AN early confirmation of the appointments of the pioneer executive of the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities, NCPD, by the Senate is now awaited to enable the new agency start work. On August 24, 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari named Hussaini Kangiwa, Chairman and Abba Ibrahim, Secretary of the new Commission. Six people living with […]

  THE much-anticipated reopening of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, AIIAE, took place on schedule on Sunday, August 30, 2020. But it ran into a controversy when it was discovered that much work is still required to be done before the remodelling project is completed. The videos of construction scaffolds still adorning the main […]

WE congratulate Nigeria’s Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina for his re-election as President of the African Development Bank, AfDB, by the Bank’s Board of Directors with the full support of other stakeholders on August 24, 2020. It is a deserved victory because in politics, it is said that one good term deserves another. Adesina’s successful implementation of […]

ONE of Nigeria’s obvious national hobbies is the routine tinkering with the constitution. Whether under military or civilian regimes, the impulse to convene conferences towards the promulgation of new constitutions or the routine amendments of existing ones is always with us, but we still end up with the same unsatisfactory constitutional document. The Ninth Senate […]

WHEN will Nigeria ever have a stable social sector? When shall we have at least ten years of unbroken services in the education and health sectors? When will government learn to fulfill its obligations to the social sector workforce to enable them deliver unbroken services to the people, especially ordinary citizens? These questions are germane […]

THE 60th edition of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, annual general conference which held in Lagos between Wednesday and Saturday, August 26 and 29, 2020, was nearly scuppered by the usual Nigerian demon of injecting ethno-religious and sectional sentiments into efforts to forge a common direction for this country. The conference, the first virtual outing […]

IT was very broadly predicted that the prolonged lockdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic would come with severe adverse economic consequences all over the world. As we enter the seventh month of the pandemic in Nigeria with a considerable measure of economic reopening, the realities of our situation have hit very hard. Though nobody is […]

THE controversy following the assent into law by President Muhammadu Buhari of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, CAMA, 2020, is an issue that requires amicable resolution rather than a unilateral mindset. Any law (no matter how self-righteous or messianic it purports to be) that appears to touch negatively on the interests of about half […]

THE trade crisis between Nigeria and Ghana has continued to escalate because both countries (particularly Nigeria) have been living in denial. Nigeria has traditionally reacted to other African countries with the mindset of the continental Big Brother. Unfortunately, Nigerian leaders have failed to realise that most African countries have abandoned the “brotherhood” template. They seek […]

THE Muhammadu Buhari administration can be credited with a number of policies and legal instruments perceived to be stifling the democratic space and capable of setting the various Nigerian groups at permanent loggerheads with one another. Apart from the Hate Speech Bill and “anti-Social Media” Bill, the regime had also pushed for the RUGA policy […]

IF the Malian political class, particularly the government of the deposed president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, had accepted the push for an interim government of national unity proposed by the former President Goodluck Jonathan-led ECOWAS mediation effort, perhaps the recent military coup might have been averted. Despite spirited efforts which forced President Muhammadu Buhari to leave […]

THE Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports is set to implement the removal of squatters from the nation’s stadia, especially in Lagos and Abuja. The Minister, Sunday Dare, has never hidden his determination to restore the lost glories of federal stadiums. The ministry’s delegations have serially inspected the National Stadium, Lagos, perhaps with a view […]

EARLY last week a viral video of Nigerians allegedly chased into the desert of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, UAE, was the talk of the town and the social media. To underscore the fact that the predicament affected Nigerians across ethnic and religious identities, the narrative in the video was done in the three […]

APART from our late response to the coronavirus pandemic back in March 2020, the weak capacity in our health system and lacklustre citizen support through the provision of palliatives, Nigeria has generally fared quite well in its reaction to the scourge. We commend the Federal Government for resisting the temptation to pander to sentiments and […]

A LOT of questions surround the request by the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NGF, for a security bailout fund by the Federal Government.