PoS, terminals introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to facilitate the cashless economy policy – has become a source of violent death for our youths. Agency Bankers receive and give out cash to customers using the PoS. They are licensed by commercial banks to penetrate remote […]

THE avalanche of global outrage, threat of sanctions and condemnations that have trailed the Myanmar military coup are clear signals to military adventurists all over the world who seek to subvert democracy that the era of rule by force of arms is over. The military had seized power in that country located in the western […]