TODAY is the 60th anniversary of Nigeria’s flag independence. Our Diamond Jubilee is themed: “Together”. The Federal Government has rolled out a one year-long panoply of events that will terminate on September 31, 2021 but will be marked today in “low-key” with the ongoing pandemic in mind. For decades, our independence days have always provided […]

QUITE shockingly to many, but unsurprisingly to some Nigerians who have always viewed the current leadership Organised Labour with suspicion, the planned nationwide strike over petrol subsidy removal and electricity tariff hike was suspended a few hours after it was supposed to have taken off on Monday, September 28, 2020. The Federal Government and the […]

IVORY Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producer, is sick again politically. Tension is rising back to the 2011 levels when a disputed election led to the death of over 3,000 people through widespread violence. A presidential election which mainly pitched former President Laurent Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front, IPF, and Alassane Ouattara’s Republican Rally, RR, ended […]

THE President Muhammadu Buhari administration has continued to show conflicting signals about its touted drive to reduce the cost of governance in line with our dwindling economic resources. When he came to power in 2015 ahead of a recession, he reduced the number of federal ministries from 42 to 36. He banned some frivolous practices […]

The decision of the United States of America and the United Kingdom to impose some sanctions on Nigerian election riggers and promoters of violence is welcome. We applaud it, though we would want these strategic foreign partners of Nigeria to go further in efforts to moderate the excesses of the Nigerian power elite who have […]

THE Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, deserves the commendation of Nigerians for its proactive commitment to ensure that the federal and state governments render full account of funds spent in tackling the on-going coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19. As the nation embarked on emergency lock-downs as part of efforts to curb the spread of the virus, […]

WHERE would the world be today without the United Nations, UN? Even though the UN is often derided as having failed the expectations of many, the world would definitely have been a much poorer place if we did not have the benefit of the moderating effects of this noble global organisation. The UN has been […]

CONTRARY to widespread expectations, the just-concluded Edo State governorship election has come and gone successfully. The fire and brimstone we expected to fall from the skies did not happen. The pre-election sabre-rattling, which peaked with the removal of the roof of the Edo State House of Assembly and gun violence around the palace of the […]

HAVING forced through the deregulation and subsidy removal policy which it now blames previous regimes of lacking the “courage” to implement, the Buhari regime owes Nigerians an unreserved apology for truncating it during our economic boom nine years ago. In spite of the dirty politics associated with the deregulation and subsidy removal, we, however, see […]

ORDINARILY, we should be giving the Muhammadu Buhari administration a pat on the back for “summoning the courage” to implement the full deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector and total withdrawal of petrol subsidies. For over 20 years, we have agitated for this as means of ending fuel scarcity, black marketeering, frequent petroleum industry labour […]